CHARLOTTE — The granddaughter of Dorothy Day – famed Catholic activist, journalist and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement – will be the featured speaker at the 23rd annual Kennedy Lecture on Saturday, Jan. 28.
Kate Hennessy will present this year’s lecture via Zoom from West Cork, Ireland, where she lives and works as a writer and artist. The youngest grandchild of Dorothy Day, Hennessy is the author of “Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty” (Scribner, 2017).
“An Intimate Portrait of Dorothy Day” will be webcast live from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
To sign up for the free Zoom presentation, go to www.stpeterscatholic.org/parish-events.
Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a prominent reformer and social organizer who was one of the founders of the Catholic Worker Movement committed to working for justice, eradicating poverty and helping the needy. Now named a Servant of God, Day is on the path to sainthood.
“She lived a vision of Christ that both challenged and embraced Church doctrine with an unpretentious Christian faith,” describes Kennedy Lecture event organizers.
The Kennedy Lecture is an annual event funded through Thomas and Richard Kennedy in memory of their parents, Keith and Joan Kennedy. Begun in 2000, the Kennedy Lecture series takes a deeper look at Catholic teachings and aims to stimulate thinking by engaging prominent people in the field of religion and ethics.
Past lecturers include Jesuit Father Tom Gaunt, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) (2022); Joan Rosenhauer, executive director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA View (2021); Bishop George V. Murry, S.J. (2018); Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries (2017); English writer and poet Edwina Gateley (2015); Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, founding co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture (2010); Edward Kessler, founder of The Woolf Institute (2009); M. Shawn Copeland, Black Catholic theologian (2007); and Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese, author and journalist (2006).
— Catholic News Herald