University of Virginia Library

Chapter LXIV.

I WRITE TO POPE PIUS IX. AND TO NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF
FRANCE, AND SEND THEM THE PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PROVING
THE BAD CONDUCT OF BISHOP O'REGAN—CARDINAL
BIDINI ORDERED TO INVESTIGATE—THE BISHOP CALLED
TO ROME, IS FORCED TO RESIGN, AND BECOMES A BANKER—
BISHOP SMITH, OF DUBUQUE, NAMED ADMINISTRATOR OF
THE DIOCESE OF CHICAGO—GRAND VICAR DUNN SENT TO
TELL ME OF MY VICTORY AT ROME—I GO TO DUBUQUE TO
OFFER MY SUBMISSION TO THE BISHOP.

I HAD not forgotten the advice given me by Archbishop Kenrick,
of St. Louis, April 9, 1856, to address my complaints to
the Pope himself. But the terrible difficulties and trials which
had constantly followed each other, had made it impossible to
follow that advice. The betrayal of Mons. Desaulnier and the
defection of Mons. Brassard, however, had so strangely complicated
my position, that I felt the only way to escape the wreck
which threatened myself and my colony, and to save the holy
cause God had entrusted me, was to strike such a blow to our
haughty persecutor that he could not survive it. I determined to
send to the Pope all the public accusations which had been legally
proved and published against the bishop, with the copy of the
numerous and infamous suits which he had sustained before the
civil courts, and had almost invariably lost, with the sentences of
the judges who had condemned him. This took me nearly two
months of the hardest labors of my life. I had gathered all
those documents, which covered more than 200 pages of foolscap.
I mailed them to Pope Pius IX., accompanied by only the
following words: "Holy Father, for the sake of your precious

lambs which are slaughtered and devoured in this vast diocese
by a ravening wolf, Bishop O'Regan, and in the name of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, I implore your Holiness to see if what is
contained in these documents is correct or not. If everything is
found correct, for the sake of the blood shed on Calvary, to save
our immortal souls, please take away from our midst, the unworthy
bishop whose daily scandals can no longer be tolerated
by a Christian people."

In order to prevent the Pope's servants from throwing
my letter with those documents into their waste paper baskets,
I sent a copy of them all to Napoleon III., Emperor of
France, respectfully requesting him to see, through his ambassador
at Washington, and his consul at Chicago, whether these
papers contained the truth or not. I told him how his countrymen
were trampled under the feet of Bishop O'Regan, and how
they were ruined and spoiled to the benefit of the Irish people;
how the churches built by the money of the French were openly
stolen, and transferred to the emigrants from Ireland. Napoleon
had just sent an army to punish the Emperor of China on
account of some injustice done to a Frenchman. I told him "the
injustice done to that Frenchman in the Chinese Empire is
nothing to what is done here every day, not against one, but
hundreds of your majesty's countrymen. A word from the
Emperor of France to His Holiness will do here what your
armies have done in China: force the unjust and merciless oppressor
of the French of Illinois to do them justice."

I ended my letter by saying:

"My grandfather, though born in Spain, married a French
lady, and became, by choice and adoption, a French citizen. He
became a captain in the French navy, and for gallant service,
was awarded lands in Canada, which by the fate of war fell into
the hands of Great Britain. Upon retiring from the service of
France he settled upon his estates in Canada, where my father
and myself were born. I am thus, with other Canadians who
have come to this country, a British subject by birth, an American
citizen by adoption, but French still in blood and Roman
Catholic in religion. I, therefore, on the part of a noble French

people, humbly ask your majesty to aid us by interceding with
his holiness, Pope Pius IX., to have these outrages and wrongs
righted."

The success of this bold step was more prompt and complete
than I had expected. The Emperor was, then, all powerful at
Rome. He had not only brought the Pope from Civita Vecchia
to Rome, after taking that city from the hands of the Italian Republicans,
a few years before, but he was still the very guardian
and protector of the Pope.

A few months later, when in Chicago, the Grand Vicar
Dunn showed me a letter from Bishop O'Regan, who had been
ordered to go to Rome and give an account of his administration
in which he had said: "One of the strangest things which has occurred
to me in Rome, is that the influence of the Emperor Napoleon
is against me here. I can not understand what right he
he has to meddle in the affairs of my diocese."

I had learned since, that it was really through the advice of
Napoleon that Cardinal Bidini, who had been previously sent to
the United States to inquire about the scandal given by Bishop
O'Regan, gave his opinion in our favor. The cardinal, having
consulted the bishops of the United States, who unanimously denounced
O'Regan as unfit and unworthy of such a high position,
immediately ordered him to go to Rome, where the Pope unceremoniously
transferred him from the bishopric of Chicago to a
diocese extinct more than 1,200 years ago, called "Dora." This
was as good as a bishopric in the moon. He consoled himself in
his misfortune by drawing the hundreds of thousands of dollars
of stolen money he had sent at different times, to be deposited in
the banks of Paris, and went to Ireland, where he established a
bank, and died in 1865.

On the 11th of March, 1858, at about 10 o'clock p. m., I was
not a little pleased and surprised to hear the voice of my devoted
friend, Rev. Mr. Dunn, grand vicar of Chicago, asking my hospitality
for the night. His first words were:

"My visit here must be absolutely incognito. In ordering
me to come and see you, the bishop of Dubuque, who is just
named administrator of Chicago, advised me to come as secretly

as possible. He said: `Your triumph at Rome is perfect. You
have gained the greatest victory a priest ever won over his unjust
bishop; but you must thank the Emperor Napoleon for it.
It is to his advice which, under the present circumstances, is
equal to an order, that you owe the protection of the Cardinal
Bidini. His report to the Pope is, that all the documents you
sent to Rome were correct. The inquiry of the cardinal has
brought facts to the knowledge of the Pope, still more compromising
than what you have written against him. Several bishops
of the United States have unanimously denounced Bishop
O'Regan as a most depraved man, entirely unworthy of his position,
and have advised the pope to take him away and choose
another bishop for Chicago. It is acknowledged, at Rome, that
all the sentences pronounced by that bishop against you, are unjust
and null. Our good administrator has been advised to put
an end, at once, to all the troubles of your colony, by treating
you as a good and faithful priest.

"I come here, not only to congratulate you on your victory,
but also to thank you, in my name, and in the name of the church,
for having saved our diocese from such a plague; for Bishop
O'Regan is a real plague. A few more years of such administration
would have destroyed our holy religion in Illinois.
However, as you handled the poor bishop pretty roughly, it is
suspected, at a distance, that you and your people are more Prottestants
than Catholics. We know better here; for, from the beginning,
it was evident that the act of excommunication, posted
at the door of your chapel by three priests too drunk to know
what they were about, is a nullity, having never been signed by
the bishop. It was a shameful and sacrilegious comedy. But,
in many distant places, that excommunication was accepted as
valid, and you are considered by many, as a real schismatic.
Bishop Smith has thought it advisable to ask you to give him a
written and canonical act of submission, which he will publish to
show the world that you are still a good Roman Catholic priest."

I thanked the grand vicar for his kind words, and the good
news he was giving me, and I asked him to help me to thank
God for having so visibly protected and guided me through all

these terrible difficulties. We both knelt and repeated the
sublime words of gratitude and joy of the old prophet: "Bless
the Lord, oh! my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy
name," etc. (Ps. ciii.) I then said that I had no objection to give
the renewed act of my faith and submission to the church, that it
might be published. I took a piece of paper, and with emotions
of joy and gratitude to God, which it would be impossible to express,
I slowly prepared to write. But as I was considering
what form I should give to that document, a sudden, strange
thought struck my mind: "Is this not the golden opportunity to
put an end to the terrible temptations which have shaken my faith
and distressed me for so many years, I said to myself:

"Is not this a providential opportunity to silence those mysterious
voices which are troubling me almost every hour? That,
in the church of Rome, we do not follow the Word of God, but
the lying traditions of men?"

I determined then to frame my act of submission in such a
way that I would silence those voices, and be, more than ever,
sure that my faith, the faith of my dear church, which had just
given me such a glorious victory at Rome, was based upon the
Holy Word of God, on the divine doctrines of the gospel. I then
wrote down, in my own name and in the name of my people:

"My lord Bishop Smith, bishop of Dubuque and administrator of the
diocese of Chicago:—We want to live and die in the holy Catholic, apostolic
and Roman church, out of which there is no salvation, and to prove this to
your lordship, we promise to obey the authority of the church according to
the word and commandments of God as we find them expressed in the gospel
of Christ.

I handed this writing to Mr. Dunn, and said:

"What do you think of this act of submission?" He quickly
read it and answered:

"It is just what we want from you."

"All right," I rejoined. "But I fear the bishop will not accept
it. Do you not see that I have put a condition to our submission?
I say that we will submit ourselves to the bishop's authority,
but only according to the Word of God and the gospel
of Christ."

"Is not that good?" quickly replied Mr. Dunn.

"Yes, my dear, Mr. Dunn, this is good, very good indeed," I
answered, "But my fear is that it is too good for the bishop and
the Pope!"

"What do you mean?" he replied.

"I mean that though this act of submission is very good, I
fear lest the Pope and the bishop reject it."

"Please explain yourself more clearly," answered the grand
vicar. "I do not understand the reason for such a fear."

"My dear Mr. Dunn," I continued, "I must confess to you
here, a thing which is known only to God. I must show you a
bleeding wound which is in my soul for many years: A wound
which has never been healed by any of the remedies I have applied
to it. It is a wound which I never dared to show to any
man, except to my confessor, though it has often made me suffer
almost the tortures of hell. You know well that there is not a
living priest who has studied the Holy Scriptues and the Holy
Fathers, with more attention and earnestness, these last few years,
than I have. It was not only to strengthen my own faith, but
also, the faith of our people, and to be able to fight the battles of
our church against her enemies, that I spent so many hours of
my days and nights in those studies.

"But, though I am confounded and ashamed to confess it to
you, I must do it. The more I have studied and compared the
Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers with the teachings of our
church, the more my faith has been shaken, and the more I have
been tempted to think, in spite of myself, that our church has,
long ago, given up the Word of God and the Holy Fathers, in
order to walk in the muddy and crooked ways of human and
false traditions. Yes! the more I study, the more I am troubled
by the strange and mysterious voices which haunt me day and
night, saying:

"Do you not see that in your Church of Rome, you do not
follow the Word of God, but the lying traditions of men?"

"What is more strange and painful is that, the more I pray
to God to silence these voices, the louder they repeat the same
distressing things. It is to put an end to those awful temptations
that I have written this conditional submission. I want to

prove to myself that I will obey the Word of God and the gospel
of Christ, in our church, and I shall be happy all the rest of
my life, if the bishops accept this submission. But I fear it will
be rejected." Mr. Dunn promptly replied:

"You are mistaken, my dear Mr. Chiniquy. I am sure that
our bishop will accept this document as canonical, and sufficient
to show your orthodoxy to the world."

"If it be so," I replied, "I will be a most happy man." It
was agreed that on the 25th of March, I would go with him to
Dubuque, to present my act of submission to the administrator of
the diocese, after the people had signed it. Accordingly, at 7
p. m. on that day, we both took the train at Chicago for Dubuque,
where we arrived next morning. At 11 a. m., I went to the
palace of the bishop, who received me with marks of the utmost
cordiality and affection. I presented him our written act of submission
with a trembling hand, fearing he would reject it. He
read it twice, and throwing his arms around me, he pressed me
to his heart. I felt his tears of joy mixed with mine, rolling
down my cheeks, as he said:

"How happy I am to see that submission! How happy the
Pope and all the bishops of the United States will be to hear of
it, for I will not conceal it from you; we feared that both you
and your people would separate from the church by refusing to
submit to her authority."

I answered that I was not less happy to see an end to those
painful difficulties, and I promised him that, with the help of
God, our holy church would not have a more faithful priest than
myself.

While engaged in that pleasant conversation, the dinner hour
came. He gave me the place of honor on his right, before the
two grand vicars, and nothing could be more pleasant than the
time we spent around the table, which was served with a good
and well prepared, though frugal meal. I was happy to see that
the bishop, with his priests, were teetotalers. No wine nor beer
to tempt the weak. Before the dinner was over, the bishop said
to Mr. Dunn.

"You will accompany Mr. Chiniquy to St. Anne, in order

to announce, in my name, to the people, the restoration of peace,
next Sabbath. No doubt it will be joyful news to the colony of
Father Chiniquy.

"After so many years of hard fighting, the pastor and the
people of St. Anne will enjoy the days of peace and rest which
are now secured to them."

Then, addressing himself to me, the bishop said:

"The only condition of that peace is that you will spend fifteen
days in retreat and meditation in one of the religious houses
you will choose yourself. I think that, after so much noise
and exciting controversies, it will do you good to pass those days
in meditation and prayer, in some of our beautiful and peaceful
solitudes.

I answered him: "If your lordship had not offered me the
favor of those days of perfect and Christian rest, I would have
asked you to grant it. I consider it as a crowning of all your
acts of kindness to offer me those few days of calm and meditation,
after the terrible storms of those last three years. If your
lordship has no objection to my choice, I will go to the beautiful
solitude where M. Saurin has built the celebrated Monastery,
College and University of St. Joseph, Indiana. I hope that
nothing will prevent my being there next Monday. After going,
next Sabbath, in the company of Grand Vicar Dunn, to proclaim
the restoration of the blessed peace to my people of
St. Anne."

"You cannot make a better choice," answered the bishop.

"But, my lord," I rejoined, "I hope your lordship will have
no objection to giye me a written assurance of the perfect restoration
of that long-sought peace. There are people who, I know,
will not believe me, when I tell them how quickly and nobly
your lordship has put an end to all those deplorable difficulties.
I want to show them that I stand, to-day, in the same relation
with my superiors and the church in which I stood previous to
these unfortunate strifes."

"Certainly," said the bishop, "you are in need of such a document
from your bishop, and you shall have it. I will write it
at once."

But, he had not yet written two lines, when Mr. Dunn
looked at his watch and said: "We have not a minute to lose,
if we want to be in time for the Chicago train.

I then said to the bishop: "Please, my lord, address me that
important document to Chicago, where I will get it at the postoffice,
on my way to the University of St. Joseph, next Monday;
your lordship will have plenty of time to write it, this afternoon."

The bishop, having consented, I hastily took leave of him,
with Mr. Dunn, after having received his benediction.

On our way back to St. Anne, the next day, we stopped at
Bourbonnaise to see the grand vicar Milloux, one of the priests
who had been sent by the bishops of Canada to help my lord
O'Regan to crush me. We found him as he was going to his
dining room to take his dinner. He was visibly humiliated by
the complete defeat of Bishop O'Regan, at Rome.

After Mr. Dunn told him that he was sent to proclaim peace
to the people of St. Anne, he coldly asked the written proof of
such strange news.

Mr. Dunn answered him: "Do you think, sir, that I would
be mean enough to tell you a lie?"

"I do not say that you are telling me a lie," replied Mr.
Mailloux, "I believe what you say. But, I want to know the
condition of that unexpected peace. Has Mr. Chiniquy made
his submission to the church?"

"Yes, sir," I replied, "here is a copy of my act of submission."

He read it, and coldly said: "This is not an act of submission
to the church, but only to the authority of the Gospel, which is
a very different thing. This document can be presented by a
Protestant; but, it cannot be offered by a Catholic priest to his
bishop. I cannot understand how our bishop did not see that at
once."

Mr. Dunn answered him: "My dear grand vicar Mailloux,
I have often been told that it does not do to be more loyal than
the king. My hope was that you would rejoice with us at the
news of the peace. I am sorry to see that I was mistaken. However,

I must tell you that if you want to fight, you will have nobody
to fight against; for Father Chiniquy was, yesterday, accepted
as a regular priest of our holy church by the administrator.
This ought to satisfy you."

I listened to the unpleasant conversation of those two grand
vicars, with painful feelings, without saying a word. For, I was
troubled by those mysterious voices which were reiterating in
my mind the cry: "Do you not see that in the Church of Rome,
you do not follow the Word of God, but only the lying traditions
of men?"

I felt much relieved, when I left the house of that so badly
disposed confrere, to come to St. Anne, where the people had
gathered on the public square, to receive us, and rend the air
with their cries of joy at the happy news of peace.

The next day, 27th of March, was Palm Sunday, one of the
grand festivities of the Church of Rome; there was an immense
concourse of people, attracted not only by the religious solemnity
of the feast; but also by the desire to see and hear the deputy
sent by their bishop to proclaim peace. He did it in a most elegant
English address, which I translated into French. He presented
me a blessed palm, and I offered him another loaded with
beautiful flowers, in the presence of the people, as a public sign
of the concord which was restored between my colony and the
authorities of the church.

That my Christian readers may understand my blindness, and
the mercies of God towards me, I must confess here, to my
shame, that I was glad to have made my peace with those sinful
men, which was not peace with my God. But, that great God
had looked down upon me in mercy. He was soon to break that
peace with the great apostate church, which is poisoning the
world with the wine of her enchantments, that I might walk in
the light of the Gospel and possess that peace and joy which
passeth all understanding.