What is the Winona Catholic Worker?

The Catholic Worker community in Winona, Minnesota, began in 1991 after Mary Farrell spent a year touring Catholic Worker communities around the country and persuaded some friends to help her open one in Winona, where she had attended college at Winona State University. She was inspired in her vision by the example of Father Dan Corcoran, a chaplain of the WSU Newman Center whose life embodied Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the works of mercy.

With the help of hundreds of people, Dan Corcoran House opened in July 1992 to serve single women, married couples, and their children. Bethany House opened in August 1996 and was named for the village where Jesus received hospitality from Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Together the houses have served more than one thousand men, women, and children over the years.

“We follow the Catholic Worker tradition by accepting the Gospel invitation to be personally responsible for our neighbors in need,” the Winona Catholic Worker mission statement says. “We are a Christian faith community, not an agency; we welcome as our sisters and brothers those who need a place to stay, seeing them as ‘ambassadors of God.’ We place our trust in God’s providence, relying entirely on private donations of money, food, labor, and furnishings from many individuals, groups, and churches. We pray that through our life and work here, God will transform us into more loving, compassionate persons, and that this house will help create a just and peaceful world—‘a society where it is easier for people to be good.’”

The Winona Catholic Worker is registered as a nonprofit organization with the state of Minnesota in order to make the community, rather than a single individual, the legal owner of the houses and other community assets. In keeping with the personalist philosophy of the Catholic Worker movement, however, the Winona Catholic Worker is not registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization (donations to the community are not tax-deductible). Our community is guided by holy Scripture, the Tradition of the Church, and the example of the saints (especially Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin). The community is loosely organized along the following lines:
• The “live-in volunteers” are the people who live in the houses along with the guests. They have primary responsibility for providing hospitality on a daily basis and running the household.
• “Core community” members include the live-in volunteers and several others who are actively involved in supporting and running the houses. The core community meets weekly to make significant decisions about the operation of the houses and the direction of the community, always keeping Catholic Worker spirituality in mind. Significant decisions are usually made by consensus.
• The wider community includes the hundreds of people who support the work of the houses by donating their time and money. This wider community is sometimes invited to help discern major decisions.

The Winona Catholic Worker focuses on providing hospitality and doing the works of mercy, although its members are involved in various social causes, and the community as a whole occasionally works on a particular issue (such as demonstrating for peace in Iraq). It holds a weekly worship service followed by a community supper on Monday nights. Roundtable discussions are usually held monthly.

You can learn more about the Winona Catholic Worker by checking out our Q & A section, read our Core Commitments, get the latest news from community member Eileen Hanson in Palestine, or contact us for more information.