Origins of the Missionary Cenacle Family and how its work demonstrates Systemic Change

1. THE MISSIONARY CENACLE FAMILY

2. When Thomas Judge was
ordained a Vincentian priest
at the dawn of the twentieth
century, the Church in the
United States faced the task
of absorbing thousands of
immigrants from the Catholic
countries of eastern and
southern Europe.

3. A ministry experience of ten
years and the daily struggle
with the issues of the day as
they touched the lives of the
people he served, convinced
Father Judge that the priest
by himself was insufficient to
meet the pastoral needs of
the people. He realized that
the latent, but undirected
power for good present in
the laity must be tapped.

4. Unknowingly, he was
embracing one of the key
elements of systemic
change: developing
leadership skills and giving
people the tools needed to
perform the mission.

5. On April 11, 1909, at a
meeting in Brooklyn, New
York, six women responded
to his appeal for lay apostles
who would share in the
mission and ministry of the
Church. In the years
immediately following, Father
Judge’s influence inspired
women and men from many
walks of life to become
members of this apostolic
band, later known and
accepted in the Church as
the Cenacle Lay Apostolate.

6. In 1912, women associates
opened a Missionary Cenacle
in Baltimore for the care of
homeless and unemployed
women, and for work among
the Italian immigrants in that
city, under the auspices of
James Cardinal Gibbons.

7. By 1915, when Father Judge was assigned to a rural
Vincentian mission, some of the men and women he
had nurtured in the apostolate followed him to
Alabama.
Fr. Judge standing in doorway of sacristy at his first chapel and cabin at Holy Trinity, Alabama, 1924

8. Between 1916 and 1918, while the Cenacle Lay
Apostolate continued to flourish in the north, a
number of lay volunteers gave their lives completely
to the Missionary Cenacle, which was taking a different
shape in a rural and remote area of the south.

9. The formal beginnings of
distinct religious apostolic life
emerged. Very soon, the call
to mission spread beyond
Alabama as bishops and
pastors from other parts of
the country asked for the
services of the Missionary
Servants.

10. Within this Cenacle family
was a young woman of
extraordinary leadership,
Louise Margaret Keasey, a
school teacher from
Pennsylvania. She became
the religious superior of the
new sisters’ community and
received the name Mother
Mary Boniface.

11. Under the combined leadership of Father Judge and
Mother Boniface, the Missionary Cenacle Family
further developed in distinct forms of apostolic life:
clergy, religious, and lay.

12. Systemic change was and is evident in the ministries of
the Cenacle Family. Members of all branches worked
and continue to work in designing projects and
creative strategies that flow from Christian and
Vincentian values. They have a holistic vision which
addresses basic human needs – individual and social,
spiritual and physical. They work to break the cycle of
poverty by addressing the root causes.

13. Let us thank God in
prayer for the gifts of
Father Judge and
Mother Boniface to the
Vincentian family!

14. Sources:
Text: from an essay prepared by Sr. Caroljean Willie, SC
Images: missionarycenacle.org, Depaul University Image Archive,
missionarycenacle.wordpress.com, msbt.org