"I don't donate just to deduct it off my taxes," said Heffron, 61. "It's what the gospels are calling on us to do."
Day and Peter Maurin, a former Christian Brother, founded the Catholic Worker in 1933 as an agitating New York newspaper of the same name. It soon evolved into a movement to aid the destitute, with Catholic Worker "hospitality houses" springing up across the nation and overseas.
A writer, social activist and pacifist, Day embraced the radical politics of the Depression era -- her brand has been described as "Christian anarchism" -- along with more orthodox teachings of Roman Catholic morality, including an opposition to abortion.
Day, who died in 1980 and has been proposed for sainthood, maintained that charity should be a personal endeavor and that living among the poor is a virtue.
The Catholic Worker here is a frequent critic of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. It railed against the building of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, labeling it a $200-million extravagance -- money that the Catholic Worker says should have gone to the poor.
Dietrich and Morris have been arrested dozens of times during demonstrations for causes that included nuclear disarmament, farmworker rights and portable toilets for skid row. They say the protests are more motivation to have nothing to do with the government.
In addition to the "Hippie Kitchen," as its cookery is known, the Catholic Worker operates a medical and dental clinic and puts up a dozen homeless people and the nine community members at its Boyle Heights headquarters, an old 15-bedroom Victorian home.
Tony Trafecanty, who quit his job as an airline pilot to open a skid row bakery that employed the homeless, donated the residence and three other buildings about 25 years ago. He and his wife, Joan, still live in the house next door, where they raised six children.
The couple received no tax benefit from the gift of the property, which they bought for $100,000.
Sheen said the lack of a write-off makes contributions to the Catholic Worker "the purest form of charity." He first became aware of the group when he visited its New York soup kitchen as a struggling young actor. "I was there to eat," he said.
