CHAPTER I<br > I MEET THE CHURCH<br > I was born into religious conflict， Scotch Presbyterians and Irish<br > Catholics warring over my small self， in Sydney， New South Wales.<br > Of my four grandparents， the one whose name I bear， Frank<br > Sheed， was born in Aberdeen. He had been baptized in the Episcopal<br > Church there， his parenl~ had been married by the Dean: but he<br > was a Presbyterian by the time I arrived: I doubt if he knew the dif-<br > ference or cared. My other three grandparents were from County<br > Limerick， Catholics naturally. But one of them， my father s mother，<br > Margaret Casey， lef~ the Church when my father was five and be-<br > came a Presbyterian. So that religiously my grandparents divided two<br > and two. Unhappily file two Catholics had died when my mother<br > was a child and take no part in nay story. The other two do.<br > As far back as my memory goes， I was aware that my young brother<br > and I were being fought over. My mother， l~4ary Maloney， took our<br > Catholicism for granted. But my grandparents， and still more their<br > daughters， were of the tsTe who dream of the Pope and wake up in<br > a cold sweat screaming， "Rome!" YVhen I was four I was staying a few<br > days with ray father s eldest sister. She had lost something or other<br > and I advised her to ask St. Anthony to find it. She said， "You d bet-<br > ter ask him yourself. I don t know him." She was not pleased. She<br >told my father and he was not pleased either. (I have had a devotion<br >to St. Anthony ever since， I feel he owes me something.) Thinking<br >as they did， our Sheed relations veIy properly saw it as their duty to<br >save us from our mother s religion. The odd thing is that they all liked<br >her， and she them. I liked them all， espeeially my grandmother.<br > She was a Casey from Shanagolden， County Limerick. After the<br >Famine， the family had scattered， the girls going to Australia， the<br >boys to America (one of these became a mlllionaire--I have never<br >been able to trace his descendants). One of the girls (my great-aunt)<br >joined the Sisters of Mercy， became Provincial in Sydney， and<br >founded a girls college， a hospital and (with the aid of her rich<br >brother in America) a foundling home--all these insfitutiom are still<br >