Friendship House
Encyclopedia
Friendship House is a missionary movement founded in the early 1930s by Catholic
social justice
activist Catherine de Hueck Doherty
, one of the leading proponents of interracial justice in pre-Martin Luther King, Jr.
America.
as a Catholic interracial apostolate, which grew from a charitable and anti-communism
effort.
The movement spread, with a second Friendship House opening in Ottawa
in 1936, and another shortly after in Hamilton, Ontario
, (which later became a Catholic Worker Movement
House). Friendship House received formal ecclesiastical approval on September 14, 1934, but because Catherine's approach to interracial justice was so different from what was being done at the time, she encountered much persecution
and resistance. The first Friendship House was forced to close in 1936.
Soon, however, a Catholic Interracial Council invited her to open Friendship House in Harlem
(1938) — and this U.S.-based interracial ministry led to the foundation of Friendship Houses in Chicago, Illinois (1942), Washington, D.C.
(1948), Portland, Oregon
(1951), Shreveport, Louisiana
(1953), and farms in Marathon, Wisconsin
, Montgomery, New York
, and Burnley, Virginia
.
The staff of Friendship House faced constant threat and physical assaults from anti-integration
racists
and bigots
.
From the late 1940s through 1950s, Friendship House was a beneficiary of the fame of Thomas Merton
, who described his two weeks of volunteering at the Harlem Friendship House (during August 1941) in his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain
. Many came to know Friendship House and volunteer through his writings.
In the early days, the lay apostolate required staff members to attend daily Mass
, morning and evening prayers, take regular retreats, and practice poverty, chastity and obedience. Thus the staff were shocked when their foundress suddenly married the famed American journalist Eddie Doherty
, and many personal and philosophical rifts began between the staff and Catherine. When these could not be resolved, Catherine moved back to Canada
and founded a new apostolate named Madonna House
in 1947.
Despite the departure of the foundress, Friendship House continued to grow nationally until the late 1950s, when the last remaining house in Chicago changed from being a religious community to a volunteer organization staffed by persons hired and paid a small salary. Friendship House Chicago ran a day shelter for the homeless from 1980 to 2000 on West Division Street. This site closed on March 31, 2000, after neighborhood gentrification
, and the apostolate no longer maintains a facility.
A separate Friendship House in the Northside neighborhood of Peoria IL
continues "to serve the poor, homeless, unemployed, addicted, alcoholic, racially diversified, and all cultures."
, Friendship House, along with the Catholic Interracial Councils, provided some of the few sites where Catholics could publicly devote their full-time efforts to interracial justice, and where white Catholics, for the first time, could converse face to face with African Americans in a non-threatening setting.
The main instrument of change employed by Friendship House was public education — personal contact, public speaking, and articles published in both the Catholic and secular press. Friendship House also itself published Harlem Friendship House News, The Catholic Interracialist, and Community Magazine from 1941 to 1983.
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
activist Catherine de Hueck Doherty
Catherine Doherty
Ekaterina Fyodorovna Kolyschkine Doherty, better known as Catherine Doherty, CM, Servant of God was a social activist and foundress of the Madonna House Apostolate...
, one of the leading proponents of interracial justice in pre-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
America.
History
Friendship House was founded in the early 1930s in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
as a Catholic interracial apostolate, which grew from a charitable and anti-communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
effort.
The movement spread, with a second Friendship House opening in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
in 1936, and another shortly after in Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, (which later became a Catholic Worker Movement
Catholic Worker Movement
The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ." One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on...
House). Friendship House received formal ecclesiastical approval on September 14, 1934, but because Catherine's approach to interracial justice was so different from what was being done at the time, she encountered much persecution
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
and resistance. The first Friendship House was forced to close in 1936.
Soon, however, a Catholic Interracial Council invited her to open Friendship House in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
(1938) — and this U.S.-based interracial ministry led to the foundation of Friendship Houses in Chicago, Illinois (1942), Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
(1948), Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
(1951), Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
(1953), and farms in Marathon, Wisconsin
Marathon, Wisconsin
Marathon is a town in Marathon County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the Wausau, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,085 at the 2000 census...
, Montgomery, New York
Montgomery, New York
Montgomery, New York may refer to:* Montgomery , New York in Orange County* Montgomery , New York in Orange County* Montgomery County, New York...
, and Burnley, Virginia
Burnley, Virginia
Burnley is an unincorporated community in Albemarle County, Virginia....
.
The staff of Friendship House faced constant threat and physical assaults from anti-integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
racists
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and bigots
Bigotry
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs...
.
From the late 1940s through 1950s, Friendship House was a beneficiary of the fame of Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion...
, who described his two weeks of volunteering at the Harlem Friendship House (during August 1941) in his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain
The Seven Storey Mountain
The Seven Storey Mountain is the 1948 autobiography of Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk and a noted author of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Merton finished the book in 1946 at the age of 31, five years after entering the Gethsemani Abbey near Bardstown, Kentucky...
. Many came to know Friendship House and volunteer through his writings.
In the early days, the lay apostolate required staff members to attend daily Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
, morning and evening prayers, take regular retreats, and practice poverty, chastity and obedience. Thus the staff were shocked when their foundress suddenly married the famed American journalist Eddie Doherty
Eddie Doherty
Edward J. "Eddie" Doherty was a famed American newspaper reporter, best-selling author, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-founder of the Madonna House Apostolate, and later ordained a priest in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church....
, and many personal and philosophical rifts began between the staff and Catherine. When these could not be resolved, Catherine moved back to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and founded a new apostolate named Madonna House
Madonna House Apostolate
The Madonna House Apostolate is a Catholic Christian community of lay men, women, and priests dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ in all aspects of everyday life. It was founded in 1947 by Catherine Doherty in Combermere, Ontario and has established missionary field houses...
in 1947.
Despite the departure of the foundress, Friendship House continued to grow nationally until the late 1950s, when the last remaining house in Chicago changed from being a religious community to a volunteer organization staffed by persons hired and paid a small salary. Friendship House Chicago ran a day shelter for the homeless from 1980 to 2000 on West Division Street. This site closed on March 31, 2000, after neighborhood gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
, and the apostolate no longer maintains a facility.
A separate Friendship House in the Northside neighborhood of Peoria IL
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
continues "to serve the poor, homeless, unemployed, addicted, alcoholic, racially diversified, and all cultures."
Influence
Before the Montgomery Bus BoycottMontgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. Many important figures in the civil rights movement were involved in the boycott,...
, Friendship House, along with the Catholic Interracial Councils, provided some of the few sites where Catholics could publicly devote their full-time efforts to interracial justice, and where white Catholics, for the first time, could converse face to face with African Americans in a non-threatening setting.
The main instrument of change employed by Friendship House was public education — personal contact, public speaking, and articles published in both the Catholic and secular press. Friendship House also itself published Harlem Friendship House News, The Catholic Interracialist, and Community Magazine from 1941 to 1983.
See also
- Kurt AdlerKurt AdlerKurt Adler was an Austrian classical music conductor, chorus master and pianist with a European musical education. He was best known as the chorus master and conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1943 to 1973...
- Catherine DohertyCatherine DohertyEkaterina Fyodorovna Kolyschkine Doherty, better known as Catherine Doherty, CM, Servant of God was a social activist and foundress of the Madonna House Apostolate...
- Madonna House ApostolateMadonna House ApostolateThe Madonna House Apostolate is a Catholic Christian community of lay men, women, and priests dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ in all aspects of everyday life. It was founded in 1947 by Catherine Doherty in Combermere, Ontario and has established missionary field houses...
- Catholic Worker MovementCatholic Worker MovementThe Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ." One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on...
- Ellen TarryEllen TarryEllen Tarry was an African-American author of literature for children and young adults. Tarry was the first African American picture book author. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Although raised in the Congregational Church, she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922...
- Friendship House (Washington, D.C.)Friendship House (Washington, D.C.)Friendship House is a Georgian townhouse, located at 619 D Street, , Southeast, Washington, D.C., in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.-History:...