St. Martin de Porres CW
St. Martin de Porres is a Catholic Worker community located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The house at 1440 Market Street was founded in 1996. Naed Smith lived here for twenty years, from 1999 to 2019. You can read Naed’s obituary here.
The house is in the process of being cleaned up so that it can offer showers and a café and community space on the first floor. The house accepts donations (socks, underwear, toiletries, housing essentials, etc.) and hands them out to guests and neighbors in need. Monthly Roundtables are on Thursdays. Check back for updates or email [email protected] to get on the mailing list!
The St. Martin de Porres Catholic Worker has a close relationship with The Joshua Group non-profit, the Allison Hill Fund, the University of Notre Dame Club of Harrisburg, and St. Francis of Assisi Church.
What is the Catholic Worker?
The mission statement, summarized in 140 words:
The Catholic Worker Movement began simply enough on May 1, 1933, when a journalist named Dorothy Day and a philosopher named Peter Maurin teamed up to publish and distribute a newspaper called “The Catholic Worker.” This radical paper promoted the biblical promise of justice and mercy.
Grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person, their movement was committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, and the Works of Mercy as a way of life. It wasn’t long before Dorothy and Peter were putting their beliefs into action, opening a “house of hospitality” where the homeless, the hungry, and the forsaken would always be welcome.
Over many decades the movement has protested injustice, war, and violence of all forms. Today there are some 228 Catholic Worker communities in the United States and in countries around the world.
The Catholic Worker Movement described in 140 words
The Aims and Means of the Catholic Worker Movement
“The vision is this. We are working for “a new heaven and a new earth, wherein justice dwelleth.” We are trying to say with action, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are working for a Christian social order.”
—Dorothy Day, February 1940
The Catholic Worker Movement advocates for personalism, a decentralized society, and a “green revolution”. Catholic Workers strive to accomplish those aims through the means of nonviolence, the works of mercy, manual labor, and voluntary poverty.
For a description of these aims and means please check the Catholic Worker Movement’s website.