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CHAPTER 4

CATHERINE PURSUES HER VISION: THE FOUNDING OF THE SISTERS OF SERVICE

Shortly After Christmas, Father Coughlan began a series of discussions with Catherine to put into specific and orderly form her ideas on the purpose and function of their new religious order. Whenever he could spare the time, she would be summoned to his office on McCaul Street in Toronto where they discussed her vision of service in the light of her experiences in Ontario and Alberta:

I explained to Father Coughlan that dedicated women could use rural schools, publicly administered and organized in all settled Western Areas, for peripheral missionary work. There would be no treading on ground already accepted by older communities, no overlapping. The magnetism which would draw suitable motivated women was not to be any city, but something quite new the untouched farming areas west of Ontario. Such untrodden or abandoned areas were vast and were slowly filling up with Ukrainians and others from Europe, people certain to be confused for years to come, about Canadian economics, politics and especially religion.¹

Catherine’s knowledge of the inner workings of religious orders was, as she admitted, very scanty. Father Coughlan gave her some instruction in the processes which, by canon law, must be followed to accomplish their mutual goal. She always recalled these discussions with pride and gratitude. Father Coughlan was not just sympathetic to her ideas, he also indicated that he thought she had been truly inspired in devising a new and creative approach to meeting the spiritual and educational needs of the neglected settlers in western Canada. Her ideas were based on principles and methods which, at that time, were not followed by any of the female religious orders working in the Canadian West. She now saw that the Community of St. Joseph could not have been expected to undertake a new apostolate at the urging of a postulant who, in effect, was trying to deflect a stately ship from its own safely predetermined course. To change so drastically would have required fundamental alterations to the Holy Rules and Constitutions of the order, which had been approved by the Vatican at their founding. To obtain Vatican consent to this would have been lengthy and difficult, even if the Mother Superior of the order had actually agreed with her.

Father Coughlan perceived that Catherine would always be on a collision course as applicant to any order which was committed by its rule to an apostolate which was intrinsically different from her own vision. She was impetuous and determined; but she was also a practical and enthusiastic person who was willing to attack a serious problem with great faith and total dedication. He recognized, too, that these were the personal traits of many of the Church’s most creative visionaries, who in the past had also suffered rejection when their insights into the needs of the Church ran counter to its current practices. To those not inspired by her warm desire to introduce new methods of reaching the immigrant communities, she appeared to be wilfully disobedient. He recognized that this new order would be grounded in orthodox Catholic theology, spirituality and discipline, but through its Rule would introduce new concepts in carrying out the traditional work of the womens’ religious orders. Catherine herself described her approach as adopting a spirit of ecumenism, in the method of carrying out its mission to rural settlements.

“Ecumenism” by her definition was still the same principle she had believed in and lived by as early as 1903, when she had chosen some non-Catholic Christians in the Alliston community as her closest friends, and with them had sought out teaching positions in Ontario’s public schools. Her recognition of them as faithful Christians was still a rarity in Catholic circles, for many of the parish clergy and laity were still “deeply immersed in the ghetto complex”² which had encouraged them to avoid, and in some instances even to forbid, contacts or cooperation with non-Catholics.

In practice, her project meant that sisters of her new order were not to be separated from the secular world by regulations which restricted their social and religious contacts with any of the laity, Protestant or Catholic. Given the wide gulf which then existed between the Catholic and non-Catholic world, and between the lay and clerical world within Catholic society, this in itself was a revolutionary idea which ran counter to centuries of a traditional lifestyle. Yet, as Father Coughlan and Catherine agreed, the essence of the life of a Catholic religious, which was the dedication of sisters wholly to the service of God and the Church, was retained. Indeed, she explained further:

We could use the conditions just as they existed and develop a teaching Order for the rural West of Canada. I had already proved that the ordinary public school system would suit. Like St. Paul, we could earn our own living and have rural public schools for anchor holds. There were many teacherages attached. Thus our living quarters would be supplied.³

Father Coughlan said that before proceeding on this project, they must seek the approval of Archbishop McNeil, as canon law decreed that the bishop must give his approval for every new foundation in his diocese.⁴ Archbishop Neil McNeil had been appointed Archbishop of Toronto in 1912, and by 1920 he was acknowledged as the most forward-looking and influential of the English-speaking hierarchy in Canada. He was a Nova Scotian of Scottish descent, a legacy which made him far less defensive in his attitude to the non-Catholic world than the Irish bishops who had been his predecessors.⁵

In his youth he had been a brilliant scholar, having received doctorates in theology and philosophy in Rome. While studying there he also became an enthusiastic supporter of Pope Leo XIII’s social encyclical, Rerum Novarum, and was determined to see its reforming principles adopted by the Catholic Church in Canada. On his return to Canada he was made Rector of St. Francis Xavier University, where he spoke out as an ardent defender of poor fishermen against the local fish merchants who exploited them. At age forty-five, Neil McNeil became Bishop of St. George’s in western Newfoundland, where he ministered to a population of seven thousand Catholics living in little Irish, French, Scottish and English settlements along the rugged coastline. For fifteen years he gave them practical as well as spiritual leadership, for money was scarce and skilled labourers a rarity. He taught his people how to build their own churches and schools from local materials and, as one of them, adopted a simple lifestyle himself.

Thereafter, Bishop McNeil was transferred to Vancouver, where he now worked as archbishop of a huge diocese which included all of British Columbia except Vancouver Island. That diocese urgently required restructuring. Founded in 1863, its first priests had been the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a French missionary order who had worked mainly in the French and Indian rural frontier villages. The province’s population mix was changing rapidly by 1900, as English-speaking immigrants settled in Vancouver and its environs. In his short tenure of two and a half years, Archbishop McNeil earned respect as a builder of hospitals and welfare projects which benefited the whole community as well as erecting schools and churches for his own Catholic flock.

Vancouver was a boom town, and the archbishop became very incensed about the plight of poorly paid workers, particularly the young women who were desperately seeking work in the new factories and businesses. He spoke openly about their difficulties in finding decent places to live at reasonable rent, and told businessmen who paid these low wages that they had a civic as well as a moral obligation to undertake projects to provide some form of low-cost, safe and respectable housing for their employees.

In his sermons and letters to his Vancouver flock, the archbishop pointed out that Catholics should not remain sequestered from the community outside their church. The most effective way, he said, for them to express their faith publicly was to participate in public affairs with goodwill and charity. Charity, as he frequently pointed out, was not mere almsgiving, but was a generosity of spirit which accepted differences without rancour or condemnation.

After he became Archbishop of Toronto, McNeil worked to promote a spirit of reconciliation between all citizens in his new archdiocese. Many of the prewar immigrants were Roman Catholics from Central Europe who had experienced difficulties in adjusting to a new language and the predominantly Anglo-Celtic cultural and religious patterns of the city. In his inaugural address to the Toronto diocese he lamented the insularity exhibited by some Catholics and declared, “We must enlarge our hearts and widen our horizons. The people of this church in Canada need to know each other better.” During the First World War the archbishop was troubled by the instances of racial or religious rancour which endangered national unity. As a patriotic Canadian, he urged Catholics to support public events contributing to Canada’s war effort. He warned that “if we are wanting in Catholic charity we can make it seem that we had no part in the upbuilding of this great nation, as if we were innately selfish, looking after local and small issues.”⁶

Like Catherine, Archbishop McNeil was worried about the spiritual dangers and cultural isolation facing the Central European immigrants, and did his best to find priests who spoke their language so that they would become more comfortable with Canadian ways. In the days before any government aid, he urged the Catholic churches to provide them with language classes and emergency relief, lest they lose their faith because their Church seemingly had deserted them when they were lonely strangers in a strange land.

With such a broad background in the difficulties faced by the rural and urban immigrants, the archbishop was prepared to be sympathetic to Catherine’s particular contention that it was a matter of great urgency that the Church begin now to broaden the scope of its mission to include the vast unserviced sections of western Canada. At their first meeting, he grasped immediately that Catherine had also hit upon a new method to carry out this difficult task. This differentiated her from the usual applicants to the religious life who accepted without question the ministry assigned to them by the Superiors.

Moreover, the archbishop was not at all alarmed at the prospect of Catholic sisters avoiding separate schools in order to teach in the rural areas which in most locations across the West had only public schools. The western rural population was so scattered, and this new order’s potential mission field would be so large, they would not infringe on the useful ministries of those Catholic orders already established in larger western centres and employed there by the separate school boards. Nor was the archbishop troubled by the prospect of some of the new order’s employers objecting to their school staff wearing religious habits. He agreed with Catherine’s plan to avoid their displeasure at the public display of their teachers’ Catholic affiliation by having the order wear a less conspicuous form of dress than the traditional religious habit. At one of their meetings, Archbishop McNeil even went so far as to suggest that they not use the word “Sister” in their official title. This idea was later discarded, in case it might not be acceptable to the Roman authorities.

Catherine stressed repeatedly at these meetings that the key to reaching the lapsed Catholic rural immigrants was through the provision of education for their children. It seemed the most immediate and practical way of approaching these people, as the lack of schooling for their children was one of their great worries. Even if the parents did not speak English, their children would be making progress in English every day in school, the sisters would be meeting their parents to discuss school affairs, and this would give them an opportunity to offer to help with many of their other needs, including religious education. Other services might come later, but she held firmly to her theory that schooling was the first and most important service they could offer.

Archbishop McNeil and Father Coughlan do not appear to have disagreed with her logic; but early during the several conferences which Catherine’s memoirs indicated took place in January 1921, she noted that the archbishop asked that “health work be included to supplement and help the prestige … A couple of small hospitals in the West could give the claim to caring for health … other rural endeavors could be anything to help families, provide clothing, medicine, encouragement, guidance and thus come under the head of social work.”⁷

Archbishop McNeil, Father Coughlan and Catherine also held many discussions on the particular aspects of the sisters’ lifestyle which would have to be incorporated into their Holy Rule and Constitutions. Catherine put forward her objections to several regulations common to all female religious orders in Canada which she felt would thwart the mission to be undertaken by the new order. She rejected the excessively early rising hour, which had been the custom in the medieval enclosed monastic orders, and had been continued even by the semi-enclosed orders. It would be detrimental to the health of teachers working under the difficult physical conditions found in remote areas: “6 a.m. was as early as I could manage day after day, so it was definitely decided on.”⁸ Eliminated also should be the rules which restricted the sisters’ freedom to eat their meals away from the convent community when necessary, forbade them to go out alone, or to stay overnight in other than their own or another religious order’s accommodation. The severity and uncertainty of prairie weather, and the great distances they would travel in their work, made such restrictions impractical. A rule which severely restricted participation in secular activities would not be conducive to attracting the community’s co-operation and goodwill.

In practice, Catherine’s goal of promoting ecumenism required a different attitude to the secular world than that held by the traditional female orders, whose Rules regulating their clothing and behaviour restricted them from mingling freely even with fellow Catholics. The new order would permit its members to participate in local public educational and welfare projects which benefited all the people. These activities would provide opportunities for the sisters to reach out to lapsed Catholics, and even those who were indifferent to any religion might be drawn into the Church.

Father Coughlan himself was familiar with the poverty and loneliness which was the lot of most of the Ukrainian immigrants then struggling to make a living on the prairies. Priests of his order had been working with them in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, since 1904, when the first great wave of Ukrainian immigrants had arrived. Both he and Archbishop McNeil were also very aware that the Protestant denominations, particularly the Presbyterians, had been working steadily for some time among the rural immigrant communities. They were now well entrenched in some areas and well equipped to proselytize the second great wave from the Ukraine which had begun again after the war. McNeil and Coughlan agreed with Catherine that unless the Church began soon to increase its efforts to reclaim those whose birthright was the Catholic faith, it might never succeed in doing so. They also agreed, however, that before proceeding further with their plans, Catherine should work for a short time in a western rural Ukrainian settlement to investigate whether these people would be receptive to the idea of women committed to the religious life working as teachers in their communities. She agreed to return to the West and seek a teaching position in a Ukrainian immigrant settlement and assess the situation for them.

Then Father Coughlan mentioned that he had heard of an Australian religious community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, known as the “Josephites,” which had been founded to attack a problem similar to the one identified by Catherine. Its work had now extended to New Zealand. The two clerics thought that it might be worth while to investigate the Josephites’ experiences as a useful preparation for the mission that Catherine was proposing to undertake in Canada. Archbishop McNeil said he intended to write the order and ask for suggestions on a training program for novices which they had found suitable for this type of enterprise.⁹

Obedient to their request, Catherine returned to Regina in early February. She replenished her dwindling savings by working as a substitute teacher for three weeks with the Regina Separate School Board. At an interview with the Saskatchewan Chief Inspector of Schools and the Inspector for the District of Macklin, she was told that no schools in Ukrainian districts were available, but they promised to keep her in mind if a need arose. In the meantime, would she accept a position as principal of a two-room school in Denzil, near Macklin, starting on 1 March at a yearly salary of $1,600? She accepted at once, for this was a splendid salary; and Denzil was not too remote — only 135 miles west of Saskatoon on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. They also offered to hire Adeline McConnell for the school’s junior section, but unfortunately she was unable to leave her Alberta post. The board instead hired a teacher from Ottawa, who arrived on 1 April, and the two women decided to share the rent of a furnished house in Denzil. Catherine remembered this posting with great pleasure, one which was both interesting and successful. She worked hard, even giving classes at night so eager were the children to catch up on their schooling. An added bonus was that her colleague, Miss Lenore Ferry, was a willing helper, a superior teacher, a cultured companion, and a Roman Catholic who was in sympathy with Catherine’s future plans. Together they managed to prepare all of the Grade 8 students for the provincial departmental examinations in June.

On 12 March, Father Coughlan wrote to Catherine with the disconcerting message that Archbishop McNeil had not yet written to the sisters in New Zealand, nor had he taken any other action to establish their new order. The archbishop had said that he was considering asking the Sisters of St. Joseph of the London diocese to undertake the Ukrainian missionary work. Father Coughlan said he was able to dissuade him from that plan by pointing out that it would not work, and that “I had obligations towards yourself and perhaps others who wished to devote themselves as religious to the Ukrainian mission work and that I wished to help you attain your desires.” Father Coughlan had then offered to write the New Zealand sisters himself and “propose to them to receive you and perhaps some others in their Novitiate and when the Novitiate is over, to send you back here with some other Sisters of their Order to start the great work.”

Father Coughlan then broke the news that if this plan worked out, Catherine would have to finance her own way to Australia, as neither he or the archbishop had any funds available. He said he could do no more at present as he was leaving shortly for Rome for a meeting of his order’s general chapter, and would not return until mid-July. He assured Catherine that she could rely on him not to forget and that he would “do all in my power to further this great work and I shall also help you all that I can to attain the realization of your holy desires.”¹⁰ Catherine responded immediately, hoping to reassure him before he left for Rome that she was still enthusiastic about their project. She had asked Mother St. Andrew of the Sacred Heart Academy in Regina about the Josephites. She was from New Zealand and was familiar with the order whose motherhouse was in Australia, but who had a house in Auckland. “She informed me that they have greatly modified their rule and are no longer going out into the outlying villages as they did when the Order started. That is the great necessity here — sisters who could live in places like Denzil.” She went on to describe the local situation. The present principal of the school was a good teacher and a faithful Catholic, but as often happened he had made enemies in the community because of his involvement in local politics, and he had lost his job. It was but “one case in thousands in these wild western places.” The girl who had taught the junior class had formerly been in a rural school, living in a teacher’s residence. “Then she came here but boarding conditions even here, were very disagreeable for her so she left for her home in P.E.I. There are several schools around here which cannot get teachers and where the teachers do come, they start planning to leave just as soon as possible … These schools are not fit for lady teachers and even men can’t stand it.”

I’ll be making one hundred and sixty a month with forty for board and will be able to save a few hundred between now and July.

There are many Catholics all around here — Germans. The priest speaks English very poorly. He has several little churches to attend and lives four miles from Denzil at St. Henry’s Church. We have Mass here twice a month and sometimes during the week. Fr. Bieler seems to be suffering greatly from nerve strain.

The only solution for the teacher problem here would be sisters. Catechism is supposed to be taught in the school after hours but there has been a distressing clash caused by misunderstanding between the Priest and teachers. It has been so hot lately that I don’t teach catechism yet. I am waiting for the troubled waters to calm a little bit. I’m “lying low” …

Yes, I certainly am ready to go to Australia, if that happens to be the best thing to do. And, I am happy to be able to say that I can finance myself in every way. With the scheme only in the head it would be difficult don’t you think, to get people really interested in it? When there is something definite and sure arranged, I would not be surprised if many find it exactly what they’ve been looking for. The western girls want to work in the West. Would it be a good plan to advertise in the Catholic papers for applicants, and also have some good convincing writer like Rev. Father Daly compose an article on the subject for the Catholic Press? …

I am enclosing here a letter from the Rev. Mother at Graymoor, the place you told me about. She also sent a booklet and an application form. Aspirants are received between the ages of 15 and 35. One of the printed questions in the application form is “Have you been in any other Community as Professed, Novice or Postulant? If so explain cause of leaving.” I sent a reply to the Rev. Mother Superior explaining that I was waiting for counsel from my spiritual adviser.

Your letter was most comforting and encouraging. Father Coughlan, as you say, “if we fail we can feel that we have done our best.” If we fail in what we are attempting to do now, something better will develop, don’t you think? …

I don’t think I’m praying enough. I had hoped to be where there is a resident priest but I wasn’t lucky enough for that. It seems difficult to pray enough in a place like this, but I’ll find a way to do better in that line …

You are certainly unselfish in your efforts for me, Father Coughlan and you have already given much of your time for me, with no apparent results even. May God bless all your labours.¹¹

The preoccupation of her clergy advisers with contacting a religious order so far from Toronto was trying for Catherine. Privately she felt it was a fruitless quest to attempt to persuade a religious order on the other side of the world to embark on a venture in western Canada. But she did not openly object because she knew that they were trying to solve the first difficulty which must be overcome when establishing the new Canadian order. To be approved by the Vatican, a prospective order had to have arranged that its first applicants would complete their regular training through a postulancy and novitiate, for Church canon law stipulated this was a requisite for all women religious. Of necessity, this training would have to be given to the first candidates in a new order by an experienced sister in an already accredited women’s religious order. Any order which could be persuaded to undertake this task would have to be willing and able to make some adjustments to its own staffing arrangements, and to its interpretation of its own Holy Rule, so that the fledgling sisters would be trained in a way which was compatible with the proposed mission of their own new order. This would be especially important, since Catherine intended that their Rule would break radically with Church tradition. The Church’s supervision of the female religious orders was structured so that the overtures to begin this process would have to be conducted by the bishop of the diocese or his designate.

Catherine wrote to Father Cameron about these developments and his reply indicated his own misgivings. „ New Zealand Sisters! Are these Maori? Why go so far afield to find a nest… My advice just now is pursue your pious endeavors along the lines suggested by Rev. Fr. Coughlan because it means ultimately Canadian labours.”¹²

When Catherine started her summer holiday no word had been received from the Josephite Sisters. But in early July, shortly after she had arrived in Calgary to visit Helen O’Connor, a telegram from the Chief Inspector of Schools informed her that a school in a Ukrainian settlement five miles from Stornoway, near Yorkton, Saskatchewan, would be available for her on 15 August. She accepted and prepared to go to Yorkton, trusting that somehow a way would be found to establish an apostolate to the immigrants that she knew were living in many little isolated communities.

On her arrival she found that there was a teacherage on the school site, but it was in a very lonely location. She preferred to live in the village five miles away and was able to arrange her meals at the home of Mrs. Beam who, she had discovered, was a very good cook. Catherine was able to persuade her to allow her to sleep there too. A minor flaw in the arrangement was that the Beams’ house was so small that she had to share the room and the bed of their young daughter. But “they were nice friendly people, and I felt safer in the village.”¹³ At first she walked the five miles to school, counting herself fortunate if she got a lift from someone going her way. Then she was given the loan of a horse; and shortly after, the secretary of the board, a friendly bachelor, loaned her his team of horses and a buggy. The horses were thin and the buggy and the harness threatened to fall apart at any moment, but it was luxury compared to trudging to and from school across the dusty prairie. Accompanying her loaned chariot was the following note:

Just a word or two about the team. They are broke just about to suit my whims on some occasions, so you will find them tough bitted and they will not always stop just when you tell them too [sic], so you want to watch yourself over bad places as they might take you through at a pace that you would not care to travel. I would advise you not to put them through fast as they had two strenuous days of it rounding up horses and cattle. The one on the right is Kate and the other is Jane. You will have to keep an eye on them all the time as one cannot trust them. They do not seem to mind an auto. Always check them up when you drive and keep the buggy top up, as it has been in two runaways and somewhat sprung so that it does not fold back very easy.

Wish you would bring me 4 cans of Pork & beans

4 packages Corn Flakes

Frank J. Muzik¹⁴

There was a Ukrainian Catholic Church five miles out in the country in a different direction from the school. To the astonishment of the Beams, Catherine attended Mass there on Sundays. The congregation were farmers, and as was the custom they stood during the service. In spite of the differences in liturgy and language, Catherine felt that “it was my Church and I was glad to be there.”¹⁵

On 24 August Catherine received a long letter from Father Coughlan updating her on his recent discussions with Archbishop McNeil. Since no response had been received from the Australian order, they had concluded that

the only practicable plan was to establish a new Order for the work among the poorer children in the west. He [Archbishop McNeil] spoke principally of educational work but I would judge that medical work might also be added. How would you like to be the head of this new Order? I know you have a number of the qualities needed for that office, but I do not know whether you possess all.

Our plan would be to have the Order Diocesan (Toronto) for the present, so as to be under His Grace & also not to be obliged to have recourse to Rome for approval. Together with yourself as many others as could be gotten to go, would enter a Novitiate of some Existing Order and be trained there for a year, then make the vows & then start your own Community. His Grace thinks we should have at least half a dozen young ladies to make this beginning together. But where are we to get them? Do you know?¹⁶

There followed a summary of their discussion on which religious order should be asked to undertake the novitiate training. Archbishop McNeil felt that since Catherine had been “dropped” by the St. Joseph Sisters, it would be better if the Sisters of Loretto would set up a special novitiate for Catherine and the other applicants at their convent in Niagara Falls. Father Coughlan said he preferred that their novitiate be located in Toronto so that he and Archbishop McNeil, as their clerical advisers, could help directly and guide their formation. The archbishop had reconsidered the problem of their location, noting that probably neither of these orders would have room for the new novices in their novitiates. As well as agreeing to locate their own novitiate in Toronto, the archbishop had also promised to donate a building suitable for the purpose. This meant that either the Loretto or the St. Joseph Sisters could now be asked for the loan of a novice mistress for their initial training. After a time she could return to her own community and the new order could undertake that work themselves.

They had then discussed this with an experienced Passionist Father who approved of the whole scheme, and had given some helpful suggestions. All three had also agreed that the order should undertake medical and social welfare work as well as teaching, and that a traditional religious habit was not suitable for their particular apostolate. The style could be decided later, in consultation with Catherine and others. They were also trying to think of a suitable name for the order.

Then Father Coughlan discussed the two principal obstacles to be faced in forming the new order: lack of candidates and lack of money. Neither he nor the archbishop had any available funds, but they hoped that a circular letter to priests might net some donations for their new venture in missions. They would also try to recruit suitable young women candidates seeking entry to an innovative religious order. His concluding words, although assuring Catherine that he thought of her as “our mainstay in this bold enterprise,” cautioned her:

Of course you must leave yourself in the hands of His Grace and myself to do what is best, even to make a sacrifice of your own wishes — for example if we see fit to place someone else at the head of the Order. I don’t think you are ambitious for any position, rather to do whatever good you can for God’s poor. We have determined not to restrict the work to the Ruthenians, though it would be principally among them, but to extend it to all poor children of Canada.

His Grace told me he spoke of the Order to Archbishop Soptensky, head of the Ruthenian Catholics, who is now in Canada and the latter said it was “A magnificent idea” …

Though I am burdened with many cares, I would be willing to act as spiritual director of the New Order, and His Grace is very willing too that I should …

The Archbishop and I will be glad to have any ideas or suggestions you may see fit to make, so do not hesitate to tell us your mind. I wish you were here to consult with but you better continue where you are, till we call you East. We don’t wish to take a decisive step until we are sure of our ground. We do not wish to make the matter too public and then have a failure.

I have written all this hastily — I hope it is not confusing. We will inform you of what we are doing. We desire to start as soon as the thing is feasible. Will you be able to come without delay as soon as we notify you? But do not come before we call you … His Grace and I will await your reply. Take your time to consider the matter well, but do not delay answering unnecessarily.¹⁷

Thus encouraged, Catherine continued to teach and observe the Ruthenian community.¹⁸ About fifty children attended the school. They had never had a Catholic English-speaking teacher, although the Stornaway area contained several settlements composed almost entirely of Ukrainian Catholics. Catherine reported to Father Coughlan that the teachers who had been employed in their schools had obviously been enthusiastic Protestant missionaries. The previous teachers at her school had kept their pupils well supplied with Methodist magazines and Sunday School lessons. She found the children “lovable” and wonderfully obedient and anxious to learn, and they had listened closely to the religious education which was given by their teacher. Her immediate and strongest impression was that in Saskatchewan, becoming Protestant was regarded by the teachers, inspectors and school trustees in these western public school districts as the first positive step the immigrants should take on the way to their “Canadianization.”

When Catholic church services were held by visiting priests, who conducted them in the Latin Rite, the parents did not attend as they did not understand it, nor wish to be identified with Latin Catholicism. Catherine did not get involved in, or comment on, the politics of the disputes going on in the Canadian Catholic Church at that time between the Latin and Ukrainian Rite Catholics. Among other differences, the Catholic Ukrainian Rite clergy were allowed to marry, and the Canadian hierarchy were trying to supplant this group with Latin Rite priests for whom marriage was forbidden. Some Redemptorist priests stationed at Yorkton learned the language and adopted the Ukrainian Rite; but many of the Ukrainians would not accept them for they still believed that ultimately they were expected to give up their language and religious customs.¹⁹ Some were so determined to maintain their culture, that if they changed their religious allegiance, it was more likely they would become Protestant. Catherine’s only comment on the situation was that “for a considerable time, at least, their Ruthenian Rite must be left to them in Canada. This means that it is absolutely necessary for the children to be taught faithfulness to their own church, and at the same time the difference between Catholic and Protestant Canadians. In the course of time conditions will change.” Evidently Catherine hoped that if these Ruthenians could be kept in the Catholic faith, even though it was the Slavonic Rite, they would eventually accept the Latin Rite. She felt that the most effective way of achieving this was for the Catholic Church to send in a new order of women religious who would provide secular and religious education for their children. She expressed these ideas very forcefully in a manuscript written some time later to attract recruits and funds to the Sisters of Service.

Who can save the situation? Not the priests, nor Catholic lay teachers, nor any Order of nuns working in Canada at present. The priests cannot be spared, for Canada was already short of priests when these people flocked in. Catholic [lay] teachers, unless they could bring companions would be compelled to live alone in the teachers’ residences. This is, more than ever, an unwise thing to do. Apart from the oppressive loneliness, there is the ever increasing danger in these times of unemployment and crime. There are no Latin Catholic churches near and there is no companionship.

Only an order of nuns whose rule would not forbid their living in these teachers’ residences, whose habit would not be in the least conspicuous and who would be qualified to teach in the Prairie Provinces and capable of handling the situation tactfully, would serve the purpose.²⁰

Father Coughlan and Archbishop McNeil continued to exchange ideas, and on 9 September the former, in a note to the archbishop, agreed with him that medical and social work should be included among the aims of the contemplated society, if they were to be successful in reaching the immigrant population. One title for the order which Archbishop McNeil was considering was “The Teaching Sisters,” but Father Coughlan rejected it as they might have applicants who would not be able to teach but “who could render other valuable services. Moreover, there would have to be some in the community who would devote themselves to the domestic duties of the convent… Miss Donnelly has suggested ’Sisters of Service.’ That seems good too, and is broad. I could send a telegram to Miss Donnelly to come to Toronto at once and attend to the mailing of the letters and replying to them etc.”²¹

Catherine replied on 3 September, and Father Coughlan responded immediately. He reported that he and Archbishop McNeil had a letter ready to send to the priests of Canada which, although not asking directly for funds, would they hoped induce a good response to a later appeal. The archbishop had decided to ask Mrs. Ambrose Small to help finance their work as she was a good friend.²² The Catholic Women’s League would also be approached. They felt that at least six novices were required before they could go to the trouble of securing a novice mistress. They could not, as Catherine had suggested, start with only one or two candidates, and this would likely cause some delay, but he “hadn’t the least doubt that after the work is well started, we shall have many applicants, the only trouble is to secure enough for a start.”

Another heartening piece of news was that Archbishop McNeil had spoken to Mother Victoria CSJ about their plans and “she gave His Grace a very good recommendation of you.” He did not think that there would be any difficulty in getting a novice mistress from the Sisters of St. Joseph, but it was not likely that they would be able to spare their own Novice Mistress, Sister Avila, as Catherine had suggested. But he would consult with Sister Avila when he was at the convent during the next week. The matter of the title, habit, rule and so on could be settled later. He thought “Service Sisters” was a good suggestion for a title, as “we have decided to include medical and social work among the doings of the Order as well as teaching. We hope some day to establish smaller hospitals in the West, as the Presbyterians and Methodists are doing.” He concluded by advising her not to take a university course the coming summer, but to come to Toronto as soon as she could conveniently leave Stornoway. They would provide clerical work and a desk for her at the Archdiocesan office. He was leaving Toronto soon and would be away until early November. He concluded:

I should like to meet you before I leave, but if that is not possible His Grace will instruct you what to do. You can send me word when you expect to reach Toronto.

So again, let us pray hard especially to Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Joseph that God may bless this great work and bring it to a successful issue. I wish to say I was very much pleased with your willingness to serve, not to lead. That is the right spirit and God will bless you for it. Leave yourself entirely in the hands of your Superiors to make use of you for the greater glory of God, as they see fit. Praying God to make you a fit instrument for His Service I remain

Yours sincerely,

Arthur Coughlan, C.Ss.R.

P.S. Archbishop Sinnott of Winnipeg was here for a few days. His Grace and I both spoke to him of our plans and he was very enthusiastic in his approval.²³

Father Coughlan also wrote that month to Father George Daly CSsR, one of the priests under his jurisdiction, who had recently been transferred from his post as rector of the cathedral in Regina to Saint John, New Brunswick. One of his new duties included meeting the immigrants at the docks during the summer months when the harbour was open to transatlantic ships. It was a newsy note, typical of the kind of letters sent to keep members of religious orders in touch with the happenings at their headquarters. In it he remarked:

You will be surprised to learn that Archbishop McNeil and I are trying to establish a religious order of women to do educational, medical and social work among the poor in Western Canada particularly the foreign-born. The undertaking has come about naturally, though I believe providentially. Modern conditions will require a modification of the usual rules and customs of ordinary religious Orders. For example, we think the nuns should not have a special religious habit but dress ordinarily. They would have to go by twos into lonely settlements and be deprived of Mass and Holy Communion for a long period etc. What we need now to begin the foundation is money and candidates. But I think with God’s help we can surmount all difficulties. I wish I could have a talk with you on this matter and learn from your experience.²⁴

Catherine taught for six weeks at Stornoway before concluding that she had discovered all that she and her clerical advisers needed to know about conditions on the immigrant frontier. Anxious to return to Toronto and continue making plans with her clerical advisers, she was relieved when the former teacher said that she was willing to take over the school again. She arrived in Toronto in late September 1921, took a room at 29 Breadalbane Street, and asked her friend Brother Rogation for a teaching job.²⁵ She did not want the proffered clerical work at the archbishop’s office, for she could earn more at her own profession and it was evident that money was urgently needed for the new order. She was pleased and grateful when he put her to work at St. Francis School teaching a class of fifty boys, and made her salary retroactive to 1 September. After Christmas he asked her to continue on staff, but as a substitute teacher as he knew she would not be teaching permanently in Toronto, and he had another experienced teacher who wanted a full-time permanent position.

Brother Rogation continued to be a sympathetic supporter and advised Catherine strongly against sending their first applicants into the novitiate of any other order for their initial training. He felt that instead of developing a spirituality suitable to their own order, they would inevitably be influenced by and eventually absorb the spirituality of their older tutors. He thought also that she should move as soon as possible into the building suitable for their own novitiate promised by the archbishop. He mentioned that Newman Hall (at one time used by the students of St. Michael’s College) at 97 St. Joseph Street was partly furnished and vacant, and it was an ideal location, across the street from St. Basil’s Church and next door to the House of the Christian Brothers. All the necessary permissions were obtained from Archbishop McNeil for the new order to use this house, owned by the archdiocese. They were given it, rent free, and Catherine moved in some time in late autumn 1921.²⁶ She was heartened when the Catholic Women’s League arranged to have an altar and pews placed in the large front room, making it a pretty little chapel.

Catherine had continued to teach during the autumn of 1921. She was living as frugally as possible, for she hoped that start-up funds would soon be needed. Whenever he could spare time from his onerous duties as Provincial, Father Coughlan continued to give her spiritual advice and together they consolidated their plans for the order. But she began to grow impatient, as both her teaching career and progress in starting the order seemed to be reaching a dead end. True, some decisions had been made. Archbishop McNeil and Father Coughlan accepted her choice of name for the order, Sisters of Service, and her advice on their apostolate and living style would be incorporated into their Rule when it was written. This would be the first English-speaking, Canadian-founded religious order in Canada, and its Rule would enable the sisters to bring succour and education to the rural settlers in western Canada. They would have a lifestyle which would provide them with opportunities to mingle with the secular community unencumbered by conspicuous clothing or rules which curtailed their freedom to share in the social and religious activities of the people they served.