Neighbors and Missionaries

M. McGuinness Margaret

Description

The Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine community was founded in 1910 by marion gurney, who adopted the religious name Mother Marianne of Jesus. A graduate of Wellesley College and a convert to Catholicism,Gurney had served as head resident at St. Rose's Settlement, the first Catholic settlement house in New York City. She founded the Sisters of Christian Doctrine when other communities of women religious appeared uninterested in a ministry of settlement work combined with religious education programs for childrenattending public schools. The community established two settlement houses in New York City-Madonna House on the Lower East Side in 1910, followed by Ave Maria House in the Bronx in 1930. Alongside their classes in religious education and preparing children and adults to receive the sacraments, the Sisters distributed food and clothing, operated a bread line, and helped their neighbors in emergencies. In1940 Mother Marianne and the Sisters began their first major mission outside New York when they adapted the model of the urban Catholic social settlement to rural South Carolina. They also served at a number of parishes, including several in South Carolina and Florida, where they ministered to both black and white Catholics.In Neighbors and Missionaries, Margaret M. McGuinness, who was given full access to the archives of the Sisters of Christian Doctrine, traces in fascinating detail the history of the congregation, from the inspiring story of its founder and the community's mission to provide material and spiritual support to their Catholic neighbors, to the changes and challenges of the latter half of the twentieth century. By 1960, settlement houses had been replaced by other forms of social welfare, and the lives and work of American women religious were undergoing a dramatic change. McGuinness explores how the Sisters of Christian Doctrine were affected and how they adapted their own lives and work to reflect the transformations taking place in the Church and society.Neighbors and Missionaries examines a distinctive community of women religious whose primary focus was neither teaching nor nursing/hospital administration. The choice of the Sisters of Christian Doctrine to live among the poor and to serve where other communities were either unwilling or unable demonstratesthat women religious in the United States served in many different capacities as they contributed to the life and work of the American Catholic Church.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Catholic Church
• History of religions
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Fordham University Press
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780823266234
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Neighbors and Missionaries

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Neighbors and Missionaries

A History of the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine

Margaret M. McGuinness

FordhamUniversityPress| New York 2012

Copyright © 2012 Fordham University Press Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinare- trieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. AllphotographsarecourtesyofRCDPapers,FordhamUniversityArchives. FordhamUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, ac- curate or appropriate. FordhamUniversityPressalsopublishesitsbooksinavarietyofelectronicformats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData McGuinness, Margaret M.  Neighbors and missionaries : a history of the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine / Margaret M. McGuinness. —1st ed.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index (p. ). ISBN 978-0-8232-3987-0 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine (U.S.)— History. I. Title.  4485.64. 36 2012 BX M  271′.97—dc23  2011032068 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1 First edition

Contents

Acknowledgmentsvii

Introduction American Women Religious and the Sisters of Christian Doctrine,2•The Catholic Church, the Poor, and Catholic Social Settlements,5•The Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine,8•Writing the History of the Sisters of Christian Doctrine,12

1.From Wellesley College to the Lower East Side Education for Service,19•A Church Settlement,23• A Catholic Settlement in New York City,28•A Training School for Catechists,33•A New Community,37

2.Fighting to Save the City of New York A Catholic Social Settlement on the Lower East Side,48•Madonna House,49•Confl ict with Clerical Authority,52•Forming Faithful Citizens,57• Ministering to Veterans,61•Not Just Italians,63

3.Neighbors and Teachers Growing Pains,70•A Motherhouse and a Second Settlement,73•Hard Times,78•Settlement Work and the Second World War,87•The Closing of the Settlement Houses,92

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4.Settlements Go South A New Foundation,100•Staying Connected,104• A Southern Settlement,106•Growing Friendships,109• Valley Catholics,112•Maintaining the Mission,114• A Problem of Numbers,116

5.More than Settlement Houses Parish Ministry in the South,122•Northern Apostolates,139•Changes in Ministry,145

6.Changes and Continuities Adjusting to the Loss of Mother Marianne,149•Moving Forward,152•Responding to Transformations,155• Challenging Times,162•Coming toward the End of a Century,165

Epilogue

Notes177 Selected Bibliography213 Index221

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Acknowledgments

Thankingandrememberingallthosewhosehelpandencouragement were essential to completing this project is something I have looked forward to for some time. The staffs of Holy Spirit Library, Cabrini College, and Connelly Library, La Salle University, never failed to find a requested resource or offer assistance. Patrice Kane, Head of Archives and Special Collections at Fordham University’s Walsh Library, arranged for the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine to deposit their records at Fordham, and welcomed me whenever I needed to view the collection, check footnotes, or scan documents. Vivien Shen, Preservation and Conservation Librarian at Fordham, helped to make my time in the Fordham Archives pleasant and free from stress. Brian Fahey, archivist of the Diocese of Charleston, helped me to locate sources and information that could not be found elsewhere. Wilma Slaight, archivist (now retired), Wellesley College, provided information concerning Marion Gurney’s undergraduate curriculum, and Wayne Kemptom, archivist, Episcopal Diocese of New York, helped me find information related to Marion Gurney’s work in Protestant social settlements. The archival staff of the Center for Migration Studies, Staten Island, New York, allowed me to access documents relating to St. Joachim’s parish during Father Victor Jan- nuzzi’s tenure. Monsignor Thomas J. Shelley (Fordham University), an eminent historian of American Catholicism in his own right, an- swered questions and tracked down documents essential to telling the story of the Sisters of Christian Doctrine.

viii | Acknowledgments

AfacultydevelopmentgrantfromCabriniCollegeenabledme to spend some time in that part of South Carolina that the Sisters of Christian Doctrine refer to as “the Valley,” an area in and around Gloversville. While there, I benefitted from a conversation with Sis- ter Mary Jean Doyle, DC, director of what is now Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Center. MembersoftheReligionDepartmentatLaSalleUniversity,along withYvonne Macolly, unflappable administrative assistant, have been congenial colleagues and are a joy to work with. Michael McGinniss, FSC, president, Thomas Keagy, dean of the School of Arts and Sci- ences, and Associate Dean Margaret McManus have been supportive of the project since I arrived at La Salle in 2006. Severalfriendsandcolleaguesprovidedinvaluableassistanceby reading all of parts of the manuscript. Margaret Mary Reher, friend and mentor, certainly deserves a reward of some kind for reading the entire manuscript. Marge’s comments, offered with great insight and wit, significantly enhanced future drafts. Peter Wosh, Mary Brown, and Roseanne McDougall, SHCJ, graciously agreed to read chapters, and the book is far better for their probing questions and critiques. Dolores Liptak, RSM, read an earlier version of chapter 5 and helped me shape that part of the story into a final draft. Chris- topher J. Kauffman invited me to publish much earlier versions of this project inU.S. Catholic Historian, and I am grateful for his edito- rial skill and historical wisdom. Any errors or misrepresentations, of course, are mine. Colleagues,manyofwhomarenowfriends,offeredsupportand encouragement. Christine Anderson, Mary Beth Fraser Connelly, and Michael Engh, SJ, shared their knowledge of social settlements; Ber- nadette McCauley, James T. Fisher, Kathleen Flanagan, SC, and Mark Massa, SJ, helped me think about the place of this particular religious community within the context of New York City Catholicism and the general history of women religious. Carol Coburn, Suellen Hoy, James Carroll, Barbra Mann Wall, Sandra Yocum, Paula Kane, Cecilia Moore, and Patricia Byrne, CSJ, all of whom share my interest in the

Acknowledgments | ix

history of women religious, are wonderful colleagues and sounding boards—even when the subject strays from Catholic sisters! Mary Oates, CSJ, probably doesn’t remember a conversation that took place a number of years ago at Marquette University, but she is the one who first told me I ought to get busy and write a history of the Sisters of Christian Doctrine. Kathleen Sprows Cummings and I have had many conversations—in Philly, South Bend, the Jersey Shore, and Scranton—about “everything under the sun,” including this project. James M. O’Toole has offered support and encourage- ment since I first discovered Catholic social settlements as a graduate student (some thirty years ago!). TheeditorsandstaffatFordhamUniversityPress,especially Fred Nachbaur, Wil Cerbone, and Eric Newman, have been extraor- dinarily helpful and made the process of preparing this manuscript for publication much less onerous than it could have been. Anumberoffriendshaveencouragedmealongtheway,evenif they weren’t always sure what questions to ask or how to ask them. Ruby Remley, Kathleen Daley McKinley, Sharon Schwarze, Jerry Zurek, Leonard Primiano, Carol Serotta, Marilyn Johnson, Christine Baltas, MSC, and Adeline Bethany are great friends and, in some cases, mentors. Conversations with any or all of them are always enlightening and entertaining. Shirley Dixon has gone the extra mile and accompanied me on trips to see the sisters in Nyack, New York, on several occasions, making the two-hour trip seem like twenty minutes. Life without The Diva, as Shirley is known, would not be the same. WithouttheSistersofOurLadyofChristianDoctrinethere would be no book, and I thank each and every member of the con- gregation for their support and encouragement. For the past seven years, I have been researching, writing, and generally making a nui- sance of myself, but the sisters have been nothing but hospitable and kind. They fed me, housed me, welcomed my family and friends to their events, and—most important—prayed for myself, my fam- ily, and this book. That the book is finally finished, I am convinced,