University of Virginia Library

Chapter LXIII.

MR. DESAULNIER IS NAMED VICAR GENERAL OF CHICAGO
TO CRUSH US—OUR PEOPLE MORE UNITED THAN EVER TO
DEFEND THEIR RIGHTS—LETTERS OF THE PEOPLE OF
CHICAGO TO THE BISHOPS AND TO THE POPE—LETTERS OF
THE BISHOP OF MONTREAL AGAINST ME, AND MY ANSWER—
MR. BRASSARD FORCED, AGAINST HIS CONSCIENCE, TO
CONDEMN US—MY ANSWER TO MR. BRASSARD—HE WRITES
TO BEG MY PARDON.

IT was evident that the betrayal of Mr. Desaulnier would be
followed by new efforts on the part of the bishop to crush
us. Two new priests were sent from Canada, Mr. Mailloux,
vicar general, and Mr. Campo, to strengthen his hands, and press
the people to submit. Mr. Brassard wrote me from Canada in
December:

"All the bishops are preparing to hurl their thunders against
you, and your people, on account of your heroic resistance to the
tyranny of the bishop of Chicago.

"I have told them the truth, but they don't want to know
it. My lord Bourget told me positively, that you must be forced,
at any cost, to yield to the authority of your bishop; and he has
threatened to excommunicate me, if I tell the people what I
know of the shameful conduct of Desaulnier. If I were alone
I would not mind his excommunication, and would speak the
truth, but such a sentence against me would kill my poor old
mother. I hope you will not find fault with me, if I remain
absolutely mute. I pray you to consider this letter confidential.
You know very well the trouble you would put me into, by its
publication."

The French Canadians of Chicago saw, at once, that their
bishop, strengthened by the support of Desaulnier, would be

more than ever, obstinate in his determination to crush them.
They thought that the best way to force him to do them justice,
was to publish a manifesto of their grievances against him, and
make a public appeal to all the Bishops of the United States and
even to the Pope.

On the 22nd of January, 1857, The Chicago Tribune was
requested by them to publish the following document:

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.

That cry of more than two thousand Roman Catholics of
Chicago, which was reproduced by almost the whole press of
Illinois, and the United States, fell as a thunderbolt upon the
head of my lord O'Regan and Desaulnier. They wrote to all
bishops of America, to hasten to their rescue, and for several
months the pulpits of the Roman Catholic Churches had no
other mission than to repeat the echoes of the Episcopal fulminnations
hurled against my devoted head. Many bishop's letters
and mandements were published, demouncing me and my people
as infamous schismatics, whose pride and obstinancy were troubling
the peace of the church. But the most bitter of all these,
was a letter from my lord Bourget, bishop of Montreal, who
thought the best, if not the only way, to force the people to
desert me, was by forever destroying my honor. But he had
the misfortune to fall into the pit he had dug for me, in
1851.

The miserable girl he had associated with himself, to satisfy
his implacable hatred, was dead. But, he had still in hand the
lying accusations obtained from her, against me. Having probably
destroyed her sworn recantation, written by the Jesuit Father
Schneider, and not having the least idea that I had kept three

other sworn copies of the recantations—he thought he could
safely publish that I was a degraded man, who had been driven
from Canada, by him, after being convicted of some enormous
crime, and interdicted.

This declaration was brought before the public, for the first
time, by him, with an hypocritical air of compassion and mercy
for me, which added much to the deadly effect he expected to
produce by it. Here are his own words, addressed to the people
of Bourbonnais, and through them, to the whole world:

"I must tell you that on the 27th of September, 1851, I
withdrew all his powers, and interdicted him, for reasons which
I gave him in my letter addressed to him; a letter which he has
probably kept. Let him publish that letter if he finds that I
have persecuted him unjustly."

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read this ignominious
act of perfidy on the part of that high dignitary: it seemed
incredible, and surpassed anything I had ever seen, even in
Bishop O'Regan. I can not say, however, that it took me entirely
by surprise, for I had anticipated it. When Father
Schneider asked me why I had taken four sworn copies of the
recantation of tha unfortunate girl whose tears of regret were
flowing before us, I told him that I knew so much of the meanness
and perfidy of Bishop Bourget, that I thought he might destroy
the copy we were sending him, in order to pierce me again
with his poisonous arrows, whilst, if I kept three other copies,
one for him, one for Mr. Brassard and one for myself, I would
have nothing to fear. I am convinced that my merciful God
knew the malice of that bishop against me, and gave me that
wisdom to save me.

I immediately sent him, through the press, the following
answer:

My Lord:—In your letter of the 19th of March, you assure
the public that you have interdicted me, a few days before
my leaving Canada for the United States, and you invite me to
give the reasons of that sentence. I will satisfy you. On the

28th of September, 1851, I found a letter on my table from you
telling me that you had suspended me from my ecclesiastical
offices, on account of a great crime that I had committed, and of
which I was accused. But the name of the accuser was not
given, nor the nature of the crime. I immediately went to see
you, and protesting my innocence, I requested you to give me
the name of my accusers, and allow me to be confronted by
them, promising that I would prove my innocence. You refused
to grant my request.

Then I fell on my knees, and with tears, in the name of
God, I requested you again to allow me to meet my accusers and
prove my innocence. You remained deaf to my prayer and unmoved
by my tears; you repulsed me with a malice and air of
tyranny which I thought impossible in you.

During the twenty-four hours after this, sentiments of an inexpressible
wrath crossed my mind. I tell it to you frankly, in
that terrible hour, I would have preferred to be at the feet of a
heathen priest, whose knife would have slaughtered me on his
altars, to appease his infernal gods, rather than be at the feet of
a man who, in the name of Jesus Christ, and under the mask of
the gospel, should dare to commit such a cruel act. You had
taken away my honor—you had destroyed me with the most infamous
calumny — and you had refused me every means of
justification! You had taken under your protection the cowards
who were stabbing me in the dark!

Though it is hard to repeat, I must tell it here publicly, I
cursed you on that horrible day.

With a broken heart, I went to the Jesuit college, and I
showed the wounds of my bleeding soul to the noble friend who
was generally my confessor, the Rev. Father Schneider, the director
of the college.

After three days, having providentially got some reasons to
suspect who was the author of my destruction, I sent some one
to ask her to come to the college, without mentioning my
name.

When she was in the parlor, I said to Father Schneider:

"You know the horrible iniquity of the bishop against me;

with the lying words of a prostitute, he has tried to destroy me;
but please come and be the witness of my innocence."

When in the presence of that unfortunate female, I told her:

"You are in the presence of God Almighty, and two of his
priests. They will be the witnesses of what you say! Speak
the truth. Say in the presence of God and this venerable priest,
if I have ever been guilty of what you have accused me to the
bishop."

At these words, the unfortunate female burst into tears; she
concealed her face in her hands, and with a voice half suffocated
with her sobs, she answered:

"No, sir, you are not guilty of that sin!"

"Confess here another truth," I said to her; "Is it not true
you have come to confess to me more with the desire to tempt
me than to reconcile yourself to God?"

She said, "Yes, sir, that is the truth." Then I said again,
"Continue to say the truth, and I will forgive you, and God also
will forgive your iniquity. Is it not through revenge for having
failed in your criminal designs, that you have tried to destroy me
by false accusation to the bishop?"

"Yes, sir, it was the only reason which has induced me to
accuse you falsely.

"And all I say here, at least in substance, has been heard,
written and signed by the Right Rev. Schneider, one of your
priests, and the present director of the Jesuit college. That venerable
priest is still living in Montreal; let the people of Canada
go and interrogate him. Let the people of Canada also go to
the Rev. Mr. Brassard, who has in his hands an authenticated
copy of that declaration.

"Your lordship gives the public to understand that I was
disgraced by that sentence some days before I left Canada for
Illinois. Allow me to give you my reasons for differing from
you in this matter.

There is a canon law of the church which says:

"If a censure is unjust and unfounded, let the man against
whom the sentence has been passed pay no attention to it. For,
before God and his church, no unjust sentence can bring any injury

against anyone. Let the one against whom such unfounded
and unjust judgment has been pronounced even take no step to
annul it, for it is a nullity by itself."

You know very well that the sentence you had passed against
me was null and void, for many good reasons; that it was founded
on a false testimony. Father Schneider is there, ready to prove
it to you, if you have any doubt.

The second reason I have to believe that you had yourself
considered your sentence a nullity, and that I was not suspended
by it from my ecclesiastical dignity and honor, is founded on a
good testimony, I hope—the testimony of your lordship himself.

A few hours before my leaving Canada for the United
States, I went to ask your benediction, which you gave me with
every mark of kindness. I then asked your lordship to tell me
frankly if I had to leave with the impression that I was disgraced
in his mind? You gave me the assurance of the contrary.

Then I told you that I wanted to have a public and irrefutable
testimony of your esteem, written with your own hand, and
you gave me the following letter:

Sir:—You ask me permission to leave my diocese to go and offer your
services to the bishop of Chicago. As you belong to the diocese of Quebec,
I think it belongs to my lord the archbishop to give you the exeat you wish.
As for me, I can not but thank you for your labours among us, and I wish
you in return, the most abundant blessings from heaven. You shall ever
be in my remembrance and in my heart, and I hope that divine providence
will permit me, at a future time, to testify all the gratitude I owe you.

I then asked you to give me some other tangible token of
your esteem, which I might show everywhere I should go.

You answered that you would be happy to give me one, and
you said: "What do you wish?" "I wish," I said, "to have a
chalice from your hands to offer the holy sacrifice of the mass
the rest of my life."

You answered: "I will do that with pleasure," and you gave an
order to one of your priests to bring you a chalice, that you might

give it to me. But that priest had not the key of the box containing
the sacred vases; that key was in the hands of another
priest, who was absent for a few hours.

I had not the time to wait; the hour of the departure of the
trains had come; I told you: "Please, my lord, send that chalice
to Rev. Mr. Brassard, of Longueuil, who will forward it to me
in a few days, to Chicago." And the next day, one of your secretaries
went to Rev. Mr. Brassard, and gave him the chalice you
had promised me, which is still in my hands. And the Rev. Mr.
Brassard is there still living, to be the witness of what I say, and
to bring that fact to your memory, if you have forgotten it.

Well, my lord, I do believe that a bishop will never give a
chalice to a priest to say mass, when he knows that that priest
is interdicted. And the best proof that you know very well that
I was not interdicted by your rash and unjust sentence, is that
you gave me that chalice as a token of your esteem and of my
honesty, etc.

Ten thousand copies of this exposure of the depravity of the
bishop were published in Montreal. I asked the whole people
of Canada to go to the Rev. Mr. Schneider and to the Rev. Mr.
Brassard, to know the truth, and many went. The bishop remained
confounded. It was proved that he had committed
against me a most outrageous act of tyranny and perfidy; and
that I was perfectly innocent and honest, and that he knew it, in
the very hour that he tried to destroy my character. Probably
the bishop of Montreal had destroyed the copy of the declaration
of the poor girl he had employed, and thinking that this
was the only copy of her declaration of my innocence and honesty,
he thought he could speak of the so-called interdict, after I
was a Protestant. But in that he was cruelly mistaken, for, as I
have already said, by the great mercy of God, three other authenticated
copies had been kept; one by the Rev. Mr. Schneider himself,
another by the Rev. Mr. Brassard, another by one whom it
is not necessary to mention, and then he had no suspicion that
the revelation of his unchristian conduct and of his determination

to destroy me with the false oath of a prostitute, were in the
hands of too many people to be denied.

The bishop of Chicago, whom I met a few days after, told
me what I was well aware of before:

"That such a sentence was a perfect nullity in every way,
and it was a disgrace only for those who were blind enough to
trample under their feet the laws of God and men to satisfy their
bad passions."

A few days after the publication of that letter in Canada,
Mr. Brassard wrote me:

"Your last letter has completely unmasked our poor bishop,
and revealed to the world his malice, injustice and hypocrisy.
He felt so confounded by it, that he has been three days without
being able to eat or drink anything, and three nights without
sleeping. Every one says that the chastisement you have given
him is a terrible one, when it is in the face of the whole world;
but he deserved it."

When I received that last friendly letter from Mr. Brassard,
on the 1st of April, 1857, I was far from suspecting that on the
15th of the same month, I should read in the press of Canada,
teh following lines from him:

Messieurs:—I request you to insert the following lines in your journal:
As some people suspect that I am favoring the schism of Mr.
Chiniquy, I think it is my duty to say that I have never encouraged him by
my words or writings in that schism. I must say that, last November, when
I went to St. Anne, accompanied by Mr. Desaulnier, Superior of St.
Hyacinthe College, my only object was to persuade that old friend to leave
the bad ways in which he was walking. And in Chicago I pressed him to
put himself in a canonical way.

I, more than any one else, deplore the fall of a man whom, I confess, I
loved much, but for the sake of whom I will not sacrifice the sacred ties of
Catholic unity. I hope that all the Canadians who were attached to Mr.
Chiniquy when he was united to the church, will withdraw from him in
horror of his schism. For before anything else, we must be truly and faithfully
Catholic.

However, we have a duty to perform towards the man who has fulfilled
such a holy mission in our midst, by establishing the society of temperance.
It is to call back, with our prayers, that stray sheep who has left the true
Pastor's fold.

I request all journals to reproduce this declaration.

I felt that there was not a line, not a sentiment of Mr. Brassard
in that letter. It smelt Bishop Bourget's hand, from the
beginning to the end. I thought, however, it was my duty to
address him the following answer:

My Dear Mr. Brassard:—I have just received your letter of the 9th
inst., but no! I will not call it a letter, it will be better named a bitter tear,
and a sad wail of a heart as good as it is noble and generous.

You have been a witness how the people and missionary of St. Anne
have been betrayed by Mr. Desaulnier. You were at my side, as my friend
and father, when this traitor said to me, as well as to my brethren: "Sign
this act of submission to the bishop of Chicago; this act alone is enough to
make him withdraw the sentence which fills your Canadian friends with
anxiety. If the bishop does not give you the place you want, and if he does
not withdraw the excommunication after having been presented with this
act, I will tell him:

"It is neither the pastor, nor the people of St. Anne who wish a schism,
they have done that which religion and honor commanded, to prove it; it is
you who wish it."

Your tears were mingled with mine, and the incense of your prayer
ascended with those of my brethren, when on the 26th of November, Mr.
Desaulnier said to the people of St. Anne:

"You cannot be blamed for what you have done since the beginning
of your difficulties with your bishop."

You were a witness that our first condition to the signing of the act
which you and Mr. Desaulnier presented to us, was that you should be the
pastor of St. Anne, and that I should remain with you as long as you would
find it to the interest of my colony. You know that he gave me his word
of honor, in the presence of all the people, that if the bishop would not give us
peace after the signing of the act, he (Mr. Desaulnier) would go with us to
St. Louis, and even to Rome, to plead my cause, and show the iniquity and
unbearable tyranny of the bishop of Chicago. Did he not assure us that,
in case the bishop should refuse to accept the act of submission, we had
signed, your mission to St. Anne was finished, and that you both would return
to Canada, after your voyage to St. Louis? Is it not true that when in
Chicago, in reply to our question: "What news?" Mr. Desaulnier said:

"You have only to take your bags and both return to Canada at once."

Mr. Desaulnier denies all those facts, with an impudence of which he
alone is capable. You are my only witness before our Canada, which
wishes and has a right to know the truth in this matter.

I took you as my witness, and you replied in many of your letters, that
you could not say the truth without compromising yourself.

Is not this an acknowledgment that we, priests of Jesus Christ, are
groaning under the weight of the most frightful tyranny? and that we are
in the power of men who threaten our honor and life if we dare speak the
truth in favor of an oppressed brother? And this is the systen that proclaims
itself as the divine and ineffable news which the Messiah brought to
the world! And this abominable oppression, this system of deceit, is the
religion which the Son of the God of truth, justice and mercy, has established
to save the world? This is the foundation-stone of the church of
Christ!!! No! You do not believe that, my dear Mr. Brassard. Neither
do I. I never did, and never will believe it.

They tell us it is for the greater good of the church that they act thus;
that it is to preserve the respect which is due to the Holy Catholic Hierarchy,
that they take those extreme measures against the people of St. Anne!

But I have carefully studied the laws of the church upon these great
questions, and I see they say precisely the contrary. I see that the Catholic
Church said to us:

1st. "In the church there is no arbitrary power."

2nd. "The censures are null when they have been pronounced against
sins which have not been committed."

3rd. "Never receive any accusation against a priest, which has not
been proven by two or three witnesses.

4th. "If a sentence is visibly unjust, the condemned must not pay any
attention to it; for before God and His church, no unjust sentence can injure
any one.

5th. "The unjust excommunication is not binding, neither before God
nor the people, when that people know its injustice, because the Holy Ghost
can not abandon those who have not deserved it."

You wish me to act according to the canons of the church. I have already
told you that if I had been interdicted on the 19th of August, I would
have been able to appeal from that sentence, but I had not. I had fifteen
days to consider. How could I have appealed from a sentence which had
not been pronounced? What witness could I bring against a fact which, I
knew, had never taken place?

But you will say:

"The excommunication? Should it not give you some anxiety?"

"Not the least."

St. Thomas said positively that no excommunication of which the injustice
is known by the people, ought not to prevent a priest from exercising
his ministry among them.

They will perhaps say:

"But where did the people get the right to judge in such things?" St

Thomas must have believed that the people had that right, since he said it.
St. Thomas was neither a heretic nor a schismatic for believing these things?

Why, then, should I be one, for having a thought, spoken and acted according
to the doctrine of him whom the church has named the angel of the
school. Besides that, you know that the excommunication was a nullity
from want of being signed.

The reason of this surprise about the right which the people had to exercise
its judgment upon this question, is that, lately, the bishops have not
only stripped the priests, but also the people, of the holy and just rights
which Jesus Christ had given them. Those who have carefully studied the
history of the church in the first centuries know this, as well as I do.

But be it known, there are rights against which time does not prescribe.
There are rights which the priests and people have never renounced, and
which the church of Christ will always like to see them enjoy.

I do not say that the bishops are not ordained to govern the Christian
people, but I say that the bishops are not appointed by the church to govern
the flock according to their caprices, but according to the unchangeable
rules of justice, equity and truth of the gospel. In the primitive church,
every time that a bishop forgot this, other bishops reminded him of it.

Do we not see in the gospel, that the first Christians complained bitterly
to the apostles themselves of the manner in which they had administered
the goods entrusted to them? Were they excommunicated for that? Did
they receive in answer the insolent reply that the people receive to-day?
viz: "You are but the laity, that does not concern you?" No! The
apostles listened to the complaints of the people; they found them just, and
the people were allowed to choose the administrators of their goods.

The people, then, were looked upon as something worthy of attention
and respect, and were not tied, as to-day, to the feet of a dignitary, and
obliged to go right and left at the good pleasure of their pretended master.
The people were not, then, bridled; were not mere machines to pay tithes,
build palaces, raise proud cathedrals; nor were they degraded, demoralized,
as to-day; obliged to believe they had minds, but had no right to make use
of them; they were not, then, as now, poor beasts of burthen, whose only
duty is to obey their master. But their wants and wishes were consulted;
their voice was heard. They had not yet the idea that the Holy Ghost was
to enlighten only a certain class of men, and that the rest of humanity were
given up to ignorance, only to walk in the light of a few privileged luminaries.

But the spirit of wisdom, charity and tolerance; this respect for the will
and wishes of the people, where do you find them to-day?

On the contrary, we find tyranny on the one side, and stern and necessary
resistance on the other; resistances which are but the expression of the
law of God. Let the tolerant conduct of the apostles, who listened with so
much humility to the complaints of the first Christians, be compared to that
of Bishop O'Regan when questioned by the French people of Chicago upon

the right he had to deprive them of their church, to give it to another congregation,
put them out of doors, saying: "You do not know your religion;
I have the right to sell your churches, and the grounds attached to them,
put the money in my pocket, and eat and drink where I like."

This is what Bishop O'Regan has said and done; and this is what the
bishop of Canada approves and sanctions in the name of the gospel! They
try to make you believe that it is the doctrine of Jesus Christ which these
high dignitaries preach and practice.

Let the poor people of Canada believe this, if they wish; as for us, in
St. Anne, we do not, and never will believe it. Are not these men who cry
the loudest to make us respect the canons of the church, the very men who
publiclly trample the most holy laws of the people and of the church under
their feet? How easy it would be to put to those powerful personages,
questions which they would call impertinent, but which would shed great
light in the midst of the profound darkness in which a certain corner of the
world is kept to-day?

You who overwhelm us with curses, and send us to hell if we are not
ready to say amen to all you say, what have you done with the canon of
the holy council of Nice, which forbids you to change a priest's charge without
his permission?

Where is the canon of a general council which allows the bishops to
add the words: "usque ad revocationem," in the powers given to the priests!
While one of the canons of the church says: "It is the authority of the
canons, and the examination of the conduct of the priests, which ought
to give or take away the ecclesiastical dignities, and not the will of the
prelates.

History has preserved the names of certain tyrants who forced the
trembling hand of a father to set fire to the pile which consumed his own
child. Ah! why do these bishops of Canada remind us of that lamentable
page of past centuries, in commanding you to throw burning coals on the
pile to which they have led me.

You are more than a friend to me. I have the right to call you
`Father.' When still very young, domestic misfortunes forced me to leave
for a strange country, in search of a living; you stretched out to me a helping
hand. Although poor yourself, you shared your bread with the poor
orphan. You opened to me the doors of the college where I studied. And
ever since, when a tempest threatened my fragile bark with shipwreck, in
your arms I found sure port. Evcry time I received a wound, in the struggles
of life, in your affection I found a remedy.

When heaven chose your poor friend to change the face of our dear
country, it was beneath your hospitable roof that I found rest. Your hand
was the last one which pressed mine, when in 1851 I left Canada to consecrate
myself to the service of the emigrants: and lastly, when the thunders
of three deluded prelates fell upon my head, I said to myself: `I have, in

Canada, a friend, a father. I am so sure of his heart, that I do not even
need to call him to aid; there is a voice in his soul which cries to him;
`Go, go to the aid of thy friend, thy child!'

"I was not mistaken. On the 24th of November, you pressed me to
your heart; your words of peace and charity cheered my broken heart.
For the love of God, and for your sake also, my dear Mr. Brassard, I have
consented to do all you have required of me. Ah! why did you not come
alone? How easily everything would have been settled. But without
knowing it, you had with you a traitor, who came to give the people and
pastor of St. Anne the kiss of Judas, before delivering them into the hands
of their enemies.

"To-day you are commanded to add your efforts to those of this traitor,
to strike me. They want you to add a new thorn to that crown of shame
which the bishops have placed en my forehead.

"But how can I be guilty for having called you as a witness of the iniquities
of my enemies? Have you forgotten with what sincerity and
promptitude I signed, as well as my brethren of St. Anne, the act of submission
to the Bishop O'Regan? Have you forgotten the desolation of your
heart and mine, when (on the conditions you well know) I declared to my
people that I would no longer be their pastor?

"Since the bishops of Canada command you to speak in the name of
the God of truth and justice, I, also, ask you to speak. Yes, state to the
people of Canada, how shamefully Mr. Desaulnier has deceived the generous
people who surround me here. Yes! tell your surprise, your just indignation,
your bitter sorrow, when Mr. Desaulnier refused, in Chicago, to fulfill
the sacred promise he had made! Tell the nature of the new document
which he wanted me to sign at Chicago. Declare honestly that you said to
me: "My poor friend, you can not sign that act without lying and dishonoring
yourself forever."

"Since the bishops of Canada command you to speak, raise your voice
to say to the Canadian people what you wrote to Dr. Letourneaux and to
myself:

"They do not wish to know the truth in Canada, more than at Chicago,
about the shameful conduct of Mr. Desaulnier in this affair!!

"Yes, speak! Give to my dear Canada the reply which the bishop of
Chicago made when you asked: "Have you any accusation in hand against
the character of Mr. Chiniquy?

"I need your testimony upon this question, for the bishop of Chicago,
forgetting what he confessed to you, is circulating, through my enemies, a
thousand calumnies against me, which are reproduced to-day, by the bishop
of Montreal.

"Say to Canada that the bishop of Chicago assured you that he had interdicted
me, only because I disobeyed him in refusing to leave St. Anne,
whilst, at the very time, he held a letter brought by four witnesses, saying

that I was ready to obey, and that I would prefer going to the end of the
world, rather than be interdicted.

"If, having said all these things, you are still commanded to strike me,
do so, dear friend. Though your blows go more directly to my heart than
all the thunders of Bishop O'Regan, they will never shake my constancy,
nor make me betray my brethren; they will neither make me change my
convictions nor force me any longer to bend the knee before men who wish
us to submit to their capricious and impious commands rather than to the
laws of the God of justice, truth and mercy, whose priest I have the honor
to be. I have sworn at the foot of the altar to preach truth and justice;
nothing will make me break my oath.

"Do you remember with what dignity you refused, one day, to bow before
one of those modern divinities who believe that everything is allowed
them on earth?

"Do you not recollect that the bishop of Ottawa had the audacity to
take one of your letters out of the postoffice and read it, hoping the shameful
act would never be known? I shall never forget the noble independence
with which you protested against that abuse of power, and with what
indignation you threatened to drag that haughty bishop before the courts of
justice, if he did not ask pardon for that outrage! Were you revolting
against the church of Christ then? No! for you knew that her principles
of truth and justice could not sanction such brigandage. So I did not revolt
against the church of Christ, when I resisted the insolence and outrages of
the bishop of Chicago.

"Like St. Jerome, I know the rights of the bishops: I respect their authority.
The Catholic Hierarchy is to me a holy and venerable institution.
But when men sheltering themselves behind those holy institutions, trample
under their feet the principles of justice, truth and holiness, which the gospel
of Christ inculcates, I will fight to the end, with my poor emigrants, for
the preservation of their Christian rights.

"You say that before all, we must be frankly and sincerely `Catholics.'
I answer, yes. But when one is wrongfully deprived of this glorious name
before men, because he opposes, as I have done, the brigandage of a bishop
who believes all is allowed him, he can remain in peace, and be like St.
Paul, who did not care what men said or thought of him. To be anathematized,
because I have devoted myself to the welfare of my brethren, is not
such a sad destiny as some people think. St. Paul said:

"I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren,
my kinsmen according to the flesh."

"The favor after which the apostle of the Gentiles sighed, has been accorded
me. I can not complain of it. Besides, does not Christ himself say
to those who labor to scatter seeds of justice and truth upon the earth, that
they ought not expect to be treated better than He?

"From every part of Canada and the United States men of distinction

cease not to cry: `Courage!' It is true that several curse us, but it is because
they are forced to do it. Many keep silent for fear of their masters,
but their prayers and sympathies are for us. The bishops will see, sooner or
later, that in order to retain their power on earth, that power must be founded,
as in heaven, upon justice and truth.

"When the priests of Canada, to please the bishops, contrary to their
convictions, have degraded their own sacerdotal character in my person;
when they have burned the effigy of the proscribed, having no more the
glorious privilege of burning his body; when the father whom, by the grace
of God, I have snatched from an abyss, cursed me; when this dear young
man who has, so many times, blessed me, because I have shown him the
gospel, the way of honor and virtue, by removing the stumbling block of intemperance
offered to his weakness, has been forced to curse me; when that
poor woman, who, by the grace of God, owes me the bread she eats, and that
few days of holy felicity she has enjoyed upon earth, has cursed me; when
this fine little child, who has so many times blessed my name, because God
made use of me to give him back a father, has cursed me, there will be a silence
of sorrow in Canada, around my proscribed name.

"Then a reaction will take place. A great prestige will be destroyed.
A great power, holy and benevolent in its origin, but fallen by its excesses,
will be destroyed. God grant that, in the midst of those ruins, there may
be no tears, no blood!!

"This is not prophecy, it is history. Yes, let the Canadian clergy open
the records of the past, and they will find where their blind and demoralizing
obedience to the bishops, leads them and their good and generous people,
if not to infidelity and atheism.

"You advise me, dear Mr. Brassard, to put myself in the canonical
ways; but have I not already done so? Have not the bishops of Canada told
you that the letter signed by me, has already placed me in that position?

"Has not Mr. Desaulnier said, in your presence, to my people and myself
at St. Anne.

"Sign this act, and if the bishop does not take away his sentence of excommunication,
I will say to him: `It is not Mr. Chiniquy, neither his
people, who wish a schism; they have done what religion and honor commanded
them; it is the bishop of Chicago who makes the schism.'

"What have we gained by taking that public step? Nothing, but to be
cruelly and shamefully betrayed.

"Was not Jesus Christ betrayed only once by Judas? Do not then expect
that we will be stronger than the Son of God. The bishops of Canada,
by their emissary, have already betrayed us, of which you have been witness.
The people and missionary of St. Anne do not feel strong enough to present
their cheek again to the smiter.

"In spite of the clamors which rise around us, we are convinced that we
may be good Catholics, without submitting to that degradation twice.

"The bishops of Canada want you to speak. Very well! My dear Mr.
Brassard, I, also, implore you to speak. In the name of the friendship which
has united us for forty years, I implore you to tell the truth. Did you not,
after reading the document which the bishop of Chicago commanded me to
sign, as the only condition of peace, say to me:

" `My dear friend, you can not sign such a writing without lying and
dishonoring yourself forever?' And behold! to-day you cry to my brethren
to destroy and abandon me, when you know that the position in which
I stand is but the result of my refusal to sign a most infamous, lying and degrading
document.

"These things, and many others which you know, would serve
wonderfully to open the eyes of the people upon the awful abuse of power
of which certain bishops are, every day, guilty. This would aid to unmask
certain modern divinities who pretend that we cannot go to heaven without
their permission; who preach that it is not the blood of Jesus Christ, but a
certain passport, of which they hold the patent, which assures us a place
among the elect of God. A sentence founded upon a public lie, and which
was resisted, can not constitute a schism. Christian men who, like the
Catholics of Chicago, Kankakee and St. Anne, resist iniquity, may be condemned
by men, but not by God.

"I was not suspended on the 19th of August, and so, I could exercise the
holy functions of my ministry the following morning and after. It is the
church which assures us of this, through her greatest theologians. As it is
not enough to say: `My God!' My God!' to be saved; so it is not enough
to cry: `You are lost! you are lost!' for one to be lost. The Son of God,
who gave his life to save man, gave us a thousand proofs, that the salvation
of our soul has a foundation more certain than the capricious will of a sinful
being. He has given to no one the power to save or condemn, according
to his pleasure. If some bishops and priests believe this, it is not the faith
of the people of Chicago, Kankakee and St. Anne.

"I will tell you again, my dear Mr. Brassard, that if, in order to obey
the bishop of Montreal, you should strip me of the little honor which surrounds
my name in Canada, I shall still never forget the good you have done
me. Yes! command my friends to betray me, to trample me under their
feet, to turn away from me in horror: Never will you be able to weaken my
sentiments of respect and gratitude for you!

"I will still love and bless you; for I know the hand which forced
yours to do so. I will always know that your own heart was first struck and
wounded by the blows they commanded you to give to your friend and son
in Jesus Christ.

The effect of that letter upon Mr. Brassard was still more
powerful than I had expected. It forced him to blush at his own
cowardice, and to ask me pardon for the unjust sentence he had

passed upon me to obey the bishop. Here are the parts of the
letter bearing upon that subject:

Moncher Chiniquy:—"Je suis plus convainen que jamais que tu n'as
jamais ete interdit legalement, depuis que j'ai appris par Monseigneur de
Montreal, que l'eveque de Chicago t' a interdit de vive voix, dans sa chambre;
ce que Ligoury dit etre nul te de nul effet."

I am more than ever convinced that you have never been legally interdicted,
since Bishop Bourget told me that Bishop O'Regan had interdicted
you privately, "viva voce" in his private room. Ligoury says that it is a
nullity and that it can have no effect. I beg your pardon for what I wrote
against you. I have been forced to do it. Because I had not yet sufficiently
condemned you, and that my name, which you were citing in your writings,
was giving you too much power, and a too clear condemnation of Bishop
O'Regan, the Bishop ot Montreal, abusing his authority over me, forced me
to sign that document against you. I would not do it to-day if it were to be
done again. Keep silence on what I tell you in this letter. It is all confidential.
You understand it.

No priest in Canada had more deservedly enjoyed the reputation
of a man of honor, than Mr. Brassard. Not one had ever
stood so high in my esteem and respect. His sudden and unexpected
fall, filled my heart with an unspeakable sadness. I may
say that it snapped the last thread which held me to the church
of Rome. Till then, it was not only my hope, but my firm conviction,
that there were many honest, upright priests in that
church, and Mr. Brassard was, to me, the very personification of
honesty.

How can I describe the shock I felt when I saw him, there,
in the mud, a monument of the unspeakable corruption of my
church!

The perfidious Delilah had seduced and destroyed this modern
Sampson, enchained, as a trembling slave, at the feet of the
new implacable Moloch, "the authority of the bishop!" He had
not only lost the fear of God, and the respect he owed to himself,
by publicly declaring that I was guilty, when he knew that I
was innocent, but he had so completely lost every sentiment of
honesty, that he wanted me to keep secret his declaration of my
innocence, at the very moment he was inviting my whole country,

through the press, to abhor and condemn me as a criminal!

I read again and again the strange letter. Every word of it
was destroying the last illusions which had concealed from my
mind, the absolute and incurable perversity of the church of
Rome. I had no hard feelings against this last friend whom she
had poisoned with the wine of her prostitutions. I felt only a
profound compassion for him. I pitied and forgave him from
the bottom of my heart. But every word of his letter sounded
in my ears as the warning voice of the angel sent to save Lot
from the doomed city of Sodom. "Escape for thy life. Look
not behind thee; neither stay thou in all the plain. Escape thou
to the mountain, lest thou be consumed!"