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Co-incidentally, I just watched a movie on DD yesterday and have been reading her book "On Pilgrimage". I think we have to establish why many people see her as a good role model before criticising her. If you start with the principles of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and the story of the Good Samaritan etc, and take from them the lesson that we ought to help those less fortunate whenever we can and see Christ in them, then DD gives us a marvellous example of love of neighbour in action, primarily with her soup kitchens and hostels for the homeless. But, do not read DD to find guidelines for political action, or for liturgy. She is misguided and confused on both, as any modern (relatively modern) Catholic in the NO may be. When many clergy are teaching the wrong stuff, is it any surprise to find the faithful are absorbing it? But her love for Christ's poor, her desire to dedicate her life to Christ through helping His suffering creatures is spot-on, and her charity is examplary.

Bottom line: don't read DD in order to learn about the correct political attitude to take or to be edified by her "trad" credentials. Read her in order to understand the great need to help the wretched and the suffering, and how one may do that in practical, immediate circuмstances (such as helping beggars and the homeless).

Before reading the TIA article Spouse posted, please read Fr. Doran's article on Peter Maurin. You'll need to register, which is free.

To thaw our frozen charity

Good thoughts... I look to DD for an example of repentant sinner, one who truned their life around and tried to help others, giving of herself....BTW, most of her life, she attend TLM, only last 15 or so was NO, no?

What movie did you see? there are a few that I would liek to check out on her.....too many AMericanist Baby boomers think she was some leftist, utopian commie (my dad included), that view shaped by Buckley and Neocons to come.....

Yes, DD was definitely a great convert. She led quite an immoral life before her conversion, in a relationship with her daughter's father and before that she had had an illegal abortion (which she deeply regretted all her life). All that changed when she "took the plunge" and was baptized. The film is "Entertaining Angels", very moving film, produced by Pauline Books & Media. [I would advise anyone watching it to skip the movie from the suffragette march (a couple minutes into the film) until around 40 minutes in, where she is visiting the seaside church. There are a couple of mild suggestive scenes which, while not explicit, are nevertheless potentially occasions of sensual thoughts for some. You're not missing much if you skip that section, only that she lives as a radical journalist writing for a Communist paper, is abandoned by the father of her baby who persuades her to have an abortion, then moves to a beach house to recover where she meets her second boyfriend and then becomes interested in the Church.] The film really does give you a feel for the dirty, harsh and often unappreciated work she did with the poorest of the poor. Obviously it has to be watched with reservations, about the political ideology, as it is a modern Catholic film.