Parish

1. The neighborhood of St. Nick’s parish seems warm for the most part, due to the fact that it seemed to have an almost extended family kind of feel between all those who lived in the vicinity. On the other hand, living in such close quarters (even with one’s own family) can be trying; however, it’s actually what helps build the community aspect, as everyone is forced to learn how to at least tolerate one another.
2. People insisted on these kinds of actions because they were based off of personal relationships of trust, where there was more at stake than simply efficiency and profitability. Again, there was an almost familial aspect to it all that led to real concern for the ones involved on both sides of the transactions and which led to loyalty and eventually, a wider and more stable customer base.
3. Nepotism can be a good thing for employers and employees because it can build a strong and long-lasting base for the leadership of a company, meanwhile lending a kind of job security to the family, and it also acts as an incentive for proper behavior among the younger employees in the family, as their actions can have serious implications for their own advancement or those of their relatives.
4. It seems that there must necessarily be a kind of good-cop, bad-cop duo when it comes to authority, simply because gentle example can’t accomplish anything without stricter enforcement and vice versa. However, the stricter enforcement doesn’t necessarily have to be brutal or sadistic. Making someone push themselves for their own good, even if it causes a certain amount of sacrifice at the time (which can be painful), helps the person reach levels of achievement they probably would not have if they had been left on their own. However, there is a fine line between the kind of strict authority that builds up and the kind that tears down, and when it is crossed, it becomes questionable whether the Msgr. Fennessy style of authority wouldn’t be more effective on its own.
5. Someone might join a convent without much thought for the restrictions because they don’t see them really as restrictions, but simply the way things properly are, as necessary for the upholding of authority, or else because they see them as actually lending a stability to the religious life.