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Fr. Leonard Feeney had been a well-known professor in New England Catholic colleges, author of children's literature in use nationwide, and considered America's premiere theologian for many years before 1949. His framed picture was prominently placed on the walls of Catholic parochial schoolrooms for the children to see, only second to the framed picture of the Pope hanging on the same walls. When Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was going to take some time off from his regular TV show (which in those days was broadcast nearly live and not pre-recorded) the question arose as to who ought to be his temporary substitute during his absence. His recommendation was for Fr. Feeney, because he was the only man in America qualified for the task.
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But the Modernists in Rome had other ideas. They wanted to get ready for some serious changes, and for that they needed a Council to make it all happen. They needed to hold a Council, but opposed to that there were two obstacles. Number one obstacle was they needed a Pope to make it happen. That was a big project with lots of pieces to arrange. Number two obstacle was that one naggingly staunch voice of Traditionalism that had to be silenced so as not to interfere with their plans; and there was one priest in particular who more than anyone else on planet earth embodied the power of that voice: Fr. Leonard Feeney. Now, Obstacle Number One was going to take some time, but Obstacle Number Two could be perhaps dispatched much more expediently. IOW they had to get Fr. Feeney OUT OF THE WAY so they could concentrate on Obstacle Number One: The Pope.
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Suddenly one day, all the photographs of Fr. Feeney on all the school classroom walls across America were removed. They were hanging there one day, and the next day there was just a shadow of less-faded paint where the picture used to hang. How did the Modernists accomplish that magic trick? They used the services of one Francesco Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani to send a personal letter from Rome to the Archbishop of Boston, Mass., concerning the Obstacle Number Two. Then Abp. Cushing published it, under the auspices of it being some kind of official Church matter for the consumption of all the faithful (when it was in fact nothing of the sort). It was Romanita in action. They later would try the same tactics on Fr. Nicholas Gruner, among others, and they no doubt had done likewise many times in the previous 2,000 years. IOW business as usual, for Romans. Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani would die in January of 1951, and Cushing would publish the (objectively invalid) excommunication of Fr. Feeney in 1953. Everything in due time. "These things must be handled delicately!" (Wicked Witch of the West, from "The Wizard of Oz")
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They had to get Fr. Feeney out of the way, because they knew that if they got all the rest of their ducks in a row, this one priest alone would be able to prevent their Vatican II success from happening. And he would have. And they knew it. So he had to go.

I do, however, remember that my dad was quite upset. He told us that Father Feeney was not a heretic, but a good devout priest.

You needn't be an expert theologians to tell the good guys from the bad in that saga.  All anyone needed to do was to have a look at who Father Feeney's greatest enemies were ... Jews, liberal Catholics (like the Kennedies), and the heresiarch Cardinal Richard Cushing.  These were the ones spewing unabashed modernism and pushing for ecuмenism and "reform" well before Vatican II.  Even if you disagree with Father Feeney on BoD, Father was decidedly one of the proto-Traditonalists waging battle as the storms of Vatican II were starting to brew.  What a shame that he's now demonized by so many Traditional Catholics as somehow worse than the Conciliar modernists.