Correspondence concerning Fr Leonard Sheil's return to Farm Street Church, London on mission work. Includes:
– letter from Provincial Fr Brendan Barry SJ to Fr John Brooks SJ, Superior of the English Provincialate in Mount Street, London, offering the services of Fr Sheil for mission work amongst Irish immigrants. ‘I should let you know that last December Father Sheil had an operation for cancer in the intestine. However, he is in very good form again and is most anxious to take on plenty of work. His doctor wrote to me in January to say that it is quite possible that he may continue to have many years of useful activity’ (17 Apr. 1966, 1p.) and
– letter to the Provincial from Fr Sheil describing the week he spent working among the inmates in Wormwood Scrubs Jail. ‘There are 1,500 prisoners, 700 of them under 20. Of these youths, 81 are Catholic, 19 of them born in Ireland; 12 had not made First Confession, but all the Irish-born knew their religion. I was supplying for the prison chaplain R.C., an excellent man who spent 16 years of his life at Westminster Cathedral. But they tell me he doesn’t visit the cells. I did, 81 of them. It’s pathetic. And I got locked in twice, because if the cell door slams, there is no possible way of getting out till some warder changes (sic.) to come along’ (13 Jul. 1966, 2pp). Encloses a report he wrote for 'Chaplain’s Weekly' on ‘Farm St(reet) Hotel work’ describing the work of the chaplains in London bars, restaurants, residential clubs and hotels (11 Jul. 1966, 2pp).
