Editing Anarcho-Distributism (section)

==== The laity ====
In response to press coverage in 1964 of an ongoing dispute between Cardinal James McIntyre of Los Angeles and some of his priests, who criticized him for a lack of leadership on civil rights, Day authored an essay on the laity's responsibility to act independently of the church hierarchy. When the Catholic Worker during World War II, she wrote, took a pacifist stance, "Bishop McIntyre merely commented… 'We never studied these things much in the seminary'… adding doubtfully, 'There is the necessity of course to inform one's conscience.'" For that attitude, Day added, "our shepherds are to be reproached, that they have not fed their sheep these strong meats… capable of overcoming all obstacles in their advance to that kind of society where it easier to be good." She instructed her readers: "Let Catholics form their associations, hold their meetings in their own homes, or in a hired hall, or any place else. Nothing should stop them. Let the controversy come out into the open in this way."