Robert_Wild_-_Catherine_Doherty_Servant_of_God

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charismatic persons who attracted followers, and whose apostolates gradually developed into new communities. A unique dimension, however, of these communities, was that people from other canonical states of life in the Church were also attracted to join them. What the Church and theologians are saying is that people, whether consciously or unconsciously, were actually seeking a new and life-giving experience of the Church. This is why many of these new communities do not “fit” canonical forms, because the Spirit is inspiring new models for Church life. First I will share a quotation from Pope John Paul II’s address to the communities and movements gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, May 30, 1998. It expresses the Church’s present understanding of where the Holy Spirit was leading certain lay apostolates in the 20th century: Today a new stage is unfolding before you: that of ecclesial maturity. There is a great need today for mature Christian personalities, conscious of their baptismal identity, of their vocation and mission in the Church and in the world. There is great need for living Christian communities! And here are the movements and the new ecclesial communities: they are the response, given by the Holy Spirit, to this critical challenge at the end of the millennium. You are this providential response! Thanks to this powerful ecclesial experience, wonderful Christian families have come into being which are open to life, true ‘domestic churches.’ (#2, 222–223) Next, a rather long quote which expresses this same ecclesial essence of the new communities: The experience of the movements only confirms the fundamental precept of Christifideles Laici [Pope John Paul’s Magna Charta on the mission of the laity], in affirming that to reconstruct the fabric of human society what is needed first of all is to remake the Christian fabric of ecclesial communities themselves. 34
In this regard I would add that, in contrast to the case of the traditional associations of the lay apostolate, here we are speaking of ‘ecclesial movements’, both because they welcome the baptized in their various states of life, and because the charisms that arouse and animate them tend to educate in the totality of the Christian, ecclesial experience (‘everything in the fragment’, according to the expression of Hans Ur von Balthasar, or ‘Church in miniature’, as one of the movements founders put it.) Not partial, sectarian, fragmentary experiences, not even a particular spirituality, still less the claim of being the Church, but rather distinctive reflections of the one Church. Not a fragmentation of the Church, but original, albeit contingent modes of living the mystery of the Church. What a movement embodies and transmits is the life itself of the Church—not just a part of it in some way reduced or ‘specialized’. (Guzman Carriquiry, #4, 61) Not all forms of the lay apostolate have developed into ecclesial communities or movements. However, the Holy Spirit poured out special graces on certain persons in the last century to be the founders and foundresses of these ecclesial communities precisely to manifest different ways of being Church. These persons form a kind of “charismatic coterie” among themselves. Catherine was one of these charismatic persons. Seeing her life in this larger movement of the Spirit is another way of assessing her sanctity and contribution to the Church. While showing you something of the growth of her apostolate into an ecclesial community, I will also share something of her love for the Church. It was her desire to renew the Church which guided the formation of her community. Catherine Answers the Call of the Popes As was mentioned, in the early 1930s, Catherine began studying, with others, the social encyclicals of the Popes. These writings were calling the laity, in particular, to Christianize all aspects of the modern world. Catherine 35
Page 2 and 3: “...the life of Catherine Doherty
Page 4 and 5: Madonna House Publications 2888 Daf
Page 7 and 8: Part One CATHERINE DOHERTY AND MADO
Page 9 and 10: community life—but they were all
Page 11 and 12: Movements convened in May, 1998, in
Page 13 and 14: a foundress grew over a period of t
Page 15 and 16: and upbringing, is a more accurate
Page 17 and 18: phers tell us, for something to rem
Page 19 and 20: Second World War, the racial integr
Page 21 and 22: ularized West, we would have an exp
Page 23 and 24: intermarriage, the close living tog
Page 25 and 26: ago. And when they hear that our fo
Page 27 and 28: sent. (His side of the family didn
Page 29 and 30: Catherine challenged not only the c
Page 31 and 32: consists mostly in how to love in s
Page 33 and 34: Combermere Before she came to Combe
Page 35: love” to be, in some real sense,
Page 39 and 40: 1934. This means that Catherine was
Page 41 and 42: Our joys, our gladness, our fun [at
Page 43 and 44: her life! She said that her whole l
Page 45 and 46: ence of priests, and by respecting
Page 47 and 48: achievement—and probably the hard
Page 49 and 50: in their lives we see how the gospe
Page 51 and 52: the people in the world.” (Ibid.
Page 53 and 54: more way in which to love and serve
Page 55 and 56: mysticism. Several times in her dia
Page 57 and 58: From about 1951 until her death, Ca
Page 59 and 60: Her love for priests was extraordin
Page 61 and 62: What phase Becoming Church in a dee
Page 63 and 64: cludes by pointing out that Our Lad
Page 65 and 66: One reason for this historically ma
Page 67 and 68: After more than a decade of this se
Page 69 and 70: Arise—go! Sell all you possess. G
Page 71 and 72: Part Two CATHERINE’S CAUSE FOR CA
Page 73 and 74: for people’s search for guidance.
Page 75 and 76: to the whole Church. By petitioning
Page 77 and 78: ceed, and, more importantly, the Ho
Page 79 and 80: Beware of a Cult One of the tasks o
Page 81 and 82: a list of witnesses, both favorable
Page 83 and 84: slightly different insights. Eventu
Page 85 and 86: as a fascinating adventure of the S
Page 87 and 88:
now the new magna charta for the pr
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Vatican’s Saint-making body. ‘R
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Relics Is it not a very human trait
Page 93 and 94:
tuality shines forth and is a flame
Page 95 and 96:
and life itself,’ through a radic
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Swiftly I run to my Lord with a hea
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We must also be good stewards of ou
Page 101 and 102:
Beginnings at Madonna House Poustin
Page 103 and 104:
And in a personal note to me, Broth
Page 105 and 106:
There are also some personal witnes
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The Glorification of the Saints in
Page 109 and 110:
temporary form, consists of a solem
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5. “That the name of hieromartyr
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Committee on canonization of saints
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divisions do not reach all the way
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also when the ‘miracle signs’ a
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Consequently, the recognition of a
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a reporter for Sign magazine, but h
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etween East and West, a purpose tha
Page 125 and 126:
“Dear Fr. Wild, “I am delighted
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patient. 95% of the time her impati
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At the end of a month I left the wh
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ny. I had found a secluded spot in
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She said that she had visited Cathe
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when we turned her she seemed so st
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Alma and Carol Ann recorded the fol
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nurtured and loved deeply and beaut
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us praise the Lord! Come on, let us
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And in that total abandonment of he
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Endnotes 1. Trans. Joseph Daries, C
Page 147 and 148:
1922-1929 Life of a refugee. In the
Page 149 and 150:
for families, is opened. St. Benedi
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