Dorothy Day Retreat in PGH

Today I went to a "day retreat" on Dorothy Day, led by Jim Forest, in North Pittsburgh.  I have corresponded for several years with Jim about Thomas Merton, and was glad to be able to meet him in person.  His person carries a profound humility and honesty that I could only glimpse from his internet persona.  I was quite blown away by it.  (The guy next to me - Jason - had a Smartpen!  I had never seen one of these in action.  See LiveScribe, if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

I met several people at the event that know people that I know from my Florida peace and justice connection.  It was held at a Nazareth Retreat Center that also felt so very familiar to my Kentucky roots.

Here is a link to a US Catholic interview with Jim about the friendship between Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. 

This is the Nazareth Center, which looks very much like the Nazareth in KY.

Dorothy Day would attend retreats here which were led by a Pittsburgh priest, Fr. Hugo. Fr. Hugo was an spiritual guide to Dorothy, but I found out from several locals that Fr. Hugo was a mixed bag.  He preached the Gospel and was silenced at least once from the powers that be for being too "political", but he was also "austere".  I asked them what that meant, and some of the locals said that he liked for families to have a lot of children.  Though Dorothy wanted him to preach at her funeral, her daughter, Tamar, asked him not to come (and he didn't).

This is the chapel where Dorothy prayed.