The Catholic Worker movement is decentralized and amorphous: anyone can claim the name just by hanging out a sign. Most CW houses have a commitment to hospitality and a commitment to peace-making, which can take many forms. Probably the one thing which we all have in common is an effort to live the teachings of Jesus. Not all Catholic Workers are Catholic, but just about every Worker is touched and challenged by the teachings of the Nazarene carpenter who became an intinerant preacher of love and healing, and who was executed by the Roman Empire for his work.
The Catholic Worker is one way of trying to practice what Jesus preached. We find ourselves related to many other people and groups who are trying to walk the same path. Jesus called us to give up our lives so that we could walk his Way, and there are no guarantees about where that way will lead, or how we will finish. Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin really didn't know what they were beginning - as Dorothy says in The Long Lonliness, her autobiography, "We were just sitting there talking" when people came asking to be fed and sheltered, when refugees came to the door, when war was declared.
We simply take the next step that seems called for and try to live in faith.
Mary's House
From Magnificat, July 2006