The St. Louis Catholic Worker hopes to build a world where it is easier to be good, a world where each has according to their needs and gives according to their abilities, a world where interactions between peoples and communities is direct and personal and is governed by Love and concern for the common good rather than harmful institutions such as extractive capitalism or a militarized, carceral state.
To this end we advocate:
-Clarification of thought: to know where we are, how we got here, and where it is we should be going
-Mutual Aid: to share from our excess and receive in our need through direct and reciprocal interaction with our human family
-Resistance: to oppose oppression wherever it is found
The revolution we propose would be non-violent, decentralized, sustainable, soil based, abolitionist, personalist, communitarian, spirit led, and immediate. We hope that all people of goodwill might join this effort in their own place and context so that we might together help to build a new society in the shell of the old.
"Have you found a place yet? I know someone with nowhere to stay.” “I wish the Catholic Worker in St. Louis was up and running, I’m aware of a mother and daughter in need of housing for a few nights.” Ever since we announced our plans to open a new Catholic Worker house in the St. Louis area we’ve received inquiries like these. We live in a world where a handful of billionaires control as much wealth as 4 billion people and so people go without housing, without food and water, without healthcare. People die. In our own city those without housing have slept on the very doorstep of city hall, until they were unceremoniously evicted. Our city government mirrors that of our state and federal counterparts, they do not want to be confronted with these problems, they do not want to see the sufferers of an uncaring and inhuman system, but they are unable if not unwilling to offer any real and humane solutions. We at the budding St. Louis Catholic Worker know we cannot help everyone...