Father Feeney Quits Cambridge; St. Benedict's Center Up for Sale

Father Leonard J. Feeney, excommunicated Roman Catholic priest, is moving away from Cambridge.

The 60-year-old former Jesuit and his band of approximately fifty men, women, and children will soon take up residence in a large new dormitory in Harvard, Massachusetts. Their old home, both the red and white frame building facing Bow and Arrow Streets and the structures in back which form St. Benedict's Center, is up for sale.

The departure of the group is currently scheduled for early in February. It will bring to an end the activities of St. Benedict's Center, founded 18 years ago as an "information center" for Harvard and Radcliffe Catholic students, but used since 1949 exclusively as the home of "the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a virulently anti-Semitic religious community. Former Harvard and Radcliffe students are among the membership.

One of America's most prominent Catholic poets when he joined the Center in 1943, Feeney made 200 student converts during the early years of his stay and prompted a few students to withdraw from the University.

In 1949, he set off a national ecclesiastical controversy by contending that it is heresy to believe in the possibility of salvation for anyone outside the Roman Catholic Church. The debate reached its climax in February, 1953, when the Vatican excommunicated the priest and all of his followers.