Later, after the lunch bustle, Morris was sweeping the kitchen's garden patio, where a middle-aged man paced between the palms and tipu trees, engaged in a loud conversation with himself. On the street beyond, spectral figures nudged their piled-high shopping carts along the curb or dozed on the urine-stained sidewalk.
"The money we don't get because of the tax thing is irrelevant," Morris said.
Her husband, Jeff Dietrich, agreed. "We don't want the federal government's permission to do this," said Dietrich, a 61-year-old with a robust mustache.
"Jesus really didn't have anything to do with the state, and he wanted people to take care of each other."
The roughly 135 Catholic Worker communities in the United States are independent of one another and have no central organization or official relationship with the church hierarchy. Almost anyone can launch a Catholic Worker group, and not all of the communities last, members say.
For practical reasons, some communities have signed up with the government as 501(c)(3) nonprofits, meaning that they file tax returns, have boards of directors and must comply with all the other rules the government imposes on public charities.
The Night on the Streets Catholic Worker in Berkeley filled out its IRS paperwork to satisfy an Alameda County food bank.
"It's the only way they'll let us get access to their food," said Catholic Worker coordinator J.C. Orton.
In Santa Ana, the Catholic Worker has tried to compromise on the IRS quandary: It has created an affiliated charity that files a tax return to mollify a food bank.
"The business of food at my level is apolitical," said Dwight Smith, who heads the Santa Ana group with his wife, Leia.
The Los Angeles Catholic Worker tenders no IRS forms of any kind. It does pay property taxes, because founder Day felt local governments delivered crucial services, Dietrich said.
Charity watchdogs say it's always best for philanthropic organizations to go though the IRS process. They say the tax exemption inevitably brings in more donations, and the regimen of documentation helps ensure that the funds are not misspent.
"Organizations need to have some oversight and checks and balances," said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy. "People can turn bad."
But longtime donors such as Pat Heffron, a physician who was washing food carts at the Los Angeles kitchen the other day, say they have no qualms about giving to the Catholic Worker.
