Leonard FeeneyDeceased

Leonard Feeney was an American Jesuit priest associated with Saint Benedict Center in the Boston area. In the late 1940s associates of the Center and of Boston College became involved in a public dispute over the axiom extra ecclesiam nulla salus ("outside the Church there is no salvation"), which Feeney's circle read in a strict sense. The strict reading is now commonly called Feeneyism (EWTN text of the 1949 letter; overview).

1949 letter. On 8 August 1949 the Holy Office sent Archbishop Richard Cushing of Boston a letter (Protocol 122/49) insisting that the axiom be understood as the Church herself understands it. Cushing published it in full in 1952.

1953 excommunication. After Feeney declined repeated summonses to Rome to explain his views, the Holy Office declared him excommunicated in February 1953 (Wikipedia). His followers say he learned of the sentence from the press and that his appeal received no answer (Saint Benedict Center history). They also argue that the decree was procedurally defective and contained no doctrinal condemnation (Catholicism.org; Bishop Clarence Kelly).

1972 reconciliation. Feeney was reconciled with the Church in 1972 without recanting his views on salvation (Wikipedia). The Center's own history credits Cardinal Humberto Medeiros of Boston as the main figure in the negotiations (Part VI).

Death and legacy. He died in 1978. The New York Times obituary (1 February 1978) described him as a Jesuit who had been excommunicated for nearly 20 years over his preaching on salvation, a framing his defenders reject (as cited by Bishop Clarence Kelly). Communities descended from his followers include groups using the name Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (overview). Their websites include Catholicism.org.