[2] On June 11, 1963 Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection.

Thích Quảng Đức was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam's President Ngô Đình Diệm, a member of the Catholic minority.

Catholic Worker Tom Cornell had become known in 1960 for burning his draft card at actions and had repeated the act several times, including for national television cameras during the 1962 Strike for Peace.

Three days later, in front of the Dag Hammarskjold Library at the United Nations in New York, LaPorte composed himself in the position of the Buddhist monks of Vietnam, doused himself with gasoline, and set himself alight.

"They have a keen sense that they must be responsible and make a profession of their faith that things do not have to go on as they always have — that men are capable of laying down their lives for others, taking a stand, even when the all-encroaching State and indeed all the world are against them."

"[5] The famous Trappist monk Thomas Merton also took issue with LaPorte's act and entered into a prolonged dispute with Day after laying blame for the incident at the feet of the Catholic Worker movement.