I combined my political passion for justice and equality with my religious commitment for serving the destitute. I am widely considered one of the great Catholic lay leaders of our time and am credited with raising Catholic social and economic consciousness. Wanting my words to match my deeds, I took a vow of poverty and lived among the poor in the hospitality houses I established across the US. I was often jailed for my bold and radical positions in support of workers' and women's rights and against war and capitalism. Integrating political, theological, moral, and social ideals into an effective and powerful model, I pioneered the use of civil disobedience and served as an inspiration to conscientious objectors and draft dodgers throughout America's many wars. I saw my work in terms of a struggle for a better social order where there would not be so many poor and where it would be possible for people to be good. "What we would like to do is change the world, make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do."
I died in 1980. I am being considered for canonization.
