He squatted in front of the grave, made the sign of the cross and then offered a prayer for Dorothy Day, an American peace activist and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. Jordan's visit to Day's gravesite in the Cemetery of the Resurrection in Staten Island, N.Y., came Nov. 28, the day before the anniversary of her death in 1980 at the age of 83.
As he looked down at the simple marker, Jordan noticed the plastic flowers that had been placed by his friend's final resting place.
"Dorothy didn't like fake flowers, but she would have appreciated the thought," he said.
What would she have thought about the U.S. bishops' endorsement of her sainthood cause by voice vote during their fall general assembly in Baltimore?
Jordan, a former managing editor of The Catholic Worker newspaper Day helped launch in1933, was not sure how she would have reacted to such overwhelming support from the bishops.
Though Jordan has no doubt that Day is a saint -- and he's not surprised the votes needed to move the cause forward were garnered -- he and others associated with the Catholic Worker Movement did not expect the bishops to give it their full support.
"I had an inkling that this was going to happen, so it wasn't terribly surprising, but it is really quite astounding in itself that bishops who are divided on so many issues, in a church that is so polarized, can find something in Dorothy Day," said Deacon Tom Cornell, co-founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship and a decades-long associate of Day.