Leonard Feeney (1897-1978) was a Roman Catholic priest, anti-Semite and founder of several hate groups. He was born in Lynn, Massachusetts on 15 February 1897. In 1914 he became a Jesuit Novitiate of Saint Andrew in New York, with whom he studied for 14 years before taking religious vows as a son of Saint Ignatius, being ordained a priest on 20 June 1928. In the 1930s and early 1940s Fr. Feeney had attracted a large number of supporters, who were known as Feeneyites.
Activities and hate groups
Fr. Feeney founded and led the Saint Benedict Center, which was located across the street from Harvard University. He also formed a religious association known as the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Feeney and his feeneyites preached every Sunday at Boston Common, but due to the inflammatory nature and "Jew baiting" common to his oratories, the police were usually required to be on hand to protect him and his followers from the crowd. Fr. Feeney is remembered for preferring to use the term "kike" when talking of Jewish people. Fr. Feeney taught that Jews were descended from Satan.
Fr. Feeney regularly warned the students at Harvard "not to become like their secular and atheistic professors, who were responsible for [inventions] such as the atom bomb," although he found this missionary work very discouraging and once said: "How can I convince Catholic students that they are losing their faith at Harvard when my own brothers in religion, (i.e. Jesuits) are getting degrees there?" He also accused the Catholic Boston College of having "lost the faith and teaching heresy, namely that salvation could be obtained outside the One True Church".
He regularly published a magazine called The Point, notable for its anti-semitism and including articles such as:
- "Jewish Invasion of Our Country - Our Culture Under Siege"
- "Our Lady of Fatima Warned Us About Jewish Communists"
- "The Rejected People of Holy Scripture: Why the Jews Fear the Bible"
- "The Judaising of Christians by Jews - Tactics of the Church's Leading Enemies"
- "A Sure Defense Against the Jews - What Our Catholic Bishops Can Do for Us"
- "An Unholy People in the Holy Land - The Actions of the Jews"
Fr. Feeney and his Roman Catholic followers believed that "the Jews" were responsible for all of society's ills: religious, political, social, and cultural. Despite his death, his organizations still flourish in the United States and routinely spread a "gospel" that "the Jews corporately murdered Christ," that "the Jews all bear the guilt of the murder of Christ," and that "the Jews are all cursed for their deicide." They also promote The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.
Archives of "The Point" at the Internet Archive