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Venerable Catherine McAuley and The Dignity of the Human Person

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Prudence Allen RSM
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Over a century before the principles of the “new evangelization” were proclaimed in 1965 in Gaudium et spes (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church and the Modem World) Catherine McAuley (1781-1841), vigorously promoted its two key principles: (1) the dignity of the human person and (2) the virtue of solidarity with the suffering poor, sick, and ignorant. From her First Conferences alter founding the Religious Sisters of Mercy in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, Mother Catherine consistently taught her Sisters to put these principles into practice in their apostolic work in education and health care.

Drawing upon Venerable Catherine McAuley’s original writings and biographies of her life and works, this article will demonstrate how she helped prepare the way for consecrated persons in the new evangelization of the Church in the modem world. The themes are divided as follows: Part I—The Dignity of the Human Person, Part II—Solidarity with the Poor, Sick, and Ignorant, and Part III—Urgent Problems for the Church in the Modem World.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 83 , Issue 972 , February 2002 , pp. 52 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 For an elaboration of the importance of these two principles see Wojtyla, Karol Cardinal, Sources of Renewal: The Implementation of the Second Vatican Council (London: Collins, 1980), III, iii, 273–309Google Scholar.

2 The First Conferences of Mother Catherine McAuley taken from personal, handwritten notebooks by Mother Mary Timothea from the Archives of the Sisters of Mercy Carrysford Park, Black Rock (Dublin, Ireland) and edited by Sr. Mary Cora Uryase, R.S.M.

3 Gaudium et spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World in Documents of Vatican II, Austin P. Flannery, ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984).

4 This passage was recently reemphasized by Pope John Paul II in Veritatis splendor (The Splendor of Truth) (Québec: Editions Paulines, 1993), #38 and restated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Image Book, 1994) #1730.

5 This characteristic is emphasized in the Positio Super Virtutibus of Catharinnae McAuley (Roma: Guerra, 1986), edited by Sister Angela Bolster, R.S.M. “Catherine's response to need was extra courageous in that her Mission of Mercy—in school, on visitation and in the House of Mercy—was in full swing two years before Catholic Emancipation was secured by Daniel O'Connell in 1829.”, 43.

6 McAuley, Catherine, Maxims and Counsels of our Beloved Foundress Gathered from Her Life, Letters, Sayings, and the Annals of the Order, arranged by a Sister of Mercy, Bantry (Essex: The Institute of Our Lady of Mercy, 1988)Google Scholar, Maxim for August 7.

7 Mother Catherine McAuley. First Conferences, Chapter I, 4.

8 Rev. Mother McAuley, Familiar Instructions, Sisters of Mercy, St. Louis, Mo., eds (St. Louis, Ev.E. Carreas, 1888), Chapter I: Of the Object of the Institute, 1.

9 Mother Catherine McAuley, First Conferences, Chapter II, 7.

10 Mother Catherine McAuley, First Conferences, Chapter 6, 15. See also Chapter 6, 14.

11 Mother Catherine McAuley, First Conferences, Chapter 6, 15.

12 Catherine McAuley, First Conferences Chapter 10, 26.

13 Catherine McAuley's First Conferences, Chapter 14, 36 and Chapter 7, 17.

14 Catherine McAuley, First Conferences, Chapter 16, 41 and Chapter 7, 17–18.

15 Catherine McAuley, First Conferences Chapter 9, 23.

16 Catherine McAuley, First Conferences, Chapter 18, 45.

17 Catherine McAuley, Second Treatise in First Conferences, Chapter 4, 7.

18 Catherine McAuley, Second Treatise, Chapter 5, 9.

19 Catherine McAuley, Second Treatise, Chapter 6, 11.

20 Catherine McAuley, Second Treatise, Chapter 8, 14. She uses the words “sloth or tepidity in and of their actions.”

21 Catherine McAuley, Second Treatise, Chapter 1, 2 and Chapter 3, 5.

22 Catherine McAuley, Third Treatise in First Conferences, 1, 1.

23 Catherine McAuley, Second Treatise Chapter 3, 5–6.

24 New Catholic Encyclopedia (New York et al.: McGraw‐Hill, 1967), vol. xi. 62. See also Sr. Mary Ignatia Neumann, R.S.M., introduction to the foundation in Bermondsey, England, Letters of Catherine McAuley, (Baltimore: Helicon, 1969): “Catholic life was at a low ebb due to over three hundred years of religious persecution under the Penal Laws imposed by England.”, 178.

25 SisterHilda Miley, A.M., The Ideals of Mother McAuley and Their Influence: Foundress, Educator, Social Welfare Worker, (New York: P.J. Kennedy and Sons, 1931), 25Google Scholar.

26 Neumann, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 68.

27 Miley, The Ideals of Mother McAuley, 38. See also, Savage, Catherine McAuley, 269.

28 McAuley, Familiar Instructions, Chapter II: Of the Schools, 12.

29 Miley, The Ideals of Mother McAuley, 33–36.

30 Neumann, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 116.

31 Savage, Catherine McAuley, 268.

32 Miley, The Ideals of Mother McAuley, 51–52.

33 Bolster, Angela RSM, Venerable Catherine McAuley: Liminal for Mercy (Cork: Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, 1998), 12–13Google Scholar.

34 McAuley, Familiar Instructions, Chapter III: Of the Visitation of the Sick, 18–21.

35 Bolster, Positio super virtutibus, II.820.

36 Savage, Roland Burke S.J., M.A., Catherine McAuley: The First Sister of Mercy (Dublin, M.H. Gill and Son Ltd., 1950), 137–8Google Scholar.

37 Neumann, R.S.M, introduction to Birmingham, England, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 368.

38 See McAuley, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 195.

39 Neumann, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 279.

40 Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley, 80–83. See also Positio Super Virtutibus, I. 59.

41 Mother Teresa Austin Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley: Foundress and First Superior of the Institute of Religious Sisters of Mercy (St. Louis, Mo. The Vincentian Press, 1866), 148–9.

42 Neumann, ed, The Letters of Catherine McAuley, 122. See also, McAuley, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 166.

43 McAuley, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 324.

44 Bolster, Positio super virtutibus, I.224.

45 Neumann, ed, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 120.

46 Bolster, Positio super virtutibus, II.724–5.

47 Belloc, Bessie R., Historic Nuns (St. Louis, Mo.: B. Herder, 1911; London: Edinburgh, and Glasgow: Sands and Company, 1889), 93Google Scholar.

48 McAuley, Positio super virtutibus, I.490.

49 Bolster, quoting Augustus Orestes Brownson, in Positio super virtutibus, II. 726.

50 Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley, 3.

51 Bolster, Venerable Catherine McAuley, 5 and 11.

52 Savage, Catherine McAuley, 267.

53 Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley, 174.

54 Bolster, Venerable Catherine McAuley, 11.

55 See McAuley, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 232.

56 McAuley, Catherine, The Cottage Controversy (New York: P. O'Shea, 1883)Google Scholar.

57 Bolster, Venerable Catherine McAuley, Letter to Brother Rice, December 8, 1833, 5.

58 Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley, 92.

59 Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley, 170.

60 Belloc, Historic Nuns, 96–98.

61 New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 67.

62 Bolster, Positio super virtutibus, I. 77.

63 Catherine McAuley, “Admission of Distressed Women,” in Positio super virtutibus, I.199, #2. Also in Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley, 149.

64 Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley, 163.

65 Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley, 380.

66 Carroll, Life of Catherine McAuley, 193–4.

67 Catherine McAuley, “Maxims,” Arranged by Mother Mary Timothea Elliott, RSM, Maxim for January 11.

68 McAuley, Letters of Catherine McAuley, 155. In another letter she said: “The blessing of unity still dwells amongst us and oh what a blessing, it should make all things else pass into nothing.”, 330. Also in Bolster, Venerable Catherine McAuley, 20.

69 McAuley, Familiar Instructions, chapter xvi: Of Union and Charity, 107.

70 Belloc, Historic Nuns, 123.

71 As quoted in Bolster, Venerable Catherine McAuley, 20.

72 See Bolster, Positio super virtutibus, “Through her courageous enterprise, Catherine McAuley brought Catholicism out from the hidden places of the Hidden Ireland. With her it superseded political strife and religious bigotry.”, I.298.

73 Savage, Catherine McAuley, 330.

74 Sister M. Bertrand Degnan, R.S.M., Mercy Unto Thousands: Life of Mother Mary Catherine McAuley—Foundress of the Sisters of Mercy (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1957), 299–301. See also. Letters of Catherine McAuley, 298.

75 See Positio super virtutibus, I.140–143.

76 Savage, Catherine McAuley, 147. See also Letters of Catherine McAuley, 206 and 213.

77 Savage, Catherine McAuley, 403.

78 Belloc, Historic Nuns, 110–112.

79 See Savage, Catherine McAuley, 261 and Bolster, Positio super virtutibus, I.295.

80 See Carroll, The Life of Catherine McAuley, for her principles of general government and their application to the case of the entrance and formation of Lady Barbara Eyre in England., 319–23.

81 Miley, The Ideas of Mother McAuley, 59.

82 Bolster, Positio super virtutibus, II.851.

83 Savage, Catherine McAuley, 407–410.

84 With gratitude for suggestions for composition and revision of this article by Mother Mary Timothea Elliott, RSM, SSD, Sr. Mary Judith O'Brien, RSM, JDC, JD, and Sister Rita Rae Schneider, RSM, PhD. It was presented at the Symposium on Catherine McAuley, held in Alma, Michigan on September 24–25, 2000.