Imagine Worcester: Dr. Michael Boover, Professor at Anna Maria and Joan Montesano of the Catholic Worker Farm

Michael A. Boover, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies at Anna Maria, has a B.A. from, Worcester State College, and M.A., Assumption College and a D.Div., Andover-Newton Theological School. Mike Boover is a lifelong peace activist and scholar of pastoral theology. Mike and his friend Joan Montesano, who was visiting Mike at the time of the interview, are long-time friends who are members of the Catholic Worker. The Catholic Worker Farm in Sheep Ranch, CA is one of the many cells of the Catholic Worker Movement. The Movement was begun in New York in 1933 by Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day. It is based on direct service to the poor, voluntary poverty, communal living and nonviolent resistance to war and injustice, with a focus on the connectedness of people with their environment. The Catholic Worker is one of the earliest back-to-the-land movements in the U.S. There are many Catholic Worker houses and a few farms in different places, but there are no organizational ties to the Roman Catholic hierarchy and Catholic Worker communities do not depend on it for support. Each CW community is run solely by the people who comprise it.