Author traces African-American siblings who made mark in 19th-century Catholicism

Nineteenth-century priest Rev. Alexander Sherwood Healy couldn't disguise his mixed racial heritage, but he made sure his accomplishments overcame the racial barriers of his time.

A new book about the Healy family notes that among those accomplishments was teaching at St. Joseph's Seminary in Troy.

"Passing for White: Race, Religion and the Healy Family, 1820-1920" was written by James O'Toole, an associate history professor at Boston College.

Miscegenation

Mr. O'Toole told The Evangelist that when Irish immigrant Michael Morris Healy married his African-American slave, Eliza Clark, they smuggled their nine children to the north in the hope of a better life.

Though they were legally considered slaves, many of the children had Caucasian features and were able to "pass for white."

However, "of all of them, Sherwood was the one who most clearly looked black. When he walked down the street, people would say, 'That's a black man' -- which makes his accomplishments all the more remarkable."

Few opportunities

In the 19th century, few careers were open to people of mixed race. Social barriers were also blatant.

"The reasons not to be black in America at the time of the Civil War were just too obvious to mention," Mr. O'Toole noted. "This is the era when the whole Jim Crow segregation system came into play."

However, priests were considered different from other men, and that difference overcame racial categories. As a result, three of the Healy brothers chose the priesthood.

Prejudice

Since there were few seminaries in the U.S. at the time, Father Healy studied in Europe. An extremely bright man with a talent for music, he was ordained in 1858. In the book, Mr. O'Toole called him one of the "best-schooled American priests of his generation."

Unfortunately, Father Healy returned to the U.S. in 1860 only to face some of the same prejudice he'd encountered before he left. He was made chaplain of a large orphanage in Boston, a position for which he was vastly overqualified; Mr. O'Toole joked about his being "put in charge of 100 screaming 12-year-olds."

Soon, however, the priest's talents became more valued. He stood in for his brother James, also a priest in Boston, as acting chancellor, and won hearts with his preaching.

Troy time

In the meantime, the bishops of the eastern U.S. had decided to build St. Joseph's Seminary in Troy. Father Healy was considered an "obvious choice" to join its faculty and came to Troy in 1864, as the Civil War was raging. He soon developed a reputation as a stellar teacher of moral theology.

"Moral theology was the core of it all," Mr. O'Toole said of priests' education, "and the really bright people went into that. Sherwood was always a bright guy."

Back and forth

During his years in Troy, Father Healy's presence was demanded in Boston more and more. He began to commute back and forth between the two cities, becoming the right-hand man of Archbishop John J. Williams of Boston.

"Being in Troy pushed Sherwood forward into more responsible positions and identified him as a capable person who could take on other responsibilities for the Church," explained Mr. O'Toole.

Father Healy was called to leave Troy for Boston completely around 1868. He was named rector of Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross, an astonishing accomplishment for a man who, by the laws of his time, could still be deemed a slave.

Ignoring race

Even more astonishing was the fact that Father Healy himself chose to ignore his blackness -- and society went along with him.

"The newspapers [of that era] never mentioned the most obvious thing about him, that he's hiding in plain sight," said Mr. O'Toole. "What's interesting is the reaction of the rest of the community, who said, `Oh, you want to ignore this thing that's supposed to [segregate] you from American life? Okay.'"

Though the "color line" at the time was being ever-more strictly enforced, the author said, "it never applied to Sherwood."

Apparently, this was because the priesthood made his race less relevant. "People would have recoiled if a black person touched them," Mr. O'Toole said, "but here's Sherwood in the Cathedral, distributing Communion."

Father Healy became a very public fundraiser for the Boston Cathedral and eventually was named pastor at St. James Church, in the heart of the city. But he'd been plagued with poor health his entire life and died in 1875, just short of his 40th birthday.

Remarkable family

Mr. O'Toole is in awe of the Healy family.

"It's just such a fabulous story," he stated. "If I'd come across one person who'd done this kind of thing, I'd say, `This is remarkable.' To find this group of eight brothers and sisters who all did this -- and each is more remarkable than the next -- that's really something!"

Penning the book, he concluded, was "a real treat."

(Of Father Healy's brothers and sisters, Martha entered religious life and then left to marry; James became bishop of Portland, Maine; Patrick, a Jesuit priest, became president of Georgetown University; Michael was a captain in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (precursor to the Coast Guard); Hugh was killed in an accident while seeing Sherwood off to Europe; and Josephine and Eliza became Notre Dame sisters. Few details about Eugene's life are known.)

("Passing for White: Race, Religion and the Healy Family, 1820-1920" is available for $34.95 from the University of Massachusetts Press. Call 413-545-2219.)

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