Friendship House was a missionary movement founded in the early 1930s by

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activist

Catherine de Hueck Doherty Ekaterina Fyodorovna Kolyschkine de Hueck Doherty (August 15, 1896 – December 14, 1985) was a Russian-Canadian Catholic Church, Catholic baroness, social worker, racial justice activist, and founder of Friendship House and Madonna House Apos ...

, one of the leading proponents of interracial justice in the period prior to the mid-20th-century

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

. The first Friendship House was founded in the early 1930s in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

as a Catholic interracial apostolate. That facility closed in 1936 when Doherty moved to New York, where she opened a Friendship House in Harlem in 1938. The last remaining house, in Chicago, closed in March 2000 due to financial difficulties.

History

Toronto

Friendship House was founded in the early 1930s in

as a Catholic interracial apostolate. 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 is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...

, and the apostolate no longer maintains a facility. The movement spread, with a second Friendship House opening in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

in 1936, and another shortly after in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

, (which later became a

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 the United States in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus ...

House). Friendship House received formal ecclesiastical approval on September 14, 1934. However, Doherty provoked stiff opposition among some clergy and laity when she led picketing against an employer for paying what she considered inadequate wages. When Archbishop McGuigan took Doherty to task for this demonstration against an archdiocesan benefactor, Catherine quoted him '' Quadragesimo Anno''. This did not affect their friendship, however, de Heuck's approach made many of her contemporaries uncomfortable. She was accused of mismanagement and of being a communist. At the end of 1936, she closed Friendship House and went to New York to visit Dorothy Day.Fay, Terence J., ''History of Canadian Catholics'', McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2002

Harlem

In 1938, a Catholic Interracial Council invited her to open Friendship House in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

, partly in order to have a Catholic Center as a counter to efforts being made by the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

in the neighborhood. Friendship House ran an employment center, credit union, and co-op. There was also space for the Martin de Porres Library, and rooms to hold cub scout and CYO meetings. Through her speaking engagements de Hueck raised money to keep the center open; she also arranged college scholarships for local students.Tarry, Ellen. ''The Third Door: The Autobiography of an American Negro Woman'', University of Alabama Press, 1955

Chicago

In 1942 Bishop Bernard Sheil invited de Hueck to open a Friendship House in Chicago. As de Hueck planned to stay in Harlem, she asked Ann Harrigan and

Ellen Tarry Ellen Tarry (September 26, 1906 – September 23, 2008) was an African-American journalist and author who served as a minor figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Her ''Janie Belle'' (1940) was the first African-American picture book, and her other wor ...

to run the Chicago House. It housed a children's center, a Catholic library, and an office. In January 1949 a Friendship House opened in Washington D.C. with the support of then Archbishop Patrick O'Boyle.MacGregor, Morris J., ''Stead fast in the Faith: The Life of Patrick Cardinal O'Boyle'', CUA Press, 2006
From the late 1940s through 1950s, Friendship House was a beneficiary of the fame of

Thomas Merton Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968) was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and giv ...

, 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'' is the 1948 autobiography of Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk and priest who was a noted author in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Merton finished the book in 1946 at the age of 31, five years after entering Get ...

''. Many came to know Friendship House and volunteer through his writings. Other houses were established in Portland, Oregon (1951), Shreveport, Louisiana (1953), and farms in Marathon, Wisconsin, Montgomery, New York, and Burnley, Virginia. More than any other Catholic interracialist group, Friendship House emphasized the doctrine of the people as the Mystical Body of Christ. A key scripture for them was Matthew 25:35-40, Christ's exhortation on the corporal works of mercy.Johnson, Karen Joy. "Healing the Mystical Body", ''Christians and the Color Line'', (J. Russell Hawkins, Philip Luke Sinitiere, eds.), Oxford University Press, 2014
Friendship House tended to recruit young, idealistic Catholic laypersons. Working at Friendship House meant that one had to embrace a life of voluntary poverty, a luxury only white, middle-class individuals could adopt. Struggling African-American often needed an income to contribute to family support. Consequently, in the early days, most of the staff-members were white. In the early days, the lay apostolate required staff members to attend daily

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

, 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 Edward J. "Eddie" Doherty (October 30, 1890 – May 4, 1975) was an American newspaper reporter, author and Oscar-nominated screenwriter. He is the co-founder of the Madonna House Apostolate, and later ordained a priest in the Melkite Greek ...

, and many personal and philosophical rifts began between the staff and Catherine. When these could not be resolved, Catherine moved back to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

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.

Influence

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.

Others similarly named

Catherine de Hueck's Friendship House Apostolate should not be confused with the separate Friendship House Association, which was founded in 1904, and operated a settlement house and community center in Washington D.C. until 2008; nor with the Peoria Friendship House of Christian Service in Peoria, Illinois, also an unrelated entity. to the Friendship House movement founded by Catherine de Hueck Doherty, continues "to serve the poor, homeless, unemployed, The name Friendship House has been adopted by a variety of social service organization providing services as varied as assistance to mothers, the homeless, and American-Indians constituencies.

References

External links

Friendship House, Chicago ILPeoria Friendship House of Christian Service, Peoria ILCommunity Magazine, 40th Anniversary Issue, Vol. 37, #3, 1978
Schorsch, Albert, III

''U.S. Catholic Historian'', Fall 1990 — 9(4):371-386. {{Catholic laity Catholic lay organisations History of African-American civil rights History of civil rights in the United States