The Illuminator

 This newsletter is named “The Illuminator” for a few reasons. It conveys the idea of bringing light, inspiration, imagination, and clarification, but it is also a reference to the process of illustrating or adorning a manuscript.  From the beginning of the Catholic Worker, when Ade Bethune asked Dorothy Day if she could make illustrations to help improve the look, feel, and message of the Catholic Worker newspaper, artists have asked or have been asked to participate in the life of the movement.  

Today, there is a great tradition of art by artists like Ade Bethune, Fritz Eichenberg, and Rita Corbin that is used in the Catholic Worker newspaper, and in the communications of many other Catholic Worker communities as well. Community houses and buildings are decorated with art by these and other artists.  People are making new art for newsletters, protests, vigils, and to beautify spaces and edify and welcome those who come through those spaces.  Art is gifted to houses by supporters, artists, and the many folks who make their way into and out of communities.  

The Catholic Worker is a movement of ideas and clarification of thought, and it is also a movement of daily, embodied, practical actions undertaken with a spirit of love.  The arts find a place to illuminate – explain, decorate, inspire – these various ideas and experiences.