by Patricia Walsh Chadwick
What compelled me to read this obscure title?
Little Sister was published in 2019 by Post Hill Press, I consider it serendipitous that I even found it. I have been reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church in a year along with Father Mike Schmitz and was doing a bit of Google research on a topic. I found a blog post by Chadwick which referenced her book. I was intrigued and just had to buy it and read it. One, I love Catholic stories and two, I love memoirs.
This isn’t the typical Catholic story to which I usually find myself drawn. I love conversion stories; however, his one is definitely not a conversion story. Chadwick begins her memoir in 1965 when she finds herself banished from the religious community where she, her four siblings, and her parents had been living. She then goes back to the beginning describing her parents marriage and life lived in the St. Benedict Center in Boston, MA.
The Center was formed by Father Leonard Feeney, a Catholic priest and Mrs. Catherine Clark a lay woman who were convinced that the doctrine “there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church” should not be changed. They believed this so strongly that they gathered together intellectuals and Catholics faithful to this belief and the group of about 100 people devoted their lives to living this out and preaching this doctrine in the hope of saving souls. The entire group was excommunicated and Father was no longer allowed to perform his priestly duties.
“The Rev. Leonard Feeney, S.J. because of grave offense against the laws of the Catholic Church, has lost the right to perform any priestly function, including preaching and teaching of religion. Any Catholics who frequent Saint Benedict’s Center, or who in any way take part in or assist its activities forfeit the right to receive the Sacrament of Penance and Holy Eucharist. Given at Boston on the 18th day of April 1949. — Richard J. Cushing, Archbishop of Boston.”
That is a big deal. Chadwick reflects back on the spiral into power that Mrs. Clark embarked upon that eventually resulted in all the the children being raised together by house mothers and taken out of their families. The adults, after having 39 children in total, were convinced to live celibately and deny their sacramental marriage vows.
Chadwick left the Center as an 18 year old high school graduate and eventually married and had two children, one of whom encouraged her mother to tell this story. Her parents and siblings left the Center one by one and reestablished their family. Some of them remained faithful to the Church. Chadwick struggled with her faith and in the end was reconciled with her faith.
Father Feeney was eventually welcomed back into the Church, Chadwick and her parents and siblings were eventually reunited in the world and Mrs. Clark passed away unrepentant.
The story is riveting. I devoured it. As a mother to six children, I cannot imagine what it was like for Chadwick’s parents to have given up their parental rights or to have lived celibately. I could not put the book down until I found out how it all ended. As a Catholic, I was intrigued by the faith of the group. I asked myself over and over if there was a doctrine in the Church that I would change my life to defend. I sat and pondered what I thought of the doctrine they refused to give up (that their is no salvation outside the Church). I wondered if changing that doctrine was a good thing or a bad thing. I was surprised that at the age of 62, I had never heard of the Feeneyites and their response. I wonder if there were other groups like them.
I don’t know about you, but THIS is the type of book I love to read. I don’t care for a memoir that pretends to have all the answers. The only answer that Chadwick had in the end was that Catherine Clark was the one at fault and that she survived her childhood with her love of her family and her ability to function well as an adult intact. It is giving me many ideas and thoughts to ponder.