To clarify several matters addressed here:
The description of Father Feeney as “an excommunicated priest” suggests otherwise, but when he reposed (in 1978) 6 years had elapsed since he had been reconciled with the Church and the interdicts placed against him had been lifted.
The two facilities cited, Saint Benedict’s Abbey in Still Water and Saint Benedict’s Center in Still Water, are separate, although located adjacent to one another. Both are legitimate spiritual descendents of communities founded by Father Feeney during the period of interdiction. Contrary to Brother Mark’s statement, both are now regularized and in canonical standing with the Church. A search of religious orders functioning in the Diocese of Worcester, at the diocese’s website, will afford links to both communities.
St. Benedict’s Abbey is a Benedictine abbey, as its name suggests.
Saint Benedict’s Center is home to the male and female orders of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They remain very conservative in their spiritual thinking but have satisfied the Ordinary that they are no longer beyond the bounds of the Church’s teaching.
A third community, also named St. Benedict’s Center, is sited in Richmond, NH, having separated from the Still River communities several years ago. The religious (male and female) of this center also style themselves “Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” and continue publication of a periodical titled identically to one published at Still River. They are headed by Brother Fakri (Francis) Maluf, one of Father Feeney’s original group and now himself very advanced in age. Although it commemorates the Pope at Mass and claims to be in full communion with Rome, the NH body is not recognized as regularized by the Diocese of Manchester, in which canonical jurisdiction it is situated. This body holds strictly to the doctrines and ideas put forward by Father Feeney a half-century ago.
The religious of the communities remaining at Still River express fraternal affection for their NH brethren and that is reciprocated from the latter body, but there is no fraternization between the two sites. Notably, because the early communities in Still River were really communal in many respects and included whole families, many of the older members of both bodies have known one another for decades (some for their whole lives) and there are families divided among the various groups.
Two Benedictine communities, St. Mary’s Monastery (men) and St. Scholastica’s Priory (women), are located in Petersham, MA (also in the Diocese of Worcester). Each includes some members whose origins were with the Still River communities. These foundations are in canonical status with the Church and have no direct connection with the Still River bodies or that in Richmond.
I seem to recollect that a group of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart attempted to open a house in the mid-West a few years ago. If my memory is accurate, these were from the non-canonical body; I haven’t heard anything as to how successful they were.
As a side note of curiousity, Still River is in the town of Harvard, MA, and was one of the original Shaker communities. In fact, at least some of the sites held by the remnant followers of Father Feeney were Shaker properties.
Many years,
Neil
