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April 21, 2025

#16, Martha Hennessy on her Grandmother Dorothy Day, the End of the American Empire, and Creating a New Society Out of the Shell of the Old

“We are experiencing the thrashing of empire and the death throes of capitalism,” Martha Hennessy says in this episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast.” Martha is the granddaughter of Dorothy Day, the legendary activist, author, anarchist, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. A longtime peace activist, Martha lives on her family farm in Vermont and volunteers part time at Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City, which was Dorothy’s home. She speaks regularly on the issues of war, poverty, the works of mercy, and nuclear weapons, and has traveled to Russia, Iraq, Iran, Palestine/Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Korea to witness for peace.

Like her grandmother, Martha says that “good solutions never come from the state… We need to find one’s niche…to create a new world from the shell of the old world, to create a society where it’s easy to be good.”

John Dear asks Martha about Dorothy’s brilliant—and shocking–statement right after the attack on Pearl Harbor which she ran as the headline of the Catholic Worker: “Our Manifesto Is the Sermon on the Mount.” Even if everyone else runs off to war, we will obey the teachings of Jesus and not support war, Dorothy insisted. We discuss Dorothy’s amazing witness over the course of her long life, how she said “No” to every single war.

“The U.S. church desperately needs Dorothy as a saint, a saint who was a laywoman, a mother, and a grandmother. Pope Francis recognizes her as a saint. She was a mystic, she was touched by God. And she was an extraordinary grandmother.”

Martha also talks about her recent arrest on Ash Wednesday outside the U.S. Mission to the United Nations calling upon the U.S. to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; her work at Maryhouse; her imprisonment for the King’s Bay Plowshares disarmament action; and her grandmother’s impending canonization. Join us and be inspired to carry on like Dorothy Day!

Next week…

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Kazu Haga! For more information, visit here.

Listen on Apple, Spotify, all major platforms,
and the National Catholic Reporter

April 14, 2025

#15, Eric Stoner of WagingNonviolence.org On the Growing Resistance to Trump’s Policies

Last Sat., April 5th, an estimated 3 million people marched in the “Hands Off!” movement with over 1,400 demonstrations around the U.S. covering all 50 states, protesting every aspect of the Trump Administration’s policies. A month before that, on February 28th, close to 40 million people participated in a nationwide economic blackout boycott, to protest Trump’s policies, making it one of the most successful acts of non-compliance in U.S. history. Contrary to what you might think, people are indeed taking to the streets and resisting Trump’s corporate injustice, rising authoritarianism, and global chaos.

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with Eric Stoner, founding editor of WagingNonviolence.org, an independent, non-profit media platform that covers social movements and grassroots activism around the world on all issues of justice, disarmament and creation. Since 2009, it has published original reporting on nonviolent action from contributors in more than 90 countries.

Eric and friends started this clearinghouse of nonviolent movements in the 2000s from scratch, and today it regularly gets over 1.3 million readers looking for news about people power movements that you will never hear on the mainstream media. “Contrary to what a lot of people see or think, there is more protest and resistance to Trump than you see or read in the mainstream media,” Eric says.

John will ask Eric about the growing resistance to rising authoritarianism and oligarchy, as well as stories of grassroots movements from around the world, and his own changing understanding of nonviolence. “Boycotting is the most important tool in protesting,” he says, “hands down.” Covering the world from the perspective of nonviolence actually gives him hope, he tells John, because so many people are struggling hard for positive social change. Listen and be encouraged!

Next week…

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Martha Hennessy! For more information, visit here.

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