Fifty Years in the Church of Rome

by Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy

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 publicly 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. Every 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.