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Selected
Excerpts
The
Beginning
The
Tumultuous Years
Vision
Quest
Losses
Pastoral
Care
The
Transition
The
Process
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Despite
its relatively small size, South Berwick had a number of churches
of different denominations whose steeples rose above the classic three-storied
New England homes, industrial housing projects, and some outlying
farm houses. Among these, and centered in town, was St. Michael's
Roman Catholic Church. In 1909, the Sisters of St. Joseph took charge
of St. Michael's parochial school where my mother and all of us children
attended until the eighth grade. They also established a convent and
St. Joseph's Academy, an all girls' high school. The Catholic Church,
with its religious culture and rigid mores, had for years blended
with the town's Yankee mentality. Everything was either black or white,
right or wrong. There was no heart for all the gray areas of life's
hardships. There would come a time when the Church would play a significant
and painful role in my mother's life. |
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