Quaker History

Buffalo Friend Patrick Finn 1935-2025

It took a while for Quakerism to grow on Patrick. His family were staunchly Catholic in a staunchly Catholic neighborhood on the Southside of Chicago. His parents required all nine of their children to attend Mass and sent them to the local parish schools. Patrick felt holiness and charity in some of the priests and nuns of his youth, but as a teen he began to grow disillusioned with the corruption, hypocrisy, and racism he saw imbedded in the Church.

Life Story and Faith Journey of Roberta Bothwell

Roberta Bothwell had spent more than a year training to become a Catholic nun when a family emergency took her out of the convent. She eventually got married, entered a period of spiritual questioning, and was invited by a friend to a Friends meeting at a house in Buffalo—a visit that transformed her faith journey.