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News & Herald Volume
Serving Catholics in Western North Carolina in the Diocese of Charlotte
^et
Us Give Thanks.
1
Number
12
November
•
22, 1991
Descendants Of Charles Dickens Provide Funds For By JOANN
House Of Mercy
KEANE
Associate Editor
—
BELMONT If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would be writing about
Wright, president and
AIDS great
patients. The 19th century literary was the spokesman for the downtrod-
den, the destitute.
CEO of the House of
Mercy.
"She
Mary Margaret) had this had mine," said the countess.
(Sister
dream, and
I
"I feel that the sisters
should be
left
to get
on
Dickens' novels reflect his concern for the poor this
and the weak, and
in his lifetime
concern was not limited to his writing.
He was famous
for his dedication to hu-
was actively inwork of charities, as a patron
manitarian causes, and
volved
in the
of Great
Ormond
Street Hospital for Sick
Children, and he encouraged the Little Sisters
of the Poor to
come
France to establish their
England from
to
home
first
for the
old and destitute. V reminder of the Lord's
bounty for which wewill pause to give thanks as we celebrate Thanksgiving It
)ay next Thursday.
JOANN KEANE
Photo by
'
in this great tradition that his
is
contemporary family carries on the tion of providing aid to those in need.
tradi-
The
20th century heirs of Charles Dickens, like
By Bishops To
Author Hails Decision Retain Holy
the great-great-grandfather before, have
found an appropriate vehicle to carry out the
Dickens legacy. Christopher Charles Dickens and his wife, the Countess JeanneMarie Dickens, have founded The Charles
Days Of Obligation
Dickens Heritage Limited, a non-profit organization to fund today's patients in need.
NEW YORK (CNS) — Father Richird J.
Neuhaus, author of "The Catholic
foment," said defeat of a proposal to luce the
re-
number of holy days of obligation
lelped turn the church in the direction
nust
go
if
it
to
is
make
it
lays proposal during their annual fall
ng
have heirloom items belonging
to Charles
Dickens replicated, with a por-
differences really
As
make no
difference."
a further challenge to that
many
among
the only Christi-
— upon which Dickens A Of Two Mutual Friend — which
Cities,
and Our
replicated through the efforts of the count-
think Catholics are their brothers and sis-
interest to the
ters.
of Mercy, a residence for persons living
he said
a speech Nov. 14.
in
powerful statement was being
"The bishops were saying, ve've had enough of being told how to be said.
icceptable to the taste-makers.
time for
It is
lovingly, but with self-confidence, to
ay, sorry, world, but
we have to be Catho-
ic."
The U.S. bishops voted Nov.
13 to
Father Neuhaus said the abortion debate had
by U.S.
Latin-rite
Catho-
ics.
A separate vote Nov. 14 on eliminating he obligation of
vhen they
fall
Mass
for three holy days
on Saturday or on Monday
vas inconclusive. Final results would not
« known
until
bishops not
at the
who
directs the Institute
gion and Public Life in
:omments
in the
on
Reli-
New York, made his
annual Merton Lecture
at
Columbia University.
The lecture is named for the late Trappist *ather Thomas Merton, who entered the :hurch while a Columbia student, and is ponsored by a Columbia/Barnard Catholic
Tampus Ministry group. Father Neuhaus' Merton lecture, titled The Catholic Moment: No Guarantees," ailed for a strong Catholic commitment to tcumenism. 'To be an orthodox Catholic is o be an ecumenical Catholic," he said.
By the end of the
1
960s,
all
other major
institutional forces
of the nation, including
some conservative
Protestants,
AIDS
the
is
House
located in Belmont.
The countess was en
were ready
said.
The
was
Catholic Church
"the only
desk with.
with
this
work, but
money
we for
coming from." "Dickens would be here if he was alive. He'd be right here, wouldn't he? Because he always went where people were afraid to
would go and see what he could do to help," says the countess. "It's really what Dickens stood for. He was the hero of the poor and sick. He was
go...he
way
High
to discuss
A fateful seating
assignment placed her next to Dr. Henry
always
there.
He traveled and I just follow
in his footsteps.
from
it.
He
I
don't even have to divert
always investigated, when he
Finch, Jr., executivedirectorofthe Randolph
wrote about those boys school in Yorkshire,
Clinic in Charlotte.
he traveled there, he met those headmasters,
Small talk between the seat-mates bantered back
and forth, the countess explained
he saw the graves of the
been misused.
her desire to find an appropriate American
money, or take and
cause for her foundation funds. "Because,
searching."
States has experienced a "largely sterile"
confrontation between
he
two
sides. It
has
said, conservative- traditionalists
set,
who
saw almost unqualified "devastation, debilitation and confusion" against liberalprogressives who saw "an initial liberation followed, especially under this pope, by repression and disappointment."
American Catholics respond to their opportunity, Father Neuhaus said, will affect history because "for better and for
chauvinism," he
plays the
leading role in world affairs. "This
so."
said. "I
wish
it
to stay in
The conversation
is
is
not
were not
reproduced,
I
your country."
shifted to
ADDS.
Finch put "two and two together," says the countess.
He
told her about the
House of
after the war.
Convent placed.
I
I
The
said really?
Sisters
without re-
went to Sacred Heart I was a refugee, dis-
have a lot in common with She remembers the sisters in
Austria once said,
I
interest
in Austria.
thing;
accept you,' and
who had
not just send
Bom in Hungary, the countess "lost my my home, and my parents died
T
can't promise the Sisters are going to
boys
country,
Mercy, and the work of the Sisters of Mercy and her interest was piqued. "'But,' he said,
Dickens."
"You can
lose every-
your country, your home, parents, but not your faith. No one can take that from
are Catholic and I am Catholic, and I am sure
you. That really sank in."
we'll get along very well," recalls the count-
early experiences that spurred her interest in
ess.
charitable work,
She
told Finch, "I said
place...have to get the feel.
How
now
she told Finch, "if the desk
want the money
little
He would
stand in opposition, he said.
Church to contribute to an American public philosophy was "largely being missed." Since the Second Vatican Council, he said, the Catholic Church in the United
out there should try
what they are doing. I don 't like to see them working at that all the time... worrying about where the money is
to raise the
national institution of any credibility" to
Father Neuhaus said, however, that the
KEANE
possibly
route to
Point from England, on her
to approve uberalizing abortion laws, he
)ecause they see atholic truth.
with
Dickens family
with furniture manufacturers her hopes of
worse" the United States
as a liberal effort to dilute
Of special
States branch of their foundation.
replicating the
life.
Some conservative Catholics have umed away from ecumenism, he said, it
stay in this country, funding the United
is
reli-
opportunity and potential for the Catholic
Father Neuhaus, a former Lutheran ninister
Church
of assistance is guaranteed
from the American venture will
gious truth to bear effectively on American
meeting
polled by mail.
that the Catholic
as proceeds
has been recently
public
etain all six holy days of obligation cur-
ently observed
shown
the only institution that could bring
American branch of a
wrote Great Expec-
Tale
tations,
ess, continuation
may have been largely sym-
beneficiary of the
foundation established by the Dickens family.
Photo by JOANN
But being "the" church imposes heavy burdens, he said, and those baptized in the name of the Trinity must be recognized as brothers and sisters, whether or not they lics.
to the
House of Mercy, a Belmont residence for persons living with AIDS. The House of Mercy
In this country, using the heirloom desk
tecostal community , had a hostility to Catho-
it
9th Century British authorCharies
tion.
ecumenism,
American
people
other growing sector of
tion of the royalties shared with the founda-
1
Dickens presented by his descendants
is
declares, "Let's pretend that our deepest
Washington as the National Confer-
"A
ire
facturers to
of Catholic Bishops was significant
nade," he
is
and
anity, the evangelical-Fundamentalist-Pen-
:ven though »lic,
oriented to
is
rather than to truth,
meet-
in
:nce
The foundation has worked with manu-
a style of ecumenism.
is
"good feelings"
he noted
bishops' refusal to accept the holy
there
Father Neuhaus said, that
the contribution he
nvisioned in his book.
The
And
A portrait of
I
must see the I
can't help
Her American excursion included the decisive trip to visit the House of Mercy. She visited the house when "it was just planks on the floor." The House of Mercy was still in preliminary stages, when the countess met Sister Mary Margaret otherwise."
It is,
perhaps, her
which she has done for 14
years.
"Sometimes we say oooh, another coWhile contemplating how to best use the Dickens name to help others, the countess remembers the day "I found myself alone at the house in Yorkshire, and nobody was there. I went up to the desk, incidence."
See Dickens, Page 6