At a public meeting of the French and Canadian Catholics of Chicago
held in the hall of Mr. Bodicar, on the 22nd of January, 1857, Mr. Rofinot
being called to preside, and Mr. Franchere,[7]
acting as a Secretary, the following
addresses and resolutions, being read, have been unanimously approved:
"Editors of the Tribune:—Will you allow a thousand voices from
the dead to speak to the public, through your valuable paper.
"Everybody in Chicago knows, that a few years ago, there was a flourishing
congregation of French people coming from France and Canada in
this city. They had their priest, their church, their religious meeting. All
that is now dispersed and destroyed. The present Bishop of Chicago has
breathed his deadly breath upon us. Instead of coming to us as a father,
he came as a savage enemy: instead of helping us as a friend, he has put us
down as a revengeful foe. He has done the very contrary to which was
commanded him by the gospel. `The bruised reed he shall not break, and
the smoking flash he shall not extinguish.' Instead of guiding us with the
cross of the meek Jesus, he has ruled over us with an iron rod.
"Every Sunday, the warm-hearted and generous Irish go to their
church to hear the voice of their priest, in their English language. The intelligent
Germans have their pastors to address them in their mother tongue.
"The French people are the only ones now who have no priest and no
church. They are the only ones whose beautiful language is prohibited,
and which is not heard from any pulpit in Chicago. And is it from lack of
zeal and liberality? Ah! no, we take the whole city of Chicago as a witness
of what we have done. There was not in Chicago a better-looking
little church than the French Canadian Church called St. Louis. But,
alas! we have been turned out of it by our very bishop. As he is now
publishing many stories to contradict that fact, we owe to ourselves and to
our children to raise from the tomb, where Bishop O'Regan has buried us,
a voice to tell the truth.
"As soon as Bishop O'Regan came to Chicago, he was told that the
French priest was too popular, that his church was attended not only by his
French Canadian people, but that many Irish and Germans were going
daily to him, for their religious duties. It was whispered in the ears of his
Rt. Reverence, that on account of this, many dollars and cents were going
to the French priest, which would be better stored in his Rt. Reverence's
purse.
"Till that time, the bishop was not, in appearance, taking much trouble
about us. But as soon as he saw that there were dollars and cents at stake,
we had the honor to occupy his thoughts day and night. Here are the
facts, the undeniable public facts. He (the bishop) began by sending for
our priest, and telling him that he had to prepare himself to be removed
from Chicago to some other place. As soon as we knew that determination, a
deputation was sent to his Rt. Reverence, to get the promise that we would
get another French priest, and we received from him the assurance that our
just request would be granted. But the next Sunday, an Irish priest, having
been sent to officiate, instead of a French one, we sent a deputation to ask
him where the French priest was that he had promised us? He answered:
`That we ought to take any priest we could get, and be satisfied.' This
short and sharp answer raised our French blood, and we began speaking
more boldly to his Reverence, who got up and walked through the room,
in a rage, saying some half dozen times: `You insult me!' But seeing that
we were a fearless people, and determined to have no other priest but one
whom we could understand, he, at last promised us again, a French priest,
if we were ready to pay the debt of our church and priest-house. We said
we would pay them, but, our verbal promise was nothing to his Reverence.
He immediately wrote an agreement, though it was Sunday, and we signed
it. But to attain, sooner or later, his object, he imposed upon that unfortunate
priest, a condition that he knew no Christian could obey.
"This condition was that he should not receive, in his church, any one
but the French. This was utterly impossible, as many Irish, Germans and
American Catholics had been in the habit, for years past, of coming to our
church; it was impossible to turn them out at once.
"We did everything in our power to help our priest in the matter, by
taking all the seats in the church against the will of the respectable people
of the different nations who had occupied them for years. Finding themselved
turned out of the church, and unable to conceive the reason of so
gross an insult from a fellow-Christian people, they said to us: `Have we
not paid for our seats in your church till this day? Double the rent if you
like; we are ready to pay for it; but, for God's sake permit us to come and
pray with you at the foot of the same altars.
"We explained to them the tyrannical orders of the bishop, and they,
too, commenced cursing the bishop and the ship that brought him over.
"They continued, however, to come to our church, though they had
no seat. They attended divine service in the aisles of the church, and we
did not like to disturb them; but our feelings were too Christian for the
bishop. He kept a watch over our priest, and, of course found out that he was
receiving many who were forbidden, by him, to attend our religious meetings.
"The bishop, then, thought once more of his dear French priest; so he
came in person to his house, and asked him if he had kept his orders. The
priest answered, that it was quite impossible to obey such orders, and remain
a Christian. He acknowledged that, in many instances, he had been
obliged, by the laws of charity, to give religious help to some who were
not French people.
" `Well then,' answered the bishop, `from this very moment; I silence
you, and I forbid you the functions of priest in my diocese.'
"The poor trembling priest, thunderstruck, could not say a word.
"He went to some friends to relate what had just happened him; and
he was advised by them to go back to the bishop immediately to beg the
privilege of remaining at the head of his congregation till Lent was over.
The bishop said:
" `I will consent to your request, if you pay me one hundred dollars.'
" `I will give you the sum as soon as I can collect it, and will give you
my note for thirty days,' answered the priest.
" `I want the money cash down,' said the bishop; `go to some of your
friends; you can easily collect that amount.'
"The poor priest went away in search of the almighty dollars; but he
could not find them as soon as he wished, and did not return to his lordship,
that day. The bishop started that night for St. Louis, but he did not forget
his dear French people in his long journey. As soon as he arrived in St.
Louis, he wrote to his grand vicar, Rev. Mr. Dunn, that the French priest
pay him $100 or remain suspended.
"This goodwill of the bishop for our spiritual welfare, and his paternal
love for our purses, did not fail to strike us. Our priest made a new effort
that very day; he went to see an old friend who had been absent from town
for some time, and related to him his sad position. This old friend (P. F.
Rofinot) seeing that he could redeem a priest for so little a sum, (for the
priest had collected part of it himself) immediately proceeded with the priest
to the house of very Reverend Dunn, with the money in hand to satisfy
the bishop.
"But alas! that bargain did not last very long; for as soon as the bishop
returned, the watch that he had left behind him performed his duty well
and told him that the French priest was going on as before. So the poor
priest had to go again to the bishop to explain his conduct. But this time
he could not bear the idea of officiating any longer under such a
tyrant. He left us to fight the hardest battles ourselves, against the
bishop.
"As the church and the house of our priest were on leased grounds,
the lease had to be renewed or the buildings removed. We went to the
bishop, who advised us to buy a lot and remove the church on it, and
sell the house to help pay for the lot. Suspecting nothing wrong in that
advice, we followed it. We bargained for a lot, agreed to sell the house and
went to report our progress.
"But we were going too fast. The bishop must stop us, or he would
be frustrated in his calculations, for he had a lot himself, to put the church
on, he opposed our removing our church, by telling us that there was
another lot adjoining the one we had bargained for; and that we must buy
it also. We went immediately and bought the lot on ninety days time.
But he objected to this again, saying that he would not allow us to touch
the church, unless we had the whole lot paid for, and put the deed in his
hands, and that the deed should be made to himself personally.
"This had the effect desired by the bishop. We had collected all the
money that could be collected then, in our small congregation; it was impossible
for us to do any more, so we concluded to give up the
battle. The bishop then, went on, took the money we had sold the house
for ($1,200). A Catholic lady, whose husband had bought the house, had
subscribed one hundred dollars for removing the church, providing the
bishop would promise that it would remain in the hands of the French, and
attended by a French priest. The bishop proffered again to that lady the
lie, which he had so often uttered to us, everywhere, even from the altar, that
upon his word of bishop, it should remain a French Church, and that they
should have a French priest. (This we should call lie number one). He
then moved the church to another lot of his own, sent an Irish priest to
officiate in it, put the money in his pocket, and made the congregation
which is now Irish, pay for the lot, the moving and repairing of the church,
and he takes quarterly the revenues which are no less than $2,000 a
year.
"This is the way we have been swindled out of our church, of the
house of our priest, and of our all, by the tyrant, Bishop O'Regan: and
when a French priest visits our city, he forbids him to address us in our
mother tongue. This is the way we, French Catholics, as a society, have
been blotted out of the book of the living!
"And when Rev. Father Chiniquy has publicly accused Bishop O'Regan
of having deprived us most unjustly of our church, he has proffered
a truth which has as many witnesses as there are Catholics and Protestants
in Chicago.
"We know well that Bishop O'Regan is proclaiming that he has not
deprived us of our church, that if it is in the hands of the Irish, it is because
the Irish and not the French built it. `This is lie number two, which can
be proven by more than a thousand witnesses.'
"We would like to know if he has forgotten the agreement (mentioned
above) which he made us sign in bargaining for a French priest. He has
the receipts for every cent that was due up to the time he took possession
of our church. He then proffered these words to the French gentlemen
who brought him the receipts: `It takes the French to collect money quick
these hard times,' (being in the winter).
"We must also add that we, French people, have paid for the very
vestments that the bishop uses in his Cathedral, which he has taken from
our church. But he uses them only on some high feasts, thinking too
much of stolen property, to use them on a common day.
"Will it be out of place, here, to say that the cathedral of Chicago
was built by the French, and that the lot which it is built on was given by a
Frenchman? It is very reluctantly that we expose all these facts before the
eyes of the public; but having waited patiently, during two long years, and
having used all the influence we could command in France and Canada, to
no purpose, we must resort to the sympathy of the public for justice, through
the free press of the United States.
"Resolved, 1st. That the Right Rev. O'Regan, Bishop of Chicago,
has entirely lost the confidence of the French and Canadian population of
Chicago since he has taken away from us our church.
"Resolved, 2nd. That the Right Rev. O'Regan has published a base
slander against the French and Canadian population of Chicago, when he
said he took our church from our hands on the pretence that we could not
pay for it.
"Resolved, 3rd. That the Right Rev. O'Regan, having said to our
deputies, who went to inquire from him by what right he was taking our
church from us to give it to another congregation: `I have the right to
do what I like with your church, and your church properties; I can sell
them and put the money in my pocket, and go where I please with it,' has
assumed a power too tyrannical to be obeyed by a Christian and a free
people.
"Resolved, 4th. That the nature of the different suits which the Right
Rev. O'Regan has had before the civil courts of this state, and which he
has almost invariably lost, have proved to the whole people of Illinois that
he is quite unworthy of the position he holds in the Catholic Church.
"Resolved, 5th. That the Right Rev. O'Regan it here publicly accused
of being guilty of simony for having extorted $100 from a priest to give him
permission to officiate and administer the sacraments among us.
"Resolved, 6th. That the Right Rev. O'Regan, in forbidding the Irish
and German Catholics to communicate with the French Catholic Church,
and allowing the French and Canadians to communicate with the Irish and
German Churches, has acted with a view ro deprive the French Church of
religious fees and other donations, which acts we consider unjust and against
the spirit of the church, and more resembling a mercantile transaction than
a Christian work,
"Resolved, 7th. That the French and Canadian people of Illinois have
seen with feelings of grief and surprise that the Rev. Mr. Desaulnier has
made himself the humble valet of the merciless and shameless persecutor
of his countrymen.
"Resolved, 8th. That the Rev. Mr. Chiniquy, pastor ot St. Anne, deserves
the gratitude of every Catholic of Illinois, for having the first, put a
stop to the rapacious tyranny of the bishop of Chicago.
"Resolved, 9th. That the French Catholics of Chicago are determined
to give all support in their power to the Rev. Mr. Chiniquy, in his struggle
against the bishop of Chicago.
"Resolved, 10th. That a printed copy of these resolutions be sent to
every bishop and archbishop of the United States and Canada, that they may
see the necessity of giving to the church of Illinois a bishop more worthy of
that high position.
"Resolved, 11th. That a copy of these resolutions be sent to His Holiness
Pius IX., that he may be incited to make inquiries about the humiliated
position of the church in Illinois, since the present bishop is among us.
"Resolved, 12th. That the independence and liberty loving press of the
United States be requested to publish the above address and resolutions all
over the country.
"P. F. ROFINOT, President.
"DAVID FRANCHERE, Secretary."
