University of Virginia Library

Chapter LVII.

BISHOP O'REGAN SELLS THE PARSONAGE OF THE FRENCH
CANADIANS OF CHICAGO, POCKETS THE MONEY, AND
TURNS THEM OUT WHEN THEY COME TO COMPLAIN—HE
DETERMINES TO TURN ME OUT OF MY COLONY AND SEND
ME TO KAHOKIA—HE FORGETS IT THE NEXT DAY, AND
PUBLISHES THAT HE HAS INTERDICTED ME—MY PEOPLE
SEND A DEPUTATION TO THE BISHOP—HIS ANSWERS—THE
SHAM EXCOMMRNICATION BY THREE DRUNKEN PRIESTS.

THE Holy Scriptures say that an abyss calls for another abyss
(abyssus abyssum invocat). That axiom had it accomplishment
in the conduct of Bishop O'Regan. When once on
the declivity of iniquity, he descended to its lowest depths, with
more rapidity than a stone thrown into the sea. Not satisfied
with the shameful theft of the rich vestments of the French
Canadian Church of Chicago, he planned iniquity, which was to
bring upon him, more than ever, the execration of the Roman
Catholics of Illinois. It was nothing less than the complete destruction
of the thriving congregations of my French Canadian
countrymen of Chicago and St. Anne. The removal of the
French-speaking priest of Chicago from his people, as well as
my removal from my colony, were determined.

Our churches were, at first, to be closed, and after some time
sold to the Irish people, or to the highest bidder, for their own
use. It was in Chicago that this great iniquity was to begin.

Not long after Easter, 1856, the Rev. Mons. Lemaire was
turned out, interdicted and ignominiously driven from the diocese
of Chicago without even giving the shadow of a reason, and
the French Canadians suddenly found themselves without a
pastor.

A few days after, the parsonage they had built for their

priest in Clark street, was sold for $1,200 to an American. The
beautiful little church which they had built on the lot next
to the parsonage, at the cost of so many sacrifices, was removed
five or six blocks southwest, and rented by the bishop to the
Irish Catholics for about $2,000 per annum, and the whole money
was pocketed, without even a word of notice to my countrymen.

Though accustomed to his acts of perfidy, I could not believe
at first the rumors which reached me of those transactions.
They seemed to be beyond the limits of infamy, and to be impossible.
I went to Chicago, hoping to find that the public
rumor had exaggerated the evil. But alas! nothing had been
exaggerated!

The wolf had dispersed the sheep and destroyed the flock.
The once thriving French congregation of Chicago was no
more! Wherever I went, I saw tears of distress among my
dear countrymen, and heard cries of indignation against the
destroyer. Young and old, rich and poor among them, with one
voice, denounced and cursed the heartless mitred brigand who
had dared to commit publicly such a series of iniquities, to satisfy
his thirst for gold and his hatred of the French Canadians.

They asked me what they should do; but what could I
answer? They requested me to go again to him and remonstrate.
But I showed them that after my complete failure, when I had
tried to get back the sacerdotal vestments, there was no hope
that he would disgorge the house and the church. The only
thing I could advise them was to select five or six of the most
influential members of their congregation to go and respectfully
ask him by what right he had taken away, not only their priest,
but the parsonage and the church they had built and transferred
them to another people. They followed my advice. Messrs.
Franchere and Roffinot (who are still living) and six other respectable
French Canadians were sent by the whole people to
put those questions to their bishop. He answered them:

"French Canadians: You do not know your religion!
Were you a little better acquainted with it, you would know that
I have the right to sell your churches and church properties,

pocket the money, and go eat and drink it where I please."

After that answer tney were ignominiously turned out from
his presence into the street. Posterity will scarcely believe those
things, though they are true.

The very next day, August 19th, 1856, the bishop having
heard that I was in Chicago, sent for me. I met him after his
dinner. Though not absolutely drunk, I found him full of wine
and terribly excited.

"Mr. Chiniquy," he said, "you had promised me to make
use of your influence to put an end to the rebellious conduct of
your countrymen against me. But I find that they are more insolent
and unmanageable than ever; and my firm belief is that it
is your fault. You, and the handful of French Canadians of
Chicago, give me more trouble than all of my priests and my
people of Illinois. You are too near Chicago, sir; your influence
is too much felt on your people here. I must remove you to a
distant place, where you will have enough to do without meddling
in my administration. I want your service to Kahokia, in
my diocese of Quincy; and if you are not there by the 15th of
September next, I will interdict and excommunicate you, and forever
put an end to your intrigues."

These words fell upon me as a thunderbolt. The tyranny of
the bishop of my church and the absolute degradation of the
priest whose honor, position and life are entirely in his hands,
had never been revealed to me so vividly as in that hour. What
could I say or do to appease that mitred despot? After some
moments of silence, I tried to make some respectful remonstrances,
by telling him that my position was an exceptional one;
that I had not come to Illinois as his other priests, to be at the
head of any existing congregation; but that I had been invited
by his predecessor to direct the tide of emigration of the French-speaking
people of Europe and America. That I had come
to a wilderness which, by the blessing of God, I had changed
into a thriving country, covered with an industrious and religious
people. I further told him that I had left the the most honorable
position which a priest had ever held in Canada, with
the promise from his predecessor that, as long as I lived the life

of a good priest, I should not be disturbed in my work. As I
soon perceived that he was too much under the influence of
liquor to understand me, and speak with intelligence, I only
added:

"My lord, you speak of interdict and excommunication!
Allow me to respectfully tell you that if you can show me that
I have done anything to deserve to be interdicted or excommunicated,
I will submit in silence to your sentence. But before
you pass that sentence, I ask you, in the name of God, to make a
public inquest about me, and have my accusers confront me. I
warn your lordship that if you interdict or excommunicate me
without holding an inquest, I will make use of all the means
which our holy church puts in the hands of her priests, to defend
my honor and prove my innocence. I will also appeal to the
laws of our great Republic, which protects the character of all
her citizens against anyone who slanders them. It will then be
at your risk and peril that you will pass such a sentence against me."

My calm answer greatly excited his rage. He violently
struck the table with his fist, and said:

"I do not care a straw about your threats. I repeat it, Mr.
Chiniquy, if you are not at Kahokia by the 15th of next month,
I will interdict and excommunicate you."

Feeling that it was a folly on my part to argue with a man
who was beside himself by passion and excess of wine, I replied:

"With the help of God, I will never bear the infamy of an
interdict or excommunication. I will do all that religion and
honor will allow me to prevent such a dark spot from defiling
my name, and the man who does try it, will learn at his own expense
that I am not only a priest of Christ but also an American
citizen. I respectfully tell your lordship that I neither smoke,
nor use intoxicating drinks. The time which your other priests
give to those habits, I spend in the study of books, and especially
of my Bible. I found in them not only my duties but my rights;
and just as I am determined, with the help of God, to perform
my duties, I will stand by my rights."

I then immediately left the room to take the train to St.
Anne.

Having spent a part of the night praying God to change the
heart of my bishop, and keep me in the midst of my people,
who were becoming dearer and dearer to me, in proportion to
the efforts of the enemy to drive me away from them, I addressed
the following letter to the bishop:

My Lord:—The more I consider your design to turn me out of the
colony which I have founded and of which I am the pastor, the more I believe
it a duty which I owe to myself, my friends and to my countrymen, to
protest before God and man against what you intend to do.

Not a single one of your priests stands higher than I do in the public
mind, neither is more loved and respected by his people than I am. I defy
my bitterest enemies to prove the contrary. And that character which is
my most precious treasure you intend to despoil me of by ignominiously
sending me away from among my people! Certainly, I have enemies, and
I am proud of it. The chief ones are well known in this country as the
most depraved of men. The cordial reception they say they have received
from you, has not taken away the stains they have on their foreheads.

By this letter, I again request you to make a public and most minute
inquest into my conduct. My conscience tells me that nothing can be found
against me. Such a public and fair dealing with me would confound my
accusers. But I speak of accusers, when I do not really know if I have
any. Where are they? What are their names? Of what sin do they
accuse me? All these questions, which I put to you last Tuesday, were left
unanswered! and would to God that you would answer them to-day, by giving
me their names. I am ready to meet them before any tribunal. Before
you strike the last blow on the victim of the most hellish plot, I request
you, in the name of God, to give a moment's attention to the following consequences
of my removal from this place at present.

You know I have a suit with Mr. Spink at the Urbana Court, for the
beginning of October. My lawyers and witnesses are all in Kankakee and
Iroquois counties; and in the very time I want most to be here to prove
my innocence and guard my honor, you order me to go to a place more
than 300 miles distant! Did you ever realize that by that strange conduct
you help Spink against your own priest? When at Kahokia, I will have
to bear the heavy expenses of traveling more than 300 miles, many times,
to consult my friends, or, be deprived of their valuable help! Is it pos-
ible that you thus try to tie my hands and feet, and deliver me into the
hands of my remorseless enemies? Since the beginning of that suit, Mr.
Spink proclaims that you help him, and that, with the perjured priests, you
have promised to do all in your power to crush me down! For the sake of
the sacred character you bear, do not show so publicly that Mr. Spink's
boastings are true. For the sake of your high position in the church, do not so

publicly lend a helping hand to the heartless land speculator of L'Erable.
He has already betrayed his Protestant friends to get a wife; he will, ere
long, betray you for less. Let me then live in peace here, till that suit is
over.

By turning me away from my settlement, you destroy it. More than
nine-tenths of the emigrants came here to live near me; by striking me you
strike them all.

Where will you find a priest who will love that people so much as to
give them, every year, from one to two thousand dollars, as I have invariably
done. It is at the price of those sacrifices that, with the poorest class
of emigrants from Canada, I have founded here in four years a settlement
which cannot be surpassed, or even equaled, in the United States, for its
progress. And now that I have spent my last cent to form this colony, you
turn me out of it. Our college, where 150 boys are receiving such a good
education, will be closed the very day I leave. For, you know very well
the teachers I got from Montreal will leave as soon as I will.

Ah! if you are merciless towards the priest of St. Anne, have pity on
these poor children. I would rather be condemned to death than to see
them destroy their intelligence by running in the streets. Let me then
finish my work here, and give me time to strengthen these young institutions,
which would fall to the ground with me.

If you turn me out or interdict me, as you say you will do, if I disobey
your orders, my enemies will proclaim that you treat me with that
rigor because you have found me guilty of some great iniquity, and this
necessarily will prejudice my judges against me. They will consider me as
a vile criminal. For who will suppose, in this free country, that there is a
class of men who can judge a man and condemn him as our Bishop of
Chicago is doing to-day, without giving him the names of his accusers or
telling him of what crimes he is accused.

In the name of God, I again ask you not to force me to leave my
colony before I prove my innocence, and the iniquity of Spink, to the honest
people of Urbana.

But, if you are deaf to my prayers, and if nothing can deter you from
your resolution, I do not wish to be in the unenviable position of an interdicted
priest among my countrymen. Send me, by return mail, my letters
of mission for the new places you intend trusting to my care. The sooner
I get there, the better for me and my people. I am ready! When on the
road of exile, I will pray the God of Abraham to give me the fortitude and
the faith he gave to Isaac, when laying his head on the altar, he willingly
presented his throat to the sword. I will pray my Saviour, bearing His
heavy cross to the top of Calvary, to direct and help my steps towards the
land of exile you have prepared for your

This letter was not yet mailed when we heard that the drunkard
priests around us were publishing that the bishop had interdicted
me, and they had received orders from him to take charge
of the colony of St. Anne. I immediately called a meeting of
the whole people and told them: "The bishop has not interdicted
me as the neighboring priests publish; he has only threatened
to do so, if I do not leave this place for Kahokia, by the 15th of
next month. But though he has not interdicted me, it may be
that he does to-day falsely publish that he has done it. We
can expect anything from the destroyer of the fine congregation
of the French Canadians of Chicago. He wants to destroy
me and you as he has destroyed them. But before he immolates
us, I hope that, with the help of God, we will fight as
Christian soldiers, for our life, and we will use all the means
which the laws of our church, the Holy Word of God, and the
glorious Constitution of the United States allow us to employ
against our merciless tyrant.

"I ask you, as a favor, to send a deputation of four members
of our colony in whom you place the most implicit confidence,
to carry this letter to the bishop. But before delivering it, they
will put to him the following questions, the answers of which,
they will write down with great care in his presence, and deliver
them to us faithfully. It is evident that we are now entering
into a momentous struggle. We must act with prudence and
firmness. Messrs. J. B. Lemoine, Leon Mailloux, Francis
Bechard and B. Allaire, having been unanimously chosen for
that important mission, we gave them the following questions to
put to the bishop:

1st. "Have you interdicted Mr. Chiniquy?

2nd. "Why have you interdicted him? Is Mr. Chiniquy guilty of any
crime to deserve to be interdicted? Have those crimes been proved against
him in a canonical way?

3rd. "Why do you take Mr. Chiniquy away from us?

[Our deputies came back from Chicago with the following report and
answers, which they swore to, some time after before the Kankakee court.]

1st. "I have suspended Mr. Chiniquy on the 19th inst., on account of
his stubbornness and want of submission to my orders, when I ordered him
to Kahokia.

2nd. "If Mr. Chiniquy has said mass since as you say, he is irregular

and the pope alone can restore him in his ecclesiastical and sacerdotal
functions.

3rd. "I take him away from St. Anne, despite his prayers and yours,
because he has not been willing to live in peace and friendship with the
Revs. Messrs. Lebel and Cartevel.

[The bishop, being asked if those two priests had not been interdicted
by him for public scandals, was forced to say, "Yes!"]

4th. "My second reason for taking Mr. Chiniquy from St. Anne, and
sending him to his new mission, is to stop the law-suit Mr. Spink has instituted
against him.

[The bishop being asked if he would promise that the suit would be
stopped by the removal of Mr. Chiniquy, answered: "I cannot promise
that."]

5th. "Mr. Chiniquy is one of the best priests in my diocese, and I do
not want to deprive myself of his services. No accusation against his
morality has been proved before me.

6th. "Mr. Chiniquy has demanded an inquest to prove his innocence
against certain accusations made against him; he asked me the names of his
accusers, to confound them, I have refused to grant his request.

[After the bishop had made these declarations, the deputation presented
him the letter of Mr. Chiniquy. It evidently made a deep impression upon
him. As soon as he had read it, he said:]

7th. "Tell Mr. Chiniquy to come and meet me to prepare for his new
mission, and I will give him the letters he wants, to go and labor there.

After the above had been read and delivered to the people, I
showed them the evident falsehood and contradictions of the
bishop when he said in his second answer: "If Mr. Chiniquy
said mass since I interdicted him, he is irregular, and the pope
alone can restore him in his ecclesiastical functions," and then in
the seventh, "Tell Mr. Chiniquy to come and meet me to prepare
for his new mission, and I will give him the letters he wants to
go and labor there."

The last sentence, I said, proves that he knew he had not interdicted
me as he said at first. For, had he done so, he could
not give me letters to administer the sacraments and preach at
Kahokia before my going before the pope, who alone, as he said,

himself, could give me such powers, after he (the bishop) knew
that I had said mass since my return from Chicago. Now, my
friends, here is the laws of our holy church, not the saying or the
law of a publicly degraded man, as the Bishop of Chicago: `If
a man has been unjustly condemned, let him pay no attention to
the unjust sentence; let him even do nothing to have that unjust
sentence removed.' (Canon of the Church, by St. Gelase, Pope.)

"If the bishop had interdicted me on the 19th, his sentence
would be unjust, for from his own lips we have the confession,
`that no accusation has ever been proved before him; that I am
one of his best priests; that he does not want to be deprived of
my services.' Yes, such a sentence, if passed, would have been
unjust, and our business, to-day, would be to treat it with the
contempt it would deserve. But that unjust sentence has not even
been pronounced, since, after saying mass every day since the
19th, the bishop himself wants to give me letters to go to
Kahokia and work as one of his best priests! It strikes me,
to-day, for the first time, that it is more your destruction, as a
people, than mine, which the bishop wants to accomplish. It is
my desire to remain in your midst to defend your rights as
Catholics. If you are true to me, as I will be to you, in the impending
struggle, we have nothing to fear; for our holy Catholic
church is for us; all her laws and canons are in our favor; the
Gospel of Christ is for us; the God of the Gospel is for us;
even the pope, to whom we will appeal, will be for us—for I
must tell you a thing which, till to-day, I kept secret, viz.: The
Archbishop of St. Louis, to whom I brought my complaint, in
April last, advised me to write to the pope and tell him, not
all, for it would make too large a volume, but something of the
criminal deeds of the roaring lion who wants to devour us. He
is, to-day, selling the bones of the dead which are resting in the
Roman Catholic cemetery of Chicago! But if you are true to
yourselves as Catholics and Americans, that mitred tyrant will
not sell the bones of our friends and relatives which rest here in
our burying ground. He has sold the parsonage and the church
which our dear countrymen had built in Chicago. Those properties
are, to-day, in the hands of the Irish; but if you promise

to stand by your rights as Christian men and American citizens,
I will tell that avaricious bishop: `Come and sell our parsonage
and our church here, if you dare!'

"As I told you before, we have a glorious battle to fight. It
is the battle of freedom against the most cruel tyranny the world
has ever seen. It is the battle of truth against falsehood; it is
the battle of the old Gospel of Christ against the new gospel of
Bishop O'Regan. Let us be true to ourselves to the end, and our
holy church, which that bishop dishonors, will bless us. Our
Saviour, Jesus Christ, whose Gospel is despised by that adventurer,
will be for us, and give us a glorious victory. Have you not read
in your Bibles that Jesus wanted his disciples to be free, when
He said: `If the son of man shall make you free, you shall be
free indeed.' Does that mean that the Son of God wants us to
be the slaves of Bishop O'Regan? `No!' cried out the whole people.

"May God bless you for your understanding of your Christian
rights. Let all those who want to be free, with me, raise
their hands.

"Oh! blessed be the Lord," I said, "there are more than
3,000 hands raised towards heaven to say that you want to be
free! Now, let those who do not want to defend their rights as
Christians and as American citizens, raise their hands. Thanks
be to God," I again exclaimed, "there is not a traitor among us!
You are all the true, brave and noble soldiers of liberty, truth
and righteousness! May the Lord bless you all!"

It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm of the people. Before
dismissing them, I said:

"We will, no doubt, very soon witness one of the most ludicrous
comedies ever played on this continent. That comedy is
generally called excommunication. Some drunkard priests, sent
by the drunkard Bishop of Chicago, will come to excommunicate
us. I expect their visit in a few days. That performance will
be worth seeing, and I hope that you will see and hear the most
amusing thing in your life."

I was not mistaken. The very next day, we heard that the
3rd of September had been chosen by the bishop to excommunicate
us.

I said to the people: "When you see the flag of the free
and the brave floating from the top of our steeple, come and rally
around that emblem of liberty."

There were more than 3,000 people on our beautiful hill
when the priests made their appearance. A few moments before,
I had said to that immense gathering:

"I bless God that you are so many to witness the last tyrannical
act of Bishop O'Regan. But I have a favor to ask of you,
it is that no insult or opposition whatever will be made to the
priests who come to play that comedy. Please do not say an
angry word, do not move a finger against the performers. They
are not responsible for what they do, for two reasons:

"1st. They will probably be drunk.

"2nd. They are bound to do that work by their master and
Lord Bishop O'Regan."

The priests arrived at about 2 o'clock P. M., and never such
shouting and clapping of hands had been heard in our colony as
on their appearance. Never had I seen my dear people so
cheerful and good-humored as when one of the priests, trembling
from head to foot with terror and drunkenness, tried to
read the following sham act of excommunication, which he
nailed on the door of the chapel:

The Reverend Monsieur Chiniquy, heretofore curate of St. Anne,
Colonie of Beaver, in the Diocese of Chicago, has formally been interdicted
by me for canonical causes.

The said Mr. Chiniquy, notwithstanding that interdict, has maliciously
performed the functions of the holy ministry, in administering the holy
sacraments and saying mass. This has caused him to be irregular and in
direct opposition to the authority of the church, consequently he is a schismatic.

The said Mr. Chiniquy, thus named by my letters and verbal injunction,
has absolutely persisted in violating the laws of the church, and disobeyed
her authority, is by this present letter excommunicated.

I forbid any Catholic having any communication with him, in spiritual
matters, under pain of excommunication. Every Catholic who goes against
this defense, is excommunicated.

As soon as the priests, who had nailed this document to the
door of our chapel, had gone away at full speed, I went to see
it, and found, what I had expected, that it was not signed by the
bishop, neither by his grand vicar, nor any known person, and
consequently, it was a complete nullity, according to the law
of the church. Fearing I would prosecute him, as I threatened
he shrank from the responsibility of his own act, and had not
signed it. He was probably ignorant of the fact that he was
himself excommunicated, ipso facto, for not having signed the
document himself, or by his known deputies. I learned afterwards,
that he got a boy 12 years old to write and sign it. In
this way, it was impossible for me to bring that document before
any court, on account of its want of legal and necessary forms.
That act was also a nullity, for being brought by three priests
who were not mentis compos, from their actual state of drunkenness.
And again, it was a nullity, from the evident falsehood
which was its base.

It is alleged that the bishop had interdicted and suspended me
on the 19th of Aug., for canonical causes. But he had declared
to the four deputies we had sent him: "That Mr. Chiniquy was
one of my best priests, that nothing had been proved against
him," consequently, no canonical cause could exist for the allegation.
The people understood very well that the whole affair
was a miserable farce, designed to separate them from their pastor.
It had just, by the good providence of God, the contrary
effect. They had never shown me such sincere respect and
devotedness as since that never-to-be-forgotten day.

The three priests, after leaving, entered the house ot one of
our farmers, called Bellanger, a short distance from the chapel,
and asked permission to rest a while. But after sitting and
smoking a few minutes, they all went out to the stables. The
farmer finding this very strange, went out after them to see what
they would do in his stables: to his great surprise and disgust,
he found them drinking the last of their whiskey. He exclaimed:
"Is it not a shame to see three priests, in a stable, drinking
rum?"

They made no answer, but went immediately to their carriage

and drove away as quickly as possible, singing with all
their might, a bacchanalian song! Such was the last act of that
excommunication, which has done more than anything else to
prepare my people and myself to understand that the Church of
Rome is a den of theives, a school of infidelity and the very
antipodes of the Church of Christ.