“The only men within the Church to provide relief for women [in the 1890’s] were the members of the St. VIncent de Paul Society, whose leaders asserted that the plight of widows equaled that of orphans.”From ERIN’S DAUGHTERS IN AMERICA, IRISH IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY by Hasia R. Diner, Johs Hopkins University Press 1983
“This male lay Catholic society attempted to address their needs by providing money, food, and fuel to poor widows and by helping women find jobs. In the 1890’s it also employed a woman, Miss McGurty, in Boston to greet female Catholic newcomers at the port. In 1896, for example, she made contact with over three thousand Irish immigrant girls, helping them find work or relatives.
“In Brooklyn, the society sponsored a number of projects specifcally for women. It established visiting programs for incarcerated women facing re-entry to society, The vast buld of these women were of Irish origin as was the paid agent of the society, Anna Connolly. The VIncentians, however, generally also recognized the special roles of nuns and tended, like the clergy, to act as a referral service, sending women with particular problems to the appropriate religious order for help.
The above was quoted from Chapter 6, The Web of Support: Sisters of Service. The information was gathered from the Third Annual Report of the Cnetral Council of Boston: For the Year Ending December 31, 1891 (Boston: J.L. Corr, 1892).
