Madonna House: The People of the Towel & Water

Video made at Madonna House, Combermere, Ontario, Canada

I have visited the Madonna House community in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, a number of times, in 1985 and in 2005. One of many blessings was meeting and working with a priest of Madonna House, the late Monsignor Art Bukowski, from Michigan, USA, in Kentucky during the summers of 1969 and 1970, when I was a young priest studying in the USA. He was much older than me and when I first met him he had just finished 29 years as president of Aquinas College, Grand Rapids. He later, I think, spent some time in Latin America. He died in 1989. I remember him for his quiet, missionary zeal as a priest and his driest of the dry humour. I also remember the Madonna House cross that he wore.

 Monsignor Arthur F. Bukowski

The video, which begins with part of the gospel for Holy Thursday, highlights the consecration of Catherine de Hueck (de HUEeck) Doherty and her husband to Jesus through Mary. This consecration comes from the teachings of St Louis-Marie de Montfort. The film mentions that that saint had a similarly deep influence on the spirituality of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and Blessed John Paul II. It was also the bedrock of the spirituality of the Servant of God Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary.

Something else emphasised in the video is 'Nazareth spirituality', which deeply influenced Blessed Charles de Foucauld, though in a somewhat different way. It is also implicitly part of the spirituality of Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche and co-founder of its 'cousin' Faith and Light. Both of these, like Madonna House, are very Marian. Indeed, Faith and Light grew out of an international pilgrimage to Lourdes for persons with learning disabilities and their families in 1971.

The very title of this video also reminds me of something that Jean Vanier places great importance on, the washing of the feet. In a retreat I made under him in Manila in 1995 we spent a whole afternoon reflecting on this, ending in small circles where we washed the feet of one of the persons beside us. The one who washed mine was Lala, about whom I've written a number of times before.

 Lala taking care of Jordan in the 'Nazareth' that is the L'Arche community, Cainta, Rizal, near Manila

Though based in England at the time, I was chaplain to the small Philippine group at the Faith and Light international pilgrimage to Lourdes during Holy Week 2001. After the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper we had our own washing of the feet ritual in the garden of the hotel where the Filipinos were staying.

'Nazareth spirituality' shows the extraordinary presence of God in the ordinary. Most of us spend our whole lives in 'Nazareth' and yet very few of us are aware of this.

A quiet joy comes through this film, the kind of joy that Pope Benedict spoke about in his message for this year's World Youth Day, observed yesterday, Palm Sunday.

Canada's highest Order returned by Madonna House

The quote on the left from the Servant of God Catherine Doherty, on the right, founder of Madonna House, is very much in harmony with today’s gospel:

At that time Jesus declared, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (Mt 11:25-27).

Catherine received the Order of Canada (and here) in 1976. On Tuesday 6 July representatives of Madonna House returned the Order to Governor General Michaëlle Jean after she had awarded the honour to a notorious abortionist. The press release below explains the Madonna House decision. It is followed by the letter of the Madonna House leadership to Her Excellency.

Both Catherine Doherty and Michaëlle Jean fled from their homelands, Catherine from Russia and Madam Jean from Haiti. However, the Governor General’s award of the Order of Canada to a man who has devoted his life to the ultimate from of child abuse, abortion, suggests that she has a different set of values from those that Catherine Doherty lived by.

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Order of Canada to be Returned Publicly Tuesday
Peaceful Visit to Rideau Hall for Group Representing Madonna House Founder, Catherine Doherty

OTTAWA (July 7, 2008) – Representatives from Madonna House, a Catholic community based in Combermere, Ontario, will make the journey to Ottawa Tuesday morning to return the Order of Canada medal awarded to founder, Catherine Doherty.

The move is in response to the awarding of one of Canada’s highest honours to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, as announced by the Governor General’s Office on July 1, 2008.

Catherine Doherty (August 15, 1896 – December 14, 1985) was a pioneer of social justice and an internationally acclaimed speaker. In addition to founding the community of Madonna House, she was a prolific writer and best-selling author of dozens of books. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1976 in recognition of “a lifetime of devoted services to the underprivileged of many nationalities, both in Canada and abroad.” Her cause for canonization as a saint was opened by Bishop Brendan O’Brien, then bishop of the diocese of Pembroke, Ontario, in 2000.

Fr. David May, one of the three directors of Madonna House, commented on the decision to return the medal to the Governor General:

“Catherine Doherty was honoured to receive this award in 1976. She exemplified what the Order of Canada should be about: an individual committed to strengthening the nation by her contribution to the vulnerable and the marginalized. It is only after much prayer and consultation with our community, as well as with heavy hearts, that we are undertaking this action. The Order has been devalued in recent days, and we are confident that Catherine is spiritually present with us, affirming this gesture of love for our country and for the values which alone can sustain it. Without absolute respect for the gift of life, no society can survive.”

Members of the Madonna House community will gather at the entrance to Rideau Hall (the officail residence of the Governor General) to present in a symbolic gesture a letter to the Governor General, and will return the Order of Canada pin on Tuesday, July 8, 2008, at 11 a.m. Media are invited to attend, and representatives of the community will be available for interviews following the return of the medal.

Madonna House, founded in 1947 by Catherine Doherty and her husband, Eddie, is a community of more than 200 laymen, women, and priests dedicated to loving and serving Christ through promises of poverty, chastity and obedience. Each of the community’s missions has a distinct mandate, from offering soup kitchens to places of retreat. All operate in a spirit of prayer, openness, and fellowship. In addition to the original community in Combermere, Ontario, there are 18 field houses (missions) in seven countries around the world.

Additional resources on the life of Catherine Doherty and the Madonna House Apostolate can be found by visiting: www.madonnahouse.org or www.catherinedoherty.org
MEDIA CONTACT: Susanne Stubbs or Larry Klein—Madonna House (613) 756-3713

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July 8, 2008

Her Excellency the Governor General

The Rt. Honourable Michaelle Jean
Government House, Ottawa

Your Excellency,

Before all else we want to thank you for the work you do for us as Head of State of this country. Today we address you also as Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Canada. The argument we present is primarily with those who advised you to award the Order of Canada to Dr. Henry Morgentaler.

A word of explanation is due. “We” are the Madonna House Apostolate. We are an ecclesial community, within the Catholic Church, headquartered in Combermere, Ontario. There are 220 members of the community. We want to return the Order of Canada medal awarded to the community’s founder, Catherine de Hueck Doherty. The return is to protest the very recent award of the same honour to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a militant abortionist cited for his upstanding contribution to the life of the nation. This is insupportable in our view. The circumstances prompt the unusual act of returning the award of a person no longer living. Catherine died in 1985.

Catherine de Hueck Doherty, was a Russian refugee of the October Revolution. Her life in Canada became a call to a gospel life in Christ lived in the world as a lay person. This call was expressed in social and spiritual works which sought to guard the dignity of the human person and to find justice for the most vulnerable. Her unique vision, affirmed by the Church, of a community — a spiritual family— of celibate laymen, lay women and priests, began in Toronto in 1930 with the work of serving the poor. It took her to New York and the struggle for racial justice, then to rural Ontario and neighbourly service. The vision of the Apostolate grew. Men, women and priests joined. Social service and prayer houses were opened around the world. In 1976 Catherine received the Order of Canada for, “a lifetime of devoted services to the underprivileged of many nationalities, both in Canada and abroad.” For her it was her greatest decoration, surpassing the Medal of St. George she once received from the Czar. The Order of Canada was an immeasurable gift to her. It meant: “Canada accepted me.”

How can we be so presumptuous as to ask the Governor General to take back this medal which meant so much to Catherine? This deserves an explanation. I quote Catherine, writing to the staff of Madonna House April 12, 1976, five days after receiving the Order of Canada from Governor General Jules Leger; “they read out what I had done before I approached the Governor General and received the medal. But as I said, beloved family, I haven’t received a medal. As far as the medal is concerned you are all in it, for there would be no Madonna House without you and perhaps none without me, but it is a joint venture as far as I am concerned.” Catherine Doherty’s treasure is a community treasure, something we were proud of.

Madonna House Apostolate is today a small community, of no great account, wealthy only in the abundance of nature which surrounds our main house in Combermere, Ontario. We live by begging and the work of our hands. Yet now, the awarding of the Order of Canada to Dr. Morgentaler compels us to protest in the most forceful, peaceful way available to us. Not only do we find his medical practice the dark side of the medical profession but his inclusion in the awards diminishes them. And an award that was meant to be a sign of unity is bringing division. Something is not right. That is the start of why we are returning the medal. “We” means the whole community. We are of one mind in this.

Dr. Morgentaler’s work, so enthusiastically listed in his citation, more likely represents the reverse side of an otherwise bright medal. In our view, through his crusade, the dignity of the person is violently transgressed, justice for the most vulnerable is trampled on, the healing arts are compromised, and little faith is shown for the future. Is this really what we want as a nation?
Catherine Doherty would not have judged Henry Morgentaler, nor should we. Like all of us, he is a poor person. Has he not been surrounded by death all his life? Yet we have to protest … simply, peacefully, unremittingly and with the tools we have at hand … the serious misdirection our country and many of its leaders, in our view, appear to be taking, as exemplified by the award and glowing citation given him for his misguided work. Catherine Doherty would shout, “Wait. Don’t you see where we are going? There is another way. I’ll show it to you.” With this act of returning the Order of Canada we are choosing to place truth before honours. It is the truth pointed to in the very motto of the Order of Canada, taken from the Bible, Hebrews 11:16— desiderantes meliorem patriam … “they desire a better homeland…”. In truth, does this verse fragment not find its full meaning in the words that rightly complete the line? They are, “they desire a better homeland, their heavenly homeland.” The verse concludes; “That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them.”

In the end, by returning the Order of Canada, we simply wish to bring, to the consideration of the people, what was and, arguably still is, a founding vision for Canada. Catherine Doherty would do the same.

Respectfully Yours,

Fr. David May, Susanne Stubbs, Mark Schlingerman
Directors General of Madonna House for all Madonna House Apostolate