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[[File:Dorothy Day 1916.jpg|thumb|Dorothy Day in 1916]] Because Dorothy Day’s faith was integral to the movement’s foundation, we will consider it here. Dorothy Day was baptized as an Episcopalian, but did not have any strong religious affiliation or influence in her youth. As she entered into early adulthood she became increasingly vexed by the country’s social ills, particularly the looming effects of industrialization and the trend that free market societies had to abuse their workers. Moreover, she was extremely outspoken about her anti-war commitments and socialist leanings in her writing as a journalist and her political activism.She joined the socialist party, declaring herself an atheist dedicated to the common good. Though Dorothy Day was very involved politically, she felt a calling and pull to Catholicism; socialist politics was not substantial enough--it did not have enough heart. In other words, Day found a lot of talk among her Bohemian communities about advocacy for the poor, but not as much action. Even though political protests were active in some sense, activists rarely met with, listened to, or lived with the poor. They advocated for them, but didn’t love them. This lead to a long courtship with Catholicism, but her common law husband, a staunch anti-theist, was not keen on her intrigue with religion. After giving birth to her daughter and separating from her common law husband, Day made the choice to convert to the Catholic Church, which gave new resolve and purpose to her mission of social transformation. Day’s conversion to Catholicism helps explain her search for something more than socialist politics that eventually resulted in the birth of the Catholic Worker.