14 Facts About Leonard Feeney

Leonard Edward Feeney was an American Jesuit Catholic priest, poet, lyricist, and essayist.

Leonard Feeney articulated an interpretation of the Catholic doctrine extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.

Leonard Feeney took the position that baptism of blood and baptism of desire are unavailing and that therefore non-Catholics will not be saved.

Leonard Feeney was described as Boston's homegrown version of Father Charles Coughlin for his antisemitism.

Leonard Feeney was a professor in Boston College's graduate school, and then professor of spiritual eloquence at the Jesuit seminary in Weston, Massachusetts.

Thereafter, he became the priest chaplain at the Catholic Saint Benedict Center, a religious center at Harvard Square founded by Catherine Goddard Clarke, in 1945; Leonard Feeney had first visited in 1941.

Leonard Feeney gave incendiary speeches on the Boston Common on Sundays, leading Robert F Kennedy, then a Harvard undergraduate, to write Archbishop Richard Cushing of Boston requesting his removal.

Leonard Feeney criticized Cushing for, among other things, accepting the church's definition of "baptism of desire".

Leonard Feeney began speaking on Boston Common, gathering large crowds of up to 2,000 people to his public meetings, both supporters and hecklers.

Leonard Feeney reconciled with the Catholic Church in 1972 without any recantation from his part.

Leonard Feeney made few public appearances in his final years, because he was suffering from Parkinson's disease and a chronic heart ailment.

Leonard Feeney died in Ayer, Massachusetts, on January 30,1978.

Leonard Feeney was editor of The Point, which ran a mixture of theological and political articles, some of them branded anti-semitic by Leonard Feeney's critics.

Leonard Feeney's court sat absolutely aghast at hearing their holy man addressed like this.