[Mary J. Workman letter to Donald McDonald, February 23, 1950]

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Identifier	clloy_224
Title	[Mary J. Workman letter to Donald McDonald, February 23, 1950]
Creator	Workman, Mary J. (Mary Julia), 1871-1964
Date Created	1950 February 23
Description	A carbon copy of a typewritten letter, criticizing the usually smug, negative tone of Catholic periodicals of the time, commending an article written by McDonald in the Catholic newspaper, Commonweal, and calling for social reconstruction based on Christian principles.
Historical Background	Born into a politically prominent Los Angeles family, Mary Julia Workman founded the Brownson House Settlement Association in 1901 and led it for 19 years. She became the first woman to join the Municipal League, a civic watchdog group. A Roman Catholic who built cooperative relationships with church leaders, she founded the diocesan chapter of the National Council of Catholic Women in 1924. She led the Los Angeles Civil Service Commission from 1927 to 1928 and helped establish local chapters of the League of Women Voters and the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Throughout her life Workman was active in numerous social and religious efforts in her native city. Commonweal is an independent journal of opinion published by Roman Catholic Church laypeople. Founded in 1924 by Michael Williams as The Commonweal (the journal’s title was shortened to Commonweal in 1965), its purpose is to engage the principles of Catholic Christianity with contemporary thought, literature, art, and public affairs.
Type	text
Physical Description	1 leaf ; 25 cm
Institution	Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University Library.
Collection Identifier	http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8870232n
Project note	Funding for a portion of this collection came from a Local History Digital Resource Project grant . The Local History Digital Resource Project is supported by the U. S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. For more information, please visit: http://www.califa.org/lhdrp.php
Country of Creation	US
Copyright Status	Public Domain
Copyright Statement	Materials in the public domain. No restrictions on use.
Language	eng
Subject (Name)	Commonweal;
Subject (Topic)	Church and social problems--Catholic Church; Social advocacy--Religious aspects--Catholic Church; Catholic press; Social justice;
Form/Genre	Letters (correspondence);
Metacollection Identifier	http://digitalcollections.lmu.edu/
Item/Call Number	Workman Family Papers CSLA-9, Series 2: Margaret Workman, Box 20, Folder 16
Transcription	C o p y 2424 Gramercy Park Los Angeles 18, Calif. February 23, 1950 Mr.Donald McDonald, c/o The Commonweal, 386 Fourth Ave., New York 16, N.Y. Dear Mr.McDonald: Your article in The Commonweal of February 3, "The Status of the Local Catholic Press", was read by me with great interest. Your clear, candid and just analysis was corroborated by my own limited experience as a reader of Cath-olic papers. For many years, I have been troubled by the smug, negative editorial policy that characterizes too many of our Catholic papers. This policy generates cynicism, or at least apathy in readers of these papers. They ask themselves, " What is the use? " and they do nothing, or they cease to read Catholic papers. Our world of today is sorely troubled with the accumulated end results of unsolved problems brought to a head by the most devastating war in history. We are experiencing a crisis be-cause of years of inaction and unchecked social injustice.These problems can never be solved by negation, recrimination, denun-ciation and generally destructive criticism. What the whole world needs most of all is a truly constructive policy based upon sound Christian principles and applied prac-tically to the solution of present day problems, local, nation-al and international. Communism exploits this opportunity, while we spend our time blaming others. You are absolutely right when you put humility of spirit first. We can do nothing with the self righteous spirit of the Pharisee, but we can move mountains with the humility and faith of the Publican. After all, we all have a share in responsibility for present conditions." Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." It follows that we have a corresponding responsibility for so-cial reconstruction. We who have the fulness of faith have the greatest opportunity and the greatest responsibility. With my gratitude and my good wishes for your success, and with faith in God's help, believe me, Very truly yours, (Miss) Mary J.Workman

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[Mary J. Workman letter to Donald McDonald, February 23, 1950]

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