I had not forgotten the advice given
me by Archbishop Kenrick, of St. Louis, April 9th, 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
to me, was to strike such a blow to our haughty persecutor that he would 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 a 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 nearly two months of the hardest labours of my life. I had gathered
all those documents, which covered more than two hundred 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 cannot 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 cannot understand what right 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 favour. The
cardinals, 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 ten o'clock p.m., I was not a little pleased
and surprised to hear the voice of my devoted friend, Rev. M. 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 was 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 Protestants 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," ect. (Ps.
ciii.) I then said 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 emotion 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.
"C. Chiniquy."
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 Scriptures 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 only 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 seven p.m. on that day, we both took the train at
Chicago for Dubuque, where we arrived next morning. At eleven 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 the end of 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 honour 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 favour 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 give me a written
assurance of the perfect restoration of that longsought 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 today 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 Bourbonnais to see
the Grand Vicar Mailloux, 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 had told him that he was sent to proclaim peace to the people
of St. Anne, he coldly asked the written proof of that 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. Mallous,
"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 always 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 with
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.