ABSTRACT
Social movements like the Catholic Worker come into existence and grow around powerful, charismatic leaders. The success of charisma is essentially dependent on two dimensions. The first, psychological, implies that the origin is from the inner dynamism of the leader's personality, not only as the medium of the message, but rather being the message. The second, sociological, suggests that charisma is dependent upon peoples' recognition of a leader's qualities and collectively decide to offer devotion and deference by means of following the leadership. The literature on social movements helps us to understand how the Catholic Worker came into existence in American society. Collective behavior, specifically in the form of social movements, create social change. According to Rosabeth Moss Kanter's analysis, the Catholic Worker movement can be considered as a Utopian service commune. A number of contemporary researchers have focused their doctoral dissertations on the Catholic Worker Movement.
