Robert_Wild_-_Catherine_Doherty_Servant_of_God

Part One
CATHERINE DOHERTY
AND MADONNA HOUSE
Howl my soul, howl.
Cry to the Lord for his Church.
Howl my soul, howl.
For the Church is in pain.
Look, she lies in the dust of a thousand roads.
No one stops; the Good Samaritan is not seen
At the bend of those roads yet!
If this were the only quote one read from the writings
of Catherine Doherty, the reader would think she was a
raving reactionary with a distorted view of all the good
things that have happened in the Church since the Second
Vatican Council. However, as with anyone’s writings, each
statement must be seen as parts of the whole. Catherine
had a very clear view of both the beauty and sins of the
Church. I quote this fragment, not so much to emphasize
her vision of the wounds of the Church, as to communicate
something of her passionate love for the Church. For
the purposes of this brief introduction to her life, I will
focus on her love and concern for the Church as central to
what the Holy Spirit was doing through her. He was
inspiring her to create a new model of the Church in the
community she founded. The Church now calls them
“ecclesial communities.”
Who Was Catherine Doherty
She was one of the estimated 5 million Russian
refugees fleeing from the revolution. She had an extraor-
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