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wee ge ge MEO
a Pee me
A Woman Styled Bold
of support and influence in the parishes and with the Jesuits who ran them.
In 1858 she had been joined by Alphonsa Kay, a native of Preston, to take
over the community at St Ignatius. Both had known Emily Bowles well as
beginners at Derby and at St Leonards and all three were in close touch
during the Rupert House troubles. Possibly it was Lucy and Alphonsa
whom Emily, about to leave, had in mind when she told Bishop Goss that
it was ‘the experience of the most thinking members of our Society’ that
“we have no Constitutions except Mrs Connelly’s sole will’. His view of the
Society derived from Emily’s account, and Lucy and Alphonsa had main-
tained the relationship with him. It was these two who, basing themselves
on the issue of the vows, took the first step in negotiations with the Propa-
ganda against approbation. They did not wait for Cornelia to get back to
England although she had said it might be possible to meet.
When she arrived in Preston in June they had received her offending
letter from St Leonards about ten days before. In it she had said: ‘the Vows
stand just as they were made, and under the same conditions as received,
until the last Vows.’ ‘Everyone’, according to Alphonsa, ‘regarded this
answer as equivocal’. With advice from a sympathetic local Jesuit it was
decided, Alphonsa continued, ‘to sign the rules without remark, and to write
at the same time a protest to Cardinal Barnabo, stating that they signed
under coercion, and begging that no further steps might be taken until an
Apostolical Visitor should inquire into the state of the Congregation.’ This
some had done. Again they had not waited for the chance to discuss it with
Mother Connelly before acting. A formal protest, this time signed, had gone
to Rome five days before she was due. Once she was among them no one
told her what had been done and, as agreed, the signing was not spoken of.
She, supposing them satisfied with her reassurance about the vows, and
probably relieved that there need be no argument with those particular
superiors, did not raise it either. Having spent a day in each of the three
convents, visiting its schools and various Catholic centres — Fernyhalgh,
Lea, Cottam Mill — she returned south unaware of the stratagem and
believing all was well. It must have been to this occasion she later referred
when she said to Buckle they made ‘no single objection to me but acted
oe secretly’. Alphonsa used Cornelia’s silence on the occasion to illustrate for
i ik Barnabo her ‘want of probity and straightforwardness’. The silence on both
bd sides betrays a long-standing strained relationship.
Mother Connelly left Preston on 1 July. By September she had realised
that the confusion about the vows was more general than at Preston only.
She wrote to all superiors to help them understand what ‘had occupied my
mind for many years’, and. hoping to receive their signatures soon. She
wanted to send them all to Rome ‘in a few weeks’. She was still unaware
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