He called his philosophy personalism, which was shortly thereafter expounded by Emmanuel Mounier and Jacques Maritain, both of whom later published in the Catholic Worker . Personalism rejected the welfare state, a creation of the modern era that had taken away the responsibilty of individuals for one another. He who is a pensioner of the State is a slave of the State. Her critique of the New Deal was that it did not offer ownership. We believe in worker ownership of the means of production and distribution as distinguished from nationalization. . . .
Property is proper to man.
Dorothy and Peter founded the Catholic Worker newspaper in 1933 precisely to present the Church s social teaching and to counter the influence of communism, fascism, and other statist doctrines. Dorothy s daily life began with prayer and ended with prayer including reading of the Psalms, Mass, and vespers. She regularly confessed and made retreats. For Dorothy no kingdom was worth striving for unless it was grounded in such a regimen. To be in her presence when she kneeled in prayer was to experience a woman who talked with God.