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464 BOOK REVIEWS dividual accomplishment, but a deeply ingrained spirituality based on the tangible presence of God through Providence, the will of their superiors, and their experience of the Paschal Mystery. The state of their spiritual lives was a frequent topic ofdiscussion. These letter-writers are remarkably direct, frank, and honest in their complaints and in their recognition of their personal limitations. Like soldiers on the front, they were men who perpetually asked for permissions or awaited orders. Like soldiers, they saw themselves as part of a larger communal enterprise which demanded their self-sacrifice. Like soldiers, they often had an unflattering view of their leadership. The Brothers see a less perfect Sorin, unlike the unerring and righteous one presented in the recently published Chronicles ofNotre Dame du Lac. Unlike the latter work by Sorin, these letters by the Brothers reflect the viewpoint of foot soldiers, not generals, a perspective which makes this volume valuable. Michael J. McNaixy St. Charles Borromeo Seminary—Overbrook Wynnewood, Pennsylvania Voices from the Catholic Worker. Compiled and edited by Rosalie Riegle Troester. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1993· Pp. xxii, 597. S49.95 clothbound; «22.95 paperback.) Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker movement, the quintessential expression of North American Catholic renewal and social radicalism in the twentieth century, has again inspired a massive tome. Rosalie Riegle Troester's Voices from the Catholic Worker, an oral history in the Studs Terkel tradition, has taken a modified "bottom-up" approach to Catholic radicalism, having focused on Catholic Worker volunteers over its founder and longtime leader. Drawn from more than two hundred interviews with Catholic Workers from throughout the continent, Voices offers a spectacular panoramic view of the enduring values of the movement since 1933. The ideas of more than 1 50 persons whose lives have intersected with the Catholic Worker are presented , a sampling of thoughts from a few generations of volunteers. Many of these narrators have their roots in satellite Catholic Worker houses, rather than in the original New York City group, where Dorothy Day presided for forty-seven years. Published thirteen years after Day's death, these interviews respectfully note her legacy without allowing her magnetic qualities to dominate the personal stories and perspectives of those who responded to the call to live in community and perform the works of mercy. This book provides the best single account to date of Catholic Workers' principled yet diverse responses to human need at the local level. Having heroically reduced a hefty 6600 pages of transcript to nearly 600 printed pages, Troester managed to incorporate the findings of new scholarship into her interviews, chapter introductions, and notes. Wisely, Troester avoided the BOOK REVIEWS 465 hubris of complete inclusivity (recently there were 125 houses of hospitality scattered across North America, Europe, and Australia). The views of Catholic Workers who have regularly co-operated with other authors as well as many first-time narrators successfully present topical "roundtable discussions" in the Catholic Worker style. These conversations, loosely fitted into five major parts and thirty-one chapters , illuminate the recent past of the widespread Catholic Worker network more than the origins and evolution of the New York Catholic Worker, the concern ofmost previous works on the movement. Only about twenty percent of the work is devoted to "history." Voices irresistibly engages readers in the work and values of the movement (spirituality, hospitality for the poor, resistance, and community life). Building on insights from Harry Murray's fine comparative analysis of the Catholic Worker, Do NotNeglectHospitality (1990), the work is devoted to exploring diversity within the movement: rural and urban houses, contemplatives and activists, and even Catholic Worker families and children. Besides offering a range of Catholic Worker thinking on issues central to its existence, Troester skillfully guided conversations into sensitive contemporary topics, such as abortion, feminism, sexuality, and the bottom line of Catholic belief. Inevitably, the genre itself is the book's greatest strength and weakness. Voices from the Catholic Worker is a breathtaking collection of documents about the lives and works of members of one of the most significant radical lay religious communities ever conceived on the North American continent. Still, the engaging conversations must be treated as critically as any...

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