Our congregation is a de facto private association of the faithful (in accord with canon 299 §1). We have a priest in residence offering Holy Mass and hearing confessions with the requisite faculties from the Bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire. (Update: As of January, 2019, this situation has changed. Please see here for more information.) As a de facto private association of the faithful, in fidelity to our baptismal calling, we have joined together on our own initiative to foster a more perfect life for our members and to engage in works of the apostolate. In these apostolates, we promote Montfortian Marian consecration and worship according to the Traditional Roman Rite (rituale antiquior, forma extraordinaria, “Tridentine Mass,” etc.); we teach Christian doctrine in academic and other settings; we exercise initiatives of evangelization, works of piety, and those which animate the temporal order with a Christian spirit.
FOR INFORMATION ON VOCATIONS:
AS BAPTIZED Catholics who hold the Catholic Faith in its entirety, we are in communion with the Holy Father, Pope Francis. We pray for him, as well as for our local bishop, in our Masses, Rosaries, and other prayers.
Our right to defend and promote our doctrinal position — the so-called “strict interpretation” of the binding Catholic dogma, “outside the Church there is no salvation” — has been affirmed by those in authority in the Church. This includes Pope Benedict XVI, while in his capacity as Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (For documentary proof of this claim, see the letters linked further down[*] on this page.)
For the professional opinion of a competent canon lawyer on whether or not a loyal disciple of Father Leonard Feeney can be a Catholic in good standing, please see the linked PDF file of a letter from Mr. Peter Vere, J.C.L.[1]
Further helpful considerations on our status are contained in the following three points, which touch upon Father Feeney himself, our Richmond, N.H. community’s Catholicity, and the hierarchy’s view of our doctrinal position:
- Father Feeney died in the good graces of the Church, without even the slightest ecclesiastical censure remaining upon him. He did so without having changed his position on “no salvation outside the Church.” In fact, he made no doctrinal reversals of any sort. Knowing that he maintained his dogmatic “hard line,” Church officials lifted “any censures which may have been incurred” in 1972. This is minutely documented in the books Harvard to Harvard and They Fought the Good Fight, neither of which was published by our community.
- The Diocese of Worcester now has three religious houses whose members believe and actively defend exactly what we do regarding “no salvation outside the Church.” Additionally, they all defend Father Feeney’s good name. Those three houses are St. Benedict’s Abbey, St. Ann’s House, and Saint Benedict Center. In 2007, Abbot Gabriel Gibbs, O.S.B., the Abbot of St. Benedict’s Abbey, wrote a book defending Father Feeney, Harvard to Harvard. Until his death in March of 2010, Abbot Gabriel remained a Benedictine Abbot — a prelate of the Catholic Church — in good standing.
- Brother Thomas Mary Sennott, who was one of Father Feeney’s original followers, wrote a defense of our doctrinal position in his book, They Fought the Good Fight, which was published in 1987. Besides Brother Thomas Mary’s narrative and annotations, the book has long excerpts from Father Feeney’s most pointed writings on “no salvation outside the Church.” Significantly, the book bears the Imprimi potest of Bishop Timothy J. Harrington, the Bishop of Worcester. (His Excellency granted this on January 15, 1987, thus indicating that the volume is free of doctrinal or moral error.) Brother Thomas Mary, who is now deceased, had a web site that a friend of his now keeps on line.
Below are links to two PDFs. They are all on letterhead from the Diocese of Worcester, MA, where our Center was located prior to coming to the Diocese of Manchester, NH, in 1989. They demonstrate the good relations that existed between us and His Excellency Bishop Harrington of Worcester, MA.
First letter: From Father Lawrence A. Deery, J.C.L. to Mr. Gene Cameron. It affirms that the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are “indeed very much Catholic,” while not enjoying “regular” status in the Church; that is, we have no formal canonical recognition. Father (later Monsignor) Deery was the Judicial Vicar and the Vicar for Canonical Affairs for the Diocese of Worcester.
Second letter: Father Lawrence A. Deery, J.C.L. to Father John McCormack, then Secretary for Ministerial Personnel for the Archdiocese of Boston, in which it is explained that the community in Still River, MA (St. Ann’s House) which underwent canonical regularization, did “in no manner abandon Father Feeney’s teachings.”
[1] Mr. Vere obtained his Licentiate of Canon Law from the Faculty of Canon Law at Saint Paul University. As a Catholic writer, canonist and apologist, his work has appeared in numerous Catholic publications, including Surprised by Truth 3. He is the co-author of Surprised by Canon Law: 150 Questions Catholics Ask About Canon Law and More Catholic Than the Pope. Additionally, Mr. Vere is the lecturing professor for the Masters-level course in Canon Law offered by the Catholic Distance University.
