St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality on the Lower East Side of Manhattan was one of the original communities founded during the Depression by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. When I lived there a few years ago I observed up-close the often tense, sometimes funny interactions between the Catholic Worker and government bureaucracy. At first I found it perplexing, even slightly absurd. But over time I learned an important lesson in spiritual freedom.
From the beginning, Day and Maurin were adamant that Catholic Worker communities not be tax exempt, officially nonprofit organizations. They believed those who gave to the Worker should do so at personal cost, motivated by others’ poverty, not their own surplus, and that tax write-offs therefore undermined the true practice of charity. They were convinced that one of the Catholic Worker’s most important works of mercy was to offer the rich the chance to participate in the Kingdom of God through giving directly to those in need, solely because they were in need. I can attest, having been hung-up on twice in eight months at St. Joe’s after telling a potential donor we couldn’t provide paperwork for tax breaks because we weren’t a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, that Day and Maurin were onto something.
