Anthology of texts of Cardinal Lavigerie
Anthology of texts of Cardinal Lavigerie
The French texts was edited by Jean-Claude Ceillier. The translations of the texts were done by various people.
I – According to Church doctrine, in the supernatural order, Original Sin completely deprived us of grace. In the natural order, reason has fallen from its primordial state, but it has not lost all its power to reach the truth. The will is damaged and weak, but it has not lost all its power to be freely self-actualising. In addition, what especially distinguishes the Church from Jansenism is the feeling it gives rise to in us about our weaknesses and our wretchedness. It does not rejoice in them; it does not exult in them, it does not imitate Pascal in his testimony: ‘I cannot fail to see without a secret joy the power of reason so invincibly perturbed by its own weapons and this bloodthirsty revolt of man against man, which, in communion with God, into which he drew himself by the dictates of his feeble reason, propels him into the condition of mindlessness.’ I am saddened to observe this joy in such a great man! Why should we rejoice in our wretchedness? What is there so consoling to see ourselves propelled into the condition of mindlessness? It means that in Jansenism, faith is founded only on and triumphs only in the total ruination of nature. Do you want to believe? ‘Kneel! Bless yourself with holy water! Deaden your mind!’ This is what Pascal is telling you. However, I am telling you with no less conviction and energy: no, do not rejoice when you feel the weakness of reason or the rebellion of evil. On the contrary, plunge into mourning to see God’s creation brought so low and dishonoured!
No doubt humility is the first and most essential of our virtues; no doubt we cannot of ourselves acquire any right to heavenly gifts, but we can nevertheless work with the unfailing help of God to make ourselves less unworthy of it. If therefore there are those among you who do not believe at all and do not feel the desire for a faith that is lacking, then far from seeking to deaden your mind, seek, on the contrary, to lift your soul to a higher and more serene level. God is light and he should not at all be sought in the darkness. The great men of the early period of the Church showed us another way by their example. They taught us that, in order to prepare ourselves to receive an undeserved aid set aside for us by God, that we need to seek, without loss of humility and the proper use of our freedom and reason, to remove the obstacles that prevent God’s grace from acting in us.
II- I ask you, is that the true idea of redemption that springs from Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Church? Not in the slightest! No doubt there is in God’s choice an unfathomable mystery for our feeble reasoning, but what we must never forget is that humanity’s loss comes from within, from the wrong use of its freedom. God opens his fatherly arms to all; Christ offers to all, without exception, the merits of his labours, his sweat and his blood. No one on earth is excluded. All peoples have sufficient help to progress at least towards this outflow of mercy. From the summit of Calvary, it spreads throughout the universe. Imagine those deprived of everything. There is one thing they cannot lack. I insist that God’s grace, from the Father and Saviour of all peoples, gives them enough to ultimately reach him, those at least who wish to make use of it.
“Along with devoted sons, I will also have the prodigals, and, far from the faithful flock, I will need to go after the lost sheep. These are the ones for whom it is said that the Good Shepherd must leave everything else to pursue them and bring them back to the fold. I will join with you to retrieve them, no matter how far they have wandered. You will hear my voice to encourage your zeal, but I tell you beforehand that you will not hear words other than those of charity and gentleness.
I assure you I took a commitment, at the feet of the most gentle of Pontiffs 2, that I would not dishonour my ministry and yours by insults or abuse. Nothing harsh or hurtful will ever come from my mouth, even against the most unjust enemies of our faith. I learned from the one who sent me to respect the sputtering flame and the crushed reed; if we must always vindicate his glory, it must only be vindicated in forgiveness.
May I give you this first piece of advice? Always bear in mind these rules of genuine zeal in relation to those who do not share our beliefs or have abandoned them. Remember this phrase of a great pope that ‘whoever teaches without gentleness shows that he is looking for other than the truth and that there is no charity in his heart’.
Even when you are provoked, believe me, only reply with kindness and making allowances. I would say with Saint Augustine, ‘Love peace; love peace; and if those who are separated from us do not love it, appease them by simply pointing out the truth to them or even in keeping silent, rather than reproving them. You love the light of day, but are you vexed because of blind people? No, you pity them, you know the goodness of which they are deprived and your consider them worthy of compassion. I beg you, show our ‘separated brethren’ the same gentle and Christian charity.’
You see, in preaching virtue to you, we will above all seek to make it desirable. Likewise, when preaching faith to you, we will seek to imitate all the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, in demonstrating its harmony, its perfect alignment with right reason. (...).
It is often said around and among you, I know, that the works of human reason, its progress, institutions and legitimate aspirations are condemned by faith. It is one of the most harmful objections spread around today against religion and the Church. In addition, some conclude that faith has run its course and that the world is drawn towards other horizons; it is now necessary to break with religion as it is opposed to human progress. Nothing could be more widespread, dangerous or false than this discourse. It is true that these harmful principles were upheld by a famous school of the last century. It taught that nature can only produce evil and therefore all its acts, philosophy, science, social institutions, and human freedom are reprehensible in their essence. However, the ever wise Church, always and equally far from extremes, has struck down these senseless doctrines with its solemn condemnation.
In more recent times, a haughty and hotheaded genius, heir without knowing it perhaps, like so many others, had the same preconceived ideas and errors. He sought to bring the world back to the faith by proving the absolute powerlessness of human reason and the incurable vanity of its entire works. Once again, the Church condemned in the author of this system what it had condemned in his predecessors: the absence of moderation and common sense, i.e., true wisdom.
The Church is not the enemy of your intelligence, philosophy, science, industry, the works of human genius, freedom or progress in human societies when these matters remain within the limits of reason and justice. On the contrary, the Church rejoices. We its intermediaries rejoice with it, in all that enhances this patrimony of glory, riches, honour, well-being, and the produce of intelligence and labour. The Church only asks of you, in the exercise of the powers and in the enjoyment of goods that you have from God, to remain faithful to the rules of the moral order and of truth. Above all, the Church asks of you to remember that you have a destiny greater than the world, that you need the help and light of faith. Temporal things ought to be held by you so that they lead you to wealth that endures and to a homeland that cannot perish.”
Paris,
Dear and Most Reverend Lord Bishop,
I was exceedingly touched by your kind greetings. I would have replied to thank you if they had not reached me in the middle of all the bother and feelings on leaving. The antiquarians were right and our predecessors even more so in opposing translations. Ah! Dear Bishop, leaving one’s Church and clergy is a real act of dying for the first time. Only one thing sustains me. It is the idea that God will approve of my sacrifice and will enable me to work effectively to develop my distant mission, for I am now truly a missionary bishop. Lots has been done, but what is that in comparison to what remains to be done in the presence of three million Muslims, whose conversion will require centuries, especially if we are not given full and total freedom in their regard.
Unfortunately, I cannot travel to Angouleme for the moment. I am leaving in a fortnight for Algiers and I need to hurry to avoid the heat. I will also go to Rome in June. There are some remarkable things being said about the plan of some people who would seek in a surprise move to remove a dogmatic definition of the personal infallibility of the Pope. I am not looking into the core of the matter, which I consider quite plausible, but the form seems to me making a regrettable precedent.
Moreover, I would be more wary of major drawbacks in the climate of ideas especially in Italy and Germany. Many of our colleagues think the same. I heard one of them, venerable for his virtue and his age, say that if a like scheme were attempted in Rome during the meeting, he would take his hat and leave within the hour. Others, more well-known, would perhaps do even worse. All this is a worry, as it seems to me today more than ever that we must be of one heart and mind with one another and with the Holy Father.
I confide all this to you, my dear Bishop, so that your prayers may ward off, if possible, all the dangers I foresee and even others I cannot trust to paper and ink.
I commend myself to your prayers.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie, by the grace of God and the favour of the Holy See, Archbishop of Algiers, to the clergy and Faithful of our Diocese, salvation, peace and blessings in Our Lord Jesus-Christ.
Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, I come among you at a noteworthy time for Christian Africa. It is a time when the Catholic Hierarchy is coming back to life in all its fullness on this soil soaked by the blood of martyrs. The Church and France have united to restore these glories of the past and they send me to you as the messenger of truth, charity and peace. I would be lying, my dear people, if I did not tell you that such a laborious responsibility firstly overwhelmed my weakness and that the prospect of a cruel separation seriously troubled my mind. However, today, the sacrifice has been accomplished, the ties have been broken and I belong only to you. I only hope for one joy alone and that is to bring you the heavenly gifts and see you accept them.
Admittedly, such a mission is made to intimidate, but also to tempt a bishop’s heart. Whether I look to the past, question the future, or study the conditions of the situation at hand, I don’t see any activities being carried out in the Christian world today that could be preferred to it.
Indeed, what is the history of North Africa? Enquire of the ruins that cover its soil. You will find there the traces of the layers of three great historical races, the debris of the most advanced and diverse civilisations, the vestiges of the most illustrious human beings and the sparse remains of famous cities. What distinguished names such as Carthage, Hippo, Utica, and Cirta as well as those of Scipio, Hannibal, Marius, Cato, Jugurtha, and Caesar!
However, for us Christians, how many even more sacred memories of the heroes of our faith, of their courage, their holiness and their genius there are! How great was this African Church , with seven hundred bishops, its innumerable places of worship, its monasteries, and its Doctors! Its soil exuded the blood of martyrs; its Councils, where the wisdom and the firmness of its bishops were an example to the Christian world became the rule for holy discipline. The whole Church took pride in its dogmas from the lips of Saint Cyprian and Saint Augustine. Faced with their executioners, its consecrated Virgins surpassed in courage the most fearless of men. Mountain caves and desert oases were anointed with the virtues of the hermits; in every place it offered to the world an object of admiration and holy envy. Nevertheless, these centuries of glory were to be followed by centuries of mourning. Christian Africa was to become as famous in its misfortunes as it had been through its genius and the courage of its offspring.
(A long passage follows, where after a long description of the gradual disappearance of Christianity in this northern part of the African continent, the new bishop stated his conviction that the time had perhaps come for a rebirth of the faith in this region. He felt deeply concerned in this challenge.)
My dearest brothers and sisters, such is in effect the mission to which, insofar as my weakness allows me, I am called to work towards with you. It is to spread around us with the burning initiative of our race and our faith the true enlightenment of a civilisation of which the Gospel is the source and the guiding principle. It is to bring this enlightenment beyond the desert with the caravans that cross it and that will one day guide you to the centre of this continent still immersed in ignorance. This will be to link North Africa and central Africa to Christian peoples. Such is, I maintain, your providential destiny in the plan of God and in the hope of the homeland and of the Church.
I pray God to bless you, all you Christians living in this diocese, from so many diverse nations. You have become our family members since you arrived on the soil of a second France, children of Malta, Italy, Catholic Spain or the Balearic Islands, Germany or Switzerland. I also bless you, the early inhabitants of Algeria, where so many prejudices still separate us and perhaps that you condemn our victories. I would ask you only one privilege – that of loving you as my children, even if you do not acknowledge me as your father. (…) There are at the very least two things that we will never cease to do and that cannot distress you or turn us from you. The first is to love you and to prove it to you if we can by doing good to you. The second is to pray for you to God the Lord and Father of all creatures so that he will give you the fullness of light, mercy and peace. (Idem, p.21)
Rome,
Most Holy Father,
The Bulls for the erection of the Diocese of Algiers granted by Pope Gregory XVI and those of the Ecclesiastical Province of the same name, granted in the course of last year by Your Holiness, determine as boundaries the jurisdiction of the Bishops of Algeria and the boundaries of French possessions.
Beyond these possessions, there lies the great desert, or Sahara Desert, where a substantial population live in the oases. This population has a particularly interesting feature in that it is descended in part from the Kabyles of the coast, from the former Christian population of Africa, expelled from Numidia and Mauritania by conquering Arabs. According to accounts by very reliable travellers, these peoples, although they became Muslims, still preserve the memory of their former religion. They have also kept some practices from it, in particular monogamy.
Most Holy Father, it would be very beneficial for religion if Catholic missionaries could enter into contact with these desert peoples. It would be easy for missionaries who would firstly set up in the towns of South Algeria, where these Saharan tribes travel to for their commerce.
The major obstacle preventing anything being done in this regard is that the great desert is outside the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Algiers and its suffragants. Today, Most Holy Father, I therefore request Your Holiness, as I already had the honour of speaking to you about it , to please remove this obstacle by doing for the great desert what you did for Zanguebar (sic), in erecting it as a Vicariate Apostolic that would be provisionally entrusted to the Archdiocese of Algiers. This nomination would not incur any problem from the French Government because the Vicariate Apostolic would be outside its possessions.
The Vicariate of the Sahara would have boundaries: to the north, the French possessions of Algeria and Morocco, to the south, the (French) Sudan. To the East and West, it would extend to 10 degrees longitude east and west of the Paris meridian.
The Archbishop of Algiers was to count on several Religious Congregations, in particular the Jesuits, to whom he had earlier revealed the proposal.
Most Holy Father, I am your very humble and obedient servant and son, as I kneel before you in profound respect.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers.
Biarritz,
My dear Vicar General,
I have learned with acute sadness that cholera is threatening the Archdiocese of Algiers and it only adds to all the evils that have afflicted it in recent years . I pray God will spare us this new trial, or will reduce it to the nonthreatening scale it had in previous years. Nonetheless, obliged to be far from you at this time by the state of my health, which has been badly damaged , I couldn’t remain indifferent to the evils that threaten my flock. In addition, after two years of food shortage, what is to be dreaded above all is the poverty that would prevent our colonists from taking adequate precautions. I would like to help them by giving up the whole of my salary as Archbishop . Mr. Ancelin, Secretary General of the Archbishop’s Office, will therefore pay you two thousand five hundred francs, the amount due in the first month. Please have it distributed by the Commissions, which will no doubt be established through the good work of the Sisters and the Parish Priests.
As far as concerns me, I cannot tell you, my dear Vicar General, how much this distancing from my diocese, which has lasted over two months, weighs on me and saddens me in the present circumstances. You will know that the doctors in France have sentenced me to return to Algiers only in the second fortnight of October. This is to avoid a relapse they would consider inevitable. However, if cholera broke out in Algiers, I certainly would not delay, but would set off in order to be among you as soon as my already returning strength would allow me to travel. I remain in the hands of God.
Farewell, my dear Vicar General. Let us pray and advocate prayer, so that heaven will at last look down with a merciful eye on our poor Algeria. I am yours, as ever, in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers.
Archdiocese of Algiers,
The Archbishop of Algiers believes it would be very beneficial for Algeria to found two special religious Orders, one of men and the other of women. Their aim would be agriculture and the practice of charity towards the poor and the sick. It could thus provide the same service as the Trappists, with a different and more flexible rule that would enable them to participate in all the needs of colonisation . This plan had already been brought forward several times. Mr. Troplong, President of the Senate, officially took it under his patronage. It always failed, because the former Bishop of Algiers did not believe he had to encourage it and that the diocesan authority alone may found, oversee and direct such an undertaking.
The Archbishop of Algiers has quite a different outlook. He already has at hand all the needs in personnel required to begin this undertaking; however, the material resources are lacking. He has recourse to His Majesty the Emperor to request him, if it were possible, to help in the carrying out of this idea. This would be from funds provided by the Société Algérienne , or of funding from the Ministry of War. To begin with, it would be enough to build two Mother Houses that would be used as novitiates and grant them a capital sum of three hundred thousand francs, for the buildings. Then, twenty thousand francs per year for ten years for each community - let us say - forty thousand francs per year in total. However, this would be on condition that they could be assigned suitable plots of land that the State would grant them directly or indirectly, as was done for the Trappists.
As regards subsequent foundations, both Orders would take complete charge of them, dealing with the Société Algérienne, which would be in their interest to call on them for all the centres they wish to establish. There, they would find at one and the same time an example for the colonists, assistance for the sick and the poor. Moreover, they would even have an on-the-spot safeguard in the community of men who would be organised militarily, according to their Constitutions, in case of a state of emergency caused by the Arabs .
Rome,
Most Reverend Father,
Further to our agreements this morning, I wish to recall in a few words the various requests that I had the honour of addressing to you:
1. For the Arab mission and especially the one for the Sahara, the setting up of a little novitiate for a society of diocesan priests , directed by Fathers Creusat and Ducat, chaplains at the catechumenate at Ben-Aknoun; the foundation of a mission post in waiting at Laghouat, with at least two or three Fathers for the time being.
2. The opening of a house of Spanish Jesuits at Algiers. This house, set up at Spain’s expense, must be completely distinct and separate from the one of French Jesuits.
3. When the time comes, two Fathers will direct the novitiates of two farming Congregations, one of Brothers and the other of Sisters.
I added the wish to establish a parish at the Algiers residence, but I bow to your observations and give it up, as well as the college, since we must.
Most Reverend Father, be assured of my warmest and most respectful regards.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Archdiocese of Algiers
Your Eminence,
Last July, I had the honour of presenting to your Eminence a request to establish a new mission in the Sahara Desert in Africa. In my view, this mission should be a Prefecture Apostolic, provisionally entrusted to the Archbishop of Algiers, as delegated by the Holy See.
Your Eminence was good enough to reply that two problems seemed to you to oppose the immediate setting up of this mission. The first was the fear of going against the rights or the intentions of the French government in a country belonging to it. The second was the request made by the Observantine Fathers of Tripoli to establish a mission in the desert.
I was able to inform you since then, Your Eminence, that these two problems no longer exist. The first, because the mission to be founded is completely outside the boundaries of French possessions and consequently the French government has nothing to do with it. The second is due to the fact that the Observantine Fathers have given up their plans.
Since these problems no longer exist, Your Eminence, I would venture to renew my request and earnestly ask you to grant me the powers needed to found a new mission in the Sahara under the title of Prefecture Apostolic. It would have the following territorial boundaries, which are indicated in black ink on the enclosed geographical map. 1) To the North, the borders of Morocco, Algeria with its three dioceses, Tunisia, the Mission of Tripoli; 2) to the South, the borders of Senegal and Guinea till the mountains of Kong, towards 10 degrees latitude; 3) to the West, the Atlantic Ocean; 4) to the East, in a line going from the eastern borders of Fezzan to 17 degrees latitude, to link up with the borders of Guinea, towards 5 degrees.
This Prefecture Apostolic thus constituted outside any French territory would be constituted as the one that was created on the East Coast of Africa in favour of the Bishop of Bourbon (former name of the Island of Reunion), (Ed.) and like it, provisionally entrusted to the Archbishop of Algiers.
Your Eminence’s most humble and obedient servant, with great respect and devotion,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Dear Father, may the blessing of God be upon you. Form apostles and follow exactly the directives of the Company’s Novitiate, with one difference in that you give more time for studies. Saints! I want Saints! Plunge them completely into the mould of Saint Ignatius. Let them be like a corpse in your hands that lets itself be carried anywhere and manipulated at will. Or again, let them be like a walking-stick in the hand of an old person to be of service wherever and whenever it is required.
Letter to Mother Euphémie Fervel, Superior General of the Sisters of Saint-Charles de Nancy (18th January1869)
(...) I have therefore decided to train new Sisters who would be exclusively involved in farming activities they would carry out themselves. Candidates have applied and there are quite a lot of them, but what is lacking is already professed Sisters who could direct the novitiate. I would like to set this novitiate up in an annexe of the orphanage, far apart enough not to obstruct one another, but close enough for the farming Sisters to carry out their activities under your Sisters’ direction. I thought that in these conditions, dear Mother, that among the new Sisters you would send, you would choose two who would be suited to direct a novitiate as Novice Mistress and Associate Novice Mistress. The new community would be quite distinct from the one of Saint Charles. It would have its own separate Rule.
Those of your Sisters who would direct the novitiate would be temporarily on loan. However, since the novitiate would be in the same enclosure as the orphanage, although apart, there would be the double advantage of leaving the two Sisters who direct the novitiate integrated with the community, enabling all the work of the property to be done by the farming novices. I earnestly request this service of you, Reverend Mother and be assured I am yours in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
The Holy See has just, as you know, created an immense apostolic delegation which includes the Sahara, and the north of Sudan, that is to say, countries as big as half of Europe, and the Pope has deigned to place them under my direction. Faced with this new mission, the Diocese of Algiers, indeed the whole of Algeria, disappears, or rather better to say, becomes an open door, by which, through the mercy of God, the centre of Africa can be reached. However, in these still unknown regions part of which have been Christian with the rest plunged in barbarism, slavery still reigns with all its cruelties and its horrors. Children are sold there by auction, and I would if I could remove them from this bad treatment and perhaps from death, by bringing them up in Algeria and then returning them to their own countries with our missionaries – the Society is already in existence. Nothing would be easier. Only one thing is missing: and that is money to cover the expenses involved in the education of these children, who would be freed naturally once they were in our care.
Algiers,
Gentlemen,
In August last year, I was pleased to inform you that the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda had just created a new mission in the Sahara and in the north of the Sudan. Moreover, the Holy Father was pleased to entrust its direction to me with the title of Apostolic Delegate.
At the same time, Gentlemen, I asked you to make it possible for me by your almsgiving to begin this immense and difficult undertaking with which I find myself. I had counted so much on it, after the kindly reception given by the Council of Paris, when it agreed to admit me to one of its meetings. I did not hesitate to count on it for the future and today I would find myself thoroughly compromised if my hopes were not to be achieved.
In a few words, Gentlemen, this is what has already been done. The first and most essential item being to train good workers, I began by opening a special seminary for Missionaries quite close to Algiers, in the parish of El-Biar. The Jesuit Fathers were kind enough to agree to its direction. Father Vincent, the former Novice Master of the Company at Algiers, was appointed head of this establishment.
The seminary receives young men who are intended for the priesthood and strictly speaking these will become actual missionaries. At a lower level, Brothers will become Catechists. After a sufficient time of trial, both will take the habit and the whole material lifestyle of the Arabs, so as to prepare for life in the desert. This will be extremely difficult for Europeans and would be fatal unless they were gradually prepared in advance. Fifteen young men have already begun at the Mission Seminary. Only four of them have been allowed to take the habit of the missionaries. These are Father Finateu, priest of the Archdiocese of Algiers; Father Charmetant, priest of the Archdiocese of Lyons, Rev. Bouland, a cleric in Minor Orders from the Diocese of Belley and Rev. Deguerry, a cleric in Minor Orders from the Diocese of Belley.
However, all of them must remain there for eighteen months, to prepare properly for learning Arabic and Berber and in prayer to be ready for their future mission.
At the same time as marshalling our army, we are preparing the advance mission posts. Once again, the Jesuit Fathers provide us with this important service. At my request and with funds I gave them, they have established a house at Laghouat on the edge of the desert. There are two Fathers and two Brothers. They are going to open a school for local children as soon as your grants will enable me to rent a new house adjoining theirs. In the meantime, they are familiarising themselves with the languages and customs of the country. Finally, I have received some children from the Sahara and even from the Sudan in our orphanages. These are the first fruits that I am harvesting in this new field that the Father of all confides to me.
Here you have therefore, three undertakings begun simultaneously within six months: the Mission Seminary, the first setting up of Missionaries on the edge of the Sahara, the Christian education of a number of young children from the desert region. The number of these children can perhaps be easily and considerably increased. This is because of the ease of paying for them from Saharan caravans either from the Mzab or from the Tunis marketplace.
However, for this, Gentlemen, funds are needed and you alone can provide me with them; I am already committed for a quite considerable sum. The rent of the house that serves as the Seminary costs three thousand francs. The upkeep of the pupils and their teachers costs eight thousand five hundred francs. The upkeep of the mission and the rent of the schoolhouse for the Jesuits of Laghouat cost two thousand five hundred francs. The education of the children taken in costs fifteen hundred francs: in all, 15,500 francs. May I anticipate, Gentlemen, you granting me this sum from the money in reserve from the final balance of 1868?
I am, Gentlemen, your faithful servant.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Algiers,
Dear Father Superior,
May I take this opportunity of informing you of a new undertaking founded in my diocese, one which is intended to provide missionaries to the lands of North Africa outside French dominion .
It is sad to acknowledge that for the twelve hundred years that Islam has been established, it has set up almost insurmountable barriers against the Catholic apostolate. None of the missions founded in the lands where Islam prevails has produced significant results; no nation or part of a nation has been either converted from or shaken in its errors by our missionaries.
Nevertheless, almost two hundred million human beings have been subjugated by force to the yoke of the Koran. Sad to say, Islam, which seems to be crumbling in Europe with the throne of the Sultans , continues its progress and conquests to the gates of our African possessions. Since the beginning of this century, almost fifty million people have embraced Islam in the zone circumscribed by the Sahara desert and extending to the south in the Sudan . The warring tribal chiefs camped on the frontiers of the countries of the Blacks have invaded them. After dominating them, they have forced them, according to their religious laws, to adopt their beliefs.
These are significant setbacks from two points of view for the future progress of the Gospel and those of the civilisation in the north and centre of Africa. Indeed, our missionaries normally experienced an open welcome among animists, as the peoples of whom I have just spoken generally were. By contrast, the obstinate corruption and the twilight of Islam seemed to challenge all their efforts.
On account of these various considerations, our Holy Father Pope Pius IX resolved to create a new Apostolic Delegation. This takes in the countries between the Barbary Coast, the high plateaux of Central Africa, the Ocean and Egypt. His Holiness graciously chose me, despite my weakness, to found and direct this emerging mission.
At the same time that God bestowed this new responsibility on me by the voice of his Vicar, he prepared me and gave me the principal means to bear it. Several ardent clerics of various dioceses in France, understanding the greatness and the worth of the idea conceived by the Sovereign Pontiff, placed themselves at my disposal. Under my authority and direction, they laid the foundations of a Society that is totally consecrated to the mission among the Muslim Arabs of Africa outside French possessions.
This little French Society’s centre is the seminary where the novitiate was established almost a year ago near Algiers. It is under the direction of a Father of the Company of Jesus, temporarily placed at my disposal by his Congregation. To ensure the success of this difficult undertaking, it adopts methods that have not been attempted until now. I hope they will bring good results, with the grace of God.
We considered that the pride of the Arabs is one of the main obstacles that prevents them from receiving the good news of the Gospel through the ministry of men whom they deeply scorn. We therefore thought to begin by giving them a signal mark of deference and make ourselves, so to speak, similar to them by adopting their external way of life, their clothing, their food, their nomadic life, and their language. In brief, it was to be ‘all things to all men’ to win them for Jesus Christ.
The seminary is directed in conformity with these rules. All the clerics who make it up have already taken the Arab habit after the first three months of the postulancy. It is also a point in their rule that they only speak Arabic from now on. They sleep fully clothed and on the ground. Their food is like that of the local people, whose lives they need to share. Every day, at their recreation, they bandage the wounds of the sick Arabs who come to their house. At the same time, they receive advice on how to treat the most virulent illnesses of the country. It is without doubt a rough and mortifying life, but it has the dual advantage of completely sacrificing human nature. It also throws light on a vocation, which, it has to be said, is composed of the most complete abnegation and for some perhaps even martyrdom.
For the rest, Algiers offers exceptional facilities for the establishing of an undertaking of this kind. Acclimatisation can be done in favourable conditions, during the novitiate, which lasts fifteen months. There are opportunities to learn the lifestyle of the Arabs and learn their language. Then, once the novitiate is over and the hour of mission has rung, it is easy to form friendships in Tunis or Tripoli with the various peoples of the Sahara. Gradually, in neighbouring countries, there will be the means to work one’s way into the desert tribes and to the centre of Africa. There, they will establish themselves as doctors and men of prayer. These are two titles that attract consideration and respect among Arabs everywhere.
Finally, if the missionaries set up in the centre, as I hope they will, the south of Algeria will become an institution where they will be able to establish Christian Education institutions for the children of upcountry missions who would be freely entrusted to them. These children, brought up by the Church, schooled in its virtues, instructed in manual skills, would then return to their countries. Among their respective peoples, they would preach the faith and civilisation by their example and their words. As has been said, this would be, strictly speaking, the regeneration of Africa by itself. This is the sole truly effective means of reaching such a desirable goal, because of the unhealthy state of most of these lands; it is an unhealthy state that has already needlessly carried off so many legions of missionaries.
Such is the aim of the Society of priests that is currently forming in my diocese. I repeat that it is not intended for Algeria; its aim is much broader. It is to work for the conversion of all Muslim peoples in my Apostolic Delegation and in the whole of Africa. Putting itself at the service of already established dioceses or Vicariates Apostolic will do this.
It is not necessary to add here and to underline the service this entirely apostolic undertaking will provide at one and the same time for the sake of civilisation, science, and to our national influence. The regions that stretch from Arabia to Senegal are, up to now, completely closed to our activity. Introducing an active element of assimilation and moral conquest, including the spread of the saving principles and productive teaching of our faith, would extend the influence and power of France. Setting up French posts at regular intervals by means of our missionaries as well as the methods of being thoroughly informed on the resources, the needs and aspirations of these unknown lands, including access to the major markets of central Africa would also be of benefit.
This outcome seems to me the consecration and logical, providential consequence of our Algerian conquest. According to my myopic perception, this is the start of the last crusade, although peaceable and civilising. It needs to achieve its triumph not through force of arms, but by charity, dedication, and apostolic heroism and to ensure for Catholic France a marked predominance in the destiny of North Africa.
What I need now are men. These men inspired by an apostolic spirit, courage, faith and self-denial would join the workers of the first hour. In truth, I cannot guarantee them the promises of the world: riches, greatness or the joys of life. Quite the contrary, they will endure poverty, self-denial, all the risks of almost unknown countries up to now inaccessible. At the end, they will perhaps undergo a martyr’s death. In my heart of hearts, this is precisely what makes me sure that my appeal will be heard. Our Lord did not say otherwise than what I am repeating in his name: In mundo pressuram habebitis (Jn 16:33), and his Apostles followed him.
It is therefore that I write to you, Father Superior, to draw attention to the existence of this little mustard seed, which, with the grace of God, will one day become a tall tree where the birds of the air may shelter. I hope you will agree to speak to any of your seminarians who may be showing an inclination for the missions and would be undecided about which direction to take.
The little Congregation taking shape is under my authority as Apostolic Delegate, until the Holy See chooses to give the mission to the Sahara and the Sudan a separate existence. Therefore, clerics who would wish to consecrate themselves to this mission should contact me.
Our future missionaries, as well as our two new farming communities, are dedicated to the Venerable Martyr Geronimo. He was an Arab convert to Christianity whom the Muslims of Algiers put to death in 1569 three hundred years ago. They walled him up alive in the wall of one of the town forts. This is where he was found, in the time of Bishop Pavy, my illustrious predecessor, so as to serve as an example of encouragement and protection to those who would devote themselves to the conversion of his people.
After fifteen months of novitiate, the missionaries are invited to commitment by their choice of promises or by simple vows of devotion: promises or vows of obedience, poverty and stability. They dress in Arab attire and adopt Arab lifestyle at the end of their postulancy, which is three months long, within the fifteen months of the novitiate. If they have not completed their theological studies, they resume them after the novitiate, before ordination to the priesthood. They will never be alone in their missions, because of the many types of risk they could run; they will always be in groups of at least three.
In so far as it is possible to be described in a few words, Father Superior, there you have the body of this new undertaking, which as far as I am concerned, appears providential. Is it too much to presume from your goodness and hope that you and your colleagues would speak about this among yourselves? God alone can do the rest; for what is needed at the outset is that he does the calling and the sending. He will do it, if, as I believe, this new undertaking is inspired by him.
Father Superior, I commend myself to your prayers and those of your colleagues for my undertakings and for myself. I am your humble and obedient servant in Christ Jesus.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Delegate of the Sahara and the Sudan
Algiers,
Your Eminence,
When the Sacred Congregation for Propaganda honoured me by entrusting me, in my capacity as Apostolic Delegate, with the founding of a new mission in the vast lands that stretch to the south of Algeria, I promised Your Eminence to submit an exact annual report of what we had been able to do for the benefit of this new mission.
At the end of this first year and faithful to my promise, I am ready to briefly submit to Your Eminence firstly, what we have achieved until now and secondly, what our needs are and how I think the Sacred Congregation and the Holy See could very effectively come to our assistance, without any burden to them.
I – What has been done to benefit the mission since the 1st October 1868.
On the 1st October 1868, after receiving legitimate powers from the Sacred Congregation for Propaganda, I began the business of founding a mission in the Sahara and the Sudan. For this mission, there was not a single building, priest or even Christian. Therefore I was firstly obliged to apply myself to preparing the indispensable requirements for a proper effective and enduring preaching of our holy faith. This is what we have achieved to date:
1) Opening a special major seminary and founding a special society of missionaries for the evangelisation of the Sahara and the Sudan. The initial need of an emerging mission is the training of clergy capable of bringing the work of the apostolate to fruition. I therefore thought first of creating it and these are the steps I took. I appealed to young clerics in my diocesan seminary and the diocesan seminaries of France, revealing to them the sad state of abandonment in which the Muslim and idolatrous peoples of North Africa stagnate for centuries. I ask those among them who feel brave enough to do so to devote themselves to this Mission.
From the outset , from early October 1868, six young clerics, two of whom were priests, responded to this initial appeal. I brought them together in the one house and explained the problems and the importance of their mission to them. I also spoke to them of the reasons for the complete failure, in my opinion, of the Catholic apostolate towards the Muslims. In agreement with them we mapped out the first rules of their little society. The main guidelines are the following:
1. They will form a society of missionaries intended solely for the apostolate among Muslim Arabs of Africa. 2. They will live in community and will always be three together 3. From seminary, the novitiate, they will adopt the food, language, attire, and sleeping habits of the Arabs. 4. They will learn enough about medicine to treat sick people.
The aim of these various rules is to ease their entry into the varied regions to which they may be sent and to win them the trust and affection of the Arabs more easily. This undertaking has been in existence now for fourteen months. Eight others have joined the first six missionaries. They therefore form a community of fourteen clerics ready to leave for the mission. The Jesuits were kind enough to take on the direction of this seminary or novitiate, as it may be called. I set it up last year in a rented house, but with the numbers increasing, I have now situated it at Saint Eugène, in a huge diocesan property.
2) Opening of a special Junior Seminary for the Sahara and the Sudan. The aim of the Major Seminary and the Society I have just mentioned is to provide evangelising workers for the Sahara mission, but we need to think ahead as well and find ways to use all the factors within our grasp and particularly local factors. Now, among the 1,753 Arab children taken in by us during the recent famine , and some of whom belong to Saharan regions, there are a good number of them who are very intelligent and endowed with exceptional gifts for piety and wisdom. Gradually, we spoke to them not only of receiving Baptism, but even of them becoming priests. They heartily welcomed this idea and we selected thirty-four from among them. We brought them together in a special house. There, they do the same studies as in the Junior Seminaries in France. They display as reassuring an attitude as possible and prepare an abundant range of subjects in advance on the customs and language of the country. This junior seminary is also situated at St Eugène. It is directed by missionaries who have completed their first novitiate, to whom I have added an excellent local man of the Sahara who has already been baptised. Our intention is only to ordain these young men if they intend to join the Society of Missionaries so as to be better assured of their perseverance.
3) Founding of two institutes on the edge of the Sahara, one for the Jesuit Fathers and the other for Sisters to serve as advance mission posts and for access to the Mission. Eight months ago, in order to ensure more frequent and direct contact with the Saharan people whom we need to evangelise, I thought it best to found two religious institutes, one of men and the other of women. It is in Laghouat, in the desert proper, but nevertheless still in the territory of the Diocese of Algiers. The first of these has been entrusted to the Reverend Jesuit Fathers, and the second to the Sisters of Christian Doctrine. In these two institutes, local children will be schooled; assistance will be given to adults, hospitality will be offered to desert dwellers who arrive in town as well as some medical treatment to the sick; a special welcome will be given to missionaries. We therefore had to already be thinking of expanding the institute of the Jesuit Fathers by buying a house. This house belongs to a Kadi or Muslim chief. He agreed to sell it to us in gratitude for the good we do for his fellow countrymen. These are his own words.
4) Founding of orphanages and homes in the Diocese of Algiers for the children of the mission of the Sahara and the Sudan. I will not reiterate here the creation and existence of orphanages for the Arab children of Algeria taken in by us during the famine. Our Algeria orphanages continue to prosper. However, in the interests of the mission, I had to multiply these institutions, making them permanent and as far as possible ensuring their future.
In the course of the year, I will therefore have established five new ones for the mission, on land purchased by me, of which I shall speak later. For the missionaries, these orphanages will be highly prized institutions. They will send to them all the children from upcountry they can take in, receive from their parents, or ultimately purchase from slaving countries to bring them up. The will then be called back to the mission where they will become in any case their auxiliaries.
I think this is the only practical way to achieve sure and significant results. Indeed, by experience converted adults exhibit multiple problems by their demands and their infidelities, whereas children who have been raised in the Christian faith cling strongly to it. If they have received an education that enables them to earn a living, they become a real asset to the upcountry missions. Added to this, the unhealthiness of the climate that has swiftly cut down European missionaries makes all the more valuable the supporting role of the inhabitants of this country who are immune to these infections.
5) Purchase of land and creation of farming establishments in Algeria, for the Mission. All the reasons I illustrated in the foregoing paragraph persuaded me, as I said, to open orphanages in Algeria on behalf of my Delegation of the Sahara for orphanages in Algeria. These orphanages are farming establishments where the children I have just mentioned will be brought up. For this, Algeria provided me with all the required conditions. The climate is healthy, the lands are fertile and abundant and although its desire is perhaps not lacking, its Government no longer dares to openly oppose my plans. At a stroke, I was therefore able to ensure the territorial establishment of the mission.
For this, I bought, admittedly for a very high price of one hundred and fifty thousand francs, nine different extensive properties, together comprising close to three thousand hectares of excellent land. On this, when everything is cultivated, our missionaries, our orphans, the mission itself will have abundant resources. This is where the children sent by the missionaries will be taken in and brought up by the communities I'll speak of in the next paragraph .
6) Foundation for the mission of two farming and medicalised communities. To direct the children's work, farm the land properly and even help in the settling in of the missionaries in these foreign lands, where they have to find everything for themselves by working on the spot, we need other evangelising workers whose nature and activities would be apt for this ministry. I felt I had to instigate and foster the creation of two communities, one of Brothers, the other of Sisters. They would be exclusively intended to help the missionaries in the directing of the separate farming institutions. The orphans, boys and girls taken in, would practice works of mercy towards the poor and the sick, separated by gender, and finally would cultivate the fields.
These two communities already exist. The female one has 27 Sisters and the one of the Brothers has taken in fifteen postulants. Faced with such results, we needed to think about providing some temporary rules for these communities. This is what I did while waiting for them to become strong enough so that I could submit these rules for approval and correction to the Sacred Congregation and the Holy See. The faithful have given them the name of the Brothers and Sisters of the Foreign Missions under the patronage of the Venerable Arab martyr Geronymo.
I enclose a printed copy of their rules in this report. I cannot define them better than by stating that they are intended to achieve for our mission, as far their humble strength will allow, what, in the Middle Ages, the Benedictine Order achieved agriculturally and apostolically in barbarian and pagan Europe, which it opened up and converted. The novitiate of the Brothers is directed by the Jesuit Fathers while that of the Sisters is run by the Sisters of Saint Charles de Nancy.
7) Foundation in France and preparation in Belgium of Postulancies for the two communities of the Brothers and Sisters of our mission. The two communities I have just mentioned although founded in Africa and with their novitiates and headquarters there, would not be able to find enough new members. There are too few good Christians in this country. Divine Providence has kindly come to our aid by opening up for us the means to create Postulancies in France and Belgium. I made known the beginnings of these two little societies and the aim they set themselves to the Works of the Propagation of the Faith.
Soon afterwards, I received many applications from France. I did not feel obliged to take them all on, because of the problems of travel and distances; I asked them to wait. Meanwhile, Bishop Deleusy of Viviers, kindly agreed to the establishing of two Postulancies in his diocese, one for the Brothers and the other for the Sisters. I took advantage of his kind authorisation and rented two properties in the little town of Vans. Both Postulancies are currently in operation.
While this movement was evolving in France, there was a similar situation in Belgium. Father Jaspers, an excellent priest of the Archdiocese of Malines, wrote to me asking to join the community of Brothers. With him, there would be about a hundred young men who formed a very large workers' association in Antwerp. I put off this application until I could have a meeting with Father Jaspers and the delegates of his young workers before going to the Council. Their entry into the community has been decided. Father Jaspers and his companions are going to the novitiate at Algiers next February. If I can, I hope to obtain the authorisation of the Archbishop of Malines to open a Postulancy to promote missionary vocations in his diocese as well.
While thus receiving these applications from Belgium for the community of Brothers, I was receiving even more extraordinary requests for the community of Sisters. One of the most distinguished young women of this country in nobility and wealth, Mademoiselle de Mortier, put strong pressure on me to join. She told me she wanted to earn bread for the poor by the sweat of her brow. She is now a novice at Algiers with several of her countrywomen.
8) Translation and publishing of a Catechism and the Gospels in Berber. At the same time as preparing the personnel for the mission, we also had to give them the means of connecting with the people they were to evangelise. Therefore, all the missionaries set themselves to learning Arabic and Berber. This was the first time it had happened. Therefore we had to plan to provide them with books of religious writings in the local languages, and which non-believers could use.
It was not difficult for books in Arabic; we referred to the excellent publications made under the direction of Propaganda Fide. For the Berbers, it was more difficult. There were no Catholic books in this ancient language. I immediately set to work and Father Creusat, the Superior of the Mission Seminary, helped by several local neophytes, and composed a Berber translation of the Diocesan Catechism of Algiers and a translation of the Gospels for the Sundays of the Year. At my own expense, I had these first two books published. I will have the pleasure of presenting them to His Eminence the Prefect of Propaganda as the first fruits of a language up to now unknown in Europe, although certainly contemporary with Phoenician and Assyrian. There, in a few words, is the unadorned and concise account of what we have done this first year.
II- Hopes and problems of the Mission
In line with what has been stated in the first part of the report, we see that the mission in Algeria up to now has eleven institutions, which belong to it, or intended for it. These are: a major seminary or missionary novitiate, a junior seminary for local candidates, five orphanages, three for boys and two for girls, a headquarters for farming Brothers, a headquarters for farming Sisters, a residence for the Jesuit Fathers at Laghouat, a residence for the Sisters of Christian Doctrine, also at Laghouat.
These establishments were bought and paid for by me for about seven hundred thousand francs for the plots and one hundred thousand for the buildings. This sum has been completely paid off, as I insisted on not having any debt on our landed property. However, by doing so, I have spent all my capital. To run properly, and purchase the establishment of the mission of the Sahara and the Sudan exclusively, to bring up the orphans, train missionaries, and so on, I need at least three hundred thousand francs a year for three years. Our property already provide us with one hundred thousand, but we need to find two hundred thousand more by appealing to Catholic Charity.
The problems we need to overcome to achieve this result are of two types. The first comes from the Government of Algeria, which, as I already stated, would not dare to do anything openly against us, but which still harbours an unspoken but very real hostility towards us. It tries to discredit our mission centres, which erodes trust and slows the upsurge of charity. The second item, more distressing and serious (I only confide them to Your Eminence with the greatest distaste) stem from the attitude adopted from the outset of all our affairs by my two suffragans – in particular the Bishop of Constantine. I will take the opportunity to disclose this sad situation to Your Eminence by word of mouth. Prudence and charity prevent me from doing so here.
Nevertheless, faced with such obstacles, I will need the support of the S.C. of Propaganda and its Most Eminent Prefect to have the funds I need:
1) From the Propagation of the Faith and from the Holy Childhood: I received 15,000 Frs for the mission, But the Holy Childhood gave me absolutely nothing, whereas I am raising twelve non-Christian children, entirely at my cost. I feel sure that a single word from Your Eminence to this body would guarantee us a grant.
2) Above all from the Holy Father, from whom I would like to receive a Papal Brief of encouragement and satisfaction for all those who have already helped us so generously and who could continue to help us.
I feel confident that this will be enough to guarantee the funds we need. I am well aware of the great kindness of Your Eminence to hope that you will be pleased to receive my request.
With this in mind, be assured of my deep respect and devotion, Your Eminence, and that I am your most humble and obedient servant,
Charles, Archbishop,
Apostolic Delegate of the Sahara and the Sudan.
ORDER from His Grace the Archbishop of Algiers, Apostolic Delegate of the Sahara and the Sudan. Seeking to provide at the least an interim shape to the little Society of Missionaries that we have founded and thus to meet the need for good internal order and the spiritual and religious training of those who are its members: we have approved and ratify the interim Constitutions and Rules to be carried out for one year, from the 2nd February. This includes the Directory drafted under our supervision and in accord with our views, which we consider in conformity with the Divine Spirit and that of the Church, put into practice by the Reverend Father Vincent, Rector of the Seminary of the Society. We will and order that the aforementioned Constitutions and Rules will be considered by the members of the Society as the expression of the Will of God, as it is of their Bishop and legitimate Superior.
PART ONE
SUMMARY OF THE CONSTITUTIONS AND MANUAL OF RULES FOR THE CONGREGATION OF THE MISSIONARIES OF THE VENERABLE GERONIMO
Chapter 1 – Principal Constitutions relative to the body of the Institute
Article I: Origin - The Congregation was founded in the Diocese and under the authority of His Grace the Archbishop of Algiers, Apostolic Delegate of the Sahara. Its emergence dates from the end of 1868. At that time, Archbishop Lavigerie of Algiers, commissioned by the Holy See in his capacity as Apostolic Delegate for the foundation and government of the Mission of the Sahara and the Sudan, conceived the idea of creating a Society of Missionaries to assist him. According to the precept of Saint Paul, they were to be all things to all men to win souls for Jesus Christ. They would gradually adopt the attire, the language, food and customs of the local population of Africa to win their trust and affection. In the spirit of their Founder, these Religious were intended to exercise their apostolate not only in the Missions entrusted to the Archbishops of Algiers, but also in all the other dioceses of Africa where they would be called by their Ordinaries.
An illustrious religious Society , responding to the Prelate’s appeal, agreed to the direction of the first novitiate, which opened at Ben-Aknoun, near Algiers, in the last months of 1868. Shortly afterwards, the Archbishop of Algiers provided his emerging Congregation with its first rules as a trial, following what is to be said in the rest of this volume.
Article II – Its aim, name and spirit – The aim of this Institute is to obtain the glory of God, firstly by the personal sanctification of its members and then by apostolic works and the exercise of zeal and charity, to aim at the salvation of the inhabitants of Africa. In order to achieve this purpose, the Fathers commit to God, by their choice by Solemn Promises or by Religious Vows. They live by a common rule. They found and direct Missions in places in Africa where they are called by the Ordinaries. They depend on these last-mentioned for all that concerns the exercise of their ministry. They depend on their Superiors for all that concerns their community life and their external and internal conduct as Religious.
The name they bear of the Missionaries of the V. Geronimo will constantly remind them of their main duty and the value of their vocation. While applying themselves to the acquisition of the Christian virtues, they are always to bear in mind that the ultimate aim of their efforts has to be the establishing of the practice of Christianity through their example, charity and preaching, wherever they are established. The spirit of the Congregation is therefore one of charity and zeal for the salvation of the inhabitants of Africa.
Finally, in order to draw the blessings of Heaven upon it, the emerging Congregation is placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Africa. This is while waiting on the hoped-for public invocation of the V. Geronimo, the Arab martyr of Algeria. The Holy See has begun the investigation at this time into the cause for canonisation. It is under these sacred patronages that the Fathers will dedicate themselves to the works of their vocation.
(Article III deals with the organisation and governing of the Institute, notably setting out the primacy in authority of the Archbishop of Algiers as Founder, then the responsibility of the Superior General, the role of the General Chapter, etc. To avoid burdening an already lengthy text, this article has not been printed here.)
Article IV: Missions and Houses of the Institute
This article is devoted to the governing and running of the various communities and missions. There are two passages included, more particularly relevant to the plan of Lavigerie.
The various Missions and houses of the Congregation make up a single united family outwardly dispersed in God’s service, but closely united by the bonds of fraternal charity in a shared apostolate, prayer and action.
Just as the Mother House has distinct responsibilities on account of the general good, it is only right that it collects savings made in each House of the Institute. For this reason, Superiors and Bursars are to send them accurately to the Missionary Superior General according to his pre-fixed ratio .
Article V: Admission to the Institute – Admission refers to the Postulants, Novices and to the Professed. The Professed are divided into two classes: in the one, they still only make Promises; in the other, there are those who, after a given number of years, are assessed as being able to make simple Vows of Devotion.
(...) The postulancy lasts three months, that is, one is allowed to take the habit of the Institute on the first Feast day of Our Lady that follows the three months from admission to the Postulancy. (...) Admission to the Novitiate is concomitant with the Clothing. The Novitiate lasts two years, after the Clothing, so that the Profession of Vows can be valid . However, in the second year, the time can be taken for studies or any other external ministry in an Institute, but never in a Mission, even for priests. In order to best occupy themselves in their innermost development and in the acquiring of the virtues required by them, the Novices will not apply themselves in the first year to any other study than that of Holy Scripture, or native languages of Africa that will later serve as instruments for their zeal. To this, they will add two hours of manual work daily.
Admittance to Solemn Promises of Stability, Obedience, Poverty and Chastity is up to a decision in Council. It takes place after the first year of Novitiate, with the same form as admittance to the Postulancy . (...) Admittance to the three Temporary Vows is again up to a decision in Council.
The three Ordinary Vows are in no way imposed by the Rule on members of the Congregation. They can omit them and simply make the Promises mentioned in the foregoing article. However, the Religious who have taken them are the only ones capable of holding an office in the Institute. Vows can only be taken after the age of 18. Initially, they are only five-year Vows. After five years, those who apply may be admitted, and of those, considered deserving, allowed to profess Perpetual Vows.
In whoever is admitted to the Promises or Temporary or Perpetual Vows, there has to be the firm determination demonstrated to Superiors to remain in lifelong service to God in the Congregation. In addition, at his request, even the Council may allow him, or enable his confessor ordinarily to advise him to add Stability to his Religious Vows, until his Perpetual Profession.
PART TWO
COMMON DIRECTORY FOR ALL THE MISSIONARIES OF THE VENERABLE GERONIMO AND RULES FOR SPECIFIC SERVICE JOBS
Chapter I – Article 7
Instructions for the principal ministries in the Society
I - Concerning Missions: At the head of the ministries of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, we place the Missions; it is especially for them that the Society was created. It is called to establish Missions not only in the Sahara, the Sudan and the other dependencies of the Diocese of Algiers, but also in all the non-evangelised countries of Africa where missionaries would be called by the Ordinaries of those places. In the following paragraphs, we will deal briefly with both the various conditions for establishing these Missions and the Rules required for their favourable outcome.
1) Missions established in already Christian centres - Missionaries would be able to establish themselves in already-Christianised centres as long as they are in the midst of neighbouring regions inhabited by non-Christians. In such cases, they can accept and exercise the role of parish priests and curates for an already Christian parish.
In the parishes, Missionaries must always be at least three in number. One of them will take the title of Superior of the Mission at the same time as the Parish Priest. He will organise everything in such a way that the private life of the community always corresponds exactly to what is indicated in the Rule. This concerns getting up, Prayer, Particular Examen, Spiritual Reading, visit to the Most Blessed Sacrament, reciting the Rosary, and silence by day and night.
As for the rest of the time, the Missionaries will spend it in studies, recreations indicated by the Rule and especially in apostolic ministry. It is not necessary here to enter into detail concerning apostolic ministry to Catholics. It is enough to say that the Missionaries, under the direction of the Superior, who has the powers of the Parish Priest, must conform to what zealous parish priests and curates do in a parish.
For non-Christians, who must be the special object of their concern, since they are the lost sheep of the House of Israel to whom our Divine Lord sends us, the Missionaries gradually make contact with them in the following way, which, experience has shown, enables beneficial results. Therefore, they are always at least two together to visit the tribes of the neighbourhood, by humbly introducing themselves as men of prayer and eager to be of help. If there are sick people, they will ask to see them; if they can recommend or supply remedies, they will do so generously. To achieve this, they will invite the parents of the sick person to fetch the medication at their home, where they will be welcomed with great kindness and consideration. From time to time on their errands, they will bring some gifts for the children.
If they have some part of the Office or other prayers, particularly the Rosary to say, they will do so in front of the local inhabitants, telling them they are going to pray. They will kneel, without embarrassment, convinced that the Arabs will only esteem them the more. Indeed, the major reason for their revulsion of Europeans is because they have no religion, because they are never seen to pray.
Gradually, relations of trust and close friendship will form between neighbouring missionaries and the local inhabitants, to whom they will provide any charitable service they can. Once these relations are well established and they will be disposed to listen to the Fathers, the Missionaries will be able to begin speaking to them about religion. If they are among peoples whose ancestors were formerly Christian, as almost all the Berbers of North Africa, the best discourse to hold with them is to tell them their ancient history, to teach them that their fathers were our brothers in the faith. They would only have stopped being so as a consequence of bloody persecutions they were subjected to for centuries.
Then they can offer to teach some of their children to read, write and pray. If they agree, which may certainly happen, these children can be received at the presbytery, to be properly clothed and a Missionary will be put in charge of their guidance and instruction. Quite soon, these children will become a kind of living sermon. People will propose receiving others, particularly the orphans, of which we shall speak later.
Some time will have to be spent in this situation, being content to reply on religious matters when asked. Replies in detail will be in the form of stories, which the local people are very keen to listen to: all that refers to the life of Our Lord, the prophecies announcing him, the marvellous events that accompanied him. Reference should always be made to the huge difference that exists between Christian law and false religions in relation to justice, purity, respect for truth and above all charity. These discourses will gradually bear fruit, but we must not be in a hurry to pluck them. The catechumens need to be tested before believing their conversation or even their formal requests for Baptism.
2) Missions among non-Christians only - Independently of the Missions mentioned in the last paragraph, the Missionaries will found others in countries where Christianity does not exist and that are inhabited by non-Christians only. The attitude that should inspire them in these missions and the rules they need to follow are basically the same that have been set up for those missions where the parishes are at the centre. However, for greater clarity, we will recall the key elements of these rules in adding some other directions or specific recommendations.
As among the native tribes already established in Christian countries, the Missionaries will introduce themselves to the people only as men of prayer and as doctors. These are the two titles that will gain them respect and gratitude soonest. In this matter, they will follow the rules already set out. As soon as they find a suitable occasion to settle in a tribe, i.e., as soon as they are shown a sign of welcome, they will go to set up their dwelling there. Moreover, as far as possible externally, in matters of the clothing, food and lifestyle of, they will imitate the local people. Interiorly, they will follow the Rule of the Community, just as for the parishes.
In the Missions to non-Christians, just as in the parishes, the Missionaries will always be at least three together, where one of them will exercise the authority of Superior. In addition, as soon as prudently possibly, with due regard to the circumstances of places and persons, they will call upon a small community of Brothers of the Mission, composed of at least three Religious, or more if needed. The work of these Brothers should be to look after the upkeep, at least partially, of the works of the Mission and if possible, of the Missionaries themselves. In countries where there is complete safety, they could also call upon the Sisters of the Venerable Geronimo to help them in their ministry towards women.
In matters of conversions, they will take care not to rush entry of non-believers into the profession of the Christian faith. Often enough, a favourable opportunity could be used to send neophytes to the coast. This is what would be particularly apt for children, for whom the opening of orphanages and catechumenates in some Christian land will need to be considered, as will be explained in the following paragraph.
II - Orphanages and Catechumenates – The opening of Orphanages and Catechumenates and their spiritual direction is one of the main works of the Society of Missionaries of the Venerable Geronimo. It is certainly the most effective for the practical setting up of Christianity in the African interior, where, up to now it has been impossible to introduce it for many centuries. The main obstacles to this establishing were, undeniably, the natural faithlessness of the local population. This meant that the adults found themselves surrounded by non-Christians and for the most part reverted to their former vices and errors. The extremes of climate did not allow for increasing the number of missionaries.
There appeared to be only one solution to these two problems. It was the Christian education of the greatest number possible of non-Christian children. The ideas and beliefs with which they will be imbued from children will endure with greater certainty. It will be possible to find among them the elements for a local clergy, which, used to the climate would be able to put up with the conditions. This is how all Christian countries came to the faith and we can hope, with the grace of God, to bring this great continent round from being still shrouded in the darkness of error. Therefore, from their arrival in a Mission it is very important for the Fathers to gather and group the little children around them. This will be all the easier for them since slavery exists almost everywhere in Africa. By this means, they can obtain as many as their funds will allow them.
They could keep some of these children with them, if only to give example and to have them occupy their time usefully and in a holy way. The Missionaries will take favourable opportunities to send the others to the coast where the Orphanages will be entrusted to the two Congregations of the Brothers and Sisters of the Venerable Geronimo for their material and disciplinary guidance. The first of these would be entrusted with orphan boys, the other with orphan girls in two distinct and separate establishments. The Missionaries will only be entrusted with the direction and moral and religious instruction, as are chaplains in similar establishments.
In these orphanages, all the children without exception will be assigned to manual work, according to their category, for a short or long period. However, in addition, they will be taught Christian doctrine, reading, writing and the basics of primary schooling. For those who show more agreeable attitudes towards piety or for science or above all some sign of ecclesiastical vocation, they will be set to study and wait for God to show his will for them. Nevertheless, one must take note that because of their past and the particular problems of their future situation, that it would be neither apt nor prudent to make them secular priests. They must not be admitted to Holy Orders unless they want to enter the Society of Missionaries or any other community, where they will be supported by a Rule and by the example and encouragement of the Fathers and Brothers…
III – Institutes of the Brothers and Sisters of the Missions of the Venerable Geronimo. – According to the Rule of the Brothers and Sisters of the Missions of the Venerable Geronimo, the Superior of the Missionaries represents the Apostolic Delegate, who is their chief Superior. These three communities are, in fact, only three branches of the one family, working together and in harmony to extend the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
IV – Community clinics - Every mission house in non-Christian countries could have community clinics attached, run by the Brothers of the Venerable Geronimo, if they have a house in the place itself, or if lacking, by the Missionaries. For this purpose, they could have one or two rooms, one for medicine and for treating wounds and injuries.
Three times a week, at hours and days fixed and indicated in advance, patients will be received to treat their wounds and ask for medicines. They are to be treated with charity and all will be done to relieve them. If they have wounds to be bandaged, the Brothers or Fathers designated for this act of charity will treat them as best they can, being sure to speak to them in words that will do good to their souls.
To enable the Fathers to exercise this ministry of charity, from noviciate onwards, care will be taken to have them learn some of the more common illnesses of the country and to treat them. They will not use a treatment for illnesses that they do not know. They will be able not only to treat patients at the clinic, but with the permission of the Superior, as indicated above, to visit together the sick of the neighbourhood, particularly on Sunday. However, they will not treat women.
Also, they will take care to cultivate essential medicinal plants in a separate part of the house garden. The Fathers can be sure that this is undoubtedly one of the most sensitive ministries, but also the most effective and fruitful in terms of salvation. By curing the sick, Our Lord Jesus Christ won the hearts of the inhabitants of Judaea and convinced them of the truth of his divine mission.
Perhaps we will not perform powerful miracles as he did, but let us do miracles of dedication and charity. In this sign, we again insist, others will recognise us as his disciples.
V - Hospitality - Hospitality is the virtue proper to the Arabs among whom most Fathers are called to live. We dare to hope that their charity will bring them gradually closer to us. They must therefore practice hospitality under pain of underachieving in this respect; they will do so with as much spirit of faith as friendliness. Travellers could be received in some separate room and by apologising for treating them modestly they will be shown real charity.
VI – Divine Worship – The Fathers will remember that the ceremony of divine worship is one of the best ways to make an agreeable impact on the local inhabitants. They will therefore concentrate on always observing all its duties with gravitas and respect. Where they can, without inconvenience, even in non-Christian territory, especially if the Brothers of the Missions are established near them, they will give to it all the radiance and ceremony applicable to it.
Dear Sons and Brothers,
I place in your hands the Rule that must from now on be the law of your life. I entrust it to your loving respect, to your charity, to your zeal with the hope that if you keep it faithfully, it will protect you and enable you to bear fruits of peace, civilisation and salvation on this poor African soil.
God forbid that I should give you ideas contrary to Christian humility about yourselves or the work to which you are dedicated. You and I, especially I, are nothing and the burden of our sins and our wretchedness warns us sufficiently that we must never be proud of being effective for God’s work. However, when I think of the past, when I see what poor weak men like us have achieved in the world by the power of virtue and religious discipline, I cannot avoid thinking that if you imitate their example, you will receive similar blessings.
Twelve centuries ago, my Brothers, Europe presented more or less the same spectacle as our Africa today. On the one hand, its lands were deeply ravaged by barbarian hordes that occupied it and criss-crossed it, leaving behind devastation, fire and death. They camped on ruins they could not name and knew no other right than might. On the other hand, it was a society whose centre was at Byzantium and that perished in shame as a result of the abuse of riches, pleasures, despotism and above all through lack of virile and Christian character.
Everything therefore seemed irrevocably lost, when from the heart of this society suddenly arose an army that saved the world, opening safe havens to the deprived, the weak and the sick. Through a continuous endeavour of six centuries, by its example and influence, it shaped a new world of which we are its descendants.
This army was that of the monks, our monks of Europe, of whom Benedict was the legislator. Through manual work, especially in the fields, the practice of charity, the education of children, through the example and influence of its virtues elicited from the barbarism of its conquerors and the decadence of the conquered, our European nations.
I am not only referring to France. You know that almost all the towns of our homeland owe their creation or their conservation to a monastery. I add all the other lands and in particular those the Barbarians had devastated the most in Germany, England and Scandinavia. There, you will not find a town or cathedral city that was not begun by a Benedictine abbey. These havens of work, charity, prayer, and study were like lighthouses spaced out by God’s hand, by the Church, to guide these great races to the harbour of civilisation.
If only these ruins, which today are almost everywhere disregarded by forgetful generations could speak and tell of all the good that their inhabitants had done for our forebears! Consider all the enlightenment, the consolations they spread. Consider all the obstacles they bravely opposed to the savage undertakings of almighty forces. How many blessings from the people, even in our world where faith withdraws, would they not receive?
Dearly beloved brothers, I repeat, this is a similar work in its results. In its attainment, the Rule you have embraced continues to offer many points of similarity. As in fifth century Europe, North Africa, of which we form part, was devastated by barbarian hordes. Eight centuries ago, its ruin was complete in an excess of depredation. Until the conquests of France, it became increasingly worse with the years. Everything was effaced from its soil; its magnificent towns, its eight hundred Bishops’ Sees, its monasteries, its twenty million inhabitants. All this was supplanted by hordes of conquering savages, whose talent for destruction as well as their inveterate carelessness and their sensual and fatalistic religion buried everything under the dust of centuries and out of human memory. They themselves, surrendering to all the fatal consequences of their social principles and vices, no longer operate; they shuffle towards a sepulchre where we see them fall in carnage.
Faced with this barbarism, we bear witness to the endeavours of a great nation like ours, which for thirty-nine years has called upon every contemporary civilising power to restore to these lands, so rich and forlorn, the place they occupied in the past. Admittedly, far be it from me to underrate all these endeavours. Some considerable tasks have been accomplished. Roads, buildings, even towns have been built. However, it has to be said that roads, buildings and towns do not make a people. We are stuck painfully in a rut where everything suffers. The local inhabitants have not been won over by us; this is lacking. For the most part, the Europeans are far from possessing the moral qualities required for the foundation of a people. Moreover, despite repeated appeals, material problems and the unhealthy state of the soil, uncultivated and abandoned for so many centuries on the one hand; the moral distaste on the other, have not enabled more than a hundred thousand French and a hundred thousand foreigners to come and settle here among us. What is missing is a soul: Nisi Dominus aedificaverit Domum.
You, however, my beloved courageous Brothers, you find yourselves here, under the standard of Christian work, dedication and charity. You will reintroduce the examples, and why should I not say so, the miracles of the first disciples of Saint Benedict. You will not become truly religious until you live from the work of your hands after the example of the Apostles and the early hermits. The soil of our Africa is, at some points, an insurmountable obstacle for the establishing of a new population, until it has been cleaned up by work. Your willing hands will purify it, willing to give good example to the more timid, willing to submit, if necessary, to the exertion and, by this martyrdom of Christian work, to prepare the way for new inhabitants!
Life is hard for our settlers and often they give up half way, leaving behind children without resources and support. No one knows the number more than I do. You will be the fathers of these children, whose fathers are no more; you will receive them into your modest dwellings and feed them from your work. You will share with them your daily bread and especially bread for the soul, i.e., the lessons and examples of virtue. Sometimes, in addition, the elderly see their hopes unfulfilled at end of their careers. You will take the place of their sons; you will be for them a new family and after having consoled and sustained them till the end, you will piously close their eyes and will watch over their graves.
Above all, you will see around you a poor people distanced from you by fierce prejudices because of our role as masters and victors. My dearly beloved Brothers, you must seek to win their hearts, solely by your kindnesses. Regardless of their moral degradation today, you will recall that these men, women and children in rags, are, like you, children of God. You must never imitate those who mistreat or abuse their weakness. You will have respect and charity for them inspired by faith. You will offer ‘God’s hospitality’, as they say themselves, to all those who are ill, a place of refuge for little orphans and to all the proof that by your words and actions you love them as brothers. Gradually, in contact with your kindness and your example, you will see them approach you and give you their hearts. Those who come after us will one day see here one flock and one shepherd.
Here then is your task, my dearly beloved Brothers, in all its straightforwardness and grandeur. Doubtless it will have its problems and sorrows, but it will also have its inexpressible rewards. In the evening, after the working day, when you raise your eyes to the beautiful sky of our Africa, you will sense that God is with you and that he blesses you! Above all, in the evening of life, when, after long years of work and suffering, your tired hands will pass on to others the instruments of your labours, thinking of the poor you have helped, the orphans you have fed, the sick you have relieved and the major work of civilisation and faith that you began, you will thank God for having thus used your weakness for his purposes.
Perhaps, even certainly, my dearly beloved Brothers, your reward will not be of this world. Your dedication will be slandered during your lifetime and misjudged after your death. One-day men will come who will speak of your idleness, the idleness of the monks concerning the fields you have cleared and of the houses you will have built with your hands! What does it matter? The work will have been done and you labour for a Master who does not leave the works of his servants without reward!
Therefore, be of good heart! Faithful workers! Put your hand to the plough and, seeing the harvest reserved for you, do not look back, but strengthen yourselves by daily prayer, suffering and humility.
Genoa,
Dear Child in the Lord,
I counted on seeing you at Saint Eugène and that is why I waited until now to reply to your letter to tell you that I expect to have news of Saint Eugène, the children and your good self every fortnight. Now that my absence is to be prolonged, I insist on it all the more.
I understand very well that you are overworked, but it is our lot in our enterprises. For this year above all, I only see one remedy for our ills and that is patience and dedication. I will pray for you, dear Son and I ask you to pray for me, as I need prayer too. My heart is in Algeria, but my overriding duty detains me in Rome.
Tell your dear children that I often think of them and that I bless them with the sincere tenderness of a father , hoping they will grow in wisdom, above all in piety and also in knowledge.
I saw their little companions at Marseille and I was very pleased. Farewell, dear Son, my best wishes to Fr. Bouland and to Brother Deguerry. I commend myself to their prayers; I am all yours in Christ.
Charles Archbishop of Algiers.
P.S. I informed Father Charmetant that the geese, ducks and chickens at Saint Eugène are to be transferred to Maison-Carrée. Tell him to do so as soon as possible and to watch over the ducks and geese constantly. Otherwise, they will escape and the hunters will shoot them down.
Circular Letter of His Grace the Archbishop of Algiers to the Clergy of his Diocese, ordering prayers for the Sovereign Pontiff
Reverend Gentlemen and dear co-workers, you already know, in the midst of the misfortunes of our homeland the deplorable and lamentable situation of our Sovereign Pontiff, despoiled of all that remained of his States. These were, as our venerable French language tells us, the patrimony of the Church, i.e., the common property of the Catholic people. Pius IX is captive in his own palace. He can only have relations with the rest of the Christian world if his jailers allow it, for they could forbid it to him tomorrow.
In these extreme circumstances, our duty is to have recourse to prayer; there lies our almighty weapon, which will deliver Peter, the first of the Pontiffs, who was Herod’s prisoner when the whole Church prayed for him. Let us pray, Gentlemen, for the triumph of justice, of powerlessness, of this triple majesty of the High Priesthood, of virtue and of his age , all simultaneously oppressed in Pius IX. Let us pray for the persecuted and oppressed Church itself, in the person of its chief. Let us pray for European society, which has fallen so low, alas! Not a single official protest has been raised from it against these latest attacks. What am I saying! Did they not see them being prepared one day some fifteen years ago?
Consequently, from the Sunday following receipt of this letter and until the liberation of the Sovereign Pontiff, we will chant the ‘Miserere’, followed by the versicle ‘Let us pray for our Holy Father Pope Pius’ and the ‘Prayer for the Pope’ at Benediction.
Algiers, 27 October 1870
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
My dear Son,
Thank you for the news you send of Maison-Carrée. For me, they are a consolation in the midst of the dreadful problems that prevail in France and that threaten to break out into civil war. Pray lots, my dear children. I don’t know if you know that I am presenting myself for election to the Constituent Assembly. Elections are in six days time and this will keep me apart from you just at the point I was going to leave, because I was due to embark on Friday for Philippeville. The Holy Father wanted it and asked me to do this service for the Church. What will become of me? I don’t know. However, if I were to perish in the doing of my duty, I would commend myself to you, my dear children, before God, for him to forgive my sins.
I wish to let you know also that in foreseeing possible outcomes, I have appointed my Vicar General for the Mission. He is (Auxiliary) Bishop Soubirane. I chose him, because if I die, he will be able to be more helpful to you than anyone else. The temporal affairs are also free from financial worries and Bishop Soubirane knows how. Do not be saddened, children, by these arrangements. These simple precautions of prudence I am taking are in view of civil discord, during which Catholic Members of Parliament could become victims.
In any case, I trust that you will not run any risk in Algeria. Moreover, the terrible crisis that seems to threaten France does not seem to going to last, or go beyond the political arena.
Now, I am going to reply briefly to the questions you asked me. You can sell the red and grey horses you mentioned, provided they sell well. The red one cost me 1,200 Frs. You need to keep the black one that does the work of two. M. Combes sent me accounts showing that there are a lot of expenses at Maison-Carrée. Think about it. Do not make unnecessary expenses. We have not had donations here for a long time and our funds are diminishing at a fearsome rate.
Please ask Brother Tassy to send me through you an exact and detailed account by hundredweight, 1) wheat sent to Mr. Narbonne since August for milling; 2) wheat already consumed in flour; 3) wheat remaining. This chart has to include the quantity of wheat coming from Maison-Carrée as well as, twice, from the Attafs. What has been done with the barley, maize and broad beans from the Attafs? Has it been milled? I would also like to know the state of your livestock, pigs as well as cows, etc. Make out a complete chart for me, as I wish to sell off the surplus.
For the novices you mentioned to me, there is nothing more to do than maintain their rights, which are clear. You will see with Mr. Gillard who, as Vicar General, will certify that they have been seminarians for a year, and, besides, they were in Algeria before the 4th September. You can give the habit to these young men you mentioned to me, if Father Creusat thinks it opportune.
Farewell, my dear Son. I bless you all from the bottom of my heart, wishing you peace within and without and requesting your prayers for me.
With warmest greetings,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
P.S. You have to plant potatoes in the vineyard and everywhere you can as soon as possible.
Letter to Father Charmetant: Continue to trust! (29 June 1871)
Paris,
Dear Son,
I need your news, as it was not without acute worries that I left you.
I pray God daily, at each moment, for your children and you and I ask him for the means to repair the evil already done for many reasons. Take advice from Father Creusat for problems of detail that could arise. Whatever happens, do not give way to discouragement. Have recourse to Our Lord and to Our Lady of Africa. Do your best and give good example in all areas.
Farewell, my dear Son. Write; tell me a bit about what the situation is, material, and, above all, spiritual. I bless you with all my heart. In Christ,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Charmetant (10th July 1871)
Paris,
My dear Son,
It is almost a month since I left Algiers and I have no news of you at all. This is not good. The situation in which I left you makes me suffer all the more because of this silence. I hope, nevertheless, that God will have helped and protected you and that I shall find you all on my return inspired with the firm attitude of amending the past.
I plan to return in a fortnight, or, at the latest, three weeks, i.e., Monday the 24th or Monday the 31st of this month. My dear Son, I commend you to maintain regularity as far as possible and to give the example yourself. Do not get lost in external and material works, which have their unrelenting demands, but which are only secondary and very secondary.
In the midst of all our trials, I still receive applications for the Postulancy and I accept them. I am planning to reopen the Novitiate on the 1st October. I am carefully studying your rules again to modify what painful experience shows us to be inapplicable. I count on you, dear child, on Fr. Deguerry, Fr. Soboul, Brothers Prudhomme and Castex, and the young priest just arrived, to give to all the example of a good spirit and fidelity to the Work.
As for the children, subsequent to changes made in the situation, their first departure for France is postponed to the Saturday following my arrival in Algiers. Have them be patient until then by telling them that I don’t want them to go, even for a short time, without me seeing them and blessing them. I am not speaking to you about material works. I believe they are ongoing. I would like the plot of land between the garden of the big house and my house proper to be tilled and levelled to plant artichokes at the beginning of next month.
Farewell, my dear child. I bless you since I love you from the bottom of my heart as father and friend.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Notification on the Society of Missionaries of Africa or of the Venerable Geronimo, founded at Algiers under the authority of His Grace the Apostolic Delegate of the Missions of the Sahara and the Sudan, dedicated to the Priests and Seminarians of France.
Three years ago, this little society was founded in Algiers with the approval and authority of His Grace the Apostolic Delegate of the Missions of the Sahara and the Sudan. As its name implies, it is intended to bring the light of the Gospel to the immense continent, which, until today, has remained almost inaccessible to the zeal of the apostolate. The Missionaries of Africa live in community, but they do not take Religious Vows at all. Like the priests of the Foreign Missions, they are secular Missionaries, united by the ties of a single government and rule, submitted to the authority of a single Superior and taking an Oath to consecrate themselves to the Mission, as is done in Rome by the Missionaries.
Although the seminary of the Society is set up in Algiers, it is not however a diocesan institution. The priests who come from it cannot be employed in the ordinary tasks of sacred ministry. They are specially charged with the Mission to the local inhabitants, in the whole expanse of north and central Africa where Local Ordinaries call them. For this, they must go where their Superiors send them.
The mission entrusted to them is poor, hard, difficult and the most desolate in the world. It offers to those who devote themselves to it only hardships of all kinds and often, perhaps especially in the beginning, martyrdom, for on several of the points they need to evangelise, the people are fiercely fanatical. For this reason, the Mission of Africa can only tempt those to whom Our Lord himself has given a taste for the truly fruitful words of the apostolate, ‘If anyone wishes to be my disciple, let him renounce himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.’
However, at this price, a great inner joy is reserved to Missionaries. It is to attempt at least and perhaps to succeed in a task that up to now has presented insurmountable obstacles. It is to overthrow the barriers that Islam and barbarism oppose to the Church in Africa and to truth. Our little emerging society therefore appeals to the generous zeal of priests and seminarians of France who wish to give themselves completely to God and God alone in the service of the most abandoned souls. It is for those who are not self-seeking, but who desire to suffer and die for God!
Quite providential circumstances have given us the means to unite and prepare the work of the Mission. A degree of facility has surfaced for us from the latest events that troubled Algeria and that had seemed, by contrast, to make our enterprise impossible! What we lack are workers, good apostolic workers, for the harvest is great and we are still very few. If any of those reading these lines felt a spark of the apostolate ignite in him, ready to give up everything, and if he wanted to know a little more in detail about our rules and the works to which we devote ourselves, we believe that we could expose here the following extract from our Constitutions, approved by His Grace the Apostolic Delegate and printed in Algiers.
Here follow long extracts from the Constitutions, already quoted previously,. These extracts restate the different types of apostolate of the missionaries, the rules of life and prayer in common. The whole document finishes with the following conclusion:
In a few words, such is the perspective of the apostolic works of our Society. Its first rule is to conform in all areas to the doctrines, direction and slightest desires of the Holy See. It is to this life of poverty, dangers, trials of all sorts and martyrdom, if obliged, that we dare to invite our brothers of France to whom God utters the call of grace in the depth of their hearts! Already trained priests, young major seminarians (Levites) , we will welcome all those who would like to become working companions, where we have nothing to offer them of what the world is seeking.
Our Seminary is built in isolation, on the shore of the Africa Sea, near Algiers. Three Fathers of the Society of Jesus conduct it. It is here that the priests have to do a year’s probation to learn the local language and integrate the apostolic virtues. The young clerics spend their time in novitiate and in studies. We ask nothing, of those who apply, neither gold nor silver. We ask only sound virtue, the willingness to devote themselves to the salvation of the local inhabitants, the courage and strength to put up with material poverty, contradictions, and the pain accompanying such a change of life.
Those who wish to devote themselves to this work and become Missionaries of Africa should make a written application to Rev. Fr. Creusat, Superior of the Mission Seminary at Maison-Carrée, near Algiers, or else to Archbishop Lavigerie, Apostolic Delegate at the Archdiocese of Algiers. They should send the required certificates for identification with their application. If accepted, they will be sent a free travel ticket for the crossing from Marseille to Algiers.
Seen and Approved,
Charles, Archbishop, Apostolic Delegate of the Missions of the Sahara and the Sudan,
Algiers, 24 September 1871,
Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, Redemptrix of African Slaves.
Circular Letter of His Grace the Archbishop of Algiers bearing on the communication of a Brief from the Sovereign Pontiff to the clergy of his diocese in reply to an Address from the Diocesan Synod
Gentlemen and dear Co-workers,
Today, I fulfil a joyful duty in communicating to you the Brief whereby our Most Holy Father Pope Pius IX graciously replies to the Synod Letter in which all the clergy of this diocese renewed the homage of its dedication and obedience to His Holiness and its faith in the divine prerogatives of the Holy See. You will see with joy, Gentlemen, that this testimony to our filial piety consoled momentarily the heart of our Father in the midst of his painful heartache.
There you will find a pledge of hopefulness in his blessings, the fatherly tenderness which Pope Pius IX grants to our African Church re-emerging from its ruins and which, according to the words of this great and holy Pontiff, aspires to reinstate its former splendour. In truth, Gentlemen and dear Co-Workers, I can but join my feeble voice to his, to thank God and congratulate you all in the progress I see being accomplished in front of us, despite so many obstacles to our ecclesiastical and religious undertakings.
In these last four years, the diocesan clergy has almost doubled the number of its priests. In addition, four new men’s Congregations have established themselves among us: the Norbertines, the Basilians, the Spanish Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, the priests of the African Missions. Something truly marvellous, two others have arisen from our own soil: the Fathers of the Mission and the Brothers of the Mission of the Venerable Geronimo.
Five new women’s Congregations have come to bring us their valuable aid for the education of children and the direction of works of charity: the Sisters of Saint-Charles de Nancy, the Sisters of Saint-Joseph des Vans, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Sisters of the Assumption of Our Lady and the Virgins of Jesus and Mary. Another Congregation, founded at Algiers, is the Sisters of the Mission.
In all, today we can count in our Diocese ten men’s Congregations, twelve women’s Congregations, over two hundred priests who work together for the establishing of the faith and Christian life on this land that has been so long forsaken.
The diocesan establishments have multiplied satisfactorily in proportion. Threatened at one time by the separation of the three dioceses and the suppression of the greater part of their resources, they came through the storm without perishing. The Junior Seminary, in particular, stripped of any grant, deprived of two-thirds of its pupils, multiplied, so to say, in the midst of conflict. Instead of the single institute of Saint-Eugène, we now have four: a Junior Seminary as such, beside the Major Seminary at Kouba; two Church Colleges, one at Blida, the other at Algiers and finally, by God’s blessing that none of us could expect, there is even a Junior Seminary with fifty local children, Arab and Kabyle, preparing for the Catholic priesthood.
I leave aside the Mission Seminary, the retirement home for our elderly and even our orphanages. Nonetheless, they have already given us a priceless harvest, since they have saved over eight hundred children for heaven. Eight hundred others, mainly Christian, are today growing and learning how to work and live morally. What I tell you, Gentlemen, is not to make you prideful. I tell you this to give you the courage required in the midst of hardships, trials, contradictions, persecutions and calumnies with which our ministry is assailed from every corner in these sad times. It reminds you that our services, which often we believe sterile, are not in fact so, thanks to the hand of God that sustains us and rectifies our mistakes by his kindness. Therefore, take courage! Gentlemen and dear Co-workers, whatever may be the present problems, there are better days that are coming here for the apostolate. A sensible policy, truly, colonial, truly French and truly Christian is at last taking shape and promises us a time of true freedom, the only attribute that the Church requests of earthly powers to accomplish its divine mission.
Bear in mind that the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth blesses us and exhorts us to the good fight. Take courage and no matter the trials that still await us, let us recall the words of the Master: ‘Take courage, I have overcome the world.’ Now, Gentlemen, here is the Brief of the Sovereign Pontiff that I have preceded with this Address, so that you may keep it together in the archives of your parishes like a sacred souvenir of our latest Synod.
(The text of the Papal Brief is inserted here. Then Lavigerie concludes):
We will add nothing to such a speech, Gentlemen and dear Co-workers. For you and for us it will endure as a privilege and a strength. Let us ask God daily to make us worthy of it and above all to make it a truth. Yours affectionately and devotedly in the Lord,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Propagation of the Faith (27th March 1872)
Algiers,
Gentlemen,
Father Charmetant, a Missionary from the Diocese of Lyons and Superior of our Mission Junior Seminary for local inhabitants, writes to you a letter that I am adding to this one. It is intended for your Records. I myself will write you another very soon on the foundation of our first village for Christian Arabs. I would even ask you to keep it on the baptismal register in giving it its name. It will be inaugurated in June. A small church and twelve houses have been built at our own cost.
At the same time, and following on benign changes in the ideas of the Algerian government vis-à-vis the local inhabitants of Algeria, and thanks to total freedom from now on left to the apostolate, we will begin new establishments in Kabylia. Three entirely Kabyle villages have asked for priests and Sisters to reside among them. We have been able to buy a house in one of these villages; I will go to bless it on Low Sunday. However, we are short of funds, which are essential. We have to be able to maintain Mission personnel there right away, so as not to lose a favourable opportunity.
I have recourse to you, Gentlemen, for this quite extraordinary purpose. Despite the problems of the day, I hope you will be able to come to my assistance.
With every good wish… Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Charmetant for travel to Rome (11th August 1872)
Algiers,
My dear Son,
I am going to spend a few days in Rome, and I would gladly take the opportunity to allow two of you to come and represent the Work at the feet of the Holy Father and request his blessing on them. You and Father Deguerry have naturally been chosen. If you can therefore find replacements, I authorise you to come and join me in Rome at the Hotel Minerva. Ask Fr. Combes for two tickets and once in Marseille, you take the ferry to Civitavecchia or the train for Genoa, Florence and Rome. Ask Fr. Combes to give you 1,000 francs for this journey.
I think Father Richard and Father Bouchand will be able to come to
Saint-Eugène and Brother Pascal and someone else will be able to replace Father Deguerry. You will be absent for a fortnight. Make your preparations in view of this, materially and spiritually. Advise Father Deguerry not to leave behind any child that causes him concern, and do not leave anyone yourself either. Anything out of kilter, bring it to Marseille. Mr. Breuillot cannot remain at Saint-Eugène. I enclose a word to him that you can pass on to him. Bring him back to France with you.
Farewell, dear friend, or rather see you soon. From the bottom of my heart, Yours in Our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
P.S. I count on you both in your faith and self-denial not to forsake your activities if they were to lead to suffering in your absence. Tell all this to Father Deguerry. Bring the habit of your Society in good condition to appear before the Pope. I plan to be in Rome on the 22nd and remain until the 1st September.
Letter to Father Deguerry, Superior of Saint Cyprien des Attafs Village (11th November 1872)
Algiers,
My dear Son,
I am advising you once again about what I told you two days ago. I sent you to the Attafs as a Missionary and not as a farmer. You are not in the slightest in charge of directing the work, which is Brother Jérôme’s field, but only to give general direction from the religious and moral point of view and for the exact carrying out of the duties entrusted to each individual.
You and Father Feuillet, you should busy yourself only with the Mission, visiting the tribes, creating bonds of friendship with the Arabs and opening your school as soon as possible. I ask you to make sure that all the points of the Rule, without exception, are kept by everyone: rising, going to bed, meals, prayers, visits to the Blessed Sacrament. This is of prime importance, especially at the beginning and I hold you responsible for any laxity you would let into the Work. Don’t waste time running around the fields spending hours at a time there. Be content with a general inspection from the point of view I gave you, on each one’s duties.
Remember you are a priest and a Missionary and that God will hold you accountable, not for the harvest, but for your soul and the souls entrusted to you. Tell this on my behalf to Father Feuillet and remind him of the obligation to write to me at least once a month.
Farewell, my dear Son. I bless you all from the bottom of my heart; your father in Our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers.
Letter to Father Bouchand at Laghouat (27th November 1872)
Les Attafs,
My dear Son,
You will notice by the date of this letter that I am with Father Deguerry and Father Paulmier. It is from there I write to you, although a little late. I was unable to do so in Algiers because I have been too busy.
I am happy, dear Son, with your healthy attitude and zeal. You must add three indispensable qualities for mission: regularity, perseverance and prudence. All three of you are still quite young and if you allow your imagination to run riot, even in good pursuits, you will suffer, as much in yourselves as for the work. Be therefore only what you should be at this moment; i.e., a good priest and schoolteacher. On the one hand, pray and give good example, on the other, apply yourself as best you can to make your pupils progress. The rest will follow in God’s good time.
I note with pleasure that you are rather put out by the presbytery at Laghouat. It would be deplorable if you were more at ease on mission than we would have been if you had not become missionaries. My dear Son, may God let you taste the joy there is in following him in his poverty and charity for souls and that it will always be beneficial for you.
I bless you and I am with you heart and soul; your father in Our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop, Apostolic Delegate.
P.S. If you want to know how your confrères are doing among the Attafs from where I am writing, I would say in two words that Fathers and Brothers are doing very well. The Fathers have begun classes for only two pupils. They distribute lots of medication, go to visit the sick and are well regarded by the Arabs. The village is being finished only slowly because the contractor is ill. We will not be able to inaugurate the buildings until the end of January . I hope to see you beforehand at Laghouat.
Letter to Father Charmetant, Superior at Laghouat (27th November 1872)
Les Attafs,
My dear Son,
Not knowing about your presence at Laghouat or your journey to the Mzab prevented me from replying sooner to your letters. The one I received from Father Paulmier, giving me the certitude of your departure and your expected return, gives me hope that these lines will find you at your residence.
My dear Son, I regret all the useless commotion made about your journey. Your multiple telegrams, your approach to the Commandant Superior, all this was enough to bring about a major storm. It was nipped in the bud, but do not do this again. Never send me telegrams about the Mission. All your telegrams are read at Laghouat by the Commandant, at Médéa by the General, at Algiers by the General, Head of Arab Affairs, and by the Governor.
It is a miracle that all these people agreed. Our Lady of Africa performed the miracle this time; but don’t count on it anymore! You are young, my dear child, and I am not surprised by this lack of experience, but at least you have learned the lesson.
I hope you finished your journey safely. I wish to receive the detailed account of it and I ask you to write it immediately. If suitable, we will place some extracts in our Bulletin de Sainte-Monique.
As for your plan of purchases and Arab college at Laghouat, you will have to give it up completely. Content yourself in your little presbytery. It is not our aim to buy splendid buildings; we have too many of them. Moreover, for a boarding school such as you are proposing, we need staff and expenses we cannot meet. Just do your classes as best you can. If some child appears who can be sent to us at Saint-Eugène, accept him from his parents and nothing more.
Finally, dear child, consider Laghouat as only a first stage. The African interior is our objective. It is there we have to reach out to with all our might. I am confident that Our Lord will enable the means for you to enter into this Promised Land of our apostolate.
My dear child, trust in my fatherly feelings for you and my blessing for you and your brothers.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Annual Report to the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide (11th December 1872)
Algiers,
Your Eminence,
As the Blessed Festivities of Christmas approach, I am fulfilling a joyful duty in offering Your Eminence my sincere best wishes of respect and devoted affection. I pray to God that he will grant Your Eminence long life for the good of his Church and restore your health that has been lacking for some months.
Here, Your Eminence, our activities continue to progress. I have just had built a very comfortable residence for future Apostolic Delegates of the Sahara and thus to put the final touch to the creation of this mission. There are 53 Missionaries. Those who are in the Sahara are very satisfied with the unexpected welcome they have received. The others who run the Seminary for local inhabitants, numbering sixty-nine Arab and Kabyle children intended for the priesthood, are also full of confidence in their enterprise.
From the material point of view, everything continues to make good progress. We have never been in debt and our income, due to the charity of France and the produce of our lands, is in excess of three hundred thousand francs. In these unfortunate times, it is a kind of miracle, for which we readily give thanks to Divine Providence.
I noted with sadness in the newspapers the death of Bishop Valerga . It is a huge loss for the Church and the Holy See. He will never be equalled in the Near East.
In this respect, Your Eminence, if I were allowed to voice an opinion, I believe the appointment of a Frenchman to Jerusalem would rapidly and favourably advance the progress of Catholicism in the Near East. France has huge resources in money and men and a Frenchman can turn them to account, if required, for the benefit of the Holy Land. Moreover, the real crux of all the Eastern issues is in Paris. An able French Bishop could manage these matters for the best, in the present and the future, for the benefit of the Church in the Near East.
I know it is hard to find the right man, but I see the undertaking and the means to make it succeed as so important that I would not hesitate personally, if the Holy Father asked me, to make the sacrifice of my situation to take it on. Here, today, my mission is founded. It is only a matter of maintaining it and a Bishop can easily be found to do so. In the Near East, it is another matter. The problems are countless and almost everything is still to be done or prepared.
However, Your Eminence is a better judge than I in this matter. I ask you to excuse my boldness and to see me, in this as in all matters, your very humble, respectful and affectionate servant.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Superior of the Jesuit Fathers relative to the Mission in Kabylia (1st February 1873)
Algiers,
Most Reverend Father,
The time has come for us to be able, I hope, to begin some small installations in Kabylia. You want to open some posts there and I am not against it. The Missionaries of the VG (Venerable Geronimo, Translator’s Note) want to found some as well and I will help them to do so. However, so that everything takes place without problems and without friction in this difficult task, I need firstly to inform you of the following rules that you, as well as the Missionaries, will formally accept in writing.
1) The present and future Archbishop of Algiers must approve beforehand every new establishment, school, residence, post, etc. etc. Without this, we would be vulnerable to rivalries, as well as boundary and influence quarrels that we must avoid at all costs.
2) No public collection will take place for this mission by the Jesuit Fathers or by the Missionaries in France or Algeria. The Jesuit Fathers will have to run their works with the own resources and the Mission with those that I will obtain for the work in general. The reason is that I need all the resources that the faithful can afford, so as not to go under with the burden of my works, and if we set out to collect for another special mission in Kabylia, it would divide hearts and minds and would dry up all our sources.
3) Until further notice, it is forbidden to both Jesuit Fathers and Missionaries of the Venerable Geronimo to speak of religion to the Kabyles, unless it is dogmas they assent to and their former Christian traditions. For the time being, you will limit yourselves to caring for the sick and schooling the children.
4) Neither Jesuit Fathers nor Missionaries will be able to open a college in Kabylia. They will limit themselves to classes for day pupils. Nevertheless, they could receive some poor children on their premises. However, once they know how to read, they should be sent to Algiers to a special institute, such as Saint-Eugène, until further notice, so as to avoid giving rise to Muslim fanaticism by an excessive number of children.
5) It is forbidden to baptise anyone, and even to propose Baptism, without my authority.
Here are the rules that I believe need ... and for which I need written agreement. I am keeping a copy in my possession.
Yours sincerely in Our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Two Rulings for the Mission in Kabylia (3rd April 1873)
Algiers,
It is not only public preaching which I forbid, it is even individual preaching, until we have sunk roots in Kabylia, a time I reserve to myself to determine. For schools, I repeat that I do not allow boarding schools in Kabylia until further notice; I will not allow more that four or five boarders per house. If there are more, they need to be shifted to Algiers. As for day pupils, the more there are the better.
The second text, although it is also entitled ‘Ruling’, is in the form of a letter.
Algiers
My dear Children,
In the most valued and serious interest of the Work, I order, in virtue of the obedience, which you have sworn to me in whatever concerns the Mission, and this sub gravi:
1) To speak Kabyle and Arabic but never French; likewise, to avoid using interpreters with the local people, even if you have to endure embarrassments in the beginning .
2) Never to go under any pretext to French parishes, unless you are in Algiers, with my authority. If you have purchases to make there, send a Kabyle messenger with a written work for the parish priest who will be good enough to provide what you need.
I pray to God to bless you. I am your father in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
P.S. Father Deguerry should observe the present Ruling to the letter and I oblige him in conscience.
Letter to Father Charmetant, Superior at Biskra (12th April 1873)
Algiers,
My dear Sons,
I will begin by scolding Father Richard who has not written to me, as required by the Rule; this done, I thank Father Charmetant for the details he gives me. I wish to receive by the very next post the particular rule of your community life, which I shall sign and will send back to you to serve as law. The absolute obligation of always speaking Arabic among you and with the local people has to be observed. Without this, you will make no progress and Father Richard will not succeed. I recommend Brother Laurent to you. Look after him and treat him like a brother.
My dear sons, live at home as much as possible; don’t make unnecessary visits, especially to women and keep busy with the local people. I approve of you receiving children, but only for assessment. You must not keep those who have improper attitudes or those who lack intelligence. Experience tells us that we ought to bring up educated men, catechists, priests if we can, but not workers or farmers. On these terms, I accept the little orphan of Tebessa for Saint-Eugène, and later your orphans, when you will know them sufficiently.
Here, everything is going quite well. The Nortbertines are leaving and we are taking over Our Lady of Africa next week. Father Charbonnier will take charge. In Kabylia, we are going to make two new foundations. The novices will not come. Only two arrived from Rodez.
Farewell, my dear children. I bless you from afar, just as your father in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Charmetant, Superior at Biskra (2nd July 1873)
Algiers,
My dear Son,
Some time ago I commissioned Father Terrasse to reply to Brother Laurent. I expect he has done so. The best seems to me to have this good Brother take vows for a year. During this time, we will conclude our Rules. As for conscription, if there are special reasons, he should state them. I authorise you to have the house repaired. However, the sum you indicate is out of all proportion to its purchase price. Therefore, do it as cheaply as you can.
For the moment, I cannot send you a third priest. It will only be possible in October. In anticipation of events, this week we are founding a third mission in Kabylia, in addition to a mission at Géryville at the request of the Bishop of Oran. There are six new subjects to find.
I shall leave for Rome on the 12th July to present my Council to the Pope. I am sick with fatigue and also with grief over the tragic accident that took away two of our novices at Maison-Carrée and almost deprived us of four. It is a terrible example of the effects of disobedience. I myself went to forbid them to go bathing some days before. They did go and poor Brothers Osten and Colliaux lost their lives there.
My dear children, according to what I hear and what you yourselves tell me, I am afraid that you are diving into parish work a bit too much, to the detriment of the Arab task and in particular, you are seeing a little too much of the world, i.e., the officers. You will lose your vocation in this risky game. Resume, please, the exercise of your Rule and in your next monthly reports reply to these three questions: 1) Do you read your Rule in common every month? 2) Do you do your prayer and devotions in common? 3) Are you faithful to speaking only Arabic among yourselves?
Here, God continues to bless us. Only money is diminishing noticeably. The new Governor seems well disposed. We hear that you are going to see Mr de Sonis at Constantine, replacing General Lacroix. This will be a great joy.
Farewell, my dear children, I bless you. I am all yours in the love of the Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Deguerry Superior at Ouadhias (6th July 1873)
Algiers,
My dear Son,
The situation is becoming increasingly difficult. A single act of imprudence from one of you can destroy everything. You must therefore, more than ever before, adhere to the rule that I gave you:
1) Never speak of religion to the Kabyles, on any pretext. Above all, do not commit any of them directly or indirectly to become a Christian and do not baptise anyone, even in danger of death, except a child already in its last agony. I blame Father Prudhomme very strenuously for what he did in this respect to a sick and mentally disabled child. I blame him even more for writing it to me in a letter that could have fallen into the hands of anyone. Moreover, as an example for all, I am depriving Father Prudhomme from celebrating Holy Mass for three days for the error he committed. This is not the time to convert; it is the time to win hearts and the trust of the Kabyles by charity and kindness. You must not aim at anything else; everything you do outside of this will put the Work in jeopardy.
2) I do not think you need to accept statute labour from now on; above all, you must never ask for it. How could you have done so for the Arifs?
3) For this last post, you must go and install it yourself. I hope the hostility that you noticed will gradually disappear. If it is otherwise, let me know.
4) Poor Father Chardron is surprised by the indifference of the Kabyles. This is really astonishing. Does he think they are Christians? Doesn’t he know they are Muslims? It is up to us to win them over gradually, but for that we will perhaps need a century.
Truly, my children, I am sorry and confused to see that you understand so little of your Work and the human heart. Arrange the three posts for the personnel as you see fit. For the material, I approve what you intend to do in Ouadhias.
I leave for Rome on Saturday. In my absence, you will refer to Father Terrasse for spiritual direction and that of the Mission, and to Father Combes for money.
I bless you, my dear children, and I am all yours in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
P.S. Please read this letter to all your confrères.
Letter to Father Charmetant Superior at Ouadhias (5th January 1874)
Algiers,
My dear Son,
The upsurge in applications you bring to my notice is very important, but you must act with great prudence. Above all, you must absolutely omit any religious propaganda. The Jesuit Fathers have been accused of distributing medals of Our Lady and Our Lord. If they have done so, they are desperately wrong. You and your confreres, I repeat, must abstain from taking a similar approach.
I agree with you, dear friend, that we need to build each post in stone; at least a little house. Now for that, you need to organise something and above all set yourselves up at Tizi-Ouzou. The only thing to prepare without delay is the stone, from both Beni-Arifs and Tagmount. No, my dear child, you must not leave Tagmount for now. We will teach the Kabyles what they need to do to expel us. Later, when we will be all over the place, we can withdraw without too much bother from a post, but not today. The less we succeed, the more we need to hold on. Now I would ask you to go immediately to Tagmount to settle affairs about the stone quarrying.
Farewell, my dear child, I bless you and your good confreres. Tell them I am very grateful about what they write to me as devoted and worthy. Recommend the observation of the Rule to them. Yours sincerely in Our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Fr. Charmetant, Superior at Ouadhias- Living poor (23rd January 1874)
Algiers,
My dear child,
I am sending Father Soboul to Tagmount-Azouz where he will soon become Superior after the departure of Father Prudhome whom I shall recall near the first of February.
I still cannot understand how the house where you are spends more than the others that are content with what I give them. Indeed, I give them, as well as to you, more than any diocesan priest, in proportion. Your Rule is to live like the local people and the Mission will soon collapse if you do not do so. Now what local person spends twelve hundred francs a year, without counting clothing and travel? Naturally, there are none. I am saddened, my dear child, to see that you, who are one of our seniors, are pushing in a similar path and give a very destructive example. You are thus working to destroy the Work very soon. Indeed, it can only survive through poverty and assimilation with the local population in food and materials.
I am pleased that the applications from the local people are multiplying. You need to welcome them in principle and decide to act towards the spring. For the purchase of plots of land, have a good look by yourself and another Father you will take with you. Then, send me proper proposals. I cannot decide with words up in the air. Go and see the things on the spot and deal with the business completely before referring it to me.
I am happy to learn from you that you are not making any imprudent propaganda; keep it up. I even think we could introduce ourselves as marabou-doctors and not seek out children for schooling. We could open schools later and very unassumingly.
Farewell, my dear child. Yours sincerely in Our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Deguerry, Superior at Saint-Cyprien des Attafs (24th January 1874)
Algiers,
My dear Son,
The school objectives were sent off this morning and I expect you will have received them before this letter. You must hurry to organise the classes for men and for women. These classes should last two hours each evening, i.e., three quarters of an hour of reading, a half-hour of singing canticles or other, three quarters of an hour of writing. On Sunday morning: an hour of reading and an hour of singing; in the evening, an hour of writing and an hour of singing.
The Sisters for the class will arrive on Monday. Make sure everything is ready for their class: tables, benches, etc. Give them also half the syllabaries, exercise books, pens, hymn books, cards, ink, etc. etc. Finally, while paying special attention to the boys, do not neglect the women.
Begin immediately the Congregation of the Children of Mary. They have a manual with their rules. Elect as president the most devout woman, the best able to exert a good moral influence. Entrust the direction of the Congregation to Sister P… whom I am sending to you to direct the women’s class. She is the most capable of the Sisters and the most reasonable.
Begin also the Congregation for the boys. Give them the Little Office of Sunday and badges that you will have them vote for themselves and that you will propose for my approval. With the Sisters, I am sending eight little children from Saint Charles; three for the norias (the two smallest and one almost sightless), five for the flocks. These eight children will be under the direction of Sister S… They will sleep on the floor on straw mattresses, which they will remove in the morning, either in the refectory, in the Sisters’ community room, or elsewhere, if you see fit, for example in the grounds, but always with a Brother or Sister within reach. The Sisters will feed them and will give them, as at Saint Charles, only bread and soup. They will also clothe them.
I have bought you a superb harmonium, which will arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday. Go to fetch it yourself at the station and make sure it is carried with care: on a stretcher would be best.
My dear Son, I earnestly recommend your undertaking. It is of extreme importance. Everyone has his or her eyes fixed on it. Some English people came to ask me to visit it. The Consul of England wrote to me to obtain a notice on our villages so that he could put it into a book on Algeria. The Governor wants to come and see you. Therefore everything needs to be in good working order. Direct the men with energy with the aim of surpassing the women’s defects of character . If little troubles arise, hide them from everybody instead of complaining. Recommend the same thing to the Sisters. Moreover, be convinced that prayer, dedication, and faith will be your best weapons.
Farewell, dear Child, write to me often and believe me that I am all yours,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Missionaries (18th September 1874)
My very dear Sons in Our Lord,
I can finally officially pass on to you the text of the Decree of our Provincial Council, which praises and encourages your Society of the Missions of Africa. I am communicating this to you with a double joy. It is not only, in fact, the word of your Bishops, that of the first Council of the Church of Africa resurrected, which congratulates you and approves of your undertaking. A higher significance and authority are given to this already solemn Act, by the approval with which the Holy See has invested the Decrees of the Provincial Council of Algiers.
However, even if this favour is extraordinary, I must, to give thanks to God with you, recognise that his blessings on your emerging Society had already prepared you. May you now be able to respond to this by a boundless dedication to the salvation of your brothers and above all recognise with humility that you are nothing, in spite of everything, but useless servants! This is the feeling that fills me. I am astounded that God willed to choose me to work towards, despite my weakness, an undertaking so great and so difficult.
Only a few years ago, not only did your little Society not exist, but also, even in the conditions applied to us in Algeria, it seemed impossible. How could we have dreamt of making our colony the centre of a Mission that would penetrate the depths of Africa, whereas the apostolate could not be exercised in Algeria itself?
However, God willed it. He wanted this conquest, the last of the most Christian kings, to be also the last crusade, the one that ought to be waged with truly apostolic arms of charity and martyrdom. He wanted new apostles to leave from these shores where the holiest of our kings met his death.
We have also seen, in the midst of countless calamities and problems, troubled times, when we wondered daily if Catholic France, if the whole former Christian world was on the way to destruction. Whereas persecution held sway against the most venerable Orders , your Work germinated in African soil, from an idea born of charity and faith. It took root and became a tree where the birds of the air began to find shelter.
‘ Six years ago you numbered three or four at the most, united in a notion of apostolic dedication; today, Fathers and Brothers, you exceed 100. Then, you had only one house under your supervision, born of painful necessity; today, your buildings multiply step by step to the Sahara Desert. Where could you find, I repeat, a mark of Heaven’s blessing more striking? I therefore hope that it will predestine you to be the instruments of his mercies for so many souls plunged in the most terrifying darkness of barbarism. I hope that the light of truth will rise on this land previously accursed. After having for so long undergone the effects of divine anger, may the sons of Ham feel the effects of his mercy through you.
What gives me hope that God chose you to work effectively in the footsteps of other Apostolic Societies that go before you on other points of Africa, on this enterprise of life, is the spirit of self-denial and sacrifice that with joy I see prevail among you. What appealed to you in such an undertaking, and led you from so far and in such numbers? It is indeed what seemed to repel you most. I mean the problems, the hardships, the perils, the sufferings demanded. There is no Mission in the world where there was more to suffer in poverty, fatigue, heat, thirst and hunger. Moreover, the more the path opened to you in the centre of these barbaric countries, you also witnessed the cruelty of the inhabitants.
The Fathers of the illustrious Society of Jesus, who supervised your formation with such dedication and zeal, as well as myself, we did not hide all this from you, as you applied to enter the Society of Missionaries. You know what I wrote, as the future motto of your Work, on the Letters of Reference one of you presented to me on his arrival at Algiers. Now, even though you know it, I nevertheless want to register it here for your successors. This good priest, from one of the most religious and peaceable dioceses of France, brought me his Letters of Reference to be allowed to celebrate Mass. I took them and without saying anything, instead of the ordinary formulation, I wrote Visum pro martyrio. I then gave him back his letters saying, ‘Read this; do you agree?’ ‘It is for this I have come’, he said to me simply.
You have all heard the same words in one form or another on your arrival; you have all given the same reply. Indeed, my dearly beloved Sons, the trial that awaits you all. If it is not the bloody and quick martyrdom, it will be the real and long martyrdom of the everyday; the martyrdom of deprivation, illness, premature death, and something even more bitter, as long as you are not in the midst of non-Christians. It is the martyrdom of terms of abuse, insults, and the lowermost slanders. They come from those who should be upholding your ministry, since by their baptism at least they are Christian.
However, once you have suffered all this in imitation and in the spirit of the Master who sends you out, you will feel immense joy, of which the Apostle Paul speaks amid the perils of the sea and the rivers, the long journeys, the brigands and false friends: Superabundo gaudio in omni tribulatione nostra. The promise comes from God himself and therefore you will not be disappointed: Quicomque reliquerit patrem, aut matrem, aut agros, propter me, centuplum accipiet. Now, what is this hundredfold? It is the joy of taking part in the work of God, in the work of the redemption, of the resurrection of souls, to this work of which it is written: Ignem veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur. And again: Ego veni ut vitam habeant. It is this vibrant and overabundant joy that with simplicity one of you demonstrated to me these last few days. Writing from one of these poor huts that you live in in Kabylia, and that fell on your heads three times this winter, he says, ‘I lack everything, but nevertheless, I would not exchange my lot with any king on earth!’
May God in his goodness, always preserve in you this spirit of joyful generosity: Hilarem datorem diligit Deus. May he give you the strength to sacrifice all and yourselves for the salvation of these poor souls to whom he sends you. It is the law of the apostolate: Omnia impendam et superimpendar ipse pro animabus vestris. Make these words a reality in your lives. You have begun by giving everything, those you love in taking your distance from them, your mother tongue, clothing, food all the habits of the past and exchanging them for the barbarian language, clothing, food and customs of those to whom you wish to give the light. After having done this, after making yourselves all things to all men, according to the language of the Apostle St. Paul: Omnibus omnia factus sum , desire only one thing: life for these poor souls and for you. The grace of God will enable you to put up with them, work, persecution, a cruel death if necessary and superimpendar ipse.
This is your law, I repeat, my beloved Sons. You have freely chosen it; you have bound yourselves to it by Oath and by this sacrifice of your whole selves, you have added a link to this golden chain of superhuman dedication that the Church holds in its hands from its beginnings, like a magnificent proof that its origin is high above the earth. However, an heroic act or sentiment is not enough, in order to sanctify oneself and become able to sanctify others. After the act and even with this sentiment, one can fall. Saint Paul feared for himself. How much more should we not fear for ourselves? Ne cum aliis proedicaverim ipse reprobus efficiar . To become a saint, a whole life of virtue is required. Life is composed of a succession of acts and moment that all have their importance for this great objective.
For this reason, in all Apostolic Societies, independently of the spirit that energises them, there are precise Rules that foresee and order all: practical rules of prudence, order, and wisdom, that aim to avoid dangers, to increase the power of good by the union of forces, to ensure, in a word, the success of the battle for each soldier and for the whole army by drawing up the battle plan in advance.
These Rules were drawn up for you and you have been following them for several years. The experience appears sufficient for the Episcopal Authority to approve them conclusively, as far as it is concerned. This is what I am doing in the Order, which concludes this Pastoral Letter, after promulgating the Decree of the Provincial Council of Algiers. I am sure, my dearly beloved Sons, you will find a new reason for respect and fidelity to these Rules in the approval given to them. You will also find valuable guarantees in practising them.
Daily prayer, retreat, a spirit of obedience, constant regularity made into an obligation for you, will be your safeguard. You will have a secure bastion against dangers everywhere and more so among the non-Christians, in the instruction that in no case and under no pretext would it ever send you to be less than three Missionaries together in one post. This Rule, which is in the Chapter of various Works of the Society, is sanctioned in these forceful terms, to which I call your undivided attention, because it has to be observed to the letter: We will refuse, rather than break, the most advantageous, the most urgent offers, and we will abandon the existence of the Society itself rather than abandon this fundamental point.
Now, my dearly beloved Sons, march into battle with a renewed courage; you are henceforth armed and blessed. No doubt you still need a sufficient number of already trained chiefs in age and experience. You are almost all very young yet, and the sacrifice you made of your youth is all the more admirable. I believe that God, who chose you and brought you will also let his voice be heard in the hearts of some holy priests of France, whose zeal is being consumed in little parishes and who would find here, if they came to lead you, entire kingdoms to conquer. It is up to you to ask the Lord to send these good workers to your aid.
I also see that, apart from you, some men of little faith worry unduly about the material side. By the foundations we have laid, we have already partially resolved this problem. Your Mother House, your Novitiate have been built. In a few weeks, I am going to consecrate the chapel there, which is successfully completed and fit for purpose. The Holy See, by a special favour, has consented to grant the extraordinary privilege of local exemption, while waiting for personal exemption. This means you will depend only on the Holy See or its Delegate. The Works of the Propagation of the Faith, the Écoles d'Orient, and Saint-Augustin, and the faithful souls will support you.
As I am writing to you, we have clear signs of this benevolent help. You needed, in France, a general procure and a postulancy for the catechist-brothers. Thanks to the extreme kindness of his Eminence Cardinal Guibert and of the Right Reverend bishop Bourret; these two foundations will be ready next month; the first one in the diocese of Paris, the second in the diocese of Rodez. You are already in possession of the buildings and the personal are appointed.
Finally, I am very pleased to say, that despite the problems of time and enormous expense that the many establishments we have founded over five years have cost, amounting to five hundred thousand francs per year, you have never had, nor do you have, any debt. To tell the truth, you are not rich either. However, my dearly beloved sons, may you always live like this, in the nobility of detachment and poverty, trusting that each day will provide you with the bread you need and counting for that on the One who said to his first Apostles: Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
On these matters, after having called on the Name of God, we, in our office as Apostolic Delegate for the Missions of the Sahara and the Sudan, have ordered and order as follows:
Article One – Concerning the Decree of the Provincial Council of Algiers: published according to its form and terms, for the Apostolic Delegation of the Sahara and the Sudan, to which belongs canonically the Society of Missionaries of Africa, called of Algiers, the Decree of the Provincial Council of Algiers, approved today by the Holy See that praises and encourages the said Society.
Article Two – Concerning the Rules of the Diocesan Society of the Missionaries of Africa, the which Society, exempt from the jurisdiction of the Archbishops of Algiers, depends on that of the Apostolic Delegation of the Sahara and the Sudan is and remains approved by Us in Our office as Apostolic Delegate, the text of the said Rules.
Signed the 18th September 1874, anniversary of the glorious death of the Venerable Geronimo, Arab martyr of Algiers, under Our Signature, the seal of our Arms and countersignature of the Secretary of the Apostolic Delegation.
The Text of the Rules promulgated in this manner by Archbishop Lavigerie is the same as that of 1872. It is not possible to reproduce the text of this edition here; nevertheless, here are the main passages of Chapter III, devoted to the spiritual life of the Missionaries.
Chapter III: The means Missionaries must use to maintain the spirit of their state of life.
The first is the daily practice of mental prayer as prescribed by the Rule. A Missionary faithful to the practice of prayer will definitely maintain the spirit of his vocation, whereas he will lose it if he fails to pray.
The second is the general retreat that Missionaries must do every year in common for eight days, during which they will keep absolute silence, even during recreation time.
The third is the monthly retreat, which each one will do, in private, on the first Monday of the month.
The fourth is the practice of absolute obedience vis-à-vis Superiors. Without this attitude, there is no common work at all; consequently, no apostolate possible. No Missionary will be kept in the Society who does not have this spirit of perfect obedience; all the more reason has it to be called for from minor Superiors who would ruin everything if they did not conform exactly to the orders and spirit of Major Superiors.
Ruling relative to the Superior General and to the members of his Council (1st October 1874)
Rules for the Superior General – The main qualities that he must have are a truly interior spirit, a great regularity in habits, a love of prayer and meditation, self-denial, outstanding zeal for the salvation of souls, zeal for holy poverty, and outstanding charity, in particular for the poor inhabitants of Africa. Moreover, he needs a proper balance of firmness and gentleness, of calm and activity, knowledge of affairs in order to deal with men of the world and the God-given prudence that always relies above all on supernatural motives.
All the interests of the Congregation are mainly in his hands; the Society has to progress and reach its dual purpose under his compulsion, namely, the sanctification of its members and the exercise of apostolic zeal. At the prospect of such a responsibility, he will feel the need to merit divine assistance through a close union with Jesus Christ, through a very pure intention for the glory of God in all his actions and by a frequent exercise of prayer.
In dedicating himself entirely to the well-being of the Congregation, he will recall daily that if his zeal is to be active and persevering, he must no less bring discretion in the choice and application of the proper means. Since the good state and progress of this Institute depends above all on the exact observance of its Constitutions and Rules, the Father Superior will prioritise attentiveness on this essential point in all his duties. For this reason, he needs to imbue himself with the letter and the whole spirit of the Institute, providing frequent explanations about it to the Fathers and neglect nothing to be sure that they are everywhere inviolably observed.
In his governance, he must imitate the charity and leniency of Jesus Christ Our Lord. He will show himself to be, as the Prince of Apostles said, ‘in the form of the flock’, directing by example, more than by words, his subordinates towards the perfection of their state. He must know how to combine, at the proper time, severity with kindness and also be seen as careful to avoid rigidity and weakness. When he is obliged to punish, he should always do so serenely and with the sole objective of good, without giving way to passion, or personal prejudice or resentment.
The means of maintaining his authority will be, more than anything else, the practice of solid virtue, behaviour that is always balanced and moderate, an affection full of concern for his subordinates and caution with which they will see him in command. In this way, all will love and esteem him and he will achieve the result of people hurrying to refer to him in trust. He will be able to understand that a Superior must not seek to do everything himself, but that he has a good administration, as a joint advantage. He should allow his subordinates to fulfil their duties and develop from the experience. Nonetheless, he needs to follow closely all that is done, to coordinate everything and draw it into unity of governance.
Rules for the Members of Council - The Members of Council must have a thorough knowledge of the Constitutions, the Rules, the canonical Rulings of His Grace the Delegate and those of the General Chapter in order to fulfil their responsibilities properly. For this reason, everyone will have a copy to hand that they can consult if needed. As they must have constantly in view the common good of the Congregation, they will be watchful of any suggestion of pride or any particular affection that could sway their judgement or opinions.
They will take great care always to give concurrently proof of the zeal that energises them for all that the Institute recommends and at the same time the example of submission, esteem and sincere attachment to the Superior General. In meetings of Council, they will give their opinions with modesty, simplicity and frankness, giving their reasoning in a few words and discussing matters in an open spirit of union and charity. When a matter appears difficult, they may, before speaking, ask for time to consider for longer at leisure before God.
Rules for the Assistants – When an Assistant is put in charge of some issue he must also consult and observe the other Rules of the Superior General that may relate to it. In addition, this will be for him an essential duty to enter into his intentions and to act faithfully according to his impulsion and his views, without in any way exceeding the limits of the powers that he has received.
It is of the utmost importance for the general good that each Assistant should be united more than anyone to his Superior, in charity, humility, dedication and obedience. In his words, as in his actions, he should give to others proof of this unity, eager to show and maintain within and without the authority of the Superior General and enthusiastic to strengthen the esteem, respect and affection that all the Fathers owe him. Each of the Assistants will be attentive with a charity full of discretion to the health and physical needs of the same Superior. In the case where he would seem to be excessive in work or mortification, the Assistant should advise him modestly, especially if this were also the opinion of the other Councillors.
Likewise, if the Superior General were to reveal anything seriously detrimental in his conduct or in his office, the Assistants should also warn him in humble and respectful freedom, after having thought about it before God. This duty should be accomplished when the majority in Council see fit. If, after repeated warnings, there was no hope of correction, then His Grace the Delegate should be consulted.
In the exercise of their duties, the Assistants should avoid anything that could be seen as undermining the authority of a local Superior. Far from hindering his administration, they come to help him as far as they are able and promote the necessary subordination. When Fathers and Missionaries speak to one of them while in office, in whatever hardship or problem, they will reply so as to console them and help them where possible, but without giving them vain hopes, or saying or doing anything that would create embarrassment either to the Superior General or to the Superior of individual houses.
Speech for the Consecration of the Chapel at Maison-Carrée, Mother House of the Society in Algiers, (29th October1874)
Reverend Fathers,
Gentlemen,
Firstly, let me thank you for this show of kindness to me that you demonstrate today. Your presence is for the Society of our Missionaries both an encouragement and an honour. They are all the more aware that they know by your actions how much you are seasoned practitioners of self-denial and dedication.
My beloved Sons, I have just placed into your hands the outcome of my dearest Works and to crown them, so to speak, by the consecration my joined hands have just given to the chapel of your Mother House, united to those of two venerable Pontiffs from whom you have received so many signs of kindness.
I have hoped and prayed for this day a long time, but I wanted it all the more since, buckled by a serious illness, I wondered in anguish if I would not suddenly be stopped in the midst of a furrow I was making in the soil of Africa. I worried that the children I had taken in would not become orphans a second time; if the various works I saw come into existence were not to disappear with me.
Indeed, this was a dreadful responsibility, not only in my own regard, but more so in regard to the whole Catholic world. They had a right to demand accountability from me about the outcome of their kindnesses and almsgiving; in regard to you my dear Sons, who so generously associated yourselves to my work; in regard to France itself, whose representatives, in these last few years, lent you their help directly.
I wondered how so many various interests could be attached to the life of a single individual, whose health was deteriorating daily. What justified reproaches would not be made of my memory, if I passed away without guaranteeing the future? Besieged by these thoughts, I returned last month among you. Some accused me of imprudence and thought I had come too soon to confront a climate that had so cruelly afflicted me. However, I was compelled by the voice of my conscience and as I have often repeated to you, my dear Sons, it is better to have regrets than remorse.
Thanks be to God the regrets did not last long; today my conscience is at rest. Indeed, my Works are guaranteed life. They no longer belong to me. You have received them from my hands and instead of resting on my head, which is inclined to the grave, they rest on your young Society. Moreover, to whom would I have entrusted these Works, if not to you, who, in the first place, responded to my appeal when I found myself alone with my heavy task? Were you not in reality the adoptive fathers of our poor children? Were you not those who cared for them and snatched them from the grave a second time, when the plague of hunger made their approach fatal? Are you not those who faithfully shared all my preoccupations?
Have you not had your share of these insults and slanders, which we always met with forgiveness and silence? We left it to time and the outcome of our works, to the opinion of right-thinking people, to this day itself, when they surround us in such great numbers, the concern to validate us. Moreover, we find in our consciences the power required to endure to the end, if necessary, the injustice of men, while waiting for the just judgement of God.
However, to entrust you profitably with our Works, in the conditions that Canon and Civil Law allowed us to ensure their permanence, you needed firstly to organise yourselves once and for all. This is what you have just done over the last few days. Only just arrived in Algiers, I summoned you in the General Chapter. After having approved the Constitutions and Rules that I gave you and that you observed for three years under the guidance of venerable masters, I erected you in a Diocesan Congregation and called you to elect yourselves, according to law, those who would govern you.
From now on, you have a special leader freely chosen by you, whose name and bloodline, by recalling to you one of the most illustrious martyrs that the clergy of France had given, in these last few wretched years, to religion, to the homeland, to the Society, similarly threatened by irreligious hordes, would be enough to remind you of your commitment to God. Beside him, you placed Councillors full of wisdom. You yourselves encircle him with your already abundant dedication, for having begun with only two or three less than six years ago, in the poor house at El-Biar, which was your cradle, I see before me today, in your ranks, almost fifty priests.
Now, when I consider this sanctuary, this house, which is your Mother House, the buildings that surround it, I tell myself that five years ago, on a day like this, there was neither tree nor stone here. You did all this, in a country and at a time when religion and the Church was confronted with such furious opponents. My dear Sons, I cannot but acknowledge the protection of God and glorify him with you! Give thanks to him, since it is to him that you owe your existence and are constituted in a permanent way. However, I myself do not owe him the least gratitude for having enabled me to put into your hands the burden that weighed down my enfeebled hands.
Three days ago, I was able to deliver to the Council of your new Superiors, constituted in a civil Society, not only the legal property, but also the permanent and absolute administration of all the property bought by me, over five years, to found and endow our Works. I was quite happy to hand over this property to them, completely free of any charges and any debt. I added to it all that remained of the funds that charity had confided to the Archdiocese of Algiers for the same purpose. In return, you have agreed to continue, to develop and even multiply, if possible, the Works begun. I can now die in peace.
I am sure that my children will not be abandoned; that the poor we have adopted will not be neglected; that the souls who called me to them will not be left without help. What consoles me above all is that my sons become, as is proper, the heirs of my works. What remains for me to do, after disposing of what I hold most dear, than to lift my trembling hands above your heads to pray God to bless you? This father’s blessing, the blessing Isaac gave to Jacob, I give to you with confidence, despite my weakness, and this confidence comes especially from the sentiments that motivate your hearts.
The Algerian Works that I entrust to you are far indeed from being the only ambition of your souls. You have devoted your apostolate to the whole of Africa, according to which the Holy See, into whose hands I have placed you from your beginning and whose slightest desires you have taken for a ruling, has already decided so and will decide subsequently. What has appealed to you in this Mission are the dangers it presents more than any other Mission on earth. Africa, in its still unknown depths, is we somehow know, the last bastion of infamous barbarism, of seemingly incurable mindlessness, of cannibalism, and of the most unspeakable slavery!
Nevertheless, you came and you committed yourselves by Oath, to live this life, to die this death! You are all looking forward to the time to enter the battlefield where your brothers went before you. It is a battlefield of charity, where your arms will be your daily good deeds, where your defence will be gentleness and patience, where your preaching will be the power of your example and your final triumph will be the heroic sacrifice of your life.
As I look at you, my dear Sons, I see on your foreheads all the brilliance of vigour and youth. I think on all you have given up: family, homeland, and earthly hopes - and all you can expect in return: insults, suffering, a cruel death. I look at you and I recall that you are the children of Catholic France. I cannot but refer to our homeland and have confidence for her, since God keeps there so many hearts that a heroic and pure dedication can still inflame.
Some months ago, a great and noble nation, which we see with joy coming daily closer to the truth, and whose representative today I am pleased to see among us to thank him, despite what separates us, for its constant and open sympathies, England organised the close-to royal funeral for a courageous man who gave his life to lift a corner of the veil that covers the African world and prepare for the abolition of barbaric customs. England, instinctively drawn to great things, was right to honour one of its sons in this way for his dedication and bravery.
As for you, my dear Sons, you do not desire anything like this; no thought of self-interest or glory compels you. You often lack bread, and shelter; you die unacknowledged by the world, perhaps after some dreadful suffering. It is the only promise I made to you. However, you know, and it is enough, that you serve a Master who knows how to dole out rewards according to the worth of his servants.
Step out therefore in the name and with the help of God! Go and raise up the lowly, relieve those who suffer, console those who weep, heal the sick. It will be to the honour of the Church to see you gradually show works of charity to the very centre of this immense continent; it will be to the honour of France to see you complete its work in bringing Christian civilisation far beyond its conquests, in this undiscovered world where the valour of its captains has opened the gates.
If you find hostilities in this country itself as a result of the irreligious passions that drive a section of the colony, you will always have, do not doubt it, (if you continue to combine, as you have done to this day, dedication, and wisdom) protectors in the eminent men whose high quality and impartial justice do honour to them, to such a high degree, the government, the army, the judiciary and the administration of Algeria. It is in their disinterested love of goodness that I venture to place my trust for the time when, perhaps soon, my voice will no longer protect you.
For me, my dear Sons, whether God calls me soon to himself or if he still leaves me some time in this world, I will never cease to thank him for having made me the father of your souls! Above all, I will not cease to pray that he will maintain in your souls the pure flame that his hands have lit! Amen.
Letter promulgating the decisions of the first General Chapter (11th November 1874)
My very dear Sons in Our Lord, as you know, by Episcopal Order of the 1st October last, I convoked your first General Chapter for the 11th of the same month. Today, I must report on the decisions of this Chapter and modifications that these decisions entail for the government of your Society.
1 - Government of the Society – The main objective of the convocation of your General Chapter was to give you a definitive government through the election of your regular Superiors. In fact, I had had to take upon myself alone, from the moment of the foundation of your Work, all the remits and all the tasks of its government. There lies one of the needs, which is imperative to the founders of regular communities and from which they must not shrink in the beginning.
However, in the particular situation in which I find myself, weighed down and taken up as I am by the many tasks of the episcopate; besides, sentenced to a premature death by daily increasing disabilities, I could not imagine keeping this responsibility any longer, thus leaving you without regular leaders, who would be able to completely share your life. At my death, it would expose you to dreadful circumstances. For this reason, I absolutely ruled out the idea that you had to elect me unanimously as your Superior General. It touched me deeply, a proof of your filial affection. Indeed, this would have made complete and even more acute the disadvantages that I wanted to avoid.
On the other hand, my dear Sons, it would have been imprudent to abandon you all of a sudden to yourselves. You are all young; you do not have enough experience, for some time yet, to do without higher guidance. Now, all this corresponded perfectly with the Holy Rules of the Church, which gives special rights over Works and Societies submitted to their jurisdiction to Founders, especially if they are diocesan bishops. Therefore, I could and should, by giving you regular Superiors, have remained as your first ecclesiastical Superior and consequently retain the necessary authority to ensure the maintenance of your initial spirit, prevent or repair the errors, if any were committed, and rectify abuses.
Indeed, as long as they are not approved by the Sovereign Pontiff and exempted by him from the jurisdiction of the Ordinary, Diocesan Congregations do not and cannot have other rights in the Church than those they receive from the Bishop. It is up to him to direct them, to extend them or suppress them and they can do nothing legitimately without his authority. My dear sons, it is on this principle that I based myself, to draw up, in two Orders, the rules that were to follow your General Chapter. It would give it the attributions it would keep until the Holy See would arrange it otherwise, if it thought fit. Finally, it would lay the conditions on which the governance of your Society would be constituted.
These fundamental rulings, for which I had earnestly asked the Lord and Our Lady of Africa to grant me their illumination, were transcribed at my order as headings of the logbooks of the deliberations of the Chapter. Moreover, I had them printed and they are in your hands. I therefore have no need of making them known otherwise. In conformity with their content, the elections to the Council of the Society proceeded.
As no one was yet found to fill the necessary condition to become Superior General, i.e., who had ten years of presence in the Society from his entry to novitiate, the Chapter elected three Assistants: Rev. Fr. Deguerry, Superior of the Affats; Rev. Fr. Charbonnier, Superior of the Junior Seminary for local inhabitants; and Rev. Fr. Livinhac, Deputy Director of the Scholasticate.
Under the terms of the Ruling above, I myself chose Rev. Fr. Deguerry, from among the three Assistants to give him the office of Superior General for a period of three years, with the title of Vicar of the Society. My dear sons, you know him as the worker of the first hour. He shared faithfully with me in the works, the hardships, and the problems of our emerging works. You freely chose him yourselves, for in appointing him, I only followed your own indication. After coming to love him and esteem him like a brother who gives you the example of apostolic virtue, you will obey him like a Superior, who from now on represents for you the authority of God. Indeed, he is legitimately charged, according to the provisions of your Rule, to govern you with the help of the Council the Chapter has elected.
In truth, the rule adds that it is under my authority that he governs you and I explained to you above in what sense it is to be understood. As Founder and your Bishop, I have the right to oversee, direct, withdraw, to love you, to protect you, and above all to help you. It is even to contribute in protecting and helping you in a more effective way that I appointed Father Gillard Vicar General of the Delegation. However, I must, for good order and the possibility of governance, stop dealing with ordinary details.
I am no longer obliged directly to make appointments or changes; it is up to the Father Superior and his Council. You should no longer address your regular correspondence to me, but to the Father Superior. Finally, I no longer administer the goods and provide for the expenses, but the Father Superior with those that the Rule gives him as assistants. In all this, I must and need only maintain a general overview, either when the Father Superior asks my opinions in the cases foreseen by the Rule, or where I believe it is my duty, to avoid any disadvantage or to avoid error, to give them myself. However, in fact and in law, authority may not and must not be divided. It is directly exercised in your regard through the Rev. Fr. Superior.
My dear Sons, I will suffer from not having daily contact with you, which was so dear to me, especially when I could show my dedication through my paternal encouragements. You will maybe also suffer sometimes, but we will all resign ourselves to this sacrifice, believing that it is necessary for your Work to strengthen and get used to standing on its own two feet.
Further to this thought, immediately after the appointment of the Rev. Fr. Superior and of his Council, I entrusted them with all the material administration of the Society and its works. I placed in their hands the title deeds of all the buildings and all the properties that I bought to endow them, for six years, with the immediate use of all incomes. These titles consist in shares to the bearer of the civil Society founded by me nearly two years ago, to ensure the perpetuity of our works. Moreover, through the Secretary General of the Archdiocese, I had them paid into the fund of what remained of what Catholic charity had given us. This amounted to 51,342.25 Fr., for which Father Livinhac, Procurator General, and Father Bresson, Secretary General, gave me a receipt. From this date, the interests of the Diocese and those of your Society are separate; you have your income, your own resources , you also have your responsibilities which are by far greater, but which your individual zeal will seek to lighten, each one taking his share, either by hardships that they will impose on themselves, or by embarrassments that they will undergo to acquire their needs.
My dear Sons, such are the notifications that canonically I had to give you so that all could take place regularly among you. It remains for you to learn the other detailed measures taken at the General Chapter and approved by me. However, it is up to the Rev. Fr. Deguerry, alone, in his capacity as Superior, according to my Ruling of the 1st October, to communicate them to you.
2 – The Spirit of the Society - Before concluding this Letter, which is perhaps the last direct communication that I will address to you, my dear Sons, I wish to give you three recommendations that seem to me required for the success and preservation of your works.
The first is that you never lose sight of the specific character and spirit of your Society. Indeed, it has a special purpose, from which it should not detract without losing its reason for existing absolutely. It is intended for the non-Christians of Africa. It may not or must not undertake anything that does not have this aim in view. Not only does it have this special purpose, but also it must achieve it by special means - that its action has a specific character. This character is to approach the local inhabitants in all external habits, in language firstly, in attire, in food, conforming to the example of the Apostle: ‘Omnibus omnia factus sum ut omnes facerem salvos.
You should know that every time, through an unreasonable sense of innovation, you depart from these two points, you destroy, as far as you are capable, the reason for existing of your Society. It is only in fact to supply this great need of poor African souls and to supply by this means that you have been founded. Let the other Congregations follow their way; they are up to it; they do it better than you would do yourselves; do not invade their territory and keep faithfully to the little parcel of land that the Father of the family has commissioned you to cultivate.
My second recommendation, my dear Sons, is to continue to combine prudence, patience and charity in the exercise of your zeal. Prudence, because if you seek to hasten or exaggerate affairs, you will do great harm instead of doing good. A single imprudence from one of you can set back, for a long time, perhaps for centuries, the salvation of many peoples. Patience, because your Mission is hardest amongst all and it is only in knowing how to suffer much without discouragement and complaint that you will overcome obstacles. Finally, charity, because it is the major armament, the one that pierces hearts and makes wounds for eternal life. Let this be the whole secret of your action. Love these poor non-Christians; do good to them. Nurse their wounds. They will give you their affection firstly, then their trust and finally their souls.
My final recommendation, my dear Sons, the most important of the three, the one without which all the others would be futile is the recommendation of the aged Apostle of Ephesus: Filioli, diligite invicem . Love one another. Remain united, United in heart, united in thought. Form a truly single family; in the Christian and apostolic sense of this word, hold strongly to the esprit de corps. Protect one another; support one another, always help one another. Let not discord ever penetrate you; may you be constantly ready to protect one another mutually as a single person against all outside adversaries. In a word, be not only united, but one. It is the only grace that Our Lord, when he was leaving them, asked from his Father for his Apostles, knowing that this grace would bring all others, and in its wake the conversion of the world: Ut unum sint . It is also the only grace I ask for you, the fundamental law that I leave you, the one that will guarantee victory over all your enemies, over all the obstacles that confront you: Ut unum sint. Pater serva eos in nomine tuo quos dedisti mihi.
Ruling on the study of theology and on correspondence with the Superior General (December 1874)
My dearly beloved Sons in Our Lord,
One of the most sacred obligations that the Church imposes on its priests is the attainment of theological knowledge. Indeed, this knowledge is absolutely necessary as much to understand and teach religion as to fulfil, themselves, their challenging obligations. Labia enim sacerdotis custodient scientiam, et legem requirent ex ore ejus.
However, for Missionaries, the study of theology has another advantage no less significant. Often, in the midst of material tasks, such as treating the sick, they receive unending distractions that society and conversing with non-Christians create. There are greater dangers in which they can find themselves as a result of distance and of bad examples before their eyes; then the study of theology can lift the soul towards higher regions, oblige the soul to turn to eternal realities and finally safeguard the soul from idleness.
For all these serious reasons, it seemed appropriate to the Chapter of the Society legitimately assembled and presided over by Us, to impose for ten years dating from their ordination, as is practiced in the greater number of dioceses, the obligatory study of theology for all young Missionaries, so that in the space of ten years, they will have reviewed entirely their theology twice.
The point of the Rule that stipulates writing to the Superior General is absolutely essential for the maintaining of unity and common action and to uphold regularity in the Society. It is therefore urgent to ensure its performance and since experience has shown that it can easily slide into neglect, the Chapter legitimately convoked, assembled and deliberating under Our authority, decided that a sanction would be fixed to it.
It is therefore prescribed that Fathers of each house or Mission other than those near the customary residence of the Superior General, will write to him or one of his Assistants, (who would be designated to replace him on this point,) on the last day of each month; local Superiors will write twice a month.
Now, for this correspondence to be useful to the Work and the Missionaries themselves, it has to touch on all the points essential to make known to the Major Superiors. Consequently, we point out the issues that the Missionaries should always address:
1) Has the Rule been read in common, as prescribed once a month – on the eve of the retreat?
2) Have theological conferences taken place regularly?
3) Were the spiritual exercises that should be done in common, i.e., prayer, particular examen, spiritual reading, always done? How many times were they missed and why?
4) How is the state of health? Has one had what was required? Has there been any wastage or waste of money in this regard? Does the Father Bursar fulfil his duties regularly?
5) Does charity prevail among the Missionaries? Is anyone of them in the situation of compromising the Mission by any imprudence?
6) How many children have attended school? Are there many sick to treat?
7) Is there anything out of the ordinary on the part of the local inhabitants or on the part of the authorities?
8) Has there been any proposal for a new establishment? Has there been any threat to existing ones?
One can add, if desired, other details on the Mission, on the works, on one’s person, but these eight questions, to which everyone must always reply, ought never to be omitted. These letters are by their nature confidential.
The Importance of the Service of Professor in an Apostolic School (1874)
The aim is to form Apostles, by inspiring the pupils received here with a more ardent love for Our Lord, for his glory, the salvation of souls, primarily the most abandoned souls, such as those of the African missions. For this, they are taught to know, love and practice with greater perfection the Holy Laws of God and of his Church and they are to be inspired in generous eagerness to make them known and practised by the poor people who do not know them.
Directors and professors have to be apostles to fire up these young men, to whom they are entrusted, with thoughts of the apostolate. They have to transform them to rise above themselves, to bring them to the height where God calls them. They have to establish in them a solid basis for all the priestly virtues. They have to inspire them above all with a burning love for their vocation, a devouring zeal for the Mission and for the salvation of the non-Christians of Africa.
They will do so themselves by their example, constantly bearing open witness to their esteem and love for their vocation, not allowing a single act or word that shows distaste or scorn. They will light up their speech, by their preaching in the chapel, by their direction in the confessional, by their conversations in recreation, by spiritual reading. In this way they will show forth the great flame, with which Our Lord commands us to set Africa ablaze.
What greater than this for a Mission! What more apostolic? The directors and professors in charge of the conduct of this new Cenacle must never think that they are lesser Missionaries than their confreres. They are even more so, in the real sense, since the future of the entire Mission is in their hands.
Letter to Father Charmetant in Canada to raise funds (29th December 1874)
Algiers,
My dear Son, I received your welcome letter from so far away and through so many storms. The good Lord will bless and reward you, as well as good Father Delattre , for what you do and suffer for the Mission.
For what to wear, we leave you free to do as you see fit, only obliging you to dress, as do the Jesuits, according to this Rule: sicut honesti sacerdotes loci in quo degunt . I regret the cold in Canada that must be severe for you in this season. Perhaps it would have been better to go in summer, from the health point of view. Nevertheless, I understand the motives you give me.
I hope you will have received from Archbishop Fabre the welcome full of charity that he had already given to the priests of the Diocese of Algiers who went to Canada. Please give him my affectionate and respectful greetings with my gratitude.
Here, everything continues to make progress. One thing is lacking: money. It is on you above all that everyone is counting, knowing your dauntless skills. Here we are in 1875! My dear son, may it be for us all a holy year.
Paternal greetings and my heartfelt blessing to you and the good Father Delattre. I am yours in Our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Missionaries and Children of the Apostolic School of St Laurent d'Olt (29th December 1874)
Algiers,
My dear Father, my dear Children,
I wish to write today all at once to Missionaries and Children, Fathers and Brothers to tell you all how much I hope that the year which is due to begin will be for you a holy and happy one; happy because it will be holy! What use are the years that cannot be counted for heaven? They pass too quickly and leave only a bitter memory, when they have not been used for God!
Your best means to use them for him, and this year in particular, my dear Children, is to prepare yourselves for the African apostolate by the practice of virtue and by study. Saint-Laurent d'Olt is in France, no doubt, but you are only for Africa, to which the Fathers consecrate themselves by Oath and to which the children belong by heart, by blood, and by origin. Poor Africa! It thirsts for and needs truth and salvation as it thirsts for water and the dew under its sun. It is from you that Africa expects all this.
While I am writing this to you from my office , I hear the bells of Our Lady of Africa sound, announcing the evening Angelus. You are no longer here to recite it, my dear Children, but we will say it in union with you. When I am on my terrace, this awful terrace that sometimes scared you so much, and I see the yards deserted, I think of Saint-Laurent, and I wonder what you are doing. I hope you are doing what you should, for us and for the Good Lord!
I thank Father Doré and Brother Louail for the welcome letters they wrote. I hope that all will imitate them and above all will give me some details of what you are doing in France. I learned with great sadness that Father Charbonnier was taken ill, and with great joy that he is better.
Farewell, my dear Children, I love you very dearly. I bless you from the bottom of my fatherly heart. I am all yours in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letters to the Superior General on how to visit communities (20th January 1875)
Algiers,
Dear Father,
You are about to begin the visit of your houses for the first time. I would like to tell you what seems to me the most useful things to do during these visits and, moreover, what is being done in all well-ordered communities.
1) During your visit, you need to give each house all the time required and remain there overlong rather than not enough. Three days would seem the minimum, even for a single residence of three Fathers. For a residence where there would be several undertakings, as at the Attafs , a whole week would be required. You need, in fact, the time to see and take note of everything. If you only look in passing, you only see people and things prepared in advance, which only allows you to see what they want you to.
2) For the whole time of your stay in each house, you must lead all the exercises in common without exception, from Morning Prayer and petition until Evening Prayer.
3) You need to see each Father or Brother in private and firstly elicit his matters of conscience , if he has any to disclose; then his observations on the house as a whole, on its occupations, abuses, improvements to make, etc.
4) Before writing the log , matters need to be dealt with in discussion with the Father Superior, in private, so as to enable him to make the special observations he needs for his own sake.
5) Two copies are made of the log, in two ledgers. One remains in the hands of the Superior general or Visitor to be communicated to the Council. At the head of the Superior General’s ledger, the present Letter I write to you will be copied as a directive for you and your successors. The second copy of the log will be transcribed on the special book specific to each house.
6) In his log, the Father Superior General must firstly state the good things he will have found in the community. He will then make all the observations he finds necessary to take precautions against abuses, destroying them and enable good to flourish.
7) This log will be read by the Father Superior General who will then prescribe in writing to have it read every month at Spiritual Reading until the next visit.
Here, dear Father, is the gist of it. For the rest, i.e., the development of the enterprise, the internal changes, etc., these will be pointed out to you by the very nature of things that you will see or that you will be told. The main thing is to be convinced that what you are doing during the visit is very specially God’s work. As a result, you need to do it with a sprit of faith, wisdom and charity.
Be assured, dear Father, of my devotion to you in Our Divine Lord.
Charles, Archbishop, Apostolic Delegate
P.S. Do not fail to look for the hardback ledgers required.
Algiers,
My dear Child,
In my recommendations for your visits, I forgot a very important point. This is the checking of the accounts. The Bursar, who must always be someone other than the Father Superior, needs to submit the house accounts ledger to you, checking it out in every detail. After checking it out thoroughly, you must sign it and, if any, make your observations in writing in it. These accounts of the Father Bursar must be kept in a bound ledger fit for purpose. Make sure to instruct the Father Bursar that he may not nor must not on any pretext tear it up, carry it away, or hide it. On the contrary, he must always hold it at the ready for the Father Superior and present it to the successor of the Father Superior, if he himself is changed.
In addition, you must also check the accounts of every Father in particular, because everyone in the Society needs to keep an exact note of his expenses. This has been officially decided and no one may be exempt from it. Remind people of it initially, and then carry it out. I bless you, my dear child, as well as all your Confreres. I am all yours in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers, Apostolic Delegate
Letter to Father Charmetant on his way to Canada ety (1st March 1875)
Algiers,
Dear Father,
I have let slip days and weeks without replying to your welcome letters and congratulating you and dear Father Delattre on your determination and success. However, I knew that Fr. Deguerry and Fr. Terrasse were writing to you and it slowed me down in my correspondence. I do not want to delay any longer, however, and I am happy to tell you, firstly, that the Good Lord has restored my health. It is not yet a complete recovery, but I feel I am over the worst and there are only slight symptoms that will not hinder me from attending to my ordinary affairs. I only hope I can do it for the glory of God.
Father Deguerry for the moment is in the Sahara. He went to visit Laghouat, Metlili, El-goléah, Géryville and Biskra, where our Missionary Fathers are. I received news from him eight or ten days ago, and I expect to see him only in three weeks. I am not entirely unconcerned, as caravans have been attacked these last few weeks.
The rest of the Work is functioning as usual. The Fathers of St-Laurent-d’Olt have been severely put to the test by the cold and some have fallen ill. We have been obliged to send them some reinforcements.
The second village, St. Monica, is under construction. The Algiers Higher Council unanimously voted an award of 75,000 francs for a third!
By contrast, at Paris, our appealers have done absolutely nothing. In three months, Father Boulanger has spent 1,100 francs more than he collected and Fathers Bresson, Livinhac and Ragnet continue in the same bad habits.
Moreover, we have taken a stand to found a new enterprise: the African Holy Childhood. I am enclosing its prospectus with this letter. However, this prospectus has not yet been launched. I firstly addressed the Paris Holy Childhood to ask if it would be willing or not to give us a suitable share of its income. If it accepts, we will not initiate a special enterprise. Nevertheless, I have no objection to you trying to establish the Work in Canada. However, as this concerns Blacks, perhaps it would be better not to speak about it in America, where there are enormous prejudices.
My dear child, I find your idea of investing your capital in Canada very sound. In addition, since we have received our subsidies and as we are a bit more at ease, you can from now on keep and invest all that you collect. Moreover, I would ask you to send me the stocks and forecasts, if there are, of the most profitable and solid capital gains, as I could invest the savings of the Diocese in them.
As you have asked of me, I shall write to Monsignor Fabre to thank him, as well as his Grace at Montreal, on account of all their kindnesses to you. You will also find them enclosed here. As for your future plans, my dear children, you are entirely at liberty to decide as you see fit. It is up to you to take stock firstly of your strength, then the people you know either in the United States, or in South America. Nevertheless, I forbid you specifically and in the name of Holy Obedience, to enter countries where there is Yellow Fever in summer. You will perish there and we have too great a need of you to allow you to be exposed in this way, even for the sake of the highest heroic dedication.
I am not replying directly to dear Father Delattre. This letter is for both of you. Let him be assured of my warmest regards and paternal gratitude. Farewell, my dear children. Near or far, always believe in my total dedication to you in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
P.S. We pray daily for you to Our Lady of Africa and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To enable you to assess the Work of the African Holy Childhood, I am sending you a copy of the Episcopal Order erecting it and the Brief of the Holy Father, blessing it and supplementing it with indulgences.
Letter to the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide concerning the chapel of St Louis at Tunis (10th May 1875)
Rome,
Your Eminence,
In accordance with the wishes expressed to me by the French Government, and with this Government’s grants, a French priest, chosen from among my diocesan clergy, has been set aside to look after and serve the Chapel of St. Louis, King, among the ruins of Carthage. This Chapel is French property and moreover, after the accords made with the Bey of Tunis, is now French territory. Soldiers detached from the Army of Algeria guard it.
His Holiness, to whom I had the honour of making this arrangement known, consented to give his agreement. Therefore, I would ask Your Eminence to please approve the priest I will send to the Vicar Apostolic of Tunis to hold the office for the service of the French Chapel. As this priest will be under the jurisdiction of Bishop Fedele Sutter, it will be up to him to assess which spiritual powers he needs to bestow on him. To fulfil his mission, he would need to be able to celebrate Mass and administer the Sacraments in the Chapel of St Louis. It will be up to the Most Reverend Vicar Apostolic to decide if he would like to employ him for other purposes or not. As for me, I am content to certify that the priest I have chosen for the services of the Government and of the Most Reverend Vicar Apostolic is trustworthy in virtue of his faith and integrity.
I pay Your Eminence the deepest respect and assure you that I am your most humble, obedient and devoted servant.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Delattre, fundraiser in North America (8th July 1875)
Paris, 248 Faubourg Saint-Honoré
My dear Child,
I have had to recall Rev. Fr. Charmetant to France, as I need to employ him this summer for the important task of founding our site at St Louis de Carthage, Tunisia. The Holy See and the French Government have just given it to us. It is the location marking the exact spot of the death of St Louis, King.
As for you and Father Leroy, you will remain in America, so as to complete fundraising in North America. You will follow the plan you agreed with Father Charmetant, except for the changes of detail that the circumstances will dictate. For this, I trust the judgement of Father Leroy and your zeal.
My dear children, we are all very grateful to you for all you are doing for the enterprise. It will never be able to forget you and neither will I. By experience, I know all that fundraising can cause in terms of hardship, worry, and humiliations and I can but thank you all the more for your determination.
This year, your fundraising in America will be all the more valuable since France will not be able to give us anything. The country has just been put drastically to the test by floods that have ravaged the midi; appeals are being made everywhere for the victims. There is therefore no room for us in all that. Nonetheless, expenses are increasing in Africa with the works and we need to provide for everything.
Therefore, be of good cheer, my dear children, and with my congratulations for the past, accept my blessings for the future. You need to plan your return to France for the second half of September to arrive at the retreat and the Chapter taking place in early October.
I bless you from afar and I remain your father in Christ Jesus.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to a high-ranking Government Official in order to turn down the Episcopal See of Besançon (4th August 1875)
Biarritz,
Director,
At Biarritz, where I am taking a course of treatment , I have received a letter from Bishop Maret , which surprises me as much as it annoys me. This venerable prelate writes to me from Vichy that he has spoken to the Minister of Worship of the wish to have me invested with the hat of the deceased Cardinal of Besançon. He sends me the copy of the telegram he sent on this subject to Mr Wallon. Although the terms of this telegram are enough to exclude the idea that I would have been part of this in any way, I must beg you, nonetheless, to please tell the Minister, when the occasion occurs, how much I regret this step.
Indeed, I could not consider succeeding Cardinal Mathieu at Besançon, even if it were offered. There is too much work to do for my current state of health and not enough importance to risk my life there. Since I must die anyway, things such as they are, I prefer to die at Algiers rather than at Besançon.
Becoming a cardinal to remain at Algiers is no more understandable at the current time. There could only be one single possibility left: leave my See and go to Rome to reside. You are aware that in theory I am convinced of the need for this step, and indeed, it is perhaps the best I can do, for some time. Now would that be the mind of the Minister, that of power? You are well aware that I cannot reply to these questions. Consequently, I would not wish you to think that I had anything to do with this act, which took me by surprise, from the Bishop of Sura, on account of the misunderstandings to which it could lead.
Be assured, Minister of State, once again, of my most respectful and devoted greetings,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Charbonnier (18th August 1875)
Biarritz,
My dear Child,
When this letter reaches you, you will no doubt be ready to take the road back to Algiers. I received the one you wrote to me with great satisfaction, because of the interesting details contained in it as well as the thoughts you conveyed to me.
I hope you have managed to purchase in the oasis something more suitable and less hot than the hut bought by Fr. Paulmier. God willing, you have not suffered overmuch from the climate and that your health stands up to it!
Next year, you will need to fulfil the most important of ministries in the Work , that of the training and the selection of missionaries. It is a great and difficult responsibility, for which, I hope, the time you have spent in an outstation in the Sahara will have prepared you better than we would have been without it. Besides, I will see you before you take up your duties, as I intend to return to Algiers by mid-September. My health has improved and toned up, thanks to the protection of the Blessed Virgin and the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Join me in thanking them.
Please give my fond memories to your confreres at Metlili, recommending me to their prayers. Tell them that I am heart and soul with them, in the midst of their suffering and their hopes. They know I have for them much affection and a father’s care, to which they have all the more right as they are farther away and more exposed.
Farewell, my dear child. I bless you and send you my warmest regards in Christ Our Lord.
Ch. Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Delegate
P.S. You need to plan to arrive at Algiers before the 1st October, when the Reverend Jesuit Fathers will leave the novitiate.
Letter to order the reading of St Ignatius’ Letter on Obedience (4th October 1875)
My very dear Sons in Jesus Christ,
When God chose Abraham to lead his people, and revealed to him his grand destiny, he stated that all the blessings he gave to him and to the land on his account would be the reward of his obedience. ‘And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.’ (Gn 12:5).
When He wanted to come to earth and choose a natural mother, it was again through Mary’s obedience that he granted this inexpressible privilege of divine motherhood to her. “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Lk, 1:38).
God shows us in these two episodes of his mercy the law that he imposes on all who desire union with him in working for their sanctification and for the redeeming of souls. He only grants his grace, support, and blessings to the obedient. ‘And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.’ (Dt. 11:13-14).
As much as he promises victory to the obedient, so much he threatens with his anger those who lack submission and docility. ‘If in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.’ (Lv 26:18-20)
He goes even further, and in an extraordinary forceful language utters terrifying threats against those who, in a spirit of rebellion and pride, would resist their Superiors and scandalise their brothers. ‘The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.’ (Dt 17:12-13)
You must not be surprised at these equally formidable rewards and punishments. Whoever refuses obedience to God or to those who represent him is in fact denying himself, by refusing to surrender his will. What good, besides, is all the rest! By contrast, whoever sacrifices and offers up his will, gives himself completely to God. This is what he asks of us. “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. (1 S 15:22)
No other doctrine is thus more certain than this and God was pleased to remind us of this in every page of his Holy Scripture: without obedience, there is no genuine virtue, no grace of God, and no apostolate possible at all. By contrast, with perfect obedience, all this is guaranteed to us.
Meditating on these ideas, as I frequently do, my very dear Sons, I cannot but ask myself a challenging question about your emerging Society: will it be a Society of truly obedient men? I do hope so, by the mercy of God and of your good will of which I am aware; in which case, I hope that it will be truly of benefit to souls and to the conversion of this immense continent to which it is sent. However, if it turns out differently, if pride, self-interest, and a rebellious spirit were to prevail permanently among you, alas for you! You would be on the path to certain death for yourselves and for others. It would have been better by far if you had never existed!
Moreover, among all the virtues I wish for you, the virtue of obedience is the first and even the only truly indispensable one, because nothing can replace it and it alone can guarantee all the others. From the bottom of my heart, I address these words that the holy Founder of the Company of Jesus addressed to his first disciples:
‘Though hard to bear, I admit that other Religious Orders surpass us in fasts, in night vigils and other bodily austerities, which every one of them performs devoutly according to the spirit of the Rule. However, in relation to the excellence of obedience, the complete abandonment of the will and individual judgement, I ardently wish, my very dear brothers, that all those who serve our Lord and God in this Company yield to none. Let this virtue become the hallmark that distinguishes the true and legitimate offspring of the Company from those who are not, so that they do not consider the person to whom they give obedience, but that they see in that person Jesus Christ Our Lord, on whose behalf they obey. Moreover, indeed, if one has to obey the superior, it is not at all in view of his prudence, his goodness or other qualities with which God may have endowed him, but only because he is God’s lieutenant and acts by the authority of him who said, ‘The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me’, (Lk 10:16). If, on the contrary, he appears lacking in prudence and wisdom, it is not a reason to obey him with less thoroughness, since in his capacity as superior he represents the One whose wisdom is infallible and who will make up in himself for all that is lacking in his minister, either in virtue, or other qualities. Indeed, Jesus Christ, having said explicitly, ‘…the Scribes and Pharisees possess the Chair of Moses,’ immediately added, ‘…therefore, observe and do exactly what they tell you, but do not do as they do.’
In thus proposing to you the virtue of obedience as proper and specific to your Society, I cannot prevent myself, again in fear and trembling, of recalling these words of the Holy Spirit which ought to make you all tremble too: ‘…See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: a blessing, if you obey… a curse, if you disobey (Dt 11:26-28).
Now, since it is a mistake to meditate on the virtue of obedience and understand its necessity, its worth and its condition and then fail too often to apply it, I felt the need, my very dear Sons, of particularly recommending this essential meditation to you. To make it easy for you, I thought it would be good that each of you keep to hand a little manual in which all that is best and most useful about this virtue would be in it. I found nothing better than the Letter of Saint Ignatius on Obedience, of which I have just called to mind a passage for you. You will find it at the end of this present Letter, printed in the same format as your Rules, because I want it to be for you an appendix and a detailed supplement.
I wish it to be read and explained, twice a year during the noviciate, once after the general retreat and the second time during the Lenten season. I wish you all read it again, time to time, during the days following the reading of your Rules that you must do in common in all your Houses. Finally, I wish you to reread it and meditate on it during your annual retreats. Furthermore, you could take the topic of one of the meditations for each day. For this reason, I have divided it into eight headings that correspond to each day of your retreat.
I feel sure that if you are faithful to these practices, you will enter into the paramount importance of this virtue and soon, by the grace of God, you will become perfectly obedient and consequently perfect Missionaries.
May Our Lord, who wished to be our role model in becoming obedient until death, grant you this grace and keep you in his Sacred Heart.
Algiers, the 4th October, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda (16th February 1876)
Archdiocese of Algiers
Sahara Mission
To his Most Reverend Eminence
Cardinal Franchi,
Prefect of the S.C. of Propaganda
Your Eminence,
I have not had the honour of making a report to Your Eminence on the Mission entrusted to me by Propaganda, in my capacity as Apostolic Delegate in the Sahara and other countries to the south of the Barbary States. A protracted illness, which I have just had, was the cause of this delay. I am ready to make up for it today and fulfil this duty of my responsibility by communicating to Your Eminence the state of the undertakings of this Mission.
When your predecessor entrusted it to me, it did not include a single priest or layperson. Just to penetrate the area seemed impossible because of the prejudices of the French Government in Algeria on the one hand and the intolerance and fanaticism of the Muslim people on the other.
The first thing we had to do was to was to create two Societies, one for Priests and Brothers, the other for Sisters, specially intended for this special Mission. It was difficult, especially in a country like this; however, it was unavoidable, because no existing Congregation could give us people in sufficient numbers for such an undertaking. God came to our aid. Two new Congregations were founded and after only a few years of coming into being, one of them, the Missionaries, already numbers 120 Fathers or Brothers and the other 80 Sisters.
To the Society of Fathers, I gave the name of Missionaries of Africa of Algiers, and to the Sisters, that of Sisters of the African Missions of Algiers. My first concern after the serious training of candidates for which the Jesuit Fathers were good enough to entrust to me several of their Fathers, was to draw up a practical rule to follow in the Missions among Muslims. For many centuries everywhere, these Missions have been sterile, and I attribute especially to the wrong method being followed there. They wanted to preach the Gospel directly to such a fanatical people and they responded by driving away or killing the Missionaries. For this reason, they were unable to enter, up to now, the Muslim nations, without the armed protection of Christian nations. By contrast, I thought that in situations that are almost identical, we should imitate the practice of the early Church, where the law of secrecy was imposed, and it was better to win the hearts of Muslims through the practice of Charity before proffering them the truths of the Faith.
With this aim, all our Missionaries have learned to treat the sick and to teach little children in classes. They introduce themselves to the most barbarian tribes as Christian priests, men of prayer for souls, doctors for bodies and desirous only of doing good to everyone and to live in peace with all.
The initial successes were extraordinary. Not only did the French Government end its opposition, in seeing with what willingness the Algerian peoples called the Missionaries into the most inaccessible of their mountains, but that gradually, they were able to penetrate everywhere. We placed them on the borders of Algeria at Laghouat, Biskra and El-Abioud. There, they made acquaintance with the desert tribes, who, seeing all the good being done, also invited them into their territories. They went to set themselves up about a hundred leagues further , out with any French protection. I was warned there would be massacres, but they were respected and revered by all.
They noticed native tribes arriving at these new mission posts from central Africa. The same effect was produced. The Tuareg, the most fearsome people that dominated all of the Sahara , implored them to come to them. They even asked me for them personally, insistently. I consented. Three Missionaries went with them. I hope that in this moment, they are arriving at Timbuktu, the capital of Western Sudan . I ordered them to set themselves up there. If successful, we would have one staging post to another in an uninterrupted chain of Missionaries between Algiers and Timbuktu, therefore, between the seaboard and the most inaccessible centre of Africa, since from Timbuktu, we can enter all the slavery countries. .
It is a much different undertaking and quite a different success from that of Livingstone and other lone travellers, because here we will be in command of the route and we shall have an army of determined young men to incessantly travel up and down it. Up till then, we are saying nothing to the public of our plans and hopes. However, I feel confident that we will succeed. It will be an undying honour for the Church, in the midst of so many persecutions when its enemies are proclaiming its perdition, to have victoriously begun its grand conquest.
However, I repeat, Your Eminence, that we owe all our success to our method: to act with charity, before beginning to preach openly.
Nevertheless, we make an exception for the children we can take in, if they are abandoned, or that we can purchase if they are enslaved. These we would right away and fervently teach the Christian Truths, as these are the true future apostles of the African interior. We should not conceal the fact that in fact all our Missionaries will rapidly die there in a climate so different from their own. Therefore, they will be but the initiators. Those who will live with the native peoples and stir them up, finishing by converting them will be the children we are raising from these same countries. Even now, a certain number will be ready to join battle in two or three years from now. Other younger ones will be trained and in all we shall thus have over eighty Arabs, Kabyles, Sahraouis and Negros whom we are educating in two establishments that are proper seminaries.
The Sisters do for the girls what the Fathers do for the boys, with the difference, however, that Muslim custom does not allow the active participation of native women. They will only serve in hospitals specially intended for Muslims, and particularly for women. We have already opened one, which belongs entirely to us and to which the sick flock.
Your Eminence, there you have an overall view of what we have undertaken, what we pursue. We have adopted a lengthier method, which will no doubt require years before bearing visible fruits, in the conversion of the people. However, for me, it is the only truly reasonable, truly effective means. Any other will fail as much in the present as in the future.
I now have a word to add about the most important matter of finances. In order to maintain our 125 Missionaries, our 80 Sisters, our Seminaries, our hospital and our 29 establishments, we need to find five hundred thousand francs annually. Up to now, the charity of France provided them; it began eight years ago with the Algerian famine. Nevertheless, the times have become increasingly hard. I do not know if the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda would find me too tactless if I asked it for alms from time to time for our Missionaries. Any amount would certainly never be better invested.
If it cannot grant me this favour, I would then request at least one other that is easy to grant us, and which is absolutely necessary for us to see our enterprises through successfully. The Society of our Missionaries has developed to such an extent that it will soon be cramped in Algeria and the countries currently entrusted to it. I would ask Your Eminence to reserve the new Missions to found in North Africa, in the Fezzan, for example, exclusively to them. Cardinal Barnabo had promised them to me if the Fathers Minor of Tripoli were not to go there, and into Morocco.
I hear tell that the Society of African Missions of Lyons is seeking them. It would be very unfortunate to place these two Societies of Missionaries beside one another. They have a different spirit and method; they would collide, and soon there would be scandalous divisions. The Fathers of Lyons were founded for South Africa.
Those of Algiers were established in the North, their natural preserve. I implore Your Eminence to disallow them to take it. The Missionaries of Lyons already tried to set themselves up at Oran in Algeria. They did not succeed. I had to send them away a few month ago after observing some very regrettable events that the bearer of this letter will be able to communicate to you. He is Father Charmetant, Procurator General of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers. I venture to recommend him to your kind benevolence.
As for me, Your Eminence, I restate my greatest respect and devotion. I am honoured to be your most humble and obedient Servant.
Ch. Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Delegate
Letter to Fr. Charmetant (15th April 1876)
Algiers,
My dear Son,
I have received your article. Unfortunately, it is impossible to publish it for the moment. It would provide all kinds of ammunition against us, to those who are preparing to throw us at the mercy of the Chamber of Deputies, at Budget time, and in Algeria, to extermination. It is on account of the unfortunate grant of 75,000 francs for the villages that war will be declared on us in the Chamber. These wretched Deputies, who are in the great majority, are seeking to open a detailed investigation on each of our undertakings and posts. What will come of it? What a sad misfortune it is that for the sake of freedom of action, we applied for State support. In such hands, this could lead to the ruin of the Work.
In addition, it is probable that the Tuareg who guided our three Missionaries murdered them. Two days ago, the Commander-in-Chief at Laghouat telegraphed it to the Governor General. We have tried in vain to have details of this news. We are still uncertain, but ninety days ago the Fathers left and we have not received a single word from them. There is therefore every reason to fear that they have really been put to death. Here, the Administration has stated that it is impossible to allow such expeditions to continue and is trying to bring back our Missionaries in the South by force. As you can see, it is not the time to make a noise or create trouble for ourselves.
Therefore, I insist that you come back here, as soon as you have finished your promotion trip around Berry, without going to Paris for any reason whatsoever.
All this, my dear Son, with these prudent steps, lifts our hearts on high and praise God: Si bona de manu Domini accepimus, mala quare nons suscipiamus? At the first notice of the martyrdom of these poor children, I recited the Te Deum. Join me in this.
All this is still confidential.
Farewell, my dear Son. Yours in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop - Algiers
Letter to Archbishop Bourret (29th April 1876)
Algiers,
Dear Reverend Lord and Friend,
I received your welcome letter as well as the edition of the Semaine Religieuse de Rodez containing the lovely account of the baptism of our children . I was very moved by your kindness towards these little neophytes and of all the respect you showed them. I thank you for everything, for that and everything else.
Our Mission has just had another blessing and received its supreme consecration. Three of our Missionaries were put to death for the faith they were going to preach at Timbuktu. The Tuareg of the South beheaded them. We sang a fine Te Deum, the most moving I have ever heard sung in my life at the Maison Carrée Novitiate. After the Te Deum, all the Missionaries asked me to send them off to replace their martyred brothers.
Reverend Lord, what have I done to deserve such graces from God and to see such a miserable father have such heroes as sons? Ah! If only we had a little more heroism in the ranks of our politicians! How badly everything is going and how this government is driving us onto the reefs! Moreover, it is heading towards the most complete shipwreck!
There are some very odd appointments for Lyons and Saint Dié. Becoming an Archbishop of Lyons at over 70 years old is just to be buried there. What about Archbishop Soubiranne? Will he not get through? This puts me in a quandary because I need an Auxiliary. I am very ill.
Farewell, Dear Lord, be assured of my warmest gratitude and affection in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Pastoral Letter for the crowning of Our Lady of Africa (30th April 1876)
My very dear People,
The Pastoral Letters I address to you sometimes take on a serious and solemn air. The Bishop is, in fact, a debtor to all. When they occur, he must deal with the most exalted matters and the most difficult problems. However, today I wish to address my words especially to the honest-to-goodness humble; to those who, in the midst of the threats and sadness of the present time need encouragement and hope. I wish to speak to them of Her whom they invoke with a filial confidence and who protects them with a motherly tenderness, of Her they have learned to honour from childhood, under titles dear to their piety and that Algeria honours under the title of Our Lady of Africa.
It is not subjectively that I have chosen this subject for pastoral instruction. I have been invited by the new favours, which the Sovereign Pontiff has granted me, at my request, for our colonial shrine.
I made it know to him in my latest trip to Rome how you surrounded the shrine of Our Lady of Africa with touching testimonies of your piety these last few years. I told him of the processions that took place in her temple at the resurgence of the African Councils. I told him how your piety had found a refuge there, when in rougher times, brutal irreverence expelled God from our streets and public places. I spoke to him of the serried ranks of our Jubilee Procession. Above all, I spoke to him of the touching faith that daily brought to Mary’s feet pilgrims of every nation, imploring consolation in pain, strength in time of trial, healing in suffering.
Hearing this account, my very dear People, for which I was happy as pastor to give my faithful flock the due it deserves, I saw the heart of the holy Father Pius IX melt. He wanted to grant us all a special sign of his kindness. For Sovereign Pontiffs, it is an ancient custom to have statues of Our Lady crowned in their name in the most famous shrines in the Christian world. The crown awarded is a symbol of honour and gratitude for the graces, which the faithful receive there, in great numbers. Unable to add to Mary’s glory in heaven, the Vicar of Jesus Christ thus grants the visible signs of sovereignty to her pious images on earth, wherever she is pleased to show her sovereign power. In order to maintain a more exalted character to this demonstration of filial piety, he alone reserves the right to award it, at the request of the first pastors.
This is what Our Holy Father Pope Pius Pie IX wanted to do for Our Lady of Africa. He did so with a double joy; for it is not an ordinary liturgy that we offer to Mary. Her shrine is built on a thousand-year-old devotion on these shores. A shrine was built to her at Byrsa, entitled Our Lady of Peace. At the foot of the mountain where she is now venerated, Augustine himself passed, on his way from Hippo to Caesarea to combat heresy. Fifteen centuries before the Church proclaimed here immaculate, this same Augustine wrote these fine words of her: ‘When I speak of sin, I always hear that men cannot, for the honour of God, speak of the Virgin Mary.’ Later, under the ferocious empire of Islam, it was near there that Christian slaves honoured her and near there that they suffered martyrdom, while invoking her name!
My very dear People, what a lot of memories are enclosed in this name of Our Lady of Africa that the piety of our venerated predecessor took for her. Our Lady of Africa is, indeed, not only the Queen of the present and the future. She is also the Queen of the past, the Queen of Cyprian, Augustine, Optat, Fulgence, Felicity, Perpetua, the Doctors, the Pontiffs, the Martyrs, the Virgins who embalmed this noble soil with the perfume of their virtues and their blood. In crowning her with this new title, it is therefore this glorious army, of which she is Queen that we will crown along with her!
However, it is not only the statue of Mary that Pius IX wanted to encircle with honour. He wanted to grant a new title to her shrine, and to place it on the same standing as the most venerated shrines of Rome. As you know, my dear People, at Rome, the churches where the Sovereign Pontiffs established their thrones, St. John Lateran, St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major, bear the name of Basilica. It is a title that places them above all the churches in the world; it is also the most extended source of spiritual favours, since plenary indulgences can be gained any day of the year.
When the Popes wish to honour an early or renowned church in the rest of the world, they confer on it the same rank and privileges. They seldom do so, to conserve a high value to this honour. Pius IX wanted to do so for us. No doubt, he thought of this shrine as representing the early African churches. They merited this honour these churches buried in the ruins of our seven hundred Episcopal Sees. These were churches where great men preached the truth, where they perished in flames, under the sword of the Donatists , the Vandals and Arabs. So many millions of martyrs died, where the Catholic truth was heard, in its Councils, in such eloquent phrases.
Two Papal Briefs hallow these two acts of his paternal kindness. They will both be solemnly made public at Our Lady of Africa, on the eve of Mary’s month. From today (30th April 1876), Mary will bear her crown from Pius IX, her church will take on its new title (of basilica) and the pious faithful who climb the hill will find more abundant sources of blessings and graces.
The practical fruit I hope from these privileges, my dear People, is an increase in trust in Mary and a development of her devotion among you. There is no greater devotion that better corresponds to these sad times in which we live and to the needs of our souls. Devotion to Mary is devotion to hope and when have we had more need of hope than in the midst of present evils and fears for the future? Devotion to Mary is devotion to mercy, the mercy of a mother who intervenes on behalf of her guilty sons. Moreover, when have we needed mercy more than in these times of indifference and irreverence?
Come then, my very dear People, come to this throne of grace and goodness; do not fear, lift your confident gaze up to her. Only words of forgiveness can descend upon you. […]
Letter of Father Toulotte to the parents and parish priests of the missionaries murdered in the Sahara (May1876)
Dear Sir, Madame,
Reverend Parish Priest,
I am writing to confirm the blessed yet sad news of which the Archbishop gave you notice in an unconfirmed statement in his latest letter. However, he wishes me, on behalf of the Society of Missionaries, to pass on to you without delay the details that we have just received.
Your excellent son, your parishioner, received the supreme honour of shedding his blood for God’s sake and for the love of his fellows. As you know, he was on the way to Timbuktu with two of his Missionary confreres. The ultimate aim of their journey was to enter the land of the fetishist Blacks. Leaving last December, they completed the first part of their journey without incident. It was only in the land of the Tuareg, almost thirty days from the coast , that they were stopped on their way. We do not yet have all the details concerning their deaths. All we have, by way of reliable eyewitness accounts to their blood-spattered remains is that the victims would all have been beheaded, within the borders of south Sahara and off the caravan route.
It is alleged that Black Tuareg or Imushagh put them to death. The bodies were found half prone, one on top of the other, as though they had been brought closer together and made to kneel before beheading by their executioners. Their heads were completely severed from their bodies.
Their guide, a Muslim Saharan Arab, was killed with them, but in a different way. His body was badly beaten, no doubt because he wanted to vigorously defend himself. As for our blessed brothers, they were like lambs led to the slaughter. We still do not know why they were murdered, but the beheading in Muslim custom definitely indicates a hatred for the name and faith of Christians. The different treatment inflicted on the guide would further confirm this thinking. In any case, these heroic Missionaries faced up to dangers and such a death with the sole aim of spreading the light and benefit of their faith among so many poor fetishist people of central Africa. As for them, their execution was definitely martyrdom. The Church will one day proclaim it. However, meanwhile, nothing prevents us from giving them, as far as it is permitted, the sacred name of martyrs.
You will know that our three Fathers were established in the Sahara for several years. They treated the sick and practiced all the duties of charity; they were loved and respected by the surrounding peoples. It is even there that led to their departure for Timbuktu. Tuareg patients they had treated and healed urged them to come into their lands. They then asked the Archbishop, our Venerable Father, permission to accept this longed for invitation. They died where they had gone to practice charity. What greater love than to lay down one’s life!
I hope to give you further details soon. Reverend Father Deguerry, our Superior, no sooner had he received the latest news than he left immediately, despite the dangers of the journey, to collect the remains of our martyrs, unwilling to leave to anyone else the carrying out of this sacred duty. He will not be back at Algiers for two months, but as soon as he returns, he will write to you himself. In the meantime, he has commissioned me to write on his behalf to give you these details. I do so while joining you in your sorrow and your joy, weeping with my brothers and envying their happiness that I would ask of God one day to share!
Be assured of my greatest respect and devotion in Our Lord,
On behalf of our absent Father Superior,
Father Toulotte,
Assistant General of the Society
Letter to the parents of the missionaries murdered in the Sahara (4th May 1876)
Algiers,
You have finally received the bittersweet certitude that you sought and yet dreaded. The letters written to you by the Superior of our Missionaries can leave you in no doubt whatsoever: your sons suffered and died for the sake of God’s kingdom.
I can tell that your hearts enlightened by faith were elated with holy joy, but that your eyes shed tears. I would not accuse those tears of weakness. Mary wept for Jesus on Calvary and Jesus wept for Lazarus, for he loved him. How could I forbid a father, a mother, to grieve their son? Besides, if I were to do so I could not, without condemning myself. I myself have felt nature’s crucial heart-wrenching, just like you, for they were my sons, while at the same time they were yours. You gave birth to them for life: I gave birth to them for priesthood. God made use of you to give them to the earth. He consented to use me, a heartless shepherd, to give them to martyrdom and to heaven.
Be sure that they received in all its fullness the grace God enabled me to bestow on them. I recall the words I used to address them and their brothers less than two years ago at the consecration of their church , where one day their remains will be laid. Perhaps you have already read them, as the press published the speech; you would have trembled for your sons. They alone did not tremble. In their heart of hearts, they heard a powerful voice of which mine was but the echo. This voice silenced all their fears.
I said to them, ‘What is attracting you to this Mission are the dangers that surpass any other Mission on earth. Africa, with its depths still to be discovered, is, we somehow know, the last resort of nameless barbarity, the seemingly irredeemable mindlessness, the cannibalism, and the ultimately loathsome slavery . Nevertheless, you have come and have committed yourselves to live this life and to die this death. You look forward to the time to set out on the battlefield, the battlefield of charity, where your weapons will be your daily good deeds. Your defence will be patience and gentleness, and your preaching the power of your example. Your triumph, finally, will be the heroic sacrifice of your lives.
‘Looking at you, my dear Sons, I see on your foreheads all the radiance of power and youth. I think of all you have forsaken: family, nation, earthly ambition; I thank God who still keeps on earth so many hearts that heroic dedication and purity can inflame.’
Your sons listened to me. At these words terrifying to human nature, only the zeal of sacrifice illuminated their looks. I still remember on the day of their priestly ordination, when kneeling at the foot of the altar, they listened to the question the bishop asks everywhere of new priests. In a Mission like theirs, though, it takes on a meaning full of risks and hopes! ‘Do you promise, to me and my successors, respect and obedience?’ ‘Each of them responded with a firm and humble voice, ‘I promise!’ Then, according to the sacred ritual, they placed their hands between mine, as though to abandon their lives as well as their will. They kept their sacred promise; their obedience was like that of their Divine Master, whose yoke they bore: obedience until death!
What memories! Moreover, what a sword pierced my soul in recalling that they have left us and that I, worthless servant, survive them! Absalom, my Son! My Son Absalom, cried David in similar pain, who will grant to die in order to bring you back to life? This is what I feel at their graveside; and you, who watched over their cradle, do I wonder that you grieve for them with me? Weep, therefore, weep as Jacob wept for Joseph and Rachel for her sons; but let your tears be alleviated by the hope that faith brings.
Where lie these hopes had they been greater or nearer? Where would life be seen to be purer and more certain than at the heart of such a death? Your three martyred sons are alive! They live in God, for whose love they shed their innocent blood. They live forever in the grateful memory of the Church, their Mother - that their sacrifice honoured so greatly.
What captivating charms, which will surely endure for posterity, these apostles had, cut off so early in their careers. They were sacred flowers whose lily-whiteness blended with the purple of martyrdom; they came to bloom in and to perfume the desert! In the morning, they rose brimming with all the sheen of their beauty; in the evening, they were cut down before their time. Born together, united to one another by the sacred bonds of love, they were not separated in death!
This is how we saw them; this is how we will keep their lovable and sweet memory, just as David kept that of Jonathan! Indeed, we saw them set out, full of love for God, full of love for those barbarians that were to put them to death. Upon leaving the land that still belongs to France, they intoned the triumphant hymn of the Church , in the hope, now achieved, of sacrificing themselves for their faith. They were the first, in bringing the Divine Sacrifice, to spread the mystical blood of the Lamb to these pagan lands. They made haste to mix their own blood with it, thus planting in death the resurrection and the life!
Moreover, to associate themselves to the work of divine redemption, what had they not suffered already! They had left the paternal home, they were torn from your embraces and your tears; they abandoned their future hopes, France, all they held dear on earth.
They had come here to prepare themselves to penetrate the hinterland of this Africa where every scourge prevails and where Islam stands guard over its approaches. In response to their dedication, they now came across contradiction and outrage.
So-called Christians, if I could say so without blushing, had accused them of seeking to enrich themselves, whereas they begged with embarrassment their daily bread and that of the poor they were feeding! When they saved abandoned children from death and with their own hands dressed the unsightly wounds of the local inhabitants, without speaking of God other than by their charity, they were represented to the general public in vile libels, as violating consciences and seeding rebellion! They heard from among us the cries of disreputable Christians, as in the time of Saint Jerome, against the servants of God: ‘Get out, away with you, you deplorable race of men!’ As for them, they were silent, knowing full well that one day they would reply to these calumnies and hateful cries by a miracle of love!
Admittedly, they did not see the success of their promises here on earth, but they prepared it and ensured it by their deaths. The Church does not triumph like earthly powers do. These only know how to achieve victory through killing. The Church has a secret that succeeds against any resistance and even the faults of its children! The Church knows how to die. You would have understood on behalf of your sons if you had been able to see, as I did, the effect produced on all their brothers, the African Missionaries of Algiers , on the initial news of their blessed end. If you had heard their voices vibrant with enthusiasm and faith chanting in choir the hymn of Augustine and Ambrose – the same hymn your sons sang on their way to martyrdom!
Once the Te Deum was over, all of them swore to sacrifice themselves to a land that had soaked up the blood of their brothers; all of them asked to follow them into the fight. If the door were to be closed on one side, they would look for another one. They would not stop at all, until they had penetrated to the heart of this empire of death. It would no longer simply be the expression of the Doctor of Carthage, ‘Blood of martyrs, seed of Christians’; the blood of your sons from then on was visibly the inexhaustible source of the African apostolate!
I hope that these elevated thoughts console and strengthen you. May faith, taking you on its wings, lift you above the feelings and failings of nature. Doubtless, they suffered and died. However, they have washed in their blood their venial faults that could still cling to their souls. Today, by their prayers, they obtain mercy for us. In addition, what is the life they have lost worth? Would it be peace and unalloyed happiness? It has to end. This is enough to demonstrate its vanity. Who could have guaranteed a single day extra to your sons, if they had lost the glory of martyrdom? If they had lived, what would their lives have been worth? In this world, there is raging and senseless hatred against the truth, even against God. Evildoers fabricate fiery plots. There is heedlessness, the comprehensive failings of the good, mud that rises and suffocates, as well as chasms that open up ahead. Do all these events lead us to hold in high esteem and regret this world? Are we not rather coming close to the times proclaimed by the Master, when the living would envy the dead?
However, you need to weep for yourselves, because you will see them no more, these sons that were to console and support your old age! It is true, you will no longer see them here below; you will no longer see their gentle and steady eyes, their quiet smile; you will no longer hear their rich voices; you will no longer hear these strong and pure hearts beating. Nevertheless, one day, in the not too distant future, you will meet them again, triumphant and shining with an eternal glow, carrying in their hands the palm of victory.
Even when they fell under the blows of their executioners, with the divine joy of forgiving them and dying for them, the glorious band of martyrs, their predecessors and models, prepared the crown they have now received. In company with the angelic host, today they sing their joy in the presence of the supreme King for whom they have given their all. They stand beside Stephen, the first of all the martyrs, just as they are the first martyrs of this new Mission. They take their places beside Paul who recalls for them what they have so well experienced themselves, ‘a short spell of suffering is rewarded by a glory and happiness without end.’ This is how we see them, from now on, in mind and heart, and nothing can ever take them from us anymore.
Now, dear mothers, whose hearts have been cruelly pierced by the sword because your love is deeper and more tender, remember the mother in the Maccabees, exhorting her sons to martyrdom, promising them victory. God did not wish you to exhort your sons to wage war; he did it for you invisibly. Nonetheless, your faith will enable you to apply to yourselves these touching and sublime references that our Sacred Scriptures safeguard. Your faith will enable you to understand and sample the joy of your sons as well as your own, holy mothers of these martyrs.
I must conclude and yet I would rather continue to speak to you, as I feel that these lines, which come to you from the land where they died for God and from a heart that loved them, will be balm to your grieving.
However, God will make up for my powerlessness and give you, in his goodness, the only consolations that endure forever.
(The manuscript of this letter, as conserved in the archives of the Society, bears no list of addressees or concluding phrase. This probably means it is the final preparatory draft and the secretaries did not see the point of rewriting the whole text when the letter was dispatched).
Letter to Father Charbonnier on the challenging situation for the Society after the massacre in the Sahara (3rd June 1876)
Biarritz,
Dear Father,
I received your telegrams, and I am pleased to learn of the return of Father Deguerry and what he left to the Sheikh to look after the return of the remains of our dear martyrs. Indeed, we are increasingly moving into an era of persecution against our undertakings. For me it is clear that an opportunity to aim a heavy blow is being sought. During this last week, articles have appeared against us in ten or twelve French newspapers and several Belgian and Swiss newspapers. Clearly, these articles come from a common source and are inspired by the hatred of some members of the Government. Combining this with the ruthless vote of the Budget Commission to withdraw our grants, it is undeniable that they are lying in wait for us and they are looking for a new pretext to link it to the massacre of the Missionaries.
Therefore, we have to be very prudent, put the deaths in Algeria and take our activities outside, to Tripoli and to Tunis. For Tripoli, Father Deguerry will need to go himself with Father Charmetant; but this will be the subject of a second letter from me.
As for Gourraban, my considered opinion is that we need to remain there unless the Oran diocesan authority prevents it. To leave would be to show inconsistency. We shall see what is best to do after the retreat. However, the Fathers must absolutely not tell anyone at all that they are there to enter Morocco. Write again to Father M… and tell him to wait patiently for the retreat. Do not send me any more telegrams about this matter unless in an extreme emergency. The Government sees them and could misuse them.
I bless you, my dear child, and I am all yours in our Lord.
Charles, Arch. Algiers
Letter to Father Deguerry on the tragedy of the martyrs in the Sahara (15th June 1876)
Biarritz,
Dear Father,
In the midst of our worries, I have received a great consolation that will also be a great joy for you. Cardinal Franchi, on behalf of the Sovereign Pontiff, told me that His Holiness is full of admiration for the bravery of the three Missionary apostles of Timbuktu. The Pope is entirely confident that their blood will be the seed of many Christian communities in the African interior. Finally, he has authorised us to celebrate a Solemn Office of Thanksgiving at Maison-Carrée for the martyrdom of our dear Confreres and Sons. All this is documented. It is almost a canonisation. I will make it the subject of a Pastoral Letter to the Missionaries, but I did not want to delay a moment longer to write to you about it. (The closing phrase of the letter is missing).
Notes for the Missionaries’ Retreat (1876)
1st Examen: The Spiritual Man
Enter into the thinking of the retreat; the ultimate end of man: meditate on it. ‘The whole land is made desolate, but no man lays it to heart.’ Do not just meditate, but examine myself:
1) What should I be? A saint - a spiritual person. ‘Why have you come and why have you left the world if not to become a spiritual person?’ Am I a spiritual person? ‘The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.’ ... Is it for God? Is it for me?
2) What am I in the Mission? Robinson... Accommodation... food... every possible distraction... I will not do God’s work; I will be condemned… I will seek my comfort; I will find everything boring; I will withdraw.
3) Three questions therefore: What am I becoming: more spiritual or more sensual? Am I a Missionary or a Robinson? Which issues need the most correction?
2nd Examen: The Apostolic Man
Yesterday, we examined ourselves on our inner tendencies; the spiritual man, the sensual man. However, this is not enough; our condition is not about not losing ourselves or saving ourselves alone. What suffices for an anchorite is not enough for a Missionary.
1) The virtue proper to the Missionary is zeal. Zeal is the perfection of charity. Do we love God passionately, do we love his glory? Do we wish that all loved and served him? It is the sentiment of our Lord: ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!’ That is the Missionary. A Missionary without zeal is a monster.
2) Do we have zeal? We will recognise it, not in speculative and spiritual sentiments, but by the way we practice the works of the Mission. Another characteristic is the learning of native languages. How can they hear without preachers? This is a regrettable abuse in this respect. The second characteristic is the care given to schooling. A Missionary exercising zeal does sos in quite a different way to the Missionary without zeal… Methods. A third characteristic is charity to the local people, especially the sick. An attitude of faith and charity. Do not resist them because of their faults. Fidelity to visits to the tribe, the final characteristic of zeal. What a lot of self-reproach! What lukewarmness! Afterwards, what discouragement! ‘I seek not what is yours but you. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?’ Our three martyrs – Follow in their footsteps.
3rd Examen: The Man of the Rule
The Missionary, the spiritual man, the zealous man, must be a man of the Rule for himself in particular, for the community and for the Mission.
1) For himself - Resistere... This is the only means to control nature and to overcome it, especially in youth. One is lost if one does not love the Rule. Do we love it? Do we follow it? Do we not scorn it, seeing it as trifling? The yardstick is this: do we have a personal rule? Superiors write the other one, whereas we impose ours on ourselves.
He who lives by the Rule lives according to God. The Missionary without the Rule will perish, you will see.
2) For the community – The Rule is so essential that if it is not observed, then losses are guaranteed. Life becomes unbearable. ‘…the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness.’ The duty of Superiors: more exacting in this matter. If they gave bad example by its violation, this would be a crime; if they lacked strictness to have it observed, this would be desolation. Where do we stand on this in our communities? Is the Rule being followed, meditation, Holy Scripture in Arabic, theological talks, weekly councils, the monthly reading of the Constitutions, the Letter on Obedience, the report of the visitation? A community where these things are not done soon becomes a scandal.
3) For the Mission – Awesome as an army in battle array…. There is a plan, a joint action laid down by the Superiors. These alone can be effective and blessed by God. We have to sacrifice all our private thoughts to them. Without this, it would soon be chaotic. Obedience - even in apparently unimportant matters. In terms of clothes, why are there these varieties of colour? Therefore, if I do not follow the Rule, I will be damned to Hell. If I do not follow it, I am heading for the destruction of the community, and that of the Mission.
4th Examen: Relations between Missionaries
Superiors towards inferiors - inferiors towards Superiors - Missionaries between themselves.
1) Superiors towards inferiors - The virtue of Superiors is attentiveness. ‘Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.’ . The sins of Superiors as such are far more serious than those of individuals. They ruin everything. We need to foresee, warn and command with affection. ‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.’ ‘Do not scheme to be appointed judge, in case you are not strong enough to stamp out injustice…’ ‘…rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.’
2) Inferiors towards Superiors – Obedience is sought in a spirit of faith. There is enough meditation on obedience during the retreat not to insist on its obligatory character.
The particular conditions of the Society make one point necessary: the spirit of faith in obedience. They are all young, companions, and colleagues: without a spirit of faith, no genuine obedience is possible. Therefore, see God in the Superiors. We must obey God rather than men. Therefore we take no account of age, experience or character: we obey with joy, promptly and respectfully. Insist on this word: respect. Where do we stand with this in the Society? Much to fear, much to watch out for from Major Superiors… There is less risk in disobeying a bishop than a young Superior in a mission post. It can be a particular snare for older members; they need to be more faithful than others.
3) Missionaries between themselves – mutual respect, mutual love. Mutual respect: no camaraderie, no offhand remarks. In sleeping and eating, follow the rules of accepted practice. Love one another. Prove it by mutual kindness, tolerating defects. Avoid quarrelling before outsiders or the local inhabitants. They said of the Apostles, ‘See how they love one another.’ How sad it would be if, ‘See how they hate one another’, were said of Missionaries! It would be better not to have come. ‘Friend, what did you come to do? Keep silent on defects. Speak well of others, according to the Rule of the Jesuits.
5th Examen - Chastity
1) Its necessity for the Missionary – Only those who lead a pure life are genuine priests of God. If he keeps it, he is an angel; if he loses it, he becomes a demon. He ruins souls and falls under the anathema of Our Lord, ‘It would be better for him if a millstone were placed around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.’
2) Its difficulty especially for young people. It is only preserved through vigilance and prayer; regular mortification and evasion, especially evasion. We can combat all other adversaries head-on, but this one is only by evasion. Do not see any woman alone, even on a visit. Consult the Rule on this matter. Do not be familiar with children. If your heart is taken, apply for a new appointment; otherwise a fall cannot be avoided.
3) How do we fail – by thought and words. Immoral conversations among Missionaries. The local inhabitants: tolerate nothing. Chastity is our greatest glory; do not lose it. Frequent confession guarantees protection. If a person cannot persevere on the Mission, then best to leave.
6th Examen: On the wisdom necessary for Missionaries
O Wisdom from the mouth of the Most High, teach us the way of prudence . Prudence is a necessary quality for those who are responsible for the work of God. If he is learned, let him teach us; if he is holy, let him pray for us; if he is prudent, then let him govern us . Without prudence, everything is turned to evil, even zeal. Prudence is more necessary than ever.
1) Due to the general situation of the world and especially the Muslim world. We are expecting very serious turns of events. War is inevitable… Muslims want to have recourse to extremism. The smallest degree of imprudence would be disastrous, providing weapons to our enemies.
2) Due to the disposition of the authorities that surround us. They will take advantage of everything, especially now that radicalism is on the rise. The smallest indiscretion can provoke irreparable damage.
3) Due to the disposition of Christians in the country. Let those who are in parishes look after themselves. Those who are going to replace the parish priests should not preach at all.
4) Towards the local population. It is said, but what good is it to come? You are coming to prepare the ground. Be careful. ‘No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ Consider wheat; it is buried; foundations are also under the earth. In the Sahara, the temptation of prudence is to become discouraged... There is nothing to do. In Kabylia, the temptation is to appear not to be doing God’s work. Illusions: orders from your Superiors, approbation from the Holy See: it would be a mistake to baptise openly after ten years in Kabylia, perhaps after a hundred years in the Sahara .
In all mission posts, there are two actions possible: schooling and the baptism of infants in danger of death. Schooling is not comfortable for those who want to live as mere amateurs. Child baptism should be done with zeal and discernment.
7th Examen: Poverty
Two obligations: do not be attached to riches; do not waste the resources we have. ‘The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup’ How do we lack resources in the Society? Mass intentions for vestments, the remainder in alms. To be attached to money and to throw it to the wind is a sin. Nobody gives anything to the works. In chapels in houses: there is no Blessed Sacrament; they claim that there is no money to buy a pyx or a tabernacle. Order and cleanliness, these are two essential virtues, especially with poverty. This is what we see in the houses and even in the Mother House!
Letter to Missionaries concerning a violent dispute between two confrères (1st November 1876)
Algiers,
My Dear Sons,
Today, in your midst, I have to carry out a sad duty. Some weeks ago, in one of the mission posts, a unique (up to now) event occurred and will not, I hope, have any imitators. Two Missionaries, a Father and a Brother, had the misfortune of lacking self-control to the extent of coming to blows with each other in an excess of blind rage. The guiltier of the two, Brother X was immediately expelled from the Society of Missionaries. The less guilty one, Father Y, remains on probation, but in agreement with the Council of your Congregation, I think he should be given a public and exemplary punishment. Consequently, he will take all his meals on his knees during the retreat, which is beginning. At the end of the retreat, he will publicly ask pardon for the scandal he gave.
In addition, I must inform all the Missionaries that if a similar event occurs, which God forbid, those who are guilty of it will be immediately and without recourse expelled from the Society. Indeed, it is impossible to tolerate in a Society of apostles such scandalous excesses and if Father Y has been forgiven, it is that on the one hand the Rule had not foreseen such a deplorable case and on the other, on his side there were largely mitigating circumstances.
You will all understand my pain, My very dear Sons, and with me will ask pardon from the Lord that such a defect could be committed in a Society of apostles whose charity must be the foremost law.
I bless you from a distance and I remain yours in the Heart of our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop
Apostolic Delegate
Rules concerning budgets and non-budgeted expenses (Late 1876)
We, Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie, by the grace of God and favour of the Apostolic See, Delegate Apostolic for the Mission of the Sahara and the Sudan,
Taking account of the accounts of the Society of Missionaries of Africa of Algiers for the current year 1876 and the foregoing years,
Taking account of the deliberations of the Council of the same Society during the same period,
Taking account of the Decisions in Chapter of the same Society held in 1875,
Considering that the conclusion of these various documents is that the expenses for the Society of Missionaries were and are still excessive and out of all proportion to the fixed resources,
Considering that these excessive expenses arise above all from the ease with which the bursars of the various houses on the one hand and the Council members on the other make or approve extraordinary expenses.
Considering that it is our most strict duty to keep hold on such a state of affairs so that it may not be extended, for it will lead to financial disasters, as detrimental to the works of the Mission as dishonourable for religion itself,
In the name of God, we have ordered and order what follows in the name of Holy Obedience, declaring the obligation sub gravi on those concerned with these measures:
Art. I – We remind the Treasurer that he may not pay out any sum other than that brought in the annual budget of each house, without the written authorisation of the Council and Us.
Art. II – No expense outside the ordinary budget forecast by the Council at the start of each year for each house and the whole of the Work may be incurred without the prior authorisation of the said Council agreed unanimously by the members present and our written approval.
Art. III - Expenses incurred outside of these conditions will remain the personal responsibility of those who incurred them or ordered them; the Treasurer of the Work cannot meet them. The same applies to money lost or compromised by a Missionary’s own clumsy fault.
Art. IV – Separately from the spiritual sanction mentioned above , those who have spent, allow to have spent, lose or compromise the money or the goods of the Work and the Society contrary to the rules prescribed in article II, could be sentenced by the Council, with our approval, to reimburse the fund with the sums missing or to obtain this money by charity collections if they cannot do otherwise.
Art. V – The present Ruling will be written into the logbook of Council Decisions and the Reverend Father Vicar will make it known to all the members of the Society, in the manner that he deems best.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Delegate
Circular Letter recommending the recitation of a prayer in common to Our Lady of Africa (25th December 1876)
Dear Brothers,
Among the obligations of apostolic life, prayer has to take pride of place. If it is indeed the Missionary who works, it is God alone, according to the words of St. Paul, who gives the increase and the blessing. For this reason, we have gladly welcomed the proposal made to us by the Members of the Council of Missionaries to approve a prayer that all the Fathers, Brothers and Sisters could recite daily at the end of their Evening Prayer. In this way, it would serve as a shared weapon to reach and sway the Heart of Our Lord in favour of their apostolate. This same prayer could also serve as a format, each time that the Superiors would order a novena for any particular need of the Mission
Finally, it would be recited after Sunday High Mass in the shrine of Our Lady of Africa, to which it is especially dedicated. The celebrant would recite it aloud himself on behalf of all his Brothers, before leaving the sanctuary. We have approved and have made these various arrangements obligatory. To further encourage such pious devotions even more, we have granted an indulgence of forty days to all those who would recite the enclosed prayer , each time it is recited.
We trust that the maternal goodness of the Most Holy Virgin will receive these unceasing supplications and obtain for our Works the fruitfulness that can only come from God.
The present Circular and the accompanying prayer will be read at Spiritual Reading in each house of the Missionaries and Sisters of the Mission, from the day they receive it.
We sincerely bless you, and we remain your humble and devoted servant in fatherly affection in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop
Apostolic Delegate of Sahara and Soudan
Letter to Archbishop Bourret –Lavigerie seeks to submit his resignation from Algiers to devote himself entirely to the Mission alone (30th December 1876)
Archdiocese of Algiers
Algiers,
My very dear Lord and Friend,
I send you my warmest wishes for the year that is dawning and my affectionate gratitude for your goodness towards my children.
Now that the Diocese of Blois is vacant, it would solve the situation for Archbishop Soubiranne. I wrote to Versailles about it, but I am far away and I think you need to be near at hand to succeed.
It is all the more necessary to take a stand on a position for the Archbishop of Sébaste that it, such as it is, as he holds from me, will also be out of his grasp by the force of circumstances.
I am indeed on the edge of taking a decision, which has become necessary on account of my ongoing poor state of health and the continuing development of the Mission. I can no longer govern the diocese alone and extend the Works of the Delegation. I have to choose in this situation, but I cannot do so without dishonouring myself by abandoning the Works I founded and the soldiers I have led into battle. I will therefore completely abandon my Archdiocese and will remain Apostolic Delegate, probably choosing my residence at St Louis de Carthage, as it belongs to us. I will not be the first bishop to make himself a missionary, and if there is a sacrifice to be made, I will do so with joy, because the world as it is going fills me with horror. Episcopal responsibility in these sad times, as well as the miserable diocesan clergy of Algeria, has become unbearable. Moreover, if I am taken for a fool, I will be in good company, beginning with St. Paul, and in any case, I will not be seen as ambitious.
I know well enough your generosity of heart, my dear Lord, to know that you will approve of me, as does Archbishop Maret to whom I have also disclosed this plan. I am going to write to our Holy Father the Pope, though I am certain of his assent in advance. I will ask for Archbishop Robert as my successor.
Let all this be between us for the time being, until the Holy Father has spoken.
Farewell, dearest and most gracious Lord. Believe me, I am all yours in affection and devotion.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letters to the Prefect of Propaganda and to the Holy Father to communicate his intention to resign the See of Algiers (1st January 1877)
I) Letter to the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda
Algiers,
Your Eminence,
I have had the honour, in the course of this year, to engage Your Eminence’s attention concerning the Mission of which I am responsible as Apostolic Delegate. Today, I come to request your support in a serious step I have to take with His Holiness, in order to obey my conscience and fulfil a sacred duty.
The enclosed letter, which I ask Your Eminence to please read firstly and then submit it to the Sovereign Pontiff, will inform you of the favour I seek. However, I feel I should give to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, more ample and precise details of the situation that will arise in the Mission of the Sahara and the Western Sudan, as well as in myself, by my resignation as Archbishop of Algiers.
Your Eminence is aware that I founded two Congregations, one of men and the other of women, for the service of this Mission. In order to focus one’s attention correctly, I am honoured to enclose with the present letter a copy of the Rule of these two Congregations. They have both received such an outstanding blessing from God that they already number nearly three hundred members, i.e., the Missionaries almost one hundred and fifty and the Sisters, over one hundred.
The number of Stations has also multiplied in proportion and we are soon to be obliged, with your authorisation, to open two procures, one at St Louis de Carthage and the other at Tripoli. This will serve us for the caravans that no longer leave from Algeria, in order to deliver Missionaries and the provisions they need into the Mission.
However, I must tell your Eminence that all the increasingly numerous daily details is enough to occupy a single person, especially considering the care to give to the formative content for two Congregations in their infancy. With my health severely undermined, I am no longer up to the task of administering the Archdiocese of Algiers and the Works of the Mission at the same time. In my letter to His Holiness, I give my reasons that lead me to relinquish, by preference, the Archdiocese of Algiers. They are absolutely irrefutable and I hope that your Eminence will approve them.
Nevertheless, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda has the right to know how I will manage to run the Mission when I have given up my Archdiocese. Here it is in a few words. Foreseeing what is happening today, I have gradually prepared everything for several years to make of the Vicar Apostolic or the Delegate who will be placed in charge of the Mission of the Sahara with its dependencies, as constituted by the Sacred Congregation in its Decree, what would be required for it to live independently. Since it is absolutely required for the Apostolic Delegate ordinarily to reside at the coast, I began by separating the Mother House of the Missionaries and that of the Sisters from the Archdiocese of Algiers and declare them exempt by a Rescript of His Holiness. I have equipped these two houses with considerable properties, bringing the normal annual rental income achievable to nearly one hundred thousand francs.
In addition, on the exempted land of the Missionaries, I have had a very comfortable house built and have endowed it as the home of the Delegate in perpetuity. Finally, from the property income of the Mission, I have also allocated an annual sum of ten thousand francs for the upkeep of the same Prelate. Moreover, he has the reserved power, if he were of the Society of Missionaries, to dwell in any house of this Society that he chooses, outside Algeria, according to the needs of the Mission.
As far as I am concerned personally, as a former bishop, I have the additional right to a pension of ten thousand francs from the French Government and I have privately owned property providing me with a private income of twenty thousand francs.
The present and the future therefore appear guaranteed on the material side. From the spiritual side, my resignation as Archbishop of Algiers will undoubtedly foster it, calling upon God’s blessing and enabling me to devote myself with greater freedom, follow-up and zeal to the duties of the apostolate alone.
I add that I have taken steps to ensure that the excellent Archbishop Robert of Constantine will be appointed to Algiers.
It is under these conditions, Eminentissime, that I hope Your Eminence will support my request to His Holiness. Be assured of my deepest and most respectful devotion.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
II) Letter to Pope Pius IX
Most Holy Father,
The poor state of my health has created a situation that has become daily more difficult and obliges me to have recourse to Your Holiness to ask you to lighten my pastoral responsibility.
Independently of the Archdiocese of Algeria, whose burden I have borne for ten years, Your Holiness was good enough to confer on me the role of Apostolic Delegate, through the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, for the vast Mission to found to the south of the Barbary States and up to the centre of Africa.
As long as God gave me strength, I was able to face this double task, without too many setbacks. However, since my illness eroded my early health, I find myself unable to bear both properly and I am consequently compelled, in conscience, to give up one of them.
After a long period of thought before God, I believe, Most Holy Father, that it is the Archdiocese of Algiers, in preference to the Mission, that I hand back to the paternal care of Your Holiness. The Mission is still fragile, as is everything at the beginning. It therefore cannot do without the hand that up to now sustained and directed it.
The two special Congregations that I had to found for such a vast apostolate can only thrive and develop with my aid. It seems to me, Most Holy Father, I would be ashamed if I were to abandon them. Both already number almost three hundred members; they have had their first martyrs. I would be liable in justice, as a Catholic Bishop, to deserve the judgement that struck the Pharisees in the Gospel, ‘Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.’ (Lk 11: 46)
I therefore plead with Your Holiness not to separate me from them. Since I can do no more, due to my state of health and the development of all our Works, to bear my dual responsibility, I would ask your permission to make the sacrifice of my Archiepiscopal See and the honours attached to it to place me at the head of my Missionaries. In this way, I would be able, once the proper time comes, to obtain a worthy successor from the French Government, and canonically relinquish my responsibility as Archbishop of Algiers, retaining the title of Apostolic Delegate for the Mission of the Sahara and the Sudan.
Moreover, everything else is entirely ready for this separation.
Prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I beseech you to bless my sacrifice and above all to be so good as to accept it with the deepest veneration for Your Holiness, Most Holy Father. Your most humble obedient and devoted son and servant,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Speech of the Founder to the Missionaries to announce his application for resignation (1st January 1877)
My Sons,
I doubt if my conscience would allow me to leave you to soldier on alone in such a perilous arena. You already have martyrs among you. I sent them far onto the battlefield. I am called to select those who will succeed them. I cannot do it, I must not do it, without from now on marching with them. You have left everything, homeland and family, to come here at my call; I have left nothing. I am still attached to my Archiepiscopal See. This thought tortures me: what is an army chief who does not march at its head or a shepherd who seems to flee the ferocity of the wolves? I have therefore consulted God in prayer. My failing strength seems to be a sign of his will for me. I have just written to the Sovereign Pontiff to ask him permission to resign my Archiepiscopal See, to take your habit, your Rule and to share your life; and if required, your death.
The Missionary Sisters in Kabylia will be exclusively the Sisters of the Missions of Africa of Kouba (29th January 1877)
Very Reverend Father,
In theory, I am quite agreed with the setting up of Sisters in the Kabyle Stations. However, regrettably, I cannot authorise the introduction of the Sisters of Ribeauvillé when at Algiers we already have a community of Sisters specially intended for this Mission. You will easily understand that this would be to knock over with one hand what I was hoping to build with the other. In addition, the communities of France, as they have multiple works, only attach secondary interest to those of Africa and they would never give us the numbers of personnel we will one day need. We therefore have several different communities in Kabylia. This seems to me to have some drawbacks at all points of view. Moreover, I no longer am free in this respect. Not only I personally, but the diocesan administration has committed itself by a form of synallagmatic (reciprocal) agreement to prevent any other Congregation of women than those of the Missions of Africa, of Kouba, into Kabylia. Attached to my letter is the text of this agreement of which you are perhaps unaware; it would be good, I believe, to be acquainted with it as it has a reservation and a right in your favour.
Please consider, Very Reverend Father, if it would be good for you to request Sisters from the Mother Superior General of the Sisters of Kouba. I believe they will be able to give you some, although they have already promised others to the Ouadhias.
Yours very sincerely in Our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Fr. Charmetant on his service as fundraiser (12th February 1877)
Paris,
My dear Son,
I do not wish to delay replying to you to tell you that I would be happy to see you visit the seminaries of Brittany that you mention, as well as Angers and St Brieux, although, in truth, I am not sure of the kindness of Archbishop David. Proceed with extreme prudence and say nothing of your business that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted. Above all, do not reside at the Diocese, but at the Seminary.
I readily approve of you not running around, but remaining a bit longer in Brittany. I see no point in remaining at Paris for Lent. What would you do there? I do not want you to preach for funds in the churches. Besides, at the moment, I am calling on priests of my Diocese and probably also your Fathers soon, to do a kind of beating the bushes in France for our Works. It is the right time, I believe, according to the impression that some details of my letter have produced.
Once again you have been very imprudent in composing a completely useless article in Villes et Campagnes and le Français. In view of the latest violence, this article was taken to task by the Algerian press and if their bold negative statements reach France, this will disturb people and harm our collectors. You are thus just as ever disobedient!
Fr. Deguerry has just left, as you probably know already, to collect the bodies of our three martyrs that have been found quite near In Salah, according to the letter of El-Qaïd Sliman. Fr. Delaunay has gone with him and will probably not be back for two months.
My resignation has been submitted with no regrets and with the conviction that I was serving the Work of the Mission. You already know that the Government is obstructing this decision and that the Sovereign Pontiff is probably not in favour, as he has not replied. I must therefore keep quiet and wait.
I am all yours in Our Lord,
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Report on the visit to the community of Saint Louis de Carthage (8th July 1877)
Report by His Grace Archbishop Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers, Apostolic Delegate of the Sahara and the Sudan, on Saint-Louis de Carthage: 2-14 July 1877
Creation of a small shop for articles of piety at Saint-Louis
Beginning next August, a repository for articles of piety will be opened at Saint-Louis, similar to the one at Notre-Dame d’Afrique. This repository will be specially entrusted to the Father in charge of welcoming visitors and to the Brother who will substitute for him. Nevertheless, the Father alone will hold the key. He will furnish the work as follows: a glass cabinet that he will commission immediately and in which articles for sale will be displayed. These articles will be medals of Saint Louis in silver and copper to be made by the gross in France, rosaries that will also be bought by the gross. For these orders, reference should be made in the first place to Brother Pinot, who will take the required information from
Mademoiselle Anna, for both the quantity of articles to order and the price. These orders will be placed with Mademoiselle Anna’s official suppliers. Pictures, mainly of Saint Louis, will be added to the medals and rosaries. Pictures of Saint Louis dying, which would be quite fitting for a pilgrimage, can be obtained at Bonasse, rue Saint Sulpice, Paris; they should also be ordered by the gross. Stamped photos of the house could be added to these holy pictures. The stamp should read: Saint Louis de Carthage - Missionaries of Africa. There should be a cross in the centre. For this stamp, Mr Poulet should be consulted. Finally, there could also be small candles for the pilgrims. However, the stand for burning them would have to be requested from Father Pinot. All articles of piety made in France should be sold at least five times their cost, including postage and packing. Candles may be sold at three times the cost.
For the first six months, Father Delattre would please keep the Archbishop informed by writing to His Grace on the first of the month the sales accounts of the preceding month, detailing precisely the profits and without taking account of the costs of the initial installation, which will be allocated directly by the Work of the Mission. Through this sale and the antiques, we need to aim at self-sufficiency for the upkeep of the house. At Notre-Dame d’Afrique, the sale of articles of piety yielded 500 francs of net profit per month, say, 6,000 francs per year.
I strongly urge Father Delattre, who is in charge of the chapel, to avoid above all the dreadful taste that makes it resemble a baby chapel by the ridiculous piling up of old pots, old bouquets, old brass chandeliers, old candles, green-painted sockets that look like gas chandeliers found on the town’s streets than altar chandeliers that have a traditional form in the Church.
The commemorative thanksgiving plaques should be hung on the walls with the least visible nails possible. It would be very desirable to have altar server’s clothes for all the little Africans. It could be requested at the Apostolic Works. These children soon need to be taught to sing and to be shown how to perform the ceremonies.
Education of the little Africans
The main point that must be borne in mind in the education of these children is that they are destined to return one day to their countries of origin, to become real missionaries. In fact, it is impossible to hope that Europeans will ever be able to penetrate in adequate numbers into the interior of Africa and above all to settle there so as to alter the customs of these barbarian peoples. Only those who are born there can expect to live there.
However, for this, we must carefully avoid raising these children in the European way, in dress, food, or sleeping. For all these matters, we need to imitate the African customs as far as possible. These children must not be made to wear shirts and shoes. They should also be given, almost exclusively, the type of food typical of their origins, such as sorghum, maize, peanuts, cheap fish and meat cuts, but never soup.
They should be completely deprived of bread, which does not exist in their countries. If land could be available to raise cattle, enough for two cows, they could also be given milk. I think it is excessive to keep these children inside, as one does. Their health will suffer. It is important to take them bathing. To avoid attracting attention, they could be taken two by two; equally for walking, when a Father needs to visit the neighbourhood, he could take two of these children with him.
For instruction, care must be taken not to make the mistake of teaching them too many things at once. Latin is to be absolutely excluded from their classes for good. They will only be taught French as the means for their further studies; for this, the best methods will be tried out.
The method whereby a certain number of words are taught each day demonstrated by concrete examples is the simplest and best. Nevertheless, nothing is better than playtime where all other languages are forbidden under pain of punishment, as well as in the classes. The master must completely forbid them from speaking Arabic, however much it may cost at the outset.
As soon as they understand a little French, they will be taught to read. However, when they know how to spell, care has to be taken to prevent them from reading any word whose meaning they do not yet understand. For this, they will be given a verbal explanation, showing them objects and teaching them to name them. When they know enough French, they will be taught the catechism, as well as the geography of Africa, but not of other countries. They can also be taught the four rules of arithmetic.
As for education itself, there are several main points to take into account. The first of these is good morals: one has to be inflexible on this matter; without this, these children will not make progress. The second concerns the development of their religious ideas: the authoritarian way has to predominate, without letting them suppose that there is any other religion in the world than the true one. Efforts have to be made to have them enjoy Church ceremonies. For this, it would be good to have six altar servers vested every Sunday as the children in any of our churches. This will only be conferred as a reward.
However, in raising their minds and hearts to higher levels, they have to be defended from scorn for their race or their homeland. Quite the contrary, by all means possible, they have to be inspired by a great love of the African race, a great zeal for its improvement and for the destruction of slavery of which they themselves have been the sad victims. To achieve this, they need to hear it often. In the minds of those who are beginning this work, these African children must not be missionaries as such one day, to the extent of receiving priestly ordination. This would be an extremely rare exception. They will almost all become doctors. This profession will help them later in their home countries to have influence and even the possibility of earning a living. Every means has to be taken to turn their ideas in this direction.
Saint-Louis, 8th July 1877
Charles, Archbishop, Apostolic Delegate
Establishing a Missionaries of Africa community at Jerusalem – Text of the Convention between the Society and the French State (20th July 1877)
Draft Agreement of the Convention
“The Government of France has completed the restoration of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, otherwise the Church of St Anne in Jerusalem, and wishes to honour this sanctuary in perpetuity by a foundation at once Catholic and national. The French Government has decided with Archbishop Lavigerie, in his capacity as Major Superior of the Order of Missionaries of Algiers , itself under the immediate authority of the Archbishop, the following arrangements:
Art. 1 - The establishment known as St Anne’s, situated in Jerusalem remains the property of France, which retains inalienable ownership in perpetuity. It comprises the Sanctuary of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, the Church that shelters it, the ground surrounding it in conformity to the plan appended to the present mutual agreement and the buildings which will be erected there, as described hereunder.
Art. 2 - The use and the custody of the establishment are and will remain the responsibility of the Order of Missionaries of Algiers.
Art. 3 - This Order will found at St Anne’s, with the authorisation of the Holy See and in conformity with Canon Law, a dwelling whose personnel will be exclusively of French nationality and will comprise twelve Religious.
Art. 4 - The establishment and those who will live there will be placed under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and under the temporal jurisdiction of the French Consulate in Jerusalem, in conformity with the treaties, laws and customs establishing consular rights and prerogatives in the Ottoman Empire.
Art. 5 - At St. Anne’s on all Sundays and feast days, the Religious will celebrate the religious offices with all the solemnity pertaining to the sacred liturgy, for the prosperity of France and the Church. Every day they will celebrate a Conventual Mass for the same intention, attended by the whole community.
Art. 6 - The community of the Missionaries of Algiers established at St Anne’s may construct new buildings and may renovate those already existing, according to the desires of the community on condition that they modify nothing in the construction, exterior aspect or archaeological character of the Church as a whole, as it is a work of the 12th century. In addition, the household must seek approval from the French Government for plans and building projects or modifications it proposes to carry out.
Art. 7 - All structures, in kind or purpose, established or fixed on the territory of St Anne’s will become the property of the sanctuary considered as a legal person. Consequently, it will become the property of the French State, which commits itself never to assign it to another purpose than the service of the sanctuary and its annexes.
Art. 8 - All movable property, other than items donated specifically to the sanctuary, of which the French Consul and the Superior of the community will retain a register in duplicate, will in all cases remain the property of the community. Movable property acquired by means of allocations from the Propagation of the Faith will be considered donated to the sanctuary.
The Order of Missionaries of Algiers is committed to building, according to an agreed plan, within three years from 1st May 1878, outside the designated places, on the part of the property situated on the public thoroughfare, premises necessary for housing a school of studies where at least six, maximum twelve, French clerics would be admitted at the expense of their dioceses to deepen their knowledge of the sacred sciences, together with their teachers, also of French nationality. The French Government reserves the right, in agreement with the ecclesiastical authorities, of determining the organisation of the aforementioned school.
Art. 10 - The Community will have the right of extending the territory of the sanctuary by acquiring plots of land and of setting up on the land thus acquired, such establishments as it sees fit. The title deeds of these acquisitions will be drawn up in the name of the French Consulate in Jerusalem. In the event of the community of Missionaries of Algiers vacating St Anne’s the French Government reserves the right of acquiring these annexes in return for reimbursement of the amounts paid for the purchase of the land and the construction of the buildings.
Art. 11 - The French Government will obtain exemption from import duty on all items intended for the use of the community of Missionaries of Algiers, as it does for all other religious institutions of the Latin Rite in Jerusalem within the limits set by the arrangements or conventions passed with the Ottoman government.
Art. 12 - Free passage by steamship will be accorded to all members of the community, as long as the arrangement between the Government and the shipping companies continues.
Art. 13 - The Order of Missionaries of Algiers will be compensated by the French Government for expenses occasioned by the maintenance of the new buildings foreseen in articles 6, 7 and 9 of the present agreement, by an annual allowance of twelve thousand francs.
Art. 14 - As soon as the present agreement is concluded, the Archbishop of Algiers will send a sufficient number of Missionaries to St Anne’s to organise and perform the services of worship there.
Art. 15 - In the event of the Order of Missionaries of Algiers being unable to fulfil the commitments stipulated in the present act, the French Government reserves the right to entrust to others the service and custody of St Anne’s.
Art. 16 - The present agreement, having been submitted for approval to the Holy See, comes into effect on the date of signature.
Letter to the Vicar General: The Missionaries travel too much (3rd August 1877)
Lyons,
My dear son,
I must share with you, as well as the members of Council, a very strong impression that I find everywhere, from Rome to Lyons, where I am at the moment. It is a matter of great importance. It has been pointed out to me that our Fathers come much too often and in too large numbers to France. I have been told that because of their youth, it makes a bad impression. We have been taxed with imprudence for risking exposing them in this way.
As recently as yesterday, the Cardinal of Lyons brought these observations to my attention with particular seriousness. Fr. Payan d’Augery said the same to me at Marseilles. Fully aware of the urgent needs that oblige us to send Fathers to France, we must try to reduce the number as much as possible. To do this, we need to oversee the expenses and treat as an error anything that tends to laxity in this respect.
I would ask you to read what I have written above to the Council members at the next meeting and together to think about it seriously. I would also ask you to send me the minutes of the Council. I am eager to keep updated with what you do.
I have dealt at Rome with the question of St. Anne’s. Everything leads me to believe that it will succeed completely and that we will be obliged to send four Fathers and two Brothers there. Keep this to yourself for now.
Goodbye, my dear son; be assured that I am all yours in Our Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Prefect of Propaganda concerning the foundation at Jerusalem (14th September 1877)
Algiers,
Eminentissime,
Indirectly, I have learned that the Patriarch Archbishop of Jerusalem has brought problems and objections of detail in the affair of Saint Anne’s to the French Consul in this town. The Government has also written to me from Paris that it is greatly irritated by what it considers bad faith towards France on the part of Archbishop Bracco.
I do not know exactly what it is about, but I take the liberty of writing to your Eminence to point out to you the disadvantages of the Patriarch’s attitude, if he has really spoken as is claimed.
On the one hand, it is not possible to refuse the French Government access to serve a church that belongs to it and that has cost it so much after so many years of waiting. Neither is it possible to object to it being served by French clerics.
On the other hand, there has never been a community more in the hands of the Patriarch Archbishop of Jerusalem than the Missionaries of Algiers, because they are not exempt and they depend directly on Propaganda that will impose on them at Saint Anne’s all the rules they deem appropriate. I believe the Patriarch Archbishop is therefore in error and is preparing problems for himself by entering into these matters of detail that irritate our Government. It seems it is claiming victimisation by others taking reprisals in matters of money.
On my side, the matter is very simple. Without worrying about the details, it is up to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda to reserve to itself the matter of fixing the situation of the Missionaries of Algiers at Jerusalem. They will never do other than what Your Eminence would wish and how you would wish it.
I ask Your Eminence to accept my warmest wishes and most devoted respect.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Notes for the 1877 Missionaries’ Retreat
1877 Retreat – Short speech for the Retreat
Benefit from this retreat, which is a special grace. We all need one. Two things above all required to do it well: a great docility and great reverential listening.
1st Conference: On piety
Piety is beneficial for all. A missionary who is not pious will do no good; he may perhaps do a great deal of harm. The missionary must have inner piety. He must always be in the presence of God. Everything in him must be imbued with profound piety. Am I truly pious? To know this, I must examine what are my tastes, my ideas; if I do not think of God, if I do not live for Him, I am not pious. I need to examine myself often on this and exercise piety, for it is of paramount importance.
What would the parents of a missionary who is not pious, who has lost the spirit of his vocation, say if they were to come close to the mission post where he is and they witnessed his earthly, human life? They would say, ‘What? Is it for this that he left us? We tried to keep him with us by our tears and he did not want to remain, using his love for God, his salvation, as an excuse, and this is how he lives!’ The missionary must know that he is a man of prayer, that he owes his life to God, since he is God’s ambassador; but above all, he must be always in union with Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament that he must always keep as close as possible. I will remember that I am the child of the Most Blessed Virgin; I have the joy of openly wearing her Rosary; my heart must belong to her.
2ème Conference: On fraternal charity.
Piety must regulate our relation to God. Fraternal charity must regulate our relations with our neighbour. Without this charity, mission is impossible. The first believers, despite their great numbers, formed a single heart and soul. Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. If this was the case with the first Christians, how much more must this union exist between Religious, priests and Missionaries?
The first Christians were numerous; we are only three; could charity not prevail among us? Where do the disputes come from, the hurtful words? Where we no longer wish to put up with others. We all have our faults. If we want to be tolerated, we must tolerate others. We need to be determined to put up with the faults of others and at the same time avoid anything that could shock the confreres. We pay too much attention to others and we do not pay attention to our own faults; we have no inner peace and we do not want others to have it; exercise restraint towards others, but even more towards oneself. Avoid anything that smacks of coarseness, of poor upbringing.
It is not allowed, on the pretext of being frank, to say everything that is true. Too often, alas, we lack the first principles of a good education. There are things that we should not tell others, just as there are actions we should not do in front of others. Avoid criticism, have some consideration, maintain good conduct towards confreres; avoid saying, thinking or doing that could hurt or distress them. These are points to put into practice.
Lacking charity; giving way to quarrels and divisions; this is to scandalise non-believers; sinning against the Holy Spirit, hindering his action; it is to show that one does not have humility or self-sacrifice. The Lord hates the one who sows discord among brothers. The tongue has two effects: firstly, on the lips of the one who offends his neighbour; secondly, in the ear of the one who believes himself offended. Always avoid gossip, scandal and calumny. Sometimes the Devil compels us to do so by driving us to a desire for vengeance again one of our brothers. Impose on oneself the rule of never speaking about our neighbours, unless to speak well of them. Make an effort to take upon ourselves self-correction of our character defects and become peacemakers, not only men who possess peace, but who bring it to others. Read often Chapter 16 of the 1st Book and Chapter 3 of the 2nd Book and others dealing with the same subject in the Imitation of Christ.
3rd Conference: Duties of Missionaries towards Superiors
If we need to have charity for our confreres, we also need to have it for our Superiors, as well as a duty of respect. The role of superior is a burden, a point of service. When someone becomes a Superior, he becomes a target, the focal point of all those in his charge who judge, criticise his whole life and all his actions. This should not be. Let us beware of blaming our Superiors; Superiors hold their standing from God; we must never criticise, since ordinarily we do not know the motives that push them to act. Those in his charge do not see the reasons that oblige a Superior to take a given step; these reasons he cannot disclose most of the time.
On the contrary, let us try to make the fulfilling of their duties pleasant. They are servants, the slaves of others; let us not sadden them by our insubordination or lack of respect. Let us carefully avoid anything that could lower the esteem that others have for them. We must also respect minor Superiors as well as Major Superiors.
4th Conference: Zeal for non-believers
In our relations with non-believers, we must be filled with supernatural love towards them. We must love hem as Our Lord loved his Apostles; we must be prepared to die for them, just as Jesus Christ dies for his Apostles. We need to love them, not on account of their customs or the warmth we feel for them but because they have a soul to save, a soul that Jesus Christ redeemed by his blood. Without this, our zeal would only exist in our imaginations; otherwise, it will not endure, it will not be consistent and discouragement, the worst of temptations, will take us over.
In addition, our zeal must be teachable. We must not function on mission in our own way, but follow the line of conduct indicated by our Superiors; we must follow step by step in the way marked out for us. Avoid imprudent undertakings that would compromise everything. We have to deal with a distinct people here. For now, we are preparing the future. We must be foundations and foundations should not appear. It is of little importance if the good we do is unnoticeable. We are building foundations that must support a substantial edifice.
Nevertheless, in the mission posts where we are, it could seem we are doing nothing, that the mission is not working, but we must not be discouraged. It is a temptation. We do not see the whole picture. Our Lord was able to convert the whole world, if he had wanted to. However, he only converted a few people and leaves the task of conversion to his Apostles. We would like to lay down our lives for the salvation of the Arabs. Let us therefore put up with their annoyances with patience; let us put ourselves out for them; let us preach by example, according to the advice Saint Peter gave to the converted wives in relation to their unfaithful husbands.
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Let our zeal therefore be supernatural, docile and constant.
5th Conference: Zeal for non-believers (continued)
Our zeal for the non-believers must be supernatural in order to be constant. This is not enough. It must be all-consuming, especially in a mission like ours; it must be inflamed for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
A Society has just been founded in Belgium with the mission of bringing modern civilisation to the African continent, leaving faith aside. The Society is formed of freethinkers, freemasons and Protestants; they have banned the cross. It is a danger that threatens the Mission. Let us not be ashamed of arriving after these freemasons, of letting ourselves be overtaken by them. They do this for money and should Catholics just remain bystanders? Should the Missionaries be idle?
What ought we to do as Catholic Missionaries for heaven, for God?
We need to be ready to go anywhere we are sent not as tourists, but as apostles. We ought not to be Missionaries for the sake of liking it, but from the heart. Our Lord calls workers, working for god. For this, we need an all-consuming zeal, a supernatural zeal. If it is not supernatural, we would be travellers, amateurs or hunters. By exercising charity through the care of the sick, let us avoid becoming doctors or pharmacists; let us not try to be skilled practitioners. Through our charity and good example, we should have people say of us that we are men of God, not something else.
In the spirit of our Mission, let us always receive sick Arabs with kindness, just as we would receive Our Lord himself. Let us apply ourselves to rendering the service they ask of us; however, let them be aware that it is not by profession that we provide treatment for them; beware of having them call us doctors. We are not doctors, but men of prayer, servants of God. So that our charity may produce fruit, we need to see Our Lord himself in the person of the sick we care for and that our charity and patience impresses them. With the children that we could have in class, we must show great level-headedness. Although for them, goodness is not tangible, we must consider ourselves gratified to beat down prejudices they could have towards us; later, once they are parents, they will see, effortlessly, they children brought up in the religion of Jesus Christ.
Let us avoid giving the impression to Muslims that we are adopting part of their religion; this would be a regrettable accommodating attitude. For individuals, let us be tolerant and charitable, but for Islam let us not be so; error has no rights; their religion is false from all points of view. Consequently, it is not to be put on the same footing as Christianity on the pretext of winning over the good graces of the unbelievers; this would be apostasy. Although we may be able to meet individuals of good faith, let us never give way to lax subservience. There could be material apostasy. It is our duty to profess our faith openly as often as the opportunity arises. We are not allowed to say ‘God is God’, etc., because Muslims exclude the Holy Trinity!
6th Conference: On the need for discretion in speech and study for the Missionary.
On the mission, more than anywhere else, we must exercise restraint of tongue. We must never express adverse opinions of the authorities, French or local. You may be sure that the least statement we would voice against them would be publicised and would cause us major problems. We regret having spoken, never of having remained silent. With outsiders, Religious or lay, we need to beware of sharing confidences, of revealing what is happening in our houses or in the Society.
Since nothing pleases a great talker more than a patient listener, let us prefer this latter role. In this, we would imitate the Blessed Virgin, who, according to Scripture, only spoke seven times. Moreover, it is rare not to sin often against charity by lots of talk! By talking less, we work more. A priest is always expected to study theology; for us, in addition, we must be knowledgeable about Islam’s errors, and about Holy Scripture.
7th Conference: Safeguards for maintaining chastity
The world has been able to imitate Catholicism in some of its elements, but there is one that it has left intact: priestly chastity. The world has chosen the opposite vice. We are in the midst of a deeply corrupted people: we need to uphold major safeguards to maintain our chastity and at the same time defend our reputation in relation to this subject.
In order to maintain chastity, we must avoid everything that could harm this holy virtue in our conversations. Nothing is frivolous in this matter: a Religious who relishes speaking of immodest things is himself immodest: out of the fullness of the heart, the tongue speaks!
1° Therefore, modesty in speech; let us say not say anything against this holy virtue and discourage talk about indecent matters in our presence. 2° Custody of the eyes: let us be very strict in relation to women. We must not nurse the women of the locality. In relation to men, we need to avoid any clinical dressings that would offend our chastity, or the purity of our observing.
Above all, what we need to preach is through the example of chastity. Chastity well lived is the best sermon for the Arabs. Let us beware of having them believe that this virtue is only pure hypocrisy for us. Therefore never go alone to visit either Arabs or Europeans at home. Do not even turn up alone in a native village; never touch the children. Maintain modesty in our habits, our ways of doing and our appearance. One of the greatest prescriptions for maintaining chastity is to have a good confessor in whom to trust and with whom one can be open. Let him know your temptations. This way of doing will restore us to peace. Do not confess to one another except in dire circumstances. The second prescription is the Holy Eucharist. Always have the Blessed Sacrament in the mission posts; it is the best safeguard. Pray the Lord for victory in Holy Communion. Grain shall make the young men flourish and new wine the young women. We are at an age when passions are powerful; they will later become less with the grace of God who will help us to overcome, if we ask him.
The important obligations of the Father Superior (8th October 1877)
The important obligations of the Father Superior of the Society of the Mission of Algiers
1) To set oneself as a rule never to become personally involved in the details of material affairs. Have a General Treasurer or Procurator sufficiently capable and appointed ad hoc to deal with all the details.
2) Be convinced that the prime responsibility of a Community Superior is the spiritual one. Consequently, he must cultivate all his subordinates by example, speech and correspondence in the spiritual life:
By example, being a model of the interior life and in taking part, as the head of the community where he is, in all the exercises of piety, when he is present in the house. Thus, at Maison-Carrée, he must attend the Particular Examen, the visit to the Blessed Sacrament, Spiritual Reading and all the Sunday Offices. Morning meditation goes without saying.
By his speech, that is, his instructions, addressed to his confrères wherever he may be. He must not visit any house without giving them a talk or several talks on spiritual matters. However, to do this, he has to take instruction himself and give it the greater part of his time by reading the correct works relative to this purpose.
By correspondence: this is of prime importance. However, it can only bear fruit if it is done very meticulously and in a truly apostolic spirit. He must not let a week pass without replying to letters prescribed by the Rule or others; in replying to them, he must do so reverently. The letters of Saint Ignatius and of Saint François de Sales are models to emulate and consequently to be carefully studied.
These are the main points that I would point out for the serious attention of the Father Vicar and that I believe necessary for the proper government of the Society.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers,
Apostolic Delegate
Letter to the Prefect of Propaganda to announce the Memorandum on the Mission in Equatorial Africa (20th November 1877)
Algiers,
Eminentissime,
I have received the circular, which Your Eminence graciously addressed to me relating to the Brussels International Conference on the exploration of Africa. I had already set to work on dealing with this matter, after visiting Your Eminence at Rome last August. My work on it is complete, but since I wanted to deal in all aspects with such an important matter as the African missions faced with the dangers threatening them, my memorandum has led to a long explanation.
Before sending it to Your Eminence and to facilitate its study, I would ask you if you would prefer if I have it printed on the presses of my Archdiocese, attaching similarly printed maps, or if you find it simpler to send you the manuscript.
The first way, I think, would be more convenient, if these sensitive and important matters need to be studied by the Eminent Members of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda. However, I did not presume to adopt it myself for fear of appearing unduly pretentious.
I therefore await Your Eminence’s orders, which I shall obey conscientiously. Be assured of my deepest respect.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers,
Apostolic Delegate of the Sahara and the Sudan
Letter addressed to the Holy Father Pope Pius IX (December 1877)
Most Holy Father,
Prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, the undersigned Missionary Priest members of the Society of Missionaries of Africa of Algiers beg you to grant them your paternal blessing.
Most Holy Father, they have learned that the regions of Equatorial Africa, up to now closed to the Catholic apostolate, were to be opened to Europeans. At the same time, they have learned that Protestant Missions, already so powerful at several points of the coast, were set to invade these new regions, up to now barbarous and fetishist.
Most Holy Father, they, the apostles of truth, come to beseech Your Holiness to prevent these emissaries of heresy from going in advance of them into the interior of our vast continent. They all come to offer you their hearts, their sufferings, their accomplishments and their lives, if necessary, to clear the way to this immense field, no doubt fearsome to nature, but where, with the help of God, grace will be able to gather an abundant harvest.
Most Holy Father, they all share one desire: to advance on a sign from Your Holiness to dedicate themselves to the salvation of these poor non-believing peoples, bring them the Word of Life that they have not yet heard and die in serving them, knowing that those who give up everything they possess on earth for Our Lord will receive the hundredfold even here below in consolations and graces and then life eternal.
Most Holy Father, it is with these sentiments that we beseech Your Holiness to accept the entire sacrifice we make of our will, of our persons, of our lives, for the salvation of poor Equatorial Africa in declaring ourselves at your consecrated feet, Most Holy Father, your very humble and most obedient sons and servants.
(The signatures of some thirty Missionaries follow - those who had been able to gather at Algiers when the letter was written.)
Instructions to Sisters for the foundation of the Ouadhias (2nd December 1877)
Algiers
Recommendations and Safeguards from His Grace, Our Most Reverend Father, to the Sisters leaving for the foundation of the Ouadhias 16th November 1877
Responsibilities and Tasks of the Sisters:
Superior: Mother Marie-Salomé
School Mistress: Mother Marie-de-Jésus
Care of the Sick: Mother Marie-Pélagie
Mother Salomé will be Bursar as well as Superior. She will do the shopping and keep the accounts of the Community. For the treatment provided by the Sisters, she will supply the medicines and find the various articles for the School Mistress to give to the children as a reward. She herself will often write to His Grace so that our Most Reverend Father is updated on everything that happens in the community. His Grace must be informed of the least matter arising contrary to these recommendations and safeguards set out today.
Mother Salomé will take charge of the chapel and the sacristy. She is in charge of domestic matters. Mother Marie de Jésus will take exclusive charge of the school. No one else will take classes; she will provide as many hours of class as the Fathers: four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening. She must never go into the poor quarter under any circumstances. She will apply herself diligently to the study of Kabyle so as to teach it at the Novitiate next year. If she takes lessons in Kabyle, she must never take them from a man.
With the aim of attracting children to the school, use will be made of the procedures of the Fathers in the Kabylia Missions, namely, the distribution of rewards in kind that the children can gain for points: one for correctness, one for cleanliness, one just for attendance at the school, one for common sense and one for application.
Mother Marie de Jésus will take charge of correspondence for the House; Mother Marie Salomé will tell her what to write and the letters will be sealed, stamped and sent by the Superior.
Mother Pélagie will take exclusive charge of the sick; she will look after any who come, but particularly women. When she is asked into the houses of the local inhabitants, Mother Salomé will always accompany her.
His Grace, our Most Reverend Father, counsels the Sisters to have the greatest prudence with regard to the Fathers and to the local inhabitants. No Sister may enter the Father’s house; she will be excommunicated by the sole fact of crossing the threshold of the Fathers’ house and Mother Salomé must inform His Grace of it immediately.
The Sisters may never enter into the Chapel for any reason while a Father is there. They will hear Mass in the inner chapel, separated from the main one by a grill. They will confess and receive Holy Communion through this grill. The external door of the Chapel must remain open while the Father is in the Chapel. The Sisters may only speak to the Fathers in the confessional or out in the open.
The Sisters may never allow any man to enter their home on the pretext of treating him. Only women may enter the building that will serve them as a dispensary; the men will be given treatment at the door or rather will be referred to the Fathers. They will give treatment to the sick at any hour of the day, except during spiritual exercises, when they will be told to wait.
The spiritual exercises of the community will be those indicated by the Rule. The daily timetable will be composed and signed by Reverend Mother General before their departure. If it is later, the Sisters will assess its need because of their occupations, and recommend a change in the time of an exercise. Mother Salomé will write to our Mother General and they will submit to her opinion.
His Grace counsels Mother Salomé to exercise a great deal of charity for the Sisters of her Community. Mother Marie de Jésus is to give example in obedience and religious modesty.
An application will be made to obtain authorisation from the Academy of Algiers for a free school at the Mission station of the Ouadhias.
All these recommendations will be written down and presented to His Grace so that the Sisters may take them away with the signature of the Archbishop.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Algiers, 2nd December 1877
Secret Memorandum on the Evangelisation of Equatorial Africa (1st January 1878)
Secret Memorandum on the International African Association of Brussels and the Evangelisation of Equatorial Africa addressed to his Eminence Cardinal Franchi by the Archbishop of Algiers
Your Eminence,
Since the day an International Association for the exploration of Africa was founded, under the patronage of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, I thought that the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda and the heads of the African Missions should follow attentively the progress of such an enterprise.
The sparkle that dominated its foundation, the considerable number of important personalities, mainly Protestant , that comprise its membership, the chairmanship of the King, assuring it of the support of European governments, are of a kind to indicate that the outcomes will not be ordinary, for good or for ill. Moreover, I was able to observe in Africa itself, where subordinate officers are less guarded about their thoughts that a distinct movement is in preparation and is already effective. This is in a spirit that is not favourable to the action of the Holy See.
I therefore understand that Your Eminence is concerned by these matters and that You desire to gather information aimed at enlightening Your wisdom and that of Your Eminent Colleagues, the members of the Sacred Congregation of which You are Prefect.
You honour me by seeking my opinion. It is a duty for me with all the more concern, since I consider the interests involved more significant and more serious. It is no less a matter than to see permanently opening up to the Church or to heresy the expanse still unexplored of Africa, south of the Equator, from the southern borders of independent Sudan in the north to British possessions in the south and from one ocean to the other.
In area, it is a region as vast as Europe. It measures over twelve million square kilometres. In population, according to the most recent calculations of the Geographical Societies, it numbers almost a hundred million inhabitants. In Missions to establish, those of Africa offer the greatest hopes, because they will be set up among idolaters.
However, the more the field is extensive and fertile, the more it is essential to ensure possession and prevent the sowing of darnel in it. What can we expect in this respect from the International Association of Brussels? Will they not favour the Protestant Missions? Will it be a help or an obstacle for the Catholic Missions? What is its power? Above all, what is the guiding principle that directs it? Is it possible to escape the dangers it could give rise to, while benefiting from the advantages it may offer? What practical means must we take to resolve this dual dilemma and solidly base the Church’s action in Equatorial Africa, amid the hostile pretentions that will seek to forestall it?
Such are the issues that naturally come to mind and on which Your Eminence needs to be promptly focused, because here, I am not afraid to say, speed is of the essence. The first to arrive and the first to be ready will take all the advantages and every day of delay is a minus factor for success.
I will therefore try to deal with this serious matter, while avoiding, for greater brevity, the details that seem to me less urgent. If later Your Eminence needs information or further clarification, I will be, as ever, at your service. For the moment, I press on, so as not to compromise by delay a cause which I consider as one of the most important of the present time, for it is many centuries since the Church and the Holy See have had a more decisive and more favourable opportunity, if we know how to benefit from it, by striking a blow to decide the religious future of peoples and ensure the triumph of the apostolate.
This is what will emerge from the reading of the present Memorandum. For greater clarity and more order in the issues that need to be addressed, I will divide it into two parts:
Part One: The International Association of Brussels, for the exploration of Equatorial Africa - Its aim - Its organisation - Its guiding principle - Its dangers, Its advantages for Catholic Missions.
Part Two: Effective means to adopt for the evangelisation of Equatorial Africa - Creation of new Vicariates - Transformation of this region by Africans – Necessary resources - exclusive and stronger direction for the African Missions – Seek support in public opinion.
(Here the introduction ends. As previously stated, the text of Part One is not presented here and we will now go directly to read Part Two).
II – Effective means to adopt for the Evangelisation of Equatorial Africa
In line with what I stated in Part One of this Memorandum, it is easy to see that Equatorial Africa is going to become a sort of gated reserve, where Protestantism on the one hand and lay state culture on the other will soon be everywhere in the presence of the Church. Doubtless, opposition will not always be overt, but it will always be underlying the issues. It is therefore important to make the required arrangements in advance to ensure victory. To do this, to guarantee a victory, one needs an able general to take command of the forward positions on the battlefield, oppose adversaries with good captains and finally to establish oneself solidly in the country itself, so as to no longer need help from outside early on.
Let us speak plainly. The International Association of Brussels is going to create in Equatorial Africa centres of influence and action, which Protestantism and freethinking will seek to profit from. We need to create such centres more powerful yet by constituting new Vicariates Apostolic and by the sending out of many apostles determined to undergo all sacrifices and, if necessary, martyrdom.
It seeks to win over Africans by offering them advantages in European commerce, the arts and the professions. We need to command the trust of the local inhabitants and the influences that dominate a primitive and violent society by more rapid, rational and effective means.
It multiplies its resources and concentrates its action. We also need to do at least as well as they. Finally, it is aiming at public opinion to take an interest in its work, on behalf of science and civilisation. We need not to just interest but fire up public opinion on behalf of the most sacred values of humanity and justice. It may be surprising that I am only presenting human means here for the success of a venture, which is of God, since it is that of the Church. Admittedly, before all else, I place the help of God and I trust that for the success of such a venture, he will show his protection and his power by miracles if necessary. It is counting on prayer and faith to request and obtain this supernatural help, and it is on the prayer of the whole Catholic world that such an enterprise must base its hope. However, I am not speaking here of what depends on God, I speak of what depends on man. If it pleases Our Lord to give to Equatorial Africa some Saints Francis-Xavier, they could do without any rules. However, those who are obliged to obey ordinary laws must firstly conform to those of wisdom and prudence.
It is therefore according to these rules that I have enumerated the practical means that seem to me must be adopted for the evangelisation of Equatorial Africa. It is also according to them that I am going to explain and develop them, as I understand them, in the following articles, leaving to the wisdom of the Sacred Congregation to decide those they need to adopt.
1° Creation of new Vicariates Apostolic in Equatorial Africa - The International Association of Brussels, as we have seen, without delay, is going to establish right now, in the interior of Equatorial Africa, Stations where it will place representatives of its action and ideas. There are already three specific points designated by it for the establishment of these Stations in the interior, namely: Ujiji, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika Kabele, capital of the States of Muata Yamvo , the most powerful and best disposed sovereign of Equatorial Africa Nyangwe , on the route of Lakes Albert and Victoria-Nyanza. There is no doubt that the number of these stations will be further increased and that in particular they will be established in the entire region that extends from the coasts of Guinea and the major Lakes of Victoria and Albert.
Several explorers have already left from Europe to achieve this plan and the newspapers inform us that at this moment, Corps of Engineers Captain Reymackers and Major Crespel have set off, one at the expense of the International Conference, the other at the King of the Belgians personal expense. The first is taking Zanzibar and Bagamoyo for the point of departure, aiming for the Great Lakes; the second leaves from Loanda to enter into the States of Muata Yamvo . Thus, we must not delude ourselves. The Conference is already at work. It will soon have stations and representatives on the points of Equatorial Africa planned; those of Protestantism will follow these representatives.
By contrast, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda is not yet represented in the heartland of these immense regions. There is neither personnel nor undertaking. The Missions up to now founded by Archbishop Comboni, although reaching out towards the heartland do not, strictly speaking, form part of Equatorial Africa. They are all out with the borders drawn up at the Brussels Conference. It is only on the shoreline that the Missionaries’ establishments are to be found in this region. Moreover, what are these establishments in relation to the needs? On the eastern coast, from Natal to Cape Guardafui , there is a single mission at Zanzibar, with its annexe at Bagamoyo; this means an area of coastline that has no less that four thousand eight hundred kilometres! This is five or six times the length of Italy! This mission is entrusted to the excellent and zealous Missionaries of the Holy Spirit and the Sacred Heart of Mary, but what can they do in such an area with the small number of priests and resources they have? It is already marvellous that they have achieved the results at Bagamoyo that their letters show and that even the enemies of our faith admire.
On the west coast, it is true there are several Mission, but the least of them still has an area almost as large as France and for such a stretch they number but a few priests. Also, it is no surprise if none of these missions have been able to penetrate before now into the interior. The coastal establishments absorb all their resources in personnel and material and would absorb ten times more if they were available.
Besides, extending the already existing Missions towards the interior where it would be possible from the point of view of resources available to these missions would not give the urgent result that is needed. This result is to have within the country where the Conference of Brussels is going to places these centres of its influence, there where the Protestants state they are going to set themselves up, men who belong exclusively to the Holy See, invested with the ability, the authority and resources. They will ward off the danger for the future that an anti-Catholic influence would create and even now turn to good account what will promote the evangelisation of the country.
For this, it is understandable that we cannot ask the coastal establishments for the help they cannot give, but start new Vicariates from scratch in the interior, with simple supply centres on the coast, if necessary. These Vicariates will soon have their own special resources they will be able to create for themselves. They will have even now their personnel and particularly their leaders whose sole presence will be enough to confine within acceptable limits the representatives of the Conference of Brussels. It will also enable them to take all urgent necessary measures without having to refer to far off Superiors, as is done by Vicars Apostolic at the coast.
For the same reason, I emphasise the creation of New Vicariates and not a new Vicariate in Equatorial Africa. The Conference is revealing a plan to create concurrently several centres of activity or several stations in the interior, as I have just explained. We must absolutely create as many as they do. Now, according to its official decisions, it is likely to create four of them or at least three, in known locations. We must therefore immediately create four or at least three new Vicariates to reach the aim I have indicated: Ujiji, Kabebe, the Great Lakes of Victoria and Albert, and finally perhaps one more, simply named African Equator in the part between the Vicariate of the Great Lakes and Guinea. This fourth Vicariate, in truth, is less urgent since in fact the International Association has not yet entered there, whereas it has already created action centres on the other locations indicated.
In this way, Catholic Action would be directly represented in all its fullness wherever the Conference exercises its activity. This is necessary, I repeat, for if we only have an ordinary residential Superior, dependent upon a distantly located Vicar Apostolic, where the Conference of Brussels would have its own centres, with independent workers, this Superior would often find himself in difficulty and subsequently powerless. The locations indicated as stations and where I propose to make into centres for Vicariates Apostolic are in fact about fifteen hundred kilometres from the coasts and one thousand kilometres apart. This is an area greater than Germany and in a country where there are no roads and where such a journey would last a year.
Therefore, so that the action will be prompt and effective, there has to be as many separate and independent Vicariates as the International Association will have in separate centres of activity. In their neighbourhoods, these Vicariates will then create establishments or residences of ordinary Missionaries, as is done everywhere, and each will thus found their own mission.
I would ask Your Eminence the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation to note that I propose the creation of Vicariates and not Prefectures. This is undoubtedly an exception to the usual practice, but this exception, without being indispensable, seems to me justified by the order of ideas I envisage in this Memorandum. A Vicar Apostolic, or a Pro-Vicar, if he is not yet to receive the complete title, would have more moral authority because of the name of his Vicariate alone, than that of a Prefect, who is an ordinary priest.
Now, he will need this moral authority to maintain his influence in the presence of the representative of the Royal Society, such as that of Brussels, of a man who will almost always have a reputation in science and who will naturally be inclined to exaggerate his importance . The presence of a Vicar or Pro-Vicar Apostolic will contribute to keeping him, if need be, within the confines of etiquette and moderation.
I will limit myself to defining the main towns of the Vicariates that I propose to found, as it is impossible, in an unknown country, to define its boundaries approximately. The dotted lines I have drawn on the map are, as you will understand, purely geometric. They can only be regulated in a Brief in marking out the degrees of longitude and latitude. As for the Missions on the coast, we can determine the approximate number of kilometres beyond which they practically would not be able to extend towards the centre. I think they should not exceed five hundred kilometres in breadth. This would still leave two thousand kilometres of breadth to the Vicariates upcountry, let us say a thousand kilometres for each one, by around two thousand in length, let us say over two million square kilometres; that is, for each Vicariate, four times the area of Germany. They can be subdivided later.
There is one last subject to indicate: the way to provide personnel for these new Missions in the generally vulnerable and uncertain state in which the already existing Missionary Societies are in relation to the numbers of its members. It is not up to me to give the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda instructions on this subject. Nevertheless, in case it finds itself burdened by the choice of personnel, allow me to share with you two ideas that could remove the practical obstacles.
The first is that the Vicariate of the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and even the Vicariate of the Equator seem to me to fall naturally to the Missionaries of Archbishop Comboni, since these Vicariates are products of the Mission where this venerable Prelate already exercises his zeal. The present-day Missions of El-Obeid, Khartoum, Darfour, Kordofan, and Djebel-Nouba are strictly speaking outside the equatorial region. However, it is advisable that a vast area remains for the Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, where his great and holy zeal may spread. These two new Vicariates actually extend to over two thousand kilometres beyond the present Missions; they have between them over four thousand kilometres in breadth, that is, an area equal to almost half of Europe. However, he may send a Pro-Vicar chosen from among his own on the Nyanza Lakes and found the Centre for Catholic Action required; later, another Pro-Vicar, in what I will call, for want of a better name, the African Equator.
As for the Vicariates of Ujiji and Kabebe, if the Sacred Congregation has no one to serve them, the Society of the Missions of Algiers will place the number of priests it would require at its service even now. As soon as they knew that Equatorial Africa was going to be opened to the apostolate, over fifty priests of this Community pleaded with me to present a petition to the Holy Father to enable them to offer him their energy and even their lives if required for these Missions; they are truly motivated by apostolic courage. I believe, therefore, that they are capable of such a mission and among them, we would find two very suitable Vicars Apostolic.
I enclose their petition with the present Memorandum, adding only, as I shall say later, that they are not asking any material subsidy from the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda and that they will take charge of equipping themselves with all they will need.
2° Take the quickest and most effective means to transform Equatorial Africa by the Africans themselves.
As we have seen, the International Association is proposing not to transport Europeans to Equatorial Africa, but civilise the Africans by transforming them. The means they mean to use for this is the introduction of industrial art and design from Europe and above all, trade. It is true that they do not directly oppose preaching of the true faith; they even indirectly offer, as we have seen, some material facilities. However, it states that it is a lay enterprise and represents ‘no religion, no worship.’
It may appear a long-term undertaking to transform a barbarous country like Equatorial Africa, which is as extensive as Europe, by industrial art and design and by trade. How many centuries would be needed, only to have our European art adopted by such people! Moreover, without prior major works, how do we create trade relations in countries, which do not even have roads, and that which sustains trade is precisely the most hideous wound of Africa: slavery?
This last-mentioned difficulty however, does not seem to deter every mind. Some months ago, I read from the hands of the Governor General of Algeria, the letter of an explorer I have already referred in the first part of this paper. He proposes to the French Government, as a means of re-establishing trade relations between Algiers and Central Africa to allow above all the slave trade on our markets in the South. Such a proposal, so strenuously opposed in the aims of our exploration societies and the Conference of Brussels itself, gave rise in me to as much astonishment as horror. It proves the instability in principle of freethinking, which sacrifices everything to self-interest. However, keeping to the general idea and leaving aside the details for the moment, what we see more clearly in the plans of the explorers of the International Association is their plan to send to Equatorial Africa the least possible number of Europeans, barely a few per station, to have them serve simply as initiators and to transform Africa, as is said, by the Africans.
This idea is certainly correct in itself. We have seen it applied by the Protestants, on a gigantic scale in their missions in Liberia and Sierra Leone. However, all the Catholic Missions had adopted it before them. From the 17th century, the Portuguese had formed a native clergy. The Fathers of the Holy Spirit and the Sacred Heart of Mary followed in their footsteps, under the direction of the venerable Archbishop Kobès, for their mission in Senegambia. It was the main aim of Archbishop Comboni in creating his native institutes at Cairo.
Finally, that is what we do ourselves in Algeria where Arabs, Berbers and Blacks are brought up so as to become one day the initiators, and some, apostles of their nations. In itself, the idea is good, I repeat, but to bear fruit, it has to be applied in special conditions and carefully thought out.
What are these conditions for Equatorial Africa? It is perhaps presumptuous to seek to indicate in a Memorandum as brief as this a system to resolve such a serious and fruitful matter. However, its intrinsic importance compels me to say here what I think of it to obey the orders I have received. According to me, therefore, in order to succeed in the transformation of Africa by the Africans, we need to:
1) Bring up the Africans we choose in conditions that keep them truly African for all that concerns material life;
2) Provide them with an education that will enable them to exert the greatest influence possible among their compatriots with the least cost possible for the Missions;
3) Undertake this work proportionate to ensuring its greatest outreach.
I will now explain these three conditions. The first is to bring up the Africans we choose in conditions, which, from the material point of view, keep them truly African. In general, we have not does so up to now. I have to say that we have fallen into the same trap at Algiers; that is why I bring it to your notice.
In almost all the Missions of Africa, we have brought in or brought up young Africans that the Missionaries intended to assist them later. However, these Africans, either they were sent to Europe to be educated, or when they were educated in Africa, they were brought up in the European way. Now, sending an African to Europe is firstly to expose him to a premature death. Indeed, experience shows that Africans, especially young Africans, sent to cold climates, often become infected by chest infections or anaemia. I myself have had this sad experience. Those I sent to France or Belgium perished. Have the other Missions been more fortunate. I doubt it, except for those who sent Africans to the south of Spain or to Italy. Even so, how many would have died? Those who know the story of Father Olivieri and his charitable undertakings are well aware. Who can forget this young African, ordained a priest at Monte Cassino with the name of Dom Adrien, the first fruits of an African clergy? He died after a few months of mission, terminally ill through the influence of the very mild climate of the Kingdom of Naples.
However, not all will die; we shall see Africans in Europe. Indeed, there are some, but I venture to say that from the point of view of mission, the result is the same. A Europeanised African in the centre of Africa will not be more useful than a European. His advantage over us, in his country, is to exist on little; to do without a dwelling, bed, clothes, to content himself with local produce for food. However, when we take him from childhood and we bring him up according to our customs, all these things soon become necessities to him. Habit become second nature to him as imperious as the first and with all our expenses and all our problems, we simply end up creating a European with African features, as much troubled as we are to later live the life of Africans and do without things that Europe gives us and which the interior of Africa does not produce.
I will not labour the point. It is an error committed in almost all Missions. It comes from misdirected generosity and, I fear, lack of proper thought. Just as those who bring up these children are used to certain material conditions, which become for them dependence, they imagine that they suffer when deprived of them. When used to a bed, they pity those who do not have one. When one has eaten bread all one’s life, one believes that all those who do not eat it must suffer like us and so on. Therefore, by an unreasoned feeling of compassion, we give to local children, who have never thought about it or who do not suffer from its deprivation, useless satisfactions, which then create dependence in them.
We spend infinitely more; we are obliged by useless expenses to limit the number of children that we could educate. We impoverish them considerably for their whole lives by creating new needs within them. In this way, we finally destroy by our own hand the assignment we wanted to achieve. We sought to transform Africa by the Africans themselves and to these Africans destined to transform Africa we substitute, as I said, Europeans with African features. This means that they have the same problems as we have to live in Africa and do not have the prestige that Europeans have always had in African eyes.
Here then is the first indispensable condition. On the material plane, we must therefore leave Africans as they are, that is, truly African. We must close our eyes and hearts to a false pity or a false pride and resign ourselves to seeing young Africans beside us maintain the customs of their countries, their huts of branches rather than solid housing, sleeping on the ground instead of a bed, sorghum or cassava instead of bread and grass skirts instead of trousers and jackets in fabric. They do not suffer when we leave them alone. The imaginings of the Missionaries alone suffer. However, when the imaginings err, they have to be brought back by reasoning and for those that are inaccessible to this, they have to be brought down by obedience. This is a matter for Superiors.
The advantage obtained by this method, I admit, is purely negative. It removes an obstacle; it does not provide a solution. Let us now explain how I understand the practical training of young Africans so as to make them more useful to the Mission. Here is my system:
The second condition, which I indicated, is to provide young men of Equatorial Africa with an education that will enable them to exert the greatest possible influence among their compatriots with the least possible cost to the Missions.
This principle, thus set out, is unassailable. Furthermore, in itself it does not need proof or development. What is important and difficult is to know and establish which type of education will best fulfil these conditions. Let us first examine what is being doing in the missions and particularly in the African mission and let us see what are the results.
Up to now, we take in in our Missions young girls and boys. The young girls are entrusted to the Sisters, the young boys to Religious, either in Europe or in Africa. We seek to make Missionary priests or Brothers of the boys and if not Missionaries, then workers. We seek to make the girls Sisters and if not Sisters, then workers, like the boys. I shall relate the results from the outcomes of the experience. In the training of the Missionaries and native Sisters, we have many sad disappointments. We bring up these children, we give them a very long expensive education and after years, we note that insurmountable obstacles block many of these young Africans from a life of which they are incapable. Their sensual nature is developed; their passions become apparent. There is no other salvation that marriage. If we persist, if we were to go against the rules of wisdom, counting on a sort of miracle from God, we would be exposed to scandals, to calamities without number and perhaps to apostasy.
The missionary vocation will therefore be necessarily rare among young Africans. If we not make priest or brother Missionaries of these children, what shall we do with them? I said so above: we teach them a manual skill; we make the boys workers: masons, carpenters, joiners, tailors, labourers; for the girls, dressmakers. However, here we fall into the same defect I pointed out for material dependence. We teach these young people skills and European trades. No doubt these skills are more advanced than the rude skills of their countries of origin, but they find no practical use for them. What use would it be to have masons and carpenters where they do not build houses and where people are content with huts? What employment can we give tailors and dressmakers where people do not wear clothes?
The result is therefore that these Africans educated by us cannot return to their native country. In order to make a living with their professions, they have to remain in a European context. This is in fact what they do. Some remain in Europe as workers or as service personnel, others settle on the coast of Africa near the houses where they were brought up. Let us go the bitter end and tell the whole truth. In Europe, many young Africans die or become vagrants; many young African girls suffer even worse. In Africa, they are too often taken in charge at the mission that brought them up, because they did not find work, or because they do not know how to manage it as well as the Europeans or finally because they find it more convenient to do nothing and claim entitlement to food for the body from those who gave them food for the soul.
This is what happens, in particular, to those who were set up in special villages, after training them in the cultivation of the soil Archbishop Kobès, of happy memory, did this in his Mission in Senegambia; I myself did this in Algeria for the local inhabitants I rescued from the famine. These were types of Reductions, such as the Jesuits established in Paraguay. The memory, the name, the moral outcomes are attractive, but what is not there are the expenses. Everything has to be given to the households that are thus established in the European way: the dwelling, the labouring tools, the land, and food for at least a year. A church, a school, a presbytery, a Sisters’ house, everything has to be built. Ultimately, the village costs hundreds of thousands of francs and it has three hundred inhabitants. It is very expensive and a mission has to be very rich to be able to create several of these.
This is therefore an exception; it cannot be a method. I said, in truth that the Anglicans want to attempt this system on the coast of Zanguebar . They could do so, materially, because of their great riches; morally, they will fail. In any case, I repeat, to believe that we can thus manage to convert a country is not easy in practice. We also thought of making young Africans who had been educated by the Missions into schoolteachers or lay catechists. There is merit in this idea, but it presents two obstacles in the first place. The first is the problem of this profession, which demands rare qualities, and the second, which is the main one, is the expense that these schoolmasters involve for the Mission that has to provide for them.
What therefore do we need? Young Africans, even those we would like to make into schoolmasters or catechists, a profession that would enable them to live at their expense from African life; if possible, a profession that is honourable, which gives them influence and which is unquestionably accepted by all, so as to enable them to greatly assist the Missionaries, without being a burden to them. Does this profession exist? I will not speak here of the girls; there is no need, I believe, to begin with them; their turn will come, but only later. However, for the boys, I have no second thoughts on the matter: this profession exists. It is universal and universally respected; it fulfils all the conditions that one could desire to guarantee their livelihood, and their influence: it is medicine.
At first sight, when one has not thought through the solution to this difficult problem, one could perhaps be a bit surprised to hear me express this idea. Nevertheless, let me say that I have been concerned for over twenty years with the missions, as Director of the Œuvre des Écoles d’Orient, firstly, then as Archbishop. It is only after long meditations, after having listened to all those who could enlighten me, after having studied this matter in all its aspects, that I have reached the conviction I have just expressed. I hope that after having heard the reasons, those who would be initially tempted to be shocked or to contradict me, will come round to my point of view.
Here, therefore are the reasons. In the first place, medicine gives to those who practice it, particularly in a primitive society, an easy and guaranteed source of income. Not all men use houses, as I remarked above, or clothing, or bread, but all men want to be cured when they are ill. Everyone has a horror of suffering and dying. Everyone is ready to make sacrifices to avoid these trials. Consequently, everyone will accept treatment from a man who will come to relieve his or her sufferings; everyone, once healed, will be ready to pay him according to their means.
This is already clearly visible among the Missionaries. Although they are not doctors, their basic knowledge of some herbal medicines or remedies is enough to draw the sick, increasing each day, to their houses. This experience has been made by the Missionaries of Algiers and, I feel certain, by those of other Societies who practice this work of mercy. Not one of our Stations in Kabylia, for example, have not seen several thousand sick people come every year to be treated, without counting those the Missionaries go to visit at home. In truth, the Missionaries do this freely, because they want to prove to the local people, at a higher perception, the charity that drives them. However, if they wanted to be paid, they could be, and live at their ease in medical practice.
Despite their repeated refusals, they have had a lot of bother in dismissing the local people who categorically insist on paying them.
An African who would disclose his intention of living from his skill, would therefore be guaranteed a livelihood as a professional doctor, more able than the Missionaries. He would be so all the more in Equatorial Africa since the illnesses there are more hideous and attract less help. Therefore, placing an African brought up by the Missions to become self-sufficient once he returns to his home country, requires only making him into a good doctor. All the rest will come to him with the status given to him, which would not be the case if he were made a worker or if he were set up in a village, as I already explained. There, we would need to give him everything for years at a stretch, to those who have already been so expensively brought up.
In the system that I conceived, becoming a doctor will not cost any more to train than a mason or a labourer. Once trained, he can return to his own country. He can set himself up within reach of and under the direction of the Missionaries, marry if he wishes and be self-supporting, without overloading the Mission. Besides, he could serve it, if he has the time and aptitude, in tasks such as catechist or schoolteacher.
Now it is not only his daily bread and often the fortune that a doctor finds; it is in addition respect and influence. ‘Honora medicum propter necessitate’ is true everywhere. It is even more so for superstitious peoples, for whom the skill of healing appears to contain something of the supernatural. All those who have visited countries less advanced in human sciences can testify to this. In Egypt, Syria, and Constantinople very mediocre doctors, who could not succeed in Europe and who went to establish themselves in these countries, did not delay, even without the favour of the haphazard nature of healing, in becoming distinguished even with the powerful and with royalty. In Persia, we have seen a French doctor, not renowned, become the confidante and counsellor of the Shah and accompany him like a Minister for the trip he made to Europe four years ago.
This, I repeat, is natural. Everyone wants to live, to avoid suffering, to heal. The heads of still violent societies who take command of everything except death and illness and who discover power in this single point superior to theirs are all the more inclined to respect it. Let us imagine therefore what Christian doctors and real apostles could do from the heart (for this is how I see them trained, as I shall explain in the following paragraph) in a primitive society become the helpers of the Missionaries, in a primitive society where there are no other laws that the will of the chiefs and where the chiefs are numerous. Treat one of these chiefs, heal him, thus winning his trust and use this trust to establish, to promote the mission, becomes for everyone a natural and almost easy thing. Moreover, it would be easy for these doctors destined for marriage to enter into select marriages. Everything lends itself in African customs to this. It is not impossible to see some among them, if they have the gift of authority, becoming chiefs themselves.
All this without doubt will not be done without partial disappointments and frustrations. This is the way of the world. However, taking account of disappointments, we cannot deny that the idea is practical, fruitful, the most fruitful that can possibly be applied to a primitive society of which it is important to quickly convince, without incurring unaffordable expenses, as those in the creation of the Reductions, or villages or even a great number of schools.
Besides, in acting in this way, the African missions would only be practising the means pointed out by Our Lord Jesus Christ to his Apostles to ensure the fruits of their apostolate, ‘Heal the sick in it and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ No doubt, the Apostles healed the sick by miracles, but this type of miracle, Our Lord only chose it because he knew the nature of winning over the hearts of men. He does not speak to them of power, which would have been as great, of building houses by miracle, to labour by miracle, to make clothes by miracle. He speaks to them of the gift of healing.
It is on these facts that I reason, even without counting on miracles, other than miracles of charity, self-denial and courage that the first apostolic workers would need to accomplish. This is how I understand the solution to the problem with which I present myself, in seeking out which education would be suitable to give to young Africans so that they would exert, without extra expense to the Missionaries , the best influence possible in their country and among their compatriots. However, it is not enough to formulate such a plan. It has to be implemented.
The third condition is therefore to undertake this work proportionately to ensuring its greatest outreach.
At the outset, to train doctors from among young Africans of Equatorial Africa, there has to be a sufficient number of young Africans available. This condition is, unfortunately the easiest to fulfil. I say unfortunately because this ease of access comes from the most dreadful of evils that weighs down on poor Africa: slavery. Every year, in Equatorial Africa, which is the plumb centre of slave countries, hundreds of thousands of African men, women and children are sold. Their price is so low that on the coast, at Zanzibar, for example, where necessarily they cost much more than in the interior, there are children of ten to twelve years on sale for fifty, forty and even thirty francs each. We see therefore that to acquire children is not difficult and to extract them from such misery to restore their freedom, educate them, instruct and save their souls, prepare them for a happy and honourable life in their own country, to which they will one day be returned, is a holy task that must be blessed by God and men, especially when its ultimate and certain aim is the destruction of slavery. This is in effect to bring goodness out of evil.
Doubtless, not all the children that one could liberate by redeeming them would be suitable for the work for which they are intended. To respond to the proposed aim, they have to be disposed to receive deep religious intuitions and an intellectual education. For this, they have to be very intelligent and very young. The age at which one would mark out those who would become Christian doctors and catechists should not exceed twelve years. However, the selection, from the considerable number of children exposed every year on the markets of Equatorial Africa, would not be difficult. Those chosen would naturally be those who fulfil the conditions indicated above. We would thus have the number of children we would like in order to bring them up under the auspices of the Mission.
To complete the picture, we would now have to add where and how these children will be brought up. However, this detail ought not enter into the context of a Memorandum such as this. Suffice it to say that the plan I have formed in this respect is complete and resolves all the practical problems. The plan provides for these young people to be brought up in Africa and in an African way, as I have already established its necessity. The plan places them in a context where their Christian education is guarantee; it gives them all the necessary conditions for the scientific training of doctors, that is, special teachers, a sphere of experience in a hospital. Finally, the plan foresees, if the necessary resources are available, that each year, at the end of ten years, a hundred trained Africans will be sent to the Vicariates of Equatorial Africa, alongside the Missionaries. Above all, the plan aims to provide sentiments of truly apostolic faith, dedication and zeal.
I insist on this point. It is paramount. When speaking of the material education of our young Africans, I said that they needed to be African, essentially apostolic. There are, in effect, two ways of making men in our image. The first is to make them similar to us on the outside. This is the human way, that of philanthropist civilisers, those who say, as was said at the Conference of Brussels, that to change the Africans, it is enough to teach them European industrial art and design. This is to believe that when they are lodged, dressed and fed like us, they will change their nature. They will only have changed clothes. Their heart will be as primitive; even more so, because they will also be corrupt. Their heart will serve its corruption with what it will have learned of the secrets of our luxury and our indulgences.
The divine way is quite different. St. Paul defines it in saying, ‘Make oneself all things to all men to win them for Jesus Christ’ Indeed, the apostolate is addressed to the soul; it is the soul it changes, aware that all the rest will come over and above. To will the soul, he condemns himself if necessary to abandon all the external habits of life. He makes himself barbarian with the barbarians, just as he is Greek with the Greeks. This is what the Apostles did and we do not see any of them seeking to change the material habits of the peoples first. They sought to change their hearts and once their hearts were changed, they renewed the world. This is what we need to do by their example. However, to change hearts, to inspire it with faith and virtue, we need to have an outstanding faith and virtue. Indeed, anyone can only give what he has and moreover can he not give what he does have in all its fullness. Therefore, to direct the education of these young neophytes, to make them into Christians and apostles in the situation that they will need to occupy, we need apostles, real apostles. It is to this service that the most saintly Religious of our Missions need to be applied, alongside our teaching doctors. However, as is understandable, I repeat that here I cannot enter into detail. These details I will give to Your Eminence, as soon as he wishes; they will be the subject of a separate work.
3° Raise the resources required – In all that has just been said, we see that the resources of the Missions of Equatorial Africa ought to be substantial, because on the one hand, we have to keep pace with the Brussels Association which possesses powerful means, and on the other, the works that I have just indicated cannot be done without major expenses. Indeed, in the plan, which I have the honour to submit to Your Eminence, the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda, the issue is the founding, without delay, of four or at least three Vicariates. Next, there is need to send and maintain the missionary personnel. Finally, we must set up the work of Africans, the principal instrument of evangelisation of Equatorial Africa.
However, I do not think it will be impossible to acquire these resources. Archbishop Comboni has already proved what he can do in this respect and the well-deserved kindnesses that surround him will enable him to found the new Vicariate of the Great Lakes, and even that of the Equator, if this foundation is entrusted to him. I would be the same, I hope, for the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers, if he would entrust to it the two other Vicariates.
The Work of the Propagation of the Faith will give a share in its allocations to the Vicariates of Equatorial Africa, as it does for new Missions. The Christian and generous souls of various Catholic countries will not remain indifferent to the appeal addressed to them for such a noble undertaking. I make myself the guarantor for the good Catholics of France.
As for the work of the young African doctors, the solution depends on the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda. If His Eminence wishes to ask it of the Holy Childhood, this Association can easily take it in hand. Firstly, the implementation of such a project enters perfectly well into its aim, because the redeeming and education of non-Christian children belong directly to its original programme. Furthermore, African Christian doctors will be essentially catechists and ministers of the Sacrament of Baptism for non-Christian children in danger of death. It does not lack resources. Indeed, the Holy Childhood has seen its income increase daily in magnificent proportions. Today, it receives over two million francs a year.
Admittedly, I do not mean that this money is not put to good use in the Far East. However, what I will boldly say is that for the faith, for the conversion of souls, for the future of the Church, there is a quite other importance to give to heroic efforts in an idolatrous land of a hundred million souls, who can perhaps be rapidly converted by this means, than to make rare conquests per year among Buddhists or disciples of Confucius.
If therefore the Holy See asked it, the Holy Childhood Association could not reasonably refuse to contribute a proportion of its alms to Equatorial Africa. This sharing would be enough to enable the founding in large measure the work of young Africans, as it is needed. It is a negotiation to open with the Council of this Association and if the Congregation would wish me to take it on, I would be encouraged to succeed, in demonstrating to those concerned that it would not only be an act of justice, but furthermore an act of prudence and intelligence.
Besides, I do not think that the question of money is ever an insurmountable obstacle for the works that come from God. As far as I am concerned, I would have no worries at all relative to the Vicariates that could be entrusted to the Society of the Missions of Algiers. For a long time, I have the experience that God sends to his Missionaries what they need. I have always received charitable aid for the works of our Missions in what their needs demanded.
We have never been a penny in debt here. Now, there were years when we had to spend and consequently find several million. To achieve this result, we needed only one thing: faith like a mustard seed. With faith, according to Our Lord’s promise, we can shift mountains; mountains of gold, just like others.
4° Concentrate under one single directorate all the partial efforts made in Africa by Catholic Missions.
The Brussels Conference gives us an example from which we can benefit. The diverse elements that comprised it occupied Africa for nearly a century. Lutherans, Calvinists, Freethinkers, British, Germans, Americans, and French besieged it separately on all sides. They have just come together to reinforce their action, making it more effective, concentrating it under one directorate, forming a single Society from all these diverse Societies, giving it, a head in the person of a Catholic king, thereby proving its shrewdness.
With this step, their success promises to be more rapid and I believe they are right, while considering, too, that a Society comprising so many diverse elements will only achieve with difficulty a perfect unity of vision. However, the idea in itself is no less good and since we have to combat from our side, it is important, I believe, that it should be adopted by us.
Up to now, the Missions established in Africa and those more important ones to set up, do not combine their action. Each pursues its inspirations, its method and sometimes, it has to be said, the lack of method and apostolic inspiration. Doubtless, reports are sent to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, buy the Sacred Congregation does not see things itself. It only knows what people write. Now, everything is not always included. Moreover, since Propaganda is obliged to supervise the Missions of the whole world, it cannot focus its attention only on Africa.
However, I believe that for the African Missions to give all the results they can and must give, especially with the development ahead of them and in the face of very alarming Protestant progress, they need a stronger bond of unity. They need, under the authority of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, someone who would be especially responsible for them, to supervise, unify, visit and inspect them either him or others. Things could then take on another aspect. Then so many superhuman efforts, which do not bear enough fruit because they are isolated and sometimes even opposed to one another, unite and mutually increase tenfold. At that point, one would much easier resist antagonism that could arise. Unity is strength; or even better, a brother helped by a brother is like a strong city.
What form would be suitable to give to this centralisation of the African missions? I have neither the authority nor the knowledge required to decide. What I see is that for such a considerable and quite difficult enterprise, on which the entire world will from now on fix their friendly or hostile eyes, unity is essential and I humbly call the attention of the Holy See on this matter.
5° In the name of the Church, hoist high the banner of the abolition of African slavery by the Cross.
It is by this that I shall conclude this Memorandum. The banner of the abolition of slavery was the one initially hoisted with acclaim by the International Association of Brussels. It was in appealing to the sentiments of Christian humanity to destroy this dreadful scourge of our Africa that it succeeded in gathering around itself such abundant and elevated empathy so soon. However, this plan was gradually, if not abandoned, at least placed in the background. The minutes of the sessions of the Association are curious to observe in this respect. Slavery is hardly mentioned or if spoken of, it is only seen as an objective to pursue later.
What occupied the foreground was science: explorations and discoveries destined to increase geographical knowledge and immortalise their authors. That is probably why, do doubt, they proposed the sphinx as the symbol of the Association and finally why they adopted the star, symbol of light. The International Association of Brussels committed an error in thus abandoning the banner around which public opinion in Europe would have strongly rallied. At base, there are within it or in that of the Societies that grouped themselves around it, members who are not convinced, as I said, of the possibility and especially of the practical utility of the abolition of slavery. Doubtless they also plan to go easy on the traffickers who control the routes to certain parts of the African continent.
Nevertheless, the Conference of Brussels bears in Africa the banner of science with its star and not the one of deliverance with the Cross. This sacred banner it abandons is for the Church to hoist high before the civilised world. Indeed, it cannot enter into the interior of Equatorial Africa without seeking, by every means, to prevent the nameless horror, which the slave trade produces. It can only gain, in all areas, by entering with resolve into this pathway, the way of the Gospel.
Perhaps it would be enough to state such a proposal, but it seems to me serious and important enough to request permission to elaborate, in a few words, all my thinking. Short of being in Africa and being in contact with Africans who are slaves or who have been so, it is impossible to have an exact idea of the crimes, the cruelties, the degradation of every kind and the trade to which it gives rise. Naturally, I am speaking of what is being done, even at this time of writing these lines, of what I have seen with my eyes or heard from the lips of pitiable victims about this degradation and not at all, as one could imagine, from past events. It is true that the maritime trade has been abolished, but the land trade still exists. It has even increased on some levels by the abolition of the maritime trade and has taken on a more abominable aspect. In the North and East of Africa, the Muslims, by themselves or by Africans whom they have associated to their disreputable trade, are the dealers in slavery. In passing, it can be said that the destruction of slavery is the most awful blow possible to give to Islam. Muslim society, such as it is organised, cannot in fact exist without slaves. That is why, in the regions of Africa I speak of, the Muslims are at the head of this trade. In their employ, they have gangs of pillagers and murderers who penetrate into the African idol-worshiping countries for their banditry.
The Barbary States, and, I say so blushing - Algeria itself, Egypt, Zanzibar and Muslim Sudan - are the points of departure for these sorry expeditions. Often, they are limited to hunting down isolated individuals, women and children, who move far from their dwellings. However, just as often, these are organised attacks. Peaceful villages of Africans from the interior are suddenly surrounded during the night by fierce mercenaries. The Africans, who have no firearms, do not defend themselves, or men armed to the teeth soon murder those who do. These unfortunates flee in the darkness, but all those captured are immediately chained and dragged, men, women and children to a market in the interior. In our regions, Timbuktu is the principal market. They are brought there from lands that are sixty, eighty or a hundred days of walking distance.
Then begins for them a series of unspeakable woes. All these slaves are on foot. The men, who appear strongest and who could threaten to rebel, are bound hand and foot so that sometimes walking for them becomes an agony. Around their necks are placed a compartmented yoke, whereby several can be tied together. They march the whole day. In the evening, when they stop to take a rest, the prisoners are given some handfuls of barley or uncooked sorghum. This is all their food. They have to set off again the next day. However, from the first days, fatigue, pain and deprivation have weakened a number of them. The women stop first. Then, so as to terrify this unfortunate human flock, the leaders approach those women who appear exhausted. They are armed with a wooden club, to save gunpowder. They strike a dreadful blow on the back of the neck of the unfortunate victims who cry out and collapse, twisting in the convulsions of death. The terrified flock immediately set off on the march. Terror has given strength to the weakest. Every time someone exhausted stops, the same fearful scene is repeated.
In the evening, on arrival at the stopping place, when the first days of such a life have had their toxic influence, a no-less horrible scene awaits them. These traders in humanity have gained experience in what their victims can put up with. A glance tells them who are those who will soon succumb to fatigue. Then, to economise on the meagre food that they distribute, they pass with the club behind these unfortunates and strike them down with a blow. Their bodies are left where they fall and their companions are obliged to eat and sleep beside them.
What a sleep! It is easy to guess. Among the young Africans pulled out of this hell by us and given freedom, there are those who waken every night, for a long time after, screaming fearfully. In blood-soaked nightmares, they relive the abominable scenes of which they were eyewitnesses. This is how they march sometimes for months at a time, when the expedition has been at a distance. The caravan diminishes every day. If, when compelled by the extreme evils they endure, some would attempt to rebel and flee, their ferocious masters, to take revenge on them, slash the muscles of their arms and legs with sword or knife cuts and abandon them by the roadside, attached to one another by their yokes; they die slowly of hunger and despair. Thus, it has been said in truth that if we lost our way leading to the Equatorial African towns where they trade slaves, it could easily be found again by following the bones of Africans that line the roadsides.
This scene is horrible, no doubt, but how much more atrocious were the tortures in which so many unfortunate creatures saw death arrive. It has been calculated that every year, four hundred thousand Africans are victims of this scourge. Finally, they arrive on the market where those unfortunates that remain are led after such a journey. Often it is a third, a quarter, and sometimes even less that remain from those captured at the outset. Scenes of another nature then begin, but no less repulsive. The captive Africans are exhibited for sale like cattle; their feet, hands, teeth, and limbs are in turn inspected to ensure required services. Their price is discussed before them just like a beast of burden. When the price is agreed, they belong body and soul to the buyer. Nothing is respected any more, neither blood relations, for father, mother and children are mercilessly separated despite their cries and tears; nor conscience, for they must immediately embrace the religion of the Muslim buying them; nor even modesty, for they have to submit to the most shameful demands. Finally, their lives are at the discretion of those who own them. No one in Central Africa is held to account for the deaths of these slaves.
It is true that when they arrive in the hands of those who employ them as servants (unless they have to be made into eunuchs, in which case they have to undergo a torment that kills two thirds of those who are subjected to it), they are generally treated with some humanity, as long as they remain in good health. Owners fear that if they are treated excessively badly, they will die early. However, as soon as they become old or sick, unable to serve any longer, they are chased away, beaten with sticks to die in the streets or in the cemetery. Such is African slavery in all its appalling horror!
When asked, missionaries from Egypt, from Zanzibar, all have, like me, heard and seen these atrocities. For central Africa, we have the no less explicit testimony of Protestant explorers. I will only quote the most renowned among them, Livingstone. You will notice the same terror, which I myself found among our deprived children.
He said, ‘When I tried to report on the human trafficking in East Africa, I had to remain very far from the truth for fear of being accused of exaggeration; but frankly, the subject does not allow for exaggeration. To overrate these calamities is a pure impossibility. The scenes that I had before my eyes, incidents common to this traffic, are so repulsive that I try hard to erase them from my mind. With time, I manage to forget the most painful memories, but the scenes of the trade crop up again in spite of myself and, in the middle of the night, suddenly wake me with a start, struck with horror by their vividness.’
Again, I repeat, by the most exact calculations, the victims of this abominable trade are not less that four hundred thousand per year. In twenty-five years, which seems to be the average age of African life, this means ten million; ten million men, currently living, are doomed to the life and death that I have just described. Admittedly, there are not two opinions on such crimes. We can discuss and we have discussed the legitimacy of slavery, when it is a lessening of a deserved sentence; when for example, he saves the life of an unjust aggressor in a just war, when laws that protect the slave from violence protect him. However, African slavery bears the fruits of banditry, theft and rapine, slavery, with its funeral cortege of murders, immorality and inhumanity. The Church does not have enough lightning bolts to condemn it; missionaries do not have enough dedication and zeal to manage its abolition. In doing so to fulfil a duty, we find ourselves in agreement with the sentiment of all those who keep humanitarian sentiments; in proclaiming loudly, boldly, as our aim, in devoting ourselves to making known to the world all these horrors in our speeches and writings that we wish to abolish them by the divine power of the Gospel, even at the cost of shedding our own blood. We will be supported by the acclaim, the plaudits of all those on earth who merit the name of Christian.
This will be a cause that, when it will be well known, will become, essentially, immensely popular. Without doubt, no concession to public opinion can be made in anything affecting truth and justice, but when accomplishing in all its fullness a noble duty, one can have for self a powerful opinion, everything becoming easier and glory accompanying success.
It is a fortunate event that is being offered to the Holy See at a time when its enemies are attacking and barracking it from all sides. What a grand spectacle it offers to the world when the Pope is a prisoner in his palace and sending out apostles to the up to now inaccessible centre of Africa, with the elevated mission of destroying slavery there. A Pope condemning in the name of the Gospel and the constant traditions of the Church the horrors that degrade a whole section of the human family would be tremendous! Just imagine Pius IX crowning his immortal Pontificate by such an act, or his successor thus inaugurating his! What strains they would hear proclaimed. What deep emotion would take hold of the world at this mark of moral power and grandeur!
A Papal Bull, addressed to the heads of Missions in Equatorial Africa that would proclaim this great crusade of faith and humanity would reclaim honour for the Church, would proclaim the creation of an army of apostles who to do this would march into death to save life, to free the deprived sons of Sham, would be one of the greatest events of this century and even of the entire history of the Church. We would therefore rightly not be so worried about the plans of the Conference of Brussels. It would march in step with the scientists; the Missions would march with God and with humanity.
The heart and mind of Your Eminence, Eminentissime, are equal to such thoughts, I know. For this reason, I venture to present this with confidence and why I would be pleased to see his name and those of his Eminent Colleagues who comprise, at this time, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, attached to their conclusion.
Be assured of my deep respect and devotion, with which I have the honour to be the most humble and most obedient servant of Your Eminence.
Algiers, 2nd January 1878.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Propaganda on various current questions (5th January 1878)
Algiers,
Monsignor,
I am sending Rev. Fr. Charmetant, Procurator General of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers to Rome to deliver the Secret Memorandum which I have prepared and have had printed concerning the African Association of Brussels and on the evangelisation of the up to now unknown part of Africa. I believe this matter is extremely important and urgent and I think Your Excellency will be as convinced as I am when you have read my Memorandum.
The Rev. Fr. Charmetant will also have the honour to present for the approval of the Sacred Congregation the rules of his little community, which has already ten years of existence, having been founded by me in 1868. It numbers 150 members, including 68 priests.
Finally, he will also speak with you on the matter of Saint Anne’s at Jerusalem, which seems to have entered into eternity since we no longer see its end.
If I may be so bold as to recommend to your kindness all these various interests. I am pleased to find the timing apt to present my best wishes for the New Year to Your Excellency and to sign myself, with the most respectful devotedness, your most humble and obedient servant.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Holy Father to request the approval of the Society and of its Rules (8th January 1878)
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, the Superior General, the Assistants and the Members of Council of the Society of Missionaries of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa , come to present the Constitutions and Rules of their little Society.
Founded ten years ago in 1868 by His Grace Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers, this little Society received particular signs of the goodness of God in its very growth. The number of its members, including those who are in the Little Novitiate and in the Apostolic School, already amount to almost two hundred, of whom sixty-eight are priests, thirty-six are Lower Orders, fifteen others have taken their commitment as Brother Catechists , and the remainder are preparing by study to follow the same path.
The Society of Missionaries comprises eighteen distinct establishments of which eleven are in the Archdiocese of Algiers, three in Constantine, two in the Sahara or at Tunis and a little native novitiate in France, in the Diocese of Rodez.
From the temporal point of view, His Grace the Archbishop of Algiers greatly endowed it with landed property, which already brings in a part of what it needs and the remainder is provided by Charity, so much so that it does not and has never had any debt.
Most Holy Father, it only lacks your paternal blessing and the approval of Your Holiness. It knows, indeed, that whoever does not harvest under your direction and your sacred authority sees the fruit of its harvest lost; it only aspires for the moment when it will be completely in the hands of the Holy See.
Among the rules that we owe to our Father and Founder is this one: ‘We will never have, in matters of doctrine, other rules than the decisions and indications of the Holy Apostolic See and we will consider submission and dedication to the Holy see as the prime glory and proper character of this little Society.’
This Rule to which we adhere from the bottom of our hearts, we wish to keep, especially when it is a matter for our Constitutions and Laws that direct our works and our lives as a whole. We come, Most Holy Father, to submit them to your exalted authority and to this higher wisdom, which the Holy Spirit illuminates with his light. They are at your feet; may Your Holiness decide on them, as Your Holiness would judge acceptable. We will receive everything with the most perfect obedience, as coming from God himself.
May Your Holiness only consent to support us by your prayers and by your paternal blessing. Nothing will seem difficult to those who have the honour to say of themselves that they are yours, as they kiss your sacred feet, Most Holy Father, your most humble and most obedient sons and servants.
In the name of all the members of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers,
Superior General
1st Assistant
2nd Assistant
Secretary General
Letter to the Fathers of the General Council on the use of tobacco and alcohol (February 1878)
Algiers,
My Dear Children,
Lately, I have learned with genuine sadness that in one or two of your stations habits have appeared which, if they permeated your Society, would one day lead to its ruin and would make it a deed of death instead of a deed of resurrection and life. I was informed that some Fathers had smoked, thereby scandalising the little children of their school; that others had put strong liqueurs in reserve on the pretext of offering them to visitors who called.
I must call your most serious attention to these abuses, which have been reported to me for the first time. No doubt, in itself and for a layperson, it is not a sin to smoke or drink liqueurs in reasonable quantities; for a Missionary, however, it is the most miserable indication that he can give of the lack of mortification, one of the foremost virtues of his state of life. Among the Arabs, you know that the Muslim marabouts most renowned for their piety abstain from smoking. This wins them greater respect from their coreligionists. Now, my dear children, should we not do out of truth what these deprived people impose on themselves out of error? From the outset, I did not consider bringing any formal prohibition and even less any censure, against acts of which I did not foresee the moral prospects. Now that they have emerged, I must guard against them.
Therefore, in virtue of the episcopal authority I exercise in the name of the Holy See on all the priests of the Mission, I expressly forbid, under pain of censure to smoke either in public or in private; to drink any liqueur at all except wine, save in case of illness or by doctor’s prescription; to play cards, and finally, to hunt and even to accompany hunters.
Please make known these prohibitions without delay to all Missionaries by a circular from your Council. You will add special recommendations on the absolute need for unity and charity among the Fathers.
I pray to Our Lord to make these warnings effective. Our Work is going to extend, becoming more difficult and more labour intensive; it is not the time to slacken; on the contrary, it is a time to grow in dedication, in self-sacrifice and in love of Our Lord and his Holy Mother and in consequence to walk more closely in their footsteps.
I bless you my dear children, and I remain, with my most fatherly affection, your most humble and devoted servant.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
First Instructions to Missionaries of Equatorial Africa (March 1878)
My dear Children,
Just when you are going to leave us to undertake the sublime and laborious Mission to which God is calling you, I feel my fatherly affection redouble for you, if it were possible. I prostrate myself in spirit before Our Lord, the Master of Apostles and the strength of Martyrs, praying him to bless you, to enlighten you and direct you himself and to take you body and soul into his holy protection.
To these prayers, which I shall renew and have renewed for you, daily, I wish to add some special recommendations that seem to me necessary to guide your inexperience. I wish also to give you a new indication of the interest, which I have in the success of such an important Mission, along with the Holy Apostolic See and the entire Catholic Church.
I
It is natural enough that I should want to begin by speaking to you of your spiritual dispositions both now and for the future, for everything else, absolutely everything, depends on that; you will convert nobody, you will not sanctify a single soul unless you yourselves first undertake to work steadfastly at your own sanctification.
I am not going into details here about your spiritual observances; they have no place in instructions such as these. However, one thing I will say, which comprises all the rest: you must remain unwavering in your fidelity to observe not only the spirit but also the letter of your Rule. In particular, you must see to it that you do not omit your spiritual exercises, whatever the difficulty or inconvenience; and you must look on any lack of obedience towards your Superiors as a sort of sacrilege. Do not be surprised at this word sacrilege that I use. Lack of perfect obedience in the circumstances in which you will find yourselves, surrounded as you will be by difficulties, temptations and dangers, will bring the Mission to ruin. For a Missionary, entrusted by God with the founding of a mission, to bring it to ruin is indeed a sacrilege, and beyond all doubt the greatest of crimes he could commit.
Always keep this well in mind, my dear Children, for it will help you to realise the seriousness, the gravity of your obligations. The spirit of faith which energises and guides you, will make you fear above all else to hear Our Lord make the same reproach to you as he made to the unfaithful Apostle, should you, through negligence or inattention become the cause of the failure of the Mission: Amice, ad quid venisti.
I repeat once again, for I cannot do so too often, lack of fidelity to your Rule, however unimportant each point may appear in itself, lack of perfect obedience to your Superiors will bring the Mission to ruin. When there is not perfect regularity in a community, when the spirit of obedience is not found there in its perfection, disorder soon creeps in, and with disorder comes complete powerlessness to do good, followed soon by waning interest, then discouragement, then sin, then even apostasy. In the sphere of the apostolate, more indeed than in any other sphere, is literally fulfilled the word of the Holy Spirit: ‘He who is unfaithful in little things will fall little by little.’ This other saying is based on common experience: ‘The corruption of the best is the worst of corruptions.’
Of this we must be convinced, that for a Missionary, there can be no compromise: he must choose between complete sanctity, at least desired and pursued with constancy and courage, or absolute perversion. The history of the Missions is full of such wretched examples. My dear Children, I pray to God to remove you from this world in the first steps of your vocation, rather than let you fall into such a pit!
To avoid such a fate, to remain strictly faithful to the Rule, for fidelity is the barrier which protects you against all the attacks which could assail you, you need at all costs a spirit of faith; it alone will enable you to rise above all the weakness, inclinations and passions of your lower nature. If you merely follow your nature, you will never have the courage and strength you need to remain constantly masters of yourselves. Your imagination, a taste for change and travel, the pull of the unknown, all these could well lead to a decision, which on the surface would seem courageous, but which would not take you far. When difficulties arise and disillusionment sets in, discouragement and tedium soon follow. Only the thought of God and the prospect of the magnificent and infinite rewards promised to those who persevere can sustain your weakness. My Children: let that be the thought that enlightens and strengthens you. When fatigue overcomes you, think of the rest Our Lord holds out to you with him and his Apostles. In your sufferings, think of the triumph of the Martyrs. Otherwise, you will become mere explorers and, as I have said on more than one occasion, adventurers, instead of men of God.
On the consciences of each Superior of Mission, I lay the responsibility of seeing that the recommendations contained in this first paragraph are followed. They must be convinced that their responsibility before God is gravely engaged if, through weakness, negligence or human respect, they allow the non-observance of the Rule to become prevalent in their community or the spirit of obedience to grow weak and a natural outlook to predominate instead of the spirit of faith.
For this, they are equipped with all the needed powers; not only they have the right to command in virtue of Holy Obedience, that is, under pain of mortal sin, when the circumstances demand it, but in addition, they can, in virtue of their jurisdictional authority I hope that such a calamity never happens, but everything has to be foreseen when dealing with human weakness. Superiors equipped with such powers will alone be accountable vis-à-vis the Church and God.
II
However, Missionaries must remember that it is not enough for them to be personally holy: their proper vocation is to work for the sanctification of others. They must apply to themselves the words of Our Lord, ‘for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.’ (Jn 17:19) Like the Apostles, they must truly become fishers of men. They must pursue them, gather them, save them on this immense ocean of infidelity and barbarism where they are submerged and lost. This is more especially the vocation of a Missionary of Equatorial Africa. No other mission should be able to arouse more effectively the zeal and mercy of an apostle. Africa is a country as extensive as Europe with a hundred million deprived souls plunged into the most fearful ignorance, idolatry, and vice. What an immense field of activity, open to the triumphs of the apostolate! Not only an immense field, but still relatively easy to do the spadework because it does not have, like others, the toxic undergrowth that make the Mission so difficult. There, there are no irreligious and corrupt Europeans, nor inflexible Muslims. We are faced with simple and primitive populations, naturally predisposed to belief.
However, the richer the harvest, the more criminal would the Missionaries be not to apply themselves to it assiduously. They should be convinced that they are sent only to detach these people from evil and to wrest them from hell, to enlighten them and to make them Christian. All their thoughts, prayers and actions should be directed towards this one objective. This is the explicit intention of those who send them, of the Holy See in particular, and of those who support them with their alms; it is, above all, the will of God: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ (Mt 28:19)
Let them therefore keep in mind that they are not explorers or ordinary travellers, tourists or scholars; their only role is to seek out souls.
This is the general picture that they should constantly have in mind. However, there are several other details which it seems to me can contribute to the success of their apostolate and I want to point them out, to the extent God enables me to see them. I expect Superiors to respect the indications I give, adding to these when they see fit or when circumstances or the needs of the Mission call for it.
1) Our Missionaries must be convinced of their powerlessness and their nothingness. Let them turn to God in all things, for without his grace, a truly special grace, they can do nothing. For this, I would like all exercises of piety without exception, after the Sign of the Cross, to begin with these words: We are going to do this exercise with the intention of obtaining from Our Lord, the Master of the Apostle, the grace to work effectively for the conversion of our deprived Africans. I would also like everyone, in particular at the start of the day, to offer to God all the works and cares for the same intention. Finally, as well as this, I would like a short individual prayer composed by the Superior to be recited by all in common for the same objective, at a specified time of the day.
2) After prayer, what will influence the Africans more than anything else is good example, especially the example of charity? The Missionaries will recall that this was the special sign whereby the pagans recognised that the mission of the first Apostles was divine: ‘See how they love one another,’ they said.
I recommend to all my children and if I could I would get down on my knees before each one of them to plead that fraternal charity be maintained among them, outwardly and inwardly. They would do untold harm and would certainly hold back the conversion of non-Christians if they were seen disagreeing with each other and divided one from another; even more so if they were always at loggerheads with each other; whereas on the contrary, the sight of their perfect union would win over the hearts of others. This charity they must also show towards the Africans, receiving them kindly, looking after them and helping them to the best of their ability.
3) To prayer and example, they must add religious instruction. We need to remember that we are in Equatorial Africa and no longer in Algeria. Therefore, the restraint that was necessary due to the circumstances vis-à-vis the Muslims is out of place among the idol-worship of the Africans. In speaking of religion, they should start with the main truths, which the mind of all men can grasp and that were defined by St. Paul when he wrote, ‘Without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.’ (Heb 11:6). The existence of God, the punishments and rewards in the next life must therefore be explained before anything else. Then come truths about Jesus Christ and the Church, together with the principal acts of worship.
All these should be taught succinctly and simply in such a way as to create a lasting impression on the minds of those who hear them. I would like at this point to note that we are generally inclined, especially in France, to present religious truths in too rational, too philosophical a manner. It really would be absurd and deplorable to do so in this case vis-à-vis a primitive people. It is especially the supernatural side of religion that should be stressed, its miracles and marvels, the wonderful effects of its prayers and sacraments. I venture to go further and say that in a grand undertaking such as this, we should have enough supernatural faith to count on a direct intervention of God and be bold enough to ask Him for miracles. All we need is faith, abundant faith in order to obtain them. Care for your sick with faith, speak to them with the authority of faith. Command the devil boldly to yield the place to you and you will soon have triumphed over him. He is like those wicked people whom he inspires, audacious with the timorous, but cowardly before those who have the courage that comes from above.
In order to be imbued with these truths and see them at work, the reading of the life of Saint Francis Xavier would be very valuable. I recommend to every Superior to carry a copy and have it read in Spiritual Reading.
Above all, never fail to invoke the aid of the Immaculate Virgin, of whom it has been said that she alone stamps out all error. Pray also to St. Joseph and have recourse to the Sacred Heart of our Lord, true source of all graces of conversion and cause of all miracles.
4) In a violent society, subdivided into numerous tribes, which still live under a patriarchal system, it is of the utmost important to gain the goodwill of the chiefs. Missionaries should attach considerable importance to this, convinced that the winning over of a single chief will do more for the progress of the Mission than the individual conversion of hundreds of ordinary Africans. Chiefs once converted will carry the others along with them. The best way to win over the chiefs would be essentially to express trust in them, to take their power seriously, to give gifts that would please them and once the initial contacts are assured, to let them gradually become aware of Christian Doctrine. Letting them see that this Doctrine is favourable to their power, since it teaches that they are the true representatives of God on earth from the temporal point of view, should not be forgotten.
The greatest obstacle to find among the chiefs whose trust has been gained is the practice of polygamy. Not all of them practice it, however, or not all hold to it to the same degree; therefore we need not be exposed to wasting a lot of time on it. Moreover, we need to remember that in the early Church, the pagans, by their customs, also presented obstacles to reception into the Church. Consequently, many of them were not received as postulants and they were only baptised at the point of death. Nothing prevents us from doing the same with Africans, who have a particular problem that is insurmountable in accepting God’s law, such as those who are engaged in polygamy. Particularly at the start, it is important for the Missionaries to approach those chiefs and tribes of whom they are morally certain will extend a welcome to them; for in this way, they will more quickly open a breach in the huge African population.
In this respect, the works of Burton, Stanley and especially Livingstone, already contain some very valuable information. Therefore, these atitudes need to be studied beforehand and later verified on the spot.
5) Knowledge of the indigenous language is indispensable for preaching, so Missionaries should learn it as well and as quickly as they possibly can. From the time of their appointment to the Missions, they must devote every spare moment to its study. I insist that Superiors of Mission see that this all-important recommendation is adhered to everywhere. As soon as possible and at the most six months after their arrival in the Missions, I want Missionaries to speak among themselves only the language of the tribes among whom they reside. Finally, in every Mission where the local language has not yet been printed, my strict instructions are that, if the Superior cannot do so himself, one of the Missionaries should devote an hour or two each day to the compiling of a dictionary; for this, he should base himself on his conversations with the Africans and on the questions he puts to them about the meaning of each word.
The same Father will be responsible for drawing up in the local language a short catechism, comprising the most essential points of Christian faith and morals; it should not exceed seven or eight pages. The Africans will be asked to learn this catechism and detailed explanation of it will be given to them. Later on, the same procedure will be followed for the Holy Gospels.
6) Missionaries should be imbued with the thought I put forward in my ‘Secret Memorandum to the S.C. of Propaganda’ concerning the transformation of Equatorial Africa by means of young Africans who would be brought up as good Christians and given some training in medicine. We must take advantage of favourable opportunities to gather or redeem young children, observing these conditions: firstly, they must have a more than ordinary intelligence so that their dual education, moral and scientific, will not be too difficult for them. Initially, these youngsters will be kept in the mission posts for probation. A little later, they will join a special institute whose basis will be decided by agreement between the Mission Superiors and the Council of the Society.
7) In the task of converting the Africans, I must put the Missionaries of Equatorial Africa on their guard against the temptation to discouragement because of the moral lapses of the Africans converted to Christianity. They must expect very real and frequent relapses, remembering that things were no better in reality in the early Church. St. Paul reproached the first Christians of Corinth because they became intoxicated immediately after taking part in the Eucharistic Banquet. He also had to upbraid one of the faithful of the same Church of Corinth because of his incest, which was worse than any found among the Gentiles. We know from our earliest African Fathers of the Church, Tertullian and St. Cyprian in particular, to what degree of immorality the Christians of the second and third centuries often descended. It required several hundred years and the Barbarian invasions to remedy pagan laxity, even after the conversion of the whole universe. We must therefore not be surprised, I repeat, if the Africans, even converted, relapse again into their defects. What has to be verified is that there remains no prejudice or deliberate purpose. For this, it is recommended to give them an exact idea of the Sacrament of Penance and the virtue of absolution.
In this connection, I recommend the Missionaries to avoid like the plague the prejudices of Jansenism, which persist among our French clergy without their being aware of it. These prejudices destroyed Catholicism in France, at least among the majority of the people, because they imposed upon them a burden that was beyond the strength of the average person. It is no less certain that they would prevent Catholicism from taking root in Africa. Confession must be put forward for our African converts as a means instituted by God, making good the lapses due to fallen nature, lapses which flow all too readily from those disordered inclinations to which we are all heirs at birth. Absolution should never be refused for sins that are due to simple weakness and not to any fixed will to do evil.
Penitents should be pitied not blamed, encouraged, not driven to despair. In a word, we have here a case of the smouldering wick and crushed reed and in their regard, we must follow the saying of the Gospel, ‘a bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not crush, (Mt 12: 20). Heroic virtue, angelic purity, lively and untarnished faith, are the exception among neophytes and to expect them to comply with the general rule is to expose oneself to bitter deception and to take daydreams for reality.
The true role of the Missionary is to lead the neophytes to the faith, to help them share in the infinite merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which are applied to them in the Sacraments, and, without losing heart, to lead them from fall to fall to the harbour of salvation, so as to open its gates to them; this is the deeply consoling role of the Missionary. While hoping for better things among future generations, he must have no illusions about the first generations, for such illusion would lead him inevitably and to no purpose to discouragement.
Before concluding this paragraph, it seems to me worthwhile to again foresee some special problems that could arise either in relation to other Catholic Societies that would come to set up in Equatorial Africa or relations with personnel of the International Society of Brussels and with those of Protestant sects. Firstly, the everyday and overall recommendation I would give is to show the most genuine and cordial charity as a rule in these relations, to take as a rule to always repay good for evil.
It is the surest way to triumph and, above all, to let the work of the apostolate triumph, ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’ (Rm 12: 21).
The second rule is prudence. From this point of view, I would advise the greatest reserve and restraint in relation to lay or heretical Societies. I order Superiors to disallow the establishing of ongoing relations between ordinary Missionaries and the employees of these Societies inhabiting Equatorial Africa. It will result in disadvantages, indiscretions and, in the long run, conflicts of all kinds. For Catholic Missions, we should never establish ourselves in their neighbourhood, that is, at a distance of less than twenty leagues from the place where they are already set up. They will not be allowed either to establish themselves in locations already occupied by the Mission and I will even remove any power they have in this respect in virtue of the special Delegation I have received from the Holy See. We will not set up either in locations already occupied by Protestant Missions. We shall take our distance at least eight or ten kilometres from them. If we observe these rules, I hope that the worst setbacks can be avoided.
III
The soul comes before the body. That is why I have dealt with it first of all. Nevertheless, I do not want to leave aside recommendations concerning the Missionaries’ material needs, for these too are important, often extremely so.
The Holy See made the first recommendation to me, so it must have a twofold authority in the eyes of the Fathers, and particularly of the Superiors. It is to the effect that under no pretext whatsoever must one expose oneself to a proximate and probable danger of death. This holds good whatever the cause: an unhealthy location proposed for a Mission station; the undertaking of journeys considered by prudent people to be dangerous; risks to health arising from conditions of housing, dress or food.
There is no need for me to insist on these points, I suppose, for they are self-evident. It will be up to Superiors to follow them and to see that others follow them in their turn. One thing I will say, namely that if they are free to expose and sacrifice themselves, they have no right to expose and sacrifice their subordinates, even if they request it. In Missions such as those to which they are going, to take every possible precaution to avoid risks. If entreaty is not enough, I give them definite orders to take all measures which prudence suggests. They must also be equipped with medicines needed to treat their companions suffering from diseases endemic in the country. They must not hesitate to send them to a healthier climate, in Algiers or France, should they judge that this is necessary for their recovery.
In a word, they must safeguard the health of their companions with true fatherly care, taking prudent precautions with regard to food and medical attention. I shall never be personally more grateful to them than when they have prevented one of my children from some danger or suffering.
One of the most important points both for the health of the Missionaries and for the success of the mission is the location selected for their permanent residence. Two main conditions should be fulfilled; firstly, that it should be a healthy spot and secondly, that it be a centre where there is a large population. There should therefore be no great hurry to settle on a permanent site. The matter should be studied and questions asked, so that a decision can be more surely reached. A high plateau would appear to give the best guarantees, but the Missionaries themselves will be able to see on the spot what is more expedient.
Once the central Mission has been set up, Missionaries should try gradually to visit the surrounding country and even, if there should be an opportunity, to explore further afield. However, they should not be allowed to travel this way on their own, but should always be at least two together.
While we are on the subject of material conditions, a word or two on Mission finances will not come amiss. The needs will be considerable, especially when one is starting off. I advise Superiors to avoid two contrary excesses to which they might be prone: the first would consist in refusing what is necessary; the other in having superfluous expenses.
For their houses, they will be content with the sort of hut in use in the country, but choosing the style of those who are persons of means or social standing, so as not to create the wrong impression. I want Missionaries to occupy separate rooms, divided at least by partitions, both for sleeping and working. Food should be what the country provides. Meat could be the staple diet, since game is abundant and a meat diet is nourishing in the interior of this country. However, I forbid hunting to Missionaries under the penalties that I have already brought, unless, naturally, there are special circumstances, such as a risk of lacking food. Nevertheless, they will have guns and powder and lend them to trusted Africans who will hunt on their behalf. Nonetheless, they will not accompany them.
The plateaux of Equatorial Africa seem to be good for vine production. Missionaries should therefore begin planting vines without delay, so as to have Mass wine, which otherwise they would not be able to obtain easily. They should also plant wheat to make altar breads and to have a little bread on the spot, at least for the sick. With regard to their clothing, they are free to modify the one they wear in Algiers in accordance with the prescriptions of the Rule. However, I do not want them to omit the Rosary, which is like the protective shield proper to our little Society. Finally, they should make arrangements to maintain regular contact with the supply station at Zanzibar to obtain what they require and let us know their needs.
Before concluding this article, I must bring to your notice that for many serious reasons, the rule that we follow in Algeria and in other Muslim countries of not receiving anything from the local inhabitants does not seem feasible among the Africans of Equatorial Africa. We therefore can barter with them and even, when we have rendered them some service, accept gifts in kind according to local custom. Without this, we could be vulnerable in the future to lack the basic necessities if relations with France were ever broken off.
IV
Even though what I am now going to say is of secondary importance for Africa itself, I put it forward without hesitation, in reply to requests I have received from all sides; for I believe the Church can derive honour and real benefit from it, even for souls.
For it is attacked today in the name of science and efforts are being made everywhere to discredit it as the enemy of science. Whatever service it can therefore render to science can be seen as an effective reply to those odious attacks made against it by its enemies. It seems to me then that it would be easy for the Missionaries to render real service to the world of science in countries so little known as those of Equatorial Africa. They could do it if they shared the task and persevered in it, for it would not be very exacting and would take only a little time each day, fifteen to twenty minutes at the most. Hence, I have no hesitation in recommending what follows and even of making an obligation of it, even though I said above that Missionaries should not be scholars, but should be intent only on seeking out souls. For in doing what I ask of them, they will remain apostles, with this difference that their apostolate will be in favour of our poor civilised barbarians of France and Europe instead of those of Equatorial Africa.
In the document detailing the powers I have given to the Superiors of the two Missions, I imposed on them the obligation of seeing that a diary is kept by one of the Missionaries. This diary could be of the highest interest, especially when travelling, and even at the Mission post, if everything is faithfully recorded that one learns from the Africans, relative to the history, geography, culture, and so on, of the interior of Africa. No great detail is needed for the diary to become a prolific mine of all kinds of information. Except in very special circumstances, twenty-five to thirty lines will be enough for each day, requiring, as I have said, not more than fifteen to twenty minutes work. What is needed here is perseverance and good order. It is incumbent on the Superior of the Mission to obtain suitable exercise books and writing materials and then to see that the diary is kept up to date. Suitably amended, it could eventually provide material for useful publications, which could redound to the glory of the Church and of the Mission.
I would say the same of various scientific observations that could be made without too much trouble, observations on natural history, geography, geodesy, and geology. All that is needed is a compass, a barometer, a microscope and a minimum of attention. Fathers would need to know the rudiments of these sciences; so a few elementary books should be made available to those who are willing to give up part of their leisure to this study.
V
I will conclude these instructions by drawing the attention of Superiors to the absolute necessity of maintaining the unity of minds and efforts, to decide nothing of importance without beforehand holding an official council with the Missionaries for this purpose. As often as not, the weekly House Council set down by the Constitutions will suffice; but if it is not enough for all that is due to happen in the course of the week, do not hesitate, especially in these early days, to meet more often. This would be compulsory if the Mission or the Fathers were threatened in any way. Moreover, the Superiors should not involve their responsibility in such a serious case and should feel free to call on their confreres to share it.
Besides, the Missionaries should carefully avoid bringing to these councils an attitude of conflict or opposition. They should attend them humbly without preconceived ideas, with the sole desire for the greater good and a spirit of proper reverence for their Superior. If he is absent or ill, he is to be replaced by the Missionary made substitute before the departure; finally, if this last is unable, by the most senior Missionary.
Such is the collection of directives that I believe need to be given to the Fathers of the Mission in Equatorial Africa when they are going to leave us to reach those distant regions. We are with them in spirit and will pray God and his angels to accompany them on their way. Above all, our prayers will seek to obtain what they desire more than anything: the fruitfulness of the apostolate: ‘Go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, (Jn 15: 16)
These Directives are to be read regularly once a month at Spiritual Reading, the day of the monthly retreat. However, every Missionary should have a copy written in his own hand.
Letter to Rev. Fr. Horner, Superior of the Spiritan Fathers at Zanzibar (19th March 1878)
Algiers,
Very Reverend Father,
You have probably learned through the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, rightly concerned for the invasion with which the Protestant Missions threaten the interior of Equatorial Africa, has decided to create several new Missions in these regions. It has made a special appeal to the Society of Missionaries of Algiers to found two of these Missions, one on Lake Nyanza and the other on Lake Tanganyika.
Moreover, our Holy Father Leo XIII has graciously chosen to delegate me to confer on the heads of these two Missions the powers I consider suitable. To avoid any problem now or in the future, and also to demonstrate my respect for the admirable zeal that your Congregation shows on the coasts of Zanzibar and Mozambique, I have determined that our Missionaries in the neighbourhood of the locations currently occupied by you, neither residence nor occupations of any kind; if they have a supply station on Zanzibar, it will be entrusted to seculars already established in the country.
However, to prepare their immediate departure upcountry, it would be required to make arrangements before their very imminent arrival. For this reason, I will send Rev. Fr. Charmetant, Procurator of the Society, accompanied by Father Deniaud one of his confreres, ahead of them.
I venture to commend them without delay to your paternal charity, which I have learned, for some time now, to know and admire the effects in relations at the Work of the Propagation of the Faith and in the writing of Archbishop Gaume. I know that our Fathers will not find a bigger or more apostolic heart than yours to assist them in the task of organising a caravan for the distant lands to which their confreres must travel.
In anticipation, please receive all my thanks and be assured of my respect and dedication with which I have the honour of being your most humble servant.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Missionaries of the first caravan to Central Africa (16th April 1878)
My dear Children,
You are thus going to leave for good for your distant and sacred destination. I have but one regret and that is not to accompany you to the ship that will take you, to give you my final blessing and wish you my final greetings. However, you can read my heart from afar. You know that my blessings are those of a father and that my wishes aim at your sanctification in the midst of the trials that you are going to generously undergo and to the glory of Our Lord that you are going to obtain by your zeal. May Notre-Dame de la Garde truly guard you from all harm! May Our Lord grant you the grace to win countless souls for him among these deprived Africans.
All that I have learned and what I have read on your future mission urges me to modify a little my initial instructions, in the sense that I leave you totally free to follow the route you find the most apt to reach your destination. Perhaps it would be better for all to go to Tanganyika and from there those who are going to Nyanza with Fr. Livinhac will then follow their route. Therefore, you will not split up at Unyanyembe. The latest letter of Stanley and the details he gives suggest this idea to me. I have sent you these letters (twelve copies), which I have addressed to Fr. Payan d’Augery via the railway.
Farewell, my dear children, once again, farewell. Pray for me as I shall pray for you.
Your Father in Our Lord,
Charles, Arch. Algiers
Letter to Father Charmetant at Zanzibar (1st June 1878)
Rome,
My dear Child,
I have just received your letter from Zanzibar at Rome and I communicated it immediately to Propaganda, which took great interest in it. I have also had it copied to send to the Propagation of the Faith, which will publish the main passages in the Missions Catholiques. The Work of the Propagation of the Faith complied with good grace. It gave one hundred and sixty thousand francs for all our Missions. However, the Holy Childhood refused to give anything at all. That is how things are. I tell you this, not to discourage the Fathers, but to express to you that we must not make unnecessary expenses. You have, I believe, received a short letter from Belgium where I spoke to you of instructions given to Mr. Wautier by the International Commission. They oblige him to help you, if you need it, even to providing weapons, if yours are not sufficient, and to agree with you for the locations where the stations will be set up. Therefore, use this information, without making it known that you know it in detail.
Once again, I repeat here what I have said and written to Fathers Livinhac and Pascal, that is, that I do not want them to face any clear danger and I forbid you, in particular, to go to Lake Nyanza if there is a risk, for example, of Missionaries being murdered. It would be much better, in that case, to go to Tanganyika and set up the first station there and from there, go to Nyangwé , towards the states of Muata Yamou, the second one. We will go later to Nyanza. In that case, Fr. Livinhac will go to Nyangwe and Fr. Pascal will remain in Tanganyika. This would be all the more timely, since Archbishop Comboni begins to cry out in his letters to Propaganda, claiming that our Missionaries are dying or will be killed by going to Nyanza. We therefore have to be careful, and if there is a danger, I will change the destination of Nyanza to that of Nyangwe or even further in that direction.
You must recommend to our Fathers not to fail in writing and especially to send a detailed memorandum for the foundation and circumscription of both Vicariates.
I bless you all. I have prayed for you at Saint Peter’s and I will pray at the Holy Sepulchre, for I leave tomorrow for Jerusalem.
What about your foot? I hope it heals.
Farewell, my dear Child, be assured of my devoted service in Our Lord.
Charles, Arch. Algiers
Letter to Propaganda to request permission to open a mission post at Tripoli (12th July 1878)
Rome,
Your Eminence,
I am pleased to let Your Eminence know that for the material service of our mission in the Sahara, it would be necessary to have, at Tripoli, a temporary supply station. Indeed, caravans leave from Tripoli several times a year for Timbuktu, whereas they do not leave from Algeria. Moreover, the attitude of the French Government becomes daily more hostile to religion and relations between it and our Missionaries in the Sahara are becoming impossible on the Algerian border.
In this state of affairs, I would like to be able to buy a house for Missionary Fathers and two Brothers at Tripoli. They would only be responsible for providing the Missions in the Sahara via caravan, with necessary goods and absolutely without exercising any ecclesiastical ministry whatever. They will only have a small inside chapel to say and hear Mass. I do not think that this will raise any problems. I would be grateful to your Eminence if You would graciously grant us a prompt solution, so that we could install everything before the inclement season.
I am, with profound respect, Your Eminence, your most humble and obedient servant.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers,
Apostolic Delegate for the Mission of the Sahara
Letter to Father Charmetant on his return from Zanzibar (28th July 1878)
Paris,
My dear Child,
For some days yet, I am still at Paris, where I received your telegram, which you sent on the 26th from Suez. You inform me that you have fever, hepatitis and rheumatoid arthritis all at once. I am sorry to hear this, for I hoped the Good Lord would bring you back in good health after your rough but so useful tasks.
As for what you need to do on arrival at Marseilles, this depends on your condition. If you feel well enough to return to Algiers without too much fatigue, this seems best to me. As for me, I intend to disembark on the 10th August. If you are still unwell, you will need to go to the house of the Brothers of Saint John of God, where there are fee-paying rooms. You will not receive better treatment anywhere else.
I have asked Father Payan d’Augery to watch for your arrival. As is his habit, he will have arranged everything in advance with the good Brothers, in case you need their hospitality. I myself shall arrive at Marseilles a few days after you.
See you soon, then, my dear child. Take heart! Our Lord, his Holy Mother and the Guardian Angles of Africa will not abandon you after all you have done for them.
Sincerely yours in Christo.
Ch. Archbishop of Algiers
Foundation at Jerusalem (1st September 1878)
Conditions for the provisional functioning of St. Anne’s Jerusalem
St. Anne’s in Jerusalem, as it stands at this time, is only a preparation for the definitive establishment that can only come into operation after the final completion of the works. It is composed of three Fathers and one or two Brothers, whose functions should be:
1) At the very cradle of the Virgin Mary, to begin the work of praying for France, for the Church and for the African Missions.
2) Gradually to win the confidence of the people of Jerusalem and the pilgrims by the example of a holy life and by charity, so as to exert a beneficent influence upon them at a later date.
3) To study and prepare the ground for such other occupations as could be instituted at St Anne’s later.
4) Finally, to supervise, direct and bring to a close the material works for the completion of this establishment.
Each point will now be reviewed in order to draw the broad outline of the rules which it behoves us to follow, at least in general, to bring about the best result.
1° The work of prayer - Prayer is the greatest of all the works we need to perform here (at Jerusalem). The missionaries who have faith will be convinced of it. They know that no supernatural activity can be done as it should and bear fruit without the grace of God. They know also that the grace of God can only be obtained through prayer. Now, in our tiny Society, we must say with regret and trembling that we are very active and move around a lot, but we do not pray enough. No doubt activity is indispensable for a missionary and he is not free to give as much time to prayer as the members of the penitential or contemplative orders. But at least, while some – indeed most - battle on the plain, others should incessantly raise suppliant arms on the mountaintop.
It was this special motive that decided His Grace the Archbishop of Algiers to accept a foundation that initially he wanted to turn down. Jerusalem seemed to him a privileged place for those destined temporarily, while waiting to go into combat themselves to partake in this great ministry of intercessory prayer for the Church and for their brethren. Where else would prayer be more effective for the salvation of the poor souls, to whom they are sent, than close to Calvary where Our Lord shed his blood for them? Where could the most legitimate hope of victory and life come into being than right at the Sepulchre from which he rose, triumphant over death? Finally, since, according to the words of St. Ambrose, God wished that we receive everything through Mary, where is this prayer more easily granted than at the actual place where the Immaculate Virgin brought to them by her birth, the initial certitude of its salvation?
The Fathers of St. Anne’s therefore will consider themselves as specially delegated by their Society in the person of the Society by Catholic France and the Church, to pray at the cradle of Mary, close to the bleeding wounds of the Passion of her Divine Son on behalf of the Christian world and in particular for deprived Africa. They should never forsake this intention and they will renew it in a special way every day at morning and evening prayer, which they will begin with the ejaculatory prayer: ‘Let us ask Mary Immaculate, by the mystery of her Conception and Nativity the grace to fulfil the ministry of prayer to which we have been delegated.’
If circumstances permit, it is also desirable, in the same vein, to add some particular prayers to those imposed or indicated by the Rule in other houses; the recitation of the whole Rosary divided into three parts and recited, either in common or in private, in the crypt of the Nativity would seem to satisfy this objective. Later a community Mass, at which everyone should assist, will be celebrated every day. For the moment, it will be enough to celebrate it on Sundays. This however, will be a simple Low Mass; until further notice, no Office will be sung in St. Anne’s except when His Beatitude the Patriarch comes with his choir , or the Franciscans with theirs.
If the Fathers wish to sing Vespers or have Benediction or another office for themselves, they may do so in the crypt, but then with no laypeople whatsoever present or allowed to attend. The reason for this instruction is very serious. In the Middle East, more than anywhere else, they attach great importance to externals and, consequently, not only in Catholic sanctuaries, but also even in schismatic churches. Worship is given extraordinary ceremony. To celebrate inadequately, as would be the case if only four or five priests or Brothers took part, would condemn St. Anne’s to discredit and ridicule, from which it would never recover.
On the contrary, care must be taken to say that for the time being, we are only there to prepare for the arrival of the community and only when it does come will Offices begin. The consciences of the Fathers bear a heavy burden on this point and it is the intention of their Major Superior, the Most Reverend Archbishop of Algiers, that neglect of the express order he gives on this point, will entail mortal sin. As for the exercises required by the Rule, they should be performed more carefully and scrupulously at St. Anne’s than anywhere else, above all, the pious devotions, which will always be performed in common.
2° Gradually, to win the confidence of the people of Jerusalem and the pilgrims by the example of a holy life and by charity, so as to exert a beneficial influence upon them at a later date. Although the present community is not called upon officially to perform all the tasks that will later be carried out at St. Anne’s, nevertheless, it must work effectively to prepare them. It will do so by inspiring confidence through the obvious virtues of its members, its regular life and its charity. Once they are convinced that these Missionaries are men of God, all hearts will naturally turn to them and everyone will hasten to give them the assistance they need.
Now, Missionaries will be dealing with two types of people, inhabitants of Jerusalem and pilgrims. The conduct Missionaries should have towards Catholic clergy has already been mentioned in the foregoing historical part. We will only add that at their arrival, they should call on all the Catholic community of Jerusalem, whether of the Latin or the Oriental Rite It is now time to say something on the schismatics and the Muslims. For the Oriental schismatics, who are our brothers, baptised like us in the blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but unfortunately strayed due to their passions or their ignorance, we must have the compassion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of which St. Paul spoke, and seize every occasion to let them see it. If they come to St. Anne’s, they should be received with every possible kindness. If you meet them elsewhere, you must show them the utmost goodwill and the greatest charity. Avoiding spineless indulgence, they should feel you love them and you desire to draw closer to them. You will strictly avoid showing the least contempt for their customs, for their language or their liturgy. These customs, liturgy and language have been approved by the Church and are perfectly legitimate.
The capital offence committed in the Middle East by the Franciscans and even today by many Catholic Missionaries is to show division, scorning their Rites and seeking to Latinise them by obliging them to come into the Church. This system is doubly deplorable. On the one hand, clearly, they can only be addressing themselves to a very small number of people, because only a very small number of Orthodox will be brave enough to renounce their language in Church services and the customs they cling to as to an inheritance. Furthermore, as soon as Missionaries move into this area, there is always the suspicion of ulterior political motives and it is not comprehensible why they should want the Orthodox to abandon their language and customs, unless it is because they have been commissioned to do so by the vested interests and scheming of some Western policy. There is only one method that can be fruitful in the Middle East and it can be simply formulated thus: accept and respect absolutely everything in the Orthodox except vice and error.
Moreover, it is in the spirit of the Missionaries’ Rule that they should accept the external material life of the population so as to win their hearts, even in pagan countries, as they do in North Africa. It is in the spirit of the Apostles, who did just this in their preaching who left the people with their customs and language, seeking only to change their hearts. Furthermore, they themselves embraced these diverse languages and customs so as to make their ministry more effective, according to the very words of St. Paul, ‘Ominibus Omnia factus sum ut omnes facerem salvos.’
Perfection for Latin Missionaries in the Middle East, then, would be to make themselves Orientals, if they could. If they were to adopt the dress, the language and the liturgy of the Oriental clergy, then their activity would be truly effective. This has already been proposed to the Sovereign Pontiff by the most eminent of men and in particular by Jesuit missionaries. It is definitely not the business of the Missionaries of Algiers to anticipate the decisions of the Holy See in this regard and they must continue to keep the Latin Rite in St. Anne’s and live there as they do in their other Missions. However, they should also be penetrated by this spirit and achieve whatever is feasible for them in this realm of ideas.
For example, in preparation for their future ministry, the Missionaries now being sent to Jerusalem should apply themselves to the study of Arabic and Greek, as it is spoken in the country and as it is used in the Melkite, Maronite and Syrian liturgies. This forms the quasi-totality of the Christians of the Middle East. To do this well, the Fathers should forget that French is their mother tongue and they should adopt Arabic instead. At the very least, they should not fail to consecrate the maximum time possible to the daily study of Arabic and literary Greek. They should have lectures among themselves, with one of them taking charge of leading them and they should be held at least three times a week for an hour, immediately before the particular examination of conscience.
Later, if as is desirable, an Apostolic School were to be established for Oriental boys at St. Anne’s, any attempt to make them transfer to the Latin Rite should be avoided like the plague. They will remain in their own Rite and they will be ordained in it by their own bishops. Once formed in this way, the service they will give to the Church will certainly be much greater. In putting these things into effect, however, you must beware of boasting about them or broadcasting them, as it will appear to judge those who do otherwise by a regrettable error or the force of circumstances – in particular the Franciscans and the Latin Patriarch - who is in such a situation that he cannot have spiritual subjects without Latinising them and who therefore is pulled into this deplorable path.
As to the Muslims of Jerusalem, you must follow the same line of conduct with them as everywhere else. You must attract them by the practice of charity, care for and treat those who are ill if they come, but only the poor who cannot pay, so as not to arouse the discontent of the Turkish and European doctors. You must also maintain good relations with the Imams and other learned Muslims , in particular with the leaders of the Mosque of Omar, who are immediate neighbours to St. Anne’s and the most influential among the preachers of Mohammedanism. These connections will increase the influence of the Fathers on the Muslims of Jerusalem, whom they should willingly allow and even attract to their residence. We will be content with that for now. It is the preparation period and distant preparation at that. It is not the time for action.
(As previously indicated, we recall that the full text can be found in No. 3 of the History Series published by the Generalate of the Missionaries of Africa, via Aurelia 269, Rome.)
Instructions for the foundations at Tripoli and Ghadamès towards the Sudan (October 1878)
I- At Tripoli –As soon as they arrive at Tripoli, the Fathers will make contact with the caravan masters going to R’damès, making out that they are travellers seeking to penetrate into the interior of the country to see if it is possible, ultimately, to establish business relations with France. They will dress exactly like Muslims, who have formed part of the caravan; they will not speak of their religion and will only speak Arabic. They will try to avoid leaving in a caravan whose master is not well known at Tripoli and does not give guarantees of responsibility by stating his financial situation.
II – On the journey - When the Fathers have found a suitable caravan to reach R’damès , by means of a price agreed in advance, they will need to take, amongst others, the following precautions.
1) They will try never to miss their exercises of piety. For mental prayer, this is less difficult, given the habits of the local people. They will do so regularly and as often as possible, conspicuously and kneeling. Nothing is more natural to draw the respect of their fellow travellers.
2) For the breviary, they are dispensed from it dating from their departure until their arrival at R’damès; this applies to their subsequent journeys; however, they must replace it by two Rosaries, one before and the other after midday. For this, they will use their string Rosary and will also recite it conspicuously.
3) They will be supplied with a portable chapel and they will say Mass in their tent at times when they cannot be seen. If they were to be seen, they must not say it, even on a Sunday, and will substitute it by similar prayers to those mentioned earlier, preferably the Mass prayers that they would read together except for the Consecration.
4) They will be careful to repeat constantly the same thing concerning the purpose of their expedition and never to vary their discourse, which would make them suspects. Thus, they will tell their fellow travellers that they are going to explore the countries to the south, to see if it is possible to establish business relations with France; in this, they will remain on the side of truth, because if Missions are established, business relations will follow.
5) Both Fathers will keep a diary of their journey from the date of their departure, in which they will briefly relate all the circumstances worthy of note. However, they will do so without being observed by the local inhabitants, who are very suspicious and will see in these writings the proof of some conspiracy.
III - At R’damès – Once arrived at R’damès, the Fathers will let Father Richard know the decision taken by their Superiors to have no more relations with the new Mission except through Tripoli. They will explain to him that this resolution has been taken because of the extreme dangers of a summer journey between Ouargla and R’damès, and especially because of the difficulty, daily increasing, of the politics of France in these relations. Therefore, they must not be headstrong in setting up relations with Ouargla and everything has to be directed through Tripoli.
At R’damès itself, it is important to maintain the same discourse that the Fathers had during their journey, and this without any alteration by anyone. Seeking to appear mysterious and saying nothing is just as ridiculous as dangerous for the local inhabitants, whose sensitivity will very quickly guess that four Frenchmen do not come without a motive to R’damès. Such an attitude would clearly make the Missionaries suspect and create tremendous dangers for them. They must tell and repeat to the inhabitants that they do not want to remain at R’damès, but are seeking to reach the Sudan, where they will see what business relations they can establish there.
At R’damès, as on the journey, they must keep a daily diary of all that is worthy of note in their day. It will be up to Father Guillet to keep it and every quarter will send it via Tripoli to the Superior General.
For the exercises of piety, they will do so without difficulty, as in all the other houses of the Society, once the doors are closed. I insist on an eight-day retreat for everyone after the arrival of the two Fathers. Father Guillet, who will preach on the Last Things, will give it with the same exercises as at the Mother House. Fathers Richard and Kermabon, who have been so long deprived of spiritual assistance, will understand the absolute necessity for them of renewing themselves in the spirit of their vocation. During the retreat, it is especially Father Morat who will respond to the local inhabitants so as to leave more time to his confreres, since he himself already followed the retreat exercises at Maison-Carrée.
In order to facilitate the work the Fathers are going to do and which is not yet a Mission, but a simple preparation for Mission , R’damès has been specially removed from the general rule that is followed elsewhere, insofar as the Fathers receive nothing from the sick for their treatment and medicines. They should never demand anything, but may from now on receive, without scruple, anything that is offered. It is a way of receiving some resources and especially to avert suspicions that the local people do not misunderstand our disinterested approach.
R’damès is only a stage. There will always be a station, but we need to think ahead. We will do so with maturity and prudence and we will be careful not to be precipitate in any way, which could lead to catastrophe. We shall therefore investigate thoroughly, according to the information we have obtained from people of various countries who come to R’damès, where it would be easiest and least dangerous to move to. We shall thus advance gradually towards our objective, which is independent Sudan.
I have a formal recommendation to make to Fathers when they will be able to undertake a journey further into the interior. It is to carry the least baggage possible, so as not to appear rich. The omission of this precaution has been the cause of the murder of three Missionaries who were going to Timbuktu. If possible, only bring the medicine bag, taking care to open it before the local inhabitants in the caravan so they do not imagine that the boxes contain some treasure. The surest way to cross the Sahara and the Sudan without problems and dangers is to do so as beggars. The more your resemble them, the more dangers are averted. It would be easy to find people at R’damès who would know the place where our three martyrs were put to death. Do not hesitate if you can have their remains brought to R’damès, even at the sacrifice of considerable cost. I especially entrust this matter to the zeal and fraternal charity of the Father of R’damès.
In conclusion, I recommend to them unity, regularity, and fidelity to their exercises of piety; I pray Our Lord, the Master of Apostles, and Our Lady of Africa, to bless them, look after them and bring them back safe and sound, after having accomplished the great and arduous mission entrusted to them.
Decree of the Founder establishing Mary in her Immaculate Conception Patroness of the Society (8th December 1878)
The Immaculate Conception Patroness of the Society of Missionaries of Our Lady of the Missions of Algiers
We, the undersigned, Apostolic Delegate of the Sahara and Equatorial Africa, in view of the request made to us by all the Missionaries and in virtue of the extraordinary powers with which we have been invested:
Declare the Immaculate Conception, under the term of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa, Patroness of the Society of the Missionaries of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa of Algiers.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Delegate
Algiers, 8th December 1878
New Instructions for the Fathers of the second caravan to Equatorial Africa (January 1879)
‘I am giving a copy of Instructions to the Fathers who are about to leave this year 1879, which I gave to the Missionaries last year. These are Rules, which they will strive to understand and follow. I regret that the last caravan did not faithfully observe them: it would have prevented a lot of worry and real drawbacks to themselves, to the Mission and to Us.
I am adding some new advice to these rules that I quickly drafted last year in a general way, following on the experiences of our Fathers as well as various explorers. I will arrange them under various headings that will create corresponding chapters for greater clarity. For the same reason, I will compose each item of advice in a special paragraph that will be numbered, so as to enable the Fathers to draft a schema for their use.
Chapter 1
Material precautions to take for the caravan
The absence of adequate material precautions caused problems and even dangers to several travellers and particularly to our Fathers that could easily have been avoided. I am picking out a certain number of these precautions they stated in their journals.
1) One of these precautions is prudent self-defence at night. For this, reinforcing the enclosure or encampment in which one stays, according to local usage, is required. The enclosure, normally built of stakes and bushes, should be blocked at all points, to prevent wild beasts or thieves from gaining access. One must also take care to allow farm animals to enter, which otherwise would be killed by wild beasts or even by small carnivores such as hyena that always prowl around encampments.
2) If the encampment is near a river, beware of crocodiles. Livingstone writes about one of his Africans who slept outside the camp near the river and was seized and devoured by one of these beasts.
3) Theft is just as much to fear as wild beasts in terms of merchandise, employees and pack animals. To prevent this, it is recommended, as I have already said in the Instructions I gave to Fr. Guyot, to have a chain passing through a ring or a very stout handle for every package, so that all the parcels are linked together and cannot be easily pilfered during the night.
4) Another necessary precaution is to count the packages every evening and again every morning. Someone thorough and attentive among the Fathers or the Europeans in the caravan must take charge of this matter; in case of illness, another should replace him.
5) During the advance of the caravans, the rear-guard must be supervised primarily because thieves gradually withdraw to the rear and easily run away when they are not being watched.
6) Particular caution is needed to avoid giving in to the initial demands of the local people, when in dialogue with them. They are enthusiastic about bargaining and they always ask a payment far higher than the real payment they wish to reach, so as to have the pleasure of discussing it for days. Some caravans, and particularly those of our Fathers, have in this way spent two or three times more than others.
7) I read in Dr. Livingstone, that in Ugogo, a pin will buy ten eggs. I would advise every traveller to carry with them three or four boxes of pins; they are very cheap and easy to carry and can be useful on occasion, more than other cumbersome baggage.
8) Livingstone recommends to all travellers in Africa to limit their baggage to the strict minimum. I greatly regret that our caravans have begun in the opposite way and carry an alarming quantity of packages. It would be timely, after careful consideration, to try dealing with Arab merchants, who are established upcountry, particularly in the Usagara, at Msene, in Tanganyka , at Victoria. I think if we take exact account of what porters cost, of what is stolen or lost, we will find that it would cost less to apply to the traders upcountry, rather than load ourselves up with so much merchandise.
I would ask the Fathers to make a proper record of everything and send me the conclusions of their considerations for future caravans. This duty applies in the first place to Superiors or to those that they have authorised to do so.
9) On the subject of these observations to be sent to me, I will expand them to refer to anything that may concern the Mission. The Fathers on the first caravan would have rendered a priceless service to those that followed them by sending us their detailed observations. Instead, they stated they would send them later, perhaps to avoid the bother of writing them down. I entreat the Fathers of the present caravan not to imitate their example and to bear in mind that a moment of laziness on their part can have serious drawbacks for their successors.
10) Alongside these more general recommendations, here are some comments on details. The Fathers of the first caravan lost several donkeys that drowned when crossing rivers because they were just thrown into the water. The Fathers stopped short of attaching them securely, in order to pull them out on the other shore. Do not therefore overlook this precaution. For the encampment, all other things being equal, it is better to camp outside the villages than within them. In the village itself, the local inhabitants consider you as their property; they respect you more if you are outside. The donkeys of Unyamwezi are very troublesome to load and virtually wild. Precautions need to be taken to ensure that the merchandise is not ruined or that travellers are not thrown from their mounts. Footwear in Equatorial Africa is an invaluable asset for the traveller. Ensure therefore that there are enough shoes and that maintenance of them is kept as high as possible.
Chapter 2
Moral safeguards to adopt for the caravan.
To become fully aware of the problems that a journey through the African populations of Equatorial Africa represents, the moral tendencies of these populations need to be known. On this subject, here are some observations suggested by the accounts of travellers and I believe useful to recall to the Missionaries.
1) According to Livingstone, persistent drive, combined with firmness and patience is indispensable to lead a caravan. Once the Africans notice one or other character weakness, they become unmanageable. Therefore, there is a need when dealing gently with them, never to lack drive. Sometimes this drive has to extend to punishment of the guilty, so as to make an impression on those who would be tempted to imitate them. Burton does not hesitate to say that a beating is required to convince the Africans of one’s firm desire to be obeyed. However, I cannot advise the Missionaries enough to abstain from using this means of correction themselves. If required to administer this discipline, it should be carried out by one of the laypersons that accompany them.
2) Arabs and Africans, especially the mixed races, are such confirmed liars and thieves that they cannot be trusted. Therefore, they must not be points of reference as guides and interpreters for dealing openly with purchases or bribery. You will always be cheated. The guides will collude with the little chieftains and merchants of the area to fleece the travellers. Burton watched his provisions for three months dissipate in three weeks for not having taken this precaution. This is also what constantly happened on the first caravan. From day one to the last, they were exploited and betrayed by their guides.
3) While you must not trust the Kiongozi in money matters, you nonetheless have to give them enough authority over their men, and let them treat them severely according to routine. Without this, everything would become disorganised.
4) The older ones among the half-caste and the Africans are those to be distrusted the most. According to Burton, they would have to be lazy or rascals to have reached that age by being just pagazi .
5) Livingstone recommends always being ‘pleasant’ towards the local populations through which you pass. On this subject, he quotes this Arab proverb: ‘Whoever travels using a polite and wholesome language among the worst peoples of Africa has nothing to fear.’ The implementation of this advice is all the easier for Missionaries as it is the expression of evangelical charity that should be in the depths of their hearts for the African peoples. Therefore, they should always avoid being the first to show them hostile attitudes. They will also instil the same approach into the Pontifical Zouaves accompanying them. They must regard it as an abominable crime to initiate hostilities against a tribe, and they must not allow themselves to be defended by open force until there is a clear danger to their lives. Livingstone comments that a European can easily be mistaken about the attitudes of the local inhabitants and mistake what is only a noisy and curious attitude for hostility. They should remember that in acting otherwise, they are preparing reprisals that would probably make the Mission impossible. M. Debaise , attacked a tribe in Ugogo and caused the massacre of the English caravan that followed him and perhaps created new problems for travellers who would come after him.
6) In addition to not attacking, you must not give in to reckless dependence. M. Maizan , a French past pupil of the Ecole Polytchnique, was treacherously murdered after terrible torture by an African chief for having recklessly put himself into his power. In addition, you should not have a fruitless accommodating attitude towards the Africans, even out of charity. Burton claims that you should not even bow or bend before them to lift something, or risk losing prestige.
7) The local inhabitants are very lazy. Porters frequently lose their tools deliberately so as not to have to work when they arrive at camp.
8) As with all peoples, the morale of the inhabitants of Equatorial Africa resides mostly in succeeding. Burton maintains that caravans travelling on their own account progress much faster than those where the porters are paid by the month. The assurance of extra rations is an excellent means of speeding up progress, if it is promised to those who arrive within a fixed time limit. The caravan sent by Stanley to Tabora to carry provisions to Livingstone completed the journey in 74 days.
9) Among the dangers of the journey upcountry, you must reckon with the superstitious notions of the local inhabitants. For the Africans, an accident, a death, any other misfortune can be attributed to the sole presence of an outsider, or even a kind of magic, because all Africans are convinced that Europeans are magicians. Stanley reports that at Viniate, his caravan ran into high risk because he gave a magician of this village the heart of an ox that had been killed in his honour. The gift of an immolated animal’s heart is proof that the people of the caravan, in the superstitions of the local people, would lose heart if attacked and would be handed over to the spirits. In addition, Africans have an extreme horror of the dead. All these things are useful to know or to remember in order to avoid the dangers that earlier travellers have come across. Alternatively, they can be used to advantage, thanks to the ignorance of these poor people in their superstitious fears. In this way, the timely setting off of a few flares has been enough to scatter masses of people.
10) Another source of danger on the route is disorder committed by the porters and especially soldiers. When they steal, insult the women or perpetrate violence, they will seriously upset the people. In this case, it is crucial to punish them severely and in such a way that the victims are themselves witnesses of the corporal punishment inflicted. Stanley, who pointed out this drawback, never neglected having those of his companions guilty of the infringements I pointed out, beaten with sticks. Sometimes, it will even be necessary to expel those responsible from the caravan. For the days immediately following the departure, you should not hesitate at all to send those who appear too unruly back to Bagamoyo.
11) There is a great difference between the people already misled or mistreated by the Arabs and those they have not yet affected by them. These are generally gentler and more confident. The first-mentioned, by contrast, have been forewarned about foreigners and can be tempted to set up ambushes to get rid of them.
12) Besides the disadvantages in forming up major caravans, there is the risk of being seen as imposing and prosperous. We are more often exploited. If the Fathers would divide into two caravans, one with passengers and the other with goods, the first would benefit from appearing poor and carrying the least possessions possible.
13) It is in the interests of Muslims to prevent Christian Missionaries from establishing themselves in the country. There would therefore be no advantage in speaking of the apostolate in places where Muslims live. In those cases, it would be better to speak of the trade benefits that would come from having Europeans established in the country. Otherwise, the Arabs are likely to spread all sorts of biases against the Fathers. Burton records that prejudices of this kind, disseminated ahead of him by an Arab caravan, were very damaging to him when travelling through Ugogo .
14) The Unyanmwezi porters are very wary by nature. Therefore, you need to follow them closely to inspire confidence in them, to take them in hand and to watch them particularly in times and places where they are used to deserting, as for example when the caravan is threatened.
15) Concluding these observations on the moral safeguards to take, I would readily say that on the part of the Missionaries, the first is to be prepared to suffer beyond all measure and to appeal to their faith, trust in God, the inspirational ideas of their apostolate and the enormous results they will have, in order to transcend their daily woes. The Missionaries of the first caravan in their letters and writings illustrated a weakness of character that was sometimes ludicrous . When a priest embarks voluntarily for Equatorial Africa, he must be resigned from the outset to put up with the inescapable difficulties of his Mission and avoid making all his letters an appendix to the Lamentations of Jeremiah. St Paul speaks of his sufferings, but we sense that in all his sorrows, he is filled with joy.
Chapter 3 - Health
It is even more important to prevent illness than to cure it. Fathers will therefore take care to avoid, as much as possible, the causes of the most frequent illnesses in Equatorial Africa.
1) The first cause to avoid is the cold, especially the cold night air. Experience proves that this is always the cause of fever. The Fathers of the first caravan all fell ill and Father Pascal died because he slept out in the open without sufficient covering. Moreover, the same thing happened in Algeria, where allowing the cold night air to enter does not let one off scot-free. The Fathers therefore should keep warm when they are resting, and especially during sleep. The burnous will be very useful for this and they could add a second burnous, and even a blanket if required. They will never get ill from being too well covered. They must never sleep out in the open, but always under canvas or in a hut.
2) Sweating is just as dangerous as cold air. As long as one is on the move, it can be tolerated; although it is better to avoid it and even, if one falls into water, for example, it is best to change into dry clothes. Father Charmetant neglected this matter and almost died. In any case, as soon as you arrive in the camp, the first concern would be to change into dry clothes. Care should also be taken to ensure that tents are erected properly and as far as possible in a dry place. If you are caught out by the rain, especially the long rains, it is better to spend a few days under cover rather than tackling a hike in pouring rain and running the risk of falling ill.
3) The main illness caused by cold air and humidity is African fever. This illness can easily become serious and it is important to treat it straightaway as soon as it appears. Those who have experienced it close-up and have carefully examined it note that its principal symptoms are characterised by a violent bilious attack, along with a high temperature sometimes combined with shivering. For its treatment, which appears to have the most effect, is to begin with a purgative, that should be followed as soon as the effect is achieved three or four hours afterwards, by one or even several doses, if required, of quinine sulphate, taken every hour. Each dose can be of 50 centigrams and even up to one gram. An abundant sweating follows from this medicine, but it is usually the sign that the sick person is expelling toxic emissions. Swamp fever sometimes causes a genuine paralysis that lasts ten days. Burton experienced it. You should not be too worried: the paralysis disappears with the fever symptoms.
4) It should be noted that African fever is characterised specifically by toxic emissions that are released in abundance under the action of the tropical sun, quagmires, swamps, dry river beds or the many rivers found in these upcountry lands . It is therefore strongly recommended to the Fathers to delay as little as possible in wetlands and in particular to avoid camping the night there. They should take their distance as much as possible or at least choose some higher land if they are in the neighbourhood of a swamp. All travellers have noticed that often even without medicine, the pure air of the higher mountains is enough to cure a fever. On this particular point, it would be important to make an explicit agreement with the Rirangozis , concerning the selection of campsites, in order to avoid swamps and not to go through marshy areas to avoid making a detour or prolonging the journey. This is important.
5) The tropical sun can also bring fever and even fatal sunstroke, when exposed to the sun for a long period, especially on an unprotected part of the body, notably the head and shoulders. The body should therefore be protected with white linen headwear or a wide-brimmed pith helmet or ultimately by white parasols. On this point, Algerian Arabs provide us with excellent examples. They cover their head and shoulders with heavy material even during the most intense heat waves. It is also recommended not to stare too long at objects, especially at a distance in strong sunlight. The action of heat reverberation can be very harmful to the eyes.
6) Concerning the eyes, you need to remember that eye infections are prevalent in Equatorial Africa. To become infected, just as for fever, it is enough to sleep outside without covering your face. Several Fathers almost lost their sight and from the latest news were still sick for having neglected this precaution. As soon as the eyes are infected, they must be treated. If the surface is grainy, cauterisation may be necessary. However, often enough, eye lotion with really hot water morning and evening will be enough to ensure a remedy.
7) After fever and eye trouble, precautions against dysentery have to be especially addressed. This is what led to the death of Livingstone and other explorers. Deprivation from meat and the poor quality of the water soon leads to this illness. To prevent it and even to treat it, water should never be drunk without firstly being boiled to eliminate its impurities. Livingstone reports having been successfully treated several times in this way. It is also observed that if wild game can be found, it is easier to avoid dysentery than only eating roots and vegetables that are usually badly prepared.
8) Smallpox is also to be dreaded. I strongly recommend all members of the forthcoming caravan to be vaccinated against it before leaving Algiers. If they could bring vaccines with them and on arrival at the Mission station inject them into a given number of cows, they would render enormous service to the poor people and to themselves by preventing epidemics.
9) Often enough, excessive fatigue alone is sufficient to make someone ill and fevered. It is therefore important to avoid overwork. This is the special responsibility and obligation of Superiors who should curtail excesses of zeal and rein in those who are too enterprising at the risk of compromising their own health and possibly the lives of their confreres. However, if excessive fatigue is harmful, it is noticeable by contrast that an ordinary measured pace is good for fever. It is therefore useful not to let the sick become too sensitive to their condition. They should be carried in a kitanda or a hammock if they cannot walk. The important thing is that the sun should not beat down on them; more care should be given to give them shade than to those who are healthy. The very sick, whatever they might say, should not be allowed to travel on donkeys, as Father Pascal was allowed to do the day before he died.
10) Some travellers claim that smoking is beneficial for sickness. If this is true, one can smoke on the way. But, in keeping with the rules, the Fathers will no longer smoke once they are at their mission stations, in a healthy environment.
11) Allow me to add a word here concerning the animals which accompany the caravan. They must be cared for. Water quality is very important; in some places, it causes serious harm even to the donkeys, and at Kikidimo it can kill them. Attempts might be made to boil it. Lion fat and paraffin could also be tried against tsetse flies.
Chapter 4 - Food
1) Food is of crucial importance, especially for a major caravan. You must therefore carefully enquire about places you can easily find supplies and purchase proper provisions. This is an obligation for Superiors, so as not to be caught out by imprudence at everyone else’s cost. The caravan needs to have provisions of various kinds. There is, for example, tea and coffee, which should be used indiscriminately for all the European travellers. Nevertheless, there are others, such as conserves, which should be reserved to the sick or those of a weak constitution. Without this precaution, provisions would not last the whole journey.
2) Care should be taken to treat locally sourced food with sufficient preparation to be digested. Superiors should require this care from the cooks. Salt is also a necessary condiment for digestion, especially with vegetables. Everything should therefore be well salted. Several illnesses can thus be avoided. It has been noted that salt has a particularly effective action on the spleen and the liver, which are the main organs affected in hot countries. A teaspoon of kitchen salt taken fasting for four or five successive days, for example, can cleanse the spleen or the liver in very noticeable proportions. Meat does not have to be salted as much as vegetables; nature has provided for this. All animals contain a substantial amount of salt in their metabolism .
3) Based on what has gone before, it will always be a good thing to have meat for the caravan. In lands where game is plentiful, such as Tabora in Tanganyika, etc., hunting could easily provide food for everyone. I recommend this point to hunters. When they arrive at their stations, they also teach the local people their very simple and fruitful ways of hunting, especially hunting for… (illegible). On the lakeshore, fishing will also be an excellent and accessible food resource.
4) The aim to reach is to be self-sufficient as early as possible in all that concerns food in the stations, once they are set up. Afterwards, thoughts will turn to sowing enough wheat for self-sufficiency, planted either by the Brothers or by the local people, so as to have bread. Plans will also have to be made early to plant vines for Mass wine. A Brother learns to bake bread at Maison-Carrée. He should teach it to the others in case he becomes ill or dies.
5) In some regions, at Tabora, for example, European foodstuffs can be obtained, such as tea, coffee, sugar, etc. Milk from goats and cows can be obtained almost everywhere. These animals should be acquired. In a word, you need to take thorough precautions to source indispensable provisions on the spot. Without this, you will be exposed to famine in case, unfortunately, relations with Europe would be disrupted and where Propaganda Fide would fail to fulfil its obligations as a result of European unrest.
Chapter 5 The Various Characteristics of the Populations
It is important to have as complete a picture as possible of the various characteristics with which you need to deal in Equatorial Africa. It is in the reports of explorers that need to be studies, while seeking a greater enlightenment from experience. I do not intend to deal with this subject in the few notes that follow. This is a study to be undertaken by the Missionaries, firstly in their reading and then on the spot. Here, I will only mention some details that struck me in the travel notes of explorers.
1) The coastal Arabs and those established upcountry are, in general, deceitful and liars. Nevertheless, on the level of hospitality, like all Arabs, they sometimes have excellent formalities full of generosity. However, they are always seeking to make up for it later. The Arabs upcountry are not very numerous. According to Livingstone, all their colonies in Unyanyembe number less than 80 individuals. A recommendation from the Sultan of Zanzibar counts greatly for them; they always seek to honour him.
2) Those of mixed race, who are also found everywhere, just as their Arab fathers, have all their defects and all the defects of the Africans, without having any of the qualities of either. This is the population that must be distrusted the most. Livingstone says that he has never known a more ignoble race than the mixed race of Ujiji. As for religion, the mixed race and the Arabs are the worst Muslims in the world. Nevertheless, they are quite fanatical, as I said, in looking askance at the arrival of Christian apostles.
3 – As for the African populations themselves, those of Ugogo are greedy and warlike. However, their country is very fertile, rich in crops and very healthy. The Wamrima are liars, so much so that to tell them ‘you lied about that’ is a compliment to them. Livingstone indicated the Africans of Liende as excellent. Their chief is Dioumi our Djoumi, on Lake Tanganyka. The subjects of Rumanika, King of Karagwe, are excellent. According to Stanley, the Ugandans are naturally savage and thieves. Mutesa rules them and prevents them from indulging in the excesses of their inclinations.
Several peoples of Lake Victoria are very cruel, others are good; distinctions have to be made. Stanley ran the risk of death in several localities that border this great lake, particularly on the isles of Bambire. Finally, I note that it is said that the Wanyamwezi never steal. It is imperative for the Missionaries to copy out the names and qualities of these various peoples in their readings, without which their Mission will not be well founded.
Chapter 6. Setting up Stations
Three things are particularly required for the setting up of a permanent Station. 1) The surrounding area should be sufficiently thickly populated and the people well disposed; 2) The climate should be healthy and its location, chosen for the building of a house, should be on a ventilated elevation. 3) The land should be particularly fertile so that local needs can be provided at the earliest opportunity. If the Fathers of the first caravan have not already made fixed choices, then you need to be sure that they are made according to the conditions I have just mentioned or even change them if these conditions did not exist. To do this, the Missionaries will hold a Council with two thirds of the voting required to take a valid decision. In another chapter, I have indicated in which countries Missions need to be set up, according to various theories. Here, I confine myself to speaking of the material surroundings to provide in these establishments.
1) The house, which the Missionaries will inhabit, as I have just said, will be built on a high and ventilated site, that is to say, as far as possible, on a hill or elevation. However, it must be observed that this summit is not dominated by another higher summit, and so near as to be able to fire arrows or even bullets at the dwelling of the Fathers. Their house must be built of stone and lime. In order not to depart from the habits of the country, it may be given the form of a stronghold, but of a stronghold protected at the four corners, as are the blockhouses of Algeria, that is to say, in the following form: (The drawing here represents a square with four towers, one on each corner.)
This stronghold must have a courtyard within, which will take the rooms of the ground floor. In the courtyard, a well must have been dug or, if there is no well, a cistern where the water from the roof will go. No opening should be made on the ground floor on the outside except the entrance door, which should be very strong and doubled, that is to say, there will be two doors at a distance of about eighty centimetres from each other, in the thickness of the wall.
The purpose of these requirements is to prevent the house of the Fathers from being attacked by the Africans, if they should besiege them. For this, the walls must be at least five metres high, and be solidly built. It would be desirable for each of the houses to have a storey, because the dwelling would be healthier if the bedrooms could be built on the first floor. But then the walls would have to be seven metres high. Perhaps it will not be possible at first. I leave it to the Superiors to judge it, except a few special instructions from me, in case we should install a station under special conditions.
2) Lime is required to make a house like this. However, according to Burton, upcountry, there are either chalky stones, or, failing chalky stones, plentiful shell deposits, with which it is always possible to make lime. Coal is also found there, but in its absence, wood and bundles of firewood, which are necessary, are very common. Fathers and Brothers have certainly seen limekilns in France or Algeria.
Nothing could be simpler. They will therefore easily build them in Equatorial Africa. I shall merely point out that in order to have proper lime, the fire needs to last without fail, and with the same intensity, until the end of the operation, night and day. Otherwise, the lime is lost (A basic construction manual should be acquired as well as the big dictionary of Arts et Métiers, three copies of each). The key to building a solid wall is that it should be plumb. It is therefore necessary to acquire a plumb line before leaving Algiers, and to learn with a mason how to make good use of it.
According to Burton, there are slaves, carpenters, coppersmiths, etc., in Unyanyembe. However, if they could be found in Zanzibar, and were quite skilful, who would agree to commit themselves for a time to the Mission, I think they could be taken on profitably. If there were former pupils of Fathers in Bagamoyo, they should be given preference. However, we should not be deceived by the quality of these Africans, even Christians. The experience at Algiers with our orphans may enlighten the Fathers in this respect!
At first, everyone will have to share the work to accelerate the final installation. However, when the essentials are complete, the missionary priests will remember that they are above all apostles and not Robinson. Consequently, except in the case of temporary extreme necessity, they should be exclusively concerned with their Work, which is that of the Mission, and leave material concerns to the Brothers and Auxiliaries.
Chapter 7 - The Mission
In the Instructions given last year, I have dealt with this subject in a general way. Fathers will refer to these Instructions. Here, I shall simply add some practical advice suggested to me by the observations of the most intelligent and Christian travellers.
1) In a mission, the worst feature of all is discouragement; discouragement always occurs when we create preconceived ideas and we are not decided to surmount obstacles and aversions in a spirit of faith. These obstacles and aversions will be very great among Africans, especially adults, because their moral and religious situation is even more deplorable than their material situation. It is a profoundly degraded and even coarsened race; its ignorance is profound, its manners dissolute, and polygamy adds a new difficulty to all the other features militating against their conversion. We must expect all this beforehand, and when we shall see it with our own eyes, find in it nothing but a new motive to devote ourselves absolutely, in order to succeed in overcoming everything.
Nothing can be more regrettable than to see Missionaries treating these poor populations with bitterness and acrimony, only pointing out their faults, and when they speak of them or write of them, they cannot even find a merciful word in their favour. The savages of Gaul and the barbarian tribes, which descended on our country at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, for a long a time from the moral and religious point of view, were just as low and even below, (by some reports), than these Africans of Equatorial Africa.
What would we think of the first apostles of those barbarous tribes from whom we descend if in their writings we only found expressions of aversion, insults or slurs for the neophytes? We find quite the contrary. I am referring to the expression of the most tender charity, an unfailing patience and a firm will to give everything, even their lives, in order to bring the light of the Gospel to minds so full of darkness, and to make them accept virtues so opposed to all their vices. What we need, therefore, I repeat, is to be penetrated with the spirit of faith, and behind these sorrows, ignorance, and infamy, to see only souls redeemed by Our Lord and marked by His divine seal. Then we can really love them, in spite of everything. They can be respected, which is necessary, because, in order to raise them up in their own eyes, they must be treated with love and respect.
Such is the feeling I recommend to the Fathers. If they do not, they will do much harm to themselves, and they will do no good to the Africans. They will do the devil’s work, instead of doing God’s work.
2) In the Memorandum I addressed to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda I recommended in these terms the first task to be done in the missions of the interior of Africa; ‘To succeed in the transformation of Africa, in my opinion, it is necessary to: (1) Raise the Africans chosen by us in conditions which leave them truly Africans in all that concerns material life; (2) To give them the education which will enable them to exercise, at the least expense possible for the Mission, the greatest possible influence among their compatriots; (3) To undertake this work to the extent that ensures its full scope.
I will explain these three conditions. The first is to raise the Africans chosen by us in conditions, which, from the material point of view, leave them truly Africans. It has not been done in general until now, and, I must say, at Algiers we fell into the collective error. This is why I am pointing it out. In almost all the Missions of Africa, young Negroes were brought in or raised by them. The Missionaries intended them to succeed them later. However, these Negroes were either sent to Europe to be brought up, or were raised in Africa itself. Now they were brought up to European standards. To send a Negro to Europe is to expose him to premature death. Indeed, experience shows that particularly young Negroes who travel to cold climates often become ill through chest infections and anaemia. As for me, I had this sad experience. Those I sent to France or Belgium perished. Have the other missions been happier? I doubt it, except for those who sent Africans to southern Spain or Italy. Moreover, how many would not have died? Those who know the history of Father Olivieri and his charitable enterprises are not unaware of it. Who could forget this young Negro, ordained priest at Monte Cassino, under the name of Dom Adrien, as the first fruits of the African clergy? He died after a few months of mission, already mortally affected by the climate, though it is very mild, of the kingdom of Naples.
Nonetheless, I will be told that not all will die. We see Negroes in Europe. Indeed, there are a few. However, I dare say that from the point of view of the mission, the result is the same. A Europeanised Negro will not be more useful in the centre of Africa than a White man. His advantage over us in his own country is to live a short time, to live without a house, a bed, and to be content with food from local produce. However, when we take him and raise him according to our customs, all these things are soon necessary. Habit becomes second nature to him, as imperious as the first, and with all our expenditure and all our troubles, we come to the point of creating a European with dark skin as burdened as we are to live the life of Negroes later on and to do without the things that Europe provides us and that Africa does not produce.
I cannot insist too greatly on that. It is a fault committed in almost all the Missions. It is due to a misplaced goodness, and I believe it, to a want of thought. Since those who raise these children are accustomed to certain material conditions (on which they are dependent), they imagine that others suffer when they are deprived of them. We are accustomed to a bed; those who do not are unhappy. We have eaten bread all our lives; we believe that all those who do not eat it must suffer like us, and so on. Then, by a sentiment of compassion, which is not well thought out, barbarian children who had never thought of it, and who were not suffering from their deprivation, are given unnecessary satisfactions, which then create a necessity for them. We spend infinitely more, we are obliged, by the pointless expenditure we make, to restrict the number of children that we could instruct; we impoverish them to a large extent for life by creating new needs in them, and ultimately we destroy, with our own hands, the work that we wanted to do. We wanted to transform Africa by the Africans, and to these Africans destined to transform Africa we substituted, as I said, dark-skinned Europeans, that is, men with the same difficulties as we have living in Africa and not having the prestige that Whites always have in the eyes of Africans.
This is the first indispensable condition. From the material point of view, we need to leave the Africans as they are, that is to say, truly Africans, to close our eyes and hearts to false pity or false self-love and to resign ourselves to see beside oneself the young Africans retain the habits of their country, their huts of branches instead of houses, bare earth instead of beds, sorghum and cassava instead of bread, and waistbands in braided rattan instead of trousers and jackets in fabric. They do not suffer when we leave them with these. It is only the Missionaries’ imagination that suffers . However, when imagination wanders, it has to be disciplined by obedience. This is a matter for Superiors. I admit that the advantage gained by this method is purely negative. It removes an obstacle; it does not offer solutions. Let us now explain how I see the practical training of young Negroes to make them more useful for the Mission .
The second condition I have indicated is to give the young Africans of Equatorial Africa the education which will allow them to exercise, with the least possible expense to the Mission, the greatest influence possible in their country and among their compatriots.
This principle is indisputable. Hence it does not need either proof or development. What is important and difficult is to know and determine what kind of education will best fulfil these conditions. Let us first examine what is being done in the missions, and especially in the African missions, and see what the results are.
Up to now, our Missions have taken in girls and young boys. Girls are entrusted to the Sisters, boys to the Brothers, either in Europe or in Africa. Boys, we try to make Missionaries, priests or Brothers of them and, if we do not make them into Missionaries, we make them workmen. The results, I note as they result from experience. In the formation of Missionaries and Native Sisters, there are many and sad disappointments. We raise children, we give them a very long education at great expense, and after years we realise that insurmountable obstacles prevent us from dedicating many of these young Negroes to a life of which they are not capable; their sensual nature has developed, and their passions are manifest. There is no salvation except in marriage. If we persist, if we go against the rules of wisdom, counting on a kind of miracle on God’s part, we expose ourselves to scandals, miseries without number and perhaps to apostasy.
The priestly or religious vocation will therefore necessarily be rare among young Negroes. If we do not make these children priests, Brothers or Sisters, what will we do with them? As I said above, they are taught a manual art, we make them workmen: masons, carpenters, joiners, and labourers for the boys. Girls, we will make seamstresses, but here we fall into the same defect that I pointed out for material habits. These young men are taught skills and European trades.
Doubtless these skills are more refined than the basic skills of their country of origin, but they find no practical use for them. What can masons or carpenters do where houses are not built and where simple huts are preferred? What is the use of tailors and seamstresses where clothes are not worn? It follows then that these Negroes brought up by us in this way cannot return to their native land. To find ways of earning a living by means of their trades, they must remain among Europeans. That is what they actually do. Some settle in Europe as workmen or as servants, others remain on the coasts of Africa, near the houses where they were brought up. Let’s go all the way and tell the whole truth: in Europe many young Negro men die or become vagrants, and many young Negro women, even worse. In Africa, they are too often the responsibility of the Mission which has brought them up, or because they cannot find work, or because they do not know how to carry it out as well as the Europeans, or because it is more convenient not to do so and to claim bread for the body as a right from those who have given them bread for the soul. This is what happens, in particular, for those who are established in special villages, after having trained them to cultivate the land. Bishop Kobès, of happy memory, did so in his Mission in Senegambia; I myself did it in Algeria for the local inhabitants whom I saved from famine.
These are a kind of ‘Reducciones’ (Settlements) as the Jesuits had established in Paraguay. The memory, the name, the moral results are alluring, but what is not attractive is the expenditure. Everything has to be given to the households that are thus constituted in European style: housing, ploughing implements, land, and food for at least a year. We must build the church, the presbytery, and the Sisters’ house. In the end, the village costs hundreds of thousands of francs, and it has three hundred inhabitants. It is very expensive, and a Mission must be rich enough to be able to create several. This is an exception; it cannot be a method.
Indeed, I said that the Anglicans want to try this system on the coast of Zanguebar. Materially, they will be able to do so, because of their great riches; morally, they will fail. However it may be, I repeat, to believe that one can thus manage to convert a country, it is not practical.
We also thought of making young Negroes raised by the Missions, schoolmasters or secular catechists. There is certainly some value in this idea, but it still presents two obstacles: the first is the actual difficulty of this profession, which demands rare qualities, and the second is the expense, which these schoolmasters entail for the Mission, which must pay for their upkeep.
What can we do then? Young Negroes, even those who are to be trained as teachers or catechists, must have a status which enables them to live an African life at their expense, and, if possible, a status which honours them, gives them influence and is accepted unconditionally by all, so as to enable them to help the Missionaries energetically, without being a burden to them.
Does this status exist? I will not speak for girls here; I do not think we should start with them. Their turn will come, but only later. However, for the boys I do not hesitate to answer: this status exists. It is universal, universally honoured, it fulfils all the conditions that one can desire to ensure their existence and their influence: it is medicine .
At first glance, when one has not thought carefully of the solution to this difficult problem, one may be a little surprised to hear me formulate this idea. However, let me say that for more than twenty years, I have been in charge of missions, firstly as Director of the Ecole d’Orient then as Archbishop of Algiers. It is only after deep meditation, after having questioned those who could enlighten me that I have come to the conviction I have just expressed. I hope that after having heard the reasons, those who would be tempted to be surprised or to contradict me, would agree with me.
Here are the reasons. In the first place, medicine gives to those who practice it, especially in a primitive society, an easy and secure livelihood. All men do not use houses, as I noted above, neither clothes nor bread, but all men want to be cured when they are sick. They all abhor to suffer and die: all are ready to make sacrifices to escape these trials. Therefore, all will accept the care of a man who will come to relieve their sufferings. All, when he heals them, will be ready to reward him according to their means. We see this already for the Missionaries.
Though they are not doctors, only their knowledge of a few medicinal plants or some remedies suffices to attract around them and in their houses a greater number of patients that increases daily. The Missionaries of Algiers have had this experience, and, I am sure, other societies that exercise this work of mercy. None of our stations, in Kabylia, for example, sees less than several thousand patients come to be treated each year, not counting those that the missionaries visit in their homes. The missionaries, indeed, do all this gratuitously, because they wish to prove to the natives, in their superior views, the charity that drives them. However, if they wanted to be paid, they would be paid and they could live at ease in the exercise of medicine. In spite of their repeated refusals, they often have much difficulty in getting rid of the natives who absolutely want to pay them.
A physician by profession more skilful than the missionaries, a Negro who manifested the intention of living by his art, would be assured of thriving in it. It would be all the more so in Equatorial Africa, that the diseases there are more frightful, and that they find less aid there. None of our stations, in Kabylia, for example, see less than several thousand patients coming to be treated each year, not counting those that the Missionaries visit in their homes. The Missionaries, indeed, do all this without charge, because they wish to prove to the local inhabitants, in their spiritual motivations, the charity which drives them. However, if they wanted to be paid, they would be paid and they could live at ease practicing medicine. In spite of their repeated refusals, they often have much difficulty in dismissing the local inhabitants who absolutely want to pay them. A doctor by profession more skilful than the Missionaries, an African who manifested the intention of living by his art, would be assured of a living. It would be all the more so in Equatorial Africa, that the diseases there are more frightful, and that they find less aid there.
So, to enable a Negro educated by the Missions to become self-sufficient, the best way is to make him a good doctor. All the rest will come to him with the state he has been given, which would not be if he were made an employee or if he was settled in a village, as I explained earlier; for there, we need to provide everything for years to those who have already been brought up at great expense.
A doctor, in the system I have conceived, will cost no more to educate than a mason or a labourer, and once qualified he can return to his country, settle within reach and under the direction of the Missionaries, marry, if he chooses, and be self-sufficient without burdening the Mission. He could serve it, too, if he has the time and ability, in the duties of catechist or teacher.
However, it is not only his daily bread and often the wealth that a doctor finds, it is also honour and influence. L'honora medicum proper necessistatem (Honour doctors for their services, for the Lord created them) is true everywhere. It is even more so for superstitious peoples, for whom the art of healing seems to have something supernatural about it.
Anyone who has visited less developed countries in terms of human knowledge has witnessed this. In Egypt, Syria, and Constantinople, very mediocre doctors, who did not do their business in Europe, and who went to establish themselves in these countries, were not long delayed, if the chance of cures had favoured them, to make a great appearance there, even among the powerful and the sovereign. In Persia, we saw a French physician, without renown, become the man of confidence and counsellor of the Shah, and accompany him as a minister on the journey he made to Europe four years ago.
This, I repeat, is natural. Everyone is anxious to live, not to suffer, but to heal. Leaders of up to now violent societies, who command everything except death and disease, and who find on this point a power superior to theirs are all the more inclined to respect it. Let us then imagine what Christian doctors could do, and genuine apostles from the heart (for this is how I want them to be modelled, as I shall explain in the next paragraph). Let us imagine, I say, what could these doctors do once they become missionary aides in a primitive society where there are no laws other than the will of the chiefs and where the chiefs are numerous.
Treating one of these leaders and healing him is to gain his trust in order to establish and promote the Mission; this is becoming a natural and easy practice for everyone. In addition, it would be easy for these doctors intending marriage to enter into high-quality pre-nuptial engagements. Everything lends itself to this in African custom and it is not impossible to see some among them soon, if they have the gift of authority, becoming chiefs themselves.
All this, no doubt, will not happen without partial miscalculations, without disappointments: it is the characteristic of human things. Even taking into account disappointments, one cannot deny that thought is practical, fruitful, the most fruitful that can be applied to a primitive society, of which it is important to seize quickly without being obliged to expenditures, We could not bear, as would be those of the creation of Reductions, or of villages, or even of a great number of schools. Moreover, in doing so, the African Missions would only practice the means indicated by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself to His apostles to secure the fruits of their apostolate: Curate infirmos et dicite illis : appropinquavit in vos regnum Dei (Luke 10:9). No doubt the Apostles healed the sick by miracles, but this kind of miracle, Our Lord chose it only because he knew it would win the hearts of men more. He does not speak to them of the power, which would have been equally great, of building houses by a miracle or ploughing by a miracle or making clothes by a miracle. He speaks to them of the gift of healing.
It is on these facts that I reason, even without counting on miracles, other than the miracles of charity, self-abnegation, and courage, which the first apostolic workers will have to accomplish, and this is how I reckon the solution to the problem I raise. I wonder what kind of education should be given to these young Negroes to exercise the greatest possible influence in their country and among their compatriots, without being a burden to the Missions.
However, it is not enough to come up with such a plan; it has to be put into practice. The third condition is therefore to undertake the objective in the dimensions that guarantee its range. Moreover, in the first place, to train doctors from among the young Negroes of Equatorial Africa, we need a sufficient number of young people. This condition is unfortunately easier to fulfil. I say unfortunately because this ease arises from the worst of evils to weigh upon Africa, that is, slavery. Every year hundreds of thousands of Africans, men, women and children are sold in Equatorial Africa, which is the centre of these slavery countries. Their purchase price is so vile that on the Coast, at Zanzibar for example, where they necessarily cost more than upcountry, children of ten to twelve years old are sold for fifty, forty or even thirty francs each. It is therefore clear that to acquire children is not difficult, and to rescue them from such misery is a holy task, which must be blessed by God and men, especially when its ultimate and clear aim is the destruction of slavery. It restores their freedom, brings them up, educates them and saves their souls, preparing them for a happy and honourable life in their own countries, to which they will return one day. Indeed, it is to snatch good from the jaws of evil.
No doubt, all the children we could free in redeeming them would not be suitable for the work intended for them. To respond to the objective proposed, they need to be susceptible to receiving deep religious imprinting and an intellectual education. For this, they have to be very clever and very young. The age of those we would intend to become Christian doctors and catechists should not exceed 12 years. However, the selection among the considerable number of children exhibited each year on the markets of Equatorial Africa would not be difficult. Naturally, those who fulfil the aforesaid conditions would be chosen. There will thus be as many children as we wish to bring up under the auspices of the Mission.
Now, in order to round off, we need to add where and how these children will be brought up; however, this detail cannot be included in the framework of a Memorandum of this nature. Let me just say that the specialised work of the Missionaries is to begin to open the minds of these young Negroes to the workings of the mind according to the method that will be outlined henceforward. A little later, an appeal will be made to some Christian doctors. Perhaps one doctor per station will be sufficient to give the required practical knowledge to the young Negroes to treat the sick of the country. There will be no hospitals, perhaps, but in a country where everything is done in the open the clinic will be anywhere there are sick to care for. At the same time, every effort will be made to give them some notions of faith, dedication and truly apostolic zeal. I insist on this last point. It is paramount.
When speaking of the practical instruction of our young Negroes, I said that it had to be African, fundamentally African. However, their religious education must be fundamentally apostolic. Indeed, there are two ways of forming men in our image. The first is to make them similar to us on the outside. This is the human way, that of the philanthropist civilisers, of those who say, as was restated at the Brussels Conference, that to change Africans, you only need to teach them European industrial arts and design. This is to assume that once they are housed, clothed and fed like us, they will change their nature. They will only have changed their clothes. Their hearts will still be barbarian, even more barbarian, because they will also be corrupt and will place all they have learned of our wealth and our laxity at the service of its corruption. This is to assume that once they are housed, clothed and fed like us, they will change their nature. They will only have changed their clothes. Their hearts will still be barbarian, even more barbarian, because they will also be corrupt and will place all they have learned of our wealth and our laxity at the service of its corruption.
The divine way is quite different. This is defined by Saint Paul when he said, ‘I am all things to all people to win them all for Jesus Christ.’ Indeed, the Apostle is addressing the soul; it is the soul he is changing, knowing that all the rest will come in addition. To win the soul, he condemns himself, if necessary, to abandon all the external habits of life. He makes himself barbarian with the barbarians, as he is Greek with the Greeks. This is what the Apostles did and we see that not one of them tried to firstly change the everyday habits of the people. They tried to change their hearts, and once the hearts were changed, they renewed the world. This is what we need to do after their example. Now, to change hearts, to inspire them to faith and virtue, we need to have a pre-eminent faith and virtue ourselves. Indeed, no one can give what he does not have; moreover, what he has he cannot give in all its fullness. Therefore, to direct the education of these young neophytes, to form Christians and apostles in the position they are due to occupy, we need apostles, genuine apostles; moreover, it is for this office that the holiest religious of our Missions should always be retained, in addition to the doctor teachers. »
Such therefore is the first task to which the Fathers should apply themselves. In each station, the greatest number possible of children should be taken in, with due regard to resources and begin to bring them up. I will have you note that this is an obligation of conscience because the Holy Childhood has provided a grant of 50,000 francs this year for the setting up of stations. This grant, divided among all the stations, should be used for this purpose.
To find children, the Fathers could, as I said, have recourse to redeeming them, for slavery unfortunately still exists upcountry. They could also take in some abandoned children or those condemned to death as a consequence of local superstitions that different travellers relate. Thus, Livingstone states that people put to death all those whose incisor teeth in the upper jaw emerge first. Once in command of these children in sufficient numbers (I am only dealing here with boys, because until we have Sisters, we cannot bring up girls), their education will have to begin. However, care must be taken, as I explained, to avoid the absurd idea of making these children into Frenchmen. They are Negroes from the African interior and should be brought up to become as useful as possible to their compatriots and not children predestined to live in France.
What would people have thought of St Peter and St Paul if they had wanted to make Jews of the children of the first neophytes of Rome? And what would be said of St Irenaeus if he had made Greeks of the children of Lyons? This would be absurd in the extreme. We need to be enlightened in this respect by the results obtain in the orphanages of Algeria. We would have turned our orphans to good account from the viewpoint of spreading our ideas around the country if we had left them completely Arab, even in their dress, speaking only Arabic, teaching them only in Arabic and simply providing them with a station in life, such as a doctor, that would have enabled them afterwards to make a living and to have an influence among their tribesmen.
The experience is over; unfortunately it failed. It must not be repeated in Equatorial Africa. Moreover, it is the great rule given by St Paul. He did not say that to win souls for Jesus Christ he would make all men similar to him. He said, on the contrary, that he would become similar to them. The Fathers will be careful to be attentive on this point, so as to give a more useful direction to their efforts. The temptation they would have to organise classes similar to those of our colleges in France would be absurd. I explicitly forbid them to give European clothes, beds or habits to the children. They have to retain their Negro clothing, as long as it is decent, and all the external habits of the Negro, including those regarding sleeping and eating. I also explicitly forbid teaching any European language methodically to young children, for example, French. They will need to learn it by practice. They will teach them to read and write Kiswahili or the dominant dialect of the Negroes of the special Mission where they will reside.
The basis of the instruction will then be the study of religions, principally the mysteries and truth that have a greater importance and more simplicity. In addition, summaries could also be made for them from scientific books, which I present to the Missionaries. The simplest natural or positive science elements that could be understood by these children could also be summarised. Finally, for those who show special abilities, they could later be taught elements of hygiene and medicine. As for the others, we would see as a loss, for them and for the mission, to make them other than useful workers for their compatriots and for themselves.
Such is the beginning of these Mission Schools. The future will enlighten us on the way to improve them. However, I insist on this point that apart from quite exceptional cases, these young Negroes taken in should be brought up in their own countries and in the Mission. It should be considered manslaughter to send them to Europe and a mistake to place them in establishments at the Coast, where they would be brought up in a similar way to that of Europeans.
3) While especially looking after children, adults should not be neglected. The Fathers, says St Paul, are indebted to them as well as to the children’s. However, it is important to take exact account of what is to be done practically and to remember that in these serious and sensitive issues, as in all other things, the best is often the enemy of the actual good. According to travellers’ accounts, it is doubtful whether the Negroes upcountry have, concerning life beyond or on the immortality of the soul, any ideas. In any case, they do not appear to have any religion, but only crude superstitions, without any form of worship and that resemble witchcraft.
Even the idea of God is also so vague among them that some explorers have said they do not have any at all. As for morality, as they lack an absolute basis, we could say that it does not exist. In addition, we find all the vices among them. The few notions of just and unjust that they have are none other than the rays of the setting sun that God gave to humanity at the beginning and that Holy Scripture calls, ‘the Law written on their hearts.’
So as not to end up extinguishing this smoking lamp, it is important to proceed with extreme caution and great reserve in the preaching of Christian truths to these unbelievers. For this, we have to imitate the Holy Spirit who did not judge it opportune to teach explicitly to the pagan world all the truths that today are plainly believed and taught by the Church. It was done by successive definitions of the truths of the faith, through the work of theologians and by the natural development of the principles of Christian piety. It was an extension and like a flourishing of religion that produced the complete and magnificent compendium of the truths of the faith, Catholic worship and the devotion of the faithful.
However, from the outset, it is not at all like that that Our Lord and the apostles proposed religion to the world. They clung to the essential truths, from which came all the others. This is what Our Lord himself explained to his apostles, when telling that that they cannot yet sustain all the developments and details of the truth and that St Paul applied to the apostolate by saying, ‘And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Heb 11,6). This way of beginning with the essential truths, leaving till later, even much later, if necessary, the details and consequences; this is the one that should be followed vis-à-vis the peoples that are so acutely uninformed and so tempted to superstitions as the upcountry Negroes.
The state of their customs does not seek less management, in the method to follow, than that of their errors. Seeking to impose obligations on them that would decidedly soon be rejected would be highly imprudent and would perhaps delay for centuries the time of their complete conversion. I disclosed a plan consisting of the restoring of the discipline applied initially by the Church, appropriate to the current circumstances, vis-à-vis pagans, to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda and they know that my idea was highly praised and approved.
According to this discipline, the Church had established several ranks among its disciples. It had ‘Postulants’ to whom was only given its doctrine concerning nature, to win over their minds by the inherent splendour of truth. This meant restoring the natural truths through a teaching exempt from all error. St Paul wrote of this in the passage quoted above: the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, the distinction between good and evil, the moral law as taught by the Ten Commandments, penalties and rewards in another life. As for worship, these Postulants were not admitted to take part to any extent in the Holy Sacrifice and in exercises of publish worship. They could only recite some prayers outside the sacred enclosure.
After the Postulants come the ‘Catechumens’ to whom were taught the elements of the Christian mysteries: the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Redemption. For worship, they were only admitted to the preparatory prayers for Mass, until the Holy Sacrifice began, strictly speaking, by the oblation or the offertory. In this way, they heard the readings of Holy Scripture, and the Word of God in the homily of the Bishop, but they withdrew as soon as the mysteries began, which took their name precisely from this discipline so full of wisdom.
The Catechumens were already considered Christians, and they bore the name, as St Augustine teaches us in several places in his writings. However, they were not yet, at this stage, called ‘the Faithful’ because the obligations imposed on them were not yet fully accepted by them. They only became the Faithful and committed to fulfil all the duties of Christians by the reception of Baptism. For those whose weakness appeared too great for it to be bestowed without imprudence, given the obligations of Christian life in the midst of all the corruptions of paganism, their baptism was often delayed until their deaths. Their number was so great that they received, in the language of the Church, a special title of ‘Clinicals’ , because they only received Baptism when lying on their deathbeds.
This very wise procedure prevented the Church from having the scandal of apostasy viewed by the pagans; it would have been in great numbers if not for this rigorous procedure. Today, this same motive and discipline must be followed by the Missionaries to come, in the midst of the pagans of Equatorial Africa. We must not be deluded: in the Missions present today in the midst of non-believers, apostasies are very numerous, considering the number of conversions. Carried away by an unthinking desire to mark souls with the seal of children of God, Baptism is given too easily, without assessing the often almost insurmountable power or the dangers they will have to confront. In Algeria, we made this regrettable experience, due to the deplorable context in which our converts were found. It is even astonishing that this experience was not even more regrettable.
These various motives bring me to make use of the power I have received from the Holy Apostolic See to establish the Missions of Equatorial Africa. I decide, in virtue of this power, and given the moral situation of the peoples that the Fathers have to evangelise, that the ancient discipline of the Church, which has never been abrogated, will be rigorously followed by our Missionaries.
Consequently, they will establish among the neophytes three distinct orders: the first will be the order of ‘Postulants’, who will be taught the fundamental truths of the natural order enlightened by Revelation, as I indicated above, refraining from teaching them ay thing else. The second will be the ‘Catechumens’, to whom will be taught the essential truths of Christianity, but without speaking of worship and the sacraments other than Baptism. Finally, the third will be that of ‘Faithful’ for whom there will be no more secrets.
I require that except in case of death, the neophytes must each spend at least two full years firstly in the order of Postulants then in that of the Catechumens. Therefore, that only at the end of these four years at least, we may confer Baptism. In many cases, we will have to wait till death. I forbid them to be allowed to attend the Holy Sacrifice or to the Offices in which the Most Blessed Sacrament is exposed.
I leave to the wisdom of Superiors the care of deciding if they should not include in the secret clause the devotion to the saints and holy pictures. Given the superstitious tendencies of the Africans, it could foster idolatry. Finally, I forbid the conferring of Baptism, even after four years, on those who do not present serious moral guarantees of perseverance, particularly in relation to the final abandonment of polygamy. One is therefore limited to promise them a deathbed Baptism, and they will be taught that if this is impossible, the desire for this Sacrament is sufficient.
In observing these precepts, the essential aim of saving souls will be achieved and avoid the peril of seeing the Mission collapse and run after apostasies. Indeed, apostates especially the great and powerful could become the most dangerous enemies of the Mission. In all this, let the Fathers consider the well-being of the faith and souls, as well as the will of the Church, made manifest by my voice. They should not be surprised by thoughts, which only appear novel because they do not now the history of the early apostolate, whereas they are as ancient as the Church itself.
4) Most Christian travellers who are concerned for the future of Africa have noticed that to succeed with the Negroes, vulgar and materialistic as they are, it is not enough to provide them with spiritual teaching and moral truths. To this must be added, as much as possible, tangible and material benefits. The first benefit, which is of a general nature and the most essential for peoples torn apart by internecine wars, is the restoration of peace. The Missionaries’ stations must soon be considered as a sanctuary where peace always prevails and where the persecuted will be sure to find refuge. I shall say a word about this in the next chapter. I will also speak of the means to take to destroy slavery, this hideous sore of the African world.
I will only add here that the Missionaries must not waste a single opportunity to inspire the Africans with the horrors of this hideous institution and to tell them that those who take a man to sell him are responsible for all the infamy and cruelty that slavery causes. Livingstone never failed to do so, when he bore witness to an instance of cruelty or immorality. He ensured that his speeches ordinarily produced a tangible effect, unfortunately soon erased by the natural mobility of the natives and by the tyranny of worldly habits.
Besides the benefits of such a high order, there are also the daily benefits; the care to give to the sick to whom you need to be attached with a great self-denial. In this respect, nevertheless, I have a serious observation to make: it is relative to women. I would see a very great danger for the virtue of the Fathers, if they treat them, particularly because of their nakedness. I impose a law on them to never speak to completely naked women and to clearly indicate to them in any case the horror they feel at this lack of modesty. They will thus gradually establish around them the habit of decency in the women.
To medicine and the care of the sick, Fathers and Brothers could add the teaching of some elementary practices in agriculture, industrial art and design, etc. However, in all this, they will avoid the danger of seeking to change the habits of the Negroes all of a sudden; they will not succeed. They can be content with gradual and imperceptible improvements, so to say.
5) The Fathers will remember that example is the most eloquent preaching. They will therefore seek to sanctify themselves and appear saintly naturally not out of pride, which would make them lose all merit, but to give to their Africans an active example of virtue of which they haven’t the slightest idea. I recommend this in particular for prayer. They will take care to have a deep recollected attitude before the Negroes around them, except for liturgical offices that would fall under the law of the secret. As far as possible, they will pray without books; the Negroes, according to report from travellers, consider reading as an act of witchcraft and the book as a talisman. They therefore believe that the book prays; their thoughts will be distracted instead of turning to God. I am providing this detail; there will be many others. However, but reading and reflection will be provided by the Fathers.
Chapter 8
Concerning the eventual establishing of a Christian kingdom
After having reflected at length at the relative failure of a large number of modern Missions and studied in the past history of the conversion of peoples now Christian, I noticed this Rule that if the Apostles spread the first seeds of the Gospel and give it fruitfulness by their prayers, Christianity only becomes universal.
Such is the story of our holy religion in the Roman Empire. It is mistaken to think that it was in the majority in this Empire before the reign of Constantine; it was only a tiny minority and it could be said that the Roman world was still for the greater part pagan. It was Constantine who began to convey the Christian masses, followed in this by his successors. Since his reign, the conversion of the great was carried out in great numbers and Christianity passed into the laws that had so long persecuted it.
The story of its propagation among the barbarian peoples is not different. It was limited to isolated triumphs among the vulnerable and the poor, as long as the prince did not support it. This is the history of our Clovis and the conversion of the Franks in his wake. By contrast, all the Missions who had princes against them in a sustained manner, such as Japan and among the Muslims, or even those who had others who were not absolutely on their side without being against, such as in China or India, only ended up with miserable results, despite the miracles of Saint François Xavier and the heroism of thousands of martyrs.
We must conclude from these facts, endlessly repeated in history, that in the plans of Providence, as besides it is taught by the Church, princes receive from God the special mission of establishing his kingdom in this world or as Saint Augustine says, they only receive their power to serve the establishing of the power of the King of Heaven.
Our Fathers should not lose sight of this great truth in a mission established among the people that their social condition predestines them to provide a new and startling proof. Apart from two or three exceptions, the interior of Equatorial Africa is given over to the most complete anarchy.
It is divided into an infinite number of little peoples endlessly at war with one another, under the leadership of their kinglets. Any substantial authority is unknown there. This is particularly true of Tanganika . The soil is very fertile, the number of inhabitants is prodigious, the divisions are violent and bloodthirsty, complete anarchy. The best that one can do for this country is therefore to create this authority and to give them the double powerful influence of moral and material power.
Are there, among these African princes, men capable of fulfilling this role? It is possible. Stanley speaks of Mutesa, King of Uganda, as an extraordinary prince and almost won over to the Gospel, if what he says is not a fable. The names of Mirambo and Rumanika are also put forward by other explorers, as those of remarkable chiefs in various ways.
If one of them, understanding sufficiently well in even his temporal future, would give up his vulgar superstitions to accept the truths and laws of Christianity, he would find an incomparable strength to group around him, if only by the incomparable practice of Christian justice, of many poor peoples who are today exposed to countless evils. As a Christian and from then onwards through the Missionaries in relation to the Christian peoples of Europe, he could draw from them the means of action, attack, and defence, unknown to other Africans. He could even find energetic auxiliary forces among so many Christian soldiers disgusted at the spectacle the world offers. They seek only to devote their lives to a great and worthwhile enterprise; thus he would rapidly dominate a considerable portion of the interior of Africa; that day Christianity would be established. Such a prince, master of the country, could, in fact, by wise laws demolish all the ramparts that oppose the conquest for souls, destroy polygamy and transform slavery.
However, does this prince exist in reality? It is the uncertain and obscure side of this problem. The Fathers will investigate this matter on the spot and if they truly find a man capable of achieving the enterprise I have just described, let them leave all the rest to win him over and make him a Christian, at least a catechumen, if they cannot yet make him one of the Faithful.
It is to foster this enterprise and contribute to leading this great result that I thought of sending with the present caravan a number of determined Christian soldiers who could contribute to upholding the power of the monarch I call ardently. They could train troops for him, discipline them, command them, teach him the art of defence; in a word, make him invincible while remaining powerful themselves by the duties they carry out and the confidence their courage and virtue would certainly inspire.
I would go further, and without entering here into any detail that would be useless, I think that if, among the African princes upcountry, no one could be found able or worthy of such a role, it would not be impossible if a brave and Christian European could fulfil it. Perhaps even now the king of the Belgians is thinking of it; I am sure he is preparing in secret for an expedition whose aim I know nothing of, and he desires to acquire, by setting up station in a line from Zanzibar to Saint-Paul de Loanda via the Congo. Unfortunately, Stanley is Protestant. It would be desirable if such an undertaking were kept in the hands of Catholics.
Anyway, peoples at war one against the other can easily provide the opportunity to group around a small, determined troop as the core of a power that would gradually extend by protection provided to the weak and by the appreciable benefits of peace. This is how, in our barbarian states, the great abbeys of the Middle Ages became, not only centres for mission, but also places of refuge, around which populations gathered and soon became the county towns of principalities. The African world upcountry is precisely in the state that our Europe was in during the Middle Ages. Why could the Church not create the same enterprises and harvest the same benefits?
I will give some special instructions on this matter in another document. I will just add here some advice for the Missionaries that must be kept as a law for them. They must never bear arms, once arrived in their Missions, unless in extreme peril of their lives. Their arms must be prayer, dedication, wisdom, and counsel. They will have no others and bear in mind that they must bring the Kingdom of God on earth; their kingdom is not of this world.
Chapter 9
Concerning the Diary of the Missionaries
The correspondence of the Missionaries, but principally their diary, has extreme importance for the success of their mission. In Europe, interest will only be taken in them because they will write about themselves. Now, if these do not take an interest in them, the mission will soon be lost, or at least rendered ineffective. Indeed, for such a long-term mission, a great deal of help in men and money is still needed. If the mission is not known, vocations will not come and if it does not powerfully stimulate the interest of Catholics, they will not give anything to sustain it. For this reason, I repeat, it is necessary to write often and copiously, to be faithful to keeping a diary and making it interesting.
The missionaries who are going to leave and also those who have already arrived and continue this work must therefore understand it and make an effort to implement it on quite other foundations. Let them remember that in writing it, they are working for the well-being and success of the mission in an otherwise broad and effective way than by their personal acts. All they write will be read, commented on, and will make a mediocre or deep impression according to how they will write about events. They will therefore take care to focus on the Rules and not yield afterwards to the laziness of not writing, which is too frequent on the journeys. They will take advantage of all the prolonged resting places to put their notes in order and write out their thoughts. In the composition, I recommend them to observe as far as possible, the following Rules:
1) Adhere to the descriptive part, either of the physical nature or the peoples, or events on the journey. Anything that impressed or interested the Fathers is sure to impress and interest their European readers. They have to always see things from this point of view; whatever astonishes on the spot, will astonish the reader, if it is properly presented. What has amused one will amuse others; what has moved someone to tears will move another to tears. Read especially the latest works of Livingstone and Stanley: they are models of this style. However, what interest could the European reader find in only reading for four or five hundred days in a row about the caravan that travelled from southwest to northwest or even to the north and that the terrain was sandy, or even clay-like or carboniferous; although again, could this last point be of interest to commerce or industry? Also, it was not even mentioned once in the part of the diary that reached us.
2) To description should be added history and this would be primarily the work of the Missionaries, when they arrive and reside at the final location of their stations. I recommend this point to the Missionaries with insistence, because it can be of the highest interest, even for theology. The accounts of Europeans and the teaching of the Missionaries among the local inhabitants has not yet replaced legends that later will be difficult to distinguish from their own primitive traditions. These are the ones that are interesting to collect, before they become altered. For this, all the legends and stories of the tribe should be carefully recorded from the elderly, on its origin, the origin of the human race, of the world, primitive revelation and in general, everything that can confirm the writings of our Sacred Scriptures or the teachings of Christianity on the unity of the human race, its fall, etc. In his latest work and Livingstone in almost all of his give us very interesting insights into these various points.
Although secular history offers less interest, nevertheless, it still has considerable interest for science and one could also add it by following the same method. Finally, geographical knowledge is, at this time, the object of concern for the majority of learned societies in Europe as far as Africa is concerned. Therefore, we must not neglect, every time we see men having visited countries where Europeans have not yet entered, to carefully question them on the main reliefs of these immense countries, particularly on the rivers, lakes, mountains and deserts or again on the markets, the roads, etc.
All these details, sufficiently mastered should be given to whoever is in charge of the diary and he will write them in. This is the way to give it considerable variety, interest and usefulness. Each one will work on this to the best of his ability and the superiors will keep tabs on it. I trust they will take this seriously.
3) Scientific observations will also have their place in the diary, unless they have sufficient importance to constitute a diary apart, for them alone. Two Fathers, in the next caravan, will take charge of these observations. They will have received instructions and the instruments necessary at Paris. It would be good if they could initiate some of their confreres in their work, so that they can help them and even substitute for them, if needed. It is especially necessary that they send their observations, their collections, etc., regularly.
4) What are most interesting in the accounts of travellers in Africa are the stories and descriptions of customs, costumes, dwellings and cultures. However, what writers of the diary have to remember is that in descriptions, it is picturesque detail that is of interest. Every effort should be made to add extra details to daily notes. It is only on these conditions that detail is possible. In the diary that we have received, each day totalled, on average, ten or so pages. If it had been a hundred, the diary would have been much more interesting.
5) In the writing of a Missionary diary, faith has to prevail and inspire everything. To return to my ordinary expression, it has to be seen that it is a priest who is writing and not a ‘Robinson Crusoe.’ Everything must therefore edify and have a bearing on the love of God, which the Missionaries are going to establish. If there are reproaches to be made (and there are a lot about these peoples), it has to be said in a way to give the impression of a deep desire to bring them out of it. If there are suffering to recount, it has to be done in such a way as to be well understood that the Missionary offers them to God for the success of his apostolate and that, like Saint Paul, in the higher part of his soul, although the lower part could say so, he is content with his suffering which are the sign of the finger of God. In a word, the impression that should remain with the reader of such a diary is one of edification and hope and not one of sadness, discouragement and even of scandal, which would happen if one felt that the Fathers were not inspired by the spirit of their vocation.
6) It is not enough to write a diary regularly; care still has to be taken to send it. I recommend this duty to Missionaries. Those of the first caravan did not fulfil this; after over a year since their departure, we have still only received a fragment that only goes from the 20th August, i.e., less than two months after their departure from Bagamoyo. They could have rendered an appreciable service to their successors by sending all the information that the follow-up of their diary would have contained. I therefore insist and I require that diaries and letters should be sent to us at quite close intervals and in using, if necessary, special bearers, when caravans are not available to offer the necessary guarantees. The Fathers cannot imagine our worries, when we do not receive their news and the keen interest with which they are anticipated, not only us, but also all those interested in Africa.
7) Since I am speaking of correspondence, I must point out a danger that has not been avoided up to now. You must not give any off-hand details in the letters addressed to Zanzibar or France, to individuals. All this can be exploited against the mission and even has been; for the Holy Childhood is biased by details imprudently given by missionaries to reduce by three quarters the subsidy that the Holy See sought for us. These details on the Mission have to be exclusively reserved to the Superiors at Algiers.
Chapter 10
Concerning the later development of the Missions
Although what is to be said in this chapter is not immediately feasible, I think it is useful to draw the attention of the Superiors to the development of their mission. At the time of the departure of the first missionaries, it had been decided that they would be divided into two distinct missions, one of which would be established on the Tanganyka and the other on the shores of Lake Victoria. I thought that five missionaries would be sufficient for each of these Missions, even by foreseeing a misfortune like the one which occurred at the Tanganyka Mission with the loss of Father Pascal: that is, I had the confidence that Our Lord would deign to watch over his workmen himself and keep them in sufficient numbers not to be reduced to isolation and impotence.
Nevertheless, even with five missionaries, it was not possible to think of extending oneself without failing the most essential Rule of our Society, which is to be always at least three together. Today, we are again sending twelve Missionaries and thanks to their help we can hope to do what was impossible last year, that is, to create new stations. First and foremost, and in order to facilitate relations with Zanzibar, I think it is best to establish an intermediate station between the Great Lakes on one side and the sea on the other. This station shall be placed between the western extremity of the Ugogo and Tabora, and in a sanitary place to be determined jointly on the spot by the Missionaries of the second caravan by a two-thirds majority of the votes, as set out in the chapter on stations .
This station, which will be a house for medical care and a Procure, will consist of three Missionaries who will be designated before departure. In addition, it will have two or three Papal Zouaves who will accompany the caravan. I am obliged, for this foundation, to pass over a very serious difficulty created last year by the imprudence of Father Charmetant and the greater one of Father Livinhac. Contrary to the formal instructions I had given them in writing, these Fathers made a sort of agreement with Father Horner, according to which they recognized that the Unyamwezi was under the jurisdiction of the Spiritan Fathers, whereas the powers I had received from the Holy See authorised me to found independent missions wherever other Catholic missionaries were not already established.
Father Livinhac went even further. He wrote to Father Horner a letter which he hastened to send us, and in which he urged him to establish himself at Oujoue, in the kingdom of Mirambo. These are really acts of madness, and we do not understand how one can thus have the thought of sacrificing the interests of the mission, which one is entrusted with founding, while otherwise lacking obedience. Father Livinhac, in order to be convinced of this, will connect with the written instructions I gave him last year. It follows from his manner of acting that we are going to appear to be lacking in loyalty to the Holy Ghost Fathers, and that we are perhaps confused with them.
The Fathers who are not staying at the Procure station will divide: four of them will leave for Lake Victoria, where they will join Livinhac, and four for Lake Tangagnyka with the new Superior appointed for this mission. Two or three Papal Zouaves will also accompany them as auxiliaries.
The Missionaries of each of these two stations in Tanganyka and Victoria will be able to prepare the subsequent foundation of a second mission on an intermediate point between their present stations and the Atlantic Ocean. Nyangoni (Nyangoui?), in the Manyema, appears designated, at least as a stage to arrive at Kabébé, in the states of Miratayamuo.
As for the station to be founded by Father Livinhac, the portion which extends between the Victoria and the Atlantic Ocean is still too little known so that from here I can name nothing. Besides, at such a distance, I have no intention of fixing things in an absolute manner. I give the indications that seem to me to combine the best conditions from my knowledge, and I leave it to the Fathers to study the great questions from the experience that they will acquire little by little.
I only add one word for the Tanganyka station. Ujiji had been designated as its chief town. However, since the Protestants were already established there, it would be much preferable, in all respects, to settle on the other side of the lake, that is, on the western shore. In this way, one would be much more free. But we must carefully choose the people among whom we shall settle.
Letter to the mother of Father Pascal, member of the first caravan to Equatorial Africa, who died during the trip (15th February 1879)
April 1870
Madame,
I fulfil a duty full of sadness, as today I give you the unhappy news of the death of your beloved son, whom you have given to the Society of our Missionaries. God called to himself the Rev. Fr. Joachim Pascal, Superior of the Mission of Lake Tanganika, in Equatorial Africa. He passed away as a worthy soldier of Our Lord, on the battlefield of the apostolate, where he had waged war for the Catholic faith against error, and combated those of Christian civilisation against barbarism. You should know that when, last year, this new Mission was due to open at the request of the Holy See, your son, with the most generous attitude, requested the favour of forming part of it. Ahead of others, he paid for this heroic dedication with his life. He merited this honour. His faith, humility and zeal, his angelic gentleness, all the virtues that made of him a consummate missionary, pointed him out to his Superiors to make of him the head of one of the two apostolic troops they were to send into these distant regions. God, who already saw him apt for heaven, judged otherwise than men do. He gave him his reward and this holy priest was the first and pure victim, opening the way of salvation to these wretched regions.
He left us, almost a year ago, in early April 1878. From the time of the departure until his death, he never failed to be a perfect model of priestly sanctity for his travelling companions in the apostolate, just as he was for the various responsibilities of the Mission.
In the early part of the journey, despite the fatigue of a long crossing and the torrid heat of the Red Sea, his health withstood it. Before leaving Zanzibar, he sent us his news. Everything in what he wrote was penetrated with the ardent zeal that filled his heart. On the 31st May he wrote, ‘We are now going to complete our purchases and make packages of the luggage we brought from Algiers; then, placing ourselves in the hands of Divine Providence, we shall, with God’s help, bring the name of God to these people immersed for ages in the deepest darkness of barbarism and death.
Dear Father, commend us to the prayers of our confreres and assure them that they will share in our discomforts and sacrifices. The day after Pentecost, we hope to fly our two banners.’ Leaving from Bagamoyo in mid-June, they began to feel the oppressive effects of the tropical fever they had caught by crossing the marshes nearest the coast. On Saturday the 22nd June, he took to his bed for the first time. This upset, however, was not prolonged and he himself spoke of it cheerfully in a letter he wrote to me on the 18th July. He said, ‘We have no doubt had trying times, but can we do otherwise and should we not be expecting anything else? We are about to undertake the work of God… All the Fathers have had to suffer from the climate and even now, four or five of them are quite ill.
Your Grace, all this is far from discouraging us, and Your Excellency may be sure that we will continue on our path with no less courage and cheerfulness. The Fathers who are ill are cared for as well as possible by those who are in good health. If these fall ill in their turn, as sometimes happens, the others that the Good Lord has already restored to health look after them with the same attentiveness and charity. Such as it is, we can only consider ourselves content and bless the Lord for the personal crosses he sends us.’
A little later, he spoke, with all his zealous ardour, of their hopes for the Mission. ‘As we come nearer to our Mission, we feel our love increasing for it. We do not know if the peoples who live along the shores of the Great Lakes are as good as the Wanyamwezi , but our porters are ordinarily very cheerful and friendly; they seem to have great trust in us. If we were living among them, it seems we would have good Christians in a very short time.’
In a subsequent letter to Father Deguerry from Toupa (Usagara), about thirty days’ journey from the coast, he expressed similar thoughts. ‘Fever still continues to plague us a bit. It is very rare for us to have a full complement at mealtimes. However, these trials are far from putting us down. We will continue on our way with the same cheerfulness and courage as at the outset. We pray the Lord that these sufferings will benefit the poor souls towards whom we are sent. On your part, please pray for us.
Ten days later, on the 27th July a letter from another Missionary gave news of the almost complete recovery of your dear son. However, this improvement did not last long. The unbelievable fatigue and deprivation the travellers endured, principally in the inhospitable crossing of Ugogo led to a relapse more serious than the initial bouts of illness.
On the 14th August, the Missionaries halted to observe the Assumption of Our Lady by the celebration of the liturgy. It was probably the first time since the creation of the world that the triumphal hymns of Mary rang out in the midst of the forests of Equatorial Africa. They were all imbued by a holy joy at this thought, but your dear son in particular was, whose tender devotion to the Mother of God you know. He already had a premonition that he would end his days beside her in Heaven, on the Octave of the Assumption.
Indeed, the following day, he experienced much more fatigue in a village named M’Humpa. The curiosity of the inhabitants beset the Missionaries, but without affecting for a moment his charity or patience. He spent a very troubled night. The following day, as they were leaving, he absolutely refused to be carried in a hammock, so as not to deprive any other of his sick confreres. He wanted with all his strength to ride his donkey. That day, they could only travel two hours; the caravan had to halt at Ngoudoukou. It was there that your dear child was destined to end his sufferings and crown his sacrifice.
The night of the 17th and 18th August was even worse than the previous ones. On Sunday the 18th, the Missionaries of Tanganika took an oath to Our Lord to obtain the healing of their Superior. As for him, his resignation was perfect and his piety admirable. In the intervals that his illness gave him, he did not cease to offer the sacrifice of his life to God and to exhort his confreres to submit to the holy Will of God. That day was the feast of Saint Joachim, his Patron Saint. He was so weakened that the Missionaries thought he was going to die at any moment. He himself thought so and confided his last recommendations for his dear Superiors, his beloved parents, you, his father and mother, asking the Lord to console you and offering to God the pain of dying so far from you. However, he survived until the next day, always responding with the greatest edification to the words addressed to him.
In the afternoon, Father Livinhac, Superior of the Mission of Lakes Victoria and Albert, gave him the Last Sacraments, and commended his soul to God. The diary of the Missionaries read, ‘It seemed as if our revered Superior was only waiting for the final words of Holy Church to take his leave of this earth. He breathed his last at half-past three.’ His last agony was calm. Lying on his mat, in his travelling tent, he seemed ready to fall asleep. Indeed, he did sleep the slumber of life, with admirable transports of charity for this mission that he had so much desired.
The funeral prayers were said at exactly this spot where your son died. All nine missionaries gathered together. There also the Holy Sacrifice was offered for this first apostle, and, I would venture to say, this first martyr of Equatorial Africa, connecting the sacrifice of his own holy death to the blood of the Lamb.
Due to the superstitions of some of the primitive peoples that surrounded the Fathers at that time, the burial did not take place in Ugogo territory. It seems this was out of prudence, as the mission territory the Fathers were to occupy began precisely beyond these boundaries . These boundaries were only a few hours distant. The Missionaries decided to cross them the following night to avoid the curiosity of the local inhabitants concerning the mortal remains of your son, and thus enter, at least after his death, the land that he could not enter during his life.
In their diary, the Fathers wrote, ‘After discussion, we decided to carry the revered body beyond the boundaries of Ugogo and to bury it in the immense forest that begins after the last plain of this region. However, in order to do so with the utmost devotion and peace, we waited for darkness. We gathered at midnight to recite the final prayers with him. One Father, accompanied by eight soldiers, a chief and two helpers, who knew the country perfectly, set off, carrying their precious bundle.
It was a sight full of solemnity and emotion, their little band disappearing into the night half-lit by moonlight. Their journey was without unfavourable incident. Before dawn, they crossed the boundary of Ugogo and entered the forest for seven or eight kilometres. There, they buried our dearly departed. In the midst of silence and peace, under a little wooden cross, the remains of our holy and revered superior awaits the day of resurrection.’
These, Madame, are the details concerning the final moments and death of their brother that were given to me by the Fathers of the Missions of Algiers. I send them to you in their touching simplicity, in the certain hope that they will console your grief. I know I am addressing a generous Christian, because I know the soul you have formed. In his pure and strong virtue, I saw the distant reflection of your example. How often he told me about it himself and how much he owed to you! How many times he gave thanks for the valuable lessons your faith had given him!
Letter to the MSOLA Sisters announcing their separation from the Sisters of the Assumption of Nancy (2nd March 1879)
Charles Martial Allemand-Lavigerie by the grace of God and favour of the Holy and Apostolic See, Archbishop of Algiers, Assistant at the Pontifical Throne
To our dearest daughters, the Sisters of the Diocesan Community of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa:
My dearest daughters, when those of you who belonged to the Diocesan Congregation of Sisters of the Assumption of Nancy came to Algiers under my archiepiscopal authority, it was agreed by a joint understanding that they should try to unite, in one family, with the Sisters of the Mission, established in the Diocese of Algiers, under the patronage of the Venerable Geronimo.
This trial has lasted long enough for it to enable an evaluation to be made today that the experiment is complete. It is evident to me that the complete merger cannot be done without inconvenience, and that it is necessary for the members of the two above-mentioned Congregations to separate and return to their former state.
Petitioned several times to take this measure by the members of Council of your Congregation, I think it my duty not to postpone further the answer to their prayers. Nevertheless, if the separation is to take place, it must take place under conditions that preserve the absolute freedom both of the ecclesiastical authority and of all the Sisters, and give rise to no further difficulties.
The sole equitable canonical basis of separation is therefore, as I have just said, for the two communities, to return each purely and simply to their initial status and to take up their former name and their former rules, except to have them modified at a later stage by the diocesan authority, on which each of the two Congregations, once returned to their original status, will continue to depend.
For this first point, there can be no doubt, since it was only as a result of the union that the original Rules were modified on a trial basis. These Rules regain their authority completely, as soon as the merger is abolished. Consequently, one of the two Societies will take up the name and the Rules of the Assumption and the other will retain the name and the Rules of the Sisters of the Mission, but with a single Order of Sisters, as under the initial Rules.
There can also be no doubt as to the division of establishments belonging to the two Societies; each of them shall take over the establishments it had founded before the merger, with their assets and responsibilities. According to this principle, the Community of the Sisters of the Assumption will take over the two Houses of Aix and Saint Eugène; the Community of the Missions will take over that of the Attafs and Saint-Charles de Kouba. A single house was founded since the merger of the two Communities, that of the Ouadhias in Kabylia. It will be formally ended and later entrusted to the Community, which, after the reorganization, will offer to the archiepiscopal authority there, through its Rules and its members, the highest guarantees.
However, if it is important to regulate the two points above in accordance with the law, it is no less necessary to regulate the condition of individuals. By adopting, even temporarily and on a trial basis, the merger of the two Communities, each Sister has the right to decide freely after their separation, for which of the two that seems best suited to her vocation and spiritual advancement.
All Sisters who currently comprise the Society of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa, whatever their origin, will be absolutely free: either to apply to be part of the Community of the Assumption re-established in accordance with its former Rules; or to apply to become a member of the Sisters’ Mission Society in accordance with the Rules followed by the Sisters of the Mission, but with a single Sisters’ Order, in accordance with what existed prior to the merger; or finally to apply purely and simply to return to the world and withdraw into their family.
It must be understood that the former Lay Sisters of the Assumption, even those who have become Choir Sisters in the merged Community of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa, will be handed over to the reconstituted Community of the Assumption in the rank of simple Lay Sisters. The same will apply to the former Sisters of the Mission who would decide to enter the Sisters of the Assumption, as well as the Sisters received at the novitiate as Coadjutor Sisters since the time of the merger.
Each Sister will therefore have to examine seriously before God the course of action to which she is inclined. To this end, at the Kouba House, there will be a triduum of recollection and prayers held, to which all those who will not be prevented from going there by their occupations in private houses will be summoned. I myself will officiate at this triduum.
In each of the other houses, a triduum, or at least a whole day of recollection of the same type, will take place under the direction of a cleric appointed by me. At the end of these exercises, each Sister will be called upon to freely declare the choice made by her, according to the form that will be affixed below by my order of dissolution. As for the postulants and novices, who have no particular rights or commitments, I reserve to myself the responsibility of questioning them and placing them in the novitiate of the Society they will have chosen. From the moment of their choice, the Sisters of the two Congregations shall be separated de facto and de jure, each under its own special government. Until the next Chapter I shall designate the Provisional Superiors, who will set themselves up provisionally with their Council; the Superior of the Assumption at Saint-Eugène, and the Superior of the Mission at Kouba, and each of the two reconstituted Congregations shall resume immediately their new and absolutely separate life.
However, although canonically separated, you will continue to form one heart and one soul under the guidance of the same Divine Pastor, our Lord Jesus Christ, and under that of the same earthly pastor, who is your Bishop. I will continue, my dearest daughters, to also be the Father of the two Societies. I will keep both my direction and my protection for them and I will settle with them all that concerns their new state.
To give these various dispositions the canonical form and authority appropriate to them, I have taken the following episcopal decree, which will be promulgated in each of the houses of the Society of the Religious of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa.
The text continues here by communicating the decree of Archbishop Lavigerie, which merely repeats point by point, in canonical language, all the elements of the Rule of this separation, as the Founder presented them in the preceding lines. It seems useless to us to transcribe this passage, which adds no new element. The text concludes:
Signed at Algiers, the First Sunday of Lent, 2nd March 1879.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Superior of the house at Beni-Arif in Kabylia (12th March 1879)
Algiers,
My dear Son,
For some time now, I have been sorry to see that the mission station at Beni-Arif is the only one where the missionaries have not obtained any results. Up to now, they have not had even a single boarder . A post like this can only be a discouragement to the missionaries and, little by little, lead them to lose their vocation. It also leaves us open to criticism and mocking from our adversaries, whose number keeps on increasing as the revolution grows and among whom there will now be the new Sub-Prefect of Tizi-Ouzou .
All these reasons lead me to take advantage of the next departure of missionaries to Equatorial Africa and close the post at the Arifs until things improve. But before taking this step, I wanted to ask the opinion of the missionaries in Kabylia. So I am asking you and your confreres what you think of this proposal.
I shall write a similar letter to the superiors of the other mission stations , and I would ask that you send me your reply as soon as possible, as I wish to deal with this matter once and for all with the Council of your Congregation which has already discussed it.
I am pleased, my dear Son, to take this opportunity to give you and your confreres my good wishes.
Yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Missionaries of the community at Carthage (Tunisia) (19th March 1879).
Algiers, 19th March 1879
My dear Sons,
I have received the information you sent me, and I admired the terseness with which you expressed the fear that you have no doubt wasted my time. Nevertheless, I pray you not to stop on account of this fear: I cannot have a better, more agreeable occupation than that of reading what you write to me. The more you communicate your thoughts to me, and you will give me details of your mission, the more you will enable me to direct you from a distance.
I asked you to keep an accurate and detailed journal of all that is happening of interest among you and around you. I repeat it so as to make of it a serious obligation for you. I count on Father Delattre to keep this diary and to send it to me. Let him not forget that it is only the meticulous and precise details that are capable of rendering such a work interesting, and let him not be afraid to give plenty space to his researches and his archaeological discoveries. What he wrote to me the other day is full of interest.
In this connection, however, I have to tell him of a terrible reprimand85 I received on his behalf from Mr de Buisseret. This admirable President of the Oeuvres de Saint Louis claims that Father Delattre distributed his study notes and even his archaeological finds more or less in all directions. He asks all this to be kept together, so as to form a worthy collection for the great Saint Louis enterprise. He begs me to rule that no room should be withdrawn from the Archaeological Museum begun in your house.
He would also like the studies and discoveries to be published together and regularly, every three months, for example, in some journal to be determined, or communicated to an Academy review, for example, the Inscriptions et Belles Lettres . After having thoroughly reflected on them, I find the complaints and observations of Mr. de Buisseret perfectly well founded, and I think I ought therefore to impose sanctions on them by the explicit orders which follow, and of which I entrust the implementation to the conscience of Father Delattre, and the supervision of the Rev. Fr. Superior. I therefore rule:
1) That no fragment, inscription, money, statue, etc. may be given, sold or sent to anyone outside of Saint-Louis without my express written authorisation;
2) That no communication may be made to any Company or Review except with my written authorisation, and scrutiny by myself of such work;
3) That this work will be addressed to me, therefore, at the end of each quarter by the Rev. Fr. Delattre; that it is only after reading them that I will decide whether they can be sent, and to whom.
I repeat, these are not counsels I give here; they are express orders, formulated after mature reflection, and to which I wish you to be faithful. At the same time, I can only encourage Father Delattre in the path he has undertaken, and congratulate him on his zeal. The measures I have taken have only one aim, that of highlighting the fruits of his work.
I hope that the excavations that will take place on the occasion of the next constructions will enable substantial results, for they seem to be considerable . I would need to know, as soon as possible, at what precise depth the original soil is found, on the top of the hill where the buildings are to be erected. I think we can have it almost in the excavations I had made eighteen months ago on what we thought were the ruins of the temple of the Dea Caelestis . But we must make sure of it again.
At the excavations already made, three broad wells could be added, one in the centre and the other two near the extremities of the hill, all three at about fifteen or twenty metres from the beginning of the steep slope overlooking the sea . It would be necessary, therefore, to find a few labourers to carry out this work at the cheapest possible price, that is to say, to two piastres per cubic metre, as it relates to the prices of the Italian contractor from whom you sent me the rates.
I urge you to understand properly my thoughts on the location of these wells, without taking any account Mr. Dejoux’s plans for building, for I have had these wells made for a special purpose. I repeat that all three of them must be sunk at about fifteen yards from the edge, where the abrupt slope begins, overlooking the sea, one in the middle, and the other towards the extremities of the ground which belongs to us .
Farewell my dear Children; be assured of my fatherly devotion to you in Our Divine Lord.
Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Spiritan Superior at Zanzibar announcing the arrival of a temporary Procurator for the Missionaries of Africa (26th April 1879)
Dear Reverend Father,
A secular priest of my diocese, Father Guyot, pastor of a parish near Algiers, will have the honour of presenting this letter to you. I am sending him to Zanzibar to prepare for the departure of a new caravan of our missionaries, whom those who have preceded them are urgently demanding to make up their losses and those, which they still foresee for the future.
May I present Father Guyot to your fatherly kindness for the time he will spend at Zanzibar as my temporary Procurator, under your jurisdiction? I had asked for authorisations from Propaganda for him. But, not having received them before his departure, I request you to allow him to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice during his visit.
Father Guyot will explain to you by word of mouth the special mission with which he is entrusted. It consists first of arranging in advance the caravan of our Missionaries, who will only arrive two months after him, and then accompany them upcountry to report by word of mouth on the country and the conditions of the Mission, detailed information which cannot be given by letter or even in newspapers, however extensive they may be.
As I told you last year, Most Reverend Father, our most earnest and sincere desire is not to disturb the tranquillity and prosperity of your works by placing establishments beside them, which could inconvenience them or eclipse them. The only thing that seems desirable to us on the east coast is to have a store in Zanzibar and, perhaps, Bagamoyo, to receive the goods we can ship from Europe. Moreover, to have a salaried agent send our despatches and send us regular correspondence from our Fathers and even the news of what the caravans could carry from them to the coast.
I have assigned Father Guyot, our temporary Procurator, to find these stores and this permanent agent, who would be a layperson, if one could find a suitable one in Zanzibar, and I could venture to ask you for your kind assistance and the guidance of your flawless experience. I say this to you, my Most Reverend Father, because I am accustomed to clearly state my thoughts, and also because I knew that you had worried about a sentence in my last letter and that you had assumed that I wanted to establish a procure, run by our Missionaries, beside your houses on the coast. I want to reassure you on this point; we have never had this scheme, we do not have it and, as I told you last year, I essentially want to avoid bothering you in any way by the proximity of our Fathers.
The only thing we thought of was to situate an intermediate settlement upcountry between the present Missions of Victoria and Tanganyka, so that they could more easily branch off on each other and serve as a link. However, this establishment, if it is founded, will be located several hundred kilometres from the coast and therefore will not interfere in any way with your works.
I hope, Most Reverend Father, that these explanations will suffice to put an end to your anxieties; for I would be sorry to cause you any, after all the kindness you have shown for our Missionaries, who are as grateful to you as I am. I ask you for its continuation for Mr Guyot, who is going to prepare for this new departure. He really needs your advice, especially in terms of expenses. I am concerned and overwhelmed by those that the caravan of last year caused. If it were to cost so much, it would lead to real ruin. We must also provide for the permanent settlements upcountry!
As I said above, our Fathers will leave Zanzibar only two months after the arrival of the Procurator, who will prepare the way for them. Two of them, however, will arrive by the next mail boat with all that has been purchased in France; the others will not arrive until July. In all, they will be ten in number, and they will bring with them, in all probability, four or five former Pontifical Zouaves , who have the admirable dedication of joining the caravan to protect it and defend it against the dangerous incidents that assailed the first.
However, not everyone will remain at the coast by any means. The instructions given to Father Guyot are to prepare the departure of the caravan for the day following the time when the ship British India will land the Missionaries.
We will entrust Fr Guyot with some small mementoes for those of your Brothers who especially assisted our missionaries last year. Please allow them to accept them. I also wanted to send to you, for your Mission, a thanksgiving memento. However, the objects I had ordered have not yet arrived at Algiers, and they will only be able to leave by the next boat.
Do excuse me, Most Reverend Father, if I do not write to you with my own hand. I am prevented by an eye inflammation. Nevertheless, if the eyes of the body are sick, those of the heart will not be so to follow, from a distance, in gratitude, the progress of your holy works, which I earnestly urge Our Lord to bless with even greater abundance.
Be assured, Most Reverend Father, of my most respectful and devoted sentiments in Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
P.S. At the moment of departure, we decided to send a Lay Brother with the Father, to take care of the animals which we are sending on a trial basis for the future caravan. This good Brother is excellent. He is Bavarian and, therefore, almost your compatriot .
Comments Report of the after visiting the Community of Saint Louis de Carthage (29th May 1879).
Comments Report for the Station of Saint-Louis de Carthage (1878-1879)
St Louis de Carthage, 29th May 1879
I will begin this Comments Report, which I leave to the Fathers and Brothers of St. Louis of Carthage, by congratulating them on the spirit of union and fraternal charity, which seemed to me to reign among them. I am also pleased to note that with the grace of God there is no grave disorder in their mission, and I believe that they are inspired by a genuine desire to attain the glory of God according to the purpose of their apostolic vocation, and I can only urge them to persevere in this way, and to make daily progress.
To this end, I will indicate some particular points which seemed to me to require reform, either in the spiritual order, or in the temporal order, or finally in the direction of the little negroes whose training is entrusted to the Missionaries at Saint Louis.
I – The Spiritual - The first observation I make from the spiritual point of view is that Morning Prayer must always be done in common in the chapel by all Fathers and Brothers. There is no exception, apart from the one who will oversee lessons for the children, from five to six o’clock. However, so that it is not always the same one who is deprived of prayer in common, the Fathers and the Brothers will succeed each other in turn for this supervision, so that it comes back only every five weeks for seven days.
The one who supervises the children will say his breviary or his rosary during this time, and will make his meditation immediately after his supervision. Particular examen, spiritual reading and visiting the Blessed Sacrament must also continue to be done in common, according to the wording of the Rule. For these three exercises, though, the Brothers will be separate from the Fathers .
Evening Prayer must be done separately by the Fathers and the Brothers, and be recited entirely according to the settings of the Catechism of Algiers. The litanies and the singing of the antiphon Sancta Maria will follow it.
The children will say their shorter prayer before supper; the Fathers and the Brothers will say theirs at half-past eight. According to the formal intentions of the Holy See, which were recently laid out in the Decree on Praise in the Rules of Society, Fathers and Brothers must scrupulously observe silence outside recreation. They will therefore speak only for the performance of their duties and in case of necessity. All interior life is impossible outside of these conditions.
I strongly recommend the monthly retreat, which, according to the Rule, is to be made on the first Monday of each month. It must be done in common. Theological talks are not to take place at Saint Louis; it is an abuse, which must be completely corrected. I command it by virtue of holy obedience. We must from now on read aloud in the refectory during the whole of lunchtime and during half the evening meal.
I remind you that the Missionaries are forbidden to make visits to the local inhabitants and even to the Europeans. This point is of considerable importance for the preservation of their reputation, and they will henceforth be entirely faithful to it. I also forbid the Father in charge of caring for the sick to bring women into the parlour for direct consultation. He must, as is done in Kabylia, simply receive the husband, and send his advice to the woman through him, with the necessary remedies.
II – The Temporal – The most serious deficiency that I find in the temporal point of view is the combining of the functions of the Bursar with those of Superior . This is contrary to the universally established usage in the Society of Missionaries, and the Father Superior must immediately choose a Bursar who will take office from 1st June.
The Father Bursar himself has to keep his cashbox and ledgers, not only in bulk and for the generality, but also in the minutest details. Each Father must also keep his individual accounts as formally prescribed by the Rule and submit them to the Visitor on the occasion of the annual visit. I was greatly astonished and saddened that all of them had neglected this obligation. I now prescribe absolute observance of it in the name of Holy Obedience, because it is impossible not to fall into a constant financial disorder if one thus expends at random all that one has.
Order, care and cleanliness are no less necessary throughout the house, than in the individual manner of each one. It is the Father Bursar who is especially charged with procuring and maintaining them, with the help of the Brothers. I do not think it is possible to see anything more pitifully disgusting than the kitchen and refectory of Saint Louis. On this occasion, and because of the effect, which I know to have been produced on several visitors, I forbid that any outsider at all should ever eat in the refectory. We will have them eat in the parlour or even better, in my rooms.
I was greatly astonished that for the last six months the sale of articles of piety and Guides, as well as the content of collection boxes, have scarcely given any resources to the house, whereas in preceding year these various products had, according to the accounts, reached a total of nearly 1400 piastres. There is an inexplicable negligence here; I recommend the Father Bursar to look to repairing it.
A community must not make unnecessary expenses, nor neglect to obtain required resources, but it must not suffer from discomfort either. If conditions are too tight at St. Louis, I think a supplement should be requested from the Mother House, especially for guests. I think that one could ask without exaggeration for three francs a day and per head for the guests and 1.50 francs for the workers.
Expenditure on medicines for the sick should be compensated abundantly by the sale of articles of piety. I am afraid that we may have fallen into excess, which is understandable, but which must nevertheless be corrected, by extending the service of the sick too much, especially by visits to the outside. I want these visits to be limited to two outings per week only, and that these outings take place on the days of the children’s walk, and always accompanied by a Father or a Brother, as I said above.
III – The Children - What would seem to me most necessary in the present situation would be that at least one Father and one Brother were exclusively or mainly responsible for the children. Without this, I fear that the latter, passing incessantly from hand to hand, will not make the necessary progress either in science or in piety. From the point of view of piety, I do not think that one should give them Baptism before they have reached an age when they can understand a moral commitment and conscience, as seriously as that which a Christian understands at Baptism.
I would be of the opinion that the formal catechumenate, as it was practiced in the first centuries of the Church, should be re-established for them; that they should be admitted to it by a solemn ceremony, in which they promise to observe the Christian law as well as possible, and that from that moment they should be made to bear an external sign, such as a medal suspended by a cord or a ribbon, as is done for the Congregants.
I would wish that catechumens and those who are already Christians should always have catechism in the chapel, at least twice a week, and even more if possible, for these children must not only be Christians by their instruction, but that they take in as much as possible the spirit of the faith.
For study, I think it is important to separate the children completely into two divisions for the classes, and to be separated at that time into separate rooms.
The studies of these children must be entirely directed towards the exclusive goal, which we propose: to make of them Christian doctors destined to return to their respective countries with our Missionaries. For this purpose, we shall confine ourselves to the simplest elements of the French language; we shall insist more on the history of religion and that of Africa, and we shall begin very early on to give them some simple elements of natural history, chemistry, etc. For the two older ones, Charles and Felix, whose instruction is more advanced, I would like them to be applied now to medicine, and that each of them, in turn, should serve or accompany Father Delattre, both in the treatments and consultations he gives at Saint Louis, rather than in those he is going to give at patients’ homes. A little later, these children will be sent to the Attafs’ hospital.
I do not think that the daily timetable is sufficiently spread out for the children. You must make a new regulation and submit it to my approval and signature before I leave. I want them to have the same uniform as soon as possible. They now look like a troop of ragged, disorderly beggars. This is shameful for the house. I think it is good to maintain the place of recreation where I have established it, in order to remove these children as much as possible from the view of the public.
I notice that my last Comments Report was not taken into account when I recommended feeding these children as much as possible according to the customs of their country. They are given bread, whereas it does not exist in their experience. I ask that they be given nothing but very thick porridge made with sorghum flour, and that the bread should be replaced by an equivalent value by meat cooked in water with its broth; I also recommend milk, as I did on my previous visit. With such an extent of pasture , it would be easy to have two cows.
Such is the set of detailed observations, which I think I must record in this Comments Report. In closing, I again congratulate the Fathers and Brothers of Saint Louis on the situation they are facing. They have inner peace, and what is not less appreciable, they also have it outside, in the midst of the deep troubles and perils, which everywhere threaten the Church and their own confreres. While they are everywhere exposed to injustice, insult, calumny, persecution, and soon perhaps a bloody persecution, they live in peace under the protection of Saint Louis and that of all the great Saints and Holy Martyrs of Carthage. They cannot sufficiently give enough gratitude to Our Lord and His Most Holy Mother for acknowledgment of the part they have played, and they can do no better than by devotion to their works, by their fidelity and fervour. It is the grace that I wish them by paternally blessing them from the bottom of my heart.
This Comments Report must be re-read for three consecutive months in community Spiritual Reading on the day of the monthly retreat.
+ Charles, Archbishop,
Apostolic Delegate
A : Local Superior: Rev.Fr. Bresson
Missionaries: Rev. Frs. Delattre and Levasseur
Brothers: Ludovicus and Henri
Sermon delivered on the departure of the second caravan to Equatorial Africa (20th June 1879)
My dear brothers,
When your sons abandon the paternal home without hope of return, the family, which has hitherto surrounded them with their devout affections, usually unites to give them the supreme mark of its attentiveness and tenderness. The grave counsels of the father, the anxious tears of the mother, the wishes of fraternal friendship, all impress a permanent character on this solemn moment, in which regrets, hopes and blessings merge and remain the consolation of regretted absence and protection for a lifetime.
From the beginning, religion has consecrated the holiness of these farewells. The Faithful of Asia accompanied Paul by their tears and their prayers, who left them not to see them again. In the prisons or in the catacombs, on the eve of martyrdom, the Christians of Rome were crowding around the confessors to kiss their feet, as a sign of respect, not believing themselves worthy to embrace those venerable heads that would fall under the steel blade of the executioner. Furthermore, in her maternal foresight, the Church has inserted them into the prayers of her liturgy, in which she calls down on her children the protection of heaven, at the moment of their demise.
It is this prayer that we are going to make tonight near these altars, for these young men, for these apostles, sons of our African Church, who must leave us without hope of return. You know their story, my dear brothers. French-born, made ready amongst you for their tough struggles, they will join, at the heart of the continent whose doors we guard , their brothers, who left a year ago now and who call upon them to share their endeavours. They are going to set off with the brave companions that Belgium and England send them, and this day is the last day they will tread the soil of their motherland, where they hear their mother tongue, where they will see their fathers, their brothers in the priesthood, faithful friends, all they give up, forever.
And we, my dear brothers, come, if I dare say it, to remind God of the promises he has made to those who abandon everything for his love. Yes, to God, my beloved sons, we entrust your bodies and your souls, and your works and your hopes. His paternal providence will watch over you. It will guide you on the immensity of the seas, it will refresh your souls under the heat of a new sky, it will sustain your courage, and it will prepare the rewards promised to his servants for you.
And what will you do, in fact, if not to serve the plans of His mercy towards unfortunate nations? The whole world has heard the Good News. Only the barbarian countries of Africa had not heard it. However, now all the Christian nations have combined, as if for the sake of it, to open the doors to barbarism, hitherto sadly closed. America precedes them , America, for three centuries, has been the cause of so much evil for Africans. England, Germany, Italy, Belgium follow the same path.
On all sides, bold conquerors enter the unknown depths where the riches of nature only serve to bring out the deepest miseries of humanity. Will the Church remain behind and isolated? No. Already its apostles have besieged the African coasts: Gabon, Guinea, the Cape, the shores of Zanguebar, and the Zambezi have received God’s messengers. But the interior is still inaccessible. Here they come, these peaceable conquerors! Already Egypt is preparing a passage for them on the mysterious course of the Nile. But who are those who fly like clouds, driven by fast winds? Zanzibar, you have seen them penetrate into the scorching plains, cross the forbidding mountains that rise in front of your shores; you will see them again, having only their cross for weapons, their sole ambition to bring life to that empire of death.
These emissaries of God, they are there, before your eyes, ready to depart to follow the voice of the Saviour, to spread his benefits far and wide. Where were these benefits more needed? Where did ignorance, misery, cruelty, perfidy, forgetfulness of all divine and human laws ever make more victims? Listen, my dear Brothers, and you will understand what kindnesses the mission of these apostles merit, and what a generous plan their soul has fashioned.
From all points of the immense continent which extends from the limits of our African France to the English provinces of the Cape, rises for centuries, a long cry of pain, where meet and mingle the most cruel sufferings of humanity. Mothers, to whom savage captors snatch their children to lead them to servitude, and who, like Rachel, utter their inconsolable moans are there; peaceful tribes, surprised, at night, in their sleep, who see their homes set on fire, slaughter all that resists and drag the rest to the markets where men sell one another like cattle. Long lines of captives, men, women, children, succumbing to hunger, thirst, despair, dying slowly in the deserts when they are already abandoned half-dead to spare their meagre food, or falling under the blows of the master, when they have become his prey. Human creatures, delivered defenceless to rage and debauchery are also there. The inland roads of Africa bordered with bleached bones, so that, if they were ever lost, they would be found, as has been said, by the sad remains that extend over them. All this, could be multiplied every day by avarice, revenge, and wars. Every year, more than a million men suffer this terrible fate and under conditions such that one of the witnesses of this infamous trafficking has been able to say that when it comes to slavery, one could accumulate all the horrors, all these sufferings, without ever arriving at the truth.
I have seen the sad victims of this wicked trade. I have heard from their mouths the stories of their ills. I heard the children recount, with the straightforwardness of their age, which still increased our terror, the blood-spattered death of their fathers, and the tortures of their journeys through regions scorched by the sun.
I saw some of them who, for a long time afterwards while they were asleep, were dreaming of these wicked scenes, and waking up with long cries of terror!
This is African slavery, as it exists as I speak, and so close to us that it is up to you to see it and hear it. The seas and paths of the New World were closed to it; it multiplied on the pathways of the interior, and there it became more deadly. Ah! My dear brothers, that we can, in theory, discuss the degree of injustice presented by slavery, I do not deny. Nevertheless, in practice, and when we see to what extent of cruelty African slavery leads the executioner, to what degree of suffering and humiliation he condemns the victim, there can only be one cry, one outcry, of horror and reproof on human lips.
Do not be surprised, then, that a bishop, commissioned by the Holy See with part of the immense countries where this slavery still reigns supreme, I condemn it, by the holy altars, with the freedom of my ministry, and in the name of my God, I vow him a merciless war and I declare it anathema. I have only one regret, that my voice is not strong enough to cross this enclosure, and that, knowing what I know, I cannot, by the emphasis of my heart, raise against such crimes all that still merits, on earth, the name of humanity and that of Christian.
O my children! Be blessed, you who have heard from afar this cry of your Father! You who find in your faith firstly enough strength in your love for these poor Africans, whom you only know by the story of their misfortunes, and secondly enough devotion to sacrifice yourself to the work of their deliverance!
In vain, I have just told you, world powers have joined forces to abolish the inhuman trade that bloodies Africa. Their efforts are futile. The leprosy continues, what am I saying? It is spreading its ravages. Either the measures are insufficient, because they reach only those who sell and do not address those who buy, or that the evil has roots too deep to be cured by human hand, slavery persists, and the stories of the latest explorers in equatorial regions are filled with its horrors. It is not only foreigners; the Africans themselves, brought up in human contempt, become the artisans of their own ruin. So far does the human soul sink to when it does not find, in a purer light, the strength to fight the cruelties of nature!
What is needed, therefore, is to make these unfortunately degraded, peoples understand the immorality of their error; it is to teach them that man is the brother of man. God, in creating him, has given him the freedom of his soul and body that Jesus Christ gave them when the world was bowed under universal slavery; he did not think he was paying too dearly for the restoration of this holy liberty by paying it at the cost of his blood.
Go, my sons, and teach them this doctrine. Tell them that Jesus, whose cross you will show them, died on it to bring every freedom to the world, the freedom of souls under the yoke of evil, the freedom of peoples under the yoke of tyranny, the freedom of conscience under the yoke of the persecutors, the freedom of the body under the yoke of slavery!
St. Paul proclaimed this liberty in Rome, where Nero reigned, and where two million slaves were in chains. ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’ (Gal 3, 28).
You will proclaim the holy freedom that comes from Jesus Christ in the steps of the great Apostle Paul, in the midst of so many people bowed under the yoke. Your voice will sound like thunder; or rather it will raise hope and love in this blood-spattered darkness. How beautiful they will be for the children of the Africans, those feet that will descend from their mountains, bruised by the wounds of the road and covered with dust, to assure them peace at last! How beautiful those feet are, in the eyes of Christians, which love brings to martyrdom, and with what respect, my dear brothers, we must kiss tonight!
It is stated in Sacred Scripture that the Elders of Israel, coming to meet Judith, the liberator of the people of God, together sang their sacred canticles: ‘You are the glory of Jerusalem, the heroine of Israel, the proud boast of our people! (Jud 15,10). Furthermore, I, my dear Children, with all this faithful people, I repeat to you the same words: you are the consolation, the honour, the glory of Jerusalem, that is to say of the Holy Church, today as though overwhelmed by the blows of its enemies.
What eloquent answer would you not give to all their offensive talk ? They accuse it of human ambition; and yet you sacrifice everything to your duty, to the giving up of your life, with no hope except the austere joy of sacrifice and heavenly reward! They accuse it of amassing wealth; likewise, they accused you here, along with me; whereas you go away, deprived of everything, and you will no longer have, like the Son of Man, a place to lay your head! They cover it with calumnies, and you respond to these fabrications of their hatred by a life of heroism and a miracle of love! They say that at its heart associations are formed to combat progress and enlightenment; whereas you only exist to fight darkness and barbarism! Finally, they accuse us of not loving and, who knows, to betray the interests of the nation. You answer them, as your brethren did, the day they came to this land where one of them already died, as the predestined know how to die. ‘We stand for France here, and we sacrifice to it all that is dear to us. If we perish, let France know that ten of her children, her priests, have died in obscurity, praying for France and loving France to the end.’
However, my dear brothers, if the Church is always productive, if she always gives the Bridegroom children worthy of him, we must remember that she alone has received the promises and is sure never to perish. The people, however privileged they may be, do not have this assurance; on the contrary, they are threatened to see the truth pass to other heavens, if they do not remain faithful to it. Now, I ask you, sons of France, Spain, Italy, all our Catholic peoples, who surround me tonight in such numbers in this temple, where are we placed in relation to our ancient faithfulness and our ancient faith?
Moreover, do we not at this moment witness this mysterious transformation? This Gospel that you bring to the barbarians of Africa, do you not take it from your homeland? A formidable question that I cannot know how to resolve if, to revive my hope, I did not see you in front of me. I look at you, my beloved sons, I see in your features all the brilliance of strength and youth, as I said to your brothers in similar circumstances. I think of all that you sacrifice: family, homeland, and earthly hopes. In addition, while it is of Catholic France that you are children, I cannot help but have confidence for her, since God still keeps so many hearts there that a heroic devotion can ignite.
And you too, noble young men, who, in a fearless sense of faith, come to join hands to protect the envoys of God, sons of Belgium and England, your courage is for your country, a blessing and a pledge of salvation!
However, we must now come to good wishes on the occasion of final leave-taking. Farewell, my dear Sons, goodbye, you who are the highest honour of my ministry and of the reviving African Church. You must leave. God speaks to you by the voice of Peter. Peter, captive in the person of Leo, thus prepares the final blow to modern slavery, from the heart of Rome where captive Paul smote the first blow against the ancient servitude. How could my paternal blessings not follow you for such a great work! Yes, I bless you, in the name of the faith whereby you are going to extend the empire; in the name of charity, which by your hands you must heal so many wounds; in the name of the sacred freedom which will speak, by your lips, the end of their tribulations to the victims of so many horrors; in the name of the light you will carry in this darkness; and to enclose everything in the name that summarises and sanctifies all these great things, I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ, your Master and mine; for Jesus Christ is faith, charity, freedom, light, all those good things that people seek with so much ardour and that they do not find because they seek them outside of Him!
It is recounted in the Acts of the Martyrs, that a pontiff, bent under the weight of years, walked readily to torture, and that Laurence, his deacon, followed him among the executioners, saying to him with tears, ‘Where are you going, Father, without your son? Where are you going, Pontiff, without your deacon? You will offer the sacrifice, and only the priest will be missing at the altar, where your blood may come to mingle with the blood of the Lamb!’ Alas! You do not hear anything like this tonight, my dear brothers. I remain on the shore, while my sons will face the storms. I give them only these bare words, and it is they, by a reversal to which I humble myself, who give me the example of their intrepid virtue! ‘Where are you going, my children, without your father? Where are you going, priests, without your Pontiff? You will offer the sacrifice, and only the priest will be missing at the altar, where your blood may come to mingle with the blood of the Lamb! God did not find me worthy of such an honour! He took note of the generosity of your lives, he saw the faults of my long career loaded with such challenging duties, and his judgment separated us!
At least, as long as he leaves me on this earth, I will look after you from afar, to obtain your daily bread, without flinching before the resentments you know of . You, in return, will obtain for me indulgence and peace through your approval, just like the Confessors of the early Church. So be it!
Speech given on 20th June, 1879
“O my children! You are blessed because you have heard from afar the cry of your Father! You who find in your faith enough strength in your love for these poor Black people whom you have only heard of through the telling of their sufferings, and for whom you are ready to sacrifice yourselves in the work of their freedom!
I have just told you that the powers of this world have come together to work for the abolition of this inhuman commerce which covers Africa with blood – but in vain. Their efforts are ineffectual. The scourge continues, what more can I say? The scourge spreads its devastation. Either the measures taken are insufficient because they do not reach those who are selling the slaves or they are not addressed to those who buy them, or the evil is too deeply rooted to be cured by man’s hand. The fact is, slavery still exists and the reports coming from recent explorers in the equatorial regions are filled with these horrors. And it is not just foreigners who are responsible; the black people themselves, who, brought up to despise their fellow human beings, become the artisans of their ruin…
It is important, then, to make these people (alas debased) understand that all are brothers, that God, in creating them has given them freedom of body and soul; that Jesus Christ has freed them for himself, (and this at a time when the world was weighed down under a universal slavery), and that Christ did not think it too dear a price to restore this freedom in paying for it by the price of his blood.
Go, my sons, go to teach them this doctrine. Tell them that this Jesus died for them on the cross, in order to carry all these freedoms to the world: freedom of souls against the yoke of evil, freedom of people against the yoke of tyranny, freedom of consciences against the yoke of persecutors, freedom of body against the yoke of slavery.
It is this freedom that St. Paul proclaimed in Rome where Nero was ruler and where two million slaves were kept in irons. Paul said: “Among you there are neither Greeks nor barbarians, slaves nor citizens; you are all brothers, you are all free with the freedom which comes from Christ”.(Cf. Gal 3:4)
Following the great Apostle and in the midst of so many people weighed down by their burdens, you will proclaim the holy freedom which comes from Jesus Christ. Your voice will resound like a thunderbolt, or rather hope and love will rise up in the darkness. Yes, I bless you in the name of the faith which you are going to spread far and wide; in the name of the charity which by your hands must cure so many wounds; in the name of the holy freedom which you are going to preach and which will bring about the end of so many evils; in the name of the light which you are going to carry into the darkness; and so as to destroy all these evils, in the name which sums up and which sanctifies all these great things, I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ, your master and mine; for Jesus Christ is the faith, the charity, the freedom, the light, all these good things which people look for with so much ardour and which they do not find, because they look for them outside Him!”
Letter to the Missionaries of the first caravan already a year in Equatorial Africa (21st June 1879).
Algiers, 21st June 1879
My dear children,
I do not want to let the Fathers go to join you without addressing a few lines to you to give you a proof of my paternal tenderness from afar. I cannot write myself because of the bad state of my eyes, but you will at least see my signature and you will know that I thought of you.
As for the details, which I could give you on all that concerns you, the Fathers will give them to you much better than I. They are a living letter, much more comprehensive and more beautiful than any I could write to you. Besides, I have given them to them and they will communicate very long instructions to you that were suggested to me, either through reading your letters and your diary, or reading the books on Equatorial Africa that have appeared since your departure. I urge you to read these Instructions carefully and to comply with them.
I am asking you for them in particular for the writing up and sending of your diary. I cannot tell you how much I have been worried and filled with anxiety without hearing from you for so long. It is now seven months that we do not know what is happening to you, for your last letters were dated from the beginning of December, and we are now at the end of June. It is for me and for all your brothers a great cause of pain. We have sympathized with all your sufferings and all your pains more than I can tell you, and we would have liked to know how you arrived at the end of your journey.
We do not regret this silence any the less for your mission, because only your diary and your letters can maintain the interest and charity of the Catholics who support it with their contributions. You risk completely draining your resources, if you continue in this way. You must therefore take all the means in your power to send us regular reports and news, and you must not hesitate when faced with the cost of special messengers if necessary. Even if you should have to spend five hundred, a thousand or even two thousand francs on important occasions, you should not hesitate. I said it explicitly to the Fathers who will join you; but I want to repeat it to you here, in writing, because this matter is paramount
My dear children, I am with you heart and soul. Not a day passes when I do not think of you, when I do not urge Our Lord to assist you, to alleviate your sorrows, to smooth out your difficulties and above all to give success to your apostolic works. Also, think sometimes of your Father and of your charity do not forget him in your prayers.
Believe me, my dear children, I am all yours in Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Propaganda to inform it of the progress of the Mission in Equatorial Africa (28th June 1879).
Algiers, 28th June 1879
Your Eminence,
I believe it my duty to communicate to Your Eminence, and through you to Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIII, that the two missionary groups that we sent in March and April last year to Equatorial Africa have themselves finally sent us news of their arrival at their distant destinations. By the grace of God, they have all successfully survived the dangers and the fatigues of such a journey, with the exception of Father Pascal, Superior of the mission of Lake Tanganyka, who piously died in Moukoudoukou last August.
In this letter, I am sending to your Eminence extracts from a letter from Father Livinhac, Superior of the Mission of Lake Victoria, because it contains some details that may interest the Sacred Congregation, especially what is said about the almost daily increase in English Protestant missions and the huge resources these ministers have. It is greatly to be feared that our Missionaries will not be able to compete, if we do not come to their aid, and that we are ashamed to see the heretics in advance of the Catholic Church in these regions. Your Eminence will see how regrettable it is that the Holy Childhood Association has not responded better to our requests and desires, when the Holy See first mentioned it to them, and which then dissipated almost as in a puff of smoke.
As for the personnel of the Mission: as soon as we knew the first Missionaries who arrived at their posts, we thought of sending them reinforcements. A note, which I am also attaching to my letter will inform your Eminence of the names of the eighteen new Fathers or Auxiliaries whom we sent from Algiers last Sunday to join their confreres in Equatorial Africa. Six of these new apostles are intended to strengthen the Lake Victoria Mission, which will now number ten. Each of these Missions will be divided into three separate stations, in order to act more effectively by extending its action. The five other Fathers remaining will establish an independent station linking the two Victoria and Tanganyka Missions.
I decided all this for the sake of spreading the faith, according to the powers given to me last year by Propaganda to establish missionaries in the interior of Equatorial Africa, wherever other Catholic congregations are not yet established. The nearest of these stations will still be about 500 kilometres from the seashore, and therefore, establishments of the Holy Ghost Fathers. Finally, Rev. Father Guyot, a secular priest of my Diocese who was authorized by the Sacred Congregation to manage the Procure of Zanzibar without doing any ministry, also left with the last expedition.
I would now have a word to say to Your Eminence about the Auxiliaries who accompany our Missionaries. There are only six of them; but many other requests had been addressed to us from all the Catholic countries, and we had to refuse them, on the one hand because of the lack of resources, and on the other, so as not to commit ourselves any further in such a situation, without having dealt with this matter thoroughly with the Holy See.
For this reason, I propose to go to Rome towards the end of August or the beginning of September, if you find it suitable, in order to directly inform your Eminence and Our Holy Father the Pope. In the meantime, I am also sending you the little Rule that these Auxiliaries have received from me and that they have signed with their own hand. It will give a better and more exact idea to Your Eminence of what we have begun than all my words and what we might perhaps develop in the same direction for our entirely primitive missions to the African interior, where one is exposed to the attacks of savages and ferocious beasts. I believe that the Jesuit Fathers have a broadly similar project for the Zambezi. The Auxiliaries received by us are former Papal Zouaves. This is to say that they are men to be completely trusted. Perhaps there are the elements of restoration, in a new form of someone of the ancient Military Orders of Chivalry that rendered so many services to the Church in barbarous times and similar circumstances. However, we must be careful, I believe, to put such a title forward, until we know what we mean to do.
I must also inform Your Eminence, confidentially, that the King of the Belgians seems to have designs on the centre of Africa, not only humanitarian but also political. He began to form, under the orders of Stanley, the Protestant American explorer, a kind of private army destined, no doubt, for easy conquests. It is unfortunate that this Prince puts himself in the hands of the Protestants for such an enterprise. He wanted to deal with us in a recent event, but I refused to get involved. Before doing so, I want to see Your Eminence and the Holy Father.
I beg you to forgive me for the length of this letter, your Eminence; the very importance of the subjects treated here will be my justification to your Eminence. It is with these sentiments that I have the honour to say to you, with the deepest respect, your Most Reverend Eminence, that I am your most humble and obedient servant.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter from the Founder to Bishop Foulon (24th July 1879).
Most Reverend and Dear Lord,
I thought for a moment that the natural current of events would lead me to Nancy, because the doctors prescribed the waters of Karlsbad to me . However, they have just commuted my sentence to that of the waters at Vals , which leads me to the south, instead of leading me to the east. I leave tomorrow for Sainte Anne d’Auray, where I will intercede for Saint Anne’s at Jerusalem . Add to that my liver disease, and you will see that, in spite of all my desires to visit you, I am forced to a standstill. I can only console myself by thinking that you will hold your promise to me and I will see you in Algiers next autumn. It is a trip that is truly worth it.
Farewell, dear and reverend Lord, be assured of my tender and devoted feelings for you in Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Friendly and fraternal letter to his friend Bishop Bourret (16th September 1879).
Rome 16th September 1879
Very Dear and Reverend friend,
Faithful to my promise, I am writing to you from Rome to tell you my impressions, reserving to myself the care of bringing my letter to Marseilles and putting it in the post on Saturday, before embarking, for fear of Italian indiscretions.
I found Our Holy Father the Pope in good health, despite his seclusion and his very frail appearance. Everyone around him predict a long life for him, both because it is customary and because, according to the doctors, all his vital signs, without exception, are perfectly healthy. So, apart for an accident, like that of poor Cardinal Franchi, the pontificate of Leo XIII will happily be of long duration. It will be no less remarkable by the performance and subsequently in the manner of dealing with business. In everything, he bears a character of firmness and wisdom.
As for the Sacred College and the Prelature, there are deep divisions increasing every day. As you had very well anticipated, I remember, a very large minority show a violent reaction against the ideas of Pius IX and especially of Cardinal Antonelli, of which one speaks, if at all, as one would speak of Beelzebub himself. Basically, the Sovereign Pontiff and his intimate confidants are on this side! However, on the other hand, many others at the head of which are Chigi, Oreglia, di San Stephano, etc., do not hesitate to show their opposition and are of all persuasions.
That’s all. You know enough about men and affairs to fill in all the details yourself. As for me, according to the principles of faith and obedience, I am with the Pope, always and everywhere, being in no way surprised that in non-essential matters every Pope has the right to have his will and every Christian the duty to follow him.
Now, as far as I am concerned, I inform you confidentially that Leo XIII has formally manifested the desire for me to be given the first vacant hat. Mr de Gabriac and the new Nuncio received a hint and the other instructions to this effect. But I know what the projects of this world are and elsewhere at this time, we risk more, in sticking one’s neck out than to receive hats. God grant us the grace to place it on a proper platter, as for Saint John the Baptist.
Farewell, good and dear friend, with or without a future hat, believe me I am always yours, heart and soul, as long as they last.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
The Founder announces the promulgation of the ‘Decretum laudis’ for the Society by the Holy See (5th October 1879).
Circular letter from the Archbishop of Algiers, Apostolic Delegate, to Fathers and Brothers of the Society of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa of Algiers, and the Order promulgating the Decretum Laudis granted by the Holy See to the said Society.
My Dearest Sons in Our Lord,
It is now more than ten years since the oldest among you, under my paternal direction, joined to devote themselves to the salvation of non-believers of Africa. Since that time, your little Society has grown in the shadow and silence, still unable to aspire, according to the Rules of the Church, to see its existence recognised by it, and seeking to make itself worthy by its zeal, its abnegation and its works in God’s service.
Already, my dear children, many of your confreres have generously sacrificed their lives for this great cause. Others have confronted and with courage, face, at this moment, the fatigues and the perils, to carry the name of Our Lord to the most barbaric people of the African interior, who do not know this name yet. I thought, and the Holy See has deigned to ratify my hope, that these marks of the Apostolic Spirit, which dwells in you, deserve a reward which ordinarily takes, longer to wait, and I have asked the Decretum Laudis for, from the Vicar of Jesus Christ, which is the first official recognition, by the Holy See, of purely diocesan Communities.
After an in-depth examination that lasted more than a year, after the explanations and testimonies that were asked of me in writing and in person, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, commissioned by Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIII pronounced his judgment, by a solemn rescript, consenting to praise your emerging Institute and thus recognise its existence.
But not only has the Sacred Congregation praised your Society; she agreed to pay attention to your Rules, to make known to me the points which it thought it would be useful to change or modify, and finally to make a decision which has personally filled me with gratitude. The Sacred Congregation has, indeed, taken a decision ratified by the Holy Father, according to which it wants me to keep, as long as I live, and in whatever situation I may be placed, the paternal jurisdiction that I have exercised so far in my simple capacity as Founder of your work. The Sacred Congregation thought that my devotion was still necessary to you; it did not want to separate the father from the children. By virtue of this Decree, all the passages of the Rule in which my authority was referred to as Apostolic Delegate, have been removed by me from the new text which I place in your hands, with the other changes indicated by the Holy See. Since this Rule now has a definitive character, it is not appropriate, as the Sacred Congregation observed, to leave intermediate provisions, since they must end with me. Nonetheless, these dispositions must be observed until my death.
Thus, as in the past, ‘as long as Archbishop Lavigerie lives, the Society is placed by a special decree of the Holy See, under his jurisdiction, and it is governed under the authority of this Prelate. The decisions and ordinances of the General Chapter must be submitted to Archbishop Lavigerie for ratification. Finally, the resolutions, elections and deliberations made by the Council and by the Chapter must be submitted to Archbishop Lavigerie as long as he lives.’
In the text, some lines are added from the Decree, in Latin, which specify two points to be corrected in the Constitutions: it is necessary to prolong the time of daily meditation; silence must be respected in community life outside of designated recreation times. The Founder continues:
Finally, the Sacred Congregation desired that the last sentences of the Oath should be better specified than they were originally, so that they gave rise to no scruple in appearing to extend Missionary obligations in an indefinite manner; and it indicated some points where the text of the Rule should also be more clearly explained. These changes are reduced, moreover, to very few things, as you will see in the text of the Rule, which I now definitively fix next to this circular.
As I should, in all of this I have sacrificed my own ideas to the wishes of the Holy See. You will do the same, my dear children, as your Rule prescribes it by one of its former dispositions. You will strive above all to testify, out of fidelity, to observe all the points, of your filial respect for the Vicar of Jesus Christ, since they are now vested in His sovereign authority. All that remains for me to do is to urge Our Lord Jesus Christ, Model and Leader of the Apostles, to pour out his blessings upon you and to bring abundant fruits of grace and salvation to your Work.
To these causes, and invoking the Holy Name of God, We have ordered and ordained the following:
Art.1 - Issued by these presents the Rescript of the Holy and Apostolic See, relating to the Society of the Missions of Africa of Algiers, and thus conceived: Laudatur institutum et communicentur animadversiones et maneat tanquam superior delegatus R.P.D. Karolus-Martialus Archiepiscopus Lavigerie.
Art. 2 - The text of the Rules is henceforward obligatory only for the said Society, modified by us, in accordance with the indications of the Holy and Apostolic See and annexed to this Order.
Signed at Algiers on Sunday, 5th October 1879, on the Feast of the Solemnity of the Holy Rosary.
+ Charles, Archbishop,
Apostolic Delegate
Letter to Father Livinhac and to the Missionaries of Nyanza (22nd November 1879)
Algiers, 22nd November 1879
My dear Sons,
We have received and read with the greatest interest the diary of your journey sent to us by Father Livinhac. I thank him especially. This diary was really as a good missionary should write it, and if there had been less a matter of daily fevers, or at least if it had been discussed in more complete terms of resignation to the Holy Will of God and in the feelings of the ‘superabundo gaudio omni tribulatione nostra’ of St Paul, it would have been really perfect. I sent it to the Missions Catholiques, which will publish it as a follow-up to that of Fr. Deniaud. Unfortunately, it stopped on 23rd August; but we have not received a single line from our Tanganika colleagues since their departure from Tabora. I do not know to what to attribute their silence, because we learned that they arrived successfully at the end of their journey.
For you, my dear children, I thank you tenderly for having given us your news as often as possible. You know now that we have not forgotten you. Your confreres will have joined you, I hope, at the moment when these lines reach you, and will have given you the detailed instructions which I have drawn up to follow those of last year, relative to the progress of your missions.
All that you tell me about Mutesa in the diary and in the unfortunately short and insignificant letter of Father Lourdel to Father Deguerry, brought us to the decision to undertake as soon as possible a third caravan at the head of which we think we should place Father Aubert with three other Missionaries and a good number of Auxiliaries from Belgium, chosen from among professionals, in order to meet the wishes of this African monarch and your indications.
We have decided to try to send this caravan by way of Egypt, following the indications which Mgr Comboni gave me in Rome and which are quite similar to what Father Livignac wrote to me. I would also ask that you use this route to send us your correspondence and the rest of your diary . You will have noted, in my instructions, the importance I give this for the success of your work.
Father Ganachau, in his neighbouring station of Tabora, is likewise instructed by me to send on to you those letters addressed to you which reach him from the coast. You will see whether it is better to use the same route for your replies or to send us your correspondence by entrusting it to one of Mgr Comboni’s missionaries at Gondokoro. He maintains that you can be reached from Gondokoro in 32 hours.
The conclusion of the letter is missing! The document can be found in the red volumes, in the year 1879, dated November 22nd.
Letter to Father Toussaint Deniaud and the missionaries of Tanganyika (22nd November 1879)
Algiers, 22nd November 1879
My dear Son,
I cannot tell you what dreadful worry such a long period of silence has caused me. I have received not a single word from you since 2nd December last year. In fact, I was informed a number of times from Zanzibar and even from Lake Victoria-Nyanza that you had safely arrived in Ujiji. But this news, while calming my fears about your fate and that of your confreres, in another way only served to increase my worries. Since news about you came from the coast, which came from the caravans from Tanganyika: why did you not benefit from them by writing? Why have you not sent the next part of your diary which finished on August 23rd? It was published by Les Missions Catholiques who had to end it abruptly. I had placed you under a solemn obligation to keep this diary and send it to me. Why have you failed to do this?
When you receive this letter your new confreres will no doubt have been with you for some time already ; they will have told you the sorrow this absence of news has caused us. In this same post, I am writing to Father Ganachau in Tabora to advise him to set up a regular service of porters between his mission station and yours. This will enable you more easily to correspond with us regularly and, I beg of you, to send us the diary which I have given you the responsibility of keeping. Only by reading this can we judge your true situation and give you some useful advice.
Let me say, my dear Son, that I did not find expressed in what you have sent us from Tabora those feelings which one expects to find in the heart and in the pen of an apostle. It was despairingly cold; and with regard to those poor Africans it showed feelings of repulsion and contempt which are unthinkable in a missionary who has left everything to go and haul them out of their sorry state of barbarism and ignorance. You knew full well when you left that you were going to poor savages . You also knew that you would not be short of difficulties and dangers. That you should speak of it when some extraordinary circumstance comes about, I quite understand. But that your diary should contain every day irritated lamentations; that you never, or hardly ever, raise up your thoughts to God; that St Paul’s superabundo gaudio in omni tribulatio nostra is not once to be found in your heart or in your pen, that is what saddens me immensely.
My dear Sons, you are not explorers; you are not common travellers, and yet you seem to be copying, in all your behaviour and your feelings, what the Stanleys of this world or the envoys of the Belgian Geographical Society are doing. You are apostles, nothing but apostles; or at least anything more must come simply as an extra. I beseech you, bring back to life in you those great thoughts of the apostolate; awaken with vigour the spirit of faith and devotion which seems to have fallen asleep in your hearts.
For this, I advise the greatest faithfulness to your devotional exercises, especially your prayer. Superiors would be found seriously guilty if, through their negligence, they omitted any one of the exercises ordered by your Rule: prayer, particular examen, spiritual reading and visits to the Blessed Sacrament. For I think that your first concern was to have a small chapel built in which to keep Our Lord. He alone can be your strength and your light for the fulfilment of your great work.
I have given Father Moinet some written instructions for the second caravan in which I mention the absolute necessity of their applying themselves immediately to the apostolate and the Rules which must be kept. In particular, I draw your attention to what I have written concerning the establishing or rather the re-establishing of the catechumenate and the setting up of the first orphanages for African children whom you have gathered round you. I hope that the letters I shall soon receive from Tanganyika will bring good news and will tell me that you have begun Our Lord’s work. I love you dearly, my Sons, but I would rather learn you were dead than see you lacking in the spirit of your vocation and become some kind of African Robinson Crusoes, as I have sometimes told you. Sursum corda ! This is my cry sent to you across space, so as to rouse your souls.
There are now nine of you, unless one of those belonging to your mission has gone to follow good Father Pascal But I hope that God has kept you all safe. As I indicated in my instructions, you must now find the right moment to split up and establish mission stations on the other side of Tanganyika, without ever forgetting the rule which obliges you to be always three confreres together. However, I would allow two Fathers with two auxiliaries, if this were to occur among you. Choose places most favourable for your health as well as for the number and the mood of the people living there .
Farewell, my dear Sons; do not forget to write; and when you do, don’t write out of some kind of duty. What good is a letter of four short pages, full of trivia, when it might cost perhaps 100 francs for it to reach us? For your correspondence to be interesting and informative for your superiors, you will have to divide up the work. One might speak, for example, of the mission’s material conditions, another of life in community, a third could take the customs of the people and a fourth might tell stories about the past of the African peoples, their traditions and their religious beliefs. I have earnestly encouraged such a study in my written instructions. I do so again now. You cannot imagine the great interest with which your letters are awaited and, if they are well done, they can be of great use.
Farewell, again, my dear Sons; you will receive many other letters and papers along with this one. So I am not sending you news. But, from the bottom of my heart, I tenderly send you my fatherly blessing, for you and for your work, and I remain yours most devotedly in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers.
Letter to Mgr Bracq Bishop of Ghent (Belgium) (1st January 1880).
Bruxelles, Hôtel de Flandre
My Lord,
Having come to Belgium for only a few days and being obliged to return to France sooner that I thought, I am forced to communicate with your Lordship at a distance, which was not my intention, since I had hoped to meet you in person, as I did yesterday with His Eminence, the Cardinal Archbishop of Malines.
I should like to find among the families living in your still so Catholic Flanders, despite all the impiety being inflicted on them, some young men who might have a vocation to the apostolate and who might be willing to dedicate themselves to the vast mission entrusted to the Missionaries of Algiers in Equatorial Africa. I might add confidentially that this, too, is desired by His Majesty the King of the Belgians for the success of his undertaking. For this, I should be willing to accept poor children whose very poverty might prevent them from receiving a good education in the seminaries and whose board and lodgings I would pay, thanks to the help of generous benefactors of which I am already assured. Most of these children I would place in the minor seminary in Turnhout, in Campine. They would go on to complete their education in Algiers in the noviciates of our Society’s missionaries. I have already arranged this with the Superior at Turnhout.
As I mentioned at the beginning, My Lord, I had hoped to come in person and present this plan to Your Lordship. I wanted to ask especially for your agreement and your blessing on those young men from your diocese who might wish to enter the minor seminary with this aim in mind.
I should also like to ask your permission to convey my intentions to some zealous members of the clergy, discreetly, however, and via private correspondence. Not being able to offer this in your presence, I ask Your Lordship to kindly accept herewith my double request and, in anticipation of a favourable response, I dare to offer you, in addition to my sincere thanks, my devoted and respectful good wishes.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to a minister in the French government concerning scientific work (18th January 1880).
Minister,
The Society of the Missionaries of Africa which I founded twelve years ago to serve the missions in the African Interior currently runs a number of mission stations in the equatorial regions of that continent and twenty-seven of its members are working there.
The closest of these mission stations were set up near to Tabora between the east coast and Lake Tanganyka and the others are to be found around the two great lakes, Tanganyka and Nyanza. True to the spirit which has always inspired French missionaries, our members combine their love of God and humanity which nourish their devotion to their work with a deep devotion to their country and to all that might benefit her progress and show her honour. In the special situation in which they find themselves in this still unknown land, they would be pleased indeed if they could render some service to the studies being pursued by our different scientific societies. In their name and my own, I wish therefore to inform you that they are ready to welcome any request which might be made to them in this line.
What prompts us to take this action is that several scientists have approached them or me specifically seeking information on the African Interior concerning their work. But perhaps an overall programme of study could be prepared by competent persons regrouping the requirements of the various branches of science. I would willingly then instruct our missionaries to devote, in a consistent manner, what free time they might have from their apostolate to the research requested of them.
Please accept, Sir, my respectful and sincere good wishes,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Deguerry (19th January 1880).
Paris,
My dear Son,
I have been ill for 15 days. Now I feel better and am getting ready to leave for Algeria. In the meantime, I approve your Council decisions, but wait for me before making the appointments .
Today I am sending you Mr Joubert (Saint Joubert !) , the captain in the Pontifical Zouaves whom General de Charette has finally agreed to let us have and who is going to do his noviciate as an auxiliary at Notre Dame d’Afrique where he will soon be joined by some Belgians. He is French and comes from Brittany. Get him settled in straight away and give him his small Rule book . I shall settle the other matters on my return.
Farewell, my dear Son,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
P.S. We have not opened a new minor seminary in Belgium, but we have managed to get the King to pay for the board and lodgings of twenty children at the minor seminary in Turnhout (diocese of Malines) . We shall bring them to Algiers later, after they have been tested.
Instructions to Father Deguerry for his journey to Jerusalem and Egypt (Early February 1880).
Note to Rev. Father Deguerry
1) Take care to be absolutely clear in your mind about the instructions I have given to the Fathers in Jerusalem, reading them thoroughly before you leave and again on arrival and my letters which you must ask them for, so as to avoid the slightest risk of finding yourself in contradiction to me.
2) When you visit the Consul General and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, keep to the terms of these same instructions. If mention is made of my visit, say that I have been prevented from coming this year by the appointment of my coadjutor, but that I hope to come next year so as to sort out on the spot everything to do with the buildings at St Anne.
3) The Fathers in Jerusalem will be informed by telegraph . I shall telegraph them myself from Algiers as soon as I know that Father Deguerry has embarked at Marseilles. He will have to inform me by dispatch before going on board. He will then find one of them waiting for him in Jaffa. The boat which leaves Marseilles on Sunday will arrive at Port-Saïd on the following Saturday. Father Deguerry could take either the Austrian boat the next day, Sunday, or the French mail-boat which normally arrives on Monday from Alexandria. It might be wiser to take the Austrian boat on Sunday if the weather is fine.
4) As there is no port in Jaffa, it is not possible to disembark when the weather is very bad, because the boat does not stop. In this case, one takes the Austrian boat as far as Caïffa and from there one goes on horseback to Nazareth and then Jerusalem using a guide. With the French boat, one must go on to Beirut and wait there for the next boat to come back, either to Caïffa on the Austrian boat or to Jaffa on the French boat. The French boat never calls in at Caïffa.
5) I give Father Deguerry permission to visit the main Holy Places in Palestine after his visit to St Anne. But I strongly advise him to avoid getting too tired.
6) After spending two weeks in Palestine, you will have to set off from Jaffa for Port-Saïd and arrange to spend between fifteen and twenty days in Egypt so as to gather all the necessary information about the journey of the next caravan via the Nile route . You will need to obtain this information from the Fathers of Mgr Comboni who live in Cairo and from the French Consul General for whom I shall send you a letter of recommendation via Father Charmetant. I shall send this to Jerusalem if time allows, and if not you will find it at the Consulate where Father Charmetant will send it asking that it be handed to you on your arrival.
7) There is a boat service on the Nile and also a railway which goes quite a long way into the interior of the country. I think you will need to take these two means of transport as far as they go and then determine yourself, by asking the European merchants who have settled in those regions, about the accuracy of the information you received in Cairo.
8) The information to be sought should deal primarily with salubrity and the costs incurred on the journey. It is mainly the pashas or Egyptian employees who have gone to Gondokoro, and more especially those who have been to Lake Nyanza, who could provide the most useful information on these two points. The British would also be in a position to give this information. But with foreigners you must be cautious and speak only in very general terms and not reveal in precise detail the Society’s plans. You must be equally cautious with the Fathers of Mgr Comboni.
9) Having obtained the necessary information as completely as possible and having written it down each day so as not to forget anything, Father Deguerry will return to Algiers via Marseilles, like the first time. There he will pass it all on to his Council so as to come to some practical resolutions which you will then submit to me.
10) Check the accounts of the building work at St Anne, as in Tunis. Recommend the greatest savings possible: make some remarks to Father Roger about his expenses.
Letter to the Superior of the Jesuits of Algeria (30th March 1880).
Algiers,
Most Reverend Father,
I have learnt just now from the newspapers in Algiers that the decrees published this morning in the Journal Officiel announce the dissolution of your establishments in France within the next three months. Since no mention is made of Algeria in these decrees, I should like to hope that, in keeping with current jurisdiction, your schools in Algiers and Oran will not come under threat. Should the case prove otherwise, however, I should like you to know straightaway that we assure of our support those among you who may need it if they find themselves in an awkward situation due to any measures that may be taken against them.
The diocese of Algiers or even our own missions would offer them posts immediately in which they could use their talents. I need not add that, before getting to that point, I shall personally approach the civil authorities and make all the representations necessary so as to prevent the measures taken against your confreres in France from being applied here. I think it only wise, so as to strengthen my hand in this matter, that as long as you have not been implicated directly you refrain from drawing attention to your particular situation.
I did not want to delay for one moment, dear Reverend Father, in writing these few lines to you and telling you that we are wholeheartedly with you in the midst of your troubles.
Yours most devotedly,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers.
Letter to the Bishop of Bruges (Belgium) (31st March 1880).
My Lord,
Your Lordship will know that eighteen Flemish auxiliaries arrived recently in Algiers to accompany our missionaries in Equatorial Africa. They are excellent recruits. But we find ourselves faced with a very big problem with regard to them: we do not have a single priest who speaks Flemish, so they have no preacher and no-one to hear their confession.
So as not to leave them spiritually abandoned like this, I beg Your Lordship to allow us to have for a few months, that is to say just until next October, one of your priests, Father Vyncke, who has willingly accepted to fulfil this mission with enthusiasm and charity.
I would indeed be most grateful, My Lord, if you could answer this request favourably and in advance I send you my most sincere good wishes.
Yours faithfully,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers.
Letter to Father Livinhac and the Missionaries of Nyanza (1st April 1880)
My dear Sons,
As you might well imagine, our thought and our hearts are often in Uganda. It is almost a year now since we had news from you; since it is now April and your last letters, those of both Father Livinhac and Father Lourdel, were dated June of last year. In such a long period of time, so much must have happened and we try to guess what but without succeeding.
However, in the detailed notes which accompany this letter, you will see that we have thought more especially and in quite a practical way about you, since it is towards your mission that we shall send our next caravan in October. You will also see, in these same instructions, that we take a detailed interest in all that concerns you. Since these different points are dealt with by me in those same instructions, I shall not mention them again here. That would simply duplicate things.
What I wish to tell you in this letter, my dear Sons, is that the main object of my paternal anxiety for you – and this, as much for you as for the poor people to whom you are sent – is your spiritual good, the good of souls. There you are on the battle field, in the midst of so many preoccupations, so many difficulties and all the necessities of life. Do not allow yourselves to get bogged down, as so often happens to missionaries, in external, material matters. Remember that you are apostles and that to be apostles you must be above all men of God.
But how to live the divine life, if that life is not kept alive within you? It is now, my dear Sons, that you must remain faithful to your devotions. If you had the misfortune to lose the spirit of faith, if you allowed yourselves to act simply as explorers or ordinary travellers, you would surely be lost. The spirit acts swiftly, and you have obeyed by setting out so generously, so heroically even, for a destination that is surrounded by so much darkness and so many dangers. But if the spirit has done its work, make sure that the flesh now plays its part, for the flesh is weak. In the midst of all the evil situations which assail your eyes and your ears, if you are not constantly mindful of placing your heart in God’s care, it will languish and will slowly be dragged down to earth, to the senses, under its own weight.
« That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess through the laying on of my hand ». This is what I have often told you during your retreats at Maison-Carrée and it is what I cry out to you once again from the top of the hill of Notre-Dame d’Afrique. You are in danger of going astray if you do not take as your top priority among all your preoccupations the practical means of maintaining and fostering the spiritual life within you. My dear Sons, if you are not men of God you will be men of the devil; and you will not be men of God if you forget your personal obligations, those imposed on you by your Rule, to Him.
I address these pleas and this advice particularly to your Father Superior, since observance of the Rules depends on him. He should consider as one of the most serious faults any act of negligence or weakness which might allow those under his authority to slacken in this matter. Never should personal prayer, the particular examen or spiritual reading be omitted when you are not travelling; and even when you are travelling, if you are unable to do everything, you must make up, as best you can, for whatever you are forced to omit.
What I am saying for each one individually, I say also for the community. You must remember each day (and for this I should like a special exercise to be added, say, to Morning Prayer) the only important work is that of the apostolate. The rest is purely incidental, or perhaps put in a better way, is only a means to obtaining that sole end. You must not therefore be too bound up with material things; with regard to yourselves and to the Africans, you should only be concerned with these things in as much as they help you to instil into their minds truth and the life of grace. I place special insistence on the constant and serious study of the language of the local population, conducted with this aim in mind. Your former Rule held that the vocation of novices would be recognized by this particular sign, that they should be keen to learn the language of the local people. This applies all the more so to missionaries. It is certain that one cannot possibly purport to be fulfilling one’s solemn duty when one does not use all one’s resources and all one’s skills to learn a language which is the essential instrument of the apostolate. But here I am reiterating the contents of the Instructions I sent you.
I would like to say a word or two about the setting up of your mission. I do hope that you can stay in Uganda, but if, for one reason or another, you were not able to stay there, you would settle around the lake, in a place you judge to be the most suitable as I mentioned in the General Instructions. Even if you do stay in Uganda, I think it would be wise to split up and find the most favourable spots straight away. This is what I have already explained to you previously, indicating Karagoué and Oukéréwé Island. You will have to remain there until the next caravan arrives in October. But when that caravan arrives, after taking whatever is destined for the Mission at Nyanza, especially the auxiliaries, you will need to think about how to reach the northern end of the River Congo, in line with the mission I am giving to Father Aubert.
I think that, in order to meet the wishes of King Mutesa, you might use some of the auxiliary workers. Among them, there will be some who will be useful, particularly the gunsmith, if you find, after his trial period , that he has the necessary physical and moral aptitudes. I shall also try to form among this group a small musical band to play for the King on their arrival and to entertain him after that during his leisure time. Father Lourdel maintains that he is in great need of being entertained.
It is to King Mutesa, before all others, the Rule not to baptize must be applied, even if he should insist, because of the polygamy which he would surely never fully renounce without a miraculous gift of grace. You will need to explain to explain to him that, in the Church’s discipline, there are three grades of Christians: the first is the grade of Postulants; the second is that of Catechumens; and the third is that of the Faithful . Given that polygamy is not contrary to natural law, since Moses allowed it, it would not be right to force this prince to send away his wives before baptism. It would suffice for him to know that once baptized he could not keep them and that, until he has this firm intention in mind, he cannot receive baptism. He should also know that it could be given to him on his death-bed and that, should it happen that it was physically impossible for him to receive it, his fervent desire would make up for it.
In conclusion, I should like to give you some news from France and Algeria. Alas! The news is not at all good. In France, the revolution is spreading quickly and the government is more and more overwhelmed. We are expecting, during the course of this week, the expulsion or at least the dispersal of the Jesuits and the forced closure of their schools. In Algeria, the situation still remains calm, but law and order are under threat everywhere and, given this internal disorder, we shall surely have the complicated situation of an external war in France and an insurrection in Algeria . This means that you must prepare yourselves, in advance, for all eventualities. If serious upheavals occur, you can always write to your Superiors, as we have made arrangements to go and stay in Tunis and in Malta. If I can, I shall go to Malta. For three weeks now, I have a coadjutor with future succession in the person of Mgr Dusserre – who has himself been replaced in Constantine by Mgr Gillard. This is a great blessing for the mission.
Farewell, my dear Sons. I send you my kind and paternal good wishes. Do not be cross with me for writing to you this general letter; I do not have the time to write to each of you individually. You are all close to me in heart and mind and I bless you with one and the same tenderness as your Father in Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Instructions for the Missionaries of Equatorial Africa (April 1880).
The two caravans of missionaries which left Algiers in 1878 and 1879 received special instructions regarding both their journey and how they were to accomplish their mission once they had arrived in the places where they were to set up the mission stations.
It is essential that the missionaries, and the superiors in particular, keep these instructions in mind so as to put them into practice or, if they find them impractical in some place or other, tell their major superiors in Algiers about this. In this way, everything would be conducted in an orderly and methodical manner, and in a spirit of obedience which would surely attract abundant blessings on the missionaries and their work.
So as to help bring about this result and bring the aforementioned instructions to the attention of each person, I begin by compelling the superior of each mission to have the assembled missionaries read twice over, with an interval of two weeks between the two readings, the two sets of instructions I have spoken about, namely those given to the Fathers of the 1878 caravan and those given to the Fathers of the 1879 caravan. Furthermore, in the letter they will write either to Father Deguerry or to me after this reading, I make it compulsory for all missionaries to give their reflections or make pertinent comments on what they have read, adding or removing or amending something . After this general recommendation which aims to avoid any unnecessary repetition here, I shall add some of my own personal reflections, concerning either things I have already said and which seem to have been disregarded or new points which have occurred to me. So as to be very clear in what I am going to write, I shall follow exactly the same order as I did in the 1879 instructions, using the same chapter titles and adding just one supplementary chapter.
Chapter I. Material precautions to be taken for the caravans.
1) – Following the recommendations I gave you and the promises some of you made to me quite spontaneously, I expected you to give me all the practical observations necessary to facilitate the journeys of the confreres who will come to join you. This is absolutely essential, for if this is not done, we shall be no further forward in twenty years’ time than we are today. Well, up to now, we have received nothing and you make no mention of anything being forthcoming. So I beg you, my dear Sons, to get this work done and send it to us as soon as possible. Perhaps the life of one or more of your confreres or at least the usefulness of the mission might well depend on it.
For the greatest benefit, here is how I think this work should be carried out. By checking through his memories and his written notes, each missionary ought to write down in a few words what he can recall are the actions to be taken and what must be avoided. These brief notes would then be handed to one of the missionaries of the station designated by his confreres who will make a unified summary of them. This work would then be sent to me in Algiers by the next post.
2) – A matter which we find extremely worrying regarding the future of the missions in Equatorial Africa is the question of the expenses incurred in meeting the travel costs. We think that these expenses could be greatly reduced and that many useless items were taken on the first two caravans. Indeed, thanks to the extravagances made by Mr. Guyot and tolerated by the members of his caravan, we have already spent far more than our resources allow. At the moment, I do not know how we are going to resolve this. As soon as I knew how they were organized, I conveyed to the Fathers of the second caravan the most serious observations about this and about the shameful impression their wastefulness and the blatant robbery to which they had allowed themselves to fall victim was making in Zanzibar and would surely make in Europe. I do not wish to sadden them by repeating those reproaches here. On the contrary, I must tell them how painful it was for me to add to their moral and physical suffering by lashing out at them as I did. They know full well that I love them like a father and they will have seen, in the sharpness of the language I used, only the need I find myself in to save the mission not to make similar mistakes in future.
So, in the remarks you will send me relating to the organization of the caravans, I would ask that you write a separate chapter on the subject of materials and tell me, in all honesty, what has been of value and what has been a waste of money, which things might be done without, by how many we might reduce the number of pagazis and askaris .
In the 1879 Instructions, in Chapter I, No 8, I pointed out that Livingstone advised all travellers to Africa to reduce their luggage to the strict minimum. Over a number of years, this outstanding man had only spent a total of 30,000 frs and he travelled three or four times as far as you have. Is it not possible for some Catholic missionaries to achieve, if not the same result, then something approaching that figure? In the same set of Instructions, I expressed the wish that only what was strictly necessary should be taken along and that you purchase what you might need from Arab merchants either in Tabora or in the interior of the country. Since then, a company of French merchants has founded a store which is to be opened in Tabora under the management of Mr. Sergère. He is offering me a contract under which he would provide you with all the articles for bartering at a good price, on condition that you would get nothing more from anyone else but him. I am hesitant about this condition and I should like to have your views on this which I ask you to send to me as soon as possible. Moreover, I shall come back to this point when I speak about the expenses of your missions and the budgets to be drawn up for each of them.
Chapter II – Moral Precautions to be taken.
In the chapter of the Instructions for the second caravan which bears this title, I pointed out that it was advisable to avoid large caravans. I expressed this same idea in a different form a moment ago. I wish to know whether it might not be possible to travel into the interior with only a very small number of Africans and what precautions would have to be taken for that. In particular, I should like have clear in my mind which items from Europe would need to be taken and which would be a nuisance or would incur greater expense. I need this information so as to have a clearer picture of the outlay required for setting up new mission stations.
2) – I also come back to what I said, according to Livingstone, that «the traveller who uses polite and courteous language can go among the worst of people in Africa and have nothing to fear» … Is this true?
Chapter III - Health
I began this chapter of the 1879 Instructions with these words: « It is far more important to prevent disease than to cure it. Therefore, the Fathers will take great care to avoid the causes of the most common diseases in Equatorial Africa. »
In No 9 of those same Instructions, I stressed the need to avoid fatigue, one of the main causes of sickness in Equatorial Africa. Alas! I did not doubt at all that this recommendation would, sadly, be completely forgotten and that this forgetfulness would be followed by such irreparable misfortune! Our dear Father Ruellan died through the fault of those who imposed on him a fatigue far in excess of his physical strength by sending him to the Coast to accompany Mr Oswald and then ordering him to re-join the caravan. It was during these forced marches that he caught the fever germ which carried him off, separating him from us and from the future of the mission for which he, far more than anyone else, would have been of great benefit.
Exposing him in this way to certain death, by taking advantage of his dedication to duty and his courage, was indeed a real criminal act. As for me, as soon as I learnt, in a letter from Zanzibar, what had been asked of him, I thought in advance that he would die, and I do not add here the comments I made on those who had asked such foolhardiness of him. In such circumstances, they should never have hesitated: they should have sent Mr Oswald to the coast with some Africans and a Kirangozi or some other trustworthy Negro, but not with a Father.
I make the same comment, though more guardedly, about the superior who did not compel Father Facy to travel, like the others, at least part of the way, on a donkey or, if there was no donkey, on a kitanga . This dear Father might so easily have died of fatigue in this way. I simply cannot understand how he was left to do this. Yet I hold superiors accountable for the careless acts they let those in their charge commit and these latter I hold accountable for the careless acts their superiors might commit, with regard to their state of tiredness or their health . After such a sad experience, I feel I must come back to this point and say again that, before God, before the Mission, before their families, the missionaries will be responsible for whatever rash or foolish action they let their colleagues commit, either by disobedience or foolhardiness. But I hope that no similar misfortune will ever occur again and I do not wish to say more about this.
Chapter IV - Food
I hope that, while no-one has said a word to me about it, in each mission station effective measures have begun to be taken to ensure that the Fathers are provided with suitable food and that the sowing of seeds from Europe and the growing of wheat and vines has begun. Since there is an abundance of wild vines, you must try to improve them by caring for them and pruning them. Later you might graft onto them. In Equatorial Africa, vines can only be cultivated and produce decent fruit if they are planted on very high plateaux at 1,200 or 1,400 metres above sea-level; if not they will produce fruit twice a year, but with grapes that unsuitable for giving good wine.
Concerning food, I once again advise against giving the African neophytes European food. I expressly forbid it for children ransomed from slavery. This would amount to doing them and the mission no favours at all .
I think you have already given some thought to the raising of cattle, so as to have milk and meat. I have recommended that you seek to assure yourselves, by all means, of the possibility of being self-sufficient, in case the charitable funds from the Propagation of the Faith and from the Holy Childhood ever dry up due to the Revolution in France . This eventuality is unfortunately no longer just a fanciful dream: the revolution is gaining in momentum and it is possible that very soon, even this year or next at the very latest, we might have to suffer a similar catastrophe. Let the Fathers take all the necessary precautions in this regard: they will have to make do with what they have on the spot and nothing will be forthcoming from Europe, or from France at least.
Chapter V. The Diversity of the Peoples
I ask that you send me the observations you have already made about this regarding the setting up of missions in the most favourable environments. It is indeed vital not to make any false moves and set up establishments where there is sure to be or even where there might be any future hostility. Gradually these matters will become clearer in your mind and you must let us know all that you have learnt that might be of use.
Chapter VI. Setting up the Mission Stations
I shall mention again two recommendations made in the 1879 Instructions. The first relates to the salubriousness and the security of the installations. Salubriousness is such an essential condition that I have no hesitation in saying that you must leave a station and move elsewhere if it is found to be insalubrious. Sick missionaries can do nothing well. The two factors which guarantee salubriousness are: the elevation of the site and the absence of stagnant water in the surrounding area. The station must be set up on an elevated spot. This offers a second advantage, that of security.
The second observation I made in this same Chapter VI relates to the fact that, at the beginning, everyone must lend a hand so as to speed up the final installations. I was very surprised to learn that some of the auxiliaries in the 1879 caravan wanted to shirk their duty of doing manual work. On the contrary, the auxiliaries are duty bound by their Rule to help the missionaries do all manner of work which will assure the smooth running of the mission and the material installations necessary for this.
Chapter VII – The Mission
1)– It gave me great joy to see that the mission itself has begun in Tanganyika and in Nyanza. Two letters from Father Dromaux and from Father Deniaud informed us that, in the first of these missions, they had already bought back several Negro children and had begun to educate them. Two of these, baptized in danger of death, had already gone to join the angels in heaven. I was particularly touched to see that the Fathers had given to the first of these children the name Leo after Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, and to the other Charles, after me. I was also very struck by the details given by Father Dromaux in which he says that for only two or three sous per day one of these children can be fed.
This being so, I think that you could increase the number of young Negroes you buy back. It is an excellent work of charity in its own right. It augurs well also for the future of the mission and finally, in France, it will make a blessed and a fruitful impression on the Holy Childhood Association members. I stress again that this must be developed, but I stress with equal insistence that, in developing it, the general guide-lines I have given must be followed: firstly, that these children must be brought up in the Negro way and that you must not fall into the unforgiveable error of wanting to raise them in the French way. I forbid you to dress them as French children; I forbid you to give them beds like French children have; I forbid you to feed them like French children. They will be taught how to read and write the language of their homeland whose sounds will have to be written down, either in Latin letters or, if these do not convey the sounds, then in a form of transcription invented by the Fathers, but keeping these to the minimum so as to avoid confusion .
What I have just said, however, supposes that the Negro language will be written down; and this is what must be done as soon as possible, for all kinds of obvious reasons which don’t need to be developed.
To achieve this, work must begin immediately, in each mission station, on composing a dictionary and a grammar. For the dictionary, you must take an elementary French dictionary and next to each French or Arabic word write the corresponding Negro word. Everyone must be involved in this work. But a special editor of the dictionary and of the grammar must then be appointed to draw it up. The Council of our Society has appointed Father Lourdel for the mission of Nyanza and Father Dromaux for that of Tanganyka. I confide this important mission to them and beg them to carry it out with the utmost zeal. As soon as their work has advanced sufficiently, they can send it to us so that we can have it printed and it will then be used in the training of future missionaries to Equatorial Africa.
2) – Besides the work of ransoming children, I noted with pleasure in a letter received recently from Father Lourdel that he had begun a more elevated apostolate with King Mutesa, through holding a kind of theological discussion in the presence of this prince. Concerning this, I would remind you, my dear Sons, of what I told you in the 1879 Instructions: you must be very careful not to rush and want to make Christians of men who are not sufficiently prepared or whose perseverance, especially with regard to chastity, you might rightly have grave doubts about. These men, as princes, having inevitably abandoned their faith, would quickly become irreconcilable and most dangerous enemies of the mission.
I have laid down rules for you and you are duty bound to follow them. As happened in the early Church, welcome only as postulants or at the very most as catechumens those adults whose perseverance with regard to morals you have grave doubts about. Only admit them for baptism at the time of death. In this way, they won’t break any promises, nor will they have any motive for claiming to be your enemies and destroying your work. So let it be clearly understood that you do not have the power to baptize them, except in real and immediate danger of death: I absolutely refuse to grant you this .
Without saying much more about the children, I advise you not to hurry with regard to their baptism either. You will never express your sorrow for having waited too long; but, on the contrary, you will often be sorry for having been in too much of a hurry.
The question of slavery comes up here again, because you will surely have not only ransomed children but you may also find yourselves in a position to ransom adults too and I even advise you to do this. You point out to me in your letters that to speak openly of the matter with the native chiefs, as the British are doing, creates tremendous difficulties for you from the very outset and consequently puts an end to the task immediately. Here, I think you need to find a way forward using delicate and effective tactics. I also feel you are right to work for the abolition of the slave trade using a more subtle approach, but just as effective, by starting by winning the trust of the local population and thereby inspiring them with the full horror of this scourge of which they themselves are the victims. For the time being, just be content with ransoming children whom you will bring up, and buying back even a few adult slaves, if the opportunity to do so arises, so that they can be your assistants, your servants or your neophytes. So treat them with great kindness so as to win their hearts and show them that you consider them as brothers and not as slaves. Remember that, from the moment they are in your hands, slavery, for them, is over; and if ever you need to push them to do something or to chastise them, do it not as to slaves but as to children or brothers for whom you want only their spiritual and temporal good.
Chapter VIII. For the future establishment of a Christian kingdom
In the chapter of the 1879 Instructions which bears this title, I spoke of how useful the armed auxiliaries could be in firmly establishing the authority of those chiefs in the African Interior who are in favour of the mission. I must say, however, that the question of auxiliaries and all that this entails is not settled in my mind. I am asking the superiors of the mission stations to tell me what they think and especially what their experience has been regarding them. The auxiliaries who left with the last caravan were very few in number, but those leaving us this coming October are far more numerous: I think there are twelve of them. Almost all of them were recruited in Belgium. The two top men, however, are French and one of these, Mr Joubert, was a captain in the Pontifical Zouaves. They are nearly all farmers, but there is also a stone-mason, a carpenter, a watch-maker, a gunsmith and a cobbler among them. They have all been told that they must take part in manual work. Some of them could also learn the language and perhaps become catechists. That is the theory. It is for you to see how this works out in practice and only you can tells me this. So please tell me simply and openly what you think about this. For the rest of chapter VIII, I would ask the missionaries to refer to the 1879 Instructions, as these are important .
Chapter IX. The missionaries’ diary
We are again, in this report, in the same situation as we were at the beginning. I am not surprised, since I have received neither papers nor correspondence from the mission stations in Nyanza or in Tanganyka since they received my Instructions. I can only ask them therefore to apply themselves to following those Instructions which I sent with the 1879 caravan.
I add only a few words about the need to organize how diaries and correspondence are sent in the safest and the quickest way. Perhaps the mission station in Uganda might benefit most by using the route through Egypt. The missionaries there can decide far better than me. However, Father Lourdel’s letter took three months longer to arrive via Khartoum and El Obeid than Father Livignac’s did via Tabora. I repeat, this is something you will have to check on. Besides, since the next caravan will go via the Nile and not via Zanzibar, they can make all the practical observations and set up contacts who will enable a true assessment of the question to be made .
We made a deal with Mr Grefuthe to have our letters reach the Interior but he asked far too much. Would it be possible to arrange this more cheaply? Again, you must see about this, and particularly Father Ganachau, as it is from his mission station that the letters have to be sent to Uganda and to Tanganyka on the one hand and to the coast on the other . You would need to have a sufficient number of Africans to make at least one journey every two months. I think three Negroes would be enough for each journey. Could you use Negroes ransomed from slavery for this, once you are sure of their loyalty and their affection, thereby having your own private mail service and avoiding excessive costs? In any case, what practical measures should be taken? I am making all these requests for information from the Fathers and I would also ask them to send with their assessments some idea of the costs involved. I should add that there would be no use in incurring further expenses for the reasons I gave in the previous instructions.
We are still waiting for you to send your scientific observations; they will bring great honour to the Church and to your Mission. But why have we received nothing in this line? We have passed on what Father Deniaud has written concerning Mr Debaize to the French government and they have expressed their gratitude for this. There is one last but very important point regarding the news you send us from the Interior. You have acted up to now with so little shrewdness that all the interesting news you have sent has been published in the Marseilles press even before we have received your letters. This stems from the fact that, when writing to us, you also make sure that you write to the agents in Zanzibar , giving them the same news and they send it on, sometimes even via the same telegraph, to the Geographic Society in Marseilles who rush to publish it, so as to be sure of benefitting from it in the eyes of the public. But they always add something of their own, and sometimes even shameful things, because they are a Society of free-thinkers and consequently of enemies. So refrain completely from sending any piece of news to the agents in Zanzibar, unless it is to send us a telegram. Otherwise content yourselves with asking them to make your purchases and say nothing more to them.
Chapter X. On the further development of the Missions
In this chapter of the Instructions of 1879, I determined the establishment of an intermediary mission station at or in the vicinity of Tabora. Since then, I have received the letters in which Father Ganachau expressed his doubts about this. Clearly, it is not I who can resolve them, being so far away. I could only give some general indications. I had spoken of Kanyényé. I am told that this is an insalubrious and isolated spot: so that plan must be abandoned. I authorize its setting up so long as the following conditions are met:
1° that it be located near the point where the road from Zanzibar branches, in one direction to Lake Nyanza and in the other to Lake Tanganyka
2° in a salubrious, populated place;
3° at some distance from Protestant mission stations so as not to create antagonism which might cause scandal;
4° and, if possible, away from areas where Arabs are operating, at least directly.
Father Ganachau should study this question together with his confreres and remember that hesitations and doubts, if they are unreasonable, are the greatest enemy of the Mission.
Since my last Instructions, I have resolved the question of knowing where best to set up the two centres for the missions being founded between the Ocean and the Great Lakes. The first of these, I reckon, would be in the region of Muatayamvo and it would be set up by dividing up the community at the mission of Tanganyka. The second would be established at the northernmost point of the course of the Congo, that is to say, at the point where the river reaches furthest to the north. It would be set up by dividing up the community at the Nyanza mission.
In this way, four distinct mission centres would be formed, apart from the bursar’s office at Tabora: the Tanganyka mission, the Nyanza mission, that of Kabébé and finally that of Upper-Congo. When they are sufficiently well developed, these missions would each make up a distinct Vicariate. For the time being, they would form four missions quite independent from each other, because of the communications difficulties between them.
The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith has approved this project. Only when the October caravan has arrived must you contemplate these two new foundations. This caravan, according to our predictions, will be made up of eighteen members, of whom only six will be missionaries and twelve auxiliaries. As I mentioned earlier, it will arrive via the Nile and after leaving a group at the Nyanza mission, it will go on to Lake Tanganyka with the remaining members. They will also carry with them the necessary instructions, which is why I shall say nothing more about them here.
Supplementary Chapter: Some important remarks to be added to the previous remarks
1) – Fraternal Charity - From reading the correspondence, I think something must be said about fraternal charity in the relations between the Fathers. I beg them to examine their conscience about this and remember what they have been told: in a mission like the one they are undertaking among infidels, a lack of unity or charity is a kind of sacrilege. You must pay close attention to this. I would say the same about a lack of obedience to superiors and I recommend that a serious reflection on this be made by all.
2) - Study of the Local Language - This study is so it vital that you could say that it outweighs in importance everything else, because without knowing the language no apostolate of any kind can be conducted among the Africans. So this is an apostolic task which the Fathers will carry out in the centre of Africa, this and no other. It is, therefore, their bounden duty to work hard at the study of the local language. I was surprised and saddened to read in the last correspondence that among those in the last caravan only Mr Guyot is capable of understanding the language of the native people. What were the Fathers doing during the journey? From now on they should know that it is our firm intention, that of the Council and my own, that the study of the language should be the top priority among all the missionaries’ concerns until they can speak it perfectly. After reading their letters, I was about to forbid them, under pain of ecclesiastical censure, to speak French among themselves so as to force them to speak only the language of the Africans. I thought it better, however, at least for the time being and until it becomes absolutely necessary, to leave it up to their conscience. But I earnestly ask this of them and hope they will understand just what a load there will be on their conscience, especially the superiors, if they allowed any slackening regarding this.
3) – On the setting up of missions - In these present instructions, as in the previous ones, I have tried to decide, in as much as this is possible at such a distance, on the places where the missions should be set up. But everything has to be looked at beforehand. It could be that it proves impossible to found mission stations in the places we indicate; there is the distinct possibility that after setting them up difficulties or persecutions arise which impel us to abandon them. Superiors must know that in this case they are entitled to move elsewhere in the interests of the mission. When I say « elsewhere », I mean within the boundaries of the future vicariates as these have been drawn up by me in my Report to the Propaganda. In making these moves or changes, superiors will, of course, consult their confreres. But they must remember, as I have already said, that the worst possible thing would be any hesitation or uncertainty which would hold everything in suspense, as was the case at the mission station at Tabora.
4) – On budgets - Up to now, we have proceeded blindly with regard to the expenses already incurred or those to come. Today, we must sort out our situations and fix our budgets. I ask each superior, that is to say the superior of the Nyanza mission, the one at the Tanganyka mission and the one at the Tabora mission, to carefully study in conscience what will be strictly necessary to enable him to carry out his work properly and then to propose to us the budget which he thinks should be granted to him. This budget should include all the travel expenses of the missionaries who will come in future, from Algiers to the borders of the same vicariate.
According to the figures given by travellers and those we find in your letters, it seems that things are relatively cheap and therefore your budgets should not be too high. Be that as it may, what is important, as much for you as for us, is to fix the budget. You must know what you can count upon and then act accordingly. We, too, have to know what we have to give you each year and how we are going to settle the debts already incurred through the extravagant expenses you have had.
5) – On changes of missionaries - God forbid that it should ever happen, but if a missionary were to prove harmful to a mission, in some serious way, superiors should know that, after seeking the advice of their confreres, they can either move the said confrere to another post or even send him back to Algiers, if the Council deems this absolutely necessary. It is clear, then, that this power must be used only as a last resort, but if there is no other way but to submit the matter to us, then you must do it.
6) - On relations with the British missions and the Belgian Society – Given the kindness the British missionaries have always shown to our Fathers up to now and the good relations which have been built up between them, I think it is very important to do all in our power to maintain this harmony. In Europe, too, the British show us this same kindness. So as to keep up these good relations, it seems to me to be just as important not to get too close to each other. This is a Rule which we had given right from the start, so I am very surprised to see the Protestant missionaries and Father Lourdel together at the court of King Mutesa and controversies breaking out. The account of this was of great interest to me, it is true. But anyone could quickly see that such a coming together could only result in an appalling outcome. So I demand that the Rules laid down previously be followed and we do not settle in places where the Protestants have already set up missions. There must be at least twenty-five kilometres between their mission stations and ours. As for the Belgian Society , this rule does not apply. It has received from the King some excellent instructions and missions can be set up, not only without any serious disadvantages but with real advantages, wherever it exists.
7) - On a central authority for Equatorial Africa – Given the distance we are from Equatorial Africa and therefore being incapable of receiving correspondence easily or of sending the necessary instructions, we have had to consider compensating for this by setting up a central authority and creating a Provincial House, as is foreseen in the Rule. However, since we are still unclear as to what to do for the best concerning the residence of a Provincial, we want simply to make an attempt at this and so it is on a trial basis that we appoint Father Livinhac as Provincial of Equatorial Africa for the time being. You should all speak to him for solutions to problems which it would be impossible to have resolved from Algiers and which could more easily be had from him in serious and urgent cases.
I recommended above, indeed I ordered, that all the missionaries be given the Instructions of 1878 and 1879 to read twice over and I also made it compulsory for all to share with me their reflections on any topics they felt necessary. Addressing each superior, I must here insist that these reports be sent to me and that they must be comprehensive. They themselves will guarantee this and will participate in this task; and in order that this should correspond fully with what I am asking, be sure that the answers follow all that is pointed out as essential in the general instructions as well as everything in the instructions that I am reminding you of again, so that nothing is left out.
Letter to Father Deniaud and the Missionaries of Tanganyika (1st April 1880)
Algiers,
My dear Sons,
It gave me great pleasure to learn of the beginnings of your house for young ransomed Negroes. This is work which you must pursue vigorously: it is the basis and the hope of all the rest. I also congratulate you for the enthusiasm and energy you have put into visiting the shores of Lake Tanganyika. From what you tell me, Urundi seems to be a good choice for a mission centre. It is true that I do not share your admiration for the housing you have made for yourselves. In addition to the instructions, Father Moinet will have brought you a new plan for the house construction. This is what you should follow, helped by your auxiliaries, so as to make a more secure place against attacks, on the one hand, and against eye infections on the other. I fully approve of the idea of settling near to the Belgians, as I say in the instructions accompanying this letter. You will then be able, if you wish, to build a small residence at Karéma. Seeing how many of you there are, you could also build another one at the lake shore.
But you know that my wish is that you split up into groups , so that some of you could go to the regions of Muatayamvo when the next caravan arrives. You will then receive my detailed instructions. But I really do not want you to waste any time at all. I want you to begin straight away to gather information about the difficulties and dangers along the way. Perhaps you could even make one or two trips towards Nyangoué in the Manyéma district so that you could see for yourselves. Besides, Nyangoué would be a useful point of intersection, not only for the future mission of Muatayamvo district but also for the one in the northernmost reaches of the Congo .
I received, with great sadness at first and then with consolation, the news you sent me about poor Father Debaize. I hastened to tell the Minister of Education in France what you did to safeguard the equipment of that expedition. Mr Jules Ferry asked me to express his deep gratitude to Father Deniaud and his confreres .
While you have given some important information about Mr Debaize, allow me to say that I think it is meagre. When you get a chance like this to tell us of people or of events which are of great interest to everyone in France, do it in a fuller and more complete way. On Lake Tanganyika, you do not have the excuse, as often happens here, of having to dash to catch the post. Make your porters wait a few hours more and write to us at greater length.
What I want to say to you now in this letter, my dear Sons, is that the main objective of my paternal concerns for you, and this as much for you as for the poor people to whom you are sent, is the spiritual aspect, souls.
(The rest of the letter, right up to the end, repeats, word for word, the text of the letter sent to the missionaries of Nyanza (Text No 22), starting from the words: « There you are on the battlefield ... ». There seems to be no point in repeating it here.)
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Apostolic Nuncio in Paris (20th April 1880).
Tunis,
Excellency,
I was not in Algiers on March 29th when news of the decrees came through and at present I am still in Tunis and plan to go on, if I can, first to Rome and then to Paris to deal with matters concerning our missions. So it is in Tunis that I am hearing about the religious struggle which has so unfortunately begun in our poor dear France.
Up to now, (I still do not know why or until when) the dioceses in Algeria have been officially omitted from this declaration of war on the unauthorized congregations. From the legal point of view, we have not been targeted in any of the public documents. In fact, the Algerian government has promised to deal with these burning issues, if they are raised, in a spirit of conciliation and peace.
In such a situation, as long as our own rights and those of the Church are respected here in our little African colony, we are of the opinion that we must not participate publicly in the campaign entered into by the French episcopate, even by showing support for the letters published by the bishops. By speaking out needlessly in this way, we are afraid of drawing down upon ourselves blows from which we are currently being spared.
I thought it necessary, however, as I told Your Excellency earlier, to take the initiative with regard to the Algerian government, so that no-one could accuse us of not bothering about such important issues and being caught unawares.
I am sending Your Excellency a copy of my letter to the governor. You will find it enclosed. This letter is not for publication, at least at present. It would only be published if it should happen that the measures taken in France were to be applied in Algeria and I should then send another explanatory letter to accompany it.
I submit this plan of action for the appraisal of Your Excellency who is far better placed to judge the overall situation. Here in Algeria, nothing will come of fighting. Wisdom, patience and moderation are more necessary here than elsewhere and it would be the ruin of everything to speak of the Motherland, as some of our colleagues have done, or maintain as absolute arguments which are at the very least questionable and perhaps are excessive.
I shall await a reply from you before acting further. I shall be at the Hotel Costanzi in Rome at the end of the month and it is there that your reply would find me most readily. You would not need to spell it out. I am pleased to take this opportunity, however difficult the situation may be, to send you my good wishes.
With sincere respect and devotion, I remain Your Excellency’s humble servant,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
P.S. My coadjutor has been very ill with pleurisy. He is better now, but I am still worried about him.
Letter to Father Deguerry, Vicar General, and to the General Council of the Society concerning the foundation in Malta and other matters (23rd June 1880).
Paris, June 23rd 1880
My dear Son,
Before telling you how I feel about the discussions you have had in Council, I wish to draw your attention to another matter raised by Minor Seminary have provisionally decided to give meat to the boys every day, perhaps at every meal, since I am not exactly sure how far their resolution extends. As I wrote to Father Bridoux in the last post, I think he ought not to have tackled this matter before obtaining your Council’s approval and mine. This will indeed be one more major expense ; and since, starting in October, you will be in charge of the minor seminary, this is of immediate concern to you. I have advised Father Bridoux to allow bathing in the sea and to have the boys drink ferruginous water, and to increase their manual work, but not to use a gymnasium which seems to me to go against modesty and decency .
Given this increase in expenses, Father Bridoux has told me he will meet these partly through the savings made by Father Pinet, which is quite justifiable, and partly with gifts he himself has received, which is less lawful; since special gifts should, I feel, go to reducing the annual allowance. This is a further matter to submit to your Council for the future.
Concerning the gardener from Mahon working in Tunis , Jean-Baptiste suits me fine and I accept him without any problem. Ask him to be ready to leave with me some time during the first half of October.
I come now to the questions I submitted to you in advance and which your Council has been discussing. I must say first of all that you have not dealt with all the questions I gave you. In particular, that most sensitive and important question of the bursar’s office in Paris has been omitted. I insist that it be discussed. But this must be done in such a way that I can convey your decision to Mr Dauphin and Mr Charmetant.
1) I have no objection to Father Leblond being put in charge of editing the Bulletin.
2) I have already given you my answer concerning the investment of 400,000 francs, leaving you free to place some or all of it to cover the Tunisian debt, but it must be clearly understood that I do not wish to accept any responsibility in this in future. Like me, you have obtained your information in Tunisia and being in possession of all the facts, you have passed that information on to the Council. It is now up to you and the Council to see what is best.
3) I have examined carefully the reasons you and your confreres have given for transferring the Institute for Negroes from Tunis to Malta . I can see that as long as these children can stay at the Collège Saint-Louis , as now, there is no pressing reason for transferring them to Malta and there is nothing to prevent them from staying where they are.
But if it should ever happen that the number of pupils at the college and its internal discipline should mean our young Negroes being transferred elsewhere, I do not find the different reasons given against Malta very convincing. First of all, to say that the home of the little Negroes would be set up outside Africa is not a valid reason. In fact, your Rules make specific provision for such a case and authorize you to establish, outside Africa, houses of formation for Africans. This is clearly stated in the text of your Constitutions approved by the Holy See. I would go further and say that Malta is surely an African island; its population are people of Arab race; since they have preserved the language and of this I have definite proof, since Charles, who came with me as cook, had no difficulty in making himself understood by speaking the Arabic of Algiers. Malta lies further south than Tunis and perhaps even Algiers. So I do not accept this reason which is based only on groundless prejudice.
Neither do I accept the reason based on the Institute of Negroes being a provisional measure. You must be determined to take very little notice of the instructions I have given to the missions of the Interior, which were approved by the Holy See, for daring to give me a reason like this. Quite to the contrary, I have established in principle that our aim must be the regeneration of Africa by Africans; that to achieve this we must educate the greatest possible number of young Negroes and that they should be trained in medicine. So this is not a provisional measure, as Father Charbonnier says; it is vital work, the most vital of all, to my mind and in the view of the Holy See, for the future of the missions among the Africans. Our Institute of young Negroes should therefore seek more recruits and grow; and it surely can thanks to the missions in Sudan and the slaves bought in R’damès and Tripoli and those in Equatorial Africa and the slaves bought in the Ugogo region .
Another objection stated that, in order to follow courses at the Faculty of Medicine in Malta, the young Negroes would have to learn Italian. I would have you know that, in a country where everyone speaks Italian and Arabic, it will not be difficult to teach our children Italian. That will not take long and will not be difficult. If this poses something of an inconvenience, you must recognize that the Faculty of Medicine in Malta offers advantages you will find nowhere else in the world. Firstly, the climate there is one in which Negroes can live, whereas if they were sent to Europe they could not. Then, this is the most Catholic Faculty of Medicine in the world, whereas all the others, with the exception of Lille , are secular. Where shall we send them, if not to Malta? To Algiers? They would quickly lose their faith and their morals. Malta is the obvious choice, if you want to have young Africans trained in medicine.
You also say that these young Negroes are not old enough to follow courses at the Faculty, except Charles and Felix. This is true, but since they have to learn Italian so as to follow the courses and they will learn far more quickly on the spot, it is to their advantage that we send them straight away.
Your last objections are those of finances and personnel. Concerning finances, if, according to Father Deguerry, the children have the means to live in Tunis thanks to adoptions, it is certain that they will be able to live still more comfortably in Malta where, as well as these adoptions, there will surely be gifts from generous Christians. Personnel is not a problem for Malta, since children will only be moved there in cases where it would be impossible to care adequately for them at Saint-Louis. We must count Tripoli out. So, if they are placed in a separate house, there would need to be the same personnel as would be needed in Malta and this I do not consider impossible, if we content ourselves, as the Council suggests, with the Mdabourou foundation .
None of the objections you raise, therefore, seems sound to me. I would not go so far as to say they are merely excuses, but it looks very like it. As for the very serious reasons which appear to me to militate in favour of the plan, I would put in first place the incalculable advantage of having our young Negroes brought up in a completely and admirably Catholic environment. We know what it has cost us to bring up our Arabs among Muslims and infidels and the sad results we have had . To bring up our Negroes in similar conditions, in Tunis or in Tripoli, would be to make the same miscalculation. It would be putting the souls of these young children in a painful situation, since in the midst of these different religions, they, who already have prejudices from their childhood, will not know which way to turn.
They will have only a wavering faith which they will quickly lose. For us, however, the essential point is to train men of faith; without this, they will be useless or even dangerous. How does your Council constantly lose sight of this consideration, which should be a guide to them in all matters, and launch into detailed objections, often of the most scurrilous kind? Providence has afforded you a unique means of giving to your children an invincible faith like that of the Maltese and you go looking for all kinds of reasons to deprive them of this benefit, especially after the appalling experiences we have had! I really do not understand.
With all the present dangers piling up in front of us and the obvious necessity we shall find ourselves in to transfer quite soon to Malta the Mother-house, the Noviciate, the Scholasticate and the Minor Seminary , where it will consequently be of the utmost importance to prepare minds and resources and win people over, I do not understand how you can bring up just at this moment special difficulties in establishing the young Negroes in the very place where you yourselves will be going.
Leave the matter of Father Bresson with me; we shall deal with it when we have the retreat. But I would ask you to go back over it and base your reasons a little more solidly than you have, if you want me to accept them.
4) I can see that you are in favour of setting up a mission station at Mdabourou and I am of the same opinion. I would need, however, a specific vote of the Council as to whether Mr Guyot should go to set this up or whether we leave it to the Fathers themselves .
Could we not give Mr Guyot the task of going to Gandokoro to study the best way of linking up with Uganda? This matter must be resolved at all costs for the future and I think Mr Guyot would be the one to do it. Perhaps we could give him the two tasks, that is send him first to Mdabourou and then, on the return, undertake the exploration of the Nile .
There is the summary of my main remarks concerning your recent discussions. I send it to you quite frankly, hoping you will accept it in good faith, in spite of, or more exactly because of, what it contains that might oppose your original ideas.
Before concluding, a word or two about Jerusalem. I had authorized only thirty thousand francs’ worth of work. This was the figure Mr Mauss had given me. The Fathers have spent more than eighty thousand francs for the work, due to the excessive luxuriousness that has gone into the building. I had already spent 34,000 francs purchasing land. So that means we have spent more than one hundred and twenty thousand francs, of which about 100,000 are still owed to the diocese of Algiers. This debt must be paid. Ought we not apply the decision taken at the Chapter to Father Roger and send him to collect money to pay off such a huge deficit for the bulk of which he is responsible, since he did not warn you about it. As you know, he has found the means of making extravagant trips and boasting in his public letters that his funds were sufficiently plentiful, whereas he was placing us and himself in such financial straits. This does not really surprise me, for he has never been one to excel in tact or in prudence and if he is not taught a lesson there is no reason why he should stop .
Farewell, my dear son. Yours devotedly and affectionately in Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Deguerry, Vicar General, on the opening of a philosophy seminary (27th June 1880)
Dear Father,
I am sending you the enclosed request which I ask you to consider after seeking the opinion of the Council. I would be inclined to answer it favourably since this young man has been with Mr Planque and the reference I have received from the Prior of Glandier is a good one, but I leave this up to you. You must do as the Council decides.
Since we are speaking of novices, I think it would be good, from this year on, to change the system followed up to now, not accepting novices until they have done their philosophy. From next year, in fact, we shall have a regular class of philosophy students made up of church students who will be entering into the first year this year.
We could easily place with them those novices who have not yet done their philosophy and this we could do far more easily since the philosophy students will be separated from the other church students, because St Eugène will not be able to take them . We shall place the philosophy section either at N. D. d’Afrique or at St Charles and, leaving aside their studies, their programme will be that of the noviciate. I think, therefore, that you could accept the two young Belgian rhetoric students who have applied and who might be enticed elsewhere because of the bad atmosphere that exists in Belgium following the hasty and ill-prepared return of so many auxiliaries .
Yours most affectionately and devotedly in Christ,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Jamet, superior in Tripoli (17th July 1880)
Paris, 17th July
My dear Son,
I received today your letter of the 8th and the journal accompanying it. Without I wish to thank you without delay and to answer the questions you have put to me.
1) Given the way things are going, I can see no objection to your going to look after the sick living in the oasis, especially the children: but you must follow the Rule strictly and only go if there are two of you together.
2) Like you, I am of the opinion that you must buy and not accept as gifts the Negro children . Take precautions to buy as many as possible. I shall reimburse you and in October we shall send them to Malta or to Tunis. Just watch that you do not buy any more than 10 or 11 years old. Tell your confreres in Ghadamès that I wish to see an increase in the number of our young Negroes and ask them if they can contribute by buying some of these children and sending them when opportunities arise to send them safely.
I congratulate you for the trouble you are going to maintain good relations with the Franciscan Fathers. Keep it up! Your diary is kept regularly, but I find it rather dull. I think you could usefully include plenty of interesting topics that you learn about locally or that deal with your mission or your house. Without these, it is just a lifeless wordlist which is of no interest.
I am happy to learn of the arrival of the two Fathers from Ghadamès among the Touaregs . I hope this visit bodes well for the future.
Farewell, my dear Son. I send you my kind good wishes in Christ Our Lord. Please convey my good wishes and thanks to the Consul General of France.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Report on the Missions in Equatorial Africa sent to the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propaganda of the Faith (17th September 1880)
Algiers
Your Eminence,
It is my duty to convey to Your Excellency the precise information I have recently received from our two missions in Equatorial Africa. I do this all the more readily since certain Protestant journalists have been spreading some alarming news about these two missions in recent days.
Discounting the setbacks which occurred to our last caravan, the one which left in June 1879, setbacks which are bound to happen on such long and dangerous journeys, the news which has reached us, both from Lake Tanganyika and from Lake Nyanza, is excellent.
At Lake Tanganyika, our Fathers, under the leadership of Father Deniaud, are becoming firmly established in their mission. They have won the good will not only of the Negroes but, what is still more difficult to achieve, that of the slave merchants who are of Arab origin. They are building up their orphanages of young Negroes. They also regularly keep in touch and maintain good relations with the members of the expedition from the Belgian Geographical Society. In short, they are in good health; not one of them has died since they reached the shores of Lake Tanganyika, which proves that the climate is not as deadly to Europeans as people have claimed. As for Uganda, the last mail received from Zanzibar contained many letters from Father Livinhac and the other missionaries under his command, as well as the complete journal of the Mission.
It is clear from these letters that the rumours started by the Protestant missionaries about King Mutesa’s personal hostility to our missionaries and the dangers to which this hostility would expose them are quite without foundation. Our Fathers have not been in danger. Their health is excellent. It is true that King Mutesa remains steeped in his superstitions and clings to the practice of polygamy which neither he nor the nobles of his court wish to abandon. But he allows the Catholic faith to be preached quite freely. This preaching has already borne fruit. On Holy Saturday this year, March 27th, Father Livinhac had the consolation of conferring the sacrament of baptism on the first neophytes taught by our missionaries. A good number of catechumens come forward every day to receive Christian instruction and boost the number of this little flock, the first fruits of the Catholic harvest in Equatorial Africa.
As well as instructing the adults, the Fathers have started an orphanage and they take in and raise Negro children whom they have ransomed from slavery.
No-one opposes their work and the king has continued to offer them presents almost every day. Only one thing is missing, the freedom to travel wherever they wish, so as to get to know the different peoples of Uganda. King Mutesa insists that they remain in the capital. In spite of this, when the missionaries of the second caravan led by Father Lévesque had arrived at Kadouma, to the south of Lake Nyanza, during the month of April, King Mutesa, having sent Father Loudel with his own canoes to fetch them, at the request of Father Livinhac, allowed this Father to take them out of Uganda to a region called Ouwaïa on the north-east shore of Lake Victoria where they are establishing a second mission station. Considering the people of Ouwaïa to be his vassals, Mutesa recommended the Fathers to them as his friends and we are hopeful that this second mission will grow and produce sound fruit.
So, as Your Eminence can see, this is good news. The only shadow in the picture which the mail we received last week brought us is news of the death of Brother Max Blum who a member of Father Lévesque’s caravan and who was killed between Tabora and Kadouma on March 27th this year during a surprise attack on the caravan by highway robbers. Struck by a spear, this good Brother died almost immediately, resigned to his fate and at peace. He was a model of all the virtues, being a man of faith, of hard work, of obedience and of gentleness.
This, Your Eminence, is the summary of the news we have just received. I should be grateful if you would pass it on to our Holy Father, the Pope, asking His Holiness to impart a special blessing on our third caravan which is being prepared at this time and which will leave Algiers in October. This caravan will contain roughly the same number of members as the previous one.
Since the missionaries have started to baptize their neophytes, I should also like to ask the Holy Father, while waiting for one of them to be ordained a bishop, to grant the superior of each mission the power to give the new Christians the sacrament of confirmation when they see fit.
Your humble and devoted servant,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Delegate
Letter to Father Livinhac and to the missionaries of Nyanza (18th October 1880)
Algiers, 18th October 1880
My dear Sons,
You can easily imagine how happy we have been to receive your news on several occasions and to learn that you have really begun your apostolic work. Since people at Maison-Carrée and the minor seminary are writing to you today and will surely give you news that will be of interest to you, I shall not repeat it here. I would ask only that you remember in your prayers poor Mgr Gillard, Bishop of Constantine, after whose premature death we buried two weeks ago . As you might imagine, his death brought me deep sorrow. We were also deeply saddened on learning the dreadful outcome of the last journey made by our missionaries of Equatorial Africa and the great number of deaths that occurred among them . Unfortunately, all those mishaps, which, in Europe, have the most deplorable repercussions for our Mission, were due, it has to be said, to their carelessness and their thoughtlessness.
I do not know whether you will have received the last letters I sent for you via Father Ganachaud in Tabora, before I learnt that this Father had made up his mind, quite on his own and quite contrary to our wishes and the clear orders he had been given, to travel to Lake Tanganyka. I told you in those letters that it was necessary, both in your own interest and in ours, that you settle, in a definite and a clear way, the financial situation of your missions. I asked what you consider would be necessary for your Nyanza mission. Having received nothing from you, I have had to take it upon myself to distribute the funds at our disposal for the year 1880 – 1881. […]
According to the details you have given us in your letters, life is cheap in those countries where you are and I think you could manage with this amount. To use these funds, you will have to place an order with a business in Tabora, which ought to send you this amount to wherever you tell them and will be paid with a draft to Mr Greffulhe in Zanzibar. He will receive the necessary credit in good time. You must decide on the items you wish to have in line with your knowledge of local needs and of their value to the local people. You will send your order to Tabora with the people you choose. I speak of Tabora because it seems that it is there that you wish to have dealings and because Mr Sergère is living there now. But if there are any Arab merchants you can deal with more easily, who might be willing to be of service and accept your draft, you could speak with them.
The second remark I would like to make concerning the allowance you will be given is that half of this sum must, in conscience, be used for ransoming and educating young Negroes and for baptizing children in danger of death. In your correspondence, you must give us details of this work with the children; the Holy Childhood insists on this and they would withdraw their funding if these details are not forthcoming.
I recommend that, for the mission and especially from the point of view of the baptisms, you follow the Instructions I have given you and of which I am having more copies made . You will find them attached to this letter. My instructions are direct orders that I, along with the Holy See, am giving you; they are therefore compulsory.
I had requested from you, and you had promised to send us, precise information which might be of use to the caravans of missionaries coming after you to Equatorial Africa. But we have received nothing and so we are no further forward than we were at the beginning. You will find details of this in my most recent Instructions of which I am sending you a copy.
I would advise you to look also at the mission diary. It is a long time since we received anything of interest; a few very brief notes and that is all. Yet I have told you over and over again: if you don’t send any interesting items of news, the Propaganda charity office will stop sending you funds. So please follow strictly what I told you regarding this in my last Instructions .
My dear Sons, given all the difficulties you face, I sometimes fear that you allow yourselves to slip too easily into discouragement. For the love of heaven, may such feelings never gain entry into your souls! Rouse up your spirit of faith. Think of the reward that awaits you for even having given a cup of cold water in the Lord’s name, how much more then will you receive for all the pain and suffering your life as apostles has brought you. Were you never to convert a single soul, your struggles, your difficulties and your sufferings would open wide for you the gates of heaven. Let this thought always sustain you and encourage you.
One of the greatest of your difficulties is the presence of Protestant missionaries and perhaps also of explorers in the places where you are working for the mission . I remind you of the recommendations I have already given you about this, namely never to situate the centre of your mission stations in places where the Protestant missionaries are. Only harm can come from this. The King of the Belgians has also expressed to me his wish that our missionaries should not reside in the same locality as his explorers; there needs to be a certain distance between them, say five or six kilometres, and for the Protestant Missions, at least fifteen or twenty.
I would further recommend that you do not obstinately remain in a place where the Negroes appear to be clearly hostile to your ministry or even to your simple presence among them. It is a case of applying to the letter the advice given in the Holy Gospel: «If you are not received in a town, shake the dust off your feet and go to another. » When one sees how vast a country like Equatorial Africa is, you must not waste your time among people ill-disposed to welcome you. You must go straight to those who offer more favourable conditions. The work can only gain from this.
Always remember this important rule of the Society, which is to remain always three together, whether travelling or in the mission stations. We do not readily allow any exceptions to be made to this rule and, in particular, I cannot accept that a missionary lives alone for any length of time, far from his confreres. You are too young. There are too many dangers for you to ignore a rule which recommends prudence and is intended to safeguard your own reputation. It is for superiors especially to pay careful attention to this, as much for themselves as for the others.
Coming back again to the dictionary and the catechism, are you all working on these in every mission station? Let me say once more, my dear Sons, that for the most part your letters and diaries do not seem to have been written by missionaries . You speak of your journeys, your adventures, your troubles, the faults and failings of your Negro peoples. In this latter case, one can see more revulsion and hatred than charity and patience. I beg of you, remember that you are apostles. So always try to think and speak and write like apostles.
I have kept for the end of this letter a piece of news which I hope will console you. The Holy See continues to follow show great interest in your work and in your missions. It has just given us proof of this by establishing as Apostolic Pro-vicariates the two missions of Nyanza and Tanganyka and by giving our Society the task of founding two new mission stations, one between Lake Nyanza and the Atlantic Ocean, towards the northern limits of the River Congo, and the other between Lake Tanganyka and the same Ocean, in the country of Muatayamvo. Enclosed with this letter, I have sent you a copy of the pontifical decree so that you know exactly the official boundaries of your missions . I also inform you that we have presented to the Holy See, for the pro-vicariate of Nyanza, Father Livinhac who, as from this moment, will take the title of pro-vicar apostolic of Nyanza and will exercise those powers under my authority in my capacity as Delegate of the Holy See. For Tanganyika, the appointment of the pro-vicar has not yet been made: this will come a little later. So there you are, dear Father Livinhac, Pro-vicar Apostolic, soon to be, I hope, dear Monsignor Livinhac . I am quite sure that the Lord in his goodness will help you bear this responsibility.
I congratulate you for what you have already done and in particular for having had the good idea of establishing a second mission post outside the territories of King Mutesa . One must, in fact, foresee the time when this prince ceases to show you favour. With regard to him especially, I recommend you to read what I have written in the Instructions, a copy of which I send with this letter, concerning African chiefs and how important it is not to impose on them, as a condition for baptism, commitments which they would not be able to honour. Be content with making them postulants or catechumens and wait for the moment of grace to arrive, which will nearly always be the time of their death.
I did not always like those debates of Father Lourdel’s at Mutesa’s court. This is the exact opposite of what I had advised and what I reminded you of again just now, namely that you avoid contacts with Protestant missionaries. Nothing good can come of this for the Negroes, nor for you. These Protestant ministers from Uganda are having you defamed by all the Protestant newspapers in Europe and are exposing you, without good reason, to the hostility and the malicious conduct of all the Protestant missions in Africa, who had previously been so full of courtesy towards you and our missionaries.
Could you not try to establish some regular contacts with Khartoum? We wanted to send the caravan which is going to leave via Egypt. We have dropped this plan due to the fact that the Tanganyka caravan has been almost completely wiped out. We are sending reinforcements and at the same time we are looking again at the possibility of setting up an intermediary mission station between the coast and Tabora which will link your two missions with Zanzibar. We are setting it up at the border of the Ugogo. Mr Sergère will reside at Tabora from now on and since the Geographical Society are preparing to set up stations in Ussagara and between Tabora and Lakes, you will find yourselves linked up to Zanzibar, on this side, as if by a continuous chain. But it is through Egypt that we must attempt to find a way. Try to find some resourceful Negroes who might be willing to travel to Khartoum with your letters. If you succeed, perhaps later on you will find Khartoum a better place to stock up in than Tabora .
Farewell, my dear Sons. I bless you all, from far away, with paternal tenderness. I pray that you might grow in virtue and that your apostolic tasks might flourish.
I remain, once again, your Father in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Supplementary Instructions for Missionaries going to Equatorial Africa (November 1880)
These instructions are simply a supplement to those I have already given to the previous caravans or those I sent to the Nyanza and the Tanganyika mission stations last April. The missionaries, therefore, are to take in fully the contents of these instructions, so as to adapt to them in spirit and to live them to the letter, in as much as this is possible. To do this, they must know them and here I renew the recommendation I made to them to look after these Instructions carefully and to read them together frequently as part of their spiritual reading. What I wish to do today more especially is to stress a few essential points or to summarize more clearly some of the advice I gave you previously which does not seem to have been sufficiently well understood or followed. I shall do this systematically using broad titles under which I shall group my remarks.
I – Terrible mistakes made by the preceding caravans, especially the last one.
I cannot tell you how saddened and ashamed I was to see how several Fathers, especially among those who left in the last caravan, failed to obey the most elementary Rules of obedience and wisdom; how they have thus become the talk of both Europeans and natives alike and how, finally, they ended up in catastrophes such that in all the newspapers of Europe we read: «The Missionaries of Algiers’ adventure fails! »
To achieve such results, which are the exact opposite of the mission entrusted to them, these missionaries must have completely forgotten the moral responsibility they were shouldering. By acting as they did, it is not only themselves whom they have harmed, but the mission, the Society, the whole of the Catholic Church. And frankly, because of that, I do not know if it would be too hard to say to one or two of them: « It would have been better for that man not to have been born ». I use these terrible expressions to make you understand very well to what depth the responsibility undertaken by the missionaries who are about to leave for the mission commits them, for not only have they to fulfil their duty, but they must also repair mistakes and disasters which are both a great affliction and a great scandal . I emphasize, in particular, the following points in which the Missionaries who left in 1879 seem to have failed:
1) I urge missionaries to live in a spirit of unity and charity and I make it absolutely compulsory for them to allow nothing, other than differences of opinion, to get in between them and divide them. The last time, this was so much in evidence that the Spiritan Fathers in Bagamayo could write in their mission journal these awful words: ‘A complete lack of team spirit and organization’. They not only wrote this in their journal, they also wrote it in Europe where it gave a dreadful impression.
2) To maintain this unity and team spirit, it is essential that there be one single authority. The last time, the three superiors and the bursar claimed that each one was in charge. This time, there is only one superior who is in charge and who gives orders to all and no-one has the right to give orders except to carry out the orders of this superior. It is Father Guillet who has received this title and this authority from us .
3) So that there should be no possible resistance or division, I am giving Father Guillet the right to be in command of his confreres in accordance with holy obedience, that is, under pain of mortal sin; the right to exclude immediately from the caravan and from the mission any member at all.
4) However, Father Guillet must consult his Council in all cases not foreseen in the current Instructions or in any extraordinary difficult situations which might arise. This Council will be composed of five other missionaries, Mr Guyot and Captain Joubert. He will only be obliged to follow the Council’s advice if there is unanimity among the members present. If there is no unanimity, but only a majority, the decision will be purely a consultative one and Father Guillet will remain free to act according to his wishes and to what he sees fit.
5) As bursar, Mr Guyot will be responsible for organizing the caravan, but he will be under Father Guillet’s authority. He will act only according to the latter’s wishes. Similarly, Captain Joubert will be in charge of his auxiliaries, but he, too, will be under the authority of the Father Superior and will do nothing other than his wishes.
6) After speaking of these ways of avoiding the errors brought about last year by disunity and a lack of necessary authority, I must come back to the matter of material organization about which I shall make two equally important remarks:
a) Expenses – the greatest scandal given by last year’s caravan was the enormous expense incurred or accepted with incredible rashness by the bursar and the superiors. Not only was a huge quantity of useless items left in Bagamoyo, but later a contract was made in which we were scandalously robbed. It is not only the loss of money I deplore. All this was seen, reported and commented on which made some look like people incapable of making sound judgements and others like squanderers without any conscience. This year, based on an estimate given to me by Father Hautecoeur, I have settled all the expenses I have authorized. I absolutely forbid anyone to exceed this sum by more than one thousand francs without first informing me by telegram from Zanzibar.
b) On the composition of the caravan – Through a concern of mine to which, on a number of occasions, I drew the attention of the missionaries, but without success, the two previous caravans were organized like those of millionaire tourists or Indian merchants, instead of following in the footsteps of Livingstone and the first observers who crossed Africa with eight or ten Africans. We saw our Fathers bring together real armies of a thousand men; we saw them carrying with them so many bundles, so much merchandise, that this drew the amazement of all. But that was not all! Of course, no-one knew how to lead such huge caravans and no-one knew how to feed them along the way; They were worn out because they had to keep watch and they were unable to provide food for so many; huge amounts were paid for rights of way; everything was stolen, so much so that Fathers Moinet and Ganachaud reached Lake Tanganyka stripped of everything.
This gross error must be radically corrected and the wrong way of thinking which led to commercial caravans being formed must be rejected. Future caravans must contain only the number of Africans necessary for carrying what will serve for upkeep and for food for the journey and for the first few days of settling in. As I shall explain later, everything else will have to be either carried by the caravans of the Indians with whom we shall deal in Zanzibar or bought in the European or Arab stores in the Interior. I reckon that, under these conditions, eighty to one hundred Africans at the most will be quite sufficient and I forbid any more to be taken. Added to this are the number of donkeys needed so that each of the European members has his own and so that there might be three or four extra ones in case of mishaps and which could also carry baggage from the start.
7) I am having a small modification made this time in the caravan’s supplies, at least for the duration of the journey. You must realize that the time spent on the journey is the time when the health of the travellers is most at risk and consequently greater care must be taken over feeding. You must take with you biscuits for two months, two per day per person, and jars of soup, enough to provide hot soup morning and evening.
The superior must see that these directives are faithfully followed. He must also foresee the needs of his confreres and for this he must always send on ahead two reliable and intelligent askaris to the place where the caravan will stop the following day. These two will have the duty of seeing that meat and milk and eggs are ready for the arrival of the caravan, depending on what they have been able to get hold of. This is what the Belgian explorers did and they were never short of anything, whereas ours have nearly always died of hunger.
8) Just as he is responsible for providing the food, the superior must also prevent the missionaries from acting foolishly. All of the dead we have had up to now, even Father Pascal, died because of foolishness; Father Pascal chose to travel on a donkey in full sun instead of having himself carried in a Kitanda; Father Ruellan was killed by those who sent him to the coast and left him after that with the British at Mpouapoua, thereby making him undertake fatal forced marches in Equatorial Africa. Father Facy died thanks to the superior who did not force him to mount on his donkey but let him walk on foot from Bagamoyo to Tabora; Father Soboul died because he was allowed to go in full sun without a hat and sleep out in the open at night; Brother Max was killed because he stayed at the back of the caravan instead of being in the middle. So many disastrous lessons from which the succeeding caravans, and especially the superior, must learn .
Father Guillet must therefore remember that he is responsible, before God and before us, for any serious foolish action he might allow his confreres to commit. He will also remember that in Equatorial Africa:
- Going on exaggeratedly long walks is fatal,
- Going bare-headed in the sun is fatal.
- Sleeping out in the open is fatal,
- Remaining too long in the sun, even with the head covered, especially if one is sick, is fatal.
You must be carried in a kitanda by the Negroes. You must also be sure to give the required medicine to the sick and to be well aware of the different kinds of sickness prevalent in Equatorial Africa for which purgatives and large doses of quinine are always recommended .
But, for the love of heaven, I implore both the superior and all the members of the Mission to remember that they have no right to put their lives at risk, except when this proves necessary. Not only would they be leaving themselves open to danger of death, but they would also be ruining their mission by discouraging everyone, by deterring vocations and by declaring the Mission impossible. To expose oneself or others to danger of death under such conditions, through frivolity, thoughtlessness or false bravery is not simply misfortune, let them understand this very well, it is murder.
II – Some remarks concerning the material contents of the caravan
Almost all of the necessary recommendations were given in the previous Instructions. Here, I shall say just a few words about one or two points in particular.
1) One might be tempted to exaggerate the number of pieces of personal luggage being taken. Livingstone, however, recommends that this number be reduced to a minimum. It would be appropriate to adopt a common Rule for all. This Rule would be drawn up by the Father Superior before leaving Notre Dame d’Afrique, after consultation with his Council. The Rule would fix the number and the weight of the pieces of personal luggage which each person would carry with him from Bagamoyo.
2) Among personal effects, clothing seems less essential than hats and shoes, since material can be found more easily in the Interior. For hats, everyone must have at least one white Indian hat, like those commonly worn in Algiers during the summer. They provide very good protection from the sun.
A good supply of shoes is also essential. But I think it would be a good thing if the Fathers and the auxiliaries got into the habit of making some simple form of shoe for themselves, using buffalo hide or other skins, placed under the feet and then tied up with strings wrapped around the ankle. Those who have been to Rome know this type of simple sandal worn by peasants in the Abruzzo region.
3) Normally, so as not to get too tired, you will ride on donkeys. However, walking a moderate distance, in the shade though woods, is also beneficial, so do not neglect this.
4) I mentioned earlier using kitandas for the sick. You must be sure to have enough of these. This is a task especially for the superior. If there aren’t enough of them, they can easily be made by the Negroes. As for the stretchers, these will easily become available as more of the food is consumed .
III – Some ethical considerations
1) The missionaries must always bear in mind this truth, that they are apostles, not tourists, and that they must therefore be guided by the spirit of faith, not vain curiosity; by their whole attitude and in all of their talk, they must seek to enlighten and not, through some dreadful aberration, to act like common travellers, or even worse, as we have seen a few of those who left most recently do, to our great shame. The Father Superior must pay close attention to this point and reprimand, even severely, anyone who might need reprimanding.
2) During the journey, it is not always possible to keep, to the letter, all of the Rules. But their spirit, at least, must be kept. I recommend in particular the spirit of obedience and of prayer without which nothing would work as it should.
3) The Society’s Rules give zeal for learning the local languages as one of the sure signs of a missionary vocation. This is the primary duty of missionaries to Equatorial Africa. All must apply themselves henceforth to this task and firmly resolve to make every effort to be able, as soon as possible, to speak without an interpreter. It was a disgrace which was followed by the greatest of misfortunes to have seen in the last caravan one of the superiors, Father Moinet, reach Tabora and spend some time there and then travel on to Lake Tanganyka without being able either to understand the local Negroes or to make himself understood. It was certainly due to this ignorance that his caravan was wiped out. Everything must be done to avoid repeating similar disasters. But especially, everything must be done to equip missionaries to be able to preach the Word of God as soon as possible. They must never forget that it is for this sole aim that they are sent among these pagan peoples and they must ardently strive to achieve this aim.
IV – Concerning the mission station to be established between the Ocean and Tabora
I shall not repeat here the general instructions I gave you previously concerning setting up mission stations, choosing a salubrious place, how to make the house secure, etc. All this is written in the Instructions the missionaries already have. But I must say a word here about the special place, the true function and the final purpose of the mission station which the missionaries who are leaving now are asked to establish .
1) It was not only to meet the wishes of His Majesty the King of the Belgians and of the Geographic Societies but also for the benefit of our own Missions that we want to establish this intermediary mission station. The King of the Belgians has also given us a special letter of recommendation and protection for Sultan Saïd Bargash seeking to obtain this prince’s support for our establishing the station from his subjects and allies in the Interior. I entrust this letter to Father Guillet. It must be presented to the Sultan of Zanzibar by the Belgian Consul or, failing this, by the missionaries themselves. But His Majesty King Leopold II strongly advised that the Sultan be reminded, when he gave letters of recommendation, that six of his subjects formed part of the caravan. This must therefore be carefully explained to him. Might it not also be possible for the Belgian auxiliaries to have a flag of their country, so as to show their nationality?
2) The location originally indicated by the King of the Belgians is Mdabourou, on the borders of Ugogo territory . It must be understood, however, that the station is to be set up there only if the conditions are favourable. If better conditions are found before that place, at Kongo, for example, or after that point, even after the great Rouga-Rouga forest, it would be better for the station to be established there.
3) The principal function of this mission station will be: to serve as a hospital relay stop either for our future missionaries or for other European explorers; to provide a half-way house closer to hand between the missions of Lake Tanganyka and Lake Nyanza; and finally to be a favourable mission centre, situated among a sizable population which does not seem to be too hostile.
4) There need be no great hurry to finish building the house, in case some serious disadvantage should be discovered later. You should wait two or three months before beginning to build and in the meantime you will be housed in some hired hut or in a temporary shelter.
5) The auxiliaries should remember that, in keeping with their Rule, they must work with their hands just like the Fathers, in building the community house and that they must also endeavour to provide some of the food for the station by hunting.
6) Father Guillet alone will be the superior of the station and will have the same powers as those mentioned above for leading the caravan. In case of absence or death, he himself will appoint his substitute. If, however, he should die before having made this appointment, Father Hauttecoeur will take over as superior.
7) On journeys of exploration or others, it is strictly forbidden, under pain of ecclesiastical censure, for missionaries to travel alone, except in cases of serious illness. There must always be at least two Fathers together, if possible with one or two auxiliaries.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Instructions for the running of Saint-Louis College in Carthage (November 1880)
Saint-Louis’ College was founded by His Grace the Archbishop of Algiers with a specific aim which is that of the Society of the Missionaries. This aim is to train children who belong to the well-off classes from the opulent quarters of Tunis by offering them a solid moral and Christian education and in this way to lay the foundations for a better future for religion in this part of North Africa. What renders this work both difficult and at the same time of vital importance is the fact that the inhabitants of Tunis belong to a variety of different races and profess different religions, these differences often fuelling hostile and hateful attitudes among the different groups.
The French and the Italians, for example, live in a state of constant opposition to each other, due to their national ambitions. The Muslims and the Jews hold a common religious prejudice against the Christians for which it is difficult to see a reason. The effect of the education given at Saint Louis College must be to fuse all these different hostile elements into a true spirit of unity, of mutual support, of charity, in short, into a Christian spirit. But bringing this about is delicate and difficult and it must be done with great caution on the one hand and with the true spirit of God on the other. Besides, it must be adapted to the different categories of children to whom the zeal of the educators is directed.
Catholic children must have instilled into them directly and firmly the principles and laws of their own religion, all the more care being taken over this since their faith is at risk of coming under attack and being weakened. These principles and laws of their faith must be taught and applied through religious instruction and attendance at Mass on Sundays and Feast Days and on one other day each week. Regular receiving of the sacraments must be maintained at Saint Louis College more than at any other college through the recitation of prayers before and after study times and lessons. These latter prayers should be said standing, in the interests of discipline. The Father leading the prayer or the teacher will recite the prayer alone. The Catholic children will answer: Amen. These prayers should be said devoutly and solemnly, with the non-Catholic children in attendance by force of circumstances, so that they might be for these children a real moment of preaching .
Care must be taken not to reduce or weaken in any way the religious practices and terminology in the minds of the Catholic children. This would be a grave mistake both of conscience and regarding those families who naturally expect from missionary priests a clearly Catholic orientation for their sons. It would be a grave error, too, with regard to God whose law is absolute.
The Catholic children must be given the spiritual and moral food to which they have a right. You must be careful not to harm the non- Catholic children through unjust measures and more especially by feelings of loathing towards them. In keeping with the spirit and the laws of the Church, you cannot communicate with them in spiritual matters and consequently they can take no part in religious celebrations in the chapel nor in prayers which the children recite together in public. But you must never show them hatred or coldness or contempt. If these children are mistaken, it is by the misfortune of their birth or the wishes of their parents. They are in no way to be blamed. By adopting this point of view and the laws of conscience, the college rules, while excluding them from Catholic celebrations, leave them free to follow the inspirations and precepts of their own laws, as long as these do not disturb or clash with the general running of the college.
It is in this same spirit that head teachers and teachers must treat them, namely with the same charity, I would even say with even more charity than they show towards their other charges, just as the father and the mother in a family deal more leniently and with greater affection towards those children who are less favourably endowed by nature. First and foremost, the Fathers and their auxiliaries will make every effort to keep this spirit going among themselves. They will constantly give their pupils this example of charity and unity. They will never speak to them about the difficulties and disagreements which might exist between them. They will carefully keep to the same rule when dealing with parents and strangers.
They must realize that it is only through this conduct, through winning the hearts of the children, that they can make a lasting impression on them for the future. They cannot, nor must they, teach them the Christian faith, since this goes against the wishes of their parents, but they can and they must make them drop their prejudices, make the college a pleasant and cherished place for them and lead them to consider them as their friends and their fathers.
What I have said here leads me to define this spirit as a family spirit . Once they have joined the college, all of the pupils, whatever their nationality or their religion might be, become the adopted children of the mission. Therefore, for these pupils, the missionaries leading them take on quite a paternal responsibility and take the place of their Heavenly Father who «causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good». This sun of which the Gospel speaks will be, for them, as we have said, charity: they will seek to have it overcome everything else in their relations with the children and in the children’s relations with each other, so that it truly establishes in the college good relations and a family spirit and enables joys and sorrows to be shared just like the work.
To reach this point, their first priority will be to wipe out, if necessary with the greatest rigour, whatever traits of dislike the children may have adopted, from the attitudes of their family or those of the people among whom they live. In particular, they must never be allowed to call each other names like Youpi or Roumi, etc., nor to treat each other with contempt. The Fathers will themselves carefully set this example. They will love them all truly as children of God and their hearts will be so devoid of any other thought as to belong only to this work of dedication which has been entrusted to them.
This family spirit that the college has must be apparent in all spheres of activity, in the general running of the college, in the classes, at break times, in the discipline, the economy and the upkeep of the school, in the spiritual and ethical talks, in religious instruction classes, in meetings.
On the general running of the college – relations between teachers and pupils must in no way resemble the perpetual silent hostility which rages in most educational establishments between pupils and their teachers . The latter must be constantly inspired by charity and the love of souls. If ever a teacher were to see his duties in a different light and behaved towards his pupils in such a way as to make them bitter because he did not love them and so became bitter himself, as happens to teachers, he should recognize that he is not in the right job and should ask his superiors for a move. If he does not take the initiative and ask for a move, the superior should see that he does. This is not to say that the spirit which should inspire the general running of the college should be one of cowardly complaisance or weakness; on the contrary, the family spirit is a spirit of orderliness and respect for the rule of law.
Today the whole world is being destroyed because these notions are mixed up. Some nameless weakness is now taking the place of what used to be charity and, in most families, a harmful laxity is replacing necessary and legitimate paternal authority . There must be nothing like this in the College of Saint-Louis. Firmness must be on the same footing as gentleness.
A certain reserve is just as necessary in the charity shown to the children. Under the pretext that these children are adopted children, they must not familiarize themselves with them. In particular, they must not show any special affection which is normally a cover for real dangers and sometimes for the worst disgrace; let them be very much on their guard; in such matters, there is nothing which has no consequences and given the slightest bit of carelessness at the beginning the consequences can be fatal.
This is especially true in a country where crimes against nature are unfortunately only too common and consequently the minds of children are particularly alerted to this and they suspect wickedness by incriminating acts which are quite innocent in themselves. So, in a college like Saint-Louis, the rule must be never to touch a child under any circumstances whatsoever. If they are touched in anger as correction, people will say they have been mistreated. If they are touched through kindness, people will say they are being abused. You must abstain totally from such acts and remember that the Church authorities in Algiers have, right from the beginning, taken the necessary precautions to avoid even the slightest suspicion of such wrong-doing. They have prohibited all head teachers and teachers, under pain of interdict ipso facto , from ever voluntarily remaining alone with a child in any place in the house, study rooms, classrooms or bedrooms.
You must therefore be constantly on the lookout. It is for superiors to keep an eye on others and not be afraid of giving a warning to a confrere in a kind way. It is also for confreres to warn superiors, if they notice perhaps not so much some wrong act, however small, they might have done, but even a tendency to treat one child differently from another, which might be construed as having a soft spot for one of them. Here again, it is clear that the teacher must tell his superiors, if he felt seriously tempted in this way and ask for a post which would keep him away from any ministry with children. Superiors in the Society must seek to remind all confreres of the heavy responsibility they bear in this regard, knowing unfortunately through painful experience that nothing crushes the spirit of a Christian home more effectively and nothing brings more dishonour on the Church itself than the appearance of disorders of this kind.
On classes – The family spirit will be seen in the gentleness and the paternal devotion of the teachers as well as in the obedience and simplicity of the children. […]
It seems that the method most suitable everywhere for the study of languages is that which nature herself teaches, namely the way small children learn exclusively the language of their mothers. This was the old way of teaching Latin in France and it produced wonderful results. The teacher speaks only Latin in class. This method was revived in the minor seminary in Algiers and it was a huge success. It must at least be tried at Saint-Louis for teaching Latin, Italian and Arabic. For the children, the family spirit must be maintained by making lessons as lively and enjoyable as possible. Liveliness and joy are, in fact, everyday elements of family life. […]
On recreation and walks […]
On spiritual and moral talks […]
In spite of this exercise being called spiritual reading elsewhere, it is not used exclusively for reading. On the contrary, reading itself will form only a small part. This is why, at Saint-Louis, it will be called talks, which also has the advantage of not arousing the sensitivities of non-Catholic parents. Its real aim is to allow the Father Superior to have a strong influence each day on the minds of the children and his confreres, by reminding them of what needs to be reminded, explaining what needs explaining, giving specific or general directives and especially by maintaining the rule, the family spirit, and enkindling in the whole house the sacred fire which must blaze up so that duty will be fulfilled. […]
But he will remember that in fulfilling his duties as the father of the family, who talks with his children each evening about anything of interest which may have happened to him or to them during the day, he must also speak to them in the simple and lively manner used in family conversations. He will mix in some stories and anecdotes. He would miss the point completely if he started ranting and using fine words. Talks have the quality of being simple and practical. They are confined to matters concerning the college.
If the Father Superior speaks theoretically, and sometimes eloquently, and there is no harm in this, he must do so quite naturally, when speaking about some more serious or more touching event, and not for some showy effect which would be deadly boring. Sometimes he will widen this family circle in his daily talks and mention events in Tunisia, in France and in the Society of the Missionaries .
Instructions for the Institute for Young Negroes in Malta (November 1880)
On the Institute’s importance – This importance is such that a part of the future of the Society and its missions depend on it. It is indeed very difficult to send into the African Interior a sufficient number of missionaries. From now on, their number must be supplemented by young Negroes who are trained in all the virtues of the apostolate and be capable of assisting them effectively after the education they have received. It is with this aim that the Apostolic Institute for Young Negroes has been founded. It is therefore in this institute that the ultimate fate of the African missions lies. This thought will instil a sacred zeal in the Fathers responsible for bringing about such a considerable task. They will take all the means that faith can inspire them with so as to transform these pagan children and make of them not only Christians, but real apostles. Through their words, their example, through religious instruction ceaselessly repeated, through wisely integrated pious devotions, they will one day make of this what they are to be, namely religious initiators who will win over the poor African population .
What greater, more worthy mission to stir the holy fervour of the Fathers to whom it is entrusted than this one! But what a terrible responsibility also if, by any fault of theirs, these children end up being incapable of carrying out the mission for which they are destined. The training of the children attending this minor seminary will leave nothing to be desired, if they are well guided in the spirit of the task ahead of them. Their spirit is like a piece of hot wax, still soft, in which it will be easy to scratch all the impressions required.
These hasty considerations are enough to show the importance of the task entrusted to the missionaries who run the apostolic institute for young Negroes. It is undoubtedly one of those tasks from which the most fruitful results for the mission will come. […]
Concerning the classes – […] It is for the teachers to see, by experience, which methods are most suited to the young Negroes. It would seem that French, in particular, will have to be learnt by using it and so it would suffice to forbid any other language from being spoken during recreation. When involved in games and conversation classes, children’s minds are more open and for the new arrivals from the Interior of Africa, in particular, it is during these moments that they will overcome more easily the inevitable difficulties of learning a new language. As for Italian, this would be taught in class, but to obtain good results everything in the class would need to be conducted in Italian, as happens in the Latin classes in the seminary where they have obtained some amazing results.
For the children, you must try to maintain the family spirit in class, by making it as lively and as enjoyable as possible. In fact, in families, life and enjoyment are part of everyday living. […] Remembering that these children are his brothers, his future assistants in the apostolate, the teaching Father will try to make their studies enjoyable, and if this is possible, fascinating. The main thing is that the children should never get bored in a class and their interest must always be maintained. This can only come about through emulation and the spirit of faith which must give life to everything. These two motives can and must be present together. […]
On spiritual reading - Spiritual reading, as we shall explain, must be the centre and the soul of the life of the minor seminary, for both teachers and pupils. […] After reciting the rosary and before he starts reading, the Father Superior will address the community and share with them his thoughts for the day. For example, he might say: things are going well or I have noticed how reverently some pray, how faithful to the rule others are or how well behaved some are in their devotions, etc. In such and such a class, I attended a very interesting debate in which so and so did particularly well, or, depending on the occasion, he will say the opposite, he will complain about the irregularities or the misdemeanours he has noticed happening.
In short, he will act as the father of the family who tells his children everything that might be of interest to them in their community life and offers them all kinds of ideas which might stimulate the good in them. He will widen this family circle when he speaks to them each day, he will talk about the Society of the Missionaries, the missions already founded, the progress being made, the setbacks, the deaths which have occurred. I especially recommend the Father Superior who is in charge of the spiritual reading not to be afraid, when speaking to the children, to stress the supernatural and miraculous side of religion. These are primitive souls and so they are more open to accept matters of faith.
Later, they will live among people whose trusting instinct has never been challenged by any of the prejudices common in our modern societies. How despicable it would be to bring up our young Negroes as rationalists. They must be first and foremost men of living faith, ardent and enthusiastic, and for this to be the case they must be offered that aspect of religion which most effectively lifts up the soul and arouses zeal, namely the miraculous aspect. In his spiritual readings, the Father Superior will therefore take great care always to choose books or topics which come under this heading, for example the life of the Desert Fathers , the miracles of St Francis Xavier or St Francis of Assisi, all the miraculous events that are taking place at present in the Church, either during pilgrimages or on other occasions and which are reported in the religious press. The Father Superior should make a collection of accounts of miracles and examples of religious heroism for himself and make this a source for his talks.
After giving these communications and exhortations, which sometimes might take up the whole of the time to be devoted to spiritual reading, sometimes only half of this or less, it would then be the moment to have the reading from the book which has been assigned for the purpose. When he thinks the reading to be sufficient, the Father Superior will give a commentary on it. He will do this by proposing a practical application of what has been read to his community, bringing out especially whatever might be linked to training in the virtues and to the apostolate. To be done well, a spiritual reading must be very carefully prepared. The Father Superior must reflect on it, make it his priority task each day and always keep notes of what he must read, so as to be sure of himself. He must endeavour to make this not only an edifying exercise but also an interesting one, he must include stories and facts from history and must therefore get the necessary books so as to read up on these himself. In houses where the spiritual reading is conducted like this, it arouses in the children an extraordinary fervour and is eagerly awaited each day. In these houses, it clearly produces excellent fruit and there is nothing that can replace it .
On the main ways to train children for the apostolic life – These ways can be divided into two general classes: some concern the training of the heart through practising the apostolic virtues; the others concern the training of the mind through gaining the scientific knowledge required by doctor apostles.
Training the hearts of children through practising the apostolic virtues – For the child who wishes to train for the apostolic life and acquire its virtues, his first concern must be always to focus on the aim he is pursuing. The aim a pupil at the Apostolic Institute for Young Negroes pursues is firstly his own personal sanctification so as later to work effectively for the sanctification of souls, mainly those of pagans, by his example, his zeal and his selflessness. It is this double aim of his vocation that a truly apostolic child will bear constantly in mind, so as to keenly strive to fulfil it perfectly with the help of divine grace. Now, the sanctification of a child presupposes a strong and fervent attachment to Our Lord.
It is this deep attachment to Our Lord that you must seek to instil into them through all the instructions and devotional exercises the Apostolic Institute offers. They must be brought to know Our Lord and his holy law so as to learn to love them. This will take place mainly during instructions from the catechism and the moral exhortations they will be given. This knowledge of Our Lord and of all that he did to save men and of the perfection to which he invites them should instil into the young African pagans deep feelings of gratitude to God when they see the sad state he has saved them from. If they had not been ransomed and saved by God’s goodness and by the zeal of the missionaries he sent to them, they would for ever be sunk in all the darkness and all the horrors of barbarity.
Among them, kindness is unknown: violence, only violence, rules everywhere and the weak are sacrificed for the benefit of the strong. They hunt each other down, wound each other, sell each other like base animals, kill each other and feed on each other. This is how the children of the Apostolic Institute would have been if left to themselves and if the mercy of God had not prevented them from being so.
Among their people and within their families, there is no self-discipline. All allow themselves to commit, quite shamelessly, the most degrading and the most disgusting acts and, in this regard, they behave like animals . This, again, is how the young Negroes would have been, had they not, by some miracle, been torn away from the savage existence of the African Interior so as to be enlightened by the light of the Gospel. This is what will be carefully explained to them and what they will be made to feel every day, either through telling them their history or by profiting from every other occasion, especially from the mistakes they might make. But it is not enough for them to have an idea of the evil into which they had sunk and where they would have remained without a special grace from God.
They must make every effort to rid themselves of the vices which rule in their country and be trained in all the Christian virtues . This is the special task they must work at throughout the time they spend at the Apostolic Institute.
They will therefore endeavour to overcome their natural evil inclinations. Instead of violence and rage, they will try to practise Christian gentleness and kindness. They will show tender affection towards their fellow disciples and will seek to treat them as well as they can. They will learn that it is not permitted to pay back one wrong for another but, on the contrary, the Christian way is to do good to those who do us harm. They will resolve generously to practise this virtue when they return to the African Interior. Great care must that no acts of violence or vicious threats made by the children should go unpunished. Behaviour of this kind on the part of a young Negro would warrant his exclusion.
But kindness alone is not enough. As with all the other virtues, it must be based on humility. A true understanding of this so necessary virtue must therefore be given, right from the start, to the pupils at the Apostolic Institute. It is totally foreign to the pagan mind, existing only in Christianity. They must therefore learn that by themselves they are nothing and that everything they have, like strength, health, and any other good gifts at their disposal, their very existence, comes from God. They will be made to understand that, from their own resources, they have only bad and often shameful habits and propensities. As each day’s activities unfold, efforts will be made to overcome their pride through acts of salutary humiliation. To achieve this, you must not be afraid to take a knife to the wound. The wound is deep and if the knife does not clean it out completely, it would lead to death, that is, the futility of all the efforts made to transform the souls of these children
The same must be said about Christian obedience towards which uncivilised nations are not disposed. Recognising only forceful means, they know only how to impose, with brute force, the servitude of the body and fail to reach the soul by some superior principle. So, throughout their life at the Apostolic Institute, the young Negroes must acquire a perfect understanding of obedience, as faith imposes it upon us. They must be constantly reminded that it is God himself who must be obeyed and that they will obey him in the person of all their legitimate superiors. This notion must be deeply instilled into them and consequently they will get used to obeying according to their conscience and not through fear. […]
Concerning singing and celebrations – In an apostolic institute, these are not to be neglected. The children must apply themselves and quickly become proficient, since both of these can be of immense service to them in their ministry. A famous writer tells how it was through singing that the first missionaries in North America attracted the local savages and gained their confidence. On primitive and unsullied natures like those of the barbarians among whom our missionaries will one day go, ceremonial pomp can also have a favourable influence. They must therefore be learnt and well performed early on in their training. For the reasons just given, then, real weight must be given to the importance of singing and celebrations. […]
Special recommendations from His Lordship the Delegate to Father Guyot (November 1880)
This year, I shall not go back over the recommendations I made to Father Guyot and which relate generally to relations in Zanzibar, the careful handling these require, the choice of personnel, etc. He has with him those instructions I gave him in writing last year. But finding myself in a different position this year, following recent experiences, I feel obliged to modify and clarify a few points of detail. To be brief, I shall do this in the following way.
1) I would ask Father Guyot to remember, first and foremost, that he is a priest and that the mission he has accepted is totally related to the foundation of a new apostolate, beset with dangers and with enemies. He must make it his duty, therefore, to act always in a truly priestly manner, not only for carrying out his own personal duties but also in all his relations and his outward appearance, I mean in how he dresses, in his conversations and in his correspondence. Otherwise, he would seriously scandalise and destroy our mission instead of building it up .
2) In last year’s instructions, I had asked Father Guyot to find a reliable layperson in Zanzibar who, in return for a salary , would take charge of the correspondence and parcels sent to the Fathers while he was absent and who would send on to the mission stations what was necessary and forward their letters to Europe. None of this has been done. But it is essential that we have this accredited correspondent in Zanzibar. Without this, we could not keep up links with the interior. Mr Greffulhe had said he would organize a regular mail service for a fixed fee, for which I do not recall the exact figure, but which seemed to me to be exorbitant; Mr Sergère had also committed himself to provide the same service for us in Tabora under certain precise conditions. These agreements must be taken up again and settled in writing, in the form of a contract or a treaty, but with the stipulation that they will only come into effect after they have been given my approval either in writing or by telegraph .
3) As it has been agreed that, from now on, the caravans will no longer be commercial caravans but simple, light caravans of travellers, arrangements will have to be made, in Zanzibar itself, enabling you to obtain from Mr Sergère or the Arabs who have businesses in the Interior all the goods the Fathers will need for their exchanges at Lake Tanganyika or Lake Nyanza or at Mdabourou . The same store-holders should undertake to see that the items sent to the Fathers from Europe should be delivered to them using their caravans and for a set charge.
These arrangements are extremely important and they must be made very carefully so as to avoid being robbed. From what Father Dromaux wrote, the material transported to Lake Tanganika is worth about half as much again as it did in Zanzibar, that is to say that the Arabs sell for eight francs near the lake what they bought for five francs at the coast. But this needs to be checked, discussed and dealt with on the spot. It is Father Guillet, along with his Council, who will have to accept the final conditions and prices, as suggested by Father Guyot and with my own approval.
In drawing up these contracts, great care must be taken to see that only the Zanzibarians should undertake to deliver to our Fathers who are there in the mission stations the quantities of goods they need. Our Fathers must not commit themselves to take any fixed quantity.
4) I specifically give Father Guyot, together with Father Guillet, the responsibility of lodging our complaints, using all legal means, with Mr Greffulhe and the Indian Sewa for all the injustices and the trickery of which the last caravan was a victim, especially at Tabora. Such a way of behaving cannot go unpunished. The telegram I was sent and to which I replied misled me completely. I authorised payment only for what I thought Father Guyot had agreed to pay the dealers. I also charge Father Guyot, along with Father Guillet, with the task of settling, through Mr Greffulhe, the bills run up by the missionaries at Lake Tanganika which have not already been paid.
5) In the instructions given to the missionaries, I said that the caravan should have a maximum of 80 to 100 Africans. In spite of this small number, I think it necessary to arrange with an Arab to recruit these and this Arab should have someone responsible representing him who might accompany the Fathers as far as Mdabourou.
6) As happened last year, Mr Guyot is in charge of organising the material needs for the caravan and for the Africans who will accompany it. He must also see, in advance, to the provision of food supplies in the places where they will set up camp and he must use the means for this which I have indicated in my instructions to the missionaries he must remember, however, that in all this he is under the authority of Father Guillet; he must do absolutely nothing against his orders and it is from him, therefore, that he must receive all his instructions. This is absolutely essential for that unity of management which is the first condition for success.
7) I wish to ransom a certain number of young Negroes from Equatorial Africa and have them brought to Malta, so that they can be brought up in our Institute for Africans. I should like 20 to 30 of them, aged between at least 10 years old and 15 years old at most. We must see where we could more easily ransom these children and to whom we might entrust them to bring them to Malta where our Fathers will welcome them. Our aim is to make doctors of them who would be assistants to the missionaries. They must therefore be intelligent and must themselves be in good health. I ask Father Guillet and the other Fathers to help Mr Guyot in this mission.
8) I shall open an account again in Marseilles with Mr Roux of Fraissinet. But Mr Guyot must incur no unforeseen expenses without Father Guillet’s permission, nor must he engage in any deal without the same authorisation. They are both bound to consult me by telegraph if they exceed the figures set by me.
After arriving at Mdabourou, Mr Guyot will remain there with the Fathers until they have settled in, albeit provisionally: he will wait there for further directives from me.
Letter to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Propaganda (16th November 1880)
Your Eminence,
I have waited until the end of your holidays before acknowledging receipt from Your Eminence of the decree by which you have deigned to raise the two missions of Nyanza and Tanganika to the status of apostolic pro-vicariates and to create the new missions of northern Upper Congo and southern Upper Congo, to be entrusted to our Mission Society .
I can but be deeply grateful for this new token of confidence on the part of the Holy See and I assure Your Eminence that my missionaries and I shall do all we can to justify it.
In keeping with the wishes of the Sacred Congregation, I have the honour to name the two Fathers whom I consider most suitable for running the two pro-vicariates which have just been established. For the vicariate of Nyanza, I think it should be entrusted to Father Léon Livinhac, who is already superior at that mission. Before leaving for Equatorial Africa, Father Livinhac was elected superior by his confreres . Although he is still young, since he was born in the diocese of Rodez in 1846 and so is only in his 35th year, he is a man of great wisdom and holiness.
For the pro-vicariate of Tanganika, please entrust this to the care of Reverend Father François Deguerry , while leaving its administration for the time being in the hands of Reverend Father Alexandre Guillet who is currently the superior at that mission. Under my authority, Father Deguerry has fulfilled the responsibility of being the Superior General of our Society of Missionaries for six years . At the last elections which took place at the end of September, he refused completely to continue with this responsibility and so was replaced by another priest, Reverend Father Charbonnier. We are thinking of sending him to Equatorial Africa where, given his experience and his fine qualities, he would make an excellent pro-vicar.
The only difficulty is that his presence is still required in Algiers for a few months to brief his successor on current matters, especially in the difficult circumstances we are living through at present. This is why I am suggesting to Your Eminence to leave the administration of the Pro-vicariate to Father Guillet for the time being, until the departure of Father Deguerry who would, however, take on his title as of now and delegate his powers to his substitute. I think it would be fitting for Father Deguerry to receive his episcopal ordination at the time he leaves for Equatorial Africa. But this question will be the subject of a longer and more detailed communication with the Sacred Congregation.
In conclusion, I am delighted to tell Your Eminence that this very week we have received excellent news from our missions. The baptisms of many catechumens have taken place in Uganda on the eve of Pentecost and King Mutesa appears to be more and more favourably disposed to our Fathers. One of these, Father Lourdel, having had the good fortune to cure him of a persistent case of dysentery, is especially favoured.
Finally, I thank Your Eminence for informing me that you are kindly placing two thousand francs at my disposal for Equatorial Africa through the work of the Holy Childhood in Vienna and which have been deposited with Monsignor Mazotti. I shall instruct my agent, Mr Grillotti, as to how he can withdraw this sum.
Please accept, Your Eminence, my sincere and respectful good wishes and know that I remain,
Your most humble, obedient and devoted servant,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Superiors of the Spiritan Fathers in Zanzibar (12th December 1880)
Most Reverend Father,
I have just received from Father Guillet, the superior of our last caravan of Missionaries, a telegram to which I am replying at this very moment and which leads me to fear that some difficulty may have arisen between you or at least that you may have been upset by our project to establish a mission post between the coast and Tabora, on the edge of the Ugogo.
It is the need to ensure the supply of provisions and maintaining links with Lake Nyanza and Lake Tanganika and our wish to make these journeys less dangerous for our missionaries that has made us choose this post which is really a hospital station. But I fear you have considered this a violation of your rights. If this were so, I would never forgive myself, since you have shown such fraternal and friendly charity towards our Fathers that it would be inexcusable to encroach even minutely upon your territory.
You are surely unaware that the Holy See has just created two new pro-vicariates apostolic, one of Nyanza and the other of Tanganika. This latter has for its western limit a line which goes from Mount Kenya, crosses the Ugogo, cutting it in half, and ends to the north of Lake Nyassa. There can be no doubt at all that the western edge of the Ugogo, where we wish to set up a post, and, even more so, Tabora belong to us.
Enclosed, I send you the text of the recent Decree of the Propaganda which leaves no doubt about this. But, most Reverend Father, God forbid that we should hinder your projects in any way. If you wish to set up missions in the new vicariates which have been entrusted to us, we give you herewith full permission to do this, wanting only one thing, to live with you in the love of Our Lord, to praise you for your apostolic successes and to show our deep gratitude to you.
Yours in Christ and in Mary.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Circular on the baptism of Muslims (15th December 1880)
Fathers and Co-operators,
I am writing this letter to you from Tunis, where I am presiding at the opening of Saint-Louis French College. Recent events have made it necessary for me to remind you of the grave instructions from the Holy See and from the diocesan authorities, concerning the baptism of non-Christians.
As far as non-Christian children are concerned, a decree of 1763 given by the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office forbids them to be baptised while they are subordinate to their parents, which means while they have not yet come of age. The diocesan statutes, for their part, state the following: « No Jewish or Muslim child must be baptised without the express permission of their parents. »
The only exception would be for children who have been abandoned, or those in imminent danger of death, or those with no family at all who have been picked up and adopted by Christian organisations or settlers. Those who, in adopting them, have accepted responsibility for their spiritual upbringing can only teach them what they believe to be true, that is to say the Christian faith, and if, at a later date, they present them for baptism, this must be granted to them. But even in such cases as these, all the precautions prudence demands must be taken so as to ensure that the children are really orphans abandoned by their families, that they have the necessary maturity and freedom and that their perseverance is morally guaranteed by the care they have received from their adoptive parents.
For adults, those who have reached the age of majority, parental permission is not required, but the bishop’s is. Here again is what the diocesan regulations state: « No Protestant, Jewish or Muslim adult must be baptised without our special authorisation. »
The aim of this measure is to enable the bishop to check whether all the precautions have been taken, namely: whether the age of majority, a sufficient level of independence and the disinterestedness of the motives which lead him to ask to become a Catholic have been indisputably established. If there were any serious doubts concerning these points, the decision must be deferred. In such a case, a promise could be made to those whose baptism has been delayed that they will be baptised on their death-bed, if they renew their request, since their good faith and their determination will then no longer be in doubt. It should be explained to them, moreover, that, if any insurmountable obstacle were to prevent them from receiving baptism at the last moment, then the firm desire to receive it along with an act of love of God would suffice to justify them.
Dear Fathers and co-operators, no-one wants the conversion of the non-Catholics of Africa more than I do. I have dedicated my life to this task, but I can only want this in accordance with the rules of wisdom. To accept at face value abjurations in which imprudence or compulsion or dishonesty might be suspected would go totally against this aim. It is not in isolation, through conversions which are rashly undertaken, that we can hope to return the natives of Algeria to the faith which was once that of their forefathers – since almost all of them, contrary to the prejudice received, are of Berber stock – it is upon the whole population that we must act and I have already indicated to you several times the means to do this effectively. The first and the most powerful means is the instruction of children , which will herald, as new generations come along, a new future by destroying the blind fanaticism which they take as faith; the second is practising charity, the third is example and the fourth is prayer.
It is to this, dear Fathers and Co-operators, that I have always invited you to channel your zeal. In this way, all its ardent desires will be met and all the laws of the Church and all the rules of wisdom will be respected. Besides, in order to avoid any very harmful consequences which might result from the slightest acts of foolishness, in these times when so many frenzied passions are seeking to exploit them and use them against the clergy as a whole, I feel I must, in conclusion, reiterate and clarify the instructions of the diocesan statutes and set penalties on them that must not be violated. Consequently:
1) It remains forbidden for any secular or regular priest of the diocese, in accordance with the formal instructions of the Holy See and with those of the diocesan statutes, to give baptism to any non-Catholic child without the express authorisation of the parents or legal guardians, if the child has a family. This authorisation must be given in writing in front of witnesses and entered on the baptismal certificate.
2) It is also forbidden, in accordance with the diocesan statutes, to give baptism to any non-Catholic, including adults, without our personal authorisation. This authorisation must also be given in writing and entered on the baptismal certificate.
3) Except in clear cases of danger of death, any priest, secular or regular, who contravenes this ruling will incur the penalty of canonical suspension.
Letter of greetings to the Missionaries (3rd January 1881)
My dear Sons,
In previous years, I have only responded to your New Year greetings by sending you my paternal blessing, along with an expression of my thanks. Due to the gravity of the situation this year, I wish to benefit from this occasion to convey to you some news which I believe to be useful. From one moment to the next, the storm could break and you ought to know, but not by groundless rumours, the measures already taken or being prepared, at my request, for quite some time now, for your superiors to alleviate the trials you will have to face and even to have them turned, if possible, to help develop and profit our work, under the protection of Our Lord and Our Lady of Africa. I hope that your knowing precisely how to handle this situation might give you grounds for peace and confidence and that, for me, being able to show you, in this way, a further sign of my care for you will be a consolation.
For several years now we have sadly foreseen a violent persecution against the church in France and in Algeria. This persecution started to break out during the year which has just finished and it is set to continue without interruption. After the unauthorised congregations, it will be the turn of the authorised congregations and then the secular clergy. Those who cannot see this are blind. It is logical to suppose that it will follow its course and there is nothing we can see in France, and even less in Algeria, which could stop it.
Convinced of this for a long time now, I have had to envisage that all our mission work would be systematically persecuted, destroyed and made impossible in our colony and I have made plans to meet this eventuality. All my efforts have been devoted to saving them by having them transferred, little by little, outside, without waiting for it to be too late before the storm engulfs everything. I began by asking the Council of your Society to close down the most distant posts established in that part of the Sahara which belongs to the diocese of Algiers and transfer them to the actual Mission of the Sahara itself, to Ghadamès and then to Tripoli and soon, I hope, to Ghat and among the Touaregs .
For the same reasons, we have mortgaged the two large properties at Maison-Carrée and Saint-Charles and we have sought to sell, or we have already sold, everything we could dispose of, so as to deposit the money safely in banks or in foreign stocks and shares. At Les Attafs, we have suspended the setting up of new villages and we are trying to get rid of land which we shall no longer be able to use. We have gradually found placements as servants for our orphan boys and girls so that, should the storm break, they are not in our charge and we have decided to transfer the young Negroes to a foreign country . Finally, we have founded the houses in Tunis and Jerusalem and in Equatorial Africa.
The purpose of these various measures has always been the same: to anticipate the storms which are breaking today and which will quickly overwhelm us and to provide safe havens for the Society’s missionaries and at the same time a welcome boost to their zeal until the revolution passes. I know that narrow-minded people, both in France and in Algeria, have viewed as fickleness our withdrawing from colony projects only to go and set up in the Missions, and in normal times they would be right. But faced with real, grave dangers, these were simply wise and prudent measures. Where would we be today, if we had not set up elsewhere our houses, our missions and the safe havens we have prepared? We would almost have gone under with no hope of recovery, like many other operations and institutes threatened with total ruin.
In fact, we must not deceive ourselves, my dear Sons, and I tell you in advance so that you are not scandalised by this: All your institutions in Algeria are set to disappear for a time in the latest calamities about to befall us . We must therefore look elsewhere at this time and save ourselves, ready to come back with renewed strength when the storm has passed.
Some of our operations which we wanted to maintain till the last minute are already being threatened as if hunted down, more or less openly, but with great hatred. The hospital at Les Attafs, which is run by our Sisters and where the Fathers perform works of charity, is probably going to be deprived, with effect from this January 1st, of the government subsidies which kept it going. It will have no other resources except the collections made by the Sisters, resources which are not guaranteed these days. Can it keep going very long like this?
The scholasticate, the noviciate and the minor seminary are threatened by other means which may have even more serious consequences. Thanks to a legal precedent, up to now, the bishops were able to grant certificates for exemption from military service to the students of theology from their dioceses, no matter which ecclesiastical establishment they might be studying in. We have just been informed that henceforth these certificates will be rigorously checked and that the bishop who has granted a certificate declaring that a person is studying in his diocese when this person is not at the actual major seminary risks being prosecuted for forgery (punishable by imprisonment), while the student involved would be arrested and taken to his regiment . So, as soon as this measure comes into force, it will be a moral impossibility to keep our noviciates in Algeria. We shall have to move them to Malta where all has been thoroughly prepared to receive them, on soil which, moreover, is African.
Another of our projects, among those which are of most interest and importance, is being similarly threatened at this time: this is the Mission in Kabylia. You know that the Jesuit Fathers, who had settled there next to us, have just withdrawn definitively. The specific reason for their departure was an accusation made against two of their members based in Beni-Yenni. They were reported for having abducted several children who were minors. These children had been sent by these two to different establishments, without having first obtained, as demanded by me, the written agreement of the families. These latter, encouraged by the Administration, made a complaint to a judge and a criminal case was opened against the Fathers. If it goes ahead, it will have to be judged in the Court of Assizes. This is how things are today where priests and religious are concerned.
It is to avoid legal proceedings that the Jesuit Fathers have spontaneously withdrawn from their schools, for which only a few months before I had obtained their support . But, I say it again, this was only an opportunity for them to leave. The serious reasons the Fathers have given to the diocesan authority for their leaving are the following:
1° From now on, it is impossible, they say, to do any lasting good in Kabylia. The administration is hostile and declares this openly. It wants, at any cost, to send away the religious and replace them with laypersons. The Kabyles know this and the party which is opposed to us will now use this against us. Even our former friends will now be afraid of the authorities and will desert us.
2° The administration, which has the law against it, wants to fight us by bringing dishonour upon us. It is not averse to using all sorts of lies and the local people, as we know, are ready to give false witness in support of those lies, especially if they have authorities with them. We shall therefore be constantly vilified and our reputation blackened. In the end we shall probably be condemned for shameful acts and our ministry degraded both now and in future, not only in Kabylia but also far away.
3° Some may object that the Kabyles will accuse us of cowardice or indifference, if we withdraw. But we shall answer that we are doing this to save them from trouble from the administration and to give them a last token of affection and that we shall return as soon as the enemies of God are no longer in power.
The diocesan authority has accepted these reasons and the Jesuit Fathers have left. But these reasons, serious as they are, are the same for our Fathers. I am told that people want to send them away, and to do this, they want to tell lies about them and diminish them. One of them has already been denounced. Unfortunately, in your mission posts, you have not always taken the precautions I had clearly ordered you to take, time and time again, even under pain of ecclesiastical sanctions.
So, how long can we continue with this work? Shall we not be compelled to abandon it by force? Should we not even take the initiative, like the Jesuit Fathers, and spare the whole of our Society any major inconveniences? It is very difficult to answer these questions. However, without wishing to anticipate Providence, we must be ready to follow her designs. When it is a matter of defending a principle or a law of the Church which is being attacked head-on, we must yield only to force and sacrifice everything, even life itself. But here it quite different. We are dealing with hateful plots aimed directly at individuals against which, given the circumstances which prevail in Kabylia, there is no defence. This is what persuaded the Jesuit Fathers, who defended themselves so vigorously in France , to withdraw from Kabylia. Do we consider ourselves more courageous than they are and do we think we have the right to be more prudent?
Well, we are not the masters in Kabylia: it is not a pagan country canonically speaking, being part of a canonically constituted diocese. All our work projects depend exclusively, therefore, on the diocesan authority, who can abolish them just as it founded them or authorised them to be set up, if it finds, under new circumstances, new dangers threatening religion and the church in Algeria.
So, my dear Sons, there is a whole list of sad events since, apart from the Mother House and the villages at Les Attafs, everything seems threatened with more or less imminent destruction. But all this must be viewed with a steady eye and we must not give way to discouragement. Firstly, feeling like this would not be Christian, since all that happens to us happens with God’s permission and he will not allow us to be struck by these blows beyond our strength. Then, the storm will last only for a time and when it is over we can start our work again, more fruitfully now, work which will have been purified by persecution and which will be blessed more abundantly by God. Death is terrifying only if it is not followed by the resurrection. Our Lord revealed his power much more after his resurrection that before his death and not only did he not seek to avoid death, he looked for it and wanted it, because he knew that this was the will of his Father.
In conclusion, my dear Sons, what must bring you peace going into the future and give you great confidence is the visible protection of God’s motherly Providence towards your little Society. Just when persecution is about to chase it from Algeria and the time ticks away before this happens, Providence opens up, all over the place on its own ground, new possibilities for work and new outlets for your zeal. These are, firstly, Tunis, Tripoli, Ghadamès and the Sudan, then Jerusalem, the vicariates of Equatorial Africa, and finally, Malta, and this in conditions such that you will surely not be short of work, but rather it will be the workers who are lacking . I am currently in the college in Tunis which, in less than three months, already has more than forty boarders. In Tripoli, the Consul General has already told me of his wish to see a similar establishment set up there. At Saint-Anne’s: a similar request. You know what the huge needs of Equatorial Africa are. So there will be a superabundance of work to satisfy all the dedicated with every kind of aptitude. Nor, I am sure, will you be short of material resources, and all my plans for these are already in place.
Three feelings should fill your hearts, my dear Sons, and it is to stir up these feelings that I have written all this to you. The first is a great feeling of gratitude towards Providence who shows her kind favour towards you through the measures she has taken to save you from so many dangers. The second is total resignation and submission to the will of God which will be revealed in the events and the orders and advice of your superiors. The third is a feeling of commiseration and pity for poor France, and for Algeria, which are about to sink into such depths of the abyss which their ungodliness is digging for them each day. Ask most fervently in your prayers for them that they will not perish, but will undergo conversion and live.
I hope I can maintain this same frame of mind, but I need to embrace it even more completely than you. So, pray for me, my dear Sons, and know that I remain,
Yours most paternally in Our Lord,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Delegate
Letter to Father Livinhac and the missionaries of Uganda (10th February 1881)
Dear Father,
I have received, somewhat piece-meal but in the end completely, your letters and those of your confreres dated up to the month of June 1880 . I cannot tell you enough how we have all shared in your troubles, your toils and your first successes. I hurried to inform the Holy Father Pope Leo XIII of the news you sent me. He has given me the job of passing on to you, in turn, his encouragement and his blessings.
I have also to inform you, my dear Son, that, as a new sign of its benevolence towards you and so as to grant more authority to your ministry, the Holy See has raised your mission to a pro-vicariate apostolic and has asked me to choose a pro-vicar. It is you whom I have chosen for this responsibility and I have no doubt at all that you will be accepted by His Holiness . This will entail, in the near future, your promotion to the episcopate. You will, therefore, be the first of my children whom I shall see assuming the character and the grace of the Apostles, the first to work as a bishop in this difficult and great task of converting Equatorial Africa
If it had been in Europe or in another Christian country that you were to be invested with the episcopate, I would really pity you, since it is much more difficult to gain one’s salvation and grow in holiness amid all the bother of business and the temptations of vanity than in an unknown and obscure ministry. But in your mission you will have the jot of thinking that if you are a bishop it is only so as to be more exposed to the dangers of persecution, assured of more suffering and entitled to more abundant graces. You carry the cross so as to be able to say more truly: I am one with Christ crucified.
I come now, dear Father, to the news you give me and the remarks you make concerning my last instructions . I have always thought and I wrote to you, I believe, that it would be advisable to locate your new foundations preferably to the south and the west instead of nearer to the coasts. If I had been able to advise you when you got the idea of going to Uraga, I would have advised against this. It is in Roumanika’s territory , if what they say about Karagwé is true, or simply to the south of Lake Nyanza, at or in the vicinity of Kadouma, that I would have made the second foundation. The main reason for this choice would have been to be nearer to the Fathers at Lake Tanganika and Tabora and so spread the mission activities out, as it were in stages. I think I told you in one of my last letters that the Propaganda is asking us to establish two new centres for vicariates apostolic, one at the northernmost extent of the course of the Congo and the other in the territory of Muatayamvo . This is right in the centre of Equatorial Africa. We must therefore concentrate our action towards the interior, whereas Uraga, situated to the east of Lake Nyanza, is at quite some distance from our centre of action.
What you tell me about the Arabs does not surprise me at all . As soon as I learnt for sure that these Muslim slave-traders had settled in the territory of our missions, I thought you would have some considerable trouble from that quarter. In addition to fanaticism and slavery, there is another reason for their presence which you do not know. They are infuriated by the setting up of a European agency in Tabora and by the partnership established between Mr Sergère and the Indian Séwa . Thus, they see disappear their hope of the financial gain they expected to make from our caravans, and those of the Belgians and the British, whom they could fleece as they wished, in the absence of any competition. On top of this, Fathers Ganachaud and Moinet did them immense harm in Tabora by not going to them either to organise their expedition to Ujiji. They paid dearly for this, since it was the Arabs who caused the dispersal of the pagazis and all the troubles that ensued.
It is for all these reasons together, the most important of which is their fear of the abolition of slavery, that they try by all means possible to get rid of the Europeans. So, my dear Son, for the time being, you must:
1) live with them diplomatically, that is to say not oppose them openly and visibly as the British do in Ujiji.
2) use them as intermediaries to obtain supplies even if you know this means it will be costing more.
3) say nothing publically against slavery: assert, on the contrary, that you do not get involved with politics, nor with matters of war, but only with religion.
4) avoid settling where they (the Arabs) have established themselves in any permanent way.
This is the rule of conduct I am giving you, for your missions. As for me, I draw benefit from all you have written and from what the Fathers of Lake Tanganyika have written. I hastened to tell the king of the Belgians about this. He had already been somewhat captivated by his explorers. I have told him that the interior of Equatorial Africa will very soon be closed to us once more if the Arab slave-traders are not chased away and I have begged him to encourage the British to make a decisive move in this respect by approaching Saïd Bargash .
Since I am speaking of Tanganyka, I must add that Father Deniaud seems to have turned the matter around very skilfully and been accepted by the Arabs by declaring to them, as I earlier advised you to do, that he and his colleagues had certainly not come to get involved in their affairs or in business and that they were not in league with the British. They would, in fact, buy all the child slaves being offered for sale. So it seems that they are at perfect peace with the Arabs, whereas the latter are on very bad terms with the British whose national flag flying over their residence at Ujiji they have compelled them to lower.
Your previous letters and especially all the boasts of Father Lourdel cause us great disappointment today showing us the situation whereby you must have been made hypocritical demonstrations by Mutesa. Stanley has blatently lied . You have been duped. Just think how you would have felt if he had come and asked you for baptism so as to cheat you even more.
This brings me to speak about the rules I have given you for the catechumenate about which you seem to be complaining with a bitterness I do not understand. I am touched, I must confess, and amazed to see how well disposed, especially from the religious point of view, your neophytes are. These details are quite the opposite of those all travellers give of other Negroes and of those you had already given. There are some among your Baganda who seem to be disposed to heroism. For these, clearly, exceptions can be made and I willingly authorise you to make them. But the rule does not concern the exceptions, it concerns the whole group.
So, for the whole group, I maintain, as a formal order, what I have written to you. I do not have my previous instructions to hand (and I shall tell you why at the end), so I cannot reproduce the same expressions, but my immutable idea is this:
1) In Equatorial Africa, you must restore the formal catechumenate more or less as it existed during the first centuries of the Church.
2) Consequently, you must explain in your instructions that there are two kinds of Christians, those who believe in Jesus Christ but are not yet baptised, whom we call catechumens and those who are baptised, whom we call the faithful.
3) You must explain that you can only admit to the rank of the faithful and so accept for baptism, those who feel they have the courage to practise their faith and fulfil the law of Our Lord completely, even to the shedding of their blood, by the grace of God; that for the others, who are not sure of themselves or are unable to take it upon themselves to renounce their bad habits, you can only admit them to the catechumenate: that, as such, they are already Christians, it is true, St Augustine tells us very clearly, but they can only be baptised when they have renounced everything, and this might be only on their deathbed.
I insist on this. I want you to follow this rule. Indeed, I order you to follow it . So, baptism for those who have the necessary dispositions and who arouse no concerns, and the catechumenate for the others. The main reason why I insist on these measures is the fear of apostasies after baptisms which are granted too easily. A secondary reason is so as not to create insurmountable difficulties in stirring enmity with the great and the powerful, especially because of polygamy.
Father Lourdel thinks he did wonders by replying, as he did to King Mutesa, that there was no way he could become a Christian if he did not leave all his wives, keeping only one of them. You saw what ensued, the return to Islam of this hypocritical chief. I think you could have opened up a choice for him to make and tell him that he could not become one of the faithful and receive baptism without first giving up polygamy, but that he could still believe in Our Lord, adore him, pray to him, ask his help against himself and his passions until he had overcome them: that, by acting in this way, he would already be Christian at heart and that when God gave him the strength, or at least at the moment of death, he could receive baptism and in this way be completely justified and made pure; in the meantime, we could pray for him, give him instructions, admit him to the Church’s celebrations and await God’s good time . But in order to act like this, you need a well-established institution, that is an existing catechumenate, the two orders of Christians visible for all to see, some already following all the laws of the Church, the others asking God for the grace and the strength to follow them one day, confessing both the divine nature of the law and their own weakness.
If you act in any other way, you will have no solid foundation, you will be violently persecuted by those in power, whose conduct you will vehemently condemn, and you will probably be chased away in no time at all. My dear Son, do not hold on stubbornly to your uncompromising ideas. It is very pleasant to be able to baptise straight away, as you have done, those souls who are exceptionally well disposed. But it is better still to prepare for entry into the sheep-fold whole multitudes who will go in if they are gently led in, but will break everything if this is rushed.
My dear Sons, for though I am writing this letter to Father Livinhac, you are all in my thoughts, I am with you with all my heart, through my desire to see your apostolate blessed by God and your troubles bear fruit, your dangers, your sufferings, your death serve for the salvation of all those poor Africans. What will become of you? I do not know. You yourselves do not know any more than I do; your last letters show us so many perils that lie in your way. Father Girault was held like a prisoner for a moment. All of you are at risk from some caprice of that crazy tyrant in whose hands you find yourselves. But whatever might happen to you, it will be only for your good and for the glory of our Master, who does not let a single hair of our head fall unknown to him. The whole of the Catholic Church has its eyes fixed on you at this time . Those on earth await anxiously your news, news of your apostolate. Those in heaven are looking upon you, urging you on to act with courage, to undergo suffering …martyrdom, if need be! My dear Sons, be worthy by your faith, your holiness, your virtue, your courage, of all this immense interest shown to you here below and up above.
If I could move on now to some material matters, I wrote to you four months ago and made available to you the sum of thirty thousand francs for your Nyanza mission. I am happy to be able to authorise you today to take a similar sum, that is a further thirty thousand francs, of merchandise. I advise you to deal through the Arabs to bring them from Zanzibar. I would also advise you to use this sum sparingly as these are gloomy times now in France and in Algeria . You will probably already know when you receive this letter that non-authorised religious communities have been declared illegal and have been violently dissolved in France. So fat, we have been able to avoid these extreme measures in Algeria where the decrees of March 19th (1880) have not been applied . No doubt it will not be long before we undergo the same fate. Little by little, they will withdraw the Church grants and those from the Propaganda of the Faith, which is almost penniless.
I have taken all possible measures to safeguard your little Society. Everything is ready in Malta to receive the noviciates and the Mother House. We have mortgaged all our properties. At this very moment I am in Tunis to organise a college at Saint Louis. It has started well. We have children here from all nationalities and from some of the better Muslim families. Father Bresson is the superior and Fathers Burtin, Delattre, Huguenot, Dupont and Pinot and Brother Henri are permanent staff members. There are also several foreign teachers. It is from here that I am writing to you, still heartbroken at the death of Mgr Gillard who had just been appointed Bishop of Constantine and who died almost immediately, but in a most holy manner, before being installed. Pray for him, my dear Sons, since he was very attached to your mission.
You will receive other letters as well as mine which will be of interest and give you more news in detail. I shall close here and bless you tenderly.
Yours devotedly and paternally in Our Lord,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Deniaud and the missionaries of Lake Tanganyika (8th April 1881)
Algiers,
Dear Father,
Your diaries and your letters, dated up to the beginning of November 1880, have reached me. I found them of great interest, although sometimes quite sad, due to all the difficulties they describe . I have been racing around for these past five months. This is what has prevented me from writing to you as often as I would have liked. But I asked Father Deguerry to do this in my place and Father Charbonnier, since he became Superior General . They have fulfilled this duty and you will no doubt have received their letters, despite the vagaries of the African post .
Today, my dear Son, I should like to share personally with you on several thoughts I have had through reading what you and your confreres have written. The first of these relates to the ease with which you have failed, up to now, to keep the most basic rule of your Institute, which prohibits you from ever being less than three together. I understand that this rule cannot be observed to the letter in all circumstances, when there are as few of you as there are. I cannot, however, allow all those journeys made by individual Fathers, and especially by you, often for no good reason, like the journey you made to Tabora instead of returning to Lake Tanganyka with Father Ganachaud, Brother Eugène and Mr Oswald who, all three of them, probably paid with their lives for the delays you imposed on them because of your ill-fated trip.
In any case, it goes against my conscience to allow you to do this again and I forbid you, under pain of interdict by the fact itself, to go yourself or to allow another of your confreres to go alone on a journey lasting more than one day without being accompanied by another missionary. I also forbid Father Moinet from accompanying you, if you go out, because one of you must remain at his post. I am really sorry to have to resort to such a strict prohibition, but, I repeat, my conscience will not let me put up with behaviour which is so directly opposed to the main rule of your Society.
The second observation I would make is that, in the mission at Lake Tanganyka, you do not seem to be living sufficiently like apostles. Apart from what Father Dromaux writes from time to time, all that you and your confreres write to me is no different from what any ordinary tourist with his wits about him and who wanted to interest me would write. I am always looking to see the work and the feelings of the apostle; but these are absent. If you could read the letters from Lake Nyanza, you would see what a different spirit it is that inspires Father Livinhac and his confreres and how totally absorbed they are in the apostolate. In his last letter, this Father tells me that each one of them teaches their adult catechumens, on average, five hours of catechism a day, since they turn no-one away.
So they start again each time new catechumens arrive for instruction. They have done more. In their zeal, they have learnt Kiganda quite well, not only to speak it, but also to write it. In this way, they have translated into this language the whole of the small catechism and the morning and evening prayers; and they included a word-list or glossary at the beginning, in order to teach more easily their orphans and neophytes. We have just received this precious work which is being printed at this very moment in Algiers.
The good Lord has clearly blessed the apostolic zeal of your confreres. Despite the incredible obstacles they meet from King Mutesa and the chiefs of Uganda, they already have a good number of faithful whom they solemnly baptised at the Easter Vigil and at Pentecost in 1880. At the same time they are adding to the number of their orphans .
My dear Sons, will you not give me some similar consolation soon? What are you doing among those pagans? You have been there for two years and more, and in none of your letters have I even once read that you have preached the Gospel or taught the catechism to adults, indeed you have hardly even instructed the children and of these you have only seven! Do you not remember the anathema Saint Paul pronounced against himself: Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! By the depths of the Lord’s mercy, I beg you, remember who you are. You are missionaries, apostles: you have the strict obligation to preach Jesus Christ by your words and by your example. I tell you that it is our express wish that each of you should devote on average four hours each day, that means two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, exclusively to instructing those who come to you. They must understand that you have come to their country only to teach them the way of salvation and that whenever they come to you they will receive Christian instruction.
As for the children, I also order you to ransom a much greater number of them . Given the cost of ransoming them and feeding them, the minimum number your should have, it seems to me, would be fifty for each of your two mission posts ; and once you have them, you must care for them as best you can, especially the more intelligent ones, who will later become the Auxiliaries of the Mission.
I have no doubt that it would be very easy for you to find children to ransom by dealing with the Arabs. You must know that in Tabora the brother of the Governor had offered to provide Father Livinhac with as many children as he wanted, if he planned to set up in Unyaniembé or Unyamouési an institute like the one at Bagamoyo . The Father rightly thought that what the Arabs wanted was to get rid of their sorry human merchandise since there was no way they could sell them at the coast. But it is not for us to know what their intentions were. It is quite clear that we must seek to be on good terms with the Arabs. I congratulate you for the attitude you have adopted towards them and for the results you have thereby obtained. Do continue to treat them in this way .
Now, just a few remarks as they come to mind.
1 – A short time after the third caravan left, I received a disturbing message from the king of the Belgians warning me that the Arabs of the interior had taken great offence at Mr Sergère’s setting up of his merchandise business and at our dealing with him and the Indian Sewa, to the exclusion of the Arab merchants. The king informed me that this could bring about some serious disadvantages for you and even place you in grave danger. He considers that the Arabs, once they see that they have nothing to gain from the missionaries and explorers, will resort, either overtly or secretly by stirring up the African chiefs, to attacking you, and these attacks may be violent. He puts the misfortunes suffered by our caravans and his down to these reasons. You must carefully and accurately check out this information given by King Leopold and, if it proves to be well founded, you must change the way you are operating and deal with the Arabs rather than Mr Sergère, unless, in the light of experience, he decides to join forces with them .
2 – In recent days, we have found ourselves in very serious trouble with the Office of the Propaganda of the Faith, following some unbelievable indiscretions committed by one or two Fathers who, writing to their friends in France, give details, and often deplorable details, concerning the mission. Following a letter from Father Lévesque, written to his brother and published by him, a letter made to put off all our benefactors, the Office of the Propaganda of the Faith has reduced its grant to our missions by two thirds. We have had to intervene and appeal so as to obtain a little more; but the harm is done and it can never be put right. These are such grave consequences that I find myself obliged to forbid anyone to give details of the mission, in letters addressed to anyone other than myself or Father Superior General. Furthermore, I order all missionaries and auxiliaries to strictly forbid their correspondents in Europe to publish anything they may write in the press. It is your own direct interest that is at stake. If you do not wish to die of hunger, you must not make it impossible for us to collect funding which is vital to you by acts of carelessness of this kind.
3 – In spite of saying earlier that your main preoccupation should be the apostolate and that I even congratulated Father Livinhac for the baptisms celebrated at the Nyanza mission, I still maintain the rules that I have given you previously concerning the institution of a formal catechumenate similar to that which existed in the early Church. You must therefore refer to my previous instructions about this. I would only add here that, in order to impress the catechumens and give them a sign of your satisfaction, they might be presented with some visible religious symbol, like a cross or a medal to be worn around their neck on the day of their solemn reception. From this time onwards, they can take the name Christian and they must be called as such, but not Faithful, which has always been reserved only for baptised Christians. You must not fail to point out that, as Christians, they are on the way to salvation and will go heaven, as long as, before they die, they make an act of desire for baptism and an act of charity.
4 – I am always horrified at the ease with which I see missionaries incur enormous expenses, especially for travel and for useless presents. I can understand these latter, when they are used for winning the favour of chiefs; I do not understand, however, when they are of no use and are the result of wild extravagance. You must keep in mind, on the one hand, that the money you are spending like this has been saved with enormous effort often by poor working women or servants in Europe and, on the other, that events now looming could come and suddenly deprive you of all your resources . Then, what would you do? So save as much as possible.
5 – Although I have not yet received the details I asked of you so as to be able to draw up a normal budget, I can tell you that, until you hear differently, I have arranged that from January 1st, 1881, there shall be made available to you each year the sum of thirty thousand francs for Tanganyka, thirty thousand francs for Nyanza and twenty thousand francs for the intermediary station at Mdabourou. The same amount will be granted to the mission at Kabébé when it is founded. So, without any further authorisation, you may place orders up to this amount, through drafts placed with Mr Greffulhe, and avail yourselves of them either by means of the Arabs or by any other means you may find more profitable .
6 – The Tanganyka mission is invited, if possible, to found the mission at Kabébé. Nevertheless, if the Fathers of that mission find out that there is an easier, less costly route towards the Atlantic Ocean in the company of the Portuguese, they should inform us immediately and not travel any further on into Manyéma .
7 – The diaries sent by the missionaries are generally lacking in interest, because they do not go into detail. It is the detail which is of sole interest. The Holy Childhood is pestering us for details of the orphans. It seems to me that it would be easy to have each child tell his story and then write them up later in the diary . I have also asked several times for a kind of minutely detailed inquiry to be made into the historical and mythical traditions of the Negroes of the Interior before they have built up any lasting relations with Europeans, because then it will not be possible to distinguish what is truly of African origin and what is European. I come back to this point, asking the Fathers to kindly do what I have requested and what I desire for very serious motives.
I shall stop there for today, my dear Sons. It only remains for me to tell you how much we are wholeheartedly with you, how much I ask Our Lord to bless you and repay you for your troubles and make them fruitful. I particularly thank Father Dromaux and Father Augier, as well as Father Delaunay, but the first two especially, for the many letters they have written to me. I urge Father Moinet and Father Moncet to follow in their footsteps. I remain,
Yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Delegate
Letter to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Propaganda (10th April 1881)
Your Eminence,
Four months ago, I asked Mgr Zitelli to inform Your Eminence confidentially of the expedition that was being prepared at that time against Tunisia. You can see today how things are evolving. I feel, however, that I must complete that first communication by adding what I have learnt since then, especially since I am indirectly involved.
France is determined not to lay down its arms before establishing its rule over the Regency and imposing on the Bey its official protectorate, in such a way that he is no more than a sovereign in name. If he resists, he will be removed, but it is better to keep him for a time so as not to stir up Muslim fanaticism and make more problems, in Algeria too, should a more general war break out.
You can be certain that, for the moment at least, the powers are in agreement and that what is being written or done is a real comedy whose aim is to cover up the game with regard to Turkey. Britain has already taken Cyprus, France will establish its rule in Tunis, Italy in Tripoli and Germany in Crete. Later on, Syria and Egypt will be shared out. These are not assumptions I am making, they are secrets I am confiding to your discretion, so that the Holy See and the Propaganda might use them to their profit .
I come back now to Tunisia. I am informed, again by the same source, that the French government, once it is in total control in Tunisia, does not want to keep the Italian Capuchins who were tactless enough to make too much of a show of their opposition. If requested necessary, even acts of violence will be used against them to expel them rather than leave them where they are, since great efforts are being made to make the country French and make preparations for its annexation to Algeria .
I do not doubt that this is true, since I have just been approached secretly and asked if I would accept to be the spiritual administrator of the Regency after Mgr Sutter’s resignation, a request for which will be made soon to the Holy See. As I did not know what the Propaganda might decide, I could simply answer that I am at the disposal of the Holy See and that anything it asks of me, I shall do. However, I am keen not to hand in my resignation from the See of Algiers, indeed this did not seem to me to be at all necessary, since I have a coadjutor and all I need is to be given an Apostolic Delegation for Tunisia. That is where we stand. Your Eminence will be informed of this sooner or later, but I felt you had to know of this situation and be told that if I accepted such a responsibility at the request of the Holy See, it would only be to better serve the interests of the Church, determined as I am only to follow the instructions of the Sacred Congregation for the Propaganda.
As for the Capuchins, the first condition I would impose on the government, as I have already stated, would be to respect all their established rights and to touch not a single one of them .
I have reached the end of my paper and it remains only for me to kiss most respectfully your crimson garments,
Your most humble servant,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Rules of the noviciate of the Society of the Missionaries of Our Lady of the African Missions (June 1881)
Chapter I. The aim, spirit and organisation of the noviciate
The Noviciate of the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers was founded to conform to the orders of the Holy See which demands that, in all communities, postulants and novices be tested and trained, on their own, for a suitable period of time, in the virtues of the consecrated life . This is also what the Rules of the Society make provision for : « No-one can be admitted to try his vocation in the Society unless he is older than sixteen years. Younger children will be given places in preparatory schools called minor noviciates or minor seminaries. No-one, barring exceptional cases which will be decided by the Council, will henceforth be admitted to the major noviciate if he has not completed his studies up to and including philosophy level. All those seeking admission, lay or church students, must normally complete at least one whole year of probation at the major noviciate, after having received the habit. During this time, they must apply themselves, under the guidance of the novice-master, to correcting their faults and being trained in the apostolic virtues. During the noviciate, they will do no other studies, except learning the local language and Holy Scripture. Special rules govern the noviciate. »
The aim of the noviciate is to train novices in the virtues peculiar to them, namely a burning love for Our Lord and for his glory and for the salvation of souls, principally the souls of the most abandoned, as those of Africa are. For this, they must be brought to know, love and practise, more perfectly than they had done before, God’s holy law and the laws of the Church. They must also be instilled with a generous fervour to make these laws known, loved and practised by those poor people who do not know them. Since they must carry out their apostolate among people who speak a different language, their first and only study in the noviciate, along with that of Holy Scripture, must be the study of local languages, mainly Arabic which is spoken in almost two thirds of Africa. So, a plan of exercises and study is laid down during the noviciate which trains the novices and prepares them for the mission which they must fulfil as members of the Institute.
Faith alone guides the execution of this plan. Neither punishments nor rewards are dispensed in the noviciate. Those who enter do so only to obey the voice of God; those who stay do so only to be trained in the virtues of the missionaries; those who work there do so only to enable them to serve, to their best, the missions on earth and to become worthy to receive, one day, from God’s hand, the eternal rewards he has promised his apostles.
This is the spirit of the noviciate. It could not be otherwise without compromising its existence and no novices inspired by any spirit other than the spirit of faith will be kept there. This is the only effective sanction in the Rules. After three solemn warnings given in person by the superior to a novice in whom an absence of this spirit of faith has been noted and after the Society’s Council has been consulted on the matter, he will be asked to leave, lacking, as he does, the qualities essential to the apostolate in the mission in Africa.
In accordance with this spirit, the noviciate is organised like a real family. The staff are the fathers. They share totally in the work, the difficulties, the joys of their novices; they participate in all their devotions without exception; they seek one thing only, to form the spirit of apostles in their novices, through their word and example. Under the authority of the Superior General, it is a missionary priest who is the superior of the noviciate and who is responsible for the general running of all areas of its activity. He is more especially responsible for the spiritual training of the novices. He is assisted in this task by one or more Fathers, who must also be priests.
As for recreation and outings, these are supervised by all the Fathers, together, because they seek, in this way, to give to the novices a constant witness of their affection and their paternal concern. On their part, the novices trust and show filial respect for the Fathers, and especially for the Father Superior, since they see them only as representatives of Our Lord who share his sacred authority. […]
(Chapter II deals with the conditions for the admission of postulants, a stage of formation mentioned several times in the Rules of the Noviciate and having a number of points in common with it. It is sometimes called the little noviciate.)
Chapter III
1 -Admission to the noviciate – Admission to the noviciate takes effect at the time of the taking of the habit, but the noviciate only begins, from the point of view of canon law, at the end of the first retreat made in common after the postulant has entered. The noviciate must normally last one whole year, or at least eleven months after the taking of the habit, for profession to be valid. Its task is to train the novice in the virtues, the practice and the spirit of apostolic life and, at the same time, help him acquire the necessary knowledge in his vocation.
2 – The main ways in which the novice is to be trained in the apostolic life. – These can be divided into two general classes: those which concern the training of the heart through the acquisition of the virtues required to be an apostle; and those concerning the training of the spirit through the acquisition of the knowledge it will need one day.
Training the heart by practising the apostolic virtues
1) Detachment from created things through mortification and obedience – The first task of a novice who wants to train for the apostolic life and acquire its virtues is to keep always in view the end he is pursuing. Well, the end he is pursuing is his own sanctification so that he can later work effectively to sanctify souls, principally those of the pagans of Africa, by his example, his zeal and his dedication. It is this double purpose of his vocation, one near and the other far away, that each novice must constantly bear in mind so as to be motivated to attain it perfectly, by the help of God’s grace. The sanctification of a missionary assumes two equally necessary things: the first is a detachment from human things, and the second, a strong and ardent attachment to Our Lord.
Novices must seek more and more earnestly to detach themselves from material things. They must remember these words of Our Lord: Whosoever lays his hand to the plough and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God (Lk 9, 62) and these: Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me (Mt 10, 37), and again these: And anyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times as much, and also inherit eternal life (Mt 19, 29). Such are the thoughts that should inspire them during their noviciate.
Interior mortification is just as necessary for a novice as that of the senses. They will accomplish this more especially by great humility and complete obedience. Humility will destroy the natural inclination in us which leads us to exalt ourselves in our own minds, and raise us above the others, not realising that we are really only poor mortals, lacking everything and that anything good we may have comes to us from God. A novice who revels in himself is heading for the most utter ruin in the eyes of God, who curses and rejects the proud. The one who, on the contrary, gives up everything that might boost his own self-esteem, who seeks occasions to humble himself or accepts them cheerfully, will make rapid progress in virtue, since he would receive from God the choicest of graces.
No less necessary than humility in the training of a missionary is obedience. This is the virtue of which Our Lord gave us the example; for in the Gospels it is written that he was obedient to Joseph and Mary. It is the only virtue that the Holy Spirit praises in him during his childhood; and later it is of him that was written: He became obedient unto death, death on a cross (Ph 2, 8). A novice who is perfectly obedient after the example of his divine master would be the perfect novice.
But, in order to be perfectly obedient, external obedience is not enough; to this you must add, and this is very difficult to achieve, the interior submission of the will and even of your own judgement, as if you were placing these into the hands of your superior. This is what Saint Ignatius explains in a wonderful way in his letter on obedience. This letter should be read to the novices very carefully twice during the noviciate year and explained to them in spiritual talks. This is the golden book of sanctification for all who are lucky enough to live in community. The novices will remember that they must measure their progress in the apostolic virtues by seeing how faithfully they have followed the principles of obedience and with what enthusiasm they have applied these principles to themselves.
Furthermore, sins of disobedience, committed deliberately will always be considered the worst of sins and one single refusal to obey is enough to have a novice sent away.
2) On unity with God and the spirit of prayer - It is not enough to seek detachment from created things, you must attach yourself to God and live with him each day in the most perfect unity. This unity comes about mostly by the practice of divine love: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we shall come to him and make our home with him (Jn 14, 23). But this love is revealed and maintained through practising, each day a little more perfectly, the law of God. It is therefore through this sign that the novices will see that they love God as they should. The sensitivity of a conscience which no longer allows itself anything which might go against the precepts of Our Lord is the truly unmistakable mark of the love we have for him. It is only then, in fact, that our souls are completely freed from earthly affections and desire only to be united with the Beloved and speak with him in prayer.
It is in prayer, especially, that these ineffable exchanges take place. Prayer and the spirit of prayer are therefore at the heart of the noviciate and one can truly say that all the rest depends on this. All Christians are told to pray and to pray ceaselessly. But how much more pressing is this obligation for those who have left the world to consecrate themselves to God and prepare themselves to help build his Kingdom in souls.
You could say that prayer is the breath of the soul, of the heart, and that it is as essential to the novice as air is to life itself. Just as their body would perish if it were deprived of air, so their soul would shrivel and slowly die, if it were not nourished by prayer. One of the Fathers of the Church boldly states that «only the one who knows how to pray knows how to live. » What should also lead us to pray earnestly is the assurance Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us that everything we ask our heavenly Father for in his name will be given to us. It is a God who is infinitely rich, infinitely generous, who comes with all his treasures and says to us all: Ask and you will receive. All who are poor, come to me and I shall give you rest. My riches are yours, my happiness lies in pouring them into your heart. If someone of great wealth came to a group of unfortunates who lacked everything and said: If there is anything you want, here I am ready to give it to you, what joy would fill those poor people! How quickly they would tell him all their needs! How humbly and how keenly they would confess their misery and the list of their misfortunes! Are we not, in relation to God, truly destitute and impoverished? We ought, therefore, to address our prayers and our supplications to him with the same earnestness, the same urgency as those poor would seek help from the rich man. (But what a difference since we are much more sensitive to the needs of our body than to those of our soul.)
Besides, since the novices have entered apostolic life solely to cast off the old man and put on the new, that is, to remove from their hearts all wicked inclinations and plant all the virtues, they must be sure in their heart of hearts that they will not reach the end of this great enterprise without the help of God’s grace. By themselves, they can do nothing and are incapable of anything good; for all good and excellent gifts come from above, from the Father of light; the Lord is the God of our salvation and it is to him alone that we must look.
This grace, then, which is so necessary and without which they would go miserably astray, they will only obtain through prayer. This is what led Saint Augustine to utter these beautiful words: «We believe that no-one is saved unless God calls him; no-one, after being called, does what is needed to obtain this same salvation, if God does not come to his aid; and no-one receives this aid unless he asks for it in prayer ». In this way, according to this holy Doctor, prayer is the channel of grace and the only means to obtain it. Saint Thomas explains this doctrine very clearly: « By means of prayer, God gives, in time, the graces he has prepared for souls in secret from all eternity ». So, just as God has ordained through his Providence that the seed should produce the harvest, that the flowers should produce fruit, similarly, he has ordained that prayer, like a fertile seed, should obtain for souls all that they need. This was why the Saviour said: Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you (Mt 7, 7).
The novices will do all they can to acquire the spirit of prayer. In vain would they recite each day many long prayers and pious formulas if their hearts were elsewhere they would offend God instead of glorifying him and would merit this anathema: These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me (Mt 15, 8). The spirit of prayer lies not in the multiplicity of words nor in the movement of the lips, but rather in the thoughtfulness, the contrition, the yearning and the desires of the heart. The one who consecrates himself to being in God’s presence, who seeks him more constantly and more earnestly, who often recalls, with bitter regret, the sins he has committed, who frequently and humbly implores the mercy of God and who offers him thanks, in short, the one who can really and truly say: « Lord, you know all I desire and my groans are not hidden from you », he is the one who possesses most eminently the spirit of prayer, which does not teach us to deliver eloquent speeches to God but to sigh in his presence as the Apostle teaches us: The Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words (Rm 8, 26).
Two kinds of prayers are offered in the noviciate, vocal prayers and mental prayers. In the first, words are used and, in the second, the spirit rises up to God and the heart burns with love, without the mouth uttering a sound. Every day, the novices have vocal prayers to recite. They must carry out this duty with great devotion and reverence, remembering that in praying like this they are united with all the faithful in the world and with the Saints in heaven. As for mental prayer or meditation, the novices will feel the need for this if they reflect on these words of the Prophet: The whole land is made desolate but no-one takes it to heart! (Jer 12, 11). Nothing is more important for them. So, everything concerning meditation, how to prepare for it, whether some time in advance or just before, will be explained to them in detail during spiritual reading.
Some prayers might be classed as both vocal and mental prayers since they may have the characteristics of either of these two forms. These are the ejaculatory prayers in which the spirit rises quickly up to God and seeks union with him. It is like a spear thrown at the heart. This pious practice was that of all the Saints. It is easy to adopt this type of prayer since it can be used at any time, at any hour of the day and in any place. One movement of the heart, a single word, is sufficient to give the soul incomparable strength and consolation. The novices must keep faithfully to this practice which will sanctify all the exercises and every moment of their day.
3) Silence - In the noviciate, silence must be kept constantly by all the novices, outside times of recreation. Even during periods of manual work, any talking must be limited to what is absolutely necessary. In old documents concerning religious life, we can find nothing that was a more direct and stern order than the rule of silence. The reasons given for this rule may well have an impact.
Firstly, silence is necessary to advance along the way to perfection. It is written that God does not live in the midst of tumult and noise; and the devout author of the Imitation of Christ quite rightly says that it is in calm and silence that the pious soul makes progress. Besides, without keeping silence, how can that meditative attitude, so necessary for prayer, be maintained? How can one not descend into that ordinary dryness, that insensitivity of the soul, when one is dispersed in worthless chatter?
Secondly, without strict silence, kept in accordance with the Rules, there could be no order within the community. Whoever violates this rule destroys a practice which is essential to him and knocks down a wall which protects him. As long as he keeps this up, it leaves him prey to all the wrongs which an unbridled tongue can cause. The silence recommended for the novices involves never speaking unless absolutely necessary outside times of recreation. If you ask past masters of the religious life, all will reply that those who break easily the rule of silence are those who are seen to fall into serious slackening.
There are two kinds of silence, both equally necessary for the novices: external silence and internal silence. The first without the second would be of no benefit at all, for it would leave our souls open to all the impressions of the senses and would not prevent superficiality and the dissipation of the heart. The Saints, moreover, recommend with great insistence the practice of internal silence, which not only shuts our mouths and holds back our words, but which enlightens our spirits, calms our thoughts, removes our worries, produces, cultivates, and preserves the virtues, teaches us the science of the Saints, the divine art of prayer, and unites us to God in the most intimate of ways.
Conclusion – Details of the other Christian and religious virtues are not given in detail here, since these virtues will be given special and detailed explanations by the noviciate staff members in their spiritual reading sessions, in their homilies and in their religious instruction lessons. As for fraternal charity which, after love of God, is the first and the most necessary virtue, it is dealt with later, in the chapter dedicated to the novices’ relations.
The novices must endeavour to grow in all these virtues through constantly applying themselves, but they will remember that, by themselves, they can do absolutely nothing in connection with things spiritual and supernatural. It is only through the help and by the grace of God that they can rise to perfection. Each day, they will ask for this grace, as we have just said, in fervent prayer; and with this aim they will carry out, to the best of their ability, all their devotions. But, not content with this, they will assail Our Lord’s Scared Heart with their repeated supplications. They will find ways to devote a few minutes of their recreation or before they go to sleep to offer him brief but ardent prayers. Nor will they forget that it is through intercession to Mary that all these graces will be granted. They will have a great, filial devotion to the Blessed Virgin whom they will invoke under the name of Our Lady, or Queen, of Africa.
Chapter III – On the Novices’ relations
[…]
On the novices’ relations with each other and especially on fraternal charity
The great Rule governing the novices’ relations with each other, which is also the great Rule of the whole Society, is that which Our Lord Jesus Christ himself ordered all his true disciples to keep as the most important of all, charity.
The Rule makes of charity a particular obligation and singles it out as the goal of all endeavours, since all that the missionaries must do, their preaching, their acts of penance, their prayers must aim at the temporal and spiritual good of the poor, the sick, the pagans. One can say of them, too, what the Lord said of his Apostles: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (Jn 13, 35). Let this thought inspire all their actions, may it stir them in their work, may it console them in their difficulties, may it uphold them in all their sacrifices and prevent them from ever being discouraged.
Therefore, the novices will maintain among themselves the charity of which Saint Paul speaks and whose attributes he describes in this way: « Charity is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; it is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage; it does not take offence or store up grievances; charity does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth; it is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes; it never comes to an end and does not weaken. »
So, they will put up with each other’s infirmities, both spiritual and temporal, without ever harbouring resentment or grudges, without nourishing bitterness or spitefulness. They will render each other service as best they can, in the firm belief that what they do to one of their brothers, they do to Jesus Christ himself, who teaches us that what we do to one of the least of our brothers, he will consider as being done to him.
Unless obedience demands otherwise, each novice will always choose for himself the most difficult and the lowliest of things, rejoicing in having something to suffer for Our Lord and in having the opportunity to show his love for his brothers. They will take care to avoid opening their heart to feelings of jealousy when they see their confreres receive some token of special trust. Jealousy hardens the soul and dries up the spring of divine grace.
Novices will avoid two faults which go particularly contrary to the virtue of charity. The first is to form particular friendships which, by breaking the general bond of charity, bring on a slackening of discipline and often lead to great licentiousness; the second is to have rude manners which shows a certain hardness or haughtiness of character. Such manners as these could not be more opposed to the spirit of the religious life, which calls for gentleness and humility. So as not to break the bond of charity which is the bond of perfection, the novices will avoid, above all, animated talk, mocking remarks, harsh words, in fact, anything that might indicate bitterness.
The spirit of the Rule implies that there be always three or four novices together, when this is possible, during times of recreation or on walks. They should avoid trying to associate frequently with the same persons, especially with those of the same nationality. This would lead to separate camps being formed and nothing is more likely than this to break up that unity which must exist in the Society and which is essential for its success. The Society is called upon to welcome within its ranks novices belonging to every Catholic nation, but she must be said to be truly as the Apostle Paul said of the early Church, that, once they have entered into its ranks, there is neither Greek nor Hebrew. This is so important that any tendency opposing this notion would certainly lead to the destruction of the Society by introducing harmful divisions; and since it is in the noviciate that those harbouring such tendencies would start to display them, they must under no circumstances be tolerated. If, after being given two official warnings, a novice did not correct this particular tendency, he would be sent away forthwith, whatever qualities and virtues he might possess, as these would serve only to boost the dangerous influence he could have!
As for the mutual consideration the novices should show each other, here is the beautiful Rule outlined by Saint Paul: « Love each other with brotherly affection, avert each other to the dangers of honours and let each consider his brother as being superior to himself … ». So, between brothers, there must be a certain warmth and a relinquishment of closeness, which might not exist with others; but, among brothers who are united in God by their religious vocation, there must still be mutual respect, shown through perfect politeness and honesty, and nothing befits them less than vulgarity and rudeness. […]
Letter to Father Guillet, appointed Pro-vicar Apostolic of Tanganyka (4th July 1881)
La Marsa
Dear Father,
You will surely have learnt already through the letters of your superiors or your confreres that we have decided to send you to Tanganyika and to appoint you superior of that whole mission. Father Deniaud keeps asking in all his letters to be relieved of the post of superior and we thought that, after imposing this burden of him for so long, the time had come to yield to his request. You are therefore, by this letter, appointed superior of the mission of Tanganyika with the title of pro-vicar apostolic. Consequently, as soon as you think the mission post at Mdabourou is sufficiently well established, you must leave there three Fathers and three auxiliaries who will have been appointed together by the majority of votes of your Council, that is by a meeting of the missionaries, at your proposal for the Fathers and at the proposal of Captain Joubert for the auxiliaries. The superior of the mission post at Mdabourou must also be appointed by the majority of the votes by the same Council.
Once this election has taken place, you must leave for Tanganyika with Mr Guyot, if he is still there with you at that time. My hope is that this journey will be completed as quickly as possible and be burdened with as little baggage as possible. You must have enough experience by now, through your confreres and from your own experience, to know what is required for this. I am putting the sum of twenty thousand francs at your disposal for this journey; but I urge you very much to save as much as you can, since the Propaganda of the Faith has just told us out of the blue that it is cutting down by half the grants being given to your missions. So, from one day to the next, we could find ourselves short of funds.
Before leaving Mdabourou, you must carefully sort out the mail, that going to Nyanza and that for Tanganyika. This mission post was set up mainly for this purpose. In Tabora, you must make the necessary arrangements, either with Mr Sergère, or with another party, so that the letters, both those for dispatch and those arriving, are sent to their correct destination. Once you have reached Tanganyika, you may organise matters as you see fit, following the advice of your confreres. However, if the reports which have been sent to us from the mission station at Mazenzé are correct, that is, if these people have placed themselves in the hands of the missionaries and have asked for help and protection from their neighbours, then it is there that you will have assign all the auxiliaries and set up a Christian Force which must gradually extend its influence around them through alliances . However, I forbid the missionaries to bear arms, this being reserved for auxiliaries only.
Once the mission post at Mazenzé is well established, you must seek to go a step further and set up a new mission station towards Nyangoué . But, as always, it is important to choose the location with care, both for its salubriousness and for the temperament of the people.
To these general directives, I would add a few pieces of advice which seem to me to be particularly necessary for the mission at Tanganyika. We have noticed with some sadness that your confreres at Tanganyika do not seem to be sufficiently instilled with their apostolic mission. They realise themselves that, up to now, apart from the children they have ransomed, they have not spoken to the Africans about the Gospel, and they go as far as to say that these Negroes still do not know the reason why they have come into their land. Of course, we do not want any foolhardiness and a superior would be found seriously at fault by jeopardising, by rushing procedures or by rash preaching, the future of the mission. We might have understood that our confreres had refrained, since they found themselves in a place where there were Arabs. But we cannot understand how, finding themselves solely among Negroes, they have not begun to speak to them about God and teach them the precepts of Christian morality.
You will also notice how, almost constantly from the start, one confrere after another at the Tanganyika Mission has failed to obey that essential Rule of our Society which is to be always three confreres together, except in rare and exceptional cases. It is important that this abuse stops. Under no circumstances, except in a case of danger of death, must you ever allow a missionary to travel alone or to remain alone in a mission station. You will not allow this for yourself either, and except in cases of momentary necessity, you must never be only two alone, but always be three, since this is what the Rule commands.
A last piece of advice, of a serious nature, is necessary. The Foreign Office in London, that is to say, the British government, has just made some official complaints to the French government saying that the French missionaries who have set up the mission in Tanganyika have become slave-traders. They are accused, not of ransoming children to rescue them and bring them up, as I had authorised and committed them to do, but also of buying adults to keep them as slaves and use them as such. If such an accusation were to be proven, it would cover us with shame before the whole of the Christian and the civilised world. I am certain that this is completely without foundation and that none of your Fathers has been unfortunate or stupid enough to commit such a crime. But nothing we are seen to do must give rise to such accusations. You must watch this most carefully and remember that I shall strike with absolute excommunication, incurred by the very act, all those who dare to buy slaves for any purpose other than setting them free and treating them as brothers ransomed by the blood of Our Saviour.
This is all I want to say to you, my dear Son. I send to each and every one of you my paternal blessing and I remain,
Your most loving and devoted Father in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Memo to respond to the Portuguese government which is protesting at the presence of the missionaries in Upper Congo (21st July 1881)
Algiers,
In response to the note of His Excellency the Portuguese Ambassador concerning the alleged rights of that kingdom over Equatorial Africa, it is enough, as far as the Missions of Algiers are concerned, to say the following:
1) This cannot refer to the two pro-vicariates of Nyanza and Tanganyika, situated on the 34th parallel of longitude, which do not have and have never had anything to do with the Portuguese possessions on the west coast .
2) Regarding the pro-vicariates due to be set up and which have been given the names of Northern Upper Congo and Southern Upper Congo, the claims of this same ambassador seem to be based upon a pure misunderstanding and have no real foundation. In Equatorial Africa, there is in fact, on the one hand, a kingdom called the Congo and, on the other, a river which also has the same name. According to the Ambassador, the kingdom of Congo stretches from latitude 3° south to latitude 12° south and from longitude 18° east to the Atlantic Ocean . The River Congo, however, extends from longitude 2° to the Atlantic Ocean and it extends to the north as far as latitude 2°.
The Missions of Algiers have taken the name for their missions only from the name of the River Congo and not at all from the name of the kingdom of Congo. As the Sacred congregation for the Propaganda can easily see from the memorandum presented to it concerning their demarcation, these two missions have their centres, the first at the northern boundary of the River Congo, that is, at longitude 22°, which is 4° from the eastern limits of the same kingdom of Congo We call this the mission of Northern Upper Congo.
The second mission, the one called Southern Upper Congo, has its centre at Kabébé, that is to say, at longitude 23° and so it is five degrees beyond the eastern borders of the same kingdom of Congo and Angola (sic), as the Portuguese ambassador claims. Needless to say, these missions end where Portuguese jurisdiction begins.
The ambassador’s claim is therefore founded solely on a mistake in the names. The only thing we could do to give him some platonic satisfaction would be to change the names of these pro-vicariates. If the Sacred Congregation so wishes, the Missionaries of Algiers will readily accede to its wishes and present it with other names for these two missions .
Lavigerie asks Rome that the title of his vicariate of Tunisia be called henceforth « Carthage and Tunis » (21st July 1881)
Most Holy Father,
I have the honour to tell Your Holiness personally of the plans I am making, with God’s help, for the good and the honour of religion, in the apostolic vicariate of Tunisia, the administration of which has recently been entrusted to me. I also have the honour of telling you that, in order to draw the kind attention of the Catholic world to this work, it would be very useful to add to the name of Tunis that of Carthage which recalls so many memories of heroism.
Your Holiness has deigned to listen favourably to my prayer and so, in accordance with your orders, I come to ask you, Most Holy Father, to allow the Apostolic Vicariate of Tunis to be given the name Apostolic Vicariate of Carthage and Tunis.
I also ask Your Holiness to kindly add to this favour a special blessing, so that I and my future collaborators might obtain from above the strength and the help we need in our weakness amidst all the difficulties facing us.
Please accept, Most Holy Father, from Your Holiness’ most humble and obedient servant this expression of my sincere and filial devotion,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Administrator of Tunis
Letter to Father Charmetant appointed assistant director of the Work of the Oriental Schools (24th August 1881)
Paris, 24th August, 1881
My dear friend,
I have just received a letter from Mgr Dauphin, Director of the Oeuvre des Ecoles d’Orient, in which this good prelate tells me of his intention of co-opting you into his work as assistant director. However, he tells me that he thinks that the public will see an insurmountable obstacle to your being entrusted with this title and its functions. This obstacle is that you are already have the responsibility of looking after my interests in Paris as my official procurator. So he is asking me to accept that you should no longer fulfil these functions.
Since I do not wish to deprive you of the advantages being offered to you in these circumstances, I am replying to Mgr Dauphin that I shall accept to hold over you only the rights of a bishop over a priest of his diocese and that I shall have someone else representing me in Paris in the person of Father Millot.
You must understand, however, that I cannot do without your services nor can I give up any of my rights over you and that consequently my response to Mgr Dauphin is purely for the public. Nothing is, nor can it be, changed, as things stand. The only difference is that you will no longer hold the title of my ‘procurator’, even though you will still fulfil those functions, which you will carry out along with those of the assistant director of the Work of the Oriental Schools .
My dear friend, I am happy to be able, in this way, to grant what was requested of me without changing anything in the relations which existed between us.
Therefore, I remain your Father in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter of Mgr Lavigerie to his aunt (12th October 1881)
My dear aunt,
It is in Tunis, where Providence has recently placed me, that I received your good letter. At the same time, I also received one from your son Félix who gave me the great news. I shall answer him in this same post and congratulate him on this union which seems to bring together and fulfil all the conditions for his happiness and give him all he desires to make up for the sadness and worries he has suffered in the past.
The only thing I regret is that the distance separating us does not allow me to share more closely with you in your happiness. Please tell my cousin-to-be that I send her from far away my patriarchal blessing. For here I am, a real patriarch, firstly through my age, which the strain of my ministry and the African sun have hastened, and through my title since I have been made bishop of Carthage as well as bishop of Algiers. You would be shocked to see my totally white beard and my pontifical habit. Those who do not know me think I am 75 years old ! You see, your nephew looks even older than you, since my sister has told me that she found you looking younger the last time she saw you. I can still write, with glasses, it is true, but surely not for long now. What a hectic life I have been living for the past 15 years, and continue to live now even more hectic than ever, in camps, at sea, on land, in the middle of insurgents, massacres . Who could have told my poor, dear mother that this was to be the destiny of her son, whereas all he wanted to be was a priest in a country parish, surrounded by chicken and ducks!
Farewell, dear aunt, all my tender good wishes, for you and for your children, with filial affection from your ever-loving, devoted nephew,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Charbonnier, Superior General (15th November 1881)
Tunis,
Very dear Father,
I have received your letter of November 2nd and the minutes of October 31st, in which you dealt with several important questions The first concerns the Mission in Equatorial Africa and the need, according to you and your confreres , to establish a new intermediary mission station at Mpouapou, so as to ensure that the mission stations in the interior can continue .
I shall not repeat here what I told you concerning how wretched I felt at certain serious mishaps which occurred in the interior . It is obvious to me that events show the need for sure and regular links to be established with the Fathers of Nyanza and Tanganyika. However, I have two irrefutable objections to founding a station at Mpouapoua.
The first is that Mpouapoua lies within the territory of the Spiritan Fathers, ours starting only in the middle of the Ugogo . The second is that, according to the advice from Zanzibar and to what Father Guillet himself has told us, it seems that the caravan route is due to be changed soon and will follow a river which flows just to the south of Bagamoyo and goes up to Lake Nyanza. For these two reasons, I do not think setting up a mission post at Mpouapoua is possible; but I think it essential to have a procure in Zanzibar and I invite the Council to discuss ways of getting it.
I approve the Council’s wise decision to start choosing now the members of the next caravan. We had already agreed upon Father Toulotte. I accept Fathers Grandjacquet and Wynck, as well as Brothers Laurent and Alauze. I would willingly add another Father, but I cannot see where we might find him. I would ask the Council to indicate someone to me .
I approve the Council’s wise decision not to invest all its funds for one project and to use only a part of them for building work in Tunis, however profitable such an investment might be. I shall consult the Council again about the portion to be invested in due time.
I do not think there is any need to reply to ex-Father Aubert other than to grant him a certificate of good morals and behaviour, like those given in the dioceses with letters from their bishop to those who leave for a while. An example can be found at the Archbishop’s office. You must not respond to any of his recriminations but write simply: I am pleased to send you, at your request, the enclosed certificate.
I have authorised you to reply favourably to the request made to you for the island of Arguin , but let us withhold any further action till a later date. We must have personnel for the missions already in existence, before giving them to a new mission post so far away from all the rest.
There, my dear Father, I have gone through all those topics mentioned in the minutes of your last Council meeting. I am very happy to see the good report you give of the noviciate, the scholasticate and the school of philosophy. Nevertheless, as for this last mentioned establishment, I am not without concerns over the aptitude of Father Mercui. You must look into this.
I received your good wishes for my feast day, along with those of your confreres at Maison-Carrée. I responded with a telegraph message of thanks to you and to them. Please accept once again my thanks. I send you and all your community my paternal blessings,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Propaganda concerning a new direction for ministry at Saint Anne in Jerusalem (19th November 1881)
Tunis, November 19th, 1881
Your Eminence,
Since the moment the Apostolic Holy See entrusted the church of Saint Anne in Jerusalem to the Society of Missionaries of Algiers, at the request of the French government, I have not had the opportunity to deal, in any official capacity, with Your Eminence concerning this establishment . I wanted to give time and experience the chance to run their necessary course and, although I went myself to the place in 1878 and concluded right then that it would be impossible to follow the plan of the French government, I preferred to wait.
During my last visit to Rome in July last year, I had the honour of speaking about this matter to our Holy Father the Pope. I could only do this very fleetingly, due to the suffering His Holiness was going through at that time, which did not allow me, out of a feeling of discretion, to prolong my audience. I spoke about this officially to Mgr Cretoni, Secretary of your Congregation for Oriental Affairs. Finally, I said just a few words to Your Eminence himself about it in a conversation, desisting from speaking about it at greater length, as I shall do now.
Besides entrusting to us the material safe-keeping of Saint Anne’s shrine, the French government had imposed on us the duty of opening a school of Higher Studies of Sacred Scripture in Jerusalem for young priests from the dioceses of France whom our Lord bishops wanted to send to Palestine to study the sacred texts in the very places where, for the most part, they had been written and whose history they recount. It would be at their expense that the bishops of France would send their priests to this school.
The Holy See having accepted, tacitly at least, this project of our government, since it is officially formulated in the contract that I signed with our Minister of Foreign Affairs and which was then submitted to the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, it remained only for us to commit ourselves to this experience with all possible good will. Subsequently, I assigned two of our Fathers to be trained in the work of biblical exegesis, so as to be able to direct in their studies the French clerics who would be sent to them.
But for almost four years now since our contract was signed, not a single cleric has come to our house in Jerusalem to study sacred scripture, and I am absolutely certain that this will continue to be the case, since our dioceses simply do not have the necessary resources to meet the costs of travel and board and lodgings for their young priests.
The result is that our missionaries at Saint Anne’s (and there must be twelve of them, according to our contract) will remain in this house with nothing at all to do other than say low Mass during the week and sing the Mass of Sundays. I have, of course, had to concern myself with such a situation, in which not only do excellent, talented skills go unused in a country where there is so much to be done, but also one in which our missionaries must necessarily be given over to the disadvantages and dangers of idleness.
So far, thanks be to God, there have been no complaints made against them, quite the contrary; Monsignor the Patriarch of Jerusalem was kind enough to pay tribute to their reverence and their constancy. But they are men and, as their superior, I must think of their future. I have therefore begun by convincing the French government to abandon the project they had proposed at first and to which I had agreed, and to accept another which could easily be carried out and which would be of great benefit in the east.
This acceptance on their part has been formally given to me, as well as the promise of financial assistance. Here is the setting for the project. The Superior at Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem has informed me that the Greek Melkite Patriarch, Mgr Gregorios, while on a visit to Jerusalem last year , had told him of his amazement at seeing an establishment such as this reduced to the most complete uselessness. He described the services our community could render if it agreed to take some local children into this house and bring them up and later train them either as priests or Catholic teachers.
Naturally, the Superior had to reply that, not having received any instructions from me about this, he could only refer the matter to me for me to decide whether this project could be followed up and, if that were the case, to settle the matter myself with the Holy See. The Superior at Saint Anne’s did in fact communicate this to me. I attached even greater importance to this, since, in the east, the Greeks are the most numerous and the Greek Melkites, with their clergy, are in special need of being supported and strengthened here in their faith.
This is what I had the honour to convey in person to our Holy Father the Pope and to Mgr Cretoni during my last visit to Rome, although adding that, on this topic, I had had for quite a long time some firm opinions concerning the education of children in the east who were destined to become priests in their rite. I also said that I was asking permission to express these opinions because it was possible that they might not convince the Holy See. I could go no further with the Sovereign Pontiff for the reason I have given above, but I did speak further about this with Mgr Cretoni and I ask Your Eminence’s permission to so with him today.
For almost thirty years I have been working for the oriental Christians. Your Eminence knows that I have even been the director of the Oeuvre des Ecoles d’Orient. For many long years, all I have seen and heard, either during my travels in the Orient or in my relations with the Orientals , has instilled this opinion in me, that one of the main obstacles to the advancement of Catholicism in the midst of Oriental schismatics and heretics is the fear of Latinism. There is no reason for this fear, since the Holy See has always very openly supported the preservation of the oriental rites. It has no real basis other than the foolhardiness of a few over-enthusiastic or unenlightened Latin missionaries… and, it must be said, ill-disposed Orientals, some Catholics among them, who have a deplorable moral outlook . Whatever the case may be, the concerns I have spoken about exist and no good can be done until this situation is resolved. It is for the Catholic Church to take pity on the weakness of her children, just as any mother would.
Consequently, to bring up Greek Melkite children in Jerusalem in such a way that they will really help towards the conversion of the Orientals or help maintain the faith among those of their own rite, they must be brought up strictly within the rite to which they belong and, as far as possible, within the customs of their country, regarding what they drink, what they eat, how they dress, how they sleep, etc. These material things are secondary, perhaps, but nevertheless they have their importance.
So, if we open a minor seminary at Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem to educate the Greek Melkites, it is according to these rules and these ideas that I should like to see it run. This would require at the very least the presence of Melkite priests at Saint Anne’s who would be responsible for conducting the liturgical celebrations or, which I would much prefer, the authorisation for our missionaries to adopt and follow the Greek rite during the time of their stay at Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem.
Besides, this is the spirit of our Society everywhere and, it seems to me, the spirit of the apostolate defined by Saint Paul in this one phrase: Omnibus omnia factus sum . The Apostle does not say that to bring pagans to the faith he will force them to be like him in everything. On the contrary, he says very clearly that it is he who strives to be like them, in everything that is not evil or wrong.
There is no need for me to insist on this point, since I have learnt recently that the Holy Father Pope Leo XIII, always full of wisdom and condescension, has just authorised several religious of the Latin rite to celebrate in the oriental rite in the oriental missions. Therefore, after this statement, I shall limit myself to present to Your Eminence and to the Sacred Congregation the following requests:
1) Would the Holy See find it useful that our missionaries receive into their house at Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem, at no cost, children of the Greek Melkite rite who intended to become priests or Catholic teachers?
2) Would it approve that these children be brought up in accordance with the customs of their country and in their own rite?
3) Would it authorise the missionaries who ran this house to allow celebrations to be conducted in their church in the oriental rite for these oriental children?
4) Would it authorise them to celebrate themselves in the oriental rite for their oriental pupils?
I shall confidently await Your Eminence’s response and that of the Sacred Congregation before taking any decision. In the meantime, I remain,
Your most humble and devoted servant,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Prefect of the Propaganda informing him of the death of three missionaries in Equatorial Africa (19th November 1881)
Tunis, 19th November 1881
Your Eminence,
I did not wish to speak to Your Eminence about the news concerning the massacre of three of our missionaries from the Tanganyika mission in Equatorial Africa, before having received precise and official information about this sad event.
Your Eminence will already have read in the Catholic press that three members of this mission, Father Deniaud, Provincial Superior since the death of Father Pascal, Father Augier and Mr D’Hoop, former Pontifical Zouave, were killed by Africans who laid siege to and pillaged their residence on May 4th last. The official news I have just received unfortunately confirms these rumours which had at first been denied.
The three members of our mission were massacred in the mission station of Urundi. However, they were not killed by the tribe among whom they had settled and whom they had begun to evangelise. It is the Wabikari, a stronger, neighbouring tribe which was guilty of this triple murder. The killing came about, as I have just said, through to the most trivial of circumstances, but which very probably simply gave the opportunity to fulfil a plan, for a long time premeditated, hatched by the Muslim Arabs who want to carry on the slave-trade around Lake Tanganyika.
Ever since the Belgian Society, along with those sent by the Protestant missions and our own missionaries arrived in Equatorial Africa and settled there, these Arab slave-traders have been afraid of seeing that their prey was gradually escaping and that the trade in slaves might be forbidden in the interior, just as it has been along the coast. Several ominous signs would indicate that, as a consequence, they were hatching a plot intending to destroy the Europeans in the African Interior. A number of armed attacks which have taken place in recent times in Equatorial Africa against the Belgians, the British and our own missionaries must be attributed to this plan of theirs. It is essential that the European powers should be worried by this situation. I have written to the King of the Belgians asking him to make representation to Britain so that this power might put some pressure on the Sultan of Zanzibar, Saïd Bargash, who comes under their jurisdiction. The Arab slave-traders of the interior are, in fact, all subjects of this prince, at least those near Lake Tanganyika, in Tabora, in Unyanyembe and in Uganda. So, if he so wished, even if he could not put an end to the trade in African slaves, which we cannot hope will happen very soon, he could at least impose harsh punishments on the murderers and prevent this happening again.
I think that, if the Holy Father Pope Leo XIII could get His Eminence the Secretary of State to have a word with the official or unofficial Ambassadors to the Holy See, especially those of Britain and France, about such an urgent matter which is of such great benefit to humanity and to civilisation, they could intervene very effectively and contribute to bringing about a speedy and favourable solution.
The Protestant and free-thinking press have given a completely distorted account of the killing of our three missionaries and have predicted totally false consequences for the situation of our missions. They claim that it was through having stirred up the fanaticism of the Africans, or that of the Muslims, by foolhardy preaching that our Fathers were put to death. This is completely untrue. Apart from the secret reasons I have mentioned above, there are two reasons why the Wabikaris’ anger was roused against our Fathers in Urundi. The first was that, in spite of their entreaties, the members of our mission refused to set up a post among the Wabikaris, who were very keen to have them because of the advantages they hoped to derive from them, especially the gifts the African chiefs demand from Europeans, as residence rights.
The second reason is that several slave children, who had been ransomed by our Fathers, were kidnapped by the Wabikaris and held captive. In order to get them back, our Fathers had some of the cattle belonging to that tribe confiscated. They were just waiting for the opportunity – and now they had it – to attack the missionaries’ residence. There were five Fathers or auxiliaries present at this mission station along with the orphans and other African neophytes. Only three of them went out to meet the assailants, hoping to make peace with them. But they came under attack from arrows and all three fell, mortally wounded. After completing their work, the Wabikaris took to flight, as if struck with terror, and the two Fathers who had remained inside the house, along with the neophytes and orphans, came to no harm. During the days after this, there were no further attacks. For safety sake, however, fearing an upsurge in these barbarous attacks, they thought it better to move to the other side of the lake, among the Mazanze tribe, where other Fathers had settled.
After receiving this sad news, we immediately ordered seven of the missionaries or auxiliaries who were in Unyanyembe to leave for Tanganyika so as to reinforce the mission there. In Algiers, far from being discouraged by this terrible tragedy, the missionaries burned with renewed zeal. They remembered how they had all promised to give up their lives, to the very last man if necessary, to save poor Africans, and it was immediately decided that a new group should leave, led by one of the assistants of the Superior of the Society.
This, more than anything else, answers the lies put about by the Protestants and the free-thinkers in Brussels who claimed that the Mission of Algiers in Equatorial Africa had been completely destroyed . The opposite is true. At this very moment, we have set up two new foundations, one at Mdabourou and the other at Tabora where we shall locate our main orphanage for young Africans ransomed from slavery. The Tanganyika mission, which they say is destroyed, has no fewer than nineteen members, that is to say four times as many as the Protestant missionaries who have settled in this same location and six times as many as those sent from Belgium.
We have certainly suffered great losses; before even arriving at their post, sickness took away from the mission at Lake Tanganyika four Fathers and three auxiliaries, who died on the way. Three others have just been killed. This makes ten victims in three years. But when we took on this mission, we knew that, among all the others in the world, this mission would be the one which would demand the most sacrifices. Indeed, this is the reason why we are so confident in the final outcome. It was an African who said: « Sanguis martyrum semen christianorum . »
I beg Your Eminence to ask Our Lord that the blood of our Fathers may obtain these fruitful results for the Church and for souls. I would also ask that, when you inform the Holy Father of these events, you deign to ask for our little Society and its poor Founder a paternal blessing which will reward them one hundredfold for all that they have already had or will have to suffer.
Please accept, Your Eminence, my most respectful good wishes.
Your humble and obedient servant,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Toulotte (26th November 1881)
Tunis, 26th November 1881
My dear Son,
It was through an unfortunate indiscretion that Les Missions Catholiques published your name and your destination! I only gave this information to the Council for Propagation to provide them with a precise statement so as to persuade them that our missions had not been destroyed, as people were saying. They published it like the rest. This is not normal practice, but it is surely an intervention of divine providence which sought to make its will known . It only remains for you, therefore, my dear Son, to prepare yourself.
I can see the wisdom of your observations regarding the choice of missionaries. Since you are already appointed, get the Council to look at the measures you consider useful. The Council will submit them to me and I shall decide after that whether to approve or not. This is the only right way to go about it.
I have stated my reasons why I think it would be very difficult to set up a mission at Mpouapoua. I think your caravan should go to Tabora or Mdabourou. It is for the Council to decide. The time for your departure is clearly fixed for next October. This is the best season from every point of view . The funds made available for the three or four missionaries amount to twenty thousand francs. You should carry weapons on the journey for any wild animals. But under no circumstances should you use them against people.
There are my precise answers to your questions. I am very happy to answer any further questions you may have, on condition that you will not get too impatient if you have to wait some time for me to answer. I have been overwhelmed with work since I have been in Tunis.
May God bless and reward a hundredfold, my dear Son, your willingness and your spirit of obedience and sacrifice. This is a comfort to me and it enlightens me and, from a distance, I give you my blessing,
With all my heart, in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Charmetant on the death of his mother (10th January 1882)
Apostolic Vicariate of Carthage and Tunisia
Tunis
My dear Son,
A letter from Monsieur Poulet gave me the sad news for which your previous letters had prepared me only too well. I wish to tell you, dear Son, how much I share your sorrow as a son. I have experienced this myself and I know that, for a priest, the most bitter of sorrows is the loss of a good mother. Nothing can replace this in life.
From the heights of heaven, she will continue to love you and to pray for you and there will be times when you will feel her protection in a very real way; but you will no longer find her on earth and this will be a great void in your life.
I shall pray for her and for you, my dear Son. Tomorrow I shall celebrate Holy Mass for her intentions. Out of respect for your sorrow, I shall not speak of any business matters today 1. I shall write to you in the next post to tell you of them.
Farewell, my dear Son.
Affectionately yours in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Circular letter to the Missionaries announcing the murder of three confreres in the Sahara (14th January 1882)
Tunis,
My dear Sons,
I informed you by telegraph of our new and bitter trial. Fathers Richard, Morat and Pouplard have shed their blood for those poor people for whom they had made themselves Apostles and on whom they had already showered their blessings 2. The bitterness and the glory of their death was in no way lacking, just as the generosity they showed in devoting themselves to such a difficult and dangerous Mission.
It was the Touaregs, those same Touaregs who had spilled the blood of our first three martyrs, Fathers Paulmier, Ménoret and Bouchand, who spilled the blood of their brothers. They massacred them most brutally scarcely a day after they had left Ghadamès. As soon as I have received the account of their blessed death which the Missionaries of Tripolitania are sending me, I shall share this with you. But what more could be said other than these simple words - that they died for the love of their God and for the love of their brothers.
Three of the murderers have been arrested by the Turkish pasha of Tripolitania and our representative in that jurisdiction has already offered to vigorously pursue the punishment of their crime 3. In your name and in mine, my dear Sons, I have begged him to spare these poor wretches, not wishing to exact, regarding these criminals, any vengeance other than that of dedicating ourselves even more, if that is possible, to taking these people away from such barbarity 4. I am sure you will approve of this feeling which is that of the Master of us all, pardoning his executioners while hanging on the cross, and that which our three victims are experiencing now in Heaven, we can be sure, through their heroic charity.
Let us therefore allow things to take their course, continuing to ask for no protection in the African interior other than God’s and wishing to cause no bother of any kind to France 5 at a time and in a country in which she has already so much to confront.
With this same feeling, my dear Sons, I repeat to all of you the advice to be prudent which I have already given you so many times. Of course, I admire the generous self-sacrifice of our three martyrs. I admire it all the more so in these present times and with all the wild over-excitement of Muslim fanaticism the effects of which are being felt from the borders of Morocco to those of Egypt. Indeed, to take a route through Touareg country to travel to Ghât was to run headlong into certain disaster. But you know Our Lord’s express recommendations. Even though He announces that his disciples will face persecutions, He advises them to flee when dangers threaten and not to on go ahead of him. In the history of the Church, there are certainly famous examples of that heroic generosity which seeks the opportunity to give to God this supreme sign of love. But there are others, which are just as famous, which teach us a different lesson and they are backed up by the Lord’s own words.
I am writing to you from Carthage, only a few steps away from where Saint Cyprian suffered death. He is surely one of the great martyrs. Yet he never stopped seeking to avoid danger until the day he felt his conscience committed to raising up the faith of his flock by the testimony of his blood.
You must do likewise, my dear Sons. I do not know the circumstances which led our three missionaries to undertake their journey to Ghât. They were surely given assurances which enabled them to believe there was no imminent danger and to think that the ban I had imposed on them a year ago no longer applied. Well, it is not they I am addressing. From now on, I can only speak to them to bless them and to pray to them. It is to you and to your superiors in particular that I give this advice through my fatherly concern. There are now ten of you who, in less than six years, have shed their blood in the interior of our poor Africa not counting those who have died of illness and exhaustion. The experiences of the past must serve to temper the zeal of their successors and make them more patient!
My dear Sons, how happy is the Society of apostolic men who, in these times of universal cowardice and selfishness, needs to be stopped from rushing towards martyrdom! Such a generous attitude is worthy of the admiration of men and blessings from God. But as for me, I should be lacking in my duties as father and pastor if I did not curb this enthusiasm and insist, even under pain of sin if necessary, that you do not willingly expose yourselves to certain danger. I did this for the last group of those who set out on the road to Equatorial Africa. I have decided to do this henceforth for all. There will be only too many times when all the caution in the world will still not suffice; but we shall at least, you and I, have fulfilled our duty.
Now let us be generous enough to triumph over our sadness. We must weep, of course, you for your brothers and me for my sons, sons so worthy of my respect and my tenderness but we must rejoice especially that their death is like the dawn of a better future for such a fallen race.
I have asked you to sing the great hymn of thanksgiving. May it truly burst out from your hearts. I have recited it before you and was particularly moved by the feelings it placed upon my lips. Taste its sweetness for yourselves. Praise God for linking your brothers with the noble choir of the apostles! Praise him for having crowned with martyrdom their life of innocence and purity! Praise him that through their devotedness they are the honour of the Church, our Mother, and of their country which is ours!
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus,
Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia. 7
Alas, we are all in need of mercy and forgiveness. Let us ask Our Lord that this blood poured out for love of him might blend with his and be for us a source of expiation and justice. Let us conclude by asking mercy upon that poor African race accursed for so long and for whose salvation we have dedicated ourselves. Do not let us be troubled by difficulties and dangers. You have undertaken this work in the name of God. May your hearts rise up to Him to ask Him to affirm your hopes. Let us recall that saying of the great African Doctor: The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians 8. May it strengthen, now more than ever, our indomitable hope.
I join with you, once more, my dear Sons, in offering my thanks and my prayers and it seems to me that from the heights of heaven our martyrs are joining me in this. It is there that we shall join them one day where, as Saint Paul writes, everything we have suffered will be only a dream which passes in the blessed eternity of heaven.
With these feelings in my heart, I remain,
Your devoted and distressed Father in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Delegate in Tunis
P.S. This letter will be read during spiritual reading in all the houses of the Society. A Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Africa and Queen of Martyrs, will also be celebrated to place under her protection our three missionaries and all the members of our little Society. Other Requiem Masses will not be celebrated.
Letter to Father Charmetant (14th January 1882)
Tunis,
My dear friend,
Enclosed you will find my request to the Œuvre Apostolique. I do not have the address of its secretary, whom I saw at Rue Oudinot and whom you know. Please send him my letter.
I am assured that two other similar organisations are still operating, one in Lyons and the other in Belgium, but I know neither their exact address nor even their names! Please send it on to these also.
When you receive this letter, you will no doubt have already learnt of our most recent and cruel ordeal. Fathers Richard, Pouplard and Morat have been massacred in the Sahara. They deliberately disobeyed me by setting out from Ghadamès for Ghât which, at the time, was totally imprudent. The three other Fathers in Ghadamès are equally threatened with death if they leave the town.
Affectionately and devotedly yours,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Rule of the seminary of Saint Anne in Jerusalem (2nd February 1882)
Rule of the seminary drawn up and imposed by us, Charles, Archbishop of Algiers, Apostolic delegate.
Saint Anne’s seminary in Jerusalem, run by the Missionaries of Africa, was set up with the aim of preparing for the apostolate and providing a Christian education for children belonging to the Oriental rites and especially the Greek Catholic rite, who feel drawn by a vocation to the priesthood or to the work of the apostolate through Christian education in the Orient. This rule aims at setting down what must be done in this school to train these children.
On its origin – The seminary of Saint Anne of the Missions of Algiers was founded in January 1882 by Archbishop Lavigerie, founder and major superior of the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers. This Society was given the responsibility by France and by the Holy See to serve the shrine of Saint Anne where the great mysteries of the Immaculate Conception and the Nativity of the most Holy Virgin. They had taken possession of this ancient shrine in 1878. Witnessing the neglected state in which the Oriental Christians found themselves regarding both their training for the priesthood and their training as Christian educators, the Missionaries nurtured the idea, which their superiors had proposed from the outset, of devoting their establishment and the free time they had after serving in the shrine to this two-fold formation programme.
Archbishop Lavigerie gave them his full approval. After consulting the Holy See, he decided that this seminary would be especially reserved for children of the Greek-Melkite rite, because of the particular importance given to this rite by the huge number of schismatic Greeks scattered throughout the whole of the Orient . Only in the case of Greek rite children not filling all the available places would children belonging to other Oriental rites be accommodated. Drawn into this question by the Archbishop of Algiers, the French government in its turn awarded an extraordinary grant for the preparation of the buildings required, on top of ordinary annual allowance for the maintenance of teachers and students.
It was under these conditions that the Oriental seminary of Saint Anne was established. Consequently, to remain faithful to the idea which governed its foundation, in educating the children in its care, it must maintain a purely Oriental character. Only the Oriental rite is used in public celebrations and devotions which the church students attend. Only Oriental languages, namely Arabic and Greek, along with French, are studied in the house. The children are never allowed to adopt the Latin rite. Even if they should wish to enter the Society of the Missionaries which is educating them, they must keep their own rite. In a word, the seminary of Saint Anne, founded exclusively for the Orientals, must concentrate solely on this aim. It remains completely Oriental, not only in the rite used and the education given, but even in the material way of living, like dress, sleeping arrangements and food.
But all that has gone before concerns only, so to speak, the exterior. Deep down on the inside, since the aim of Saint Anne’s seminary is to train apostles, we seek to instil into the children a burning love for Our Lord, for his Church and for its supreme and infallible head, the Vicar of Christ. They will be given a great love for the salvation of the souls of their Oriental brothers, such a great number of whom are bound up in schism. They will come to know, to love and to practise as perfectly as possible the law of God and they will be filled with a holy longing to make that law known, loved and practised by those who do not know it as they should.
On the spirit which must guide those in charge of Saint Anne’s seminary – In order to be fully aware of this spirit, it is vitally important that the Fathers in charge keep ever present with them the instructions given them by the apostolic delegate, the major superior of the Society at the time of the founding of the house. I give them here in the original text.
(Here Lavigerie gives again, word for word, the text he had drawn up in 1878 as instructions for founding this new community. This text has already been published in the Blue Series, No 3, from page 78 to the first paragraph of page 81. The reader can refer to this volume No 3 of the series and it is not necessary to repeat it here.)
On the importance of the role of the director and teachers in Saint Anne’s seminary – This importance is such that today the whole future of the Orient depends on works of this kind. Experience has shown, in fact, that only children are capable of receiving a new spirit, training for the apostolate, acquiring virtues, zeal, unshakable attachment to the Church of Rome and the Holy See, which are necessary for the conquest and the reawakening of the Orient.
Saint Anne’s seminary brings some relief to those poor families and to the clergy who are unable to bring up in an appropriate manner those children who seek to be priests. The number of vocations blocked by this poverty is, going by the first experience made in this area , almost without limit and would, in any case, amply meet the needs. The education given to children in this school will not be lacking in any way, if they are guided along the right path in keeping with the task they will carry out one day. Their spirit is like a pure, soft wax on which it will be easy to engrave all the good impressions they will need for the task.
These considerations are enough to show the importance of the work entrusted to the missionaries in charge of Saint Anne’s seminary. The more they see how important their responsibility is, however, the more they must feel it their bounden duty to fulfil this obligation in as perfect a way as possible. In fact, they must be apostles, so as to imbue these children who are entrusted to them with the notion of the apostolate; while respecting their external habits, they must transform them within, really raising them above themselves, so as to carry them to those heights where God calls them. The priestly virtues must be built up on a solid foundation, so that the building will not crumble and fall. They must inspire in them especially a burning love for their vocation, a boundless attachment to unity, a consuming zeal for the mission and for the salvation of their Oriental brothers. They will do this by their example, never ceasing to show openly their esteem and love for their own vocation, never allowing themselves a single word or deed which might show disgust or contempt for it, and, in their speech, their homilies in the chapel, their words of guidance, their conversations during recreation, their spiritual reading, they will light that great fire with which Our Lord commands us to consume the world.
What could be greater than such a mission! What could be more apostolic! The directors and teachers in charge of the running of this new enterprise must never think they are less missionary than their confreres. They are surely more so in reality, since the future of the Orient is in their hands.
Preparing students for religious studies – In ordinary schools which prepare their students for civil careers, these studies are completely secular and are taught in a secular spirit; children are given texts written by heathens or those worthy of that name. This is most definitely not the case with Saint Anne’s seminary. All of the studies are Christian and are taught in a Christian spirit, since those being taught and trained are perfect Christians, that is to say apostles, either for the priesthood or as teachers. The authors, in particular, whose texts are presented in class will all be chosen from the Fathers of the Eastern Church or other renowned writers from that same Church. For the other text books, like dictionaries and history books, the teacher will use them all with a reference to God. The children will do likewise. They will conduct their studies in a spirit of faith solely to be able to teach later on, as is required, the law of God and thus make it better known and obeyed. In the same line, they will overcome any distaste they may meet, especially at the beginning, and they will constantly offer, from their heart, the sorrows and difficulties they face in their studies to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord who has promised to bring comfort to all those who have recourse to Him.
Sung liturgies and celebrations - In a seminary such as Saint Anne’s, these must not be neglected. The children must apply themselves to and become proficient in these activities from a young age, since both of them could be of great benefit to them in their ministry. Careful attention must be paid to following the authorised versions of the Greek liturgy, neither changing this nor adding anything to it. By keeping strictly to this rule, one might be influenced from outside only to the extent that any changes or additions borrowed from the Latin rite that were introduced would mean a corresponding loss to the original authentic Oriental rite. Ceremonial pomp can also have a positive influence, but only under the same conditions as outlined above. These matters are of the utmost importance.
Letter to Father Deguerry, Superior general (18th February 1882)
Apostolic Vicariate of Carthage and Tunisia
Tunis,
My dear Father,
Please find enclosed the report on Equatorial Africa for the Holy Childhood. Sign this, along with the accompanying chart, and send it without further delay to the director of the Holy Childhood office. This is very urgent. This week, I received the deposit from the Propaganda Fidei. I send you the advice note which you must take to Mr Pavard, so that he will pay you the eight thousand francs to which you are entitled.
I have no news from Tripoli concerning the Fathers’ journey from Ghadamès. Father Jamet has only sent me a letter from Father Kermabon dated 23 December which arrived eight days ago. In this letter, Father Kermabon twice states that Father Richard and his companions are the martyrs of obedience. This I find very strange and quite inexplicable! So they were ordered to set out whatever the conditions. Who gave them that order?
I beg you, please look immediately in the Council minutes for any mention of this departure for Ghât, right from the beginning, and send me a copy. All I can remember is the formal order given by me forbidding this, some eighteen months ago after the Flatters massacre, and some advice from the Council which was inclined to authorise a later departure, given the unfortunate and untimely pleading of the Fathers. If an order to set out were given, I wish to know from whom – and how anyone can say that the three Fathers are martyrs of obedience. These are statements which must be verified very closely, since they could ruin our Society making its superiors out to be heartless men devoid of wisdom.
Farewell, my dear Son. I remain yours in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Viven (28th February 1882)
Apostolic vicariate of Carthage and Tunisia
Tunis,
My dear Father,
The time has come for me to begin the major seminary in Tunis. Abbé Thévin, whom I sent to France to gather vocations in the major seminaries, has told me that a good number of requests are due to be sent to me. In fact, I have already received at least thirty. They will not all be accepted, but I shall take ten or twelve of them to start their training for the priesthood.
When they write to me, all these young people do so expressing a desire to become missionaries, rightly thinking that the vicariate of Tunis is like a mission country. I am therefore in no doubt that among them there will even be some vocations for your Society. The same idea exists among the apostolic students and far be it from me to go against this tendency.
For this reason, and another no less serious reason, namely to give this new clergy for Tunisia a truly apostolic direction and training, it is my wish, as you know, to entrust to your Society the running of the major seminary and later that of the minor seminary in Tunis. We shall see how this might be organised specifically next October. The idea I have at present is that the scholasticate could usefully be transferred to Saint Louis of Carthage and the major seminary of Tunis be set up next to it, in the same building, although completely separated from every point of view, except for classes. This project, however, if it comes about, does not resolve the present difficulty.
The major seminary of Tunis is due to open during Easter week. Since Saint Louis is currently occupied by the college, the scholasticate cannot be put there. At the very most, the major seminary could be put there. So I have come to ask if you would kindly think about the following three points and let me know your response without delay:
1) Does your Society accept in principle, as I request, the running of the major seminary of Tunis?
2) What means would you propose, as a provisional solution, for the opening of the major seminary during Easter week? Could you also suggest the names of two suitable persons as directors?
3) Where do you think this seminary should be opened, at Saint Louis, in another place quite apart from the college or at Maison-Carrée, here too separating these students from the novices and the scholastics, except, in the case of these latter, for the classes?
I must confess that I mention this last possibility only reluctantly. I am afraid that if these young people go to Algiers they will be influenced more or less by the Algerian clergy and be turned off from the apostolate. If they came, they must be preserved form all contact in this regard.
Please look at these questions urgently and send me what you have decided. I shall find in them some enlightenment enabling me to choose a solution myself. It goes without saying that the vicariate of Tunis cover the cost of the seminarians’ board and lodging, calculated at 600 francs per person, clothing included, and that of the directors, calculated at 800 francs per person, all inclusive, save for Mass stipends.
Farewell, dear Father. I remain paternally yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers.
Letter to the office of the Propaganda of the Faith (6th March 1882)
Apostolic vicariate of Carthage and Tunisia
Tunis,
To the presidents and members of the Board of the office of the Propagation of the Faith
Sirs,
The time is approaching when, in keeping with the custom of your Council, you will be discussing and voting on this term’s allocations. Allow me to remind you, therefore, about the long letter I had the pleasure of writing to you concerning Tunisia on 12th November last, a letter which you kindly found worthy of some interest. The needs of this vicariate are so pressing and my responsibility, from the Catholic standpoint, is so heavy that it does not trouble me to appear indiscreet in recalling my requests.
Besides, since then, several of the activities which were only being planned have now become realities. Our cathedral has come on quickly and is almost finished. I am hoping to inaugurate it on 25th March on the feast of the Annunciation. I am afraid that, as always happens, it is going to cost me more than the original estimate.
The presbytery, which will be my episcopal residence as well as that of the cathedral clergy, is also progressing well. The roof is being built now. The old people’s home, for which I gave funds at the outset, has been open since 15th January. Everyone admires the wonderful charity of the Little Sisters, especially the Muslims who are extremely generous to them.
On 1st March, in the port district, the Ladies of Sion opened the hostel for girls from the wealthy classes of Tunisia. The same week, the building of the Catholic college in Tunis began. This college was desperately needed given the efforts made by the Italians to start a free-thinkers’ college here . On Passion Sunday, I shall bless the new Catholic cemetery which has been established outside the walls so as to replace the former one which has become too cramped due to the rapid increase in the European population.
On Palm Sunday, the city of Tunis which, up to now, had only one parish runs by the Italian Capuchins will have a second one to be run by French, Maltese and Italian secular priests. It will serve the spiritual needs of all the faithful. At the same time, two temporary chapels will be set up in the two suburbs which are furthest away so as to enable those inhabitants to meet their religious obligations.
During Easter week, both the major and the minor seminaries of Tunis will open. Over the past two months, I have sent my secretary, Abbé Thévin, to make appeals in those seminaries in France which have the greatest number of vocations. I have received more than sixty responses, from both the major and minor seminaries, nineteen of them coming from the diocese of Ajaccio alone. It is these latter vocations which will be the most useful to us at present, given the fact that they know both Italian and French, the two languages which our population requires.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition have told me of the arrival next month of sisters who will set up new schools in three of our parishes. Finally, I have just set up a commission made up of five members, three French, a Maltese and an Italian, to study ways of reorganising and developing our Catholic hospital. It has only thirty beds and in no way meets the needs any more of a population as big as that of Tunis, since it caters for Europeans as well as local citizens. It is sad to report and something one does not see anywhere else, but in this hospital two patients have had to be placed in the same bed, so that they are not left abandoned to die in the street.
To provide for all these needs and for many more not mentioned here, the only resources I have are those of charitable donors, yours in particular. Please do not deny me your help. You would not believe what a beneficial influence the sight of Catholic charity and the good works it inspires has on everyone, friends and enemies alike. You would be promoting religion far more effectively than anyone else by enabling me to maintain and multiply these works. You would also be working for France. Alas! She so needs Catholics to work for her, for they alone have the knowledge of her traditions and her duties. The Italian consul, outspoken enemy of our national influence, has told me a number of times; and he told me again recently: «Your good works do more than your army and your activities here are more effective than all your generals. »
I therefore make so bold as to ask you, gentlemen, for an absolutely exceptional grant. God Himself seems to have given you the means to do this by sending you this year some extraordinary resources in the alms of the Jubilee.
In conclusion, allow me to recommend to you our little cathedral in Tunis. It depends for everything on charity, altar linen, ornaments, sacred vessels. I know that sometimes pious persons give you items to distribute to the Missions and I should be grateful if you could include among the recipients of these offerings a share for the first French church in Tunisia. It has been dedicated to Saint Vincent de Paul, the apostle of charity, in remembrance of his captivity in Tunis. It is in the name of this great saint whom you all love that I ask alms for his church.
Expressing my gratitude once more, I remain, gentlemen, yours most respectfully and devotedly in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers,
Apostolic administrator of Carthage and Tunisia
P.S. If you so wish, I could send you a letter for your archives about the past, present and future of Tunisia, from the Catholic standpoint. This would be like the one I gave you last year about Equatorial Africa, or some specific letters on particular topics giving the same kind of information. Would you like these ?
Letter to Father Charmetant, Procurator in Paris (11th March 1882)
Apostolic vicariate of Carthage and Tunisia
Tunis,
My dear friend,
Yesterday evening I received your telegram and today the dispatch from Mr Grillotti, my agent in Rome, telling me that the official note from the Holy Father has been sent to Tunis. So there is an end to the matter, in theory. This is a great relief for me not to have to bother any more about this and for you no longer to have to run around seeking information. However, I do not know when the Consistory will take place and who knows what could happen before then. Meanwhile I am still following up the idea of having the Tunisian lottery and I am delighted to hear from you that this is looking promising and, as you say in your telegram, that it is progressing well, too. So let us commit ourselves to it. This will be your masterpiece.
1) You will find enclosed my official letter to Mr de Freycinet. What you should note in it and particularly point out to others is that the lottery has already been approved to receive free investment in Tunis, in Malta and in Italy. Furthermore, the committee is made up of members from all the nationalities, which is a triumph for a French activity. Finally, there is nothing clerical on the tickets. The ministry therefore need have no fears. For both friends and enemies, all this is perfectly defensible.
2) Before doing anything else and before sending the official letter to Mr de Freycinet, four or five proofs of the tickets must be printed and sent with the letter, because seeing printed copies of the tickets will be more effective than just giving a single copy by hand.
You must choose the right printer. Belin is too expensive and too slow. It would be best to speak with the one who printed the tickets for the Algerian lottery and find out his terms. We must not entrust him with the final printing however, if he is known as a free-thinker. He could play a nasty trick on us.
3) Whoever the printer may be, he must not put his name on the tickets but only the words: Imprimerie Tunis 1882, as shown on the example. This is important for distributing the tickets. If they are shown to have been printed in France, official authorisation would be required.
4) As soon as you receive a favourable response, you must organise the administration of the lottery, choose a further two good secretarial assistants and install them in a room in the rue du Regard, not, however, in a room connected to the Charity Work, so as to show very clearly that this is not clericalism. These employees will have to deal with the mail, buy what is required, etc. Two office boys could join them. Since the lottery is to be drawn in six months, they will have to work quickly.
5) Concerning the sale of tickets, you will be aware, no doubt, of how much the Algerian lottery paid. The newspapers said that, in all, besides the prizes, it had spent only 30,000 francs ; this is not even 8%. Under no circumstances must it cost any more, everything included. Other lotteries have paid up to 25% which is truly scandalous.
6) As soon as you have the proofs of the tickets, you will have to contact the ministry officially, giving my letter to one of the directors or to Mr Freycinet himself. In your conversation, you could tell him that the distribution of tickets will begin only after some time, during the Chamber’s holidays. The ministries always prefer this period.
7) You must have two leather seals made straight away, either for use as a wet stamp or as a dry one, whichever will be quicker for the stamping, since, so as to avoid fraud, all the tickets must be stamped at your place or in Tunis after having been numbered at the printer’s.
Finally, we shall need the help of the press. Enclosed you will find an article for La Défense, since this must not appear in a newspaper which is too religious. If Le Figaro were willing to run this, it would be better. However, we must ask all our newspaper friends to print the article writing: we read in … But it must appear only when you have received the response from the ministry.
So many things to think about! I can see from here Mr Poulet and Mr Bigorne raising their eyes to heaven. But tell them that in the end they will receive a nice windfall, as you will. I shan’t tell you whether I am praying for its success. This is the very foundation of the Church of Carthage, as I hope this time to do like the Jesuits in Beirut and invest a good part of the funds each year, drawing only on the interest. So, take courage, since we are working for a great and noble cause!
Farewell, my dear friend. Yours most devotedly in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Charbonnier, Superior general (21st March 1882)
Tunis,
Dear Father,
I am sending you the enclosed letter which seems good to me. Please obtain further information from the director mentioned there and from the superior if necessary; submit it all to the Council and reply to this good seminarian as soon as possible, so that he can come at Easter. I am writing a few words to him.
I received your telegram which you sent on my forthcoming promotion to the cardinalate and I thank you for this. I feel embarrassed and overwhelmed by this new weight of responsibility and I am in great need of your prayers. Please ask all the Fathers and the children to pray for me in a special way.
I think the ceremony of the granting of the red skull cap will only take place on Low Sunday. This, at least, is what I requested of the Holy Father so as to give time for Mgr Dusserre and Mgr Combes to come, if they so wish. I should also like a few of our children to be present. They could leave Algiers on the Tuesday after Easter, arrive here on Saturday and return to Algiers the following Tuesday so as to reach there by Saturday. That would make nearly two weeks. See what can be done. I shall of course pay the travel costs and as Saint Louis will be empty that week due to the children’s holidays, it should cause no bother to anyone. We should not exaggerate, however, and bring too great a number. No novice should travel. This rule must be respected.
Farewell, dear Father.
Paternally yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
Address given on receiving the cardinal’s red skull cap in Carthage (16th April 1882)
My Lord, Count Cecchini,
As I receive at your hands the first insignia of so great an honour, I could be tempted, being the man I am, to feel some vain self-satisfaction. But embarrassment would quickly follow this moment of error, since nothing in these honours is due to me personally and all they contain, on the contrary, only highlights my own weakness.
This action which, according to custom, France has taken in approaching the Holy See on my behalf is due, in fact, to a title which would not inspire envy. It is as dean of the archbishops of France that I have been recommended to the Sovereign Pontiff. When the trials and pressures I experienced in Africa are added to the long years of my episcopal ministry, then it will not be long for me before the crimson robes become my burial shroud. As magnificent as it might be, what good will this shroud I am about to take on be to me, except to make my duties more burdensome, my last days more laborious, my judgement more redoubtable?
Nor can I boast about the reasons why our great and holy pontiff has deigned to listen to the pleas of France. The thought of Leo XIII goes far above my humble self. Of the four great regions of the universe, only Africa was not represented in the noble senate of the Church of Rome. Pius IX, of happy memory, brought America into it with the introduction of the archbishop of its most famous city. His successor brought in Asia with the introduction of the patriarch of the Armenians. Today, completing his work and giving the Sacred College of Cardinals a doubly Catholic quality, he deigns to invite Africa in inviting my humble self. But here again, I might be deluding myself about this choice, since in all the vast regions of the continent there exists only one single archbishopric, that of Algiers.
I am therefore nothing, by my own merit, in the honours I am receiving. But even if this were not the case, I could only be overwhelmed by them in receiving them here. Among these ruins of Carthage, the whole place speaks of the greatness of humanity, just as it also speaks of its vanity. From here, almost at the dawn of recorded history, the first conquerors set out, across Africa, the islands of the Mediterranean, the most distant shores of the Ocean itself. With them went the great sea captains who, at one time, held the very fortunes of Rome in the balance. What greater names than Magon the Great, Hamon), Hamilcar, Hannibal and Hasdrubal who, on this very hill, saw his country in flames and his sons slaughtered at the hand of the victor, in this temple whose ruins surround us!
What lessons for human illusions! Nothing remains of these great souvenirs, not even a vestige and one must search under the farmer’s furrows for signs that Carthage had existed in this place. But its name is no less famous in the history of the Church than in secular history. Its soil, which our feet tread upon, has been trodden by the most eloquent of doctors: like Tertullian, Augustine, Fulgence; by the most admirable of saints: like Eugene, Monica, Felicity, Perpetua; by the greatest of bishops, Cyprian at their head, who, in his own person, sums up all the glories of Christian Carthage: doctor, pontiff, confessor, submitting, without complaining, to outrage and calumnies and finally crowning his life with the most generous sacrifice.
At his side, so many legions of martyrs! Nowhere in the world, with the exception of Rome, has the blood of Christians flowed more abundantly. Under the blows of pagan persecutors, Vandals, Arab conquerors, this blood has flooded the hills, the plains and the valleys of Carthage. Sacred crimson, for so long deprived of honour, which today seems to stir to the voice of Leo XIII and welcome the reviving African Church and render her venerable, in spite of her weakness, in the eyes of the whole Christian world.
Faced with such a spectacle, what feeling might fill my heart but that of my powerlessness and my poverty. But if there is nothing I can do by myself, the Church who is sending me promises me God’s help. In the designs of Providence, everything seems to point to the fact that Carthage, reduced to ruins by pagan Rome and the Barbarians, is now going to be brought back to life by the Christian world. You, gentlemen, are the future craftsmen of this great work which is already coming into being at your hands.
Yes, Count Cecchini, you will tell Leo XIII, as you offer him our filial respects, that during his great pontificate you have seen the sign of redemption crowning this ancient acropolis, a sign of resurrection and hope; you will tell him that, thanks to France, a shrine and a house of prayer, dedicated to the memory of the greatest of our kings, rise from the debris of ancient pagan sites; and lastly you will tell him that you have seen here, gathered around their pastor, Christians drawn from all the nations of old Europe, from his Italy, from France, Malta, Spain and Sicily and that in his name I am preaching to them all charity, unity and peace.
This is the mission that he himself has given me and that I shall faithfully carry out, as long as I exercise my ministry here. My only wish, gentlemen, is that you should be only one, in heart and soul, to complete so great a task. I ask God to hasten that day, coming very soon I hope, when, thanks to the restraint of some and the wisdom of others, the interests of all will be reconciled and the only emulation that will exist among us will be that fruitful emulation of brothers vying with each other in their work, in intelligence, in honesty and in virtue.
Such are my feelings as I receive these insignia, since, just as in my previous ministry I always served the cause of religion and of France without ever seeking to become embroiled in divisions and passions, so here I wish to serve the cause of the Church by loving, as she does, all her children with one and the same love.
I know that such a task is not without its difficulties and its bitterness. The greater the heat of the battle, the more the injuries suffered, even by those seeking to stop the fighting. But justice also has its day and should that day come, I must remember that in receiving the crimson, I declare that I shall give my blood if I must, following the example of the sovereign pastor and, like him, counter insults only with silence and forgiveness.
I shall finish by expressing my thanks to all those who have kindly surrounded me today with their friendship; you, gentlemen, who represent so worthily the authority and the arms of France; you who are the esteemed agents of the different Christian nations, you, my lords and revered Brothers, and you, my beloved sons, who have come from so far away in order to be close, at this time of his life, to the one who, for such a long time, you have called your Father; and finally all of you, gentlemen, who by your presence bear witness to your respect for a great pope and to your deference towards his humble envoy.
Letter to the parish priest of the parish where he was born in Bayonne in France (17th May 1882)
Paris,
Most Reverend Father,
Just yesterday I received from Mr de Madaune your pious souvenir and the accompanying letter. Nothing could touch me more than this certificate of my baptism with the signatures of my dear and venerable parents and that of the priest who made me a child of God and a member of his Church. He must surely never have guessed at that time that this little child, whom he was making a Christian, would become a pastor of souls and yet it was his ministry which initiated for me the blessings and the graces I have received from Our Lord.
I do not know if you are aware that I had suggested to your predecessor to provide him with the new baptismal font for his future church, on condition that he would allow me to take away the one in which I was baptised nearly 57 years ago. I should have liked to transport it to Africa and place it in the very church where my tomb will be, so as to sleep my last sleep next to it.
Where better to place my hope than in the rebirth I received there and in the mercy of him who washed me in his blood, while the minister was washing me in the holy water?
I have not forgotten that Saint Louis, whose glorious tomb we keep in Carthage, called himself Louis of Poissy and not Louis of France, in memory of the humble church in which he had been baptised, considering the dignity of the title Christian greater than that of his race. Following his example, allow me, Reverend Father, to take today the name of your church and sign this letter with religious respect,
Charles of the Holy Spirit,
Cardinal of the holy Church of Rome
The first day of a cardinal at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, (20th May 1882)
“On the day of the giving of the cardinal’s red hat at the Élysée palace, Archbishop Lavigerie presided at the closing catechism session for the First Holy Communion children at the parish of Saint Sulpice. He insisted on showing this sign of his affection for his co-disciple Abbé Sire, the zealous director general of the catechism program, and in this way revealing the high regard in which a prince of the Church holds religious education. In another touching gesture, he sought to consecrate the first hours of his cardinalate to this small chapel and to that same work to which, forty years ago, he had consecrated the first hours of his ministry.
How delightful it was to see the venerable prelate among these little figures who seemed not to have enough eyes to watch him. Professor, orator, father to orphans, missionary bishop, administrator, one can also say diplomat, he is all these in the eyes of the world; but here, he was simply the charming talker with that subtle good-naturedness full of spirit and faith and that witty eloquence which can be caring, sharp and edifying all at the same time. You should have heard him say, for example:
« You are little Parisians and I am not sure how to speak to you; I am just an old savage: look at this white beard, bleached by all the travelling I have done along the way. Usually I speak only with little Moors who are blacker than your shoes.
«People think that the life of a cardinal is all roses: alas! Do you know what happened to me on the first day of my cardinalate? They speak of the ovation given to me by the Maltese in Tunis, but they do not say what happened after that. I could not spend the night in Tunis and had to return to Carthage, which is 18km away. We left at nightfall with my coadjutor and the bishop of Constantine. All went well for seven kilometres. But then it got dark and my coach driver, a native, children, my coach driver went off the road and we drove us into some swamps. To make matters worse, a terrible storm broke. How to get out of this? We all get down; we tuck up our purple cassocks and with mud up to our knees, with the rain coming down in torrents, my coadjutor takes one wheel, the bishop of Constantine another, His Eminence the cardinal the third, my valet, – you see, children, he is there – the fourth wheel : the native whips the horses and nothing moves. We had to leave the coach in the water and continue on foot to Tunis where, by some good fortune, the town gates were not yet closed when we arrived . And that was my first day as a cardinal …
« My children, I should love to take you to Africa and make missionaries of you; the lands the Holy Father has entrusted to me stretch from Algiers to the Cape of Good Hope; it is true that I do not have to visit them all each year!
I warn you, it is tough; you suffer there as much as you could suffer anywhere but you have with you also the joy of the Lord! A young priest once came to me from France, wanting to become a missionary; do you know what I wrote on his travel warrant? Visum pro martyrio, a visa for martyrdom, and I said to him: ‘Aren’t you afraid?’ ‘I came only for that,’ he replied. And in fact, children, this year he died a martyr … »
Letter to Father Charbonnier, Superior general (22nd May 1882)
Paris,
My dear Father,
You must have been somewhat surprised at my change of plan for the departure of Father Deguerry. This change came about for a number of reasons. Firstly, the letters I received from Father Toulotte after my visit to Carthage led me to have some doubts about the title we wanted to give him and about his future residence. If he is left in Tabora or at Mdabourou, he will be the real procurator of the two missions of Nyanza and Tanganyka. In that case, I think it would be better that he be the one to organise the Zanzibar procure as he wishes and that Father Deguerry does not make such a long journey.
Then the letters I received from Mr Greffulhe and from Mr Roux and Mr Freycinet show me clearly that all the pending difficulties have been settled and, Mr Greffulhe goes on to say, all the reasons for Father Deguerry leaving no longer exist. Furthermore, the Spiritan Fathers are more than ready to help us for the next six months and their superiors in Paris have assured me of this.
These, then, are the reasons for which I have decided not to make Father Deguerry, who is so useful to us, travel so far needlessly.
As for your Council decisions, I approve them all as well as your note on the compulsory purchase of the Sables. I am worn out here and am being pestered by all sorts of people, but am being well treated by the government which seems to be in our favour considering President Grévy’s speech. Let us thank God and Our Lady of Africa for his kindness.
Farewell, dear Father. I give you and all your confreres my blessings from afar and I remain,
Yours in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie,
Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the office of the Propagation of the Faith asking for grants for Jerusalem (23th May 1882)
Paris,
To the President and members of the Central Board of the Work for the Propagation of the Faith in Lyons.
Gentlemen,
I have already had the pleasure of sending you a memorandum concerning the creation of an apostolic school or seminary in our house at Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem. This seminary is to be used exclusively for the priestly training of Greek Melkites.
I have also had the pleasure of speaking in person with several members of your Board, either in Lyons or in Paris, concerning a topic of great importance for the Oriental Church.
The Sacred Congregation for the Propaganda joined me in recommending this project. Nevertheless, I have learnt that some of you are still not sure about the project and, in order to understand the aim and purpose of our new foundation, would like to see the official documents I spoke to them about, documents indicating the Holy See’s approval of the project and its willingness set down itself the guiding principles which our missionaries will have to follow to bring it about.
I have the pleasure of sending you today certified copies of those original documents which were already sent to the Secretary of the Board in Paris. You will see there, gentlemen, the extreme importance the Sacred Congregation for the Propaganda attaches to the success of the work of Saint Anne’s. You will also see there how much it approves the new direction we are opening up in the Middle East, a direction it is now asking several religious congregations working in the same centres to adopt, following our example. You will see that all public celebrations at Saint Anne’s must be conducted according to the Oriental Rite. Lastly, you will also see that the Sacred Congregation has exempted the apostolic school or seminary from the jurisdiction of the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem and placed it under my own jurisdiction as its special delegate
I dare to hope, Gentlemen, that, after seeing such explicit and extraordinary approval being given, even considering the intrigues of the past , you will not hesitate to give us the grant which will enable us to develop the work of Saint Anne’s in line with the wishes of the Propagation of the faith.
So far, due to a lack of resources, we have been able to welcome only 22 pupils. We would need at least one hundred to make any lasting good effect. For one hundred pupils we would need fifty thousand francs. It is this amount that our Society of missionaries would like to be able to provide annually since I must point out that this is not a separate establishment but a new venture added to those the Holy See has already entrusted to our Society. I should also point out that it is intended only for the Greeks, that is to say the schismatic group which is by far the most numerous in the Middle East.
I know that the Holy See’s recommendation came too late for the Board in Lyons to be able to decide in good time on the amount of the grant it could give this year. Furthermore, the Board in Paris did not want to take the initiative about this and Mr Ducros told me that, in keeping with their customs, they were waiting for instructions from the Board in Lyons. So it is you, Gentlemen, whom I approach to ask you to resolve a matter of the utmost importance to me, to the Apostolic Holy See and to the Oriental Church. In a few days’ time, I shall leave for Rome. I should be so very happy to be able to tell the Holy Father that I have received from you the necessary funding for a project which is so close to his heart.
With deep gratitude, Gentlemen, I remain,
Yours devotedly,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to his friend Mgr Bourret (29th May 1882)
My dear Bishop,
I really do not know how I am living. I am late with regard to everyone, you in particular, since you have written three letters to which I have not replied. I thank you for all three of them at once and for the sentiments they contained.
You have seen how things went in Tunis and in Paris . Here, there has only been a small sequel which has not been published. As I was thanking Mr Grévy for the kindness of his response and asking him to spare the Church from the persecutions which were threatening her, he said, «Whenever the bishops of France come to us expressing the sentiments and the language you have shown, they will receive the same welcome from us.» In the meantime, there are twenty-four bills introduced in parliament which are against the Church. The situation is chaotic. At least it seems that the budget for the contributions to Church costs will be kept up for this year, despite reductions in some areas, but next year?!
I am leaving for Rome in a few days’ time so as to receive the hat . From there I shall travel to Malta, from Malta to Tunis and from Tunis to Algiers; if I still have a little time, from Algiers I shall go to Bayonne 60. This means, my dear friend, that I really don’t think I shall be able to come to Rodez, much as I would like to do that.
Respectfully and devotedly yours in Christ,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Mgr Foulon (14th June 1882)
Paris,
My dear and revered Lord,
I leave for Rome this morning and I would have liked so much to have been able to speak with you about these new dangers which threaten us. I have it from the nuncio that the party of the radicals is stirring and is putting pressure on the pope to make an open and immediate break . The speech has even been prepared for the next consistory and, should the speech take place, the government is preparing to withdraw its ambassador and all the rest.
I am leaving resolved to speak clearly. But I would need not to be seen to be speaking alone, since the tactic of the radicals, with Cardinals Pitra and Mermillod leading them, is to convince Rome that the whole episcopate is of the same opinion . If you get a moment, my Lord, write a word to Cardinal Jacobini about the rumours that are circulating, but without mentioning either me or the nuncio, so as not to let people think there is an understanding and insist on the need to play for time and not make further protests with a speech which might shatter windows. There are other means, such as diplomatic notes or memorandums, etc.
Farewell, my dear and revered Lord, ad multos et felices annos .
Yours in Christ.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the bishops of Sicily asking for priests for Tunisia (4th August 1882)
Most Reverend Excellency,
Allow me to draw your Excellency’s kind attention and interest to the sad situation in which, from the religious point of view, the many Sicilian Catholics who flock to Tunisia find themselves.
Tunis alone, with its suburb of La Goulette, currently has fifteen thousand Sicilians, not mentioning those scattered throughout the rest of the country and those who arrive on board every steamboat.
We do have here religious and priests from mainland Italy, it is true, but you will know better than me, my Lord, it is Sicilian priests who ate needed for Sicilians, be it for preaching, for confessions, or for directing associations or leading special devotions.
I have already made efforts to obtain a few good priests from one diocese in Sicily but those efforts were not successful. That is why I have decided to write today to your Excellency and to some of your venerable colleagues.
I wish to ask you, my Lord, if you would agree to find and let us have, at least for a time, one or two secular priests capable of carrying out their ministry here among their compatriots. They could be attached to my cathedral church as curates. They would receive eighteen hundred francs as their annual salary and, on top of that, they would have their own Mass stipends. They would live together as a community in the same house under the direction of the dean and would pay between eighty and ninety francs board and lodgings per month. Furthermore, I would pay their travel costs both ways.
I ask only that these priests be, from the point of view of their faith and their morals, absolutely irreproachable and that they be full of real zeal. All this is essential for work in a mission country like ours.
Since I have this opportunity, allow me to inform your Excellency that in October we shall be opening a seminary for the training of secular clergy for Tunisia. It will be run by the Society of the Missionaries of Africa. If some young students from your diocese, whose background and character were acceptable, wished to join this seminary, he would be received free of charge. He need only write to me in person.
In conclusion, I appeal once more, my Lord, to your kindness as a pastor. It is for the cause of your own sheep, the cause of your diocese, that I am now pleading, because if these members of your diocese lose their faith in Tunisia, they will corrupt their brothers in Sicily when they return.
I am therefore confident that you will wish to help me, inasmuch as you are able, to acquire some workers for the vineyard.
Thanking you in advance, I remain, your Most Reverend Excellency, your most humble and obedient servant and brother,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (8th September 1882)
Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie
By the mercy of God and the grace of the apostolic Holy See
Cardinal-Priest of the Holy Roman Church,
titular bishop of Saint-Agnes-outside-the-walls,
Archbishop of Algiers
Administrator of Carthage and Tunisia
To our dear Daughters, the Teaching and Nursing Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa of Algiers, greetings, peace and blessings in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dearest Daughters,
You have asked us on several occasions to promulgate and confirm by our authority the Rules which your Society must follow henceforth.
We think that, after several years of trial, we ought to agree to this legitimate wish. Therefore, until the apostolic Holy See determines otherwise, we have ordered and we order the following:
Article I – The Rule the terms of which follow is, from this day on, canonically promulgated and approved by us, to the exclusion of any other, for the community of the Teaching and Nursing Sisters whose mother-house is situated at la Bouzaréah, near Kouba.
Article II – The Mother superior general assisted by her Council is responsible for carrying out this order.
Given in Algiers at Notre Dame d’Afrique, on the 8th day of September 1882, on the feast of the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Greek Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem (12th September 1882)
My Lord,
For five months now, I have been constantly travelling outside my diocese and away from my mission. It was only in Tunis that I received your good letter of July 12th; I had received no telegram before that date.
It is therefore very late for me to be expressing my thanks, but not, my Lord, my dedication to your Beatitude and my attachment to the cause of the Greek-Melkite clergy. The work of Saint Anne’s will be developed by me exclusively to this end. I have just written to Father Roger authorising the construction of a new building and increasing at least two-fold the number of its pupils.
I am insisting also, so as not to end up with a sad mix of pupils, that he admits to that house only children of the Greek Catholic rite.
I wish very much to be able to go myself and settle everything on the spot in Jerusalem. I hope then to have the honour of seeing you and coming to a greater understanding with you. In the meantime, my Lord, I ask you to tell the bishops and the clergy under your jurisdiction of my feeling for them. Tell them that they haven’t a more faithful friend and that, at any time, I shall be happy to give proof of this, either in Rome or in the Middle East .
I remain, your Beatitude, your most humble and devoted servant and brother,
+ Charles, Archbishop of Algiers
To a canon of his native diocese concerning the death of Mgr Lacroix (19th October 1882)
Carthage,
Dear Canon,
Through your ‘Echo’, I have only just learnt of the death of Mgr Lacroix. I am doubly saddened, since this venerable prelate was for me not only the dean of the bishops of France and bishop of my native diocese, he also figured in the most important events of my life.
First of all, I received the sacrament of confirmation at his hands. I was thirteen years old. He had just been ordained bishop. I can see him now, through the eyes of the spirit, coming into our cathedral that day, his hair already white. I can see the place where I stood in the naïve, just opposite the pulpit. I can hear his sermon. I could repeat it still, so much have the feelings it inspired in me remained in my heart.
But that is not all. The following year, after I had disclosed to my family my budding vocation, my father introduced me to him 65. The picture of that scene, so simple and yet one which would have a special place in my life, is in no less sharp a focus in my memory. I can still see the sitting room in the bishop’s house which seemed immense to me, the furniture covered with yellow velvet, the sofa on which the good bishop was sitting and his purple cassock which I was seeing for the first time; my heart was beating very fast. But Bishop Lacroix soon reassured me: «So you have a vocation to become a priest» he said, drawing me to him and patting me with his venerable hands; «Yes, my Lord», I answered, emboldened by his kindness and with perhaps a little more resolve than mistrust of myself; «And why do wish to become a priest, my Son? » - «To become a parish priest in the country! ».
My father looked at me astonished, no doubt taken aback by that taste for the country he had not known I had. But the bishop smiled and said: «You will go first to the seminary at Laressore and then you will know what God wants of you " He had a clearer vision of my destiny than I had.
I did go to the seminary at Larressore, but thereafter where have my footsteps not taken me? My parish priest in the country has remained a childhood dream, and sometimes the regret of my adulthood, in the midst of the troubles and burdens of my life. God has led me where he wished, as Bishop Lacroix foretold. And that is how I am writing to you today from the ruins of Carthage and not from a presbytery in Béarn. It is strange, but that bishop, who seemed so old to me when, more than forty years ago, he opened to me the doors of the seminary, seems to have grown younger as I have advanced in age and my hair bleached under the heat of so many suns; a day has come when I find myself as old as he.
I told him this during my last visit to my home soil, some years ago. I had met him walking along the sea shore near the mouth of the Adour with his faithful vicar general, Mr Franchistéguy, and his faithful Ernest, his coachman, so well-known in the diocese 67. Whereas the bishop had confirmed me, it was Mr Franchistéguy who had prepared me for First Holy Communion and who had really set me on the path to my priestly vocation. Finding myself there among them, all those memories came back. I reminded them of them and they, like me, were moved.
Admit, I added, that it must have happened very rarely that an archbishop with a white beard and already ancient as I am, should find himself standing between the priest who helped him make his First Holy Communion and the bishop who confirmed him … and, what is even more extraordinary still is the fact that he looks the oldest of the three.
Again Bishop Lacroix exclaimed: «I am over eighty years old and you aren’t much over fifty». - «It’s true, my Lord, I replied with a laugh, but your Lordship mustn’t know that there are different ways of calculating our passage through this world. You can count in years and you can also count in kilometres. When they become very many, the kilometres can wear you down as much as the years. Well then, if you are forty years older than me, I can guarantee that I have done one hundred thousand kilometres more than you, and that balances things out».
Alas ! No, things weren’t balanced out, since he left this world first. His death and that of the Holy Father Franchistéguy fill me with regret. I would so much have liked to meet them again, as I did some years ago, at the mouth of the Adour, and remind them of those same memories. The meeting would have been more extraordinary, since it would no longer have been just a meeting with an archbishop but with a member of the Sacred College. For a time, I did hope to come initially in June, then in August. But you know the often cruel demands of public life and episcopal ministry. That moment I was looking for, I could never find it, even to come and embrace my dying brother for the last time.
But since their would-be little parish priest from the country, their child of the past, could not bring to these two holy old men the homage of his filial devotion, he wishes at least to place it on their grave from far away. No-one loved rumours less than our former bishop during his lifetime. His forty years as a bishop went by without ever anyone speaking of him or his activities in any other way than to praise his simplicity, his humility, his wisdom. This is one more reason why we, who have known him, should not be silent over his coffin, but acclaim today his virtues and our feelings about him.
If all the five or six thousand children he has confirmed, like me, who have seen him at work were to unite their voices to pay tribute to the truth and their prayers to give a last approval to his soul, he would enter into the glory of men and of God.
Without any doubt, he is already there and it is from there that I feel urged to invoke him to obtain from the sovereign Judge that he should deign to look, in his great mercy, upon the dust with which my endless kilometres have covered me, just as, in his justice, he has rewarded the merits of so many long years!
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the cardinal prefect of the congregation for the Propaganda (21st October 1882)
Tunis,
Your Eminence,
Eight days before receiving your Eminence’s reply concerning Mr Richard Howley, I received from this same clergyman a letter in which he informed me that he had found a more advantageous post than the one he considered accepting at the Catholic school in Tunis. I am sorry about this, as I should have liked him to know of the recommendation your Eminence gave me in his favour.
Since I have the honour of writing to you today, I shall add a few lines concerning the progress of the Mission in Tunisia; I think you will find them of interest.
On Sunday the 15th of this month, the opening of the major seminary of Tunisia took place. It is located in Carthage and has five priests from the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers as its directors. On the first day, there were seventeen pupils. They belong to several dioceses in France, especially Corsica, due to the need for them to speak Italian, in order to carry out their sacred ministry in Tunisia. We had to put up quite a fight with the atheist schools which the free-masons are seeking to establish in this country. Our expenses have also been considerable, amounting to about 300,000 francs. At least the missionary Fathers who share in the running of this school have had the satisfaction of seeing their efforts crowned with success. As soon as the school opened, it was full and it is impossible today to take in one boarder more.
This, of course, infuriates the free-masons who are all-powerful here; but it also delights all Catholic hearts. Such eagerness augurs well for the future. We must start thinking straight away of building again and doubling the existing buildings.
With the mass of immigrants, poor immigrants, arriving, the number of sick has increased markedly. Since there is no civil hospital big enough, the lie somewhat abandoned in every part of town. To care for them at home, I have recently invited the French Sisters of the community of Good Help of Troyes . They arrived on the last boat but one .
Please accept, your Eminence, my most profound respects.
I remain your most humble and obedient servant,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Louail (8th November 1882)
Tunis,
My dear Son,
As you begin your stay in Lille, I want to outline once more the program that has been laid down for you and which you are to follow in your house. You must, therefore:
1) Supervise properly the young Arabs who are following classes in medicine . The goal to achieve with them is to see that they do not do anything stupid and that they work hard. But do not supervise these young people in a way which annoys them as you might with school children.
2) The main purpose of your house is that it should become a third postulancy for the minor seminary. By means of circulars like those used at Saint Laurent d’Olt, you must therefore make known this purpose to the two dioceses of Arras and Cambrai as well as those in Belgium. Please send me the draft of what you prepare, before having them printed and distributed.
The rule to follow is exactly the same as that in use at the minor seminary at Saint-Eugène which you must keep with you. If you do not have a copy of this, ask Father Lechaptois at Saint-Eugène for one immediately.
3) No less a purpose for your house and the reason it was situated in the midst of wealthy Christian areas is that it should raise funds, not only for your children but also for the three other minor seminaries of Saint-Eugène, Saint-Laurent and Malta. For this, it will be necessary that one of you makes appeals throughout the whole year, either in the dioceses of Cambrai and Arras or in those in Belgium. This could be done by each member of the community taking turns. In Cambrai you won’t have any difficulty since you are in that diocese . In Arras, Bishop Meignan has promised to do his best to support you. You must go to see him on my behalf, sometime after his installation, and thank him and ask him simply to sign a celebret for you giving permission for you to preach in his diocese. In Belgium, profit from the presence of Father Vynke, while you have him, to prepare the way for you .
These collections could be made in three ways: adoption for one year, subscriptions, and sermons followed by collections . The amount you must raise should be one hundred thousand francs per year to meet current needs and to enable further development at Saint-Eugène. This may seem a huge sum in itself, but for the dioceses I have mentioned this is nothing and given your zeal and your skill it’s even less, if that is possible.
However, my dear Son, I am not committing myself to burden you with too much for you to do yourself. On the contrary, be on your guard as much as you can and implore the help of Our Lord and Our Lady of Africa. With their help, you can do everything.
Farewell, my dear Son. During this first year, I should like to receive a letter from you from time to time to know how you are doing.
Yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Instructions to Father Guyot for his journey to Congo (December 1882)
Instructions given to Mr Guyot for his journey to the Congo
1) Travel to Brussels, so as to meet Colonel Strauch and ascertain my definitive recommendations.
2) Write to me immediately from Brussels to tell me the king’s reaction, whether favourable or unfavourable, to my letter which Mr Guyot will have passes on via the colonel.
3) Come back to Paris so as to learn precisely how the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of the Navy feel concerning either Brazza or Stanley and report back to me immediately .
4) Tell Mr Randonnet that the departure is fixed for February 5th (1883), but only if the attitudes expressed in Brussels and Paris are not an obstacle to this .
5) Go straight to meet Stanley, if the King of the Belgians has given you a letter of recommendation .
6) Seek all the necessary information and permission to enable you to travel up the Congo River and set up a post in the most favourable place, namely at the confluence of a tributary where people who are friendly and fairly numerous have their homes; when we say ‘set up a post’ we mean; prepare a place for a short-term stay.
7) Make the same arrangements for a second post set up in the same conditions, but on the other bank of the river, since the River Congo is the dividing line for the two pro-vicariates. Each of these posts will serve as a point of departure for each of the two.
8) These two mission stations will need to be as near to each other as possible so that they can give mutual support to each other. Providing they are ten kilometres from Stanley-Pool, that would be sufficient. Were they even to be 60 or 80 kms away, that would be acceptable.
9) In any case, do not settle less than 25 kms away from any Protestant or even Catholic if any of these were already established .
10) Keep the travel diary up to date regularly and send it to me by each post, remembering that it is for publication .
11) Be careful with expenses, as we are hard up at present with all the expenses incurred in Tunisia and the failure of the lottery.
12) As soon as Mr Guyot has completed his mission, which is to find locations for the two mission stations as indicated above, he must write and tell me. I leave it to him whether he wants to remain there in the country and await the arrival of the missionaries or return to Algiers to give them the appropriate information.
While waiting for the missionaries, if he decides to wait, he can go on the trips he considers useful, but he is strictly forbidden to place himself in any real danger
Letter to his aunt, his mother’s sister (9th December 1882)
Tunis,
My dear Aunt,
Only now have I learnt from my sister of your suffering and your wish for my prayers. I want to tell you at least, without waiting a day longer, how much I would like to be with you to share in the anxiety and the care of your children and to ask God to give you the courage and the patience which sickness always requires.
For us all, my dear Aunt, but for me in particular, you are like a relic of the past, the living reminder of all that I have loved and respected; of my mother, of yours, of your dear husband, of all those who are no longer with us and whom we shall go to join one day. If only you knew how much I would have liked to go and greet you in Bayonne a few months ago and bring you my scarlet robes to bless, as I would have done for my mother, your dearly beloved sister! I could not do it. I no longer belong to myself, even for a moment today, I belong to the Church and to France . I must serve them to the best of my ability until the end, in return for what they have done for me. It is not without great weariness and bitterness at times, but to have fulfilled my duty makes up for everything through witnessing to my conscience and in the hope of eternal benefits.
I shall not be waiting long for them now no doubt , so much have my health and my strength been worn down by so much work. But I am speaking only about myself and it is about you that I wish to speak most. Please get one of your dear daughters to send me your news. I saw your son in Paris and found him happy and held in high esteem. What consolation God gives you in your children!
Farewell, my dear Aunt. I bless you for far away, as a priest; send me, from far away alas, your blessing as the last representative of that generation now departed to which my mother belonged.
Yours most affectionately,
+Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Pope Leo XIII on his apostolic initiatives in Tunisia (14th December 1882)
Algiers,
Most Holy Father,
A justifiable feeling of discretion and of mistrust of myself stop me from writing to Your Holiness as often as I should like, so as not to take up your precious time. The proximity of Christmas, imposing upon me as it does the duty to express my respects and my thanks, removes this impediment. I therefore beg your permission, Most Holy Father, after kneeling in spirit before you to receive your fatherly blessing, to express to Your Holiness my warmest good wishes for a long life and a happy pontificate.
I make so bold as to ask, Most Holy Father, for the help of your prayers for the difficult missions I am carrying out in Africa and for this poor France of ours to which I originally belong.
In Africa, Most Holy Father, things have been following their natural course. The missions of the interior are making progress. France has stamped its authority more and more in Tunisia. Before allowing the new Bey to mount his throne, he had to sign a secret treaty which places him completely in the hands of our government, even for small administrative matters, and the authority he now has is purely nominal.
I must say that the French government, which often persecutes the Church and the clergy in France, continues to protect them in Tunisia. All of the Catholic projects there are making good progress. Instead of the fourteen Catholic priests I found here in the regency , we now have fifty-three, not counting twenty-six seminarians or theology students who are studying for the priesthood.
I have been able to introduce seven new religious congregations. The places of worship and the presbyteries we have, as well as the bishop’s house are adequate. All the expenses I have incurred up to now, which amount to more than 1,200,000 francs, have been met own to the last centime. Furthermore, I own land to the value of more than one million. I haven’t told you about a big lottery which, at my request, the French government has authorised and which should bring in a further four millions to pay for welfare projects and for places of worship. This lottery is being sent out now and will only bring in results later on .
I enter into these details, Most Holy Father, because Your Holiness will probably have heard of the attacks aimed at me from the minority in our Chamber of Deputies; I have found two types of enemies there; the radical free-thinkers, who can see, with some distress of course, how religion is taking root in Tunisia in a big way, and, what saddens me more, the legitimists and even the Catholics who, just to oppose the government which has taken over the protectorate of Tunisia , take a stand against it, even where the clear interests of religion are concerned. This is what has just happened during the discussions on the budget for church costs, when Bishop Freppel himself saw no shame in siding with some of the party of the right to prevent it from voting for the grants allocated to us .
Let Your Holiness allow me, Most Holy Father, to congratulate you for the deep wisdom and patience which you use in dealing with this poor country of ours. You can see how much such prudent policies answer the needs of the Church in our country . Thanks to you, all our vital institutions are still in place; they would have vanished long ago, if the advice of certain hot spirited individuals had been followed. They did not back away from risking the very existence of religion in their hope to bring about the ruin of the Republic.
Most Holy Father, may God grant the purest of rewards to Your Holiness in return for your merciful kindness; may he be certain to give you, among all men, the glory reserved for his most renowned pontiffs! Such are the good wishes with which I end this long letter. I dare to hope that I might place it personally at your sacred feet at the beginning of next year. I have decided to go to Rome to carry out this duty and at the same time receive the enlightenment and advice I need concerning several delicate matters.
In the meantime, Most Holy Father, I am honoured to stand respectfully at your feet and to remain your most humble and obedient servant,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Board of the Propagation of the Faith (beginning of January 1883)
Gentlemen,
"When nothing is done people moan, and when something is done people shout". This was the maxim a great priest from Nancy used to often repeat to me at the start of my episcopate; I have only too often had the opportunity to prove to myself since then the truth of this saying.
As our activities have increased, it seems that the anger of some and the envy of others have similarly increased and are causing you all kinds of troubles. Saint Paul foresees many of these for the apostolate and among them he mentions the danger of thieves and the peril of false brothers.
The whole world has seen how the French Chamber refused to keep to commitments made to the Holy See and to me and eventually has had deducted from me in future the meagre grant owed to me for Tunisia.
The false brothers have not been any kinder. They benefitted from this occasion to tell people that the grants offered by you for the Missions of Algiers were for me personally. It is to this last point that I would kindly draw your attention and make a request to you. I would be very grateful, Gentlemen, if, in order to avoid the possibility of these unfortunate attacks occurring again, henceforth you enter into your accounts the work of the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers under a heading like the ones used for other congregations. Instead of putting “To His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie, for Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem”, I should like you to put “Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem, mission of the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers”. And similarly for the others: provinces of Nyanza, Tanganyka, Northern Upper-Congo, Southern Upper-Congo, Kabylia, Sudan.
For Algiers, so long as the situation remains as it is, you should put: “To Archbishop Dusserre, Archbishop of Damascus, Diocesan Administrator”. It would only be for Tunisia that my name should be kept in this form: “To His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie, Apostolic Administrator”.
In this way, we would be stating things as they truly are and removing from the hands of treachery, unfortunately all too much in evidence even in our own ranks, an opportunity to harm not only our mission work but also religion itself.
Thanking you in advance, Gentlemen, for this new service. I remain your most humble and obedient servant,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Toulotte (6th January 1883)
Tunis,
Dear Father,
As I have already told you, the Council of your Society has decided, because of the very great number of pilgrims and visitors who go to Saint Anne’s, to adopt a measure for your house like the one adopted at Saint Louis of Carthage, namely to attach to your community in the minor seminary a Father whose exclusive duties would be to welcome pilgrims.
It is Father Besson who has himself asked for this duty when he knew that the post was being created and he thinks that you will be doubly happy to welcome him. He has everything it takes to fulfil the delicate and important functions which he has been given: tact, perfect manners and intelligence. I shall not speak about his qualities as a missionary which you know as well as I do.
This new arrangement is sure to lead to some modifications in your current way of operating. If you are given a Father whose work is to be exclusively that of welcoming pilgrims, it is to enable you and your confreres in the minor seminary to devote yourselves exclusively to running the important task which has been assigned to you and to remove any excuse you might have, even a legitimate one, to turn away from that task and carry out other ministries.
In fact, I must not hide from you the fact that all the reports coming to me, directly or indirectly, from Jerusalem make me fear that the great comings and goings in your house and the need for you to move away from you work and your exercises, so as not to be lacking in your charitable duties or in the rules of propriety, might hinder the perfect regularity which must reign among you. Without this absolute regularity, without this perfect fidelity to all the rules, the little ones as well as the big ones, you will never be able to bring about the good the Church expects of you.
Perhaps you might even end up eventually with scandals! Haven’t some of these already occurred? For I can only attribute the sad tales of the past to failings in regularity and in community spirit .
So I call upon you, dear Father, and I beg you to insist on this with your confreres, to benefit from the new sacrifice your Society is making for Saint Anne’s by sending a Father whose special responsibility will be the work of relations with pilgrims, you must seize this opportunity and commit yourselves resolutely, completely, to the Rule.
The presence of a Father for the pilgrims might lead to some questions which it seems important to answer in advance in order to avoid any confusion:
1) The Father for pilgrims will not take any part in the running of the minor seminary; he can fulfil no function whatsoever, even temporarily, and he will therefore not appear in the ranking among the staff members.
2) He will, however, take part as a missionary in all the exercises of the Rule and he will simply have his place in the ranking of seniority; after the superior and the director of the minor seminary.
3) He alone will be responsible for welcoming all the pilgrims who come to Saint Anne’s for any reason at all other than a matter concerning the minor seminary. It will be forbidden for the Brothers to inform any person other than him of the arrival of pilgrims.
4) Besides his functions concerning the pilgrims, Father Bresson will be responsible for all that concerns biblical archaeology of which he will have to undertake a serious study. He will seek to collect at Saint Anne’s, as has been done at Saint Louis , items to include in a small museum of which he will be the director.
5) As a missionary, the Father in charge of pilgrims comes under the authority of the superior of Saint Anne‘s and he can change nothing in the house without his agreement; nor can he go out without telling the superior.
6) Lastly, he can also take his turn in saying the Mass at the Pater, if he is needed; but no more often than the other Fathers. He will not hear confessions or direct Sisters .
This, dear Father, is the sum of what I have told Father Bresson, but I think it appropriate to set it down here in writing so that there should be no doubts in your mind. I conclude as I began, by begging you to apply yourselves totally to the Rule. The work will finish soon, thanks be to God; there must be no more exceptions.
Farewell, my dear Sons. I bless you all with all my heart as I love you in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Charbonnier, Superior general (17th January 1883)
Carthage,
Dear Father,
We really do not understand what is making you bitter and upsetting you in this way, making you see the situation of our work in so distorted a manner and in such a dim light. You speak of our trials, our discouragements, etc. We do not see things here in the same light as you do. Except for the matter of Father Leroy, which you knew about before I left and were wrong in not informing me about, because I should have dealt with that on the spot in a different way, the trials we have had to undergo do not seem to be anything out of the ordinary.
In Tunis, at Saint-Louis, in Malta, in Jerusalem, in Equatorial Africa, in fact in all the houses we know, everything seems to be running more smoothly than usual. It is really only in Algiers where people are getting worked up and especially at the Mother-House, just the opposite of how it should be.
It is very unfortunate that Father Roger should have stayed there so long without a job. Those same phrases he served up to me a year ago are those you use in your letter: «deep mistrust on the part of the superiors, any good will stifled, desertions in prospect». They are the same expressions with which he wore out Father Deguerry when he visited Jerusalem.
Dear Father, or rather Dear Fathers , since you have surprised us, each one of you as much as the next, by the last minutes you sent and by your letter, you are on a really deplorable slope; you no longer see things as they are in reality; you are letting yourselves slip into forming impressions which are based neither on faith nor on reason. Let us look at your last deliberations in order.
1) My wish to reconstitute your Council temporarily was only in response to the complaints that Father Bridoux and you had made to me in your letters of December concerning your isolation and your difficulties. Since you feel the status quo should be maintained, I have no objection to that and consequently I shall not consult community superiors, as I would have done if that had suited you. I shall appoint no-one and everything will remain as it is.
2) As for the changes you have been speaking of since September as having been implemented in all houses, I really do not know what you mean. All changes of any importance, meaning changes of superiors, were voted on in September. Only one has come about since then, that of Father Leroy. But it was most definitely against our will here that he left Maison-Carrée; it was only in answer to your repeated requests that we agreed to let him go, so as to spare you the trouble he was causing you. Of course, Father Leroy’s departure led to a change for Father Gerboin.
3 In an amazing contradiction, while complaining of too many changes, changes which, apart from those I have just mentioned, do not in fact exist, you are asking me to change the director of the scholasticate and the seminary in Tunis in the middle of the first year! This is what no-one could understand and we have unanimously refused this. Furthermore, you propose that Father Coulbois or other novices should be brought here before they have finished their time at the noviciate, as laid down by our most recent decisions. That is another really inexplicable and impossible change, unless you want us to be thought of as no longer knowing what we are doing. Father Dausbourg is asking for Father Coulbois and I told him officially a few days ago that I will not give this project my blessing, even if you would approve.
Another no less important change you propose I make in that same Council is the transfer of part of the minor seminary in Tunis . If the presence of Tunisians has caused some disturbance, it means that the rules laid down by me have not been kept, namely to expel any child who gives cause for complaint. This is all that can be done at present. Please delegate Father Bridoux to look at the marks of these children in my place and to expel without mercy all those who have been put forward for Tunis who might harm the community. The Tunisians must value the others in every respect, otherwise they must be sent away. As for setting up the minor seminary of Tunisia, this is impossible from every point of view at present. We have neither the premises nor suitable candidates.
4) Another no less serious point. You suggest cancelling the caravan for Equatorial Africa . That would surely be a disastrous change. In the Council in Tunis , we are all of the opinion that this caravan must be retained and must leave immediately after Easter, in order to complete an average number of four and take some suitable novice who might have finished his noviciate. We are also of the opinion that the mission post at Roussavia must be founded without delay and that if there is no other way it must be founded by means of the new caravan. We do not recall how and why the Fathers’ return to Ujiji was decided.
Besides, since Ujiji is only a depot for supplies and the mail, it seems that, in any case, two auxiliaries would be enough and that the Fathers and the Brothers could be split between the other two stations. But if this is not done, I repeat this again, we would still prefer to sacrifice the mission post at Mdabourou and send the new Fathers to Tanganyka which offers some good prospects for the future .
That is about all we have to tell you. I have received just now your telegram asking us to keep the foundation at Saint-Martial . We are absolutely opposed to this, for the reasons I give you in my last letter. Nevertheless, confronted with such great insistence, as far as I am concerned, I do not think I can say no. I am going to send you a cable telling you that I leave it up to you, on the strict condition however, that Father Chardron will not be employed there. It is our unanimous opinion that, without serious disadvantages for the future and even for the present, he cannot be in that house.
In conclusion, my dear Son, let me bring you back to thoughts of our faith. They alone can sustain you effectively in your responsibilities and give you the courage to work and to suffer following the example of Our Lord and in union with him.
Farewell, dear Father,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Charmetant (17th January 1883)
My dear Son,
Your last letter, which I received the day before yesterday, causes me real grief, since for the first time it shows me where your thoughts truly lie. Up to now, you have only ever spoken to me about the running of the Œuvre des Écoles d'Orient as a means to serve our African operations better. Nor had I ever thought otherwise, since that is its most important purpose.
In light of what you tell me, I see that I was completely mistaken and that you are completely mistaken, that the situation is more demanding than your willpower and that, absorbed by so many details, visits, ties, you no longer have the time necessary to carry out your mission work properly. Everything has suffered, everything has languished this year; our lottery has turned into a disaster and I would be blind not to have seen it, and guilty, too, if, having seen this happening, I sacrificed the African operations for which I am directly responsible in favour of those of the Écoles d’Orient from which I have now distanced myself.
When I tell you of these thoughts and the resolutions we are forced into because of them, you change your tone and tell me that it is for you and not for our operations that you want to run the Écoles d’Orient, for this is what your letter is really about.
My dear Son, I cannot follow you along this path. I can, and I must, recognise the service you have given to our work, but I cannot yield by depriving them of your help. I take everything into account as I have taken it all into account in the past. I shall certainly reward you as I promised and assure your future, but I cannot and must not give up your exclusive help because this help is vital to our activities and because I am responsible for providing it using the means the Providence itself has given me, that is by those who canonically are under my authority .
You speak of honour, my Son, but you must be quite blind if you cannot see that you have a greater benefit in remaining loyal to your father and to the special tasks your life requires of you, than in abandoning them to run after a more prestigious position. If the two things had been able to work together, that would be fine, but, I repeat, we have seen what happens, they simply cannot.
I am not at all in favour of Mr Millot nor of anyone else . I am writing to Mr Wallon this very day, asking him to consider nul and void what I have already written. If you have a candidate, let him prevail, as long as you no longer have anything to do with the Œuvre in any shape or form during my lifetime. This is all I want. On my death, which is near, you may do as you wish.
Farewell, my dear Son, I conclude as I began, by saying that it causes me real pain not to grant you what you ask.
I remain yours most devotedly,
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. I add a word about what you tell me concerning your health. It is very clear that you will not be travelling any more, if your health will not allow this.
Report sent to the Propagation of the Faith (15th January 1883)
Gentlemen,
After the very complete report I had the honour to send you a short time before the time of your last distributions, I think that this year, so as not to descend into needless repetition, I can stick to simply telling you about the changes which have taken place in the different mission activities entrusted to the Missionaries of Algiers whose superior I am. To facilitate matters, I shall follow the same order I followed last year, so as to allow you to find the details you wish to consult more easily.
1 - Kabylia – This mission continues its work. The number of missionaries has increased by two: today we have nineteen instead of seventeen. The number of Sisters remains four. Our operations have so far not been troubled, but the government, jealous of the influence they have and worried especially by the thought that we might ‘clericalise’ Kabylia and become its great electors, is preparing to compete with us. It has just placed at the disposal of the Algerian government the sum of 500,000 frs for the construction of French schools in different parts of the country and for paying teachers, whose mission, of course, will be to preach free thinking.
Poor France! Just look at how tax-payers’ contributions are being used. Everything clearly goes against her interests in a system like this, but what does it matter! France’s interests can perish so long as the hateful ways of ungodliness are satisfied! Faced with these hostile plans, we need your help more than ever, since we shall be placed in a position of inferiority regarding building materials and school fees.
2 - Sahara and Sudan – You know about the new and cruel ordeal which we have had to undergo in this Mission . The disturbances brought about in Muslim countries by the Tunisia adventure led to the murder of three of our missionaries, Fathers Richard, Pouplard and Morat. They were the victims of a plot hatched in Tripoli between a Turkish negotiator, an Italian Israeli protégé and the Kaïmakan of Ghadamès. Mr Féraud, the French Consul General and a fervent Christian, got hold of the details of this frightful plot which was directed more against France than against religion . He passed these on to the French government and gave them the names of the murderers who can walk about freely in Ghadamès under the eyes of the Turkish authorities and can even go as far as Tripoli. He asked the permission of the French government to have then arrested and condemned. The French government did not dare to do this !
All this, of course, is strictly confidential. But you can see, Gentlemen, what is becoming of France’s prestige in the world outside as we advance along the road we have taken. As for as our work in concerned, all I should like to point out to you is the fact that we must make good all our losses. With the approval of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, I have had to withdraw temporarily the other missionaries who might be exposed to a similar danger in the Sahara. Now that things are settling down after the victory of the British in Egypt, conducted very differently from ours, we shall have to re-establish our mission stations in which almost everything has been lost.
3 – Equatorial Africa - In the correspondence sent to the Missions Catholiques, you receive sufficient information about these missions for me to be excused from repeating it all here. In spite of King Mutesa’s* unpredictable and cruel temperament, our Fathers are happily continuing their apostolate. What is particularly remarkable is the heroic disposition maintained by the African neophytes. Several of their traits have already been quoted and our Fathers often give us others of a similar kind.
The Anglican preachers who were previously a real obstacle because of their scheming with Mtesa have decided to remove themselves from the scene.
One of the directors of the Church Society came to see me in Tunis very recently to ask whether, in the event of the missionaries belonging to that society leaving Uganda to go and settle on the eastern shores of the lake, our missionaries would follow them. I answered him in the negative, telling him of a rule we laid down for our Fathers which is that they must not settle anywhere where Protestant missions had already been established, thereby avoiding the great scandal that attacks and lies directed by the preachers against the Church give to the Africans. In fact, this is all they can do. Their missions there, like everywhere else, bear no fruit . So we are happy we shall soon be rid of them in Uganda.
In Tabora, in the Unyaniembe, the mission station half way between the two great lakes, An orphanage has been set up with four missionaries present. At Lake Tanganyka, everything is running better than we could have hoped. Last week I sent the latest letters you received to Abbé Morel; they will surely have appeared already in the Missions Catholiques when you receive this letter. You will see that a good harvest is foreseen and the cry coming from all our Fathers is this : Workers ! Workers! They do not dare to add : Money ! Money ! But I add it for them, because the one is no less necessary than the other.
In Zanzibar, we have just set up a procure made up of two Fathers and one Brother, so as to maintain our communications with the interior. This is surely one more big expense. We tried to avoid this, but in the end we considered it indispensable. It was set up two months ago. To provide further manpower to all the existing mission posts in these two provicariates, a new caravan is being prepared at Maison-Carrée; it is made up of six missionaries.
In the northern and southern Upper Congo, I told you in my last report that the Fathers who had to go and settle right on the banks of the Congo, in the centres of these two provicariates, had been killed next to Lake Tanganyka and all they had was pillaged and destroyed . Since then, we have realised that this route always left the missionaries exposed to more considerable dangers. We have decided, therefore, to take the shorter, less dangerous route via the Atlantic Ocean.
The most recent, still rather obscure facts concerning Mr de Brazza and the differences which ensued with Stanley, and consequently with the King of the Belgians, have resulted in some delays in completing our plan . Twice I have had to send a representative to Leopold II to ask if he would still be willing to offer us protection; since, without the approval of his envoys and of Stanley in particular, I think it would be impossible to establish posts beyond Stanley-Pool. Although he was appalled by the less-than-generous conduct of France, Leopold II has shown himself to be extremely kind to us and has given specific orders that the journey of our envoys, Mr Guyot and Mr Baudonnet, priests from the diocese of Algiers, should be helped in any way possible.
Consequently these two priest have already left. They are going to Lisbon to embark on the steamer leaving on 15th February. Their mission is to travel up the River Congo as far as Nyangoué and choose, on the two banks of the river, the most favourable sites for setting up the two centres for our Missions .
Here I must add that the Spiritan Fathers, who have always been very kind to us in Zanzibar, having asked me if they could set up mission posts outside the borders of our two provicariates which are next to the ones they have themselves, I gave them permission to do so under one condition, that they would found no mission post less than 100 kilometres from stations we have set up. In this way, I wanted to give these good Fathers some mark of fraternal charity. What are lacking in Africa, alas! are not lands to evangelise but apostles; and it seems to me that nowhere could jealousy be worse placed.
Following the misfortunes that have happened to us, the two provicariates of the Congo are still at the stage of being formed which is most costly. For them, I am asking for a much greater amount of help, if that is possible.
4 - Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem – The building work begun last year for the minor seminary for the Greek Melkites is almost finished. It has cost almost one hundred thousand francs. The number of pupils has doubled. There are nine missionaries. What seems to have increased proportionately is the Latinists’ opposition to our project. It is such that my personal presence would seem to be essential. I shall leave for Rome after Easter and shall discuss the matter of this trip with the Holy Father. It is problematic because of my precarious state of health broken by so many concerns and so much fatigue. It is no less delicate either, since I shall be the first cardinal to appear in Jerusalem since the crusades and God know how people are going to interpret the purpose of my visit.
As for you, Gentlemen, you know that I have no other intention then to seek the glory of God and the salvation of those poor Middle-Easterners who are so vulnerable after all the evils that have assailed the Church.
This, then, is the quick account of the state of our missions. It will be enough, along with what you already know from my previous report, for you to focus and show you that, with our needs increasing, we must ask you increase also your charity, to the extent that you are able.
Yours
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Charmetant (27th January 1883)
Apostolic Vicariate of Carthage and of Tunisia
Tunis,
My dear Son,
I am answering Admiral Jurien and am sending him a copy of the letters I wrote to Mgr Dauphin and you in December 1881 and in October 1882 to make it clear to them that from the very beginning I personally reserved the right to remove you from the Œuvre des Écoles d'Orient if your new duties prevent you from fulfilling your obligations to me. Unfortunately, this is what has happened and to an unacceptable extent. I therefore apply my right and act according to my word by refusing to allow you to be elected as director.
As for what concerns you personally, my poor Son, like you, I think that in all this Providence is somehow at work, and if it is, it is not for me to oppose it. I will not give you up for the Œuvre des Écoles d'Orient, nor for any other charitable work, but I will let you follow a more saintly vocation, if God is using all this to reveal it.
So think carefully and make your decision. I have always reproached myself for not allowing you to enter at Sept-Fons when you asked me . If your salvation is linked to a similar resolution, then I am ready to accept it and to forget all about me.
If it is not matter for you of a community , but of parish ministry (for you do not explain yourself very clearly in your letter), I think I must tell you, as a father and a friend, since this is the last service I can do for you, that if you do not return to Algiers, you can remain nowhere for any length of time. You will be pursued for your past duties and your future bishop pestered, just as I have been pestered in recent times .
Farewell, my poor Son. This letter is perhaps the last one you will receive from me. I thank you for the services you have rendered to our work and to me. I have, and I shall always keep, a warm affection for you, in spite of all you have just done; I forgive you and I remain yours in Christ Our Lord .
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Note concerning the opening of a minor seminary in Lille (France) (February 1883)
Minor seminary for the Missions of North Africa and Equatoria of Cardinal Lavigerie, established in Lille, at 95 rue des Stations (Cambrai diocese)
With the approval of His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie and the authorisation of His Grace the Archbishop of Cambrai, the missionaries of Algiers have set up a minor seminary in annex to their community of Algerian students .
This school is intended for poor children who might have a vocation to become missionaries in the mission in Africa which comes under the care of the cardinal-archbishop of Algiers or diocesan priests in the parishes of Algeria and Tunisia . They will be welcomed completely free of charge, the Mission taking on responsibility for their education, their food and even, after the first three months, their clothing, so that their parents or guardians will have nothing to pay until the end of their training and their ordination as priests. They will even spend holiday times in the house, again free of any charge.
To be admitted to the minor seminary, the children must be neither less than twelve years old nor more than eighteen. They must have an acceptable level of French sufficient to enable them to begin learning Latin when they enter the minor seminary in Algiers or in Tunis. The minor seminary in Lille will keep them for the time needed for their intellectual capacity and, more especially, their vocation to be assessed. This period will last between three months and one year . Thereafter, they will be sent to the minor seminaries in Algiers or in Tunis which are run by the same missionaries.
There, they will complete their education as happens normally in minor seminaries. With their basic, general education completed in this way, they will enter the noviciate of the missionaries, if, after all these trials, they still feel they have a missionary vocation; or they could be admitted to the major seminary if they simply have a vocation to become a secular priest.
The only commitment their parents take is to desist from taking back their children before they have come of age . This commitment must be made in writing. For their part, the staff in charge of the seminary promise not to send away the children away, except in cases when they do not show they have the necessary capability or do not show signs of having a religious vocation. After their ordination to the priesthood, the secular priests will be allowed to visit their families, but on condition that they will cover their travel expenses.
Children will only be admitted at the request of and given favourable reports from their pastors and teachers who will have already begun to train them. Requests for admission should be addressed to the Reverend Father Superior of the minor seminary at 5, rue des Stations, Lille.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie,
Archbishop of Algiers
Apostolic Vicar of Tunisia
Letter to Father Jamet, procurator in Zanzibar (21st March 1883)
My dear Son,
I have not yet received a response to the letter I wrote to you on 1st February, but events move on at such a pace that I am obliged to write to you again, so as to be more precise about or even to modify some of the points I dealt with.
As you will have learnt from the press in France, the political situation is becoming menacing, especially for the clergy, and all our activities show signs of this. The Propagation of the Faith has just warned me confidentially that it has had to reduce considerably the grants for our missions. Besides, our expeditions up the River Congo via the Atlantic Ocean have recently cost us enormous sums . For these various reasons, it is impossible for us to keep to the figures which had been previously allotted to our mission stations in the interior.
Please find enclosed letters I am writing to each of the superiors telling them of these decisions. The mission at Lake Nyanza will now only receive ten thousand francs a year, that at Lake Tanganyika twenty thousand and the one at Tabora ten thousand. The year dates from 1st January last. So as to put a stop to the disorder and financial waste which has been going on up to now and to our inability to keep everything above-board, I am sending each superior the only credit bonds they can use and the only ones, too, that you must accept as payment .
For yourself, the Council has decided that, as in all other house of the Mission, you will be allotted 1,200 francs per year and per missionary, that is 3,600 francs for the three, and two hundred francs per individual African present. The number of these latter must never exceed ten under the conditions I laid down in my letter of 1st February. For all extraordinary expenses other than these, whatever they may be, you will need a special authorisation.
Remember also that your duty as a procurator is to see that missionaries who are travelling and those who are in mission posts in the interior incur no unnecessary or even scandalous expenses, as has happened in the past. A cry of indignation went up throughout the whole of the Christian world when, through the indiscretions of travellers, Protestant missionaries or the Spiritan Fathers, it became known how the previous caravans had been constituted and how much they cost. Instead of travelling like apostles, your confreres travelled like tourists in first class. In this way, they created numerous difficulties and angers for themselves and they squandered sums of money which would have been so useful for developing our missions. Your Society’s Council, which I have just called together, and I are agreed that an end must be put to this state of affairs once and for all.
We therefore forbid you, under pain of mortal sin, and we forbid all your confreres to make up henceforth any separate caravan from Bagamoyo to Tabora. Those fathers who must travel will join purely and simply a sufficiently big caravan organised by an Arab for trading purposes . This Arab could, for the usual fees paid, also be given the task of transporting packaged goods bound for the mission stations The Fathers will take with them some porters, just to carry their provisions and their travelling clothes. For anything else, they will find it in their mission stations on arrival. I entrust to your conscience the execution of these orders which can be summarised briefly as follows, never to organise a caravan, but simply to join an organised caravan, and to give the confreres what is necessary for their health during the journey but nothing extra and nothing luxurious.
Father Toulotte, who really has a missionary’s heart and who should have left with the next caravan, had offered to go into the interior on foot begging for his bread as he went, if necessary. Livingstone, who was a Protestant, lived for several years travelling throughout Equatorial Africa with four or five porters without spending more than 30,000 francs in all that time. These are the examples which must inspire you ; this, in particular, is how we must begin, as much as is possible, with the next caravan.
I would say the same about supplying provisions for the Fathers in the interior. The letter Father Hauttecoeur wrote to you from Tabora saddened me more than I can say because of what it reveals about the trend that exists towards unnecessary spending and waste. He goes as far as asking, for example, for 15 kilos of tea all at once and many other items which are surplus to his needs. It is for you, as procurator, to watch for this kind of thing and learn from it, I tell you again. Let this be on your conscience.
I advise you once again, as I did in my last letter, to keep strictly to yourself your business deals and the correspondence I send to you. I have already had echoes of the unnecessary gossiping you have allowed to take place between you and the Spiritan Fathers and at the consulate. You do yourself and your confreres the greatest disservice by not keeping quiet about what you are doing . In order to do this, stay at home. In Zanzibar more than anywhere else, live a regular and simple interior life of prayer. I see that Father Hauttecoeur has invited you to go to Mdabourou. You must do nothing of the sort without special permission from the Council of your Society.
Farewell, my dear Son. I bless you all from the bottom of my heart.
Yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. It is impossible for me to change the place where your credit notes can be cashed. Father Charmetant has no funds to pay them. You must therefore cash them through Mr Brunet, general secretary of the Archdiocese of Algiers, giving him details of the amount the note is made out for, exact details of the expenses the note is intended to cover and of the mission station where the expenses were incurred. If any one of these details is missing, your note will not be paid and you must cash it in Zanzibar as best you can. We are determined to put an end to this chaotic situation at whatever the cost.
I say again that the figure of ten or fifteen thousand francs fixed for the different mission stations is a maximum amount which must not be exceeded. If a station has not spent this sum, it cannot transfer it to another station. We do not accept at all what Father Livinhac did for Tabora, according to Father Hauttecoeur. Kindly send me by the next post the complete statement of all expenses incurred or paid, either by you or by the Fressinet Company, since you arrived in Zanzibar.
Letter to Father Coulbois, Priest in charge of the 4th caravan (23rd March 1883)
My dear Son,
Since it is you who will lead the little apostolic group in the next caravan, I owe you, in a special way, my blessing and my prayers first of all, and then my fatherly advice. Therefore, I shall not miss a single day in praying to Our Lord for you during the whole time of your journey. As for the advice, here it is:
1) Before leaving, you must read very carefully and take note of the advice and the instructions I gave to the previous caravans, according to the information the previous travellers have given; some of this information has been found to be inaccurate, it is true, but the bulk of it still stands.
2) Nevertheless, in view of what the previous caravans of missionaries have told us, we have decided not to form a special caravan, but to send all the missionaries, at least as far as Tabora, with commercial caravans. In this way, the difficulties, the dangers and the expenses will not be so great. I am writing to Father Jamet in Zanzibar about this and shall give him detailed instructions. On each and every point you must conform to these after having had them communicated to you.
3) Above all, I strongly recommend to you, as superior, faithfulness to your devotions, in as much as you are able while travelling. I also recommend, under pain of sin, that neither you nor your confreres do anything foolish. Several have died through foolishness in the past and we can say that any foolishness which results in exposure to the sun by day or to the cold at night is, of its very nature, deadly in Equatorial Africa.
4) Father Charbonnier will explain to you who you must leave at Tabora and who you must take with you to Tanganyka and what your duties will be there. What I ask of you, my dear Son, is that you give yourself totally, whatever your situation may be, to Our Lord and to the souls of those poor Africans. Be an apostle and never cease to tell those accompanying you that they must be apostles. It is a sign of the great confidence they place in you that your superiors have appointed you to be in charge of missionaries older than you, when you have just recently left the noviciate. Prove yourself worthy of this and be truly a missionary.
5) For future expenses, when the members of the caravan had been chosen, I set aside thirty thousand francs at their disposal. I keep to this figure even though it is very high. This is how you will get hold of this sum. In Algiers, Father Charbonnier will advance to you what you need for buying things before the departure and for your boat fares. It will be paid for by me with a credit note to Mr Tournier, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Tunis. You will get the rest in Zanzibar from Father Jamet and who will be reimbursed by a credit note to this same Mr Tournier in Tunis.
Farewell, my dear Son, I bless you and your good confreres once more and remain yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles cardinal Lavigerie,
Apostolic Delegate
Letter to the missionaries at the Tabora mission (24th March 1883)
My dear Sons,
Let me tell you first of all how much I regret not having written to you or having given you my instructions for such a long time. The extraordinary upset caused, for two years now, by my dealings in Tunisia and then my promotion to the cardinalate have prevented me from communicating with you and giving you my fatherly instructions.
I must tell you, however, that you are very rarely far from my mind or my heart and that I have received and read with the greatest interest the letters you have written to me telling me of the happy and the sad events at your mission. In particular, I see with great joy that Our Lord has deigned to bless your efforts; these poor African children you are bringing up and even the adults around you are opening their hearts to your words and are inspired by God’s grace. Continue to work zealously for them and, as you notice more and more your neophytes’ good frame of mind, broaden the way of salvation for them, too.
You have asked me for some explanation or some of you have even complained to me about my having forbidden giving baptism to adults before an adequate catechumenate. During my last trip to Rome, I spoke about this to the Holy Father Pope Leo XIII himself. He gave his broad approval to this restoring of the ancient catechumenate among your pagan populations, so consequently I think you would do well to maintain this practice under the terms I laid down. Just this week I had a letter from Lille telling me about a Father Desribes, of the Society of African Missionaries of Lyons, who has been telling hurtful calumnies by saying that you believe too easily in the Africans’ good frame of mind and are baptising them without any precautions. This is a bare-faced lie, but what would people say if you went along with this by your careless behaviour?
There are, however, exceptions to this rule, as there are for any rule; for example, for the children of your catechumens. Exceptions could be made for the adults themselves who showed heroic traits of character, like the one whose story Father Lourdel told in a letter which all the newspapers have published. It is for the Father Superior to decide on these exceptions.
But it is not on any particular practical point that I want to dwell today. I want to insist, my dear Sons, on begging you to remember that you are apostles; that you have gone into the interior of Equatorial Africa to save souls and establish the Kingdom of God. I am so sad, when I read in some of your letters that certain confreres, in other mission stations, seem to busy themselves only with material matters. It is scandalous that priests in your circumstances seem to forget so completely to mention in their letters both the Kingdom of God and souls, which should be their sole concern.
Think of all the sacrifices that have been made for you, of the huge sums already spent, of the confreres who have died, of your own sufferings… Think even more of the sufferings of Our Lord who shed his blood for those poor savages. If you consider all that to be useless by reducing yourselves to the condition of simple tourists, travellers, doctors, camp superiors, what responsibility are you not bringing on yourselves, what curses are you not calling down on your heads, both from men and from God? Once again, I beg of you, be true priests, all the more faithful to everything that can rekindle the interior life in you in that you are more exposed to being carried away by the preoccupations of the material world.
Concerning the material world, I have also a few serious remarks to make. The news which reaches you, my dear Sons, must show you how what is happening in France is becoming more and more menacing, vis-a-vis both society and, more particularly, religion. Everything is threatened. The Chamber has just voted to abolish surplice fees; it is very likely that, before the year is out, religious budgets will be abolished completely. All charitable projects are suffering and the Propagation of the Faith has just told me discretely that, for this present year, it is going to have to reduce the grants it gives for Equatorial Africa by a considerable amount. Furthermore, thinking that it would be if not impossible then at least very difficult to found mission stations in Upper Congo from Nyanza or from Tanganyika, I have just sent an expedition directly by way of the Atlantic Ocean. Leading this expedition is Abbé Guyot and another priest from the diocese of Algiers whose mission is to look for the most suitable locations in which to establish centres where the Missionaries will settle. So here is a source of some new and heavy expenses.
For all these reasons, we are obliged to restrict spending, as much as possible, on all fronts. The Council of your Society has just met in Tunis in an extraordinary session, with myself in the chair , to discuss these grave matters and has asked me to notify you of its decisions which are as follows:
1) Taking into account the information you have provided about the price of everything, the Council has ruled that in future there would be a fixed allowance given to each mission station calculated as follows: for each missionary present 1,200 francs per year, and for each orphan 100 francs. All other expenses, of whatever kind, are included in these figures, apart from money for purchases, construction or caravans, for which, if help is needed from the mission, special authorisation will be required. In addition, postage costs will be met in Zanzibar by the Father Procurator.
2) You no longer have the authority to cash in promissory notes with your superiors, apart from those they will send you each year by calculating your expenses according to the information you have given on the personnel. All other promissory will remain unpaid, this dating from the day you receive this letter, either in Algiers or in Zanzibar. This is the way the Propagation of the Faith operates for all the missions and it is the only way by which we know what we must pay and which enables us to honour these payments .
In the space of just one month, I have paid three thousand francs for the Congo, for the caravan which will set out next week and which will be made up of six Fathers. What is more, Mr Greffulhe or his successor is drawing up promissory notes to the value of thirty thousand francs each without informing us, under the pretext that you have asked this of him. On his side, Father Jamet is sending us requests for 21,000 francs and 25,000 francs, all this coming just at a time when we have no ready cash. We don’t understand anything, since we are given no details and we are reduced to having to take out short-term loans to honour these payments.
So please be informed that starting from the day you receive this letter, with the payments it contains for this current year 1883, no other promissory notes will be paid by us and you will have to suffer the consequences if you make them. Before placing your orders, calculate what they will cost to buy and to transport. Do not allow yourselves to spend wastefully and cause scandal. I have in my hand a letter in which a superior is asking Father Jamet for enough tea, coffee and preserves that would keep the whole Congregation in these items for a year. Such extravagance in wasting the funds of the mission and of the poor is blameworthy and distressing, since it shows, as I mentioned before, how much the apostolic spirit is lacking in some of you and is being replaced by material concerns.
I come now to one or two particular points to deal with in your last letters and in all that follows I direct my words especially to Father Hauttecoeur .
1) I do not understand how, in spite of all my previous recommendations, you have set up the mission station at Tabora and maintain it in an unhealthy place. I really don’t believe this. I order you expressly, as soon as you receive this letter, to look for another location where there is no risk of catching fever, that is one which is situated in a raised position far from any marshes. Whether this is close by or at some distance, it does not matter. What is important is that you are all in good health; without this, you can do nothing. I trust this to your conscience and that of your confreres.
2) For the moment, the Council does not think it can authorise your dividing the community in two as you suggest. It has even felt it necessary to give up the idea of creating a new mission post at Mdabourou . But, as I said in the preceding article, nothing is stopping you all from moving, along with your children , either to the place you had in mind for the second mission post or to any other healthy spot.
3) Your two auxiliaries must join the three Fathers who are going to Tanganyka because we have projects there for which they will be needed, whereas at Tabora where Saïd Bargach’s operations are proving effective, you have no need of armed protection. You must therefore tell these two brothers to leave. Under no circumstances do I authorise you to keep them.
4) Father Coulbois will leave with you some of the Fathers he is bringing, so your mission station will made up of Fathers Blanc, Giraud, Faure, Brother Marie and yourself. But Fathers Blanc and Giraud will have to go to Kaduma and wait there for Father Girault whom Father Livinhac will send from Uganda, so as to establish, with him as superior, a mission post between the lake and Tabora, quite near to Tabora. So, until further notice, according to the Council’s decisions which I am tasked to transmit to you, you will remain with Father Faure and Brother Marie.
That, my dear Son, is all I wish to tell you for today. Father Coulbois and your other confreres will give you more detailed news about the mission and about me. In conclusion, it remains for me to make a fervent wish for you. It is to be truly an apostle and get some sense knocked into your head. I think your heart is in the right place, but, for a superior, the head is just as important as the heart.
I should like to write to each one of you individually, but you know that my duties will not allow this. I content myself with blessing you from far with my fatherly affection.
Yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the missionaries of Nyanza (24th March 1883)
My dear Sons,
I turn now, my dear Sons, to speak to you about your situation in Uganda and about what seems to us would be the most desirable. We are distressed to see that you still have only one mission post and we ardently wish that you might establish a second one . The reports poor Father Barbot has given us show us that it would be easier to set up a mission station on the south side of the lake. It would have the further advantage of acting as a link with Tabora, and via Tabora with Zanzibar. We have therefore decided that two members of the mission, Fathers Blanc and Giraud, will go to Kaduma, that they should write to you from there and that Father Girault must join them as soon as possible in order to set up a mission station with Father Girault as superior, not at Kaduma itself, which is not suitable due to the presence of the British and the Arabs, but some distance away where Father Barbot received a good welcome. The other missionaries will remain at Rubaga.
You probably know already, my dear Sons, that the British missionaries are preparing to leave Uganda. A representative of the Church Mission Society came to see me in Tunis to tell me that he saw serious disadvantages in both Catholic and Protestant missionaries being present at the same time in the land of King Mutesa and that his Society intended to send their missionaries currently in Uganda to the east of Lake Victoria. He simply added that he wanted assurances that you would not follow them there. I gave him those assurances telling him quite openly that your rule was never to settle in the neighbourhood of other missions, even Catholic missions. Consequently, he could be sure that you will not follow them there.
I found this Church Mission Society representative, who is quite an important person since he was the governor of one of the British Indian provinces, seemingly very kindly disposed to us. I, for my part, did my best to be pleasant towards him. What a pity these good people are not Catholics!
I am very impressed by the zeal most of you display; since the reproaches I make above are generally not directed at Uganda. It is really an exception. But we can always do better. Mutes ais the powerhouse we need to remove. How I regret that Father Lourdel had not made him a catechumen when he asked for baptism! How blind we are to think that a man like him will suddenly give up his flocks of women and all the rest. By simply getting him to commit himself to strive to improve and by promising him, by paying that price, that he could be baptised on his death-bed, I have always thought that we might have reached a happier outcome for the mission. Did not the bishops and the saints of the first three centuries do this for the pagan greats? And what fruits they harvested for the spread of the gospel!
I am very much afraid that the Muslims will profit from the influence they have imposed on the mind of this poor prince. My fears have increased since we learnt of the frightening advance of Islam in the provinces to the south of Egypt following the revolt stirred up by the false prophet. The mission of Bishop Comboni has been destroyed . His missionaries and his Sisters have perhaps been martyred by now. May God protect you, my dear Sons, and give you his grace. I say farewell and send you my most tender blessings, asking Our Lord to keep you in his peace.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. Dear Father Livinhac, I have received the letter in which you tell me of the objections your humility places in the way of your being raised to the order of bishop. I must tell you that they are not acceptable. However, you have one quite different assurance, that of distance. What shall we do, either to bring you back or to find a bishop to go and ordain you? We do not know yet but, in the meantime, prepare yourself.
Letter to the missionaries of Lake Tanganika (24th March 1883)
My dear Sons,
After these general remarks, I have several particular questions to put to you and shall go through them one after the other. All that follows is addressed especially to Father Guillet.
1 – Regarding the mission post at Ujiji, there must have been some serious ambiguity either in Father Charbonnier’s way of expressing himself or in your way of understanding him. In any case, the Council and I were very surprised to see that you had gone to this mission post yourself and had set up a mission station according to the rules. It has been unanimously decided that there should only be a simple procure at Ujiji and it would be our wish that the running of this procure could be entrusted to someone who does not belong to the mission.
So if you can find someone intelligent who might be able to purchase your provisions and send off your letters, since that is what the job boils down to, you must give him this responsibility straight away and then all of you, priests and auxiliaries, must withdraw, returning only from time to time when it proves necessary. If you cannot find anyone outside the mission, then just give the job to a dedicated auxiliary who would be willing to accept it for the love of God and whom you could alternate every month or two with one of his colleagues, so as not to deprive him of his religious duties.
But, I say it again, neither you nor any other Father, nor any Brother must remain in this place because the mission is impossible there . With the three Fathers and the two auxiliaries who will arrive there from Tabora, where I asked for this, you will have a good number of personnel. Apart from yourself, there will be Father Coulbois, the superior of the caravan, Father Randabel, Father Delaunay, Father Vincke, Brother Jérôme, Brother Gérard, Mr Joubert, Mr Van Mell, Mr Hildebrand and Mr Tailleu, auxiliaries.
We reckon that with all these. You can easily man four mission posts: two on the lake shore where the River Congo has its source, that is on the western side; and two to the east or the south or the north. It is up to you to consult with your confreres where these posts should be set up. We think that Muronena and Roussavia are good ideal places. For the other two, you must place them according to your knowledge of the area. I must add, however, that the King of the Belgians has written to me personally to ask me to establish a post near Karema ; he is insistent about this.
You will be the superior of the first of these four mission posts; Father Coulbois superior of the second, Father Delaunay superior of the third and Father Moinet superior of the fourth. We appoint Father Coulbois as your assistant and vice-superior of the whole mission. He will replace you in the event of your being absent and you should always consult him about all matters, whatever their importance.
Father Coulbois is a priest of outstanding merit; for several years he was assistant priest at the cathedral in Nevers and only reluctantly did his bishop allow him to come to us. If he had had a mission experience, we could have answered your repeated prayers and given him responsibility as superior. But we don’t think we can do this at present and you must resign yourself to continue to carry this burden.
2 – It still distresses me to see that some of the mission posts you have chosen are not up to the desired standards of cleanliness; since I see that some confreres are complaining of prolonged illnesses or of problems caused by the climate. As you are going to reorganise your posts or create new ones, I give you strict orders to establish these in healthy places, that is on higher ground and far from any marshes. This is an essential requirement, since no-one can work if they are sick and people living in unhealthy places always fall sick. I also instruct you to avoid all the careless actions which have proved so disastrous in the past.
You are asking for personnel; but you do not realise the effect produced among the rectors of seminaries of the great number of departures and calamities which have been caused by so much foolhardiness. The African missionaries of Lyons, who do not shrink away from anything, have benefitted by showing us up as being hot-heads and how right they have proved to be . Furthermore, the rectors of seminaries are dissuading as many of their students as possible away from joining your congregation. The noviciate is receiving only very few foreign novices and if, this year, there had not been, for the first time, 12 novices coming from the minor seminary, there would never have been such a small number. So it is your solemn duty in conscience to avoid all foolhardiness.
Talking about foolishness, all of you must be very careful about what you write in letters. You cannot imagine the harm you have done through one of your letters, which was published without my knowledge by Father Charbonnier, which stated that food for the Fathers and the children in Equatorial Africa costs next to nothing once they are settled in their mission posts. The office of the Propagation of the Faith quickly seized on this thinking that it could reduce by half, without difficulty, the amount of grants which I had struggled so much to obtain by emphasizing the enormous expenses you have. In just ten lines of writing, you were thus able to impoverish your mission by an amount that all of you together could not have raised even if you collected funds for the rest of your life.
3 – Father Dromeaux, who regrets not being able to speak with me, now that I am a cardinal, as freely as he spoke with the Archbishop of Algiers between Saint-Cyprien and Duperré, when he was my spiritual director , asks if we have given up on the notion of a Christian kingdom since we forbid our missionaries to defend themselves and order them to run away if they are attacked . No, we have certainly not given up on this idea of a Christian kingdom. On the contrary, we hold to this as much as ever; what we do not want is that missionary priests should personally carry weapons and risk being killed in fighting, like poor Father Deniaud . That is a thing unheard of in the Catholic mission since the time of the apostles and I declare excommunicated any priest among you who would take up arms, other than to frighten people off, even those who fire on unjust aggressors.
But what the missionaries cannot do, the auxiliaries must do, and it is for this especially that I insisted so much in sending you Captain Joubert. I am most surprised to see, however, that you are using him as you would a Brother. Please, when you receive my letter, gather together the four auxiliaries, the two you already have and the two who are coming from Tabora, in the same mission post, at Massanze , for example, where they will be with just two Fathers. Whatever help they may give to these two Fathers, their main duty must be to see to the security of the mission and gradually to train, from among the most dedicated men and in a very discreet manner, a small group whom they will teach how to handle weapons so as to use them to defend the tribe among whom they are living against the attacks of their neighbours. In order to do this, weapons can be brought from Zanzibar and I personally shall ask Father Jamet to send you some, with Father Coulbois. In this way, you will be enabling the auxiliaries, I say it again, to fulfil their true purpose.
That, my dear son, is about all I wanted to tell you today. It remains for me to send you my heartfelt blessing from afar and to bless also your good confreres. I should have liked to write to each one individually to thank them for their good wishes expressed when I became a cardinal and to write also to Captain Joubert who has sent me such an excellent letter. They know that my many duties prevent me from doing this. I beg them to accept my sincere thanks and I remain,
Yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Bresson in Jerusalem (26th March 1883)
My dear Son,
I am writing to Father Toulotte and do not want to send off my letter without first thanking you for the one you wrote to me shortly after your arrival in Jerusalem. The way you describe your journey reminds me of mine and stirred memories which I shall always hold dear. If it were left entirely up to me, I should want to finish my days in Jerusalem, next to the Blessed Virgin’s cradle and the tomb of Our Lord.
Spend your time there well. You have a very interesting mission to fulfil, which can be of great service to religion, if, by using your intelligence, you put into it zeal and a spirit of faith. Here, everything is going as it usual does for the moment, but the future looks very bleak. Revolution threatens everything, not only here in France but also in Tunisia . A university inspector has just been sent here to organise the education system. You will get an idea of his plans and those of the people who sent him when you know that he has not even left his card with me .
What will become of our college of Saint-Charles in all this? You are greatly missed, all the more so since it has become known that you will not return here; as it was impossible to hide it any longer from the families and the children.
Yesterday, Easter Sunday, we had a fine theatre session. The children put on le Malade Imaginaire before leaving for their holidays. I attended, unusually enough for me, and the general-in-chief was there, too. The conference hall was turned into a very fine theatre by removing the partition wall which separates it from the study room. That wall will be replaced with a wooden partition.
Farewell, my dear Son. May Our Lord grant you in Jerusalem all you have hoped for. Seek his intercession for me,
Yours affectionately and devotedly in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fidei (29th April 1883)
Rome,
Your Eminence, My Lord,
By a decree dated 27th September 1880, the Sacred Congregation for the Propaganda deigned to raise to the status of apostolic vicariates the great missions of Lake Victoria-Nyanza and of Lake Tanganyka. I myself asked that the superiors of these two missions might, after a certain time, be raised to the dignity of bishops. I make so bold as to repeat this request today for Reverend Father Livinhac, apostolic pro-vicar of Victoria-Nyanza.
This mission of Nyanza already has several hundred neophytes and 14 missionaries, not including the auxiliaries and the Brothers. It has three big mission stations: the first in Uganda, the second right at the southern end of Lake Nyanza and the third in Tabora. The bishop would reside in the intermediary station, namely that on the south side of Nyanza.
Reverend Father Livinhac, the superior of this mission, was born in France, in the diocese of Rodez, in 1846. He is now in his thirty-eighth year. He is an exemplary missionary from every point of view. Before leaving for Africa, in spite of his young age, he was the superior of the scholasticate of the Society and has always been a model of prudence, holiness and virtue. For me, this appointment seems to be necessary so as to give strength and renewed support to our missions in Equatorial Africa.
So as not to appear to want to do everything at once, a little later I shall have the honour to propose to Your Eminence to raise to the dignity of bishop the apostolic pro-vicar of the mission of Tanganyka. But, for the moment, I dare to insist that Father Livinhac be promoted immediately to that office.
Expressing my deep gratitude to Your Eminence and humbly kissing his hand,
I remain your most humble and obedient servant,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Livinhac in Uganda (4th June 1883)
Apostolic Vicariate of Carthage and Tunisia
Tunis,
Dear Father,
We were greatly surprised to learn of your departure from Rubaga and the strange details you give to explain this departure. They so contradict everything that you have written to us up to now that I am tempted to think that they are false, or at least greatly exaggerated.
You had told us, in effect, that your neophytes were angels, worthy of those of the early Church, and that Mtesa would never agree to allow you to leave, so that you considered yourselves prisoners in his country and even in his capital; and then, suddenly, you say that these wonderful neophytes have changed into treacherous murderers and that Mtesa is letting you leave without difficulty; and, as witnesses, you have only children whose naturally lying character does not fill you with great confidence. If there had really been an imminent danger of being killed by remaining near Mtesa, I can only laud what would be an act of prudence; but does this danger truly exist? That is the question.
Just think what effect this departure from your mission for these reasons will produce in the Catholic world, while Protestant missionaries remain at their post, accusing you of cowardice and groundless fear. I could go on with these sad reflections; I eagerly await from you more detailed information which will enable me to better judge such an extraordinary event, an event which could have a terrible effect on your missions. I content myself for today to outline the precise plan of action for the new situation in which you find yourself.
1 – You will keep to what I wrote to you in my last letter on behalf of the Council, namely that you must set up two houses between Tabora and Lake Victoria: one near the southern end of the lake, the second at about the half-way point, with a third one near to Tabora. These three mission stations will henceforth, under your leadership, form the apostolic vicariate of Victoria-Nyanza, while we wait to see if we can return to Uganda or settle elsewhere.
2 – You are free to divide the personnel between these three houses as you see fit and provisionally to nominate superiors, so that there might be no waiting and no uncertainty over a long period of time.
3 – Since, despite all that I have said or written previously, you are stubbornly set on remaining in unhealthy locations, as at Tabora for example, I command you, under pain of mortal sin, to allow these mission stations to be set up only in places that are healthy, on higher ground and far from marshy areas. So, if he has not already done so, compel Father Hauttecoeur to leave his tembe in Tabora, which has been so harmful to our missionaries, and relocate to a healthier place, even if this be several leagues away, if necessary. Be sure to place the stations among people who are well disposed towards you and if you can safely settle in Mirambo’s territory, set up a foundation there, but do not go and get involved again in dealing like those with King Mtesa.
That is all I shall say to you for today. You will read in the French press or you will see in the post, that news of your appointment as bishop, about which I have already spoken to you, has been divulged, but do not concern yourself with this at present. Just deal with re-establishing your mission along the lines I have mentioned and I shall let you know later when it would be appropriate to carry through the decision of the Holy See and have you travel to France to be ordained as bishop.
Farewell, my dear Son, I must close here. I remain, for you and your good confreres,
Yours in Christ Our lord,
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Charbonnier, Superior general (14th August 1883)
Biarritz,
Dear Father,
In my last letter I spoke to you of the deterioration in my state of health. This has only grown worse during the week just gone. Since yesterday, I feel a little better, but I am weak and in my stomach and bowels I am suffering a lot. In this state, I cannot set out for Africa and reach there during these times of greatest heat. My departure has therefore been delayed until the beginning of September.
Would you be able, without causing too much inconvenience, to put back the opening of the retreat to its original date, that is to the evening of 14th September? I should be happy if you could, since then I should have the time to return and see to my treatment without any worries .
If this is how you decide, inform, as soon as possible, all those within reach in Algeria, Tunisia, Malta and in France, even contacting those in Tunis and in Malta by telegram, if necessary. As for Jerusalem, the Fathers had better spend a week longer at Maison-Carrée or better still at Notre Dame d’Afrique, since I am rather afraid of leaving Fathers Bresson and Labardin in contact with the other Fathers .
Farewell, dear Father. Pray for me and be assured that I remain,
Yours in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. If it happened that I got worse, do not worry. All my affairs are perfectly in order. Father Deguerry holds all the title deeds that you do not have and my will has been made taking all precautions into account .
Letter to Father Charbonnier (5th September 1883)
Biarritz,
Dear Father,
My illness continues with good and bad days. At present I am once again suffering. The pains in my stomach have come back. I can only get to sleep by taking chloral. Consequently, I cannot say if or when I shall leave for Algiers. I have already written and shall write again to Mgr Duserre to tell him of these possibilities. See him and he will keep you updated.
Whether I am there or not, the retreat must go ahead as normal, since, even if I am in Algiers, I shall not be in a fit state to give any talks. Warn the retreat-preacher about this. It seems to me that you or one of the Council could well give these talks.
Mgr Dusserre is kind enough to do the ordinations, whether I am there or not. He will open and close the retreat. As for the chapter, which is the most important and the most delicate matter, I shall preside in person, as in the past, if I get there, as I so eagerly wish and as I continue to hope . If I do not come, I shall give my instructions to Mgr Dusserre for him to preside in my place.
In all things, I surrender in advance and fully to God’s holy will and even though it is a cruel ordeal and a source of great bitterness for me to be separated in this way from you, perhaps for ever, alas! if such is the Lord’s plan, I adore it and I submit to it and urge you, my dear Sons, to do the same. God’s plan for you and for me is surely one of mercy. He will draw some good from what is evil, you can be sure, so, in advance, thank his goodness for this.
Farewell, dear Father. I shall telegraph you when I telegraph Mgr Dusserre and keep you informed as to how I am. In the meantime, I remain yours in Christ Our Lord. I bless you all.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Bridoux (10th November 1883)
My dear Father,
In keeping with the wishes of the Council, I designate le père Le Vasseur as the only textbook for ceremonies to be followed. I want the superior general to write a circular immediately to all the formation houses, starting with those in Tunis, telling them that from now on the master of ceremonies must be one fixed individual and that his duties must not pass to the newest arrival, as has happened up to now. He must also tell the superior to appoint, as soon as possible, the most able of his confreres to carry out this function . At the same time, he will be good enough to add some remarks which have now become necessary on the importance that is supposed, in our Society, to be attached to the ceremonies and the sacred rites: the general slovenliness or ignorance shown in this regard is truly shameful.
Since I am speaking to you about this, I shall also say a word that I want you to convey to the Council concerning the clerical dress of our missionaries when they go out. You already know that the chapter of your Society had to deal with this topic on my initiative . In Algiers, and in towns in general, because of your Arab clothing on the one hand, and the bad habits which have been adopted on the other, it was found that, out in the streets, our Fathers were creating a very poor impression on a lot of people. It was decided by the chapter, therefore, that, in order to overcome these difficulties, they should wear the clerical overcoat and hat from now on, as they do in France and in Jerusalem .
In Tunis, I have recently been assailed by similar complaints from serious and well-intentioned people about the Fathers from the school: people say they look more like dragoons than religious , and the Italians make this an excuse to denigrate them severely and even remove their children from their school. I have spoken to Father Dausbourg about this and told him that, if this continues, I would be forced to make them wear the clerical coat and the bi-corn hat
In training candidates, please keep these observations always in mind. While they are in the noviciate, they are not sufficiently trained in what clothing is appropriate outside. Take as a model the Spanish Fathers to see how they behave in the streets and how they walk. You just need to look at them to see how they are like holy priests, but on seeing you we do not get the same impression.
This is a topic for the most serious reflection. The more your dress becomes different from ordinary clerical dress, the more you must compensate for this with a truly religious attitude. Here I might remind you of the rule from the Council of Trent: In gestu, incessu, habitu, nihil sine grave, moderatum ac religione plenum prae se ferant .
I want the Council to make these remarks the subject of a circular to be sent to all members of the Society. (…).
Farewell, my Son. Yours most devotedly in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Superior General, Father Bridoux (28th November 1883)
Carthage,
My dear Father,
Two serious reasons push me to want to have Father Leblond with me here in Tunis for a few weeks. The first of these is my wish to complete, as quickly as possible, some work I have given to Fathers Grussenmeyer and Flecher, as well as Fathers Delattre and Federlin, to further the cause of the Mission.
It has pained me, in fact, to notice that in our various houses, in spite of the instructions of the Rule, it is so difficult to find books to give to the missionaries, the scholastics or the novices, which deal with the history of the early Church in Africa, and which give them, in particular, an overall picture of that history. The reason is that such a history of ancient Christian Africa does not exist in French. But, according to an old proverb: Ignoti nulla cupido and if we do not have a good knowledge of these ancient and beautiful souvenirs of Africa, we are not so attached to her, we are not so keen to revive her.
Given the fact that my sickness is making it impossible for me, for some considerable time no doubt, to go running around outside, this is why I wanted to gather together the necessary material with which to compose a detailed history of early Christian Africa. In my estimation, I reckon there is enough documentary material to write a history of the early Church in Africa in six or eight volumes in 8 format , like those of Rhorbacher . To these could be added a history of the African missions in this century by bringing together in one place everything that has been printed in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith or in the Annals belonging to each congregation.
We have begun the work of collecting and classifying these documents. Although there are already five of us, including myself, working on this, we feel that one more is needed to help us; and I can only see Father Leblond in your Society who, given his disciplined mind and his ability to write, would be up to this task and could give me some useful help.
The second serious reason why I wish to have this Father near me for a time are the justifiable complaints made to me, as they have been made to you also, by the members of the Propagation of the Faith about the paucity of relations that have been sent to them for some time now. If this continues, some of our grants will surely be cut.
Of course, it is Father Leblond who is designated to maintain these relations; but I must guide him in this work, since I alone have all the pertinent and necessary documents to hand and I alone know exactly what must be said under these circumstances. It is therefore essential that Father Leblond comes and spends some time here with me.
I think he will be willing to come and I also think that it will be easy for you to replace him with Father Bresson who has acted as secretary in the past and could take on these duties along with those of general procurator for a time. So I ask you, dear Father, to submit my wishes to the Council immediately and to telegraph me its decision. I wish to be informed without delay, so that from my side I can make the necessary arrangements. I shall, of course, meet all the expenses incurred by this move and for Father Leblond’s stay here . He may come either by land or sea, as he wishes, providing the Council agrees to my request.
Farewell, dear Father. Yours most affectionately and devotedly in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Note to prepare steps to be taken before approaching the French Ambassador in Rome (1st December 1883)
Note
His Eminence cardinal Lavigerie asks Count Lefebvre de Béhaine, Ambassador of France to the Holy See, to grant through les Pieux Établissements in Rome to the authorised Society of the Missionaries of Africa, who would set up its seminary there :
1) The church of Saint Nicolas-des-Lorrains,
2) The three-storey house located next to this church,
3) The same grant the French government awards to the four missionaries of Africa who have settled in Jerusalem to serve the French church of Saint Anne, namely 1,000 francs per month or 12,000 francs per year. At Saint Nicolas’, the personnel would number about forty missionaries
His Eminence accepts that his missionaries must assist, when necessary, the chaplains to the church of Saint-Louis-des-Français whenever the ambassador attends a ceremony there. The appointment of the superior of Saint Nicolas must always be approved by the ambassador of France, who will benefit at Saint Nicolas from the same prerogatives as he enjoys at Saint-Louis-des-Français.
Letter to Father Deguerry on the status of the armed auxiliaries (8th December 1883)
Carthage,
Dear Father,
Keeping in mind the information I asked you for in writing the other day, kindly reply to the following two questions in a letter you will send me as soon as possible:
1) Ought we to maintain the armed auxiliaries for the Missions of Equatorial Africa making their commitment perpetual instead of temporary?
2) Should these auxiliaries be joined to the Society by religious oaths like the other Brothers, among whom they would form a special section, or must they remain lay members?
Please, also give me, in writing, your reasons for answering these two questions in the way you did, as I must pass on your vote and that of Father Viven to the Council in Maison-Carrée.
Yours in Christ Our Lord,
Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Superior General on the status of the armed auxiliaries (8th December 1883)
Carthage,
Very dear Father,
As I told you, I officially asked Fathers Viven and Deguerry for their opinions concerning the auxiliaries. I send you their answer. The majority of the Council having voted in this way , I approve its opinion to create perpetual auxiliaries who would form a special section of armed religious among the Brothers for the protection of the missions among the barbarians of Equatorial Africa.
What I would ask you now is that you prepare and discuss in Council, at your earliest convenience, a rule for these new Brothers, combining it with the present rule for Brothers which will remain, of course, as it is for ordinary Brothers. From this rule, you must borrow everything that is compatible with the special duties for the armed Brothers.
For the special duties of the armed religious, you can find some points and some useful ideas in the rules of the ancient military orders . Include in this a great spirit of faith.
Yours affectionately and devotedly in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. My health continues to improve.
Letter to Father Charbonnier on the question of the baptism of Muslim children (5th January 1884)
Carthage,
Dear Father,
I am sending you by post along with this letter the text of the rule of the Sisters which I have corrected. Have it printed, after having checked that the corrections I have made have been put right and there has been nothing added or removed. You will see that I have taken into account almost all the wishes that were expressed to me; I have even amended the text of page 14 concerning the religious instruction of non-Christian children .
In this regard, I must nevertheless make two observations . The first is that the text of the rule in no way forbids giving children a notion and even some knowledge of what the Catholic faith is. Special reasons for caution at this time compel us to desist from many things in Algeria for fear of seeing all our activities wiped out in one fell swoop ; outside of Algeria, however, the same reasons do not pertain and that is why the text of the rule is broad enough to include all possible cases, even one in which the most total freedom exists.
But even in this case of total freedom, the Church expressly forbids, out of fear of perversion or apostasy, always very probable, the conversion to Christianity of non-Christian children so long as they remain under the control or authority of their non-Christian parents.
This is a rule which in no way contradicts the different statements of Benedict XIV and the other theologians as well as the decisions of the Roman congregations which you quote to me. These decisions and authoritative statements speak uncompromisingly of the right children have to freely embrace the truth as soon as they reach the age of reason, that is from the age of seven, if not earlier. Nothing is more true. However, from the point of view of Christian prudence, everyone is still obliged not to make Catholics children who are even older than seven who might be exposed later to perversion and apostasy. This will always happen when they have been converted to Christianity against the wishes of their parents and when they remain under the authority of those parents. This is what the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office decided in a statement which I quoted in a special letter I wrote on this topic to the clergy of Algiers. We have seen only too well in some of our children who have gone back to their family after baptism how wise this ruling imposed by the Holy See was.
I remain, my dear Son, wholeheartedly yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Superior General concerning catechist-doctors (5th January 1884)
Apostolic Vicariate of Carthage and Tunisia
Dear Father,
I begin by thanking the Council and you for your New Year greetings. I have already sent you mine with my fatherly blessing; I send them to you again today from the bottom of my heart, asking Our Lord to keep you under the protection of his sacred Holy Name.
You will have heard, no doubt, that I am sick again; seemingly, it is a different kind of crisis from the ones I have had for the past six months, but I think that basically they are all linked. On 1st January, I was quite well and could go and preside at the official receptions and make my visits, all without getting too tired. Today I find I am worse; in all this, there is only one thing I can do and that is to resign myself to the most holy and merciful will of God and to seek to derive some benefit from it for the atonement of my sins.
As for your Council held on 23rd December 1883, the only one whose minutes I have to hand at present, I approve all you decided then. I should like to examine more closely the rule of the auxiliaries which I have just received. Only then will I let you know my views on the matter.
I remain, dear Father, yours affectionately and devotedly in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. Father Louail has just telegraphed me to say that another young native has succeeded in becoming a doctor in Lille and he is asking me if he must send him to Tunis, where he has already sent Frédéric. I am answering him that at present we do not need more Arab doctors in Tunisia and that these young doctors should go to Maison-Carrée and put themselves at your disposal and that of the Council.
This is what we have done with Frédéric here: I have sent him to Saint Louis, to Father Delattre’s community where he is responsible for caring for the sick who come to the house and for those in the villages of Sidi Bou Saïd, La Marsa, Sidi Daoud, La Malga and Douar es-Schott, where he sees them at home .
I cover his living expenses and, in addition, I give him fifty francs per month which I just supplemented by giving him his first set of clothes and a complete doctor’s outfit. On his part, he has guarantee that he will visit the sick completely free of charge. He must not receive any fees from any of them.
As for the young people who will keep on arriving from Lille one after the other, I think it would be best to spread them out into the different mission posts where their presence would be most useful, as in Kabylia, at Les Attafs, or elsewhere. They will need to be given a similar situation like the one Frédéric enjoys at Saint-Louis, except that they could ask a fee of their patients in the nearby European villages, so as to gradually build up clientele and make a living and relieve the house of having to maintain them.
In fact, I have been told that, at Djemâa-Sahridj, there are no doctors in the neighbouring villages, either French or Kabyle. I am also told that several qualified Arab doctors have practices with patients on the plain. So this is a matter the Council should study very carefully.
Considering your present lack of funds, due to your foolhardy spending , I am happy to cover the cost of these little experiences, namely to pay the salaries and meet the cost of outfits and the first sets of clothes for these young doctors. While I am speaking of these material matters, I would add that, from the moral and spiritual point of view, it is necessary to provide some firm rules for these young Arab doctors:
1) You must not let them away with anything regarding morals. You must encourage them to marry to our advantage, even Muslims, as long as they are free with regard to their families ;
2) They must not display their Christianity. Frédéric has told no-one here that he is a Catholic. He has only his name of Muhammad bin Ahmad. The ultimate success of the ministry of these young men depends on this precaution. Say this and order it to the Fathers in the mission posts where they will go.
(The final polite formula of greeting is missing from the document consulted in the Archives of the Generalate of the White Fathers in Rome.)
Letter to Mgr de Courmont, Apostolic Vicar in Zanzibar (19th January 1884)
Carthage,
Monsignor,
I was delighted to learn that the mission in Zanzibar has been given an apostolic vicar. I personally did all I could at the Propaganda to bring this about, since I could see in this a real advantage for the good of all.
Besides, what I know of Your Lordship lets me hope for the great success of your episcopal and apostolic ministry and I ask Our Lord to grant you this success for many years.
As I have a few of my missionaries under your jurisdiction, at the procure of our missions in the Great Lakes which is located on your island, I write to commend them to your kindness. I should be grateful, Monsignor, if you would give them, for use within their community, the necessary faculties like hearing each other’s confession . I insist on their not doing any kind of ministry outside and I should be grateful to you if you would refuse them any such permission .
I am happy to have this occasion to contact your Lordship for the first time. Yours fraternally and devotedly in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Holy Father for the 19th centenary of Mary’s birth (3rd March 1884)
Alger,
Most Holy Father,
Bowing humbly before Your Holiness, I make so bold as to come to add a further request to one which several of my venerable colleagues of the Sacred College and the episcopate have already presented to you.
It will be next year, in 1885, according to the usually accepted way of calculating, that the nineteen hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Most Holy Virgin Mary will fall.
After having solemnly celebrated the centenaries of several saints, those of the martyrdom of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in 1867, and more recently those of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Theresa, it would seem that the faithful should not let the centenary of the nativity of Mary go by without due honour. It is also to be hoped that this Mother of Mercies, who alone triumphed over all heresies, will be open to our prayers, if these become some fervent and more universal.
It would be for the wisdom and the devotion of Your Holiness to pronounce on the appropriateness of this wish, which is shared by many members of the clergy and many Catholics. What makes this wish all the more pertinent is the fact that this centenary is the first to come after the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception through which the Church wanted to surround the name of Mary and devotion to her with a new halo of glory.
Most Holy Father, the great host of prayers that would begin to rise up on the very day of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, on 8th December 1884, and which would conclude on 8th December 1885, the year of the secular anniversary of the Nativity of Mary, would surely awaken the faith of believers and allow their devotion to show new signs of life, in the midst of those who each day announce the Church’s demise.
A final consideration will also surely touch Your Holiness’s heart. Mary’s birthday is the day par excellence of the glory and joy of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, the noble and venerable parents of the Immaculate Virgin. To honour this day is to share in their happiness and recall the most wonderful privilege they enjoyed. Is it just a coincidence, then, that Saint Joachim sees another Joachim whom he has always so openly loved and protected, seated on the See of Saint Peter administering heavenly treasures on the day which brings back such memories?
Deign to accept, Your Holiness, the most respectful devotion with which I kneel at your sacred feet, as I remain, most Holy Father, your humble and obedient servant,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Archevêque d'Alger
Letter to Father Hirth, Superior in Jerusalem (8th March 1884)
Algiers,
My dear Son,
I am very late in getting back to you, as your letter is dated 23rd January. Please forgive this delay from a sick old man whose affection you know and please understand that if I don’t write to you more often it is only because I am burdened down with … (two unreadable words).
Don’t tell me that you aren’t speaking to me in detail about your school because Father Toulotte has to do this. Father Toulotte only speaks about it in general terms and that is for the very simple reason that it is you who are running this minor seminary. So tell me a little about what your children are doing and about your hopes for them.
As for all your building projects, moves and changes, I am writing to Father Toulotte today to tell him that nothing can be settled before I or Father Bridoux come to Jerusalem which, for one or the other of us, will certainly be during the course of this year.
You are right to say that Father Toulotte is a saint, but you are wrong to say you are not a man. To tell you the truth, you are a weak, incomplete man, but with God’s grace you will grow and you will succeed, I hope, in carrying out his work in Jerusalem. I ask this of him with all my heart. I shall this of him for you every day, my dear Son, since I am making this my special intention at this time.
I send to you, your good confreres and your dear children my fatherly blessing.
Yours,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Archevêque d'Alger
Foreword to the selected works of Cardinal Lavigerie (March 1884)
FOREWORD
To the Missionaries of Algiers
It is especially for you, my dearly beloved Sons, that I am publishing these two volumes. I dedicate them to you. The letters they contain speak of the barbaric missions you have in your care along with me and for which we have given up everything in this world, even our homeland. They will remind you of my thoughts, my advice and my struggles over a quarter of a century.
Basically, in many different forms, one single feeling inspires them. It is the one Our Lord asked of Peter before making him the head of the Apostles, the one Saint Augustine the Doctor of our Africa and of the Church, proclaimed to be the sole law of Christians; the one I myself have taken as my motto : charity; love of God and love of so many abandoned souls. This love has sustained me through difficulties and labours that have worn me out before my time. It is this that will give you also the strength, the heroic self-sacrifice, the perseverance necessary to save from death the people to whom you are sent.
So, love them as a mother loves her children, in as much as their wretchedness and their feebleness requires. Love Africa which is far away from us for the bleeding wounds of its slavery, for the cries of pain which have come, for so many centuries, from her depths. Love that Africa which is nearer, which was once Christian, for its misfortunes of the past, for its great men, for its saints.
Love, even though you have suffered from her, even though you may suffer again, love the two races which are to be found there and which must, according to the plans of Divine Providence, blend into one single people . Love the race which comes, with the activity, the energy, and sometimes the impatience of a child who, right from the cradle, already announces, by the very heat of its anger, the vigour of maturity. Love the old race whom we found there, made up of ten different races, in which the blood of Christians has left traces. Love both of them and teach them one day what can bring them peace (Luke 19, 42). This is the only feeling you will find, in many different forms, in each of these pages.
The patriarchs loved right up to the very stones of Sion, for them a symbol of so many hopes : Placuerunt servis tuis lapides ejus . Following their example, I have loved everything in our Africa, its past, its future, its mountains, its clear skies, its sun, the great sweeps of its deserts, the blue waves which lap its shores.
To express these thoughts, I have not sought the help of art treasures . I give these writings to the public as they came from my pen, surrounded by the impressions, the necessities and the dangers each day brings. May these tones coming from my heart, from my faith, win for your apostolate renewed sympathy and support. In this way, may my voice continue to be heard by you!
Soon it will no longer be heard in this world, but from deep within this volume, it will continue to speak, as it has for so many years :"Vox clamantis in deserto, parate vias Domini, rectas facite semitas ejus".
Carthage, 27th March 1884,
Anniversary of my move to the Archdiocese of Algiers
Message sent to the vicar general of Algiers about the arrest of a young Arab Christian doctor (30th March 1884)
TELEGRAM
The Cardinal Archbishop to Father Gey, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Algiers – I have learnt that a young doctor called Félix Kaddour, who was adopted by me during the famine and who studied in France where he spent nine years before qualifying as a doctor from the State Faculty in Lille, recently returned to Algeria. When he went to Djemaa-Saharidj where he was living with our Fathers, he was arrested on the orders of Mr Sabatier, the administrator in Fort-National, for not having a stay permit or a travel permit and so has been held in prison for two weeks.
Since Félix Kaddour has been an orphan for many years, he has a board of guardians who are exclusively French; he has a French guardian and an emissary appointed by this council. In these circumstances, to apply the native law code to a doctor who has qualified in a Faculty of Medicine in France is such a brutal, abominable act that I would not believe it possible, had I not known what some administrators are capable of. Please take over immediately the handling of this most serious matter and ask for the immediate release of this young doctor.
Answer me by telegram, because I am determined to take this matter to Paris, if justice is not done in Algiers.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Archbishop of Marseilles (24th May 1884)
From Carthage
I am pleased to learn that your journey went well. I myself shall do a part of that trip soon, as I shall travel to Palermo and Naples. His Eminence Cardinal San Felice is a friend of mine. Last year, he invited me to go and see the miracle of Saint Januarius. I saw it with my own eyes. There was no possible trickery whatsoever . Mr Renan asks that for a miracle to be believed a learned body must witness it: this surely was one.
(The ending is missing from the manuscript in the Archives).
Letter to Father Coulbois telling him of his appointment as apostolic pro-vicar at the Tanganyka mission (4th June 1884)
My dear Father,
You have now been in Tanganyka for some time. I have waited for you to have this personal experience before speaking to you of a plan I have concerning you in the light of reports from your superiors.
Father Guillet asked me a long time ago to relieve him of his responsibility and the title of apostolic pro-vicar. I believe the time has come for me to acquiesce to his request and so, by this letter, I appoint you and institute you as apostolic pro-vicar, assigning you all the spiritual powers Father Guillet has had up to now. This will pertain until the day, not long off now, when an apostolic vicar is appointed, as happened at Nyanza in the person of Father Livinhac.
I am totally confident, my dear Son, that you will fulfil according to the spirit of God the duties I am entrusting to you. I recommend to you especially respect, deference and obedience in all your dealings with your superiors, remembering that one cannot give out orders if one does not know how to obey; and charity towards your confreres, remembering that it is by serving the others that one becomes worthy of leading them. In conclusion, my dear Son, may this sign of my trust in you not make you proud; humility is the basis for all and without this you can only head for great failures.
You will appoint Father Guillet to the post you judge suitable for him, which will doubtless be that of superior in one of the established mission stations. Please write to me keeping me informed of all that is happening in your mission, your plans and your views.
I am very actively involved in the question of your armed auxiliaries; but it is not an easy matter to resolve . Next Monday, I leave for Rome in order to speak directly with the Holy Father. I should very much like Saint Joubert and his confrere to remain there, to be part of the new arrangement. Tell them this from me. Tell all your good confreres as well that I send them my fatherly affection and my most sincere blessings.
Farewell, my dear Son. I remain your devoted Father in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Bridoux (14th June 1884)
Tunis,
Dear Reverend Father,
I must share with you an event that will surely edify all the members of the Society and touch the young novices at the Mother House especially, by showing them the importance of and the care they must take during their time of testing.
The Very Reverend Father Livinhac (calling him like this, because he has not yet accepted definitively the titles and functions of apostolic vicar) has begged me to allow him, before making this decision, to do a second noviciate of six months.
This good and holy priest has shown me that he considers this second noviciate to be of great importance to the missionaries after the first years of their external apostolate. He drew my attention to the fact that in the Company of Jesus this practice has passed into law and that it is to this that one can attribute particularly the regularity and the discipline of this renowned and saintly society, the only one which has never needed reform. Reverend Father Livinhac added that it had always been his great wish that this practice be introduced into the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers . He felt even more convinced of this since he had seen at close hand how tired the missionaries became and the dangers of their weakening and growing lukewarm in a life almost totally absorbed by external activity.
Consequently, in order to help in establishing such a law through his example, Very Reverend Father Livinhac has asked me to give him permission to do a second noviciate of at least six months. After some mature reflection on my part and having asked Our Lord to enlighten me on such an important matter as this, I felt I could not refuse Very Reverend Father Livinhac the grace he was asking.
Since this is not an established, well-tried practice, however, it could possibly produce some disturbance in programme details of the actual noviciate . While granting Very Reverend Father Livinhac the favour he was asking, I have decided, therefore, that he would do his second noviciate lasting six months in the house of the scholasticate before he receives his episcopal ordination. He has already begun it with a first retreat; he is following the devotional exercises of the house community and adds to these some exercises of his own each day. In a few weeks’ time he will begin the great retreat of Saint Ignatius, a silent retreat, which lasts for a whole month. This is also done in the second noviciate practised by the Jesuits.
I cannot tell you with what humility, what longing for perfection, what spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice Reverend Father Livinhac has set out on the road which he, before anyone else, wants to open up to all his confreres. It is not possible at this time to fix anything with regard to this matter in any general way, but I do not want to deprive the Society of the great edification such an example will provide for it. That is why, my dear Father, I am writing you this letter so that you can communicate it to all of the missionaries and especially, as I mentioned above, to the young novices in Maison-Carrée.
With an example like this, they will see just how important the spiritual training given in the noviciate is deemed by the best of spirits and the most saintly of souls and they will redouble their efforts and the attention they give to living up to their vocation.
Tell all those dear Children that I bless them from the bottom of my heart and that I shall remember them when I am standing at the feet of the Holy Father and ask, on their behalf, for a blessing greater and more effective than mine.
Yours most devotedly,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Propaganda concerning establishing a seminary in Belgium (5th July 1884)
Carthage,
Your Eminence, my Lord,
I have the honour to inform Your Eminence of my intention to establish a small noviciate of the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers in the diocese of Malines . His Grace the Archbishop of Malines, to whom I have had my intentions made known by one of my missionaries of Belgian nationality, has responded saying that he viewed the implementing of this plan with the greatest pleasure.
On his part, King Léopold II has assured me that he would be agreeable to this foundation and Father Charmetant who saw him in Ostend has sent me a telegram stating that Your Eminence will be informed of this by a dispatch from the Court Chaplain.
I would be grateful to Your Eminence if you could write a word to me saying that you see no difficulty in bringing about this plan. In fact, this is not something new which is starting, but simply an extension of the small noviciates that we already have in various countries (Africa, Malta, France) by creating one of these establishments in Belgium, so as to recruit Belgian candidates for our missions.
Please accept, Your Eminence, this expression of my respectful and devoted good wishes. Humbly kissing your hands, I remain Your Eminence’s most obedient and loyal servant .
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie.
Letter to the Archbishop of Malines about the opening of a seminary (12th July 1884)
Carthage,
Your Grace,
I have already had the honour of informing Your Grace indirectly, through the intermediary of Father Marlon, one of our missionaries who is at present in Belgium, of my intention of writing to you about founding a minor seminary in your diocese for the purpose of receiving candidates for the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers.
As Your Grace already knows, several Belgian priests belong to this small congregation. The excellent spirit which inspires them, their self-sacrifice, their dedication, leads us, quite naturally, to want to increase their number. His Majesty, King Léopold, has kindly shown me on several occasions and my representative in France, Reverend Father Charmetant, how pleased he would be to see this project carried through and the number of our Belgian missionaries increase as much as possible in those parts of Equatorial Africa where those sent by the Association Internationale Africaine are already present.
The Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda to which I belong and which I also consulted about this matter in the person of its most eminent prefect showed himself no less favourable to our proposal. It has only expressed to me its wish that our foundation should in no way affect the setting up of a seminary providing chaplains for the posts already occupied by the Belgian envoys. I share this wish myself, all the more so because I must confess in all confidence to Your Grace that some of these envoys have, up to now, been far from honouring their Christian faith.
The presence of a good priest, especially if he is sent by the king, will surely bring about a change in such a state of affairs, and if the Belgian missionaries in our Society come and occupy the neighbouring mission stations, they will provide some useful help to each other. They can be sure to find from our side, and from mine in particular, since the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in those regions is held by me, as delegate of the Holy See , my most fatherly support.
In this case, Your Grace, and in keeping with the kind assurances you have given to Reverend Father Merlon, I have come to ask Your Grace’s permission to start, beginning next October, a minor seminary for the Society of the Missionaries of Africa in your diocese. This seminary would be established at Woluwé Saint-Lambert-lès-Bruxelles, in a property belonging to the Count of la Boëssières-Thienne here there is a small pilgrims’ chapel in annex.
Its sole aim would be to welcome children and young people who applied to join our Society, either as future missionary priests or as future Brothers , so as to test them before sending them to the noviciate in Algiers. Once the period of testing is over (it would last at least a year for the most advanced among them), these postulants would be sent to the Society’s noviciate in Africa. The majority of the missionaries in charge of this minor seminary will, from the month of October, be of Belgian nationality. All staff members, without exception, will be Belgians as soon as we have a sufficient number of Belgian Fathers among us.
Such then, Your Grace, is the little task for which I make bold to ask your agreement and your blessings. Please accept in advance my gratitude. Yours respectfully and devotedly in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Propaganda concerning Lavigerie’s new auxiliary bishop for Tunis (28th July 1884)
Your Eminence, My Lord,
For special reasons, His Holiness has deigned to appoint, with episcopal powers, as my auxiliary in Tunisia Reverend Father Antonio Maria Buhadgiar , a professed religious of the order of Capuchins, currently parish priest of Sfax in Tunisia. He is Maltese by birth and was born on 19th November 1846.
I should be grateful to Your Eminence if you would kindly take His Holiness’s orders for the sending of the notice of appointment. It is the title of Bishop of Ruspe that I have asked the Holy Father to grant Mgr Buhadgiar.
Since, for special reasons, the ordination must take place without delay, I would also ask that I be dispensed of the need for the assistance of two bishops for the ordination ceremony, because of the impossibility that the quarantine imposed in Tunisia following the cholera outbreak places on the arrival of the two other prelates in this country.
I should be very grateful to Your Eminence if you would kindly give orders so that the dispatch of the necessary documents suffers no delays.
Please accept, Your Eminence, this expression of my respectful and devoted good wishes. Humbly kissing your hands, I remain Your Eminence’s most obedient and loyal servant.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie,
Apostolic Administrator of Tunisia
Information and request for financial help to the office of the Propagation of the Faith (20th September 1884)
Mr President,
You will find attached to this letter a report on a number of religious events which have just taken place in Carthage or which will soon take place in our missions in Equatorial Africa. To tell you the truth, it is really intended for the Missions Catholiques magazine, but it will spare me from having to enter into all the details it contains. You will see in it, Gentlemen that Mgr Livinhac, the apostolic vicar of Nyanza, has finally arrived from his mission after 18 months of waiting, to receive his episcopal ordination, which he did receive in Carthage last Sunday. You will also see that, two weeks before that, I had already ordained the auxiliary bishop given to me for Tunisia by the Holy Father,
You will then see that the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda has recently decided that the apostolic vicar of Tanganyka will receive his episcopal title like that of Nyanza. For this important position, we have appointed Reverend Father Charbonnier, the former superior general of the Society and currently the first novice master. Father Guillet will remain as he is, pro-vicar of the southern Upper Congo.
Father Charbonnier will leave for his mission at the same time as Mgr Livinhac, but it has been very wisely decided, by order of His Holiness, that he will only receive the title of his bishopric and be ordained bishop after a trial period spent in the mission to make sure that his health can bear the climate. Mgr Livinhac will ordain him thereafter, thanks to the dispensation granted to mission bishops to conduct, by themselves, the ordination ceremony .
If I repeat details here, Gentlemen, it is because I must at all costs turn to you for help given the state of penury in which we find ourselves. This year, you have reduced our grant by the same proportion by which the number of our activities and the cost of funding them have increased. I know that you find yourselves not always able to do what you would wish – and this is the sad reality. But this is a truly extraordinary case and I am confident, for the two new caravans that are due to leave, you will give us the same help you gave us last year. These two caravans will be headed by the two apostolic vicars of Nyanza and Tanganyka. They will take twelve new missionaries and on top of that will be added four auxiliaries who are young native doctors whom we have helped to complete their degrees, as is explained in the correspondence sent to the Missions Catholiques. These figures will be enough to show you the enormous expense travelling in the interior of Equatorial Africa costs us.
I must add that, besides the caravans leaving Algiers for Tanganyka and Nyanza, we are forced to prepare two others, each one with three missionaries, who will reach, from the east, the territory occupied by Stanley and will take possession of the land of the Manyema. You know how unsuccessful the expedition we undertook from the west has been. Apparently, Father Guyot was drowned on the orders of Stanley . We do not wish to repeat such a painful experience and, even though the journey is longer and costs more, we prefer to send missionaries for northern Upper-Congo by way of Tanganyka. That is a new source of huge expense which we shall be unable to meet.
If I dared, I would add a further request of funding for the ordination of Mgr Livinhac whom I have just mentioned. Last Sunday, for the ordination of Mgr Livinhac, due to a lack of resources, we were obliged to make do as would happen in mission countries far away. I had kept my mitre from my ordination for 21 years; I lent it to him. I lent him a crosier, a pectoral cross and even my ceremonial gloves in which my hands seemed to get lost. Since my sandals did not fit him, we covered with silk, as best we could, a pair of old slippers, in short, it was a most miserable affair .
We must therefore think of buying a complete bishop’s set for Mgr Livinhac and another for Mgr Charbonnier, so that they can be ordained on the spot, if possible. Then, we had to buy a cassock for my auxiliary bishop of Ruspe, who is a Capuchin Father, a religious, truly a man of gold, but in spite of that with not a penny to his name . I dare to hope, Gentlemen, that this sad picture will touch your hearts and that you will respond to the request I make of you, both in the name of the Society of our missionaries and in the name of the two new apostolic vicars, with a generous grant.
Thanking you in advance (The text we have copied in the Archives of the Missionaries of Africa in Rome has no closing formula and no signature.)
Opening of Woluwé (Belgium) instructions to Father Bresson (1st November 1884)
Founding of Woluwé – Special note for Reverend Father Bresson
In everything that has been said or written up to now about the Woluwé foundation, nothing has yet been said explicitly and precisely about the purpose for which this house was set up, as far as the resources the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers must find in Belgium and Holland are concerned.
All this, of course, is implied and the members of the Council are aware that one of the main aims set down for this foundation is to guarantee these resources from abroad, whereas those France provides are diminishing every day because of the adverse times we are living in. This is what has been dealt with at great length in the Councils of the Society and in correspondence with its superiors.
The fact that the General Bursar of the Society has been appointed as the first superior, on a temporary basis, of the house at Woluwé shows up the true meaning of the superiors’ seeming unwillingness to act. So Father Bresson will have to remember that his role in Belgium is to obtain resources needed by the Society, and especially by the houses where missionaries are trained, which absorb considerable sums of money each year. He, more than anyone else, because he has seen them close to hand, knows the difficulties in which the Mother-House finds itself in this regard.
Consequently, he will concentrate all his efforts into creating, in Belgium and in Holland, a stream of donations and even, if this is possible, of foundations from annual annuities or gifts given to help with the Society’s work. Since the Belgians who will be welcomed in Woluwé must necessarily pass through all the training establishments, it will always be true to say that we are collecting for the Belgians and in this way encourage adoptions or the creation of bursaries, as we have done for the missionaries. It would surely not be difficult to find in Belgium one hundred, two hundred, or even three hundred wealthy families who would take responsibility for paying a full education scholarship, that is for a ten-year period, the average time which would seem necessary. These scholarships, like those of the missionaries, should be calculated at eight hundred francs per year. These should be settled in total on 1st April each year or by termly payments of 200 francs each, on the first day of January, April, July and October . But we must be careful not to promise to award the scholarship to any particular candidate who might strike up a relationship with the benefactor. This has given us some every serious problems in the past, because of confusion over names, mistakes through carelessness and through our circumstances and the drop in vocations. A programme must be arranged for these adoptions and this must then be brought to the best families already known to us. There would, of course, be collective scholarships granted by convents and boarding schools.
Finally, the king would be asked to do for Woluwé what he has promised to do for Turnhout. All of this is quite separate from the collections made in parishes or homes, as has been agreed. As the success of these kinds of arrangements largely depends on how they begin, Father Bresson’s conscience and that of his collaborators must be responsible for all that goes before. Father Bresson must therefore write to the Council at least once every two weeks to give an account of all he is doing concerning the organisation of this work.
Letter to the missionaries of Equatorial Africa (30th November 1884)
My dear Sons,
I am writing today to all the mission posts in Equatorial Africa and I do this for two reasons. Firstly, so that you do not think I have forgotten you or that my fatherly affection for you has diminished. In spite of the distance and in spite of the sometimes lengthy silences we maintain between us, I, for my part, am always greatly interested in all that happens to you.
It is this interest itself which is the second reason for my letter. In fact, I must inform you that the charitable works of propaganda, especially those of the Propaganda of the Faith, are reducing your grants year by year. This year, the Holy Childhood has refused to give us any help. A small charity, the Œuvre de Catéchisme, is offering us its help for the ransoming of African children; this, it is true, will never amount to very much, but you know that little streams become great rivers and missionaries cannot afford to disregard any help.
Well, the reason for the drop in interest people are showing in you, and with that the drop in our resources, is that your written contacts are simply not frequent enough or not interesting enough. You are content with writing diaries and journals which are often extremely boring because of their dryness. It is really the details and especially the picturesque and historical details, which our readers want to see in your different annals.
This is what I am writing to you all today to ask you very urgently. Each time the opportunity arises for you to relate some important event, of whatever nature it may be, apostolic, tragic, even humorous, do not let it pass by, make it the topic of a complete report, giving all the details. You must share this work out between you. There are three of you in each mission post. To ask for a letter of this kind from each of you every three months is surely not too much to ask. But here, that would give us one letter a month, which is enough to nourish and sustain the interest of readers and their charity.
What touches readers most is the story of your ransomed children. You would need to take down a detailed account of the story of each one of these when they come to you. How he was captured, the journey he made, what sufferings he had to undergo, how you were able to snatch him from the hands of his kidnappers, his first impressions of being with you, the first progress he has made. For these reports, you will, of course, choose the stories of those children whose circumstances are rather special.
If, thereafter, in your orphanages, some other more interesting aspects come to light, you must make a note of them and include them in your correspondence. I say the same thing for your neophytes. But do remember, what people are interested are the details.
Here, I am pleading your case, because if you allow yourselves to be forgotten you will die of hunger and of thirst and be deprived of all resources. This is what I can see happening, if things continue as they are. So, I beg the superiors of each of the mission posts, and even expressly order them if necessary, to see that these letters intended for the public be written every three months by each and every missionary priest. They need not bother too much about the style, this will be corrected here. But, I say this once again, what is wanted is detail, interesting and informative detail.
These letters must be addressed directly to me at Archbishop’s House in Algiers and they will reach me here. They must be quite separate from any official correspondence sent to the superiors. I shall then see to it that they are made to produce fruit.
Farewell, my dear Sons. I shall not give you any news because your superiors and your confreres are giving you news already. I have been quite ill once more; I even received Extreme Unction. But the Lord does not want me, it seems, even in purgatory, and he is leaving me still here on earth. I am not complaining, since I can still have the opportunity to be of service to you through the fatherly affection which I keep for all of you.
Yours in Christ Our Lord,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. I take this opportunity to remind you of the practice of baptising non-Christian children who are in danger of death. You seem not to care about this at all. In fact, this is one of the most beautiful and most fruitful practices, leading to heaven. Missionaries who forget this seem not to have lost their faith.
Letter to the Propagation of the Faith on the situation of the missions in Kabylia and in the Sahara (December 1884)
Gentlemen,
Our missions in Kabylia and in the Sahara are constantly developing, as you will see in this report which I have the honour to send you. Previous reports made you aware of the progress of these missions and their way of operating. Today I shall tell you only of what has been achieved during this current year in our mission stations of Kabylia and the Sahara. I hope you will continue to show an interest in these missions, an interest that is more necessary than ever.
There are 10 of these stations, comprising a total of 32 missionaries, among whom are two native clerics (the figure in the chart also includes the personnel in the seminaries and at the Mother-House ). Several of the stations have native catechists. These missions have, in addition, five houses of Missionary Sisters comprising 25 religious whose work is to teach the young native girls, organising needlework classes, caring for the sick, visiting almost every day the villages of the neighbouring tribes, etc. To proceed in an orderly manner, I shall speak of: the baptism of natives, schools, orphans, Christian villages, the care of the sick.
1) Baptism of natives – In this article, I shall not repeat to you what you already know, that, in keeping with the wise rules of prudence which were drawn up for them since the beginning, our missionaries strive especially to prepare mass conversions and put off as much as possible the conversion of individuals when they foresee that the converts could not continue to live in their own country without danger to their life or their faith.
I would simply add that these fears diminish from year to year and that our new Christians or catechumens are beginning to raise their heads proudly when they hear themselves called mtourné, convert, by some more fanatic native. During this current year, the baptisms of children have been quite numerous . The superior of the mission at Taguemount-Azouz tells me that he has counted up to 7 in his own mission station. «Thanks to the zeal of our good Sisters », the superior of the station at Beni-Ismaïl writes to me, « we have had the consolation of celebrating more than fifty baptisms this year. » In the other stations, the number of baptisms has been higher than in previous years.
2) Schools – These have more and more native children in attendance. This year, the average number of these children attending in each mission station has been more than 80. In two of our stations in Kabylia we have had to contend with some rivalry from official schools, since the government made the most of a brief period when these two stations, which had previously belonged to the Jesuit Fathers and which we took them over from them, were closed. The government built schools there at great expense which they can only maintain through more costly expenses and which have no free places for native children.
Recognising the success our missionaries have, the government has not yet dared to build rival schools in the centres which we have always occupied; but we have had to give our schools some kind of legality. The missionaries have had to pass their teachers’ certificate in Algiers and have had to have their premises approved. This has incurred further expense, since several of them were found to be inadequate by the official authorities, who thought by doing so they might hamper the missionaries’ work.
In Ghardaïa, capital of the Mzab in the Sahara, the missionaries find themselves in need of building both house and school, since the local house they have been renting up to now and which was completely inadequate has become inhabitable. « Our situation has become almost unbearable, the superior in Ghardaïa wrote to me a few weeks ago; the house we are in threatens to collapse, the cracks are growing and I dare not take the risk, not only of teaching a class in it but even of simply living there. What would become of me and what would we have to do, if an accident happened? We are promised repairs, but I don’t believe the promises of our land-lord who is a Jew. Besides, the house foundations are weak and more than half of it is built on unstable land. Yet, we would so much love to settle in our own house! I told you how, when we left to make our retreat, our dear children and their parents had accompanied us for a good part of the journey . They were all in tears, since they thought that, despite our assurances, we were not coming back. News of our return soon spread through the town of Ghardaïa and, straight away, all came running to greet us, with many small gifts of dates, biscuits and raisins of which we had a whole stock for several days. See, Reverend Father, what you can do for us. The most urgent need would be to build a suitable house with a school. To buy a plot of land which is very expensive here and to build a simple house on it we should need at least 25,000 francs. The Arab Bureau is putting out to tender the construction of two educational establishments, one in Ouargla and the other in Ghardaïa, for the modest sum of 60,000 francs each. So far, its attempts at introducing schooling have not been very successful, however. The Mozabites who have to send their children to them pay for substitutes. I know of several who have paid 15, 20, and 60 francs for them to stand in for their children. We continue our work of ransoming young Africans , but, for this work to develop, we are obliged to wait until we are more suitably housed. »
3) Orphanages – each one of the above-mentioned missions has an orphanage in which the number of children depends on the post’s resources. The missionaries are often forced, out of charity, to take in orphans abandoned by everyone or the children a widowed / mentally disturbed? mother abandons because she sees in them an obstacle to her re-marrying.
Each one of these children, cared for completely in our missions, costs 200 francs per year and there are so many of them that some quite considerable expenses are required which the missionaries can only meet by making more and greater sacrifices. «I must tell you », Father Hamard wrote to me a few days ago, « that our little orphanage has undergone some changes. After the persistent winter rains, the intense heat of summer, and also because of the poor construction of the building, which serves as school and orphanage, we have had to give up living there. Huge cracks threatened to split the house in two, lengthways, and our children ran the risk of being crushed under the rubble. We have therefore had to reduce the number of boarders by half. I must admit that I found this necessity very hard to accept and I would have willingly sacrificed everything to keep those dear children. When shall I be able to take them back and what will become of them in the meantime? »
4) Native catechists – These are recruited from among the children brought up by the missionaries and they render us a real service from the point of view of the mission. This year we have founded a special training centre in Taguemount-Azouz, so as to increase the number of these special assistants. There are currently 27 pupils who are, at the same time, getting ready to sit teachers’ certificate exams. They will then be able to run schools more easily under the direction of the Missionaries.
Up to now, we had been sending these young people to be trained in our apostolic institute in Malta, where there are still a number of Kabyles, but the paucity of our resources has forced us to change our plan and found a central institute in the very heart of Kabylia. I should add that we find all our Kabyle catechists completely satisfactory and all our missionaries bear excellent witness to this. They have won great esteem and respect for themselves and they already exert a real influence in their country.
4) Preparing Christian villages – The general vocation for children of the mission being to get married, we seek to group them together, once they have settled in, in such a way that they form small Christian centres. Since we have had Sisters in the mission, it has become easier for us to go on with this task, since our children, when they get married, naturally want to find girls educated by the Sisters. «The success we have in this kind of apostolate,» the superior of one of our missions in Kabylia wrote to me, «gives us great encouragement. In the space of a few months, I have been able to marry three catechumens under these conditions, and already, by greatly increasing our hopes, they have begun to give us immense consolation. How it consoles me to see that with our young Christians and catechumens we can give our religious services a pomp and solemnity which would be the envy of many parishes in France. Our young couples often bring their relatives along with them. These always help bring some quiet to our services and our chapel can hardly contain them all.
5) Care of the sick – The missionaries in the Sahara and in Kabylia put into practice the apostolate Our Lord practised and which he recommended to the apostles: cure the sick and say: the Kingdom of Heaven has come. They have a many patients. The average number who come each day asking for treatment varies between 40 and 50.
«The sick continue to crowd into our dispensary», a missionary wrote to me the other day, «The women with their small children go to the Sisters to get treatment, while the men ask us to relieve their suffering. For a long time now, I have noticed that Providence works some real wonders through our interventions, and this, often without our knowing. Considering the little medical knowledge we possess and the kinds of ‘simples’ we use, we are surprised by the effects we can bring about. Every day, we see sick people arriving at our house who must have walked five or six leagues to come and receive out treatment. To extend our work in this apostolate a little further, once or twice a week, two of us set out to visit a section of our mission. Carrying the most urgently needed medicines, we make for some of the more remote villages whose sick could come only with great difficulty to our house. Seated on a rock in the middle of the village, we are immediately surrounded by a thick crowd of men, women and children. At these times, we think quite naturally of Our Lord: the sick hurried to him, because he did good as he went along. We do our best, following his example, to please everyone with our unremitting care and some kind words as well. Bringing relief to bodies is also to bring relief to souls. Prejudices slowly crumble and often disappear completely. We can frequently have more than one hundred Kabyles per day to care for at home. »
So this, Gentlemen, is a summary of the work of our missionaries this year. I have elaborated more on the missions in the Sahara, since I am promised a long report which I shall soon have the honour of sending to you, I hope, for publishing in Missions Catholiques. Our missions are developing every year and need considerable funding. We dare to hope, therefore, that, with more generous funding, you will allow us to continue the good work we have begun. An extra grant, in particular, would be needed for the building work I told you about and which is long overdue.
Please accept, Gentlemen, my most respectful good wishes and, in advance, my sincere gratitude.
Your most humble and obedient servant,
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Mgr Livinhac concerning finances (18th December 1884)
Dear Monsignor,
I received your letter and I am writing this very day to the president of the board of directors of the Propaganda of the Faith to ask him to fix without delay his grant for the three caravans for Nyanza, Tanganyka and Congo and to set that grant at the highest amount possible. I am sure we shall soon have a decision which will let you know exactly how much of it you are going to receive.
However, much is granted, expenses must be kept to a minimum and therefore the number of missionaries must match that figure. To do otherwise would be to tempt God and, for a religious superior and a bishop, it would be a reprehensible act.
Let me add, however, that I would be grieved to see persisting in the spirit of the missionaries of Equatorial Africa the tendency to squander resources and behave more like tourists than apostles. Livingstone travelled for many long years throughout Equatorial Africa on less than twenty thousand francs; Father Bardot and his companion, on their return journey, spent six hundred between Nyanza and Bagamoyo, and you are terrified at having only twenty thousand francs to spend to do the same journey with your five Fathers from Nyanza! Is that really the spirit of an apostle!
Furthermore, it has been firmly decided that the missionaries would not form a separate, independent caravan, which is ruinously expensive, but that they would simply join any Arab caravan, taking with them only what is necessary; their luggage would be taken into the interior at the normal cost of transport.
Farewell, dear Monsignor. I remain yours most devotedly and affectionately in Christ Our Lord.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the cardinal prefect of the Propaganda concerning the setting of up of a community in Rome (24th December 1884)
Your Eminence, my Lord,
I consider I should be lacking in my duty if I did not inform Your Eminence that the government of France, through the good offices of its ambassador to the Holy See, has just entrusted to me the church of Saint Nicolas-des-Lorrains and the adjoining house, so as to set up a procure for the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers.
I had already had the honour of speaking with you personally about a similar plan regarding Saint-Louis , but this this went no further. The plan we are going to implement is on a smaller scale, but it is sufficient for our needs. The Society of the Missionaries of Algiers has simply decided, in fact, to send some of its best members to be taught at the purest source of Catholic doctrine and devotion. It plans also to accommodate a procurator there who will deal with the Society’s relations with the sacred congregation of the Propaganda. The French government is putting at my disposal the church, the rector’s apartments and the salaries of six chaplains of Saint-Louis, calculated at 1,500 francs each per year, in total, 9,000 francs per year.
It is on 1st January, 1885, that I must be given possession of the property by the procurator . One of my honorary canons who is at present in Rome will replace me for this formality, the missionaries only needing to come during the course of the year, when I shall be able to take them myself and introduce them to the Holy Father and to Your Eminence. But, in the meantime, I do not want you to find out from anyone else about the actual putting in place of this project.
I am overjoyed to know that some of my Sons will be near to you, overjoyed since I know in advance what goodness and what enlightenment are to be found next to His Eminence the prefect of the Propaganda.
Kindly accept, Your Eminence, my renewed good wishes. Humbly kissing your hands, I remain your most obedient and devoted servant.
+ Charles, cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to King Léopold II of Belgium (27th December 1884)
Your Majesty,
It is not simply out of obedience to the old custom of the Sacred College that I come today to present to Your Majesty my respectful good wishes and my devotion . I cherish only too well the memory of your kindness to me for me not to hold this duty as a debt of gratitude. I am especially pleased, Sire, to have this opportunity to thank Your Majesty for the benevolence you have shown this year towards the Society of the missionaries of which I am the founder for the setting up of a house at Woluwé whose purpose is the recruitment of Belgian citizens who dedicate themselves to the missions in Equatorial Africa.
The decisions taken recently by the International Conference of Berlin open a new path to the Christian apostolate in countries which come henceforth under the authority of the Association Africaine of which Your Majesty is the august head . Having no political ulterior motive and seeking only those higher interests of truth, humanity and civilisation, allow me to tell Your Majesty that we shall be happy, in so far as we are able, to work towards fulfilling Your Majesty’s most generous plans. The Belgian missionaries whom we have trained with care will eagerly dedicate themselves to this work.
I had even thought of telling you about a new project along these lines, but I do not wish to enter into all the details of the project before knowing if it might be agreeable to you. So here is simply the main idea:
In the great enterprise recently blessed by European approval, what seems to me to present the most difficulty is the creation of an armed force which might give those countries far away sufficient guarantees, these so necessary but so difficult to obtain, of high moral standards, of constantly assured harmony and of low cost so as not to create burdens too heavy for the sponsors to bear. I do believe, Sire, that this problem can only be resolved, for the time being at least, by a military association of a religious nature. With the information I already have and having had a first experience of this in other circumstances, this association could be made up entirely of Belgians and Dutch, former soldiers, who, in a spirit of Christian devotion, might wish to dedicate their lives to so great a task, by accepting a common set of rules and oaths freely pronounced.
The house at Woluwé Saint-Lambert could serve as a place for rallying together and as a first noviciate. Those candidates deemed suitable for this life of military activity and religious devotion would then be sent to one of our houses in North Africa to help them adapt to the climate. Once their training is completed, which would take at least year, they would be directed to places in Equatorial Africa chosen by the Association Africaine and there they would establish military posts for the purpose of maintaining respect for and influencing by their example the surrounding populations.
I estimate that, instead of the enormous expenses which salaried men would demand, and Your Majesty knows only too well how excessive this can be , we should have totally dedicated men who would cost, as a fixed sum, not more than one thousand or one thousand five hundred francs per year, because they would ask only for their food and clothing.
Having only a small number of military posts set up at intervals in fortified positions, the whole course of the Congo could be sufficiently guarded for two or three hundred thousand francs per year. One or two missionaries would be attached to each of these posts as chaplains and would similarly require only their food and clothing, not including the cost of their settling in at the beginning.
But, could such a project find its place in Your Majesty’s plans? This is what I ask myself, and uncertainty over the response is what prevents me, as I have said, from entering into greater detail. Whatever it might be, Sire, I consider myself at Your Majesty’s disposal on this matter. In all this, I hope you will find new proof of my active desire to show you my continued deference and my devotion.
I have the honour to be Your Majesty’s most humble and obedient servant.
+ Charles cardinal Lavigerie
A Letter to Father Louail, superior in Lille (1 January 1885)
Tunis,
Dear Father Louail,
I am in receipt of your accounts and I thank you, both for the care you take to send them to me, and also for the zeal you show in carrying out a task which is in itself difficult. If, however, it is difficult, this makes it only the more meritorious. This is why, my dear Son, I congratulate you and I give you my blessing, asking the Lord at the beginning of this year to reward you a hundredfold, through his grace, for what you do for love of Him.
I thank your dear confreres and all your dear children for the good wishes and, through you, I send them my paternal blessing.
Be assured, my dear Father, of my sincere affection in Our Lord.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Mgr Livinhac on the finances for the coming caravan (15 January 1885)
Algiers,
Dear Monsignor,
I have just received the answer of the Councils for the Work of Propaganda Fide to the latest requests I had addressed to them in order to cover the travel expenses of the caravans for the four missions of Equatorial Africa.
The caravan led by Father Guillet which is to found the mission in the south of Upper-Congo is in fact included in what has been foreseen for this year, as also that requested by the Reverend Schmitz, the agent of the King of the Belgians, whose arrival in Algiers I am expecting from day to day. The total amount allocated for these four caravans is one hundred and ten thousand francs. This is divided as follows: for Victoria Nyanza 40.000 francs, for Tanganyka 40.000 francs, for southern Upper-Congo 15.000 francs, and for northern Upper-Congo 15.000 francs.
Besides the last-mentioned amounts, I had already received from the Pontifical Work of the Holy Childhood, for the missions in Equatorial Africa, a subsidy of 50,000 francs. Out of this amount Fr Charmetant had to subtract 1160 francs as a first offering of our dioceses to this Pontifical Work, as I have explained to you. This means that the real amount received is 53,840 francs (sic), of which one quarter is due to Nyanza and another quarter to Tanganyka.
Finally, I have just received from the Work of Propaganda Fide the first instalment for the year 1885. This comes to 22,476 francs, of which a quarter is due to Nyanza and another quarter to Tanganyka. So recapitulating all the amounts destined for Tanganyka and Nyanza results in the following: grant of Propaganda Fide for 1884: 59,660.20 francs; subsidies for the two caravans: 80,000 francs; grant from the Holy Childhood: 26, 920 francs, and a first instalment for 1885: 11,238.05 francs. This gives a total amount of 177,818.25 francs. Of this amount you have already received 100,000 francs which are available for you at the Société Algérienne. You are therefore still due to receive 77,818.25 francs; you will find enclosed a promissory note for this sum.
As you can see, Providence has been kind to you, in some ways much more than we could have expected. I have been very happy to have been able to contribute to this result.
Please be assured, dear Monsignor, of my loving affection and devotion in Our Lord.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. I am sending a copy of this letter to Reverend Father Bridoux because, as you know, you have to pay to him a sixth part of the allocations received from the different Pontifical Works. Consequently, he will have to calculate with you the sum due to be paid to the general treasury from the amounts mentioned above.
Letter to the Clergy of Algiers announcing his appointment as Archbishop of Carthage (17 January 1885)
Algiers,
From his Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie to the Parish Priests of the city and the suburbs of Algiers with regard to the ceremony of conferring the pallium for the Archdiocese of Carthage
Reverend Father,
I beg of you to announce to your parishioners that on Sunday, 25 January, in the cathedral of Algiers, there will take place a solemn ceremony during which the pallium will be conferred on me as Archbishop of Carthage.
You are aware that, for the Church, the pallium is the sign of metropolitan jurisdiction . As its name indicates it was, in the past, an outer garment; today it consists of a strip of white wool decorated with black crosses, blessed by the Holy Father and placed afterwards on the tomb of Saint Peter. From there it is sent to the Patriarchs, Primates and Metropolitan Archbishops, as a sign of their jurisdiction and of the fact that this is transmitted to them on the very authority of the Vicar of Jesus Christ.
This pallium is given by the Pope to the procurator of the recently elected Metropolitan, but this Metropolitan must wait to receive it personally from the hands of bishop of his choice, after having pronounced an oath of fidelity to the Holy See.
I could hardly hesitate in my choice. This fell naturally on my beloved and revered coadjutor, the Archbishop of Damascus, who is like a replica of myself . It is here, in fact, that everything began for the resurrection of the ancient see of Carthage; it is here that Divine Province has made its choice of me, through the ministry of the Vicar of Christ and the intervention of the Government of France; it is here that I have found my most helpful and devoted auxiliaries and, in part at least, the means necessary for such an undertaking. It is only right then that I should receive here the insignia of my new jurisdiction, and in putting them on should, as it were, cover the Church, the clergy and the faithful of Algiers with a mantle of honour.
I would like to extend this honour further, even to France, for it is this country, its troops, its Protectorate, its authority, that have prepared everything . And it is not only the France of the present-day, but also the France of the past which seems to want to take part in the resurrection of the Church of Carthage. You will doubtless have noticed, Reverend Father, how our Holy Father Pope Leo XIII, in his apostolic letter Materna Ecclesiae caritas , insisted on recalling with honour the words of Saint Leo IX, his illustrious predecessor, on the occasion of [renewing] the ancient privileges of the see of Saint Cyprian. Now Saint Leo IX was French before he was Pope; he was bishop of Toul, as I had the honour of being myself, eight centuries after him. This is what he wrote to two bishops of Africa who were his contemporaries, as if through prophetic inspiration which was to be fulfilled in our time:
« It is beyond doubt that the first archbishop and the great Metropolitan of the whole of Africa, after the Roman Pontiff, is the bishop of Carthage. The holder of this title cannot therefore be divested of this privilege that he has received from the Holy Apostolic Roman See in favour of any bishop of Africa whatsoever. He will keep it till the end of time and as long as the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ is invoked in Africa, whether Carthage should lie abandoned or should rise again one day in her glory. This is shown most clearly by the texts of the Council of Blessed Cyprian, as by those of the Councils of Aurelius, and of all the Councils of Africa, and even more decisively by the decrees of our venerable predecessors, the Roman Pontiffs.”
Now, I repeat this, it is a French bishop, the successor of Saint Leo IX on the same episcopal see of France, who is coming to the cathedral of Algiers to receive from the Holy See, by the hands of His Excellency the Archbishop of Damascus, the insignia of this glorious resurrection and the privileges which are to endure until the end of time.
To give this ceremony the degree of solemnity which corresponds to such memories, I wished to take advantage of the presence in Algiers of their Excellencies Mg Combes, the bishop of Hippo and Constantine, and Gaussail, bishop of Oran , who have informed me that they will be arriving shortly, as also that of Mgr Livinhac, bishop of Pacando, Apostolic Vicar of the Great Lake Nyanza in Equatorial Africa, a member of the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers. These three venerable prelates, as also the Reverend Father Abbot of the Trappist monastery of Staouéli , will assist Mgr Dusserre in the conferring of the pallium.
The ceremony will start sharply at 9.30. It will be followed by a pontifical High Mass which I shall celebrate myself, and by the Papal Blessing given by all the prelates to which is attached a plenary indulgence.
Pleased be so kind as to read this letter to your parishioners and encourage them to attend these services. To make it possible for you to attend yourself, on that day you will replace the High Mass that is celebrated every Sunday in your church with a Low Mass.
I remain, Reverend Father, yours most devotedly in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda Fide regarding the territory of the new Archdiocese of Carthage (17 February 1885)
Algiers
Eminence,
It was only yesterday that I received your Eminence’s letter, dated 17 January, regarding the rescript which is to give a definite decision regarding the limits of the new Archdiocese of Carthage. Your Eminence has kindly requested from me indications which will be useful in drawing up this rescript. These indications can be summed up in a single sentence in which everything else is, without any possible doubt, completely and clearly contained:
The territory to be accorded to the Archdiocese of Carthage, recently erected by His Holiness, is purely and simply that of the present Apostolic Vicariate of Tunis, as it exists and acts. Now this Vicariate comprises exactly the entire kingdom of Tunis, having the same limits as this kingdom.
The pontifical rescript should therefore limit itself to suppressing the Apostolic Vicariate of Tunis and transferring its territory, together with the clergy, the faithful, the institutes and all the elements of which it is composed, to the Archdiocese of Carthage.
I would add simply that, with regard to the future, it would be useful to mention, as has already been done in the Bull Materna Ecclesiae caritas, the right expressly reserved to the Holy See of later dividing such a vast territory in order to erect separate dioceses. That, Eminence, is all it seems to me useful and necessary to say regarding the rescript in question.
Please accept, your Eminence, as I humbly kiss your hands, the respects of your most humble and obedient servant in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. I request of your Eminence kindly to give the necessary instructions so that the letters of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide addressed to me as Archbishop of Carthage, mention after the name Carthagine that of Tunisia, otherwise they are sent to Carthagena, in Spain, and they reach me only after a month.
Report of Cardinal Lavigerie to the Work of the Propagation of the Faith (22 February 1885)
Algiers,
Dear Sirs,
I have taken up once again for the time being the administration of the diocese of Algiers. Consequently this year I myself am addressing to you our report and our requests. I came to Algiers to settle certain matters which remained in suspense. I took the opportunity to hold a diocesan synod and to learn from my venerable Coadjutor and from the clergy the situation they are in.
You, Sirs, are already partly aware of this situation through the public debates in parliament and through the reports in the press. It is so serious that I considered it my duty to gather in Algiers their lordships, the bishops of Constantine and Oran, together with the Archbishop of Damascus . Because of the present circumstances we did not wish to convoke a Provincial Council with all the solemnity that would have entailed, but we nevertheless arrived at common resolutions when faced with a future that is so menacing for us.
After deliberation we decided to send to Paris Mgr Combes and Mgr Gaussail bearing a note addressed to the public authorities and signed by all the bishops. You will find enclosed [a copy] of this note. I make bold to request of you to read this note attentively. More than anything else, in fact, it will show you in what state we find ourselves, and above all the state of the Cardinal Archbishop of Algiers.
Our venerable delegates have met successively with the President of the Republic, the President of the Council of Ministers [Prime Minister], the Minister and the Director of Religious Affairs, the President and the Rapporteur of the commission for the budget in the Senate. It is true to say that they received kind words. But what will these lead to? Probably nothing, apart from the fact that we shall have carried out an imperative duty of conscience. After having read this note, Gentlemen, you will remain convinced that the diocese of Algiers, henceforth deprived of the resources that were coming from the State for its most vital institutions and for part of its clergy , finds itself absolutely incapable of supporting its missionary endeavours about which alone I wish to speak in this report.
These endeavours, however, are numerous and very interesting. You know of them already from the reports I have sent in previous years, and it is useless for me to write extensively on each one. Nevertheless, some deserve special mention.
For instance, we have in the Attafs, in the Chelif, valley a hospital which I created nine years ago, exclusively for the indigenous population, both men and women. The mere construction and outfitting, together with the different additions and improvements that have been carried out, have cost about two hundred thousand francs. We have sixty beds which are almost constantly occupied. Apart from the Arabs who remain hospitalized because they are seriously ill, there is a much larger number of others who come as day patients. Moreover this institute is the centre of a real mission carried out exclusively by the Sisters who serve in it, and who go out several times a week to the tribes in the region, up to 10, 12, 15 and even 20 kilometres distance away; they go two by two, mounted on donkeys if the journey is long, or on foot if it is shorter.
We have there sixteen Sisters of the Mission who are entirely in our charge. They are doing there an inestimable work. It is not rare to see indigenous people, men or women, in our hospital ask for baptism at the moment of death. Only yesterday I met with the superior who gave me most moving details in this regard. We have two small rooms, distinct from the others, where the neophytes are placed after their baptism. In the tribes where the Sisters go the scene is no less instructive. Among these holy young women there are two Arabs who are almost of the same region; the tattoos on their faces make them easily recognizable. This causes discussions with the Muslims], particularly with the women who blame them for having abandoned their religion. Then these good Sisters, whose faith and courage are admirable, take up the discussion in their turn; they show these women who they really are and ask them if it is possible that God does not love them more as they are at present. At first the Arabs respond, but in a short while they grow silent, convinced by the evidence, and they end up saying: yes, you are right.
We nevertheless keep quiet about these admirable results in the present circumstances in order not to call down persecution on such an institution, and to avoid the closure of this hospital which is a private hospital . Consequently we cannot obtain in this respect the aid that the faithful of France would perhaps send us if they knew exactly what is being done. I say this to you, Gentlemen, while adding that the extreme difficulty in which the diocesan administration of Algiers finds itself will not allow it to cover its expenses, unless you come generously to its aid. Calculate what is needed to maintain sixteen Sisters; to provide medicine and food for so many sick people; to be able to go and visit the tribes. The annual cost amounts to nearly forty thousand francs, and this only thanks to marvelous measures of economy.
For our Arab villages we have been forced to open a new establishment. Our families have multiplied, thanks be to God, and the number of children has increased considerably. It is not rare to count four, five, or even six, per household. We have created schools in these villages. For the smaller children these schools are run by Sisters. For the boys who are beginning to grow up Sisters were no longer sufficient. After much hesitation, because of the difficulty of the times, we created a special college, small [in size], for the most intelligent among these children. These, although Arabs, are born Catholics, and thus they give hope for the future. We believed we owed them this great sacrifice, for which a special house was needed, and specially chosen Fathers. These are consequently great expenses.
In the junior seminary of Saint-Eugène, which belongs to the diocese of Algiers, the apostolic school continues. This school, at present, has one hundred and seven boys or youngsters, destined exclusively for the missions. The boys destined for the diocese are in a special section at Kouba. For the establishment of Saint-Eugène it is I myself who am obliged to bear all the expenses. The State long ago decided to cut off [its aid]. I am therefore responsible for huge costs. Simply on a calculation of 400 francs per student, the sum comes to over 40,000 francs.
I can say the same with regard to the institute of philosophy at Our Lady of Africa which is also destined exclusively for the mission, although it has been founded in an establishment belonging to the diocese. The sisters’ novitiate at la Bouzaréah is also in a house belonging to the diocese for which the Sisters are unable to pay the rent. This is a new expense. In Kouba, in the Saint-Charles orphanage, we have our poor Arab girls who are incurably sick. You know about the novitiates of the Fathers and Brothers established at Maison-Carrée. I only mention them so that they are not forgotten.
After this account [of our needs], allow me, Gentlemen, to observe that you treat the diocese of Algiers with a severity which I find inexplicable. Apart from Kabylia and the Sahara and the undertakings related [to these territories], and the subsidies in which it has absolutely no share, the diocese has, as you have been able to see, numerous important undertakings. These undertakings are enormously costly for the diocese and yet your allocations to it amount to almost nothing, for what is the sum of ten thousand francs, the amount that you granted last year? I do not wish to do harm to the dioceses of Oran and Constantine, but it is well known that, since the death of Mgr Callot, the diocese of Oran has absolutely no missionary undertaking. The clergy [of the diocese] are even opposed to this sort of undertaking which they do not understand. Yet you grant to this diocese more than 15,000 francs, while you give almost nothing to the diocese of Algiers . The diocese of Constantine is, it is true, in a different situation; its clergy, encouraged by its bishops, has always been favourable to missionary activity. But, as regards undertakings, it has only one post of our own missionaries, in Kabylia, and one priest, whose zeal is truly admirable, in Tebessa. Yet you give to the diocese of Constantine 20,000 francs while you give only 10000 to the diocese of Algiers.
Maintain your allocations to these two dioceses; but for the love of God have pity on us in Algiers, otherwise our undertakings are going to sink [into oblivion]. To mention only our native hospital and the apostolic school of Saint-Eugène, we spend [on them] nearly 100,000 francs. And how many missionary undertakings are there apart from these! Where do you wish me to obtain such a sum? As you have read in my note to the government: for myself, for my coadjutor and for my auxiliary I receive no more than 15,000 francs instead of the 30,000 that I used to receive ten years ago while I was simply the Archbishop of Algiers.
I ask of you, Gentlemen, to revise your vote of last year, and to grant us at least 25,000 francs for the diocese of Algiers. Otherwise you will astonish everyone, above all in Africa where these things are well known.
I could enter into much greater detail, but the occupations which weigh down on me leave me no time. It is naturally always to my coadjutor, Mgr Dusserre, that your allocations are to be sent. I involve myself in this only to expose to you the truth of the matter and to uphold the rights of justice, hoping that my word will have all the more effect as it is personally disinterested.
Please accept, Gentlemen, the expression of my sentiments which I have the honour to address to you as your most humble and devoted servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Algiers
Report of Cardinal Lavigerie to the Work of the Propagation of the Faith on the development of the mission at Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem (22 February 1885)
Algiers
Report to the Presidents and Members of the Council of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith, on the mission of Saint Anne’s in Jerusalem
Dear Sirs,
Our house at Saint Anne in Jerusalem continues to develop, keeping to the path in which it has been engaged from the beginning onwards. The number of students has increased by ten since last year. While taking into account the obstacles that naturally arise in the first [stages of] education of these children, they generally give us true satisfaction.
We would wish to increase their number further. For this, however, it would be necessary to build, and you will easily understand, considering the sum of our undertakings, that we do not have the resources for such a project. Nevertheless we wish this year to make a sacrifice in order to achieve the definite acquisition of two new sanctuaries which still belong to us only partly.
The first of these is the Credo, on the summit of the Mount of Olives, next to the sanctuary of the Pater already occupied by the Carmelite Sisters. This sanctuary, as you are doubtless aware, belonged to Princess de la Tour d’Auvergne. This Lady, wishing to dispose of it, offered it to us, and I did not think that I could refuse the offer, because of the proximity of the site to Saint Anne’s, in spite of the costs this will involve. We possess, however only part of the land which surrounds the ruins of the precious sanctuary, built on the very place where, according to tradition, the Apostles composed and recited for the first time the creed which bears their name. Now the Jewish community in Jerusalem has cast its eyes on this land and wishes to buy it from the Muslim owner. You will understand that to have such a neighbour would, to my mind, be quite unseemly. I have therefore given orders to make contact with the owner in order to persuade him to give preference to us. I shall buy [the land] if we have the necessary resources, and we shall have them if you are willing to give them to us.
A second acquisition would be no less advisable. Right next to the church of Saint Anne is to be found the ancient Probatic Pool upon which a church was built during the Middle Ages. We are already in possession of a part of this sanctuary to which the Holy See has for many centuries attached indulgences; another part of it, however, lies within the buildings of a Greek house which, consequently, we should buy in order to acquire the whole of the sanctuary. The price is rather high, but the advantage of becoming the owner of the entire sanctuary is very great; this is so because of the invasive tendency of the Greeks who could, some day, use the position of this house occupied by one of their own community as a pretext to lay claim to the whole property. Here again we would need help.
Finally, Gentlemen, I must tell you confidentially that connected with our house of Saint Anne in Jerusalem, which has been created exclusively to bring about reconciliation with the Byzantines, there is an idea of the Holy See which is beginning to show itself everywhere. You yourselves have published, in your Missions Catholiques, correspondence from Constantinople which shows that steps have already been taken which a few years ago would have been quite unexpected. This comes as a result of the very wise and very adroit policy of Pope Leo XIII who has openly broken with disastrous errors [of the past]. Instead of latinizing the Orientals, he wants us [to help them] to preserve their legitimate usages, all their centuries-old rights. He thinks, quite rightly, that charity obliges us to render ourselves similar to them in all that does not consist of error or evil, in order in this way to win over their hearts.
With this stimulus everything would seem to be preparing in the Orient for changes which, doubtless, are not for the near future, but which we must try to hasten through our prayers and our efforts. A political motivation is today added to all the others to increase our hopes. The unceasing progress of Russia and its evident ambition to gain control of the Greek world is provoking fear in the schismatic patriarch of Constantinople and the bishops who are under him . They are beginning to feel that coming under the yoke of the Czar, if they remain in their schism, would mean losing even their religious autonomy. The Holy Synod would absorb them, under the presidency of the general who is the Director of Religious Affairs, as has been absorbed already the authority of the bishops in Russia. They have only one way of escaping such absorption, and that is to renounce their errors and to return to the fold of the Catholic Church, as long as this assures them that they can retain their ancient privileges .
These seedlings of resurrection must be closely studied and cultivated. This is why, now that my work in Tunisia has received the seal of approval of the Holy See and for a time can do without my presence, in the coming year I propose to make another journey to Jerusalem and Syria. The Holy Father himself expressed his desire [that I should do this]. Everything depends on circumstances in France and elsewhere, for the horizons ahead of us are dark.
If I do leave, I shall be bold enough to address myself to you once more for this journey; it would indeed be difficult if the first Cardinal to set foot in the Orient since the Crusades were to arrive empty-handed.
This is all I wish to say to you today, Gentlemen. It is enough and even more than enough, I am sure, to arouse your interest and increase your generosity, if that is possible.
With these sentiments I remain you most humble and grateful servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Apostolic Delegate
for the work of Saint Anne in Jerusalem
Two messages to Propaganda Fide on the next two caravans leaving for the Congo by way of the Atlantic Ocean (24 February 1885)
Algiers
Report to the Presidents and Members of the Council of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith on the two missions in Upper Congo
Dear Sirs,
I shall start by summarising in a few words the events about which you have doubtless been informed already by the newspapers and the specialised journals dealing with these regions, mainly in Germany and Belgium . You are aware, Gentlemen, that after having made two successive journeys of exploration, one from Zanzibar to Tanganyka and the other down the river Congo from its source to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean, Stanley undertook a third [journey]. This, unlike the previous journeys, was no longer of a purely scientific and geographical character. It was a truly political mission, subsidized by the King of the Belgians.
This royal figure had granted me a personal conversation a little more than three years ago when I had the honour of meeting him in Brussels. It is true to say that he was still hiding the true nature of his business though he was no longer hiding his direct action. He said that he was only following a higher inspiration: “When I die I wish to be able to present to God some good work which will merit his mercy, and this is what I have undertaken with that in view.” These were the words with which he ended and summed up one of our conversations.
The money spent by him for this purpose has been considerable. It amounts on average to two million per year, something that stirred up greatly the bad temper of the Queen and part of the royal entourage. This meant that those who were suspected of nourishing the King’s passion for Africa were ordinarily badly received. Despite this opposition from within, King Leopold held firm. He has hired Stanley, putting at his disposition not only considerable material resources but also a large personnel chosen mainly from within the Belgian army.
Let us add confidentially that while Stanley and the officers he used to establish his posts were enterprising and courageous men, they did not have religious and moral qualities to the same degree. Stanley is literally capable of anything, including assassination, and his companions are generally free-thinkers . However, that may be, thanks to their audacity they have succeeded perfectly in the last undertaking. Leaving from the mouth of the Congo, they have ascended this river step by step. On its banks, and especially on the left bank, they have established numerous posts, in each one of which there is as it were a small garrison, with a Belgian officer in command and a certain number of men, Europeans or Negros from Zanzibar. Two thirds of the Congo is thus occupied.
While Stanley, in the pay of the King of the Belgians, was carrying out this truly remarkable work of invasion and occupation, another adventurer, of Italian origin but a naturalized Frenchman, Mr de Brazza , with the financial support of France and on its behalf, was active in the same region, but on the right bank of the Congo, whereas Stanley and the Belgians were operating on the left bank.
With much less financial aid and less support than Stanley, Brazza is far from having personally achieved what Stanley has done on behalf of the King of the Belgians. Moreover Portugal, which has historic claims to the mouth of the Congo and to a part of Equatorial Africa, but which, for a long time now, had no thought of insisting on its rights, has begun to make loud claims to them once it saw that other nations appeared to wish to establish themselves there. Finally, Germany, attentive to all this movement, did not wish to let it take place without sharing in it itself. At the end of last Summer it therefore entrusted to its consul general in Tunis, Mr Nachtigal, the mission to plant its flag on all the land left vacant on the coast in these regions. This rivalry provides an explanation, Gentlemen, for that which does not seem to have been understood in Europe, namely the need for an international congress in order to fix the limits of occupation of each of the interested Powers. This is what has just taken place at the Berlin Conference.
I shall not concern myself here with the question of the coast since the territory of our missions begins only at 400 km from the sea in the interior of the land. In so far as it concerns us, the decisions of the Berlin Conference have just decided that Belgium, supported by Germany and by England, or, to use other terms, the International African Association , should retain all the territories situated on the left bank of the Congo, and France would exercise a Protectorate over those situated on the right bank. As you probably do not have in your possession a recent map of this part of Equatorial Africa, in order that you may understand well what I have explained in a few words, I am enclosing the latest map published in Belgium, taking care to indicate with a red pencil the limits of the Belgian possessions and with a blue pencil the limits of the French possessions.
Letter sent to the Council of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith
Dear Sirs,
Mgr Livinhac and Mgr Charbonnier have taken the responsibility of sending to you, before they leave for their missions, a report on the Apostolic Vicariates of Nyanza and Tanganyka. These reports will reach you with this same post.
I myself wish to speak to you about our two missions [in the region] of the Upper Congo, both South and North, and about the resolutions which we are forced to take by the events that are occurring with regard to Equatorial Africa. I shall start by summarizing in a few words the events that you will already have learned about from the public broadsheets and the specialized journals that are concerned with these regions, principally in Germany and in Belgium .
(…) After this strictly geographical and political preamble, I come to the question of our missions. As you surely remember, Gentlemen, it is at the very sources of this river, close to Tanganyka, that we have started our mission in the Upper Congo. Referend Father Guillet, as I mentioned to you in my letter of December last, had received the order to ascend this river and to establish himself in the Manyema in the vicinity of Nyangoue. From there our missionaries were supposed to descend little by little downstream, following exactly the opposite route from that of Stanley who went upstream to found his posts, whereas we wished to descend the river to found ours. But what has just happened in Berlin and the great activity that is already becoming visible and which will increase yet more in the regions allotted to Belgium and France impose on us a sudden change of plans. In fact Protestant missionaries, always on the look-out and moreover favoured by Stanley, himself a Protestant, are beginning to establish themselves in this region. It is therefore indispensable that our missionaries show up at the same time as these and, if possible, get themselves established before them.
This is what we tried to do already, three years ago, through the work of Father Guyot and of Father Baudounet. These two priests were given the task of undertaking a journey of exploration in order to determine the points where it would be preferable to found our first missions, from the point of view of the possibility of creating relations as also from that of population density which are necessary conditions for a fruitful mission. You know how this initiative met with a sad end. Fr Guyot died, drowning in the waters of the Congo, and everything would lead us to believe that his death was the result of an atrocious ploy . Fr Baudounet, who was prone to suffer from serious fever, returned to Algiers.
With Fr Guyot disappeared all his belongings: money, trinkets (pacotille) , provisions, papers, without our finding any trace of them. This is what made us decide, after such a terrible trial, to begin the mission from the opposite direction. So this is how we established the mission of Manyema. Today, however, necessity commands and necessity knows no law. The Council of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers has therefore just decided that two new caravans will leave, going by way of the Atlantic Ocean. One of these caravans is destined for the mission of southern Upper Congo, in other words the territory allotted to the Belgians by the Berlin Congress, while the second is destined for northern Upper Congo, in the territory which the same Congress has placed under the protectorate of France . These two caravans are to ascend the river to a point midway between Stanley-Pool and Falls Station, that is, about 1400 kilometres from the ocean coast.
It is in April that these two caravans should set out. The personnel has already been designated. This however will depend on the decision that you are going to make, and which I am at this moment soliciting from you. We would really need to be able to send twelve missionaries. In order to finance the journey and a first post at least a hundred thousand francs would be necessary. Can you grant this sum to cover the expenses of the journey? If you cannot do this, we shall be obliged to reduce our effort in proportion to the reduction of the figures of the subsidy requested.
We are sufficiently aware of the interest that you bear for the missions, and for ours in particular, to realise that, in such an exceptional situation, you will do everything you can possibly do. Therefore I shall insist no further. I shall limit myself to repeating that what I am soliciting is a subsidy for the travelling expenses. As regards the annual allocation due for 1885 I have no need to add anything. This must now be at least equal to that which you grant for the Apostolic Vicariate of Nyanza and for that of Tanganyika which unfortunately are already insufficient.
Please accept, Gentlemen, the expression of my sentiments which I have the honour to address to you as your most humble and devoted servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Telegram addressed to Father Bresson, in Belgium, regarding the mission of Karema (1 March 1885)
Algiers, 1 March 1885. Father Charmetant requests of us from Paris a service in the name of [the] International Association to occupy temporarily the post of Karema on [Lake] Tanganyka. Although inconvenient to us because of the small number of members in the vicinity, we should not refuse anything to His Majesty the King of the Belgians. Inform immediately [the] secretary International Association of this and request precise instructions. Lavigerie
Relations between the Society and the missionaries appointed Apostolic Vicars (13 March 1885)
Algiers,
Rules concerning the relations of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa of Algiers with the Apostolic Vicariates entrusted to it by the Holy See
Following the example of Congregations made responsible to serve, in the Missions, the Apostolic Vicariates, in the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers the following rules will be observed:
I – The Society of Missionaries, and in its name its Superior General and his Council remain always collectively responsible for the missions or Apostolic Vicariates entrusted to the Society by the Holy See.
II – Consequently it is the Society which proposes to the Sovereign Pontiff [the names of] those missionaries it deems most capable of fulfilling the important roles of Apostolic Vicars, taking care to provide on each one the information necessary for the Holy See to be sufficiently enlightened.
III- Once he has been appointed by the Holy See, following the request of the Council of the Society, the new Apostolic Vicar possesses alone in his Vicariate spiritual jurisdiction. He also has [responsibility for] its material administration. But every year he must give an account of this administration to the superiors of the Society so that they may size up the needs of each mission and share out equitably the resources at the disposition of the Society.
IV – The Apostolic Vicars, apart from the powers of jurisdiction that they receive from the Holy See, receive from the Council of the Society special powers for the government of the missionaries, in their capacity as Superiors [of the Mission].
V – The Superiors of the Society appoint those who are to go to each mission, according to the requests made to them by the Apostolic Vicars, insofar as these requests appear to be well-grounded and according to the possibilities to respond to them.
Once they have been appointed and once they have arrived in the Vicariate to which they have been designated, they become subject to the bishop in all that concerns sacred ministry and the institutions pertaining to the Vicariate. They are also under the jurisdiction of the same person in his capacity as a member of the Society and local superior. They always retain however with the Major Superiors the same relations in all that concerns religious life, especially the obligation to send them, at the prescribed times, the regular letters. The same obligation is incumbent on the Apostolic Vicars in their capacity as local superiors. In particular every three months they must send a report on the conduct of the missionaries. On this occasion they are to propose the changes they deem necessary, and to which they are always able to give provisional effect in cases of emergency. They are not allowed to let anything on the missions of the Society be published, or to publish it themselves, without having communicated beforehand with the Council and without the Council’s approval.
VI - The Apostolic Vicar has at his disposal and under his responsibility all the finances allocated to his Vicariate whether by the Work of Propaganda or by the Council of the Society. Nevertheless it is the Procurator General of the Society who receives the finances destined for each Apostolic Vicariate when these have not been requested by the Apostolic Vicars in person or by one of their missionaries. The Procurator General is authorized to subtract a sixth [of this sum] for the general treasury of the Society, for the general purposes of the Society, and in particular for the formation of its members, and later for the upkeep of elderly missionaries.
That [i.e. the funding] for which the Apostolic Vicars appeal and which they receive directly form the faithful is not subject to this subtraction. They must, however, notify the Council of everything they have received in such a way that the Council, as has been said above, can make an equitable estimate regarding the needs of each.
VII – The Council of the Society always remains free to withdraw members placed in the Apostolic Vicariates, when they think that this is in the interests of these members or of the work [of the Society]. For their part, the Apostolic Vicars have the right to demand the replacement of the members whose continued presence, they believe, would be dangerous for the work entrusted to them. It goes without saying that it is always legitimate for them to impose ecclesiastical censures, in conformity with canon law, on those who would unfortunately put themselves in the way of meriting such [censures].
VIII – If, God forbid, the Apostolic Vicar himself should become unworthy of his lofty mission, of if he were to be notoriously incapable of fulfilling it because of physical or intellectual infirmities, it would belong to the Council to bring about his replacement by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide through proposing to it a missionary capable of fulfilling this difficult role.
IX - In the Chapters and Councils of the Society the Apostolic Vicars have the same rights as the other Superiors of the mission, except in so far as their election as Superior General or Assistant is concerned. In this matter they have to submit to the will of the Holy See. They are therefore convoked to these assemblies. When they participate in them, they take their place, according to the seniority of their episcopal ordination, immediately after the Superior General.
X – The habit of the Apostolic Vicars will remain the same as that of the other missionaries of the Society, as regards [the quality of] the cloth and its colour, conforming to the place in which they will live. As distinctive marks of their rank they will wear also the skull-cap and purple socks, the ring and pectoral cross, and the green tassels on the hat. It is nevertheless permissible for them, to reconcile humility and missionary poverty with outward decorum, to wear a black overcoat and remove their marks of office in order to hide their rank.
Note for the press about the departure of the next caravan for Equatorial Africa (30 March 1885)
The following information has reached us from Algiers:
Next Sunday, Easter Sunday, there is to take place in the cathedral of Algiers the moving ceremony of farewell to numerous Missionaries of Algiers who will be leaving for Equatorial Africa on the next boat. His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie, founder and Superior of the Missionaries of Algiers, has recently decided to send sixteen members of the Society to the different missions which he has founded in the interior [of Africa].
At the head of these intrepid apostles is Mgr Livinhac, bishop of Pacando, who is returning to his Apostolic Vicariate of Nyanza after having received episcopal ordination at the hands of his Eminence. Mgr Charbonnier, recently appointed, following the proposition of the Archbishop of Algiers, Pro-Vicar of the Apostolic Vicariate of Tanganyka, Reverend Father Chupin, superior of the mission of South Upper Congo and Reverend Father Dupont, superior of the mission of North Upper Congo, (…)
Monsignor Livinhac will preside the pontifical vespers in the cathedral after which the Itinerarium will be chanted. During these prayers the departing missionaries will come one by one to receive the blessing of the Cardinal who, followed by the clergy and the faithful will kiss their feet . Father Bayol, of the Order of Preachers, the preacher of the cathedral, will deliver the usual allocution.
Let us say on this occasion that the missions in Africa entrusted to the Missionaries of Algiers have not ceased to progress in a manner which gives great consolation. The number of stations occupied by the Fathers on the shores of Lake Tanganyka were already four and, at the request of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, they have taken charge of Karema and Mpala which, up to now, had been occupied by explorers belonging to this nation.
The Vicariate of Nyanza, over and above the “procure” of Zanzibar, includes the station of Tabora, that of Bukuni in the land of Misamba, [and that] of Our Lady of Kamogo on the shores of the Lake. The six new missionaries who, at this time, are leaving for the Equator will settle in Uganda where the new king, Mwanaga, has always shown great kindness to Mgr Livinhac who even instructed him on the truths of Christianity.
It is well known that the mission in the Congo has cruelly suffered from the death or departure on account of serious illness of the first priests sent from Algiers. But, since then, Reverend Father Guillet has been given the mission of establishing a post in the Manyema, on the banks of this river, and the departing missionaries will found new stations, either in this new Belgian territory, on in the part reserved to France.
Parallel to the constant development of its missions in the African interior, the Society of Missionaries of Algiers continues to increase its establishments in the North. It has now a station in Ghardaia, in the Mzab [region], and it is broadening its [circle of] relations in Tunisia. Finally, in Belgium, a new novitiate has been set up in Woluwé-Saint-Lambert, near Brussels.
Such vitality, and the work accomplished already by these missionaries, as well as the numerous martyrs, arouse the admiration of all who are aware of the difficulties which this work entails. Consequently, despite the anti-religious spirit of a part of the Algerian population, the Fathers are respected by all. There is no doubt that during Sunday’s ceremony, as on the occasion of previous departures, they will receive great marks of sympathy.
Letter to Father Francisque Deguerry, General Assistant, residing in Jerusalem (end of March 1885)
Algiers
My dear friend,
It is a true saying that in this world there is nothing like mad sheep. A real madness has taken hold of you leading you to let this house in such a hurry without even consulting me beforehand. If you had consulted me I would have asked you to postpone the transaction. The reason for this is that rumours of an outbreak of cholera have started to spread in France, and although these rumours have been denied, the belief is that there is never some smoke without fire. Now if cholera breaks out in Europe it will be impossible for me to think of going to Syria this year.
Moreover political events in France are reaching a critical pitch. By the time you receive this letter you will know already that the Houses have once more massacred the budget allocated for religious affairs and especially that for Algeria. You will know also that the Chamber [of Deputies] has voted its approval for the list of candidates and will probably be followed in this by the Senate. It might therefore be necessary for me to be present at the time of the elections. When these will take place is still too early to say. Because of all this it is impossible for me to say if I will go to Jerusalem this year, and if so, at which period of the year. So I was very surprised that you were in such a hurry; but now the deed is done, and “deed done counsel taken”
I see from the telegram you sent this morning, concerning the land, that you are no less in a hurry to buy as to lease. Yet the price of this (piece of) land is exorbitant. If it is true, as Fr Hirth has written to me, that it measures only half a hectare [roughly 1.2 acres], why when indicating the price in your telegram did you not also indicate the size [of the land]? Yet once again, “deed done counsel taken”, since I gave you an affirmative reply. Despite my repugnance for the houses at Saint Anne’s, for the moment I do not wish to buy them simply in order to set off the façade.
I spoke to you about a house which occupies a part of the site of the Probatic (Pool); that is the only one that is of any importance for us. With regard to the plots of land outside the Jaffa Gate which would be for sale, I would ask you to take more time to study the question seriously. There is no hurry. I am very astonished to see how our roles have changed, yours and mine. Usually I would complain about the interminable time it took you [to take decisions] and I always had to push you. Today you are going posthaste. It must be the nip in the air of Jerusalem which is acting upon you. My hearty congratulations.
With regard to property, this is what I would like. I have to invest some money in order to finance [the provision of] canons in Carthage, following a project published in the letter of Les Ecoles d’Orient and that of Sainte-Monique. I had thought of investing this money in Malta with a return of at least 5%, but according to what I have been told by Fr Roger, who has replaced Fr Chupin, houses on this island produce only 2 or 3%. It is therefore not worthwhile to think of this plan. I would willingly buy in Jerusalem or in the Holy Land property as an investment, provided that such properties would give an income and not just an increase in value . The higher the income, naturally the better it would be; in any case it should not fall below 6% on account of the expenses involved in transferring money etc. Find out some information on the possibility of such investments in real property only. For the rest it does not matter what sort of real property is envisaged as long as the income it provides is sure.
As I mentioned in my telegram, the financial transactions are to be carried out in Tunis, making sure to warn beforehand by letter Mr Tournier. I don’t want to have any underhand financial dealings in Algiers where I am not satisfied with the secretariat at Archbishop’s House. In accordance with your desire which you expressed so strongly, I have led the Council to decide to send someone to Jerusalem, despite the penury of personnel. The person designated is a Breton, Fr Ménoret, who consequently will be well-placed at St Anne’s.
You will find enclosed the letter of a Greek [Catholic] priest who is a teacher in your house. Do not tell him that I have sent it to you, but make use of it in directing your confreres. I recommend that you always inculcate in them leniency and charity towards these poor Orientals. Make them ashamed of their feelings. Remind them of all that the Holy Father is undertaking at the moment for the success of this cause. It is painful for me to learn here that these feelings of aversion for Saint Anne’s are spreading in the Society. They doubtless find their source in the present or former teachers. Only Fr Roger keeps firm in his former enthusiasm. Consequently, I am inclined to send him as superior the day when you yourself will have to leave Jerusalem.
This month we held a Chapter for the election of two substitutes, for yourself and for Fr Charmetant. I requested that they should be chosen from [among the confreres in] Tunisia. Fathers Mercui and Dausburg were appointed, instead of Fr Toulotte who had obtained the majority of votes but whom I excluded . With regard to the details discussed by the Chapter, Mgr Livinhac and Fr Charbonnier acted almost as badly as was possible, and others imitated them .
My health suffers from ups and downs. Even a little thing tires me and everything plays on my nerves. You were right in predicting that I would no longer have joy without suffering. But everything for the Will of God. Si bona de manu Domini accepimus, mala quare non accipiamus ?
Farewell, my dear Child. Transmit the expressions of my fond friendship to all your confreres and receive them yourself.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. A few days after your departure from Tunis Brother Laurent was arrested by the police in my very own house for disobedience. The police had originally come to Saint-Louis, but there it had been arranged as I had foreseen that they should come to La Marsa. We succeeded in having the Brother released and I hope that the chief of police before whom he is to be arraigned will acquit him.
Letter to the Missionary Sisters regarding a return to their Primary Vocation (6 April 1885)
Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie
by the mercy of God
and by the grace of the Holy See
Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church,
with the title of Saint Agnes-Outside-the-Walls
Archbishop of Carthage and of Tunisia.
To our dearest Daughters, religious belonging to the community of the Missions of Africa and of Algiers, greetings and blessings in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dearest Daughters,
For a long time the situation of your community has given us concern. The numerous difficulties arising from the new laws regarding public education are preventing the community from developing its activity in a fitting way. Moreover, the successive changes which have taken place in your Society, due to circumstances which are well known to you, have not produced favourable results.
It is not necessary to go into details on the serious inconvenience that has followed, but the various considerations just mentioned have led us to carry out something which has been in our thoughts for a long time. It is in fact evident to us that in causing you to abandon the prime aim of your Congregation through making you adopt new rules, instead of those which you followed originally as Sisters of the Venerable Geronimo, you have been placed in a situation in which you could not carry out the good work for which you had been founded.
Consequently, my dearest daughters, we have come to the resolution that you should return purely and simply to the observation of your first Rule, that according to which you pronounced your vows. It is true that there are some among you who entered your Society after the adoption of the new Rule. For these, we are ready, in accordance with the law, to give them complete freedom. We therefore declare that, from this moment, we free from their religious obligations all those among you who so request, and that we shall facilitate the entry into a teaching Congregation those who have the necessary qualifications and the vocation for teaching.
For these reasons, and after having invoked the Holy Name of God, we have decided and do decree as follows:
Art. 1 – From 1 October next, the Sisters forming the Society of Religious Sisters of the Missions of Africa and of Algiers, will return purely and simply to the observance of the rules of the Congregation of the Agricultural and Hospital Sisters of Saint Geronimo, as approved by us and observed by the Sisters at the beginning of the Society.
Art. 2 – To allow them to fulfill the aim proposed by the Rule of the Geronimite Sisters, we shall transfer the centre and the Mother House of their Society to the Attafs, within the terrain that shall be donated to them for this purpose by the civil society of the agricultural orphanages.
Art. 3 – This community will provisionally have no novitiate, except for the novices and postulants who are already present and who wish to enter into the Congregation as it has been renewed.
Art. 4 – We give complete freedom, from now until 1 October, to the professed Sisters and to the postulants who so desire to enter into another religious Society, facilitating their admission.
Concluded in Algiers, under our seal, and with the sign of our coat of arms and the counter-seal of our secretary, Monday 6 April, the second day of Easter.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to Father Charmetant about a preaching programme in France (24 April 1885)
Marseilles,
My Dear Friend,
Your letter reached me yesterday, a few hours after my arrival. I shall be preaching here on Sunday at [the church of] Saint Joseph and my time is completely taken up preparing invitations, articles for the newspapers, etc. On Monday I shall be leaving for Lyon where I wish to be on 1 May. On the 2nd I shall leave for Paris. I am giving you the details of my journey so that you can take any necessary action. Your idea of making appeals in well-endowed parishes is excellent and I think it could be prolonged, as did Don Bosco two years ago, because of the month of May. But one must go solely to parishes that are rich and, because of my health, I can only say a few words after the preacher has delivered his sermon. The exception would be the Madeleine where I would preach myself. As for making the appeal myself, I shall try here this coming Sunday and see if it is too tiring for me .
For the time being it would be necessary to know if the parish priests of Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Sainte-Clotilde, Saint-Philippe, Saint-Augustin, Saint-Roch and La Trinité, as also of the other important parishes, and those who are to preach, will accept the combined operation that I am proposing . But I would not want more than ten parishes in all. I could not do more in a month without becoming completely exhausted. In order to fix the dates, it will be necessary to await my arrival.
As regards the subscription, it is necessary to maintain it by publishing in the newspapers everything that can attract attention, repeating all the time that this is to be done at 12 rue du Regard. People forget easily. I am in receipt of a letter from Fr Pidoux in which he tells me that he does not know where the subscription is done. He sends me 100 frs. I am sending you a telegram with my sermon; give it to the press. Send me by telegram the name of the church in Lyon in which it would be best to make an appeal and which would be most sympathetic towards our cause .
With heartfelt greetings, see you soon.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
A testimony on the preaching of the Cardinal in the church of Saint Joseph in Marseilles (26 April 1885)
HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL LAVIGERIE IN MARSEILLES
« On Sunday 26 April, despite the rain which transformed the streets of our city into torrents, the huge church of Saint Joseph, filled by the great number of Catholics who wished to see and listen to Cardinal Lavigerie, was the scene of one of the most beautiful spectacles that we have ever seen.
Two thrones had been disposed in the sanctuary, one for the Cardinal Archbishop of Carthage and Algiers, the other for the bishop of Marseilles . The prelates made a solemn entrance during the Magnificat; accompanying the Cardinal were Father Payan d’Augery , the vicar general, and Father Guiol, the parish priest of Saint Joseph’s; the bishop of Marseilles was assisted by Father Olive, the parish priest of the Très-Sainte-Trinité and Father Richaud, a canon adjunct. At the end of Vespers, sung by the choir of Saint Joseph’s, His Eminence mounted the pulpit.
We do not intend to give a [full] portrait of the venerable cardinal. Tall, with an air of prestige, with an open face on which his most paternal bounty shone out, at times mixed with a pinch of cunning (malice), his hair turned white more by his apostolic endeavours and the climate of Africa than on account of age, the cardinal red being used to great effect to give him a new majestic appearance, the orator, with his very first words, was able to captivate the large assembly gathered around the pulpit. He had come to speak of Africa on the very day when the Church celebrated the Feast of the Patronage of Saint Joseph:
“I hope, he said, that Saint Joseph and Marseilles will forgive me, for Africa has been in the past hospitable to Saint Joseph and has given to Marseilles, seven years ago, the best, the most worthy, the most learned and the holiest of its bishops. Here I shall stay away from politics. We are only seeking the Kingdom of Heaven. I am not going to deliver a discourse. Of what use is a discourse when things speak for themselves? The Catholic Church, because of the cuts made recently in the budget for religious affairs, is threatened with disappearance in North Africa. It is this that brings me here today in your midst and offers you this spectacle, which has its aspects of greatness and eloquence, of an old bishop, a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, stretching out his hand to the Catholics of France as a beggar.” One felt, by merely hearing him speak, that one was in the presence of “a man of action”, as Jules Simon has characterized the illustrious Archbishop of Algiers!
“Who can we count on to come to the aid of the needs of the Church of Africa? On the inhabitants of the colony? They are poor. In the first period of the conquest it was necessary to give them [help], and still today they are given land, roads, water systems, etc. There is only one thing that from the beginning was never dreamt of being given to them: God, [places of] worship, priests. It is the immense contempt of the Muslims for a people without religion that has brought the French government, ten years after the conquest, to re-establish the ancient Church of Africa. ‘You want me to commit myself to a treaty with you’, exclaimed Abd el-Kader, ‘but how can you commit yourselves to me, [since] you do not believe in God !’
Diplomacy that willingly neglects the things of heaven must necessarily come to terms with the things of earth. An appeal was therefore made to Gregory XVI , and a solemn treaty was concluded with the Sovereign Pontiff whereby France committed itself to maintain, in North Africa, worship, the clergy and Catholic activities. Later, in accordance with a second treaty, no less solemn than the first, Pius IX re-established the hierarchy in the Church of Africa, creating the archdiocese of Algiers and the two dioceses of Constantine and Oran. Finally, an act of Leo XIII, at the request of the French government, resurrected the ancient glories of the primatial [see] of Carthage .
“What do we ask for?” said the eminent prelate. “Only what is necessary, a roof for shelter, clothes to wear and daily bread. The allocations for Catholic worship in Algeria amounted to a little over 700,000 francs. This has been cut by 500,000. All subsidies for our seminaries will henceforth be refused. To recruit an Algerian clergy becomes impossible. It is a death sentence. I am here because I do not wish to die.
What is one going to say to me? That it is humiliating to beg? Ah! How sweet is this humiliation when one bears it for those one loves! No, these hands are not being dishonoured when they stretch out to you. Rather they are engaged in a holy work when they are providing bread for those children who are lacking everything; they will allow my Christians in Africa to be born, to live and to die with the blessing of the Church; above all, they will save France this supreme shame of destroying religion with its own hands, in a country where influence is almost entirely of a religious nature.”
The ruin of Catholic enterprises in the East, especially among Muslim populations, would entail at the same time the ruin of French power. Recalling these things a few years ago to those persons of the French government whom he declined to name, [he asked] what have they done today to keep their promises?
And what do these populations say, they who are so ardent and to whom atheism is a horror, barbarians though they may be, but who call us impious? They know only too well that we do not give our God the respect which is his due. They find no adequate way to express their astonishment when they see us attacking our own beliefs. What are they going to say when they discover the astonishing news that France no longer wishes to have Catholic worship in Algeria?
Without going to such extremes, is it permissible for us to forget that, in our African colony, Italians, Spaniards and Maltese are more numerous than us? Are we going to prevent them from having their priests? What then will become, after a short time, of our prestige and our necessary ascendancy?
When one considers, added the venerable Cardinal, that Algeria is but an open door to the immense Continent of Africa, the interior of which was unknown and which the pioneers of civilization are today penetrating from all sides, it is good to recall the Gesta Dei per Francos ? My children, the Missionaries of Algiers have remembered this. They are today in the Congo, on the Eastern coast of Lake Tanganyka. Everywhere they have been the first to arrive. Eleven have paid with their blood their heroism. Fifty others have been replaced. And this is the time that is chosen to destroy our undertakings!
If faith is lacking, patriotism would be sufficient to inspire the most generous resolutions. A few months ago, a serious illness brought about fear for the venerable Cardinal’s life. “My body is broken”, he cried, “but thanks be to God not my heart. If death were to surprise me in France, before I had the consolation to see again my Church in Africa, another will rise up who will avenge my souvenir in doing better than I can.” And with emotion in his voice, and in a sorrowful tone, though without any trace of bitterness, the eloquent prelate, in the name of God and of France, of the temporal fatherland and that of eternity , he asked the Catholics of Marseilles to give most generously for the admirable Algerian clergy and the works, more than ever necessary, of the Church being reborn in Africa.
We shall not try to convey the impression produced by this discourse on the huge assembly gathered in Saint Joseph’s. It was very deep. The campaign on which the Cardinal has embarked for the Catholic undertakings in Africa has started well. His Eminence himself takes the collection, the Catholics of Marseilles have responded generously to the appeal he made to them.
The Vicar General, Rev. Payan d’Augery presided over the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
Father J. B.
Letter to the parish priests of Paris on the collections for the Church in Africa (10 May 1885)
Paris,
Reverend Parish Priest,
You are aware of the sad reason which brings me to Paris. I come to try to save the existence of our most indispensable undertakings and [indeed] the existence of the French clergy in our [territory of] North Africa. I had the intention of coming myself to collect in those churches where the parish priests would allow me access to the pulpit, but having just recently recovered from illness, I see that my strength has been affected by the tiring journey [undertaken] in view of this collection. I must therefore limit myself to those parishes, three only, where my visit has already been announced. I have, however, brought with me two priests of my diocese of Algiers to replace me whenever necessary, and it is for one of them that I would ask you to authorize a collection in your church, one day during the month of May. He will deliver a short instruction, instead of the one designated to give the sermon or after him, according to what you judge most suitable, and then he can circulate among the ranks of the faithful.
Given the extremity to which we are reduced, I dare to count, Father, on your charitable help. I come from afar, but you will remember, I am sure, that I am a son of the diocese of Paris and consequently your brother twice over. Frater qui adjuvatur a fratre, civitas firma.
Thanking you in advance, I remain, Reverend Father, devotedly yours.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Algiers
Instructions to Fathers Dupont and Merlon regarding their departure for the Congo by way of the Atlantic Ocean (June 1885)
Paris,
Instructions for Fathers Dupont and Merlon charged with a journey to explore the Congo
Fathers Dupont and Merlon are given the task of exploring the banks of the Congo from Stanley-Pool to the Equator Station in order to find suitable places for two mission stations of their Society. In order to fulfil their mission they must follow the following instructions:
1) – Once they have arrived at the landing-stage of the steamship, they will hand over the letters of recommendation that they are carrying in order to receive all the information they need in a sure way
2) – They will take care not to burden themselves with too much luggage, carrying with them only what is necessary, once they have been informed of the help that they will be able to find at the stations of the International Society with which they will make sure that they have the best of relations .
3) – When they meet, as is desirable, the Holy Ghost Fathers, they will take care to maintain in their regard the maximum of secrecy, not saying to them anything superfluous, not speaking to them about their projects and, above all, not scandalizing them by acting like tourists or by their wastefulness, things which these Fathers have made use of in Zanzibar to attack our missions .
4) – In dealing with the Belgians it is Fr Merlon who should come forward and speak in his capacity as procurator, but he should do nothing and say nothing until he has received the approval of Fr Dupont whom he should obey as his superior. In dealing with the French it is Fr Dupont, in his capacity as superior, who will act.
5) - In choosing the place for the two stations the first concern must be the healthiness of the area, consequently choosing elevated terrain free from marshes. Then there should be a dense population of Blacks in the area, otherwise the apostolate would be impossible. Finally, it should be fairly near to a station of the International Society where provisions may be found.
6) - The two stations should not be on the same bank [of the river], but rather one in Belgian territory and the other in French territory . In so far as possible they should face one another across the river so that the missionaries can be of mutual support.
7) – In saying that the two Fathers are to explore the Congo as far as the Equator Station, it is to be understood that this is to be the extreme limit of their journey, but they can stop long before this if they find suitable places. Nevertheless, the future stations should not be less than about 100 kilometres from Stanley Pool.
8) - As soon as they are certain about the possibility of the useful establishment of the two stations and about the place they are to occupy, they will write to their superiors by the fastest means possible to inform them that their journey has been successful, and then the necessary personnel will be sent for these missions.
9) – The sum of 50,000 francs has been allocated to Fr Dupont in order to cover the cost of the exploration. It is formally forbidden for him to exceed his amount, on whatever pretext, except when there is fear of death.
10) - All the spiritual faculties pertaining to Apostolic Vicars are granted to Fr Dupont, with the power to delegate them to his confreres, apart from those faculties that require episcopal rank .
11) – As for the rules of prudence to be observed and the manner of behaving in the missions in relation to the indigenous people, the Fathers in the Congo will see to it that they receive from the Mother House copies of the different instructions drawn up for the Fathers of Nyanza and of Tanganyika.
I humbly ask of our Lord, of the apostles and of the holy martyrs, to watch over the future missionaries of the Congo, to protect them, and above all to give them the prudence and ardent zeal which they need and to grant them the grace to do much good for the souls of these poor regions where they are sent.
Issued in Paris - June 1885
Letter to Pope Leo XIII requesting the definitive approval of the Constitutions of the Society (1st June 1885)
Algiers
Most Holy Father,
Six years ago Your Holiness deigned to approve the Decretum Laudis granted by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in favour of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers and of the rule adopted by this Society. After six years of further experience, which have turned to the advantage of the afore-mentioned Society, in its name and as its Founder I make bold to request the definitive approbation of its rules. These have been modified by introducing into them, following the indications given by the Sacred Congregation, all the improvements that appeared desirable. The Society of Missionaries of Algiers counts today the following establishments:
- In the diocese of Algiers, the Mother House of the Society, the novitiate for the Fathers, the novitiate for the Brothers, a junior seminary, a seminary of philosophy, the shrine of Our Lady of Africa, two mission posts in Arab Christian villages, a college run by the missionaries in these same villages, six mission posts with schools and dispensaries among the indigenous tribes of Kabylia, and a similar mission post in the Sahara desert;
- In the diocese of Constantine, a mission post with a school and a dispensary for the indigenous population;
- In the diocese of Carthage, the scholasticate or the special senior seminary of the Society , the direction of the diocesan major seminary, a large college for Europeans belonging to different nationalities and also indigenous pupils, two mission posts with dispensaries;
- In Equatorial Africa, the Apostolic Vicariate of Nyanza, governed by Mgr Livinhac, which has several mission posts and three orphanages; the Apostolic Vicariate of Tanganyika, directed by the Pro-Vicar, Rev. Fr Charbonnier, which also has several mission posts, orphanages and dispensaries; the two Apostolic Vicariates of Northern and Southern Upper Congo with a number of mission posts.
- In Zanzibar, a supply-post [procure] for the missions in the interior, an orphanage for young Blacks who have been ransomed, and a dispensary;
- In Malta, a college where young Blacks are studying medicine in order to become useful auxiliaries for the missionaries;
- In Jerusalem, a seminary for the formation of Greek Melkite priests;
- In France, two postulates or minor seminaries, a postulate for the Brothers;
- In Belgium, a postulate or minor seminary.
On this occasion I readily give witness, most Holy Father, to the Society of Missionaries of Algiers, for the zeal of their members of whom a number have already shed their blood for the faith, as also for their regularity and for their attachment to the Holy See. I therefore dare to hope that nothing will come in the way of their being granted the favour requested.
Embracing your feet, most Holy Father, I am honoured to consider myself with deep respect the most humble, devout and obedient servant and creature of Your Holiness
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Ambassador of France in Constantinople announcing a journey to Jerusalem (5 July 1885)
Carthage,
Noble Sir,
I take the liberty of announcing to you that, with the agreement of the French Government and the Holy See, I propose to visit in the near future the religious establishment of Saint Anne in Jerusalem, which is looked after by the Missionaries of Algiers. The Sovereign Pontiff, already two years ago, gave me ordinary jurisdiction over this house, thus withdrawing it from the spiritual authority of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. We have established there, as Your Excellency is doubtless aware, an apostolic school aimed at combating latinising tendencies and at reassuring the Orientals with regard to the preservation of their rites and their privileges. I wish to see with my own eyes how this establishment is functioning, and visit at the same time some of the Catholic establishments which formerly I helped to found or support when I was the Director of the Oeuvre des Écoles d’Orient.
Although the purpose of my journey is exclusively religious, concerned with Church matters, I make a point of informing Your Excellency about it so that, if you consider it suitable, as I think it is, you may also inform the government of the Sultan, making known the true motivation, the sole one, for my journey to Syria . Otherwise, without that, there is reason to fear that suspicions, which are always lively, might attribute a completely different character to such a rare happening as the presence in these regions of the first Cardinal to have visited them since the Crusades.
It is on 4 August that I am thinking of embarking on the boat of the Messageries Maritimes in Naples and, on the 10 of the same month, I would arrive in Jaffa. I shall return to France around 15 September. Moreover, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is aware of my plans, will doubtlessly not delay in informing you. Yet I felt that I should do so myself, out of deference and respect for Your Excellency, which you will surely understand.
Please accept, Excellency, the expression of the highest consideration from one who is honoured to consider himself your humble and obedient servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter of the Cardinal to Father Deguerry on his planned journey to Jerusalem (6 July 1885)
Carthage,
My Dear Son,
The die is cast, and unless cholera arrives in Africa or I fall sick myself which, strictly speaking, could happen after so much fatigue, I shall leave from Naples for Port Said on 4 August and from Port Said I shall come to Jaffa on a State warship which will wait for me in the first-mentioned of these two ports. It will therefore be necessary to think of providing me with a means of locomotion, in other words with a suitable coach and horses between Jaffa and Jerusalem, and furnishings for myself and three other persons, without counting my personal valet, in the house that you have rented for me. It will be sufficient that there is a well-furnished salon in the house in which I shall be lodging, and a large room, conveniently furnished, at Saint Anne’s for the receptions. For the rest, a bed, a chair and a dressing-table for each room will be sufficient. It will also be necessary to provide me with a good cook.
According to my plans, it is on 8 September, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, that I shall solemnly consecrate the church of Saint Anne. I shall depart for France immediately afterwards. I shall therefore not stay more than a month in Jerusalem. Moreover during this time I may make a short appearance in Beirut where I will go in the State ship, but that will only take four or five days, and perhaps I shall do this only after the consecration of the church.
I would ask you to keep this news to yourself until the day when I shall send you a telegramme about it. I firmly desire that the Patriarchate should not get wind of it too soon, for fear of some foolish act as, can happen in the East. I will not speak to you today of other questions because I hope to see you soon. Moreover I count on receiving from you before my departure some letters in response to those that I wrote to you from Paris.
Farewell, my dear son, I bless you from the bottom of my heart.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Mother Marie Salomé on a possible merger with the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (20 July 1885)
Tunis,
My Dear Daughter,
I have not changed my opinion about the impossibility in which your little Society finds itself to exercise self-government. Consequently, I am always trying to find serious support in a Society, which has a greater number of capable members. I hope to have found something suitable for you in the Society of the Missionary Sisters of Mary whose motherhouse is in France and who also have a house in Rome and mission posts in India. Their habit is almost the same as yours. As for the roots of their Rule, I am sending you a kind of summary, which will help you to get to know it. This is only a plan, and nothing will be decided before the month of September, after the retreat, which I wish to direct myself. All the Sisters without exception, apart from those who are necessary for the functioning of the hospital of the Attafs, must attend. This retreat will take place between the 20th and the 25th.
Until then, please be patient, and ask for patience among all those with you. A matter so serious cannot be solved in a single day.
Farewell, my dear Daughter. I bless you from afar with feelings of the most fatherly devotedness in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Charmetant about the planned journey to Jerusalem (27 July 1885)
Carthage,
My Dear Friend,
As I wrote to you last Thursday, I need you to pass by Rome on your way to join me in Naples on 17 August, the day before we are due to embark on the boat which will have left Marseilles on the 16th and on which you should have reserved our places beforehand.
The following is the matter you will have to deal with in Rome. I have found Propaganda so concerned by Italian jealousy of France, and the Italian newspapers, both official and semi-official, so full of attacks against my personal influence with regard to the political interests of Italy in the missions of the Mediterranean basin, that I have realized that I would fail absolutely if I myself asked the Sovereign Pontiff to grant me the title of legate. My action would be seen as some shameful manoeuvre on behalf of the [French] Government, and the Pope would not dare to go ahead for fear of bad reprisals on the part of Italy.
I thought therefore that this title should be requested only at the last moment, so as not to leave the Italians time to intervene, and to request it in a way that would not cause anxiety. This is why I thought of telling you to pass by Rome. You should therefore arrange to leave Paris on the 8th or the 9th of August, and give yourself three or four days in Rome at the Costanzi hotel. You would then see Cardinal Simeoni, and you would simply say to him that you are going to visit the establishments in the Orient that l’Oeuvre des Écoles d’Orient supports, without speaking of our journeying together other than as a coincidence . With this Cardinal, who is extremely timid and, today, “italianissimo”, care must be taken to enter into no detail, otherwise he would block everything.
It is personally with the Pope, in a private audience, that you must treat the question. Then you will say openly to the Holy Father that you are coming to Jerusalem to attend the consecration of the church of St Anne and St Joachim, as the Director of l’Oeuvre des Écoles d’Orient. You could add that, in your position, you attach great importance to this, both because of my personal relations, established over a quarter of a century, with all the influential Orientals in Palestine and Syria, and also on account of the Greek character of our seminary at St Anne’s and the hopes there are at the moment for union with the Greeks. It is then that you could add that, in order to give particular solemnity to this ceremony, you would beg the Pope, in your own name and in the name of all your associates, French, Italian, Belgian, etc., to do for the church of St Anne in Jerusalem, and for a church occupied in fact by the Greeks, what he deigned to do in France for the basilica in Lourdes and for the cathedral of Rheims, where His Holiness, on two occasions, has charged the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris to conduct two great ceremonies in his name with the title of temporary Legate.
It would consequently be necessary to have ready a short written request, of a few lines, and to ask the Pope to sign it on the spot, adding that you yourself would bring it to me in Jerusalem. I do not doubt that, according to these terms, and given the precedents, the Holy Father will grant this favour, because it cannot be interpreted as being connected with French politics, but solely with a Catholic aim . So please prepare to leave Paris in time, and in order to make certain that you have an audience it would be necessary to write several days in advance to Monsignor Macchi, the chamberlain of His Holiness, informing him of your stay in Rome and of your desire to speak personally with the Pope about vital matters concerning the Orient where you yourself are bound, adding that since your stay in Rome will be short, you wish to have an audience on one of the three days of your choice, adding [also] that on your arrival in Rome you will come immediately to collect the reply. In this way the Pope will know in advance and he will have [already] given his reply.
Farewell, my dear Friend. Yours devotedly in Our Lord.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. Since you are not going to take the boat in Marseilles, you will have to take great care that the sedan-chair which you are to bring me, and the hangings of my episcopal throne which the Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Mary are to bring to you, on the 6 August at the latest, are sent in all haste, whatever the cost of transport may be, to the address of Mr Pascalet whom it will be necessary to warn, through a letter from your secretary, that he should place these objects himself on the boat of the Indies and that he should recommend to the captain not to put them down in the hold. Otherwise, nothing will arrive and I shall find myself in serious embarrassment .
Letter in which the Cardinal speaks about Don Bosco (27 July 1885)
Dear Mr Blanchon du Bourg,
I am in turmoil in your regard more than I could ever tell you. On the one hand, I see your ardent zeal, which is also pure, and this I would not like to discourage, but on the other hand, I do not think that the idea you propose to me, a minor seminary in France to train candidates for the missions in Africa directed by the Fathers of Don Bosco, is practical.
I admire Don Bosco, and at present I am doing everything I possibly can to get him to accept my foundation in Tunisia. Yet, following the normal run of things, if in his seminary there are good candidates they will naturally go to the congregation that has formed them, and consequently we shall receive only those of less value, to say the least.
Furthermore, we have [already] tried out agricultural seminaries. These were only half-successful. In them studies fare badly and the result is that it becomes difficult to do any intellectual work, even that which is most necessary for a priest. Nevertheless, I do not say that nothing can be done, quite the contrary, but another way is to be sought. We already have a seminary at Saint Laurent d’Olt, in the diocese of Rodez. It is under the direction of our own missionaries. That is where resources would be necessary and it is there that they are lacking at the moment. However, in the present circumstances I cannot take care of the details because in a few days’ time I shall be leaving for Jerusalem. After my return, towards the end of September, you could contact me, but it is necessary that we talk directly; from a distance, by letter, we would not achieve anything.
So keep up your good will until that moment comes. For my part, I shall pray Our Lord to enlighten me and to enlighten you too.
With all my respect, I remain,
Yours devotedly in Our Lord
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
Draft of a letter to Leo XIII concerning the journey to Jerusalem (between 3 and 6 August 1885)
Algiers,
Most Holy Father,
Before leaving for Jerusalem where, as Your Holiness is aware, I am going to visit the institute of Saint Anne and consecrate the church, I feel the need to ask for a special blessing and at the same time to give a more precise account of what I am going to do in Palestine and the conditions under which I am going there.
For many long years, Most Holy Father, I have been concerned with oriental Christians. That is how I began my apostolic life. In 1854, over thirty years ago, I contributed to the foundation in Paris of l’Œuvre des Écoles d’Orient, and for more than ten years I was its first Director. In 1860, after the terrible massacres in which the Christian communities in Lebanon shed much blood, I went myself to visit Syria . I had opened up in France a public subscription for the unfortunate victims of the cruelty of the Turks and the Druzes, and I was lucky enough to be able myself to distribute to them almost 4 million francs in the space of about eight months.
On that occasion, I established personal relations with the Patriarchs, bishops and superiors of the religious communities in Syria and Palestine. These relations, characterized by benevolence and charity, even with the schismatics to whom I had given a share of the assistance, have never been broken off. I have had the opportunity to renew them through returning to the Orient since I became bishop and even Archbishop of Algiers.
These are the facts, Most Holy Father, that led the French Government to propose to me that the institution of Saint Anne’s should be administered by the society of Missionaries that I had founded in Algeria. Your Holiness graciously agreed to this arrangement and, since 1878, the Fathers of this congregation (the White Fathers as they are called in Africa) have been in possession of the shrine. As Your Holiness is aware, the church of Saint Anne is situated over the site of the house of Saint Anne and Saint Joachim. A part of this house, hewed in the rock as is the custom in Palestine, still exists. It is there, according to the explicit witness of Saint John Damascene and of Saint Sophronius, and according to all Oriental authors, that the Virgin Mary was conceived and was born immaculate.
This shrine, transformed into a mosque after the fall of the Crusader Kingdom, was given to France in 1854, at the request of Empress Eugénie, by the Sultan of Constantinople. France had it restored at great cost, spending on it more than a million, and today the church is without contradiction the most beautiful and the most complete of all those of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Yet it has never been consecrated, and it is for this ceremony that I am going to Jerusalem. My intention is to do this [to perform this ceremony – addition of the translator] on 8 September, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin and the principal feast of the shrine which for a long time was known by this name. It was only about the time of the Crusades that it took the name of Saint Anne to which, as I said personally to your Holiness who gave your gracious approval, it seems to me only right to add the name of Saint Joachim, father of Our Lady just as Saint Anne was her mother. Through a decree of Propaganda ordinary jurisdiction over the church and the institute of Saint Anne’s has been entrusted to me for the reason which I shall shortly indicate.
I am counting on giving great solemnity to the ceremony I am about to celebrate; several prelates will accompany me, as well as a certain number of priests and missionaries. In order, however, to avoid giving umbrage to the Turkish Government, I took the precaution of writing to the Marquis de Noailles, the ambassador of France in Constantinople, asking him to inform the Government of the exclusively religious purpose of my visit, and to present my respects. The ambassador, removing in advance all the difficulties that could have been raised by jealousies that are always alive in the Orient, has taken this step.
Yet, most Holy Father, the consecration of the church of Saint Anne, as interesting as it may be in itself, is perhaps less so than the second mission that I am giving myself. Next to the church of Saint Anne, the Missionaries of Algiers have founded, at my request, a seminary destined exclusively for Greek Catholics. Propaganda has given its approval to the rules of this seminary, which I had submitted to it. They are all focused on a double aim: that the Greek priests formed in this house may be solidly attached to the Apostolic See, and to persuade them and all the Christians of their rite that their usages and privileges are in no way under threat, as the enemies of the papacy are constantly telling them. Absolutely on the contrary, Latinizing tendencies are completely banished from this seminary and the offices are celebrated only according to the Greek Catholic rite.
In that there is, most Holy Father, a seed of resurrection and return which it seems to me must be carefully cultivated and encouraged. I wish therefore to see things with my own eyes, to become aware of the improvements that could be made in such an undertaking, the resources that would be necessary for this, and also to hear directly from the head of the Oriental clergy in Palestine and in Syria, and come to know what can be expected of them in this regard.
The difficulties for union are great, without doubt, and it cannot be done in a day, but this is no reason for not working at it with courage and charity. This is what Your Holiness is already doing in Constantinople and this example can never be followed too much by those who are aware of the pontifical zeal and the exalted nature of your vision.
Favourable circumstances have been offered to us recently for increasing further our influence and our activity in Jerusalem. Independently of the shrine of Saint Anne we have acquired, partly by buying and partly by free gift, the ruins and the sites of two ancient shrines, first the Probatic Pool on which a church had been built before the Crusades, and then that of the Credo on the Mount of Olives where also a church had been built, in the early centuries [of the Christian era], on the site where, according to tradition, the Apostles, gathered together, recited for the first time the Credo. I would like to restore these two shrines for the [greater] honour of the Catholic Church, which, as Your Holiness is aware, is strongly combatted by the efforts of the Russians and the Protestants. I believe that it is possible to hope that the material resources will not be lacking as a result of practical steps that I have just taken with this end in view.
That, in short, most Holy Father, is the aim of my next journey, which will last about six weeks. My greatest wish is that, according to the weak measure of my strength, it may serve the good of the Church and of souls, in a country which saw the beginnings of my priestly ministry and for which I have retained a true love. But for that, most Holy Father, I need the special blessings of Your Holiness. I dare to ask them from a distance, placing myself at the sacred feet of Your Holiness, Most Holy Father, as your very humble, very obedient and very devoted servant and creature.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. The present Director of l’Œuvre des Écoles d’Orient, the missionary, Reverend Father Charmetant, will accompany me on this journey in order to give it its true import which is solely religious. He will have the honour of passing through Rome in order to prostrate himself at the feet of Your Holiness, arriving a very few days after this letter. I make bold to ask for him the favour of an audience and then he will assume the duty of bringing us the paternal blessings that I solicit for myself, for the prelates and the priests who accompany me, as also for all the Catholics who will attend the consecration of the church of Saint Anne and Saint Joachim.
Letter to Father Deguerry announcing the cancellation of his journey to Jerusalem (6 August 1885)
Algiers,
My Dear Friend,
Just at the time when I was making the final preparation and had already ordered my red sedan chair, my cassocks and even my Cardinal’s parasol , something serious suddenly happened which made me cancel my journey for this year. As I wrote in my last letter to you, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had assured me orally that a State ship would be put at my disposal in Port Said to take me to Jaffa and to Beirut. On the other hand, Le Hussard was first to take me from La Goulette to Naples . It was Le Hussard who first deserted my company, but in circumstances that did not really engage my personal dignity. The same was not true of the refusal, of which I have just been notified, to give me the boat in Port Said that had at first been promised.
A number of days ago Father Charmetant announced to me that the matter, certain as it had been before, had now become doubtful. A letter from the Minister of Foreign Affairs then told me that they regretted not being able to give me the boat, but this was said without any details and in a way that was still acceptable. Yesterday, a new letter from Father Charmetant informed me that Mr. de Freycinet , with his customary weakness, did not dare to take upon himself the responsibility of giving to a cardinal a ship of the State in the East, that he had referred it to the Council of Ministers, that this Council had deliberated on it and that the majority had decided to refuse me the ship, brutally, without any reason or pretext whatsoever, other than the impossibility of compromising itself in a religious matter.
Immediately after receiving this letter my decision was taken. It was impossible that a deliberation of the Council of Ministers taken in this way and on such grounds would not leak out and soon be carried by the press to the East if I went there. It would be, therefore, in the eyes of the Orientals, who from a distance cannot see the details of our quarrels, a kind of moral downgrading . Add to this the fact that in the same letter Father Charmetant informed me that the new French consul in Jerusalem, Mr. Ledoux, was not to go to that city until after my departure!
Whatever my regret at giving up my project and the good that could result from it for our institutions, I thought it my duty, on the one hand, to give a lesson in dignity to our poor rulers, and on the other, to avoid the inconvenience and the lessening of authority that similar procedures could not fail to bring about for you and for me, in the eyes of the Orientals, if we seemed not to feel them or to bear them without saying a word. This morning, therefore, after giving myself time to meditate on it during the night, I sent a telegram to Father Charmetant, clear enough to pass well in the eyes of the ministers. It reads as follows:
"Yesterday I received information and your letter from Paris on the circumstances that accompanied the government's refusal. On the one hand, travel seems materially impossible. On the other, a question of personal dignity does not allow me to accomplish it, in these debased conditions, while everything is exploited today in the East against France. So I give up my project. Please notify whomever it may concern. I will not, in any event, go back on this decision. So suspend all preparations. I allow you to go alone, if you so wish. »
These, my dear friend, are the details I think you should be aware of. I can see great trouble and serious drawbacks in giving up such plans, but there are two things that an African bishop-cardinal cannot accept: on the one hand to be toyed with and humiliated, and on the other hand to appear to be imposing himself on people to whom, in reality, we are merely rendering service at the cost of utmost fatigue. I know too well how you feel about me to be certain in advance, despite all the pain it will cause you, which is no greater than mine, that you will understand and approve of my decision.
Since I am not coming, my dear friend, I must give you written and precise instructions on what I wanted to deal with you orally in Jerusalem for the acquisitions you are to make relating either to our institutions in the Holy Land or to the constitution of allowances for the Chapter of Carthage. Since all my general ideas are known to you, I will limit myself to giving you my practical instructions as follows:
1) For Sainte-Anne, it is necessary to buy as soon as possible the houses in front of the church which I have already spoken to you about, as well as those which have not yet been acquired and which would be found to occupy part of the Probatic Pool.
2) I intend to resurrect the ancient shrine of the Probatic. To do this, Father Toulotte tells me that it is necessary to clear away ruins and rubble that would be four to seven meters high. Be good enough to tell me immediately how much this would cost. Once the ground has been cleared and the old sanctuary uncovered, I would need an exact survey of the ruins with their style, so that I could have a suitable and active architect draw up a plan in the style of the chapel to be rebuilt.
3) For the sanctuary of the credo, I would like something similar, that is, that the substructures of the old sanctuary should be researched, so that the plan may be sent to me and a design of the new sanctuary may be prepared accordingly.
4) There are constructions to be made at St. Anne's to increase the number of students. Please have someone from Jerusalem make a very simple plan for this. I do not want to employ Mr. Mauss, who is too expensive. And see if on the spot you cannot find a cheaper way of building than we have done so far. Building with carved stones, as is usually done, is too expensive. For example, when your major works have been decided, could you not find in Malta a squad of masons who would work as in Tunis, that is to say at 15 frs. per meter of masonry all inclusive, whereas with the price paid by you up to now the same cube of masonry might cost you 40 frs. and even more?
You can see that the projects I had in mind were quite considerable. The reason is essentially that I want to do what is possible for these poor Orientals to whom my heart has been attached for so many years. On the other hand, resources will come in abundance, especially as long as you undertake something useful and vast. Father Lévesque, who always says that he is discouraged, continues however to appeal for funds fruitfully. Two and a half months ago, when I went to Lille, he had already collected more than 30,000 francs. For the past two and a half months, he has been hiding things from me, so that I know nothing of what he has collected, but I am expecting a pleasant surprise, because my passage in this region had disposed everyone to be generous.
For his part, Mr. Naulaerts is leaving for America with Reverend Father Vignon, who is on fire. He seems determined to devote himself entirely and does not shy away from the thought of giving, for [a period of] two years if necessary, conferences or, as they say in that country, lectures, with projection screenings with oxhydric light ; we can hope for a good result, and half of the amount collected will be for Saint Anne’s. So much for the Society's own works.
Now two words of even greater importance with regard to the Carthage Chapter [of Canons] . Together with this letter, I will send you by post two printed documents containing all my projects. They have been approved by the Pope who has sent me a rescript in this regard. I have four canonries constituted at 30,000 francs each, which makes 120,000 francs. Two others have been proposed to me here by two letters, which have reached me from France. That would make about 180,000 francs to be invested immediately, because I am paying the interest myself, and since they are deposited with Pisani they do not bring me any interest.
I completely agree with your ideas. It is necessary to abandon any thought of buying in Jerusalem since the money brings in so little there, and to rely entirely on Jaffa or Beirut to which one could add Alexandria. If the conditions there are good, it is possible to get 8% of one’s money there. So much for the prebendary funds. As for the money I have at my disposal, I would still accept to buy land for a sum of about 200,000 francs, from the sole point of view of capital gain, if this would increase rapidly. In order to deal with such matters, one must necessarily have a very sure and highly knowledgeable man in each of the three cities mentioned above. You could take advantage of the holidays to acquire deeper knowledge on the spot. I recommend these serious matters, especially the prebendary fund, which is more pressing.
With regard to money, when you need it, let me know by telegraph, and tell me where you want it to be held at your disposal in order to settle your bills, I will send it to you immediately.
Farewell, my dear Friend, receive the new assurance of my tender and paternal affection, for you first of all and then for your good confreres, and believe that I am one at heart with you in Our Lord.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. If I did not fear that you were going to inflict me with bugs and other insects in the house you rented for me, I would say: go and live there with the fathers and the children for the end of the summer, so that the rent will not be lost. I leave the decision up to you. But be warned that if I find a single bedbug there when I go next spring, I don't know which one of you two I'll crush the most ?
To the Archbishop of Syracuse, in Sicily, about a project of foundation in his diocese (17 August 1885)
Tunis,
Most Reverend Excellency,
I received your kind letter of 31st July last. [It arrived] very late, because it first went to look for me in Algiers before coming to find me in Tunis. I wish first of all to express to you my immense gratitude for the interest you show in my endeavours and then to tell you frankly what my plans are. Your Excellency will then see better for himself if the building of which he speaks to me is suitable for the realization of these plans.
In seeking to found an establishment in Sicily my aim is twofold. The first and principal aim is to open a junior seminary there to receive young Sicilians or even Italians from the continent who would feel a vocation for the African missions. We already have such an establishment in Malta, another in Jerusalem , and two in France and Belgium. At this very moment, our missionaries from Algiers are founding a house [procure] for higher studies in Rome. Sicily, because of the similarity of its climate and because of the material habits that come from the long and frequent relations of your island with Africa, seems to me destined to provide useful subjects for our mission, if God calls them.
This then is my first aim. I have a second of which I do not often speak, it is that of finding a refuge for the novitiates and scholasticates of our Society of missionaries, in the event that that the progress of the revolution will one day oblige us to remove them from France.
I had therefore, for quite some time, been looking at your island, with the hope of finding in the convents and other ecclesiastical establishments confiscated and put up for sale by the State a house that would suit my plans. I wanted [to find] it especially in some country village and not in a large city, in order to attract less attention, as would seem to me to be more appropriate in the present circumstances. Father Long, a Dominican friar from Noto, having come to preach in Tunis and having heard me speak of this wish of mine, pointed out to me the former Carmelite convent of Spaccaforno.
Since I was asked only 7,500 frs for the purchase price, this good offer led me to decide to make this acquisition for which I obtained the necessary faculties from the Holy See. But having recently sent, on two occasions, first a representative of the Society of our Missionaries with my secretary, and then my own chancellor, I am convinced from their reports that it would be an enormous expense to restore this former Carmelite convent to the condition of receiving a junior seminary worthy of the name. The architect, in fact, estimates the cost of this work at no less than 200,000 frs !!!, as has been started, but less than 60.000 frs, if it is limited to what is strictly necessary. These are conditions that do not allow me to consider the Spaccaforno project as feasible for my present purposes.
Now, Your Excellency, since you have been so kind as to take a charitable initiative in this regard, I tell you frankly, as I announced at the beginning, that I would prefer an establishment outside a town for the reasons mentioned above, and only if I find nothing of the kind would I decide for something else. May Your Excellency therefore permit me to ask him whether he knows of any former convent or ecclesiastical property in Sicily, either in his own diocese or elsewhere, which might be for sale or rented for a long time under the conditions I desire. As for the former archiepiscopal seminary of Syracuse, it is not explained in your letter whether the State has taken possession of it and whether it is the State that rents it out to the municipality, or whether it still belongs to the diocese of Syracuse, which itself then rents it out to the city.
This letter is already very long, Excellency, but your charity will excuse me, and I myself am very happy to have been able to find this opportunity to recall your good souvenir and to tell you how grateful I am for the memory of the welcome full of kindness and benevolence that I received twice in your episcopal palace.
May Your Excellency deign to accept the expression of these sentiments as a sign of the devotion and respect with which I have the honour of being, of your Excellency, the most humble and obedient servant and brother in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Miss Grandin de l'Eprevier, future mother Marie Claver (22 August 1885)
Tunis,
My dear daughter in Our Lord,
From now on I will give you this name, since I now know you and, according to every likelihood, you are destined one day to enter my flock. If I did not reply to your previous letter, ithisis because I did not receive it; it will probably have been lost while I was still away. I was complaining about this to my secretary, who writes these lines under my dictation, when the one of the 15th of this month arrived in my hands.
I congratulate you, my dear child, on your constancy, your fidelity, your courage, or rather I give thanks for the grace of Our Lord, for it alone produces in you these holy dispositions. Do not expect anything but suffering, trials and setbacks from Africa, since Africa is still under the power of the devil . But have confidence, Our Lord, prince of the apostles, has defeated the devil everywhere, and he will gain the victory also on this still infidel land. And who knows if he will not defeat him through the woman, according to the prediction that was made from the beginning for the whole human race?
May you, my child, deserve to be among those who will win this great triumph. What joy you will have in the midst of all your sufferings on earth, and what a triumph especially in heaven.
Believe, my Child, in the fatherly and devoted sentiments in Our Lord, with which I bless you and your good mother, while remaining your humble and obedient servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Jamet, procurator in Zanzibar (26 August 1885)
Tunis,
My dear father,
I am late in replying to your last letters; but the recent news coming in from Zanzibar is so serious that I do not want to put off writing to you any longer.
The protectorate established by Germany over a part of our missions, and no doubt soon over this entire territory, imposes upon you obligations of extreme prudence. You must declare clearly, both by your words and your deeds, that you are essentially Catholic missionaries, and that you must, and wish, to remain outside any political competition which may arise around you. Do this with great prudence, avoiding both hurting France and alienating the Germans.
By the same mail-boat that will bring you this letter or by the previous one, will have arrived in Zanzibar Mr. Révoil, accompanied by an Algerian interpreter, Mr. Angeli, who asks me to recommend them to you. I saw from your printed newspaper that you know Mr. Révoil and his mission among the Somalis. So I don't have to tell you what you should think of him. .
Enclosed you will find a note for Mgr Livinhac. Send it to him by safe hands and not by Mr. Révoil himself to whom I am writing directly.
Farewell, my dear Friend, keep me informed, please, of your expenses and of the equipment in your house. It seems to me that you are exceeding the limits a little.
Believe in all my fatherly sentiments, devotedly in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Mgr Charbonnier en route to his mission in Tanganyika (26 August 1885)
Carthage,
Dear Monsignor,
I received your letter and was very touched by the expression of your feelings. My ardent wish is that your great mission may obtain all the success you desire.
I am not without fear, however, about certain complications which, according to the newspapers, seem to be brewing in Tanganyka, either from the side of the Belgians in the Independent State or from the side of the Germans. You must be very careful not to hurt either of them, and this is what you will be able ro do only if you remain true missionaries, in other words, above all men of God and souls, without interfering in any way in political competitions. Basically, any European power, whatever the nation, will be happy to have you as an auxiliary; the real enemies for you are the Arabs. Do not trust them, but also do not provoke them or expose yourself to their grudges while they are the strongest.
I see that the Good Lord is already keeping one of your companions on the road since good Father Chevalier was unable to leave Zanzibar; but from what I am told about Father Guillemé, you are not losing out on the exchange, and we were happy to give you, by granting you this missionary, this mark of interest.
I know that you will receive other letters, by this same mail, so I will not give you any details about our affairs, which are not very new, but I will at least give you the assurance of the paternal sentiments and the attachment with which I always remain, for your missionaries and for you, dear Monsignor, devotedly yours in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the missionaries gathered for their annual retreat at Maison-Carrée (19 September 1885)
Carthage,
My dear children,
I will number among the most real regrets of my life that of my absence from Maison Carrée, at this moment when you are all gathered there. You know the compelling reason that keeps me away from you. I did not believe that I could, for the honour of the Church and of my episcopal ministry, leave Tunisia on the very day when cholera broke out in Sicily, almost at our doorstep, and seemed already to be manifesting itself among us. But no matter how sacred the obligation thus imposed on me, I suffer no less from it, from the distress of being deprived of seeing you, and from the impossibility of fulfilling my mission as a father and pastor to you.
Never, in fact, since the origin of your little Society, have circumstances perhaps made more necessary than ever the guidance of your superiors and their support for your endeavours. When I look at your various missions, I see them almost everywhere more or less endangered. In Algeria and in France, it is persecution, open and violent, that seems likely to break out soon, if God does not intervene. In Equatorial Africa we move towards the unknown, and apparently towards a fearsome unknown as regards our missions in Nyanza and Tanganyika. The recent intervention of a new power in the affairs of Zanzibar, and the resulting over-excitement of the Arabs in the interior and consequently among the Negroes, are causes of our anxiety.
In Tunisia, sad to say, as the number of French people increases, we see passions similar to those of Algeria rising against us. It is only our missions in Jerusalem, Malta and Belgium, which at the moment do not give us cause for concern. But since God allows it, we must accept trials and do everything possible to profit from them to further our progress in virtue. Above all, no doubt, we should count on the support of the One without whose permission not a single hair falls from our head and who has promised to faith the power to remove mountains. But we know that God also requires us to strive with Him for our salvation.
So it is to you, my dear Children, that I am speaking today. The wickedness and boldness of your enemies are beyond your control and you must be resigned to suffer them. But what depends on you is to avoid anything that could, in your life as missionaries, be displeasing to God's heart, stop the flow of His blessings and thus bring about a downfall even more painful and irretrievable than the one which could come from the outside.
Therefore, take advantage of the fact that you are on retreat to examine yourselves seriously. Let each of you analyse himself, recognize his faults, and be persuaded that, as far as you are concerned, you will not have done all that is due to God, to the Church, and to your Society, until you are prepared to fulfil, as best you can, your missionary obligations. If, as I have done in previous years when I was in the middle of you, I could address you orally with my observations and advice, I would go into many details. But in a letter, however extensive it may be, one cannot say everything and I must limit myself to what is most essential.
1) I will therefore speak to you of what seems to me to be most essential for any society, whichever it may be, namely the intimate union of its members, whosoever they may be, in a manner of thinking in charity and faith, under the direction of its leaders.
On a recent occasion, our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, was obliged to speak out publicly to arrest the symptoms of discord that seemed to be showing up in the Church and even among those closest to his throne. With his wonderfully enlightened wisdom, and visibly assisted by the Spirit of God, according to the promises made to Peter and his successor, the Holy Father solemnly reminded all Christians of the condition which is always necessary in the Church, but particularly indispensable when, as in the present times, she is surrounded by so many enemies: I refer to the close harmony which alone makes it possible to gather all forces and direct them to where the danger lies. With no less force and clarity, the Supreme Pontiff emphasized that lasting union in the Church is impossible if the authority which God has established to maintain it is not equally respected by all, both small and great, and on this occasion he had no hesitation, in spite of all his sadness, to give a memorable lesson.
What the Supreme Pontiff thus declared necessary in the whole Church, my dear Children, I declare even more indispensable for your little Society. Close, intimate, fraternal union is the condition of its success and even of its life. And this union can only be achieved and maintained by complete, supernatural submission to the guidance of one's superiors.
There is nothing, it seems to me, that should be easier. The major superiors not only have a special grace from on high for the administration of the bodies entrusted to them, but they also have the exact knowledge of the whole, a perspective which permits them to make more enlightened and certain judgments than those who know only a few details and for whom the overall picture is therefore always elusive. Moreover, they have a right to recognition and docility on the part of the inferiors on account of the worries, the sorrows, and the labours that they have to endure in order to ensure the security, the freedom of action, and sometimes even the material existence of all.
If I remind you of these principles, my dear Children, it is because over these last years, and while threats from outside multiply around us, it has seemed to me that obedience, true and Christian, the acceptance without ulterior motive of the views of superiors, and to say the least, that good spirit which takes and interprets everything in good light, have been lacking to some. They have too easily made criticisms on points where they should at least have kept silent, since they had a duty not to interfere with the authority of their superiors and the respect due to them. As you stand before God and in silence, examine yourselves on these points. See if on more than one occasion, either with your confreres or sometimes in the presence of strangers, either out of malice or out of impatience caused by pride, or simply out of carelessness, you have not fallen into such a serious fault.
Have you always welcomed with respect and submission the decisions of the Council of your Society? On the contrary, have you not sometimes complained about the measures which concerned you, or even about those which, without touching you, did not go along with your personal ideas? Have you not allowed yourself to criticize changes, modifications for which you do not understand the need, and this because you do not consider that in a society that is beginning and developing like yours, the very expansion of its endeavours requires changes in personnel or of certain points of the rules that experience demands to be modified?
Superiors are the first to suffer from these imperatives, because of the practical difficulties they often experience in conciliating everything. But at least they have the right to count on your filial cooperation. Instead, you add to their difficulties by bringing in the bitterness of your criticisms and your hidden opposition. They keep silent, they do not justify themselves, because the very existence of the [missionary] endeavours and the reputation of the persons involved are at stake, and you, at the risk of compromising everything, take advantage of their silence to speak, most often, I repeat, without realizing what is at stake or appreciating the reasons for their actions.
I could multiply these questions and perhaps come to issues that concern not only the authority of your Council, but also the higher authority, which represents the authority over you of the Holy See itself. I prefer to appear to prejudge nothing or to know nothing, because I have already forgiven everything I have come to know. What I cannot dispense with, however, is to emphasize forcefully to you the danger of such tendencies; to make you consider that they do not belong to the children of light but to the children of darkness, and that they are the very tendencies that the spirit of evil is using at this moment to upset and ruin the world. Do you want to upset and lose your little Society some day, when you have sworn to serve it until death, precisely under the direction of your superiors?
I beg of you, my dear sons, to make a generous resolution in this regard. I appeal to all at this time; to those who are in need of correction so that they may reflect in their own minds and stop doing such a destructive work in your midst. When the authority of the leader is contested or diminished, each one acts, in fact, according to his own understanding, and discord then reigns. But even to those who are personally beyond reproach, I make an urgent appeal and ask them never to put up with the fact that, in their presence, the decisions of superiors are criticized in this way, so that their authority is diminished. In a community one may be guilty not only of doing evil, but also of tolerating it out of weakness, thus allowing it to spread and, in the end, to dominate.
Therefore, my dear Children, be of only one heart and one soul; only in this way will you retain the grace and strength to face the difficulties of the outside world, whatever happens. For if it is said: Civitas contra se divisa, non stabit , it is said again: Funiculus triplex difficile rumpitur , and it is said above all: Ego et Pater unum sumus..., sint unum sicut et nos .
2) After the intimate union which is born of complete submission to the direction of the superiors and the respect [for them] which is inspired by faith, what I find most opportune to recommend to you at this time, my dear Children, is zeal, and the zeal manifested in its most essential form, I mean dedication.
Zeal is, in fact, the proper and distinctive character of the missionary: one enters the missionary life only because one is impelled by the ardent desire to save and sanctify souls. This is the supernatural feeling that led you yourselves to enter the Society of Missionaries of Algiers and to devote yourselves to the missions of Africa. But when zeal is not inspired by thoughts of faith, by the example of our Lord and of the saints, it sometimes lacks lasting enthusiasm. When it is born of natural taste, of the desire for adventure, it soon weakens, cools down, and dies out. See then, my dear Children, if this misfortune has not already happened to you and if it cannot be said of you what was said to one of the angels of the Apocalypse: Habeo contra te quod charitatem tuam primam dereliquisti .
See for yourselves whether little by little you have not lost the goal you originally had in mind, when all you thought about was procuring the glory of God, to snatch from the darkness of infidelity so many millions of poor souls? This single thought so carried you away that you almost believed it to be easy to achieve. And your dreams were nothing less than to reproduce the miracles of a St. Francis Xavier or a Peter Claver. Your conversations were full of these desires, they animated your prayers. But then your gaze turned imperceptibly away from this divine goal and returned to the earth. The material needs on the one hand, and on the other hand, perhaps, alas, the conversations of some confreres, the miscalculations, the sadness that came to you from those poor infidels to whom you so generously came to consecrate yourselves, all this gradually acted upon your imagination and finally upon your will itself.
Is not this the story of many, perhaps [even] yours? And where does this come from? From the fact that the structure of your apostolate was not built exclusively on stone, I mean on our Lord Jesus Christ, on his grace, on his love. Nothing has changed, in fact, since the day you entered the novitiate: neither the call of God to spread with him the fire that he came to bear on earth; nor the promise of his assistance until the end of time; nor the proclamation of the victory that will be his over the whole world; nor the magnificent promises he makes to those who share his sufferings and who for his love abandon their father, their mother, everything they love on earth and are ready to give him even their lives. All these motivations for fervour, for ardent zeal, for sacrifice remain the same. So how is it that they no longer act on you in the same way? It is that you have allowed your spirit and your heart to be filled with other objects, often miserable, alas, perhaps sometimes unworthy.
Oh, my dear Children, this is the favourable moment to renew yourselves in the spirit of your vocation: Admoneo te ut resuscites gratiam quae est in te per impositionem manuum mearum . And how will you recognize that you have kept in your souls the spirit of apostolic zeal? You will recognize it in a practical way by the devotion that will animate you. A missionary who always accepts without murmuring the post, the functions in which his superior places him, who bears without complaining inconveniences, sufferings, aridity, can bear witness that he has the most necessary quality in a company of apostles, where good is done only through the cooperation of all for the common goal, I mean this disposition to renounce and forget oneself always in order to follow our Lord in bearing his cross.
Notice this last word, it contains everything. It is not difficult to follow our Lord when he manifests himself to us in his consolations, in his rewards, in his glory. The difficult thing is to follow him when he carries his cross, and to carry it with him. And yet it is only by this sign that his true disciples recognize themselves: Si quis vult meus esse discipulus tollat crucem suam quotidie et sequatur me . I do not want to upset you too much, my dear Children, especially from afar, and in a letter that gives you my thoughts but which cannot convey to you the sentiments of my heart with the accent of my words. I am afraid that there are many among you who do not totally realize what I mean; I am afraid of this because I see how easily some of you get discouraged and discourage those around you, as soon as things do not go according to their desires or imagination.
If you knew how unhappy superiors are, and how difficult governing becomes for them when, before each of their orders and almost every one of their most necessary words, they have to ask themselves, will this discourage them? Now, this is the word I hear perhaps most often spoken by those whom their office puts in the obligation of commanding you directly or of correcting you: he will be discouraged, he is getting discouraged, he is discouraged. That is what I hear from one and then from another. And when I want to get to the bottom of things, what do I find? Simply that one person's mood has been upset; that one has had to impose some humiliation on another; that a missionary has been removed from a place that he liked or simply from a place to which he had become accustomed, in order to send him to another; that one has not had the necessary time to tell him carefully and gently, by making him come from afar, a truth that it was necessary to make him hear. I repeat, there is nothing that makes the work of superiors more difficult than similar attitudes on the part of those whom they must direct. They are always trembling t the thought of upsetting someone; they no longer dare to make the most necessary resolutions, and little by little everything is in danger of being ruined.
We are already crushed by the terrible responsibilities, by the perpetual bondage in which we are kept by so many things to do, by the impossibility of finding, for a single moment, true rest of mind and heart, without having to suffer a similar gloom on top of it all. I have said to you sometimes with the Holy Spirit, and I repeat it to you again today: it is not good for you to upset in this way those whose lives are consecrated to you; you can only draw the curses of God upon yourselves and upon your Society: Ut hoc non faciant gementes, hoc enim non expedit vobis, There is only one remedy for the dispositions of poor human nature, and that is truly supernatural dedication inspired by the thought of zeal. Be apostles, then! remember that you are apostles; remember that you can contribute usefully to the apostolate only by dedicating yourselves wholeheartedly to the office assigned to you under obedience. Misery, cowardice, numbness will disappear: you will no longer think of yourselves, of your comforts, your habits, your whims; everything will vanish before the great thought of the holy work with which our Lord associates you in the present time, and the endless reward that he promises you in eternity.
3) I could give you still other detailed opinions; I leave it to your Superior General to pass them on to you, but I must at least say a word about one other serious and sensitive matter which he will also tell you about, and to which I attach real importance. It concerns the Sisters of the Mission. You know, my dear Children, how they came into being. They were formed, like your own Society, to provide for the needs of the indigenous orphanages during the time of the famine. These orphanages, being agricultural, asked for religious women suitable for work in the fields, and that is why these religious were chosen, from the beginning, from among the girls of the countryside, and their rules adapted to this same kind of life. At that time we lived under a government that promised Christian undertakings a quiet future, and we hoped to be able to multiply and develop establishments of the kind we were creating. Unfortunately, political events, which I do not need to recall, fifteen years ago turned all our plans upside down. It was clear that an era of persecution was looming on the horizon, and that in Algeria in particular, with all the bad passions that reign in the elected councils the multiplication of our indigenous orphanages would soon be impeded, either by moral constraints or by the removal of material subsidies.
So, in order to make use of the already numerous sisters of the Venerable Geronimo congregation, we had to think of giving a new direction to their activity, and to apply them to teaching in the boarding schools and colleges. To this end, they were brought together with a congregation of sisters from the diocese of Nancy, who had asked me [for permission] to come and establish themselves in Algeria, and whose experience of teaching was well established. But because of influences from different directions, this union could not last, and the Sisters of the Assumption asked to return to France.
The former Geronimyte communities, however, kept the educational institutions, founded in common by the Sisters of both communities. This lasted until recently, when all the teachers, even those in private schools [écoles libres] , were obliged to obtain diplomas. I regret to say that it was difficult to make up for the lack of primary education, even with the most persevering and courageous efforts. Out of the group of Sisters scarcely two or three of them were found to be capable of passing the exams for primary school teachers of the most humble degree. The same inadequacy was shown with regard to the government of the congregation. Of the five members who make up the Council of the Society and who were elected by the vote of all the Sisters, there are four who are unable to write with correct spelling and to compose by themselves the simplest letter. The authorities in charge of education, who are unfortunately not benevolent, either in Algeria or even in Tunisia where the Sisters had established two schools, soon became aware of these serious shortcomings and protested to me in a way most humiliating for the honour of the Church and for the honour of our institutions.
To continue in a similar state of affairs and to wait, necessarily a very long time, for Sisters to be formed as teachers and for the government of the congregation appeared to me already to be almost impossible; and the only reasonable solution was to have these Sisters return purely and simply to their original vocation, that is to say, to the service of hospital and agricultural institutions, maintaining them at their current number which is more than sufficient for the institutions that at present it is possible [to maintain]. This is what I am going to do, no doubt, leaving those among them who would not want to return to their original rule as Sisters of the Venerable Geronimo to join some of the teaching congregations that already exist in the missions.
But at the same time, and for the most serious reasons and out of fear of misfortunes that would be forever deplorable, I find myself obliged to put an end to the too frequent and too close relationship that existed almost everywhere between the Sisters and the missionaries. I leave it to your Father Superior to give you in this regard the clarifications and details which prudence prevents me from entrusting to paper. I will limit myself to saying that from several quarters at the same time, from persons who are very serious and the least suspect of partiality, I have received observations and complaints about these multiple relationships and the calumnies which resulted from them. Having therefore weighed all these considerations before God, I have also decided to separate completely, at least for a time and until the congregations have grown older, the government of the Sisters and that of the missionaries, as regards both their general and particular administrations.
Consequently, I have personally entrusted the charge of Superior of the Congregation of the Sisters to Bishop Dusserre, my venerable coadjutor, who by his authority, virtues, wisdom and the experience that comes with age, is so apt to provide the Congregation of the Mission with the direction and protection it needs. I have also decided that, except in exceptional cases, no missionary may be entrusted in any capacity with the direction of the sisters, either as confessor and, even more so, as director or inspector of material affairs.
I stop there, my dear Children. Your delegated superior, the Reverend Father Bridoux, will add to these communications the recommendations he feels are useful and the reflections he believes are necessary to explain to you a measure we have taken together, after much hesitation and to fulfill what seemed to us to be a definite duty of conscience.
4) I would like to speak to you further, my dear Children, for it seems to me that I am thus compensating myself for the sadness I feel at being kept away from you at this time by another duty. But I feel that it is time to end, if only to have sufficient time to send you this letter before the end of your exercises. In closing, I want to inform you officially of a new grace that the good Lord is granting this year to our little Society and that I, for my part, had long desired. Saint Ambrose said that in the order of the supernatural graces of God, everything comes to us through Mary. It can be said, with the same [degree of] truth, that in the Church of God all power and direction comes from Peter. Consequently, the closer we come to the Holy Apostolic See, the more we receive its inspirations, its guidance; the more we should feel truth and life increase within us. It was indeed of Peter and his successors that it was said: Omnis qui non congregat mecum spargit . That is why I wanted to impose upon you in the very text of your rules the obligation to follow as a law not only the orders and counsels of the Supreme Pontiff, but even his slightest wishes.
In this regard, my dear Children, I am happy to announce that I have been able to fulfil my desire and that of many of you, to have in Rome a house of your Society and a procurator of your undertakings. For this purpose, with the approval and blessing of the Supreme Pontiff, I have obtained the French church of St. Nicolas-des-Lorrains, with an annual income of eight thousand francs and sufficient premises for the housing of a community of six missionaries. In truth, I do not propose to ask your council to send so many Fathers to a house of this kind. But one could send there, besides the Procurator General and his assistant, the most distinguished of the scholastics to follow, as is done in all other religious orders, the theology courses of the Roman universities and especially that of Propaganda, to which we are more directly attached. We would have there for our scholasticate a nursery for excellent professors. This is what the Council of your Society will be called upon to deliberate on and come to a decision later. For the time being, I only want to urge you to take advantage of this circumstance to renew your love for the Holy Apostolic See and your attachment to it.
Farewell, my dear Children, receive once again the expression of my great regret for not being with you. But distance cannot diminish my paternal attachment and my desire to see you grow in apostolic virtues. Do not be angry with me if I have perhaps upset you through this letter by telling you frankly my thoughts. I did so only to fulfill my duty to you. My only wish in appearing before the just judge to whom I must soon give an account of my administration is to be able to say to him, as the Saviour said to his disciples: Pater, quos dedisti mihi, non perdidi quemquam .
I bless you, my dear Children, in the charity of the heart of our Lord and in that of our Mother, the most immaculate Virgin Mary, and I remain your father in our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Bresson, superior of Woluwé, Belgium (6 November 1885)
Carthage,
My dear Friend,
I also regretted not going to see you all in Algiers . I would have liked to ask you in detail about the house in Woluwe and the arrangements in Belgium. Thank you for the long letter you have written to me and the useful information it contains. I see with joy that the Good Lord is blessing your work and that of your good confreres. Tell them and also your students that I bless them from afar, with a most paternal heart.
What I wish above all is to see the bonds that unite the different nationalities in our little Society become closer. I hold more dearly to the union with the Belgians who came first and who are eminently gifted with qualities for the apostolate.
In this regard, and this is for you alone, the actions of Father Merlon in the Congo worry us greatly . Fr. Bridoux must have written to you or will do so soon. I am counting on your perspicacity and on your devotion to discover, in Belgium, all the threads of the fabric that the poor Father seems to want to weave, and to make them known to us exactly and promptly. It is in Mechelen and at Mr. Strauch's house that the centre should be.
[The results] of your missionary appeals (quêtes) are increasing, but the Congregation needs much more for its work [and its institutions]. So they must be activated and expanded.
Farewell, my dear child, believe in my most devoted feelings in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
When finishing my letter, I received the one you have sent me for the feast of St. Charles. Thank you for your good wishes.
Letter to Father Deguerry superior in Jerusalem (8 November 1885 )
Carthage,
My dear Friend,
I had been waiting for a long time for your answer and did not know how to explain this long silence. I finally received it. But if it is pleasing to me, since it brings me good news of you, it does not help me much for the rest. I will take up one by one the questions that you are dealing with:
1st and 2nd - Concerning the expenses to be incurred for the acquisition of houses in front of Saint-Anne’s and the Probatic Pool, I am enclosing the letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcing the allowance intended to cover half of the purchase price, but only up to a maximum of twenty thousand francs. You will comply with this letter, and as soon as the acquisition is finalised, you will let me know the figure for the payment of which, moreover, I give you authorization now, [the money] to be drawn in due course from Mr. Tournier .
3° - As for the Credo, since there is nothing left of the old sanctuary, which is in one way unfortunate and in another [way not], I myself will bring a complete plan when I go to Jerusalem, if I can go there next year: this is, in fact, once again becoming doubtful. We have had cholera in Tunis for about a month now, but it is a shameful cholera that lies hidden but does not break out. So far, the number of cases has never been over sixteen in one day, and the highest death toll has been eleven.
All of this is almost exclusively among the Jews, because there have been only four or five Europeans and as many Muslims affected. But those who have long experience of the country, such as the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Capuchin Fathers and the long established families, are unanimous in affirming that in the case of the two previous epidemics cholera began in the same period [of the year] and in the same way, but that it dragged on throughout the winter or even seemed to lie dormant for weeks on end. Then, in the spring, it developed strongly and became terrible during the summer, when it carried oof up to a thousand people a day, and this time without distinction of nationality.
If all this happens, it is impossible, you will understand, for me to be absent, especially with the terror that is already taking hold of the population, mainly the Jews, the Maltese and the Sicilians. If I do not come, I shall at least send you my plans with my instructions for the Credo.
4 - I say the same with regard to St. Anne's, about which I am keeping the information you give.
5 - As for the investment of funds, I am determined not to carry it out below at least 8%. But as I see that you do not find anything of this kind in town houses or gardens, I ask you to study carefully the investment of funds on mortgages in Palestine. First, see what conditions are necessary to ensure that the investments are absolutely free from any possibility of loss, or, as the business people say, that these investments are absolutely safe (de tout repos). From what I can see from the operations of the bankers in Jerusalem, it seems to me that the interest rate must be very high and thus would satisfactorily meet my programme [of investments].
As for buying properties to wait for the increase in value, I will only be able to do so if the mission appeals undertaken in America by Father Vignon accompanied by Mr. Naulaerts, vicar of Medea, put considerable resources into our hands. But so far they have not started. Father Vignon, after having offered himself enthusiastically for this work, is engaged in stupidity after stupidity over there. It is a month and a half since he left, but he still has not sent anything.
Well, all the items have been dealt with. As for your house at St. Anne's, all has been done for you according to your wishes, and I hope, therefore, that the house will be able to function well. A few days ago, through Father Federlin, I sent you a request from a child at your apostolic school. I would like him to receive satisfaction, if there is nothing to say against this poor little one whose letter interests me. If need be, take him back, at least provisionally, and I'll see to it that the matter is settled in Rome.
Everything here flows pretty smoothly. As Father Federlin has given you the news about the details concerning us, I won't repeat it. I'll only tell you that for my health your prediction always comes true to the letter. I'm not dead, since I'm dictating this letter, but all my pains, gout and so on, continue to spread through my unfortunate carcass, and make me spend days and, above all, nights that are not very pleasant. I have just celebrated the anniversary of the day when you gave me the last sacraments. I wanted to celebrate Holy Mass in exactly the same place and at the same time that you celebrated it for me, and I asked Our Lord for complete submission to His holy will. I believe that He has granted me this grace and I beg you to thank Him for me, just as I myself ask Him to bless you in all things .
Farewell, my dear Friend, tell all your good confreres and your children that I am sending them from afar all the blessings of the Patriarchs, and believe me all to you in our Lord.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. As I close my letter, I have received a new one from Father Vignon. He finally gives me the figures for his collections. It's fabulous... 2,500 francs over two and a half months. If you could buy Palestine with that much, I would be surprised.
Letter to the French Minister of Religious Affairs concerning the Church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Lorrains in Rome (18 January 1886)
Dear Sir,
The cholera that has raged, or rather has been lying concealed in Tunis since September has prevented me from leaving for Rome as I had planned to do last autumn. Now it would seem to have subsided and, as a result, I am thinking of setting off soon.
The twofold aim that I propose to achieve on this journey is already known to the Government of the Republic. The first is to install the French missionaries of Algiers, in charge of the missions in the interior of Africa, in the sanctuary of St. Nicola des Lorrains which has been entrusted to them by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The second is to obtain from the Holy Father the appointment of a French coadjutor for the archdiocese of Carthage, in order to prevent an Italian bishop from being appointed there on my death, according to the plan which I had the honour of submitting to the government and which had been approved by your predecessor , when Mr Flourens was Director General of Religious Affairs.
In giving you these details, Excellency, I am fulfilling a duty of respectful deference, which I ask you to accept, together with that of my highest consideration.
I remain, Your Excellency, your most humble and obedient servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie.
Letter to the Propagation of the Faith about the caravan to the Congo River (17 February 1886)
Tunis - Rome,
To the Presidents and Members of the Central Councils of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith.
Gentlemen,
Since Bishop Livinhac and Bishop Charbonnier had the honour of recently sending you their reports on their apostolic vicariates, which had been published in the Bulletin des Missions Catholiques , I do not think I need to speak to you about them now. I will content myself with telling you that the news received from their caravans was as good as it could be; everything was going as smoothly as possible, and no Father had yet fallen ill. They must by now have arrived at their destinations.
I will simply add that the son of Mtesa, who succeeded his father as King of Uganda, personally sent his canoes to bring Father Lourdel and two of his companions from the other side of Lake Nyanza to settle near him permanently. Before ascending to the throne he had come, as you know, to be secretly instructed by them on the truths of religion, and one may expect from this circumstance the happiest results.
Today I would like to speak to you in particular about the missions of the Upper Congo and especially about the attempt we are making to establish missions in [this region of the] Upper Congo, taking as a starting point not Zanzibar, as the missionaries established in Massanze did, but the very mouth of the Congo. Three fathers left for this purpose, passing through Lisbon: Fathers Dupont, Schynse and Merlon. Their instructions were to go up the river to the place where, after crossing the equator, it descends to its source, that is, to Lake Tanganyika , and to choose, beyond the limits of the jurisdiction of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit, the sites on the banks of the river, either on the right side or the left, which they considered suitable for the installation of missions; in other words, those which, under favourable climatic conditions, would have the advantage of gathering around them a numerous indigenous population. The letters we have received so far tell us of the difficulties, hopes and needs of these new stations. Father Dupont wrote to me from Brazzaville on November 27th :
"Our journey in the caravan was a happy one even though ten porters disappeared and left us after three days of walking. This incident delayed us for eight days, and so it took us twenty-seven days to get to Stanley Pool.
" Regrettably, we only had a small part of our luggage with us, due to the lack of porters. Major Parmentier promised to send our luggage to Manyanga as soon as possible, where we could have our porters pick it up once the first loads had been deposited at the Pool. For this reason Father Schynse stayed at Manyanga, to receive our luggage and hand it over to the porters whom I am now sending back to him. The problems we experience here are no doubt due to the nature of things, but also because we have waited too long for help that was always promised to us and that we never received.
"A little higher than Lukulela station is the mouth of the river Irebu. The population is very numerous there, and almost opposite, on the other side of the river, is the post of Bonga that France has abandoned. I have thought of these two places and I do not think that the authorities will make difficulties for me, but the project must be implemented and I am looking for the means to do so. On the other hand, we saw Mr. Wisseman. He kept saying: ‘go to the Baluba (people who live on a right-hand tributary of the Upper Kassai), that is your place, you will do much good there and with ease’. Since then I have seen several of those gentlemen who have accompanied Colonel de Winte to that land and they all told me the same thing. The Baluba form a population which is numerous; they are rich, simple, trustful, and very eager to learn about Europe. Everyone agrees that they are the most interesting people in the hinterlands of Africa. What is more, I know that the Governor General is anxious to see us settled there immediately in order to prevent the Protestants from arriving before us.
"But this mission will be difficult and will never survive it has a boat at its service. Since the boats here are refusing us passage, the only thing left for us to do is to try to make a difficult and dangerous journey in dugout canoes, or to get a boat. A steamboat would not be convenient for us, since it requires too much maintenance, but it would not be the same with a sailing boat in this country where the wind, especially during the dry season, blows constantly in the direction of the upper Congo.
"I have been examining this matter as carefully as I can, and I think we would need a whaleboat eight to ten meters in length; it should be made of oak, or better still, of copper, not steel. Steel boats lack durability here; I have seen some that have never been used and are already full of holes because of rust; the oak boat is heavy to carry. It seems to me that the copper boat combines the advantages of lightness for transport and long life without much maintenance. This boat should have a strong sail and a canvas covering the whole boat to protect the luggage from the rain.
"These relatively small expenses (I don't expect the purchase costs to exceed 1 to 5 thousand francs) will save us much trouble and will give us the freedom of action that we now lack, since from now on no missionary can obtain passage on the boats of the Independent State of the Congo. We would also avoid a lot of expenses and weariness. We are entirely at the mercy of people who are well aware of this.
"I beg you, Eminence and Most Venerable Father, do not deny the new-born mission of the Congo something which is necessary for its life. A procure will also be necessary in the Lower Congo, at least for a few years, until we have Negroes trained to help us. With much patience and time we shall succeed. I am looking in vain for an interpreter and a guide... »
This overview shows you, gentlemen, how, in addition to the expenses we have to meet at the very end of the river at Massanzé, we are obliged to foresee new ones at the intermediate points on the Congo. We therefore need your help more than ever for these missions which have already claimed the lives of several of our missionaries, and in this respect I dare to rely especially on your charity.
I am finishing in Rome this letter which began in Tunis at the time of my departure, which was hastened by an unexpected contingency. Excuse therefore, I beg you, the different calligraphy, and please accept, gentlemen, the expression of my most respectfully devoted sentiments.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. I enclose with this letter the statement you recently requested for the Diocese of Carthage.
Letter to Pope Leo XIII concerning the history of ancient Christian Africa (27 February 1886)
Rome,
Most Holy Father,
I humbly dare to place at the feet of Your Holiness a pastoral letter that I have just addressed to the clergy and faithful of the Diocese of Carthage on the history of the dogma of the Holy Eucharist and Eucharistic worship in the ancient Church of Africa.
In submitting this modest work to your paternal benevolence, I do not overestimate its value. I would, however, seek a word of encouragement from your Holiness for our recently formed clergy whose archaeological labours are mentioned and made use of in my pastoral letter. It would indeed be of great benefit, Most Holy Father, if the African clergy were to attach real importance to the research and study of the ancient Christian heritage which our soil conceals in great quantities and which is of such benefit to history and even to Catholic apologetics. But time is running out because all these precious remains of Christian antiquity will soon be scattered by the hands of the builders of villages, of roads, which are planned in Tunisia.
A word from you, Most Holy Father, will do more than all my efforts. I dare to ask and expect it from the great Pope who revived in the Christian world the study of true philosophy and of history.
With this confidence and prostrating myself at your holy feet, Most Holy Father, I have the honour to call myself, of Your Holiness, the most humble, most obedient and most devoted servant and creature.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Bresson, superior of Woluwé in Belgium (14 April 1886)
Brussels,
My dear Superior,
Before leaving Belgium, I want to tell you once again how happy I was with my visit to the little novitiate in Woluwe. Ten days ago, I saw the swarm of young novices who were crossing Paris on their way to the apostolic school of Saint-Eugène. All these young men had impressed me by their excellent manners, their devotion and that air of modest self-confidence which is so well suited to missionaries. I was no less charmed by those I saw in your house. In their presence I spontaneously remembered what St. Francis Xavier, that consummate model of the Apostle, wrote to St. Ignatius when he asked him for his best missionaries: Send me Belgians! he said to him, da mihi Belgas!
I can say the same thing of the Belgian missionaries I know in our missions. They have that right mixture of ardour and calmness, of lively faith and perseverance, of strength of spirit and vigour of body that make a man fit for these undertakings where one must overcome so many challenges, sometimes undergo so much suffering, accepting in advance the very sacrifice of life. May God, therefore, multiply vocations to the apostolate among them, and may your house always be too small to receive them. This is the wish I make for this house and the fatherly blessing I give to it as I leave.
I trust God will hear me him, for he does not leave his works incomplete. It is no coincidence, therefore, that he has just given Belgium, through its monarch, the glory of opening up the interior of Equatorial Africa to civilization and faith. This work is, in a sense, the greatest of this century. I see nothing in our (French?) history, higher than the truly royal initiative and perseverance that, between the two oceans, has finally opened up the African continent.
I am not just talking about the economic future of the most admirable and perhaps richest regions of the world. I am talking about the higher interests of the human race: a barrier now opposed to the brutal invasion of Mohammedanism, which over the last century has conquered a third of Africa and which was about to conquer the rest of it in order to subjugate it to its sterile yoke; the imminent abolition of the land slave-trade and slavery, which is even more dreadful than the sea-trade; the initiation of races which are now sadly debased but whose children, as we have experienced, are capable of education and sometimes remarkable progress.
This is what should arouse the gratitude of all and what arouses mine. I am not the only one. I have just returned from Rome, at this very moment. There I heard Leo XIII, that great Pope who has always remained attached to Belgium since he has known it closely , express before all the members of the Sacred College his profound joy at the great work which the King of the Belgians has begun, and his wishes that all will support it in the interest of religion.
And in truth, the common Father of the faithful, of the small, the weak, the born promoter of true civilization and true light, was right to speak thus. He was responding to a Christian and royal word that I had heard in Brussels itself, shortly after Leopold II had addressed his first appeal to the elite of all nations to join him in this great and peaceful conquest. As I took the liberty of telling him about the difficulties, the perils, the heavy burdens of such an attempt, he said to me with an accent that touched me and which Providence should bless: "All that is non to me, but I must think of dying one day, and when I die I would like to be able, at least, to offer to God a work that is out of the ordinary and which may call down upon me his mercy. If I succeed, in spite of the obstacles, that is the one I will offer him. »
A truly beautiful word and one that deserved to be crowned, as it has been, even in this world, by the and support of all the nations of Europe; a word that must touch Belgian Catholics above all, and your novices in particular, by showing them that they owe their undivided dedication to a work that, in order to be fruitful, must be Christian and therefore supported by all that is Christian.
Believe, my dear Father, in my devoted and affectionate sentiments in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Carthage
Letter to Father Bresson (4 July 1886)
Carthage,
My dear Child,
I am leaving for Rome tomorrow morning to deal with a matter relating to the Congo missions and I would like to ask you in these few lines to intervene with General Strauch and through him with His Majesty in view of obtaining a response which favours our rights.
You will recall that during my last stay in Brussels, His Majesty himself deigned to express to me the desire to see us remain in the Belgian Congo to serve the missions there. Now the Holy Ghost Fathers claim to have obtained from the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, instead of us, the whole area of the Belgian Congo extending to beyond Kwarmouth where our three fathers Merlon, Schynse and Dupont are already at present; the last-mentioned being destined for the French Congo. I would like to know very explicitly whether His Majesty favours these allegations of the Spiritans who are using to support them, it must be said, extremely disloyal arguments [lit. “weapons”]. I would therefore be very happy if Colonel Strauch would formally declare to you that he is not in favour, as far as he is concerned, of these attempts of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers to dispossess us, so that I may be quite sure of his and the King's opinions, and may use them if occasion arises against our competitors.
In my name ask Canon Loyer to help you in this matter with his usual intelligence, and write to me as soon as you have an answer, addressing your letter to Father Burtin, procurator of the Missionaries of Algiers at Saint-Nicolas-des-Lorrains, 19 via Torre Sanguigna, Rome. Take care to use two envelopes, one outside bearing the name of the father with his particulars, and the other inside bearing my name alone.
I was very pleased with the good news you gave me about the house in Woluwe, but I am still waiting for my dog and its cart. I bless you all, my dear children, and I remain your devoted and affectionate father in our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Deguerry, the future Superior General (20 September 1886)
Alger,
My dear Child,
If my desire to see you accept the role of Superior General for three years had any other origin than that of ensuring the well-being and indeed the very existence of the Society of Missionaries, I would gladly forego it to prove to you once again my paternal and tender affection. But however great the sacrifice I shall be imposing on you, I believe this is necessary, if you do not want to bring about the destruction of the enterprises we began together and which have given us so much pain and fatigue. I feel that I am at the end of my strength and my courage and, in order not to reject the burden, I need to feel supported by your affection. You cannot, you must not, my dear Child, refuse me this help. If I were asking you to accept to be superior until your death, I would understand your refusal, but I ask for three years only during which we will carry the burden together, and which will pass so quickly, I cannot accept it.
My dear Child, it is necessary for you to accept with resignation what is asked of you. I am not giving an order, but rather I beg you, on the grounds of the interest you bear to this small Society with which you are, as it were, identified from the beginning and on account of the trust I have always shown in you, not to strike such a fatal blow against it and against me. I beg of you to come back to see me tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday. If you persist in your refusal, I will give my resignation to the Holy Father immediately, considering your determination as a sign that I can no longer govern the congregation.
Yours.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie.
Letter to Mgr Dusserre, his auxiliary in Algiers (24 September 1886)
Algiers,
My lord,
As I said to you, I told the congregation in chapter yesterday that from now on I intend to let it govern itself alone. It is therefore necessary to settle its situation vis-à-vis the diocese of Algiers, with regard to material affairs and to assert all the rights that the archiepiscopal administration may have or claim to have over the houses and lands currently occupied by the mission. Please, therefore, make preparations for this together with your Council with regard to St. Eugène, Notre Dame d'Afrique, Maison Carrée, the Attafs, and other properties that would be in a similar situation.
Be assured, dear Monsignor, of my heartfelt union in our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Propaganda Fide about the mission in Tanganyika (6 October 1886)
Algiers,
Your Eminence
In my letter of February 2, 1885, I asked Your Eminence to confer the title of Apostolic Pro-vicar of Tanganyka on the Most Reverend Father Charbonnier, former Superior General of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Algiers who, after the time of his generalate was over, had requested the favour of devoting himself to the missions of Equatorial Africa.
Your Eminence, in his reply of March 14, 1885, was kind enough to let me know that my request had been favourably received, and to express to me his own desire that this provisional situation should cease as soon as possible and that the pro-vicariate of Tanganyka should be erected as an Apostolic Vicariate.
Consequently, I would have requested immediately for the most Reverend Father Charbonnier the title of Apostolic Vicar with the episcopal character, if I had not thought it necessary to make him first endure the trials of the climate, in order to know whether his health could bear it. Today this test has been made, and the most Reverend Father Charbonnier has been residing for quite some time in his mission, after having endured, without any kind of inconvenience, the formidable fatigues of such a long journey. I believe, therefore, that there is reason to do for him what was done for the Apostolic Vicar of the Nyanza, Bishop Livinhac, namely, to establish his mission as an Apostolic Vicariate properly speaking and to appoint Mgr Charbonnier as bishop.
The mission of Tanganyka is, in fact, engaged in new and happier developments every day. It includes no less than five distinct stations of missionaries, namely: Kibanga with three missionaries, Mpala with three missionaries, Karema with two missionaries, Oujiji with three missionaries, and Uzigue with three missionaries. The number of pagans converted is already quite considerable.
The mission has moreover, in Mpala, a sort of small kingdom which is growing day by day, because the barbarian populations find it a great advantage to group together in the vicinity of the institutions established by the Fathers. Moreover the Most Reverend Father Jean-Baptiste Charbonnier fulfils all the necessary conditions for a bishop according to the desire of God. He was, as mentioned above, Superior General of the community, elected to this office by the unanimous vote of the missionaries. He is of unfailing piety and virtue. He is in his 45th year, having been born in France in the diocese of Mende in 1842. He was brought up in the seminary directed by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, and it was from there that he came to devote himself to our missions.
If it were necessary, in order to conform to custom, to present a list of three priests , I could also present to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide the Reverend Father Coulbois, from the same mission of Tanganyika, and Father Féderlin, secretary general of the Congregation of Missionaries. But the first is only 35 years old, and the second 31, and I believe that, while by their virtues, prudence and ability they are very worthy of being bishops, they are far below the first in terms of experience.
Please accept, Eminence, the expression of the sentiments with which, in kissing your hands very humbly, I have the honour of being your very humble, very obedient and very respectful servant.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Brincat, the new representative of Cardinal Lavigerie in Paris (8 October 1886)
Algiers,
My dear Vicar General,
Since you agree to represent me now in France, I would like, first of all, to express my gratitude to you, and I do so with all my heart, because it is a sacrifice for you to leave your native land and the climate to which you are accustomed.
I also want to tell you how I perceive the functions I am entrusting to you. From the moment our institutions in Africa took on a greater development, I had to found in Paris and Rome procures to deal with the many different matters [this entailed]. The one in Paris I had established, with authorization from the venerable Cardinal Guibert, in the parish of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule. Later, at the request of Mgr. Dauphin, I authorized Father Charmetant, who was in charge of it, to move closer to the headquarters of the Œuvre des Écoles d'Orient and place it in rue du Regard. That is where it is still.
But Father Charmetant, after having been for several years my representative exclusively, became at the death of Mgr Dauphin, at first in fact and now by right, the director of the Écoles d'Orient, at the request of the council of this Society. However, the impossibility of carrying out these two functions simultaneously, even with his exceptional activity and zeal, soon became obvious, and I had to give up the very useful contribution he gave me, to allow him to devote himself entirely to a more comprehensive institution, which is itself, moreover, rightly dear to me.
That for which you become especially responsible, after this separation, is to represent me in France in relation to the public administrations with which I am ordinarily in contact, either for my dioceses or for our African missions, and also in relation to the organizations that support them, such as the Propagation of the Faith, the Holy Childhood and the Oeuvre des Écoles d'Orient with which I wish you to maintain always the best of relationships.
You must not, and you would not be able, to contemplate any competition with these institutions, either by imitating their organization or by permanently establishing a system of monthly or annual appeals. You have simply to keep up the sympathy of our benefactors in France by making them aware of our activities. The Bulletin des Missions d'Alger, which we have been publishing every three months for more than fifteen years, under the patronage of Saint Monica and with the encouragement of the Holy See, was founded for this purpose. If an extraordinary contributions are made, you will note them down, carefully mentioning to which of our institutions or missions they should be directed, so that the intentions of the donors may always be followed exactly.
Above all, I recommend especially do not go beyond the discretion and reserve in which a bishop's representative should confine himself. The director of an ordinary charitable organization may have reasons to do otherwise; but I could in no way accept that, in order to provide us with resources, you use means or partnerships that would astonish Catholics. In this respect, as you will readily understand, it is not permitted to you, without my prior consent, to vomit either your [own] name or mine. If you put yourself forward in this way, I would not be able to disavow you without serious inconvenience, and even though such undertakings could in themselves be explained, the fact is that propriety does not allow my representative or myself to engage in such undertakings.
Because I am aware of your dedication, prudence and zeal, I have every confidence, my dear friend, that in all these respects you will completely meet my expectations, and that I will only have to congratulate myself for the trust I have placed in you which I know is deserved.
Be assured, my dear Vicar General, of my paternally devoted sentiments in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Propaganda Fide (6 October 1886)
Algiers,
Eminence,
Before writing to your eminence the two letters , dated today, relating to my jurisdiction over part of the French and Belgian Congo, I thought I should consult the Société des Missionnaires d'Alger, that I entrusted with the foundation of these missions and the other missions in Equatorial Africa that have been entrusted to me. I took advantage of the convening of the General Chapter of this congregation which, in conformity with its rules, has just been held in order to elect its Superior General, Reverend Father Bridoux having completed his mandate as Superior General. This Chapter has just ended with the election of Reverend Father Deguerry, who had already twice before been honoured with the same office, and who was most recently superior of the house of Saint Anne in Jerusalem.
Once this election was over, I submitted to the Chapter the question of the missions in Congo, presenting all the relevant documents. Like me, Eminence, the Chapter of the Congregation of Missionaries, while painfully surprised by the procedures used to strip them of missions that had already cost them so much money and pain, believed that the good of peace should prevail over any other consideration, and consequently formally declared to me its consent to abandon the territories in the French Congo and the Belgian Congo which, until now, had been allocated to us, and to cede first mentioned to the apostolic vicar of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, and the second to the delegate of the King of the Belgians.
Yet at the same time the same Chapter asked me to request from the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, by way of compensation for the losses it had sustained, a new division of its own territories. This would allow it to retain four separate vicariates as it had up to now, with the personnel that the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers already had in place or that it was planning soon to have in its two missions, French Upper Congo and Belgian Upper Congo.
These four vicariates were those of Lake Nyanza, Lake Tanganyika, Southern Upper Congo and Northern Upper Congo. The map attached to this letter shows exactly the boundaries, as drawn up by the decree of the Sacred Congregation dated 27th September 1880 and the letter of the same Congregation dated 30th September 1880. However, experience has shown us that the distance between Rubaga, residence of the Apostolic Vicar of Nyanza, on the lake bearing the same name, and Oujiji, residence of the Apostolic Pro-vicariate of Tanganyika, was too large to be evangelized by two Apostolic Vicariates. An intermediary between them is required to satisfy all needs.
On the other hand, since the King of the Belgians has asked us as a service to keep our missions in the far reaches of the Upper Congo, west of Lake Tanganyka, and has consented to the creation of a jurisdiction dependent on my authority in that part of the Independent State where there is no European establishment, it would be appropriate to maintain there an apostolic pro-vicariate.
The same map attached to this letter indicates precisely the boundaries of these four vicariates. The vicariate of Lake Nyanza would be bordered to the north by the Bahar el Arab River , from the 30th degree of eastern longitude (Greenwich meridian) to its confluence with the Nile, and by the Sobat River from its confluence with the Nile to the Kaffa Mountains. To the east, it would be delimited by a line from the Kaffa Mountains, continuing towards Lake Baringo and ending at Mount Kenia; to the west by the eastern shore of Lake Muta-Nsigé, the western shore of Lake Albert Nyanza and the Bahar-Rohl River, as far as the Bahar el Arab River. To the south is Lake Alexandra, then a line from the Lukoko River, at the 3rd degree of southern latitude and extending on the same degree to the 34th degree of eastern longitude; from the latter point, a line leading to the confluence of the Ruwana River with Lake Nyanza and then along the entire length of this river to Mount Kenia.
The vicariate of Tanganyika would have as its boundaries: in the north, Lake Muta-Nsigé, the northern shore of Lake Alexandra and the Lukoke River. To the east the Lukoké River to its confluence with the river Gombe; from this point a straight line reaching to the north of Lake Nyassa, crossing the Lobisa Mountains and reaching the eastern shore of Lake Bangweolo. To the west, a line from the southern end of Lake Muta-Naigé, the Luanda River, Lake Tanganyika and the Chambese River to its confluence with Lake Bangueolo.
The vicariate of Unyanembe would have as boundaries: to the south, the northern end of Lake Nyassa. To the east, a line starting from Mount Kenia, crossing the Massaï and Ugogo regions and ending at Lake Nyassa. To the north, the southern part of the Nyanza vicariate, and to the west the eastern boundaries of the Tanganyka vicariate.
The vicariate of Upper Congo would have as its boundaries: to the north a line starting from the southern end of Lake Muta-Nsigé, and ending where the Lira River converges with the Lwalaba River. To the west, the Lwalaba River from the 3rd degree of southern latitude, the western shore of Lake Moëro and the western shore of Lake Bangueolo to the mouth of the Chambese River; to the east, the western part of the Tanganyka Vicariate.
I dare to hope that your Eminence will have no difficulty in entertaining these requests. Not only do they fall within the limits previously granted to us by the decree of 27th September 1880 and the letter of 30th September of the same year, but also they do not encompass the total extent of the two vicariates of Tanganyka and Nyanza. We renounce everything else that seems desired by other congregations. We only ask for the division of the territory into four separate vicariates, to compensate for the loss sustained by the Missionaries of Algiers.
In expressing in advance all my gratitude to your Eminence, I have the honour of professing myself, kissing your hands most humbly, your most humble and obedient servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Secretary of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide about Sainte Anne's Seminary in Jerusalem (12 October 1886)
Algiers,
Your Lordship,
In a recent letter concerning equatorial missions, I informed Cardinal Simeoni that the General Chapter of the Society of Missionaries of Africa had just met and that Reverend Father Deguerry, Superior of the House of St Anne in Jerusalem, had been appointed Superior General in place of the Father who had finished his mandate. Moreover the Chapter of the Society of Missionaries has appointed to replace Father Deguerry at St Anne’s in Jerusalem, Father Roger, who had already been superior of this house for several years at its beginnings.
The natural course of studies having brought the students of Saint Anne to (the level of) philosophy, it seemed necessary to begin, alongside the junior seminary, a major seminary strictly speaking, in which, after philosophy, three years would be dedicated to theology. In this house, to the study of philosophy and theology, the study of Arabic language and Latin would be added. The Greek Melkite rite is followed exclusively there, as in the house of elementary studies.
Father Michel, former director of the scholasticate for philosophy in Algiers, has been appointed director of this new section. Father Léon Cré, director of the major seminary in Carthage, has been appointed director of the elementary section of Sainte-Anne’s in Jerusalem. In this way the direction of this establishment is composed as follows: Reverend Father Roger, superior; Michel, director of the theology and philosophy section; Cré, director of the elementary section. There are in addition seven fathers and four brothers.
This, your Lordship, is the information that I thought would be of interest to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide and which I have the honour to bring to your knowledge today.
I take this occasion to renew the expression of my very affectionately devoted feelings and to profess myself to be your very humble servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Count de la Chevasnerie about a religious and military order in Africa (13 October 1886)
Algiers,
Dear Count de la Chevasnerie,
Your letter of 1st October 1886 arrived late in Algiers, but it is too much in line with one of my ideas for me not to answer it without delay. Like you, I am convinced that a military religious order would be admirably suited to the current situation in the interior of Africa. From the south of Algeria to north of the English and Dutch settlements on the Cape, this country [pays, though really ‘continent’ is meant], invaded and as if pierced on all sides, finds itself precisely in the state of disorganization and violence in which our European world was when the former religious-military orders were created to protect the weak, repress robbery and defend the Church or its ministers.
There would be then an admirable way of using the Christian ardour and warlike energy that are still to be found in France among a certain number of people. I can tell you, in all confidentiality, because you will [readily] understand the inconvenience of mentioning his name publicly in connection with such a question, that our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, when I broached this idea with him two years ago, seemed to be very much in favour of it.
I requested of him to urge the ancient Order of Malta, which could have been resurrected in this way, to implement it [this idea], indicating at the same time various territories on which it would be possible to establish a proper territorial sovereignty. The wish of the Holy Father, however, came up against the inertia of the current leaders of the Order of Malta and in particular that of the Grand Master who seemed much more inclined to enjoy quietly his office than to imitate his predecessors in running the risk of battles, even against poor barbarians.
You are aware, moreover, of what we have tried to do. A former captain of the Zouaves, Mr Joubert, agreed to accompany our missionaries to Lake Tanganyika with about ten of his former comrades-in-arms, Belgian or Dutch. Their commitment, however, was only for five years, and once that term had expired they returned to Europe. Only Mr Joubert, like a hero, answered our call once more and left last May to take command of the remote post of Mpala, on [Lake] Tanganyika, a post which had been handed over to us by the King of the Belgians and around which a number of tribes have gathered. It forms a kind of small kingdom of which Mr. Joubert is Chief.
It is there that it would be possible to bring about, in a great way, the resurrection of a religious order, if [only] a certain number of brave-hearted men were to come together with the idea of a peaceful conquest of these barbaric regions in the name of Christianity. In fact we had originally provided a Rule for our armed auxiliaries, as you have called them. This rule, however, foresaw that in order to maintain the unity of the mission they would be subject to the authority of our missionary fathers.
Consequently it would not be at all suitable for a military religious order properly speaking which would have to have its own military leaders. It is really a religious and military order, and not [a group of] brothers at the service of the missionaries, that I think it would be useful and possible to resurrect. So it would be necessary to draw up a Rule from scratch, but this would not be very difficult, given the existence of the ancient Rules. What is difficult, and yet absolutely essential, is [to find] a Christian worthy of the name who could embody the idea.
Would you be that Christian, Count?
If so, you can count on my sympathy and my support.
Please accept, Count, the expression of my highest consideration.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Burtin in Rome about relations with the Spiritans (19 October 1886)
Algiers,
My dear friend,
I again recommend to you the greatest cordiality and charity in your relations with the Holy Ghost Fathers and especially with Reverend Father Eschbach, who seemed to me, in all these sad affairs, to be animated by truly priestly and religious intentions. When you see him, please correct the idea he has about the circumstances in which the vicariates of Equatorial Africa have been assigned to your congregation.
Before they were assigned, these vicariates had been offered to the older congregations which were already established in Africa, and it was only on their refusal that the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers was entrusted with them. Not only did these congregations refuse, but they also declared to Propaganda Fide that our undertaking was [sheer] madness, and that it was criminal of me to send our missionaries to certain death. This was the opinion, in particular, of the Holy Ghost Fathers.
Only Reverend Father Horner, superior of Zanzibar, had a different opinion; but he asked in vain of his superiors to give permission to penetrate into the interior of the country, himself or others of his Fathers. Accordingly this excellent and truly apostolic man, when he saw our first caravan arrive, threw himself around the neck of Father Charmetant, who was its procurator , saying to him: "May God be blessed, this is finally the beginning of the real mission in Africa". He then told him all that he had done, but in vain, to convince his superiors of the need to move forward and not to be outstripped by the Protestants.
You see, my dear friend, how far we were from wanting to take the place or restrict [the movements] of anyone. Propaganda Fide entrusted you, after the formal refusal of others, with a task that the other congregations declared impossible. Full stop. It is true that feelings have changed since then, because in fact the mission to the hinterland has been proved possible. Even though we have suffered many painful and numerous losses, our Fathers are to be found in the area of the Great Lakes; they live there, [the number of] their Christians is increasing. We must bless God for this.
These, my dear friend, are the thoughts I already expressed at Propaganda Fide last July, and which you should have conveyed yourself to Father Eschbach in order to enlighten him. Do not fail to do so if the opportunity arises, and always repeat to him how much you and the Fathers of your congregation are all eager to live with them on good terms, as servants of the same Master should.
Believe me, my dear Father, always yours in our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Propaganda Fide requesting the approval of the Constitutions of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (31 October 1886)
Carthage,
Your Eminence,
I have the honour to submit to the Holy See for its consideration and approval the rules of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa, which was founded by me eighteen years ago in the diocese of Algiers where its mother house is still located.
To the copy of the Rules and Constitutions which you will find enclosed, I add a printed copy of the Directory to which the afore-mentioned rules refer on several important points.
The community of Our Lady of the Missions of Africa is dedicated to working for the salvation of the infidels, and especially the pagan women of Africa. At the moment, there are sixty-six religious, twelve of whom are still novices or scholastics [i.e. still in formation]. It has nine houses, all established in the dioceses of Algiers and Carthage, namely: the mother house, in Kouba, near Algiers, with the novitiate separate from it; a hospital for the indigenous population in Saint-Cyprien des Attafs; a school in Saint-Cyprien; a school at Sainte-Monique; an establishment with a work shop and dispensary in Ouad'hias, in Kabylia; another similar establishment, in Beni-Ismail, also in Kabylia; a school in La Marsa, Tunisia; a refuge for abandoned women, both indigenous and European, in the same centre.
I can bear serious witness to the good spirit that animates this community, to the piety, virtue and apostolic zeal of its members, and it seems to me, therefore, quite worthy of receiving a first sign of encouragement from the Holy See. As for the material needs, these are provided for by the property that has been definitively donated to them by myself in both Algeria and Tunisia, in a definitive way; at the moment this brings in an income of about one hundred thousand francs, not to mention the stipends of the majority of the Sisters.
While asking Your Eminence to submit this matter for consideration to the Sacred Congregation, I have the honour of humbly kissing the hands of Your Eminence and of respectfully professing myself to be your very humble, very obedient and very devoted servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Algiers and Carthage
Letter to his friend Mgr Foulon, Archbishop of Besançon in France (4 November 1886)
Carthage,
Reverend and Dear Monsignor,
Your friendship with me is always faithful to me, and we have now reached an age where old friendships are becoming dearer as they become rarer. We represent the first group of runners. What your Grace tells me about the cardinals of Lyon and Rennes touches me all the more since Roman tradition and the most respectable historical monuments prove as being fidei proximum, that the princes of the Church always leave three together. Wise crackers say that this is in order to give themselves courage and mutual support when they are brought in judgment before God, as he reproaches them for not having done anything worthwhile in this world. But this certainly does not refer to French cardinals. It refers to those of Rome who indulge in the eternal sweetness of the siesta and farniente.
You would never guess, dear Monsignor, where I shall be going, tomorrow already, accompanied by three secretaries? I am going to the Sahara, to the oasis of Biskra, seeking a temperature of 25 degrees [Celsius] and solitude; the 25 degrees for my chronic rheumatism and the solitude in order to put the final touches to a major project I have been working on for several years. This is a translation of Morcelli's Africa Christiana, in three volumes, folio edition - quis leget haec ? [who will read this?] - with an introduction and notes that make it almost a new work.
I was annoyed to see that we have nothing on the beautiful history of the Church of Africa and while I was raising up once more the walls of Carthage I tried to recover her memories. But putting the finishing touch to a book is a terrible affair. I need six months of uninterrupted work, without pun intended and even without allusion to the hand of poor Raoul de Saint-Seine - fortunately his donkey was not as angry as I am! In exchange, you make my mouth water by telling me that he was a scholar: if he could have been here, he could have replaced one of those who have accompanied me. All three of them are archaeologists... at least budding (They are near my worktable and I have just read them this sentence: they do not find it funny) .
Do you know another of my projects? On 15th May 1888, if I am still alive, which is very doubtful given all my excesses, I shall celebrate the silver jubilee of my episcopate. It will be the 25th anniversary of my installation in Nancy. I shall celebrate it by consecrating the new cathedral of Carthage and then holding a council lasting two days to which I shall summon my Suffragan Bishops and our Honorary Canons. You will not refuse to be present; I am inviting you in advance. Reflect that in going via Rome and Sicily, you will only have ten hours of a sea journey from Marsala to Carthage! You will not regret coming.
But this is doubtless like the fable of Perrette and the milk pot . My grave has already been dug beneath the cathedral of Carthage and has even been blessed by me. Venit nox in qua nemo potest operari. And I do not think that I, like my colleagues in Rome, have stolen a bit of ‘eternal’ rest.
Farewell, reverend and dear Monsignor. I have admired your recent letter and the attitude [you expressed]
With heartfelt greetingst,
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to his friend, Canon Gatheron, advanced in age (6 November 1886)
Carthage,
Dear old wreck,
You will excuse me if I dictate this letter, for I am no less a wreck than you are: the only difference is that I am taken by the hand and you are taken by the foot, but we are no better one than the other, and God warns us every day, by demolishing us bit by bit, that the time is not far away when our whole poor hut will collapse. Let us try to finish well, my dear friend, and let us have no illusions about what we have been able to do in the past; almost always it has been wrong, and it is not by breaking ploughs to increase trade , that we have sufficiently prepared ourselves a beautiful place in Paradise. Let us compensate for this by practising penance during our last days.
You certainly edified me the last time I saw you by the love for meditation that you showed me and through your complete resignation to God's holy will. Ask for me, through St. Charles, a large share in those two graces; they are no less necessary for me than for you. And believe, my dear old wreck, that I love you even more with this wooden leg, with which you make "a new spring bloom", than if I saw you as sprightly as I once did, running up hill and down dale in the Cheliff, and without protective covering, necessary at least on days of the sirocco.
Your Father and Friend in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Bridoux, superior of the scholasticate of Carthage regarding the calls to Orders (8 December 1886)
Biskra,
My dear Father,
It is only today that I received your letter of 3rd December, and I hasten to reply to it, because it raises a rather delicate question and it is important that it be settled the first time it comes up. I wish gradually to give up exercising my authority as Superior of the Society, but I also wish to retain everything that relates to my jurisdiction and my powers as Bishop. In accordance with this dual point of view, it follows that I have asked Father Deguerry no longer to submit to me the decisions and the minutes of the Council, except in those cases where something would affect me personally. Now Ordinations and calls to Ordinations fall within the episcopal jurisdiction properly speaking, and consequently, before taking any decision, I ask to see the notes on the scholastics provided by your council of Saint-Louis.
Please be so good as to send them to me, just as you sent them to the Council of the Society, so that I can see if I have any canonical objection to make. As soon as I have them, I will give you my answer by telegraph and you can send to Constantine these young men, called by you and by the Council, once you yourself have made them sit their examination in view of Ordination.
You will also notify the Council of the Society by sending this letter to them, so that it can be used as a general rule in similar cases.
Farewell, my dear friend, and be assured of my paternal sentiments in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Bishop Livinhac, in Uganda, requesting information on the threats to the mission. (12 December 1886)
Biskra,
Dear Monsignor,
I have been anxiously following your Grace since the day you left us again up to today. Especially in the past two months, I, all of us, have been in a state of extreme anxiety on account of the reports Father Jamet has sent us from Zanzibar, or by those published in the bulletins of the Protestant missions. In particular, according to the latter, the situation of your Ugandan mission is apparently heartrending, as the lives of all their neophytes are said to be threatened by the cruelty of this savage tyrant, and neither are yours safe.
We do not cease to pray everywhere that God will put an end to such a trial and that He will deign to bring you out of it safe and sound, especially you, dear Monsignor, who seem to me so needed for the continuation of this difficult work.
Our present wish is twofold. First, it is to receive precise news about this situation which some people claim to be false, on the grounds that the Protestants must not be telling the truth - and it is obvious to me that this is the case regarding certain details that concern you - while others think the information to be at least exaggerated. In any case, we would like to know the true details of all this, and if your neophytes have really been martyred in such a horrific way, we would like to have the details of their martyrdom. So please be kind enough to send a complete account. There will certainly be, in more than one case, reason to admire the power of God's grace, thus confounding the Protestants who seem to attribute everything to their neophytes and to portray your missionaries and Christians in poor colours. This will be [a source of] edification which we owe to Catholics and especially to those who support your mission with their alms.
My second wish is to be reassured that you, personally and as soon as possible, are out of the reach of this Muanga. When I heard that he was sending boats to collect you, I was glad to think that he was returning to better or, at least, fairer feelings. But everything we are hearing now makes us tremble and regret that you went there without sufficient guarantees. The leader's place is not in the middle of the battlefield where he is exposed to all the deadly blows, thus leaving his entire army in disarray. His place is far from the blows of battle, precisely in order to be able to conduct it and prepare the victory. Prudens est, regat nos!
I do not blame you, dear Monsignor, for you probably had sufficient reason to act as you did; but now that the brute instinct of this poor black king has been so clearly revealed, my wish is that you should return to the south side of the lake. I hope that this will have already been done by the time you receive this letter.
At the same time, you will be pleased to learn that Monsignor Charbonnier has just received the title of Bishop of Utica from the Holy See. Consequently, if it is possible, he may come to ask you to consecrate him as a bishop. I would advise him, however, ,if he is unable to reach you because of some insurmountable difficulty, to go to Zanzibar as an easier way to be consecrated, and I give him this advice as a good way of dealing with the Holy Ghoste Fathers with whom we recently had serious difficulties which have brought about, as you will see, significant modifications in our vicariates in Nyanza and Tanganyika.
You probably know already, through the correspondence of the superior of your little Society, that these Fathers used ways contrary to Christian simplicity and loyalty, to drive us out of the Congo and to usurp our missions. They claimed that I had granted them the right to take those of our territories that were suitable for them in southern and northern Upper Congo, as delineated for us by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. They defended this claim audaciously, even though I had simply authorized them to establish, under my jurisdiction, mission stations on the Congo, on condition that they would always be at least eighty kilometres distant from the stations of our Society.
Unfortunately, Cardinal Simeoni took them at their word, without consulting me, and by decree created the two new missions of the Vicariate and the Prefecture of Congo, one of which took away from us the French Congo and the other a large part of the Belgian Congo. I had to make a special journey to Rome in July in order to have the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide revert from such an unfair measure, and I managed to obtain a decision that, in law, overturned the first and took away from the Holy Ghost Fathers that which they had received. After having achieved this moral satisfaction, however, I considered that it was not advisable to press for its material execution, all the more so since the King of the Belgians intervened with regard to the Belgian Congo demanding the execution of the promise that had been made to him by the Holy See to entrust the missions of his State of the Congo to Belgian missionaries. (Moreover, in truth the difficulty of finding staff on the one hand, and that of providing for such expenses on the other, and finally the troubles that the three Fathers who are there have given, made us really yearn to offload a burden that was becoming too heavy).
I therefore raised this matter, as Father Deguerry writes to you in the letter enclosed with this one, in the last General Chapter of the Society and, after having carefully considered the pros and cons, this Chapter agreed to leave the entire French Congo to the Holy Ghost Fathers, and to the Belgian missionaries of Scheut-lez-Bruxelles the part of the Belgian Congo that extends from the Atlantic Ocean to beyond Stanley-Falls, the only condition being that, in order to facilitate our [missionary] endeavours through maintaining the same number of vicariates so as not to see our resources reduced, we would retain four vicariates as before, namely: two vicariates headed by bishops in partibus, and two others headed by ordinary priests with the title of pro-vicar.
Father Deguerry gives you the precise territorial limits assigned to each of these four missions. The Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide accepted these requests and confirmed them through a pontifical decree. It has also instructed me to care for the greater good of the two new pro-vicariates, those of the Upper Congo and Unyanyembe, as regards their governance and the choice of their pro-vicars. This is what I canonically determine in the ordinance attached to this letter and of which you will kindly inform Father Coulbois, while transmitting to him my blessings for his new responsibility. As you will see, the Council of your Society, in this approved by me, has chosen to confer the title of pro-vicar on Father Coulbois and Father Ludovic Girault. One of them had already held this position in Tanganyika; preference has been given to the other because of his seniority and also because of the trust he deserves.
You will see, moreover, from the ordinance that this is only a change of titles and that basically the pro-vicars are simply your vicars and therefore your subordinates. Father Coulbois, in fact, has been appointed pro-vicar of Upper Congo and Father Ludovic Girault pro-vicar of Unyanyembe, but both remain under the direct jurisdiction of one of the two Apostolic Vicars of Tanganyika and Nyanza, so that the first is the substitute for the pro-vicariate of Upper Congo, and the second for the vicariate of Unyanyembe and that both of you keep, with regard to these territories thus separated into pro-vicariates and on the missionaries who are there, the same essential rights and higher jurisdiction as before.
In this way, and [as seen from] outside, mainly in the eyes of Propaganda Fide, we have as in the past four vicariates or pro-vicariates, but from within, in fact, the two pro-vicars are simply your representatives and must receive from me, through you as intermediaries, all their faculties and their directives. It must be understood, of course, that my ordinance should not be published in newspapers, magazines or mission bulletins, but only notified to the missionaries and kept secret by them. At the same time it should be understood, to maintain good order, that the Apostolic Vicars, while continuing to have the responsibility for the pro-vicariates, should not give orders directly, by themselves, but only through the pro-vicars. Finally, the reports addressed to the Propagation of the Faith and the Holy Childhood must be made by the pro-vicars themselves with regard to their territories. Otherwise, these institutions would withdraw their allocations.
I am not talking about the division of existing mission posts or the creation of new ones. It is up to the two bishops to deal with this, each one for his double mission, so that their own territory (oeuvre) always remains the most important. It will surely be possible, in the course of next year, to send new missionaries for this purpose.
There, dear Monsignor, you have the extent of the important communications I wanted to convey to you today. Lest this letter go astray, I have a duplicate of it which I am sending to Father Jamet so that he may forward it to you by a different caravan from the one to which he will entrust this one.
It remains for me, dear Monsignor, to express to you my tenderly devoted sentiments in Our Lord and to tell you that I ask God wholeheartedly for you all that he knows, and all that you also know yourself, to be necessary for you.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. Please tell all your missionaries that they are constantly present in my mind; that at heart I am often among them and with each one of them and that I bless them all.
Letter to Propaganda Fide about the martyrs in Uganda (29 December 1886)
Biskra,
Your Eminence,
We are in receipt from the Nyanza mission of sad news, yet interesting and important from all points of view. I therefore believe that I am fulfilling a duty by forwarding to you, without delay, a letter from Bishop Livinhac, Apostolic Vicar of Nyanza, and the excerpts from an earlier diary, written by Father Lourdel, a missionary in Rubaga, the residence of the King of Uganda.
Your Eminence will see that God's arm is not shortened nor his grace diminished, since the early days of the Church, and that these poor Negroes of Uganda, soon after their conversion, have through divine help been as courageous and generous in faith as the most beautiful examples of former martyrs. Should not Mgr Livinhac, who is fortunately now safe in another part of his vast mission, be given the necessary instructions to make a canonical collection, ne pereant, of the testimonies relating to such admirable facts, especially when consideration is given to the state of barbarity in which these poor tribes find themselves? In this case, your Eminence, you would have to be kind enough to have the necessary instructions sent to me, so that I can pass them on to Mgr Livinhac.
In closing, I would beg you to ask the Holy Father for a special blessing for this nascent Christianity, now so tried and tested, and to grant them the help of your own prayers to God.
I have the honour of humbly kissing the hands of Your Eminence, and of respectfully professing myself to be your most humble and devoted servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie.
Letter to Father Deguerry, Superior General, about the events in Uganda. Reflections on the selection of candidates. (30 December 1886)
Biskra,
My dear Father,
This very morning I received your letter with enclosed the letter of Mgr Livinhac and the diary of the Kibanga mission. I fully agree with your idea of sending reinforcements to the Nyanza mission, which has been so cruelly tested. The difficult thing seems to me to be to find suitable people; but if you find them, have no hesitation. Under no circumstances, however, should you think of sending Fathers before the ordinary time, that is, in May. By then the Fathers for Kwammouth will be very close to arriving. What I believe immediately necessary is to raise the morale of all these poor missionaries and, according to me, the best thing would be to send a telegraphed message to Mgr Livinhac with the wording: your letters received; will soon send more missionaries.
I am happy that the Propagation of the Faith have given the 40.000 francs that I asked for beside the current allowances. With that we should be able to manage fairly easily. Of course, it will be necessary to go to the Councils of the Propagation of Faith at the time when they are preparing the distribution of funds, in other words in February, or March at the latest. It is important to obtain from them serious and precise commitments for the four vicariates. So Mgr Livinhac has become aware now that there has been too great a leniency in the past in admitting candidates!
On whom is he to put the blame, if not on himself, Father Charbonnier and Father Terrasse?. Right from the start, did you not hear me complain bitterly about misplaced mercy? In wishing to avoid disheartening a candidate, it burdens the Congregation with useless members (ouvriers, lit. “workers”). These consequently are extremely dangerous because, not being able to work for lack of solid virtue or intelligence, they become discouraged and discourage others and put them off completely. This is what the directors of the novitiates and scholasticates have up to now not been willing to understand.
During the novitiate, in particular, the big mistake is not to be able to take the decision to send away those candidates who are not suitable, within the first three months.. Three months are quite sufficient to know the moral disposition of anyone who presents himself for the missions. It cannot be hope that at that age the moral disposition will change: it has been shaped already for a long time. So if there is no determination to send away someone who does not have the virtues indispensable for apostolic life, not only will he not acquire them, but he will be the cause of others, seeing how he behaves, losing the good dispositions they had or at least seeing these dispositions diminish. Be firm, I beg of you, and keep an eye especially on Father Bridoux, who seems to me to be too easily inclined to admit anyone who externally observes the points of the rule of the scholasticate.
Be assured, my dear Father, that I am devotedly yours in Our Lord
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Viven, Superior of the Novitiate in Algiers (1 January 1887)
Biskra,
My dear Father,
I receive with gratitude your best wishes and those of your dear novices, whom I ask you to thank on my behalf. I truly regret having to send them through you from so far away, because I would have liked to add to them my paternal recommendations. In a Congregation, in fact, everything depends on the novitiate and the scholasticate, the first for spiritual and interior formation, the second for the acquisition of the knowledge which is necessary and for the consolidation of the resolutions taken right at the beginning.
How necessary it is then that everyone should show his good will. It is on you in particular, my dear Child, that this terrible responsibility rests. You have read Bishop Livinhac's barely veiled complaints about too many of his collaborators. All this has come about through the masters of novices who preceded you in the Society; they were either not sufficiently perspicacious or not firm enough.
In a responsibility such as yours it is especially important not to delude oneself and not to obey [the impulses of] flesh and blood, the all too natural feelings of indulgence or weakness. I cannot say you more from afar; but I would like to add that a novice master should remember that he must first strive to realize in himself to perfection the virtues of the missionary, and then seek to pass these on. This is what I pray for you to our Lord, begging you to be assured that I am always your devoted and loving Father in our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to his friend Bishop Foulon, Archbishop of Besançon (3 January 1887)
Biskra,
Reverend and Dear Monsignor,
I am late for New Year's Day, but my excuse is that I am very far away and I only received your good letter yesterday. I thank your Grace for your best wishes, and I send mine to you in return. They are sincere like old friendships, because, in truth, ours has been going on for almost half a century. Alas! This proves that in this world it will not last much longer, in particular as far as I am concerned, with my facility for burning the candle at both ends . I am here with five secretaries, receiving no one, working continuously ten or twelve hours a day. The reason is that I want absolutely to finish my work which is progressing, but which is far from over. Be aware, dear Monsignor, that, with translation and notes, it will form four volumes in small folio.
On the other hand, it was a very good choice to come to Biskra. You could not imagine what a paradise it is! It was right to choose the palm tree as the symbol of an entrance into heaven. In the last two months that I have been here, just one day with a few hours of rain. All the rest of the time we have enjoyed beautiful sun or a moon and stars that are no less beautiful. A dry climate. The nights are cold, it is true, as well as the mornings, but from eight o'clock to nightfall an average of 20 to 25 degrees of temperature in the open air. So much so that I have not had a single moment of illness or even serious suffering, something that amazes me to the highest degree because I am so used to the opposite.
This is my description given in order to make your mouth water and to punish you for not having promised to go to Carthage at my invitation, to attend my silver jubilee next year, if I am still alive.
What you tell me about poor Mgr Soubirane distresses me. The past makes it a duty for me not to interfere, even indirectly, in his affairs, so I do not know anything specific. Some priests from Belley who are here in Algeria have sometimes wanted to talk to me about this matter. I quickly shut them up. But nothing would surprise me.
Farewell, reverend and dear Monsignor. Be assured of my respectful and devoted affection in our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Councils of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith to accredit Father Deguerry (30 January 1887)
Biskra,
To the President and Members of the central Councils of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith
Gentlemen,
As I informed you three months ago, I have entrusted Reverend Father Deguerry, superior of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers, with the care of all the details concerning our missions, reserving for myself only the higher jurisdiction and direction. Accordingly I wished to prepare in a practical way a peaceful future for our missionary endeavours for the day when I will be taken away from them by death, a day that can no longer be far away. Having witnessed the serious difficulties in which other communities founded by bishops have found themselves at the time of the disappearance of their Founders, I wished that of the Missions of Algiers gradually to get used to governing itself and to be self-sufficient without me. I have therefore accredited to you and recommended to your kind attention Reverend Father Deguerry who will go first to Lyons, and then to Paris, to make known to your councils the urgent needs of the missions (oeuvres) of his Society, particularly those of Equatorial Africa.
Since I have today no longer any personal interest in these administrative matters, allow me to share with you that I have always thought that you were not sufficiently informed about these missions. Otherwise I have no doubt that you would have maintained your allocations at the level which was necessary at least to enable them to survive. Following the recent modifications made by the sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide with regard to the Vicariates of Equatorial Africa, after the constitution of the Belgian State in the Congo, you will have seen through our communications that the boundaries of the four Vicariates or Pro-vicariates entrusted to us have been altered and that one of the Upper Congo Pro-vicariates has been replaced by the new Pro-vicariate of Unyanyembe.
This means that we still have four distinct major territories to provide for. Each one needs its own budget, and this must be in proportion to the requirements of missions which are still at the first stages, which are so extensive and which have already been so seriously tried. I am therefore confident that you will no longer place them, in terms of your allocations, in a markedly inferior position with regard to less important missions which have been entrusted to other missionary congregations in Africa. Father Deguerry will enlighten you on this point.
For my part, Gentlemen, while recommending him to you again, I have the honour of professing myself to be your most humble and obedient servant in our Lord.
+ Charles, Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Bishop Bourret about the martyrs of Uganda (20 March 1887)
Algiers
Dear Monsignor, Dear Friend,
Together with these lines, you will receive one of the most beautiful things of our time. It is a letter from Monsignor Livinhac about his mission in Uganda. I had it printed and sent it to my clergy; at the same time as I sent it to the Propagation of the Faith. I had previously bathed it with tears of admiration, faith, - and [also] shame at finding myself so far from these heroic Christians, born yesterday and yet today the example and glory of the Christian world.
All this, dear Monsignor, comes from Rodez and returns to it as a blessing. When your dear Lordship made the sacrifice of depriving yourself, for the sake of our missions, of the most accomplished subject of his seminary, in the person of Monsignor Livinhac, this was a great act of love for Africa How fruitful Our Lord has made that love! May he be blessed and reward you a hundredfold for that which you offered with such a generous heart!
Let us hope that all these glorious martyrs will intercede for us one day and have us introduced into heaven! How much better this would be, dear Monsignor, than being divided over Leo XXIII's policy and squabbling over how to split hairs while the Church is burning.
We have there a new bond uniting us, dear Monsignor, one which is stronger than all the others. So I remain one at heart with you in the love of our courageous apostles of Rouergat and our dear African martyrs.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Bishop Livinhac on the procedures to be followed in collecting testimonies on the martyrs of Uganda (22 March 1887)
Algiers,
Reverend and Dear Monsignor,
The reading of the long interesting letters you have written to us about your dear black martyrs has produced here and, it can be said, throughout the Church, very deep emotions. I immediately sent these letters to the Supreme Pontiff, at the same time asking of him three favours:
1 - to deign to send to you, to your missionaries and to the whole mission of Uganda a special blessing, with his paternal encouragement;
2 - to authorize the singing of a Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving in the churches or chapels served by the Missionaries of Algiers, in order to thank God for the courage that by his grace he inspired to your poor black neophytes;
3- to allow you to begin immediately the first preparatory information in view of the Beatification and Canonization of these generous Christians.
Reverend Father Burtin, our prosecutor in Rome, has informed me that these three graces were immediately granted by the Holy Father, at the request of the sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. With regard to the first point, that is, the blessing of the Holy Father, you will find the official text of the letter of Propaganda Fide in the printed circular through which I brought your letter of 29th September last to the attention of the clergy in Algeria. I am sending a few copies to Father Jamet so that he can forward them to you at the same time as this one. For the second favour, the celebration of Masses of Thanksgiving, I do not yet have in hand the official text, but the favour has been granted and I have been informed about it, as I said above, by a telegramme from Father Burtin. I will send you this text as soon as I have it.
Finally, with regard to the third favour, the beginning of the canonical process for the Beatification of your martyrs, the Sacred Congregations of Propaganda Fide and Rites, out of consideration for the extraordinary circumstances, both as far as concerns the facts [in themselves] and also your remoteness, have asked me to inform you that it is left to your prudence is do for the best in the "compilation of this process of the Ordinary “, as it is called in the procedure for the Canonization of Saints.
In the event that you do not have at your disposal any book that deals with these matters and that could guide you in order to achieve fitting results, I am notifying you here of the main rules that you must follow, since the Holy See has determined not to enforce compliance with all the ordinary formalities, because of your special situation, as I have told you above. It will therefore be sufficient if the essential rules are observed.
1 - It is therefore necessary to set up, by written episcopal ordinance, a tribunal responsible for collecting all testimonies relating to the circumstances of the martyrdom of your neophytes. This tribunal will naturally be composed of two or three of your missionaries. If there are not three priests on the spot, as is probably the case, you could include the Brother as an instrumental witness to the procedure. Before beginning to take the testimonies, the judges canonically delegated by you in writing, must make their profession of faith by reading, one after the other, the so-called Vatican Profession of Faith, swearing on the Holy Scriptures, and in addition they are to take an oath not to do or write anything in this trial which would not be the exact expression of the truth as they know it and in conformity with the statements of the witnesses.
2 – Then it will be necessary to summon one by one all the witnesses that can be found, whether they be eyewitnesses or by hearsay, to testify regarding the circumstances of the martyrdom of your neophytes, either about the martyrs as a group or by dealing separately with one of them.
The following then is the task for the tribunal appointed by you, and if possible presided over by you:
1. To have every Catholic witness judicially sworn in, on the Holy Gospels, before hearing him [or her], and for those who are not Catholics to hear them extra-judicially, making them promise to tell the truth by whatever they hold the most sacred (witnesses must be heard separately, one after the other).
2. Once the oath has been taken, each of the witnesses will be asked, with care, to say everything they can about the circumstances of the martyrdom, and every time any interesting point is expressed, a stop will be made to write down exactly what each of them has said.
It is obviously appropriate that these writings should be in the language of your blacks, taken down by the Father who is the most proficient [in the language], so that the witnesses may recognize the truth of what they have said, by signing it, at least with a cross if they do not know how to write, certifying it in the presence of witnesses,. Then, before sending the documentation to Rome, you should yourself have an exact and certified translation made into French or, if you prefer, into Latin. Nevertheless, if none of the fathers present were able to write the minutes of the examination of the witnesses in the indigenous language, he could translate them into French, taking the precaution of having his colleagues sign at the end of each statement, not only as judges as is required, but also to attest the accuracy of the translation the oral testimony that they have heard in the African language.
3. The questioning of witnesses must focus, as mentioned above, on the circumstances of the martyrdom. It should be noted that there are two points on which it is absolutely essential to insist. The first is the one called in the language of the canonizations of martyrs causa martyrii, that is, whether or not the Christian has been put to death because of the faith, or whether it is not for political or other, even less noble, reasons. You are aware, in fact, that the English and Italian newspapers have said that your persecution was caused by the seduction of a princess, sister or perhaps wife of Mouanga, by one of your Christians. The two guilty persons, who were caught in the act, were put to death by order of this prince. He later extended the punishment to all the Christian pages of which the guilty party was one of the leaders.
A second point, no less important, and one that your absolute silence leaves for us unexplained, is whether these martyrs were really your neophytes or were not, at least in part (and the English say in a very large part) the neophytes of the Protestant missionaries. In their reports to their reviews, your Protestant ministers in Uganda indeed say explicitly that it is their neophytes who have given these admirable examples of steadfastness, and this is the only thing that troubles us and can seriously trouble the Holy See and Catholic opinion. How did Father Lourdel, in his diary, and you, in your letters, not consider this terrible uncertainty and respond categorically by clearly stating that each of those you are talking about was one of your neophytes and was not at all Protestant, or a disciple of the Protestant ministers which, seen from here, is all one?
4. An interesting point to establish would be to know if your martyrs have not, since their death, manifested their power with God through some extraordinary favours. You know that for martyrs, that is to say those who have been put to death for the Catholic faith, miracles strictu sensu are not required, but only what in legal language, are called signa sanctitatis , that is, marks of their power before God, either by extraordinary graces, even spiritual ones, or by material facts that seem to be beyond the natural order of things, or finally by the reputation of their holiness that suddenly spreads among the population and that stimulates people to trust in them and call upon them in prayer. The judges will therefore have to take care to inquire about these various points and to record them in writing.
5. It is also necessary to inquire about the remains or relics of these martyrs, in a manner that excludes any doubt. This should not be limited to inquiry; [the relics] should be collected with respect, as well as all the instruments that may have been used in torturing them, and all the objects that belonged to them. You will easily understand, Monsignor, that these are real treasures and that you must not shrink from any expense in order to gain possession of such precious souvenirs, especially of the bones of each of the martyrs. It is also necessary to take great care to arrange these various objects in an orderly manner, to write on them the names of the martyrs from whom they come, and to enclose them respectfully in boxes that can be sent, some of them at least , to Maison-Carrée, as the Missions Étrangères do in China in regard to their mother house.
6. Once all the documentation has been completed, you will have to collect it in one volume carefully ordered or sewn together so that nothing is lost on the way. For greater security, you should keep the minutes of all these acts in your archives, and send only copies certified by you using this simple formula: Concordat cum originali authentico quod in Archivis Nostris episcopalibus asservatur , and then sign your names and titles and seal with your seal.
These, my dear Monsignor, are the instructions I believe I must give you in order to conform to the wishes of the Holy See.
What else shall I add, dear Monsignor? Only to say that we are wholeheartedly with you and your missionaries in omni tribulatione vestra, through [our] affection and above all through prayer. We ask our Lord that the seed thus sprinkled with the blood of your neophytes may give you an abundant harvest, not only in Uganda but also in Bukumbi and in the other places where you will establish yourselves. We commiserate with you, but we are also jealous. We ask too of Our Lord to keep you in good health. The cruel sacrifice of so many missionaries who have been taken from us over so few years saddens us and causes us real embarrassment. Nevertheless, a caravan of seven missionaries is being prepared for you. They will be leaving next May, that is, in less than two months, and by the time you receive this letter, they may not be far from you.
Farewell, dear Monsignor, pray for us as we pray for you, for we also have our persecutions which are increasing, and we do not have martyrdom to strengthen and console us.
Be assured that I am always yours with a most loving heart in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. I have Propaganda Fide for the powers in the list you sent me. I will send them to you as soon as I receive their reply. While waiting, and provisionally, you can make use of those which you received from me by delegation of the Holy See, before your appointment as bishop,
Letter to the Cardinal Archbishop of Palermo thanking him for his support (14 April 1887)
Palermo,
Your Eminence,
I am doubly touched by the act of courtesy that Your Eminence is willing to perform in regard to a poor missionary cardinal. Your constant benevolence can only arouse my deep gratitude, and the link you deign to establish between my humble self and one of the institutions of your pastoral zeal and love of science cannot but be very precious to me.
I therefore happily accept the title of honorary member of the Catholic Academy of Palermo. I do not know if the overwhelming multitude of my occupations will ever leave me enough leisure to participate in your scholarly activities, but I will allow myself, at least, to send to Your Eminence from Rome two volumes of my collected works on the missions, in response to the kindness with which you yourself have deigned to send me today the eulogy of Pius IX, which I have already read and admired, together with several other of your pastoral letters.
I beg of Your Eminence to allow me once more humbly to kiss his hands, professing myself to be, Eminence, your most humble and obedient servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Carthage and Algiers
Letter to Father Deguerry, Superior General, concerning, among other matters, the house in Rome (26 April 1887)
Rome,
My dear Father,
You will, I think, have received my letter concerning the doctor at the Attafs hospital and this disgraceful blackmail. Follow this case in such a way as to frighten the guilty parties. To discover who they are, do not be afraid to have an investigation undertaken even by the justice of the peace or the public prosecutor, if these authorities can be trusted.
The parish priest of Bizerte wrote to his superiors that he has decided to stay and the Pope himself formally forbade the Capuchins to withdraw any Italian religious from the Regency. We must therefore simply follow up on our project for Porto Farina. Moreover I much prefer this post for our Fathers since the population is Christian and Maltese and therefore they will not have any difficulty there. Summer is coming moreover, making communications easier. Arrange this when you return to Tunis for the affair of the school.
I have had here a most unpleasant surprise like that of last summer. You would not believe it, but there have been German missionaries present in Rome for about a month now, delegated and recommended by the Bishop of Augsburg and by Mr. von Bismarck, to request of the Holy See that they be entrusted with missions in the German territories of Equatorial Africa or in those that were to become so. They have been dealing with everyone, with Propaganda Fide, with the Pope, with Mgr Galimberti who is the all-powerful man at the moment, and Father Burtin, as usual, was not even aware of this. Yet it would have been the destruction of the two Apostolic Vicariates of Nyanza and Unyanyembe and half of that of Tanganyika. Having been informed at the last moment by Cardinal Simeoni himself, I protested, as you can well imagine, but the harm was already too advanced to be able to avoid compromise (faire la part du feu). I therefore consented to the establishment of two missionaries in Usagara, which moreover does not belong to us, on condition that the existing vicariates would not be affected and that the territories allocated to them would be considered as islands within our Apostolic Vicariates, independent of our Apostolic Vicars.
I am sending you, enclosed herewith, an article published today in the Monitor of Rome, which has been most certainly dictated by Bishop Galimberti. You will see two things that need to be done: 1) to send as many Germans as possible, either Fathers or Brothers, to our missions in Equatorial Africa, and in particular to Unyanyembe which is the first to be threatened. It would be very desirable if Father Schynse could arrive before the departure of the next caravan and, in any case, if he could be sent as soon as possible, even if it is after his confreres have left. Advise him to go to see the German consul in Zanzibar. 2) Keep yourself informed by Father Jamet of everything that is being said and done in Zanzibar in this regard.
I have found the house in Rome in a state that causes me some worry from the point of view of health. There's not enough air or light. I talked to the ambassador about it and left instructions to Father Burtin to improve this situation, taking over another part of the building if necessary. I will talk to you about this in detail later, as I today I do not have time.
I am also leaving instructions fir Father Burtin for his own direction. It seems to me that he does not fully understand his role in Rome. He makes far too many unnecessary visits, which means that he is constantly running around the city and getting mixed up in all kinds of gossip. On the other hand, he does not keep up to date enough with news that is of direct interest to our missions. I have given you an example of this above in the case of the German mission. Apart from that, he appears to be appreciated by everyone for his modesty and piety. The Cardinal Vicar , whom I asked for his opinion on our Fathers, told me: they are angels, and that is what the people who live in the vicinity of Saint Nicholas call them.
You know as well as I do what to say about these compliments, but they prove nevertheless that the impression is good. It is deftness that is lacking and I would truly astonish you if I were to you further details in this regard, but I am obliged to finish here since I am leaving Rome today and I have many other letters to dictate.
So farewell, my dear Father, pray for me during the long and difficult mission I am going to carry out in France. I am very concerned about general events and feel the double fatigue of my occupations and my preoccupations, but I humbly and confidently place myself in the hands of God, for whom alone you and I are bound to act in our capacity as superiors.
Believe me, my dear Father, to be one at heart with you in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Recommendations to Father Burtin after my visit to Rome
1) For his personal conduct - Unnecessary visits should be avoided, whether to Cardinals, prelates or religious communities. Such visits can only lead to a loss of interior spirit, even of esteem, and get our missionaries involved in gossip, and consequently in divisions and hatreds that we must absolutely avoid. Consequently and in practice I forbid Father Burtin to make any personal visits to Cardinals, bishops, prelates, or communities, except to deal with some matter concerning his office, or to carry out a specific commission given to him by his superiors. In particular, he will refrain from going to see the Bishops of France when they come to Rome, as he has done up to nowr, and will simply leave his card for them at a time when he can foresee that they will not be at home.
He will go to Propaganda Fide on average once a week, to ask Mgr Zitelli, Mgr Songhi or Mgr Jacobini whether they have any information for me that interests our missions. He will no longer go to Saint-Louis, as he did before, but only once every two months, or at the most every month, with the exception always of definite business or commissions given to him by his superiors. The same applies to the embassy, where he will not make visits without a specific purpose, but where he will always be careful to be very respectful and kind in his way of doing things. He will make it his duty to be absent as little as possible from the spiritual exercises of the community.
2) As regards modifications to be made in the house. I authorize Father Burtin to follow the negotiations with the Embassy for the change of premises, in accordance with the wishes he himself has expressed, i. e. that he may rent the entire house, taking care to obtain the most favourable conditions possible with regard to the price. It is permitted to extend the large staircase, but only up to the second floor, and from there to establish as economically as possible a wooden staircase up to the fifth floor. Furthermore, before having anything done he must send me the plans made by the architect, with the complete and precise estimate, accepted and signed by the same architect and by the contractor. He will be take good care never to leave apartments without tenants, and to increase the present rent in as far as possible, as the administration of the Pieux Établissements intended to do.
3) For the development of [apostolic] endeavours - Father Burtin will have to consider obtaining resources for the development of [apostolic] endeavours; no change in what is being done today will be permitted unless he is previously assured of having the necessary resources. He will be able to draw these resources from the three devotions centred on the chapel, namely that of Our Lady of Infallibility or the Vatican Council, that of Blessed Peter Fourier, that of Saint Nicholas.
For this to be successful, for each of these devotions he will have to have composed, or prepare himself, three different notices, of about eight to ten pages each, like those in our newsletter. For the one on Our Lady of the Vatican, he should ask the parish priest of Haute Kontz; for the composition of the one on Blessed Pierre Fourier, he will be able to consult Mgr Lacroix, and other documents that may exist in Saint-Louis. The same sources can be consulted for the composition of the notice on Saint Nicholas. In the conclusion of these notices he will take care to mention that, in dependence on this sanctuary, with the approval of the Holy See, there has been established a minor seminary (école apostolique) for the missions in Africa. He will ask for scholarships to the amount of 400 francs, undertaking to have inscribed on a marble slab in the sacristy of the church the names of all those who have founded scholarships in perpetuity, and who will thus have a share in all the prayers [offered] at the altar of their choice, that of Notre-Dame, that of Blessed Pierre Fourier, or that of Saint-Nicolas-des-Lorrains.
Letter to the Congregation of Propaganda Fide about the subventions from the Work of the Propagation of the Faith (9 June 1887)
Paris,
Monsignor,
I am able to reassure you and his Eminence the Cardinal Prefect on the arrangements made by the Council of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith. There is perfect agreement between this Council and myself that since its allocations are completely insufficient for our missions, I can make appeals personally or through others for them [i.e. these missions] without fear of any reduction in our allocations. Proof of this is that I have just stopped over in Lyons at the very invitation of the Council and that I have preached there and made appeals in several churches in the presence of its members, all of whom have given me their offerings.
I therefore dare to request of you, Monsignor, to have my signature certified and approved by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide in the person of its Secretary and its Prefect, as I requested you in my previous letter. Reverend Father Burtin, my procurator, will collect them and send them to me.
In the meantime, Monsignor, please accept along with my gratitude the expression of my most distinguished and devoted sentiments in our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Sermon pronounced at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes on the enslavement of women in Africa (23 July 1887)
At last Sunday’s scene, a pilgrim could have wondered for a moment whether he was in Lourdes or at Notre-Dame d'Afrique. The choir platform in the basilica was occupied by a prince of the Church of whom it has been said that he is worth an entire army in the service of his country. We refer to Hi Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie, Primate of Africa, Archbishop of Algiers and Tunis. At his side were his chargé d'affaires in Paris, Mgr Brincat, wearing the insignia of a canon of Carthage, and the very Reverend Superior General of the White Fathers (this is the name by which they are now known). Looking closely at the congregation, one could have noticed [the presence of] several Arabs, easily recognizable by their oriental costume.
Responding to the wishes of all, the Cardinal mounted the pulpit. His high stature, his majestic gestures, his white beard and his fine oratory are well known. This missionary bishop may well declare that he does not know how to make a speech, eloquence flows from his lips. This is his third visit to the sanctuary. The first time, while he was engaged in ministry in Paris, he came as an inquirer. The second time, in 1876, he came to bless: thirty-five bishops took part, as he did, in the consecration of this church; the thought that only a few survive warns him that he must prepare to appear before the tribunal of God. Today he has come to receive a blessing. Here let us let the eminent prelate speak, rather than risk removing all the charm of his language by offering a dull analysis:
"I come, he said, to place under the auspices of Mary Immaculate a heroic work that is beginning today, for heroism is impossible without the grace of God. This is the evangelization of women in countries where this [poor] creature is immersed in an abyss of evil; this evangelization must be carried out by other women, by missionary sisters.
Is it known how women in Equatorial Africa are? They are born slaves, live as slaves, and die as slaves. All their lives, they are the prey of human brutality, they are beaten, slaughtered, exposed to all the horrors of barbarism. Their eyes are closed at the light of day. This sad fate of theirs is common to all the women in infidel countries. You, Christian women who are listening to me, do not know all that you owe to the Immaculate Virgin. If everyone surrounds you with honours, respect and affection, if you are not slaves, if you are not oppressed (forgive me this word), it is to Mary that you owe it, since it is through her that everything comes to us from Jesus. But where Mary is not known, the woman is but a victim, and what a victim!
According to calculations that I have reason to believe are accurate, 200 million negresses are delivered to their executioners like commodities. Often it is robbers who attack the peaceful villages of the Negroes by night, massacre the men who resist and lead the women and children to a market in the hinterland. They are sometimes dragged along for months at a time. When one of these women, overcome by weariness, cannot go any further, a blow from her captors either leads to her death or leaves her to die of hunger and despair. Finally the market is reached where the survivors of this sad journey will be left. To describe the odious scene that then takes place, I, a son of the Pyrenees, have only to remember the markets that are held here once a week, in different places. Well, in Equatorial Africa, women are examined like cattle, bought like cattle. For the price of only one of our cows one could buy thirty women.
So the only thing that awaits them, these poor creatures, are the blows to force them to work, or to punish them for not accepting in fulfil the will of their tyrants; their arms and legs are broken, they are left in agony for days on end without anyone taking care of them. So it is for this world; and for the other, no hope! For on account of their ignorance of any primitive tradition and their moral degradation, one cannot maintain for them the hope of salvation that one seeks to preserve for other infidels. This immense population of women therefore has a living hell in this world, and eternal hell in the next.
For many years, I was desolate at not being able to work for their evangelization. In the silence of the nights I heard, like the apostle Saint Paul, the voice of an immense population saying to me: Transiens, adjuva nos, “Cross over, come to our aid”. From the very first days I heard that voice. The White Fathers have exposed themselves to all kinds of torture to go and announce the good news. Eleven of them have been clad in a red robe that is far brighter than our own red as princes of the Church. Their disciples have imitated them in the courageous confession of their faith; there have been scenes worthy of the first centuries of the Faith.
But women had remained outside this movement. This is because [male] missionaries, because of the prejudices current in the country, cannot approach women directly. Only other women are able to approach pagan women freely, to heal their wounds, to touch their hearts in this way. But where to find religious sisters who agree to devote themselves to such a mission, to brave the fatigue of long months of travel through those deserts, where you cannot even think of using beasts of burden, because a fly will bite them and cause them to die!
It was impossible to ask this of a woman; the Immaculate Virgin has performed this miracle. For a long time I had been saying to myself that two hundred million women could not be allowed to die in this way, when one day I received a letter from an eighteen-year-old girl from a rich and noble family, asking, attracted by an irresistible force, to dedicate herself entirely to saving the poor negresses. I replied with an absolute refusal, permitting only this Christian woman to write to me once a month. After three years of struggle and refusal, it was necessary to surrender. In the presence of her mother, the young girl, then of legal age, renewed her request, and as I turned to her mother, wanting to know what she thought of her daughter, with very Christian heroism, throwing herself on her knees, she offered her child to God. Others have since come. Ten days ago, I blessed the first postulate to be founded in France, in Lyons. The superior has written to me that new aspirants are daily being presented to her.
What I have just told you is a miracle. That is why I need to be blessed through these women-apostles who will make Our Lord Jesus Christ known in the interior of Equatorial Africa. I am not here today to reach out to you a begging hand; I am asking you for the alms of a prayer for our missionaries, for our Sisters, for our nascent Christians. As far as I am concerned, I wish to consecrate the whole of life that God will leave me in effectively promoting the apostolate of the Missionary Sisters. In my opinion, this is more important than that of men, among the infidels of our Africa.
Letter to Mother Marie Salome announcing his visit to the postulate in Lyons (12 August 1887)
Paris,
My dear Daughter,
I have decided to spend the whole day of the Feast of the Assumption in Lyons in order to be able to see for myself the situation of your postulate. I will therefore come to celebrate Holy Mass for you on that day at 7:30 in the morning and in the afternoon there will be Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. You have nothing to do except wait for me and inform Father Sordet, your chaplain, whom I also want to see at leisure for a little while that day, when I shall go to your house. I hope he will be willing to assist me at Holy Mass, because there will be no one accompanying me.
I bless you from afar, my dear Daughter, while I remain your father in Our Lord.
+Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
The Cardinal's talk at the postulate of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa in Lyons (15 August 1887)
My dear daughters," he said, "you have Jesus in your heart at this moment, so it is to you that we can address this word that the Church proposes today for our meditations: Maria sedebat ad pedes Domini et audiebat verbum ejus: Mary sat at the feet of the Lord and listened to his words. That is all you have to do: sit down. You are in this house of postulancy, that is, of preparation, only for that reason: to sit at the feet of Jesus. and listen to Him. Through constant action, walking, running, it is easy to become worn out. Holy obedience can bring you to leave for the field of apostolic work or engage in material work, but then you must do it all spiritually.
Sit down in contemplation and prayer and listen to what Jesus is saying to you in your heart. This is the part that Mary chose for herself, and notice that Our Lord says that it will not be taken from her: it is forever, in eternity. Now, what does Jesus tell you? One thing only: Look, and do as you have been shown. You have this advantage over all the souls he has created, your vocation calls you precisely to do what Our Lord has done himself. And what did he do? First He suffered. You too will have to suffer, and you will suffer much in your missions. You will suffer from poverty, because on the missions you will not have a house like this one. Very often, like Our Lord, you will have nowhere to lay your head; a stone and the bare earth, that is all you will find in your apostolic journeys. You will suffer from an extreme climate, to which all sorts of deprivations will be added...
What else has Our Lord done? He came to save souls. To save souls is your vocation. How sublime it is! To snatch souls from the claws of the devil, to snatch them from the miseries of time and eternity, and so from Hell; to offer to the Eternal Father those souls which are the price of his Son's blood; to cooperate in the great work that Jesus came to do on earth. That is your sublime vocation! But to fulfil it, you must also participate in the sacrifice of Jesus.
Let me therefore share with you a thought that the Holy Father communicated to me and that touched me deeply, seeming to me to come from our Lord himself. You know that when I went to Rome I brought your holy rules there to submit them to the scrutiny of the Supreme Pontiff, and that after this examination you were granted the first degree of approval called “a decree of praise”. However, before giving me this decree, some slight observations were made on a few points to be modified, and among other things the Holy Father said to me: "You have indicated that the religious Sisters will wear a cross on their breasts suspended by a violet ribbon: why violet? Why not give them a red cordon, since they are destined to go to a land where there have been already so many martyrs? »
I received this word as if coming from God himself. Red is the colour for Cardinals, but it is also the colour of martyrdom. What is the colour of martyrdom? It is the colour of the blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And what is the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ? It is the price of souls. In the oath that Cardinals take when they receive the red hat, there are these words: "I swear to defend the Holy Roman Church up to the shedding of my blood inclusively." This red ribbon is therefore the symbol of the devotion you must have up to martyrdom. I promised that in the first house to which I would go I would make this change. We will do it today, and that is good because it is with the postulate that everything begins. I insisted on bringing you these red ribbons myself; and after the blessing of the Most Blessed Sacrament I will present them to you.
Up to now you have been wearing purple ribbons, and that was very good. Purple symbolized humility, the humility of the violet, and this was the colour that suited you best. You were small, hidden, despised: for twenty years you had been kept in the shadows, in humility, and even, I would add, in humiliation. From now on, by the divine will which circumstances have manifested in an obvious way, you have a higher destiny; you will be sent to the land of martyrdom, while up to now you had remained in the land of toil.
This sublime vocation of missionary religious sisters is a gift from God, completely gratuitous. He has given it to you without any merit on your part. But while it was for God to give you this gift or not to give it to you, it is not for God alone to preserve it for you; he cannot do this without your cooperation. Despite the greatness of the call, you can fall by the wayside: though now you may be fervent religious and ardent missionaries, you can become miserable religious, lukewarm and cowardly, doing evil instead of good. I say this first of all to make you humble in your own eyes, and then to remind you that you can only answer God by asking him for the graces that are necessary for you. Therefore, ask for them urgently, with perseverance and constantly. It is in this humble prayer that you will find weapons to triumph over yourselves.
In conclusion, listen carefully to what our Lord is saying to you, what he is saying to you today through the mouth of the Supreme Pontiff, and through me who am addressing these words to you: what he is saying to you in the depths of your heart where he is to be found at this moment is this: "I have given you the whole of my blood, I have shed it for you until the last drop; you received it in holy baptism which wiped out in you original sin. You have received it many times in the course of your life, and you have just received it again in the Holy Eucharist; in return, give yourself entirely to me and consent to suffer everything, even death with all its horrors."
Yes, you must be ready to suffer everything, even to the point of shedding your blood; and if that is not why you came here, you can leave. I say this to those who are here and to all those who will come in the future. To conclude where I began this short address, while you are in this house of postulancy and contemplation, sit down like Mary at the feet of Jesus. It is true, it is not as belonging the Most Holy Virgin that the Gospel reports this trait, it is as belonging to Magdalene , and this is perhaps even more appropriate for you, who may, like her, have to mourn the faults you committed before giving yourself entirely to God. Listen well to this, you who in this postulate are taking your first steps in religious life, you who have completed this first probation and are continuing with your novitiate; and you, my sisters, who are already professed religious: as long as you are here there is nothing else that you should: you must be like seraphim at the foot of this altar, looking at Jesus and looking at your mother, the Most Holy Virgin, in order to imitate them.
Letter to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs on the presence of Missionaries in Equatorial Africa (End of September 1887)
Dear Minister
You have done me the honour of asking for some information on the institutions founded these last years in the interior of Equatorial Africa by the Missionaries of Algiers, of which I am the Founder and superior. Your Excellency expresses to me, in particular, his desire to know what agreements would have been made between us and the various territorial rulers of these countries and especially of the Belgian Congo.
The Society of the Missionaries of Algiers founded its first establishments in Equatorial Africa in March 1878. It had been invited to do so by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, which could not find any other religious congregation willing to face the perils and enormous expense of these new missions. In principle, there is only one mission comprising all the territories of the hinterland, extending from north to south from the Upper Nile to the Zambezi, and from east to west from an imaginary line drawn 400 kilometres from the eastern shores of Africa to another line drawn at equal distance from the western shores. Two years later, these regions were divided into four distinct major missions, all four of which were entrusted to the same missionaries under my episcopal authority.
Two of these missions extended from the Centre to the east coast, but the coast was still entrusted as before to the Holy Ghost Fathers. The centre of the first of these two missions was in Uganda, on Lake Nyanza, while the centre of the second was near Oujiji, on Lake Tanganyika. The other two missions extended from the centre to the Atlantic coast, with a coastal strip of four hundred kilometres remaining entrusted to the Holy Ghost Fathers.
This division predated the international resolutions and arrangements of the treaty of Berlin. During this first period, the Missionaries of Algiers had political relations only with the Sultan of Zanzibar who gave them all the necessary authorizations and recommendations, and with the Negro kings of the interior, mainly with Mutesa, king of Uganda. Then this prince asked Mgr Livinhac,the superior of the mission, to obtain for him the official protectorate of France promising in the event of a favourable answer, to send one of his sons with an embassy to our country to recognize himself as our vassal. I informed your government of these provisions, but it considered it appropriate not to accept Mutesa's request.
After the Congress of Berlin, things changed. The same missionary societies that had originally declined the honour of evangelizing the interior of Equatorial Africa, asked to be admitted. His Majesty the King of the Belgians was the first to express the desire to see the missions of the Belgian Congo entrusted to the Belgian missionaries of Mongolia and to secular priests trained in Louvain, in a seminary similar to our seminary of the Foreign Missions. The Holy Ghost Fathers, for their part, demanded the right to settle in the French Congo. Notwithstanding the hurtful nature of such a request, for the sake of peace and also because the immense territories entrusted to our missionaries were far too vast to be evangelized by them [alone], I believed that we had to accommodate both the French congregation of the Holy Spirit and the King of the Belgians.
The first obtained from me a declaration that allowed them to settle, with the approval of the Holy See, throughout the French Congo. With His Majesty King Leopold II, an agreement was reached whereby the Congregation of the Belgian Missions would henceforth serve the regions from the sea to Stanley-Falls, and the Missionaries of Algiers would continue to occupy alone the region between Stanley-Falls and Lake Tanganyika.
It is especially on this last point that this agreement holds some political interest for the future; His Majesty King Leopold, having established at his own expense two kinds of military stations on this lake, at Karema and Mpala, asked us to replace his explorers or envoys who were leaving the country, in order not to appear to abandon these stations to the Arab slave traders. He left us not only the forts and their furnishings, but also the weapons, the powder, two small steamboats and a garrison of negroes with advance payment of six months.
I accepted these conditions, and since then, the missionaries of Algiers have occupied these two posts and have created a kind of territorial sovereignty. A French bishop, Mgr Charbonnier, a member of their Society, exercises the functions of Vicar and a former captain of the Papal Zouaves, Mr. Joubert, commands an armed troop of about 600 Negroes, who maintain order in the country over a vast area and protect from hostile incursions by Arab slave-traders. the Negroes who are gradually gathering around our stations, as a kind of confederation, Just recently Mgr Charbonnier made an agreement with the most important and powerful ruler in the area, named Kapoufi, with whom he made a blood pact.
Nothing has been changed so far, politically speaking, in our other missions. The suppression of a large part of the original mission of the Congo has nevertheless led to a new division in so far as our four Vicariates are concerned. In the beginning, these Vicariates were called the Northern Upper Congo Vicariate, the Southern Upper Congo Vicariate, the Tanganyika Vicariate and the Nyanza Vicariate. Today they are called the Apostolic Vicariates of the Upper Congo, Tanganyika, Unyanyembe, and Victoria-Nyanza.
As your Excellency knows, today Germany and England assert their exclusive right to extend their political influence over these regions, and other European governments seem to recognize these claims. However, no agreement has been concluded by us with either of these powers. On one occasion when the lives of our missionaries and those of all German settlers and those of other nationalities were being threatened, the German consul in Tunis, having heard me speak about this danger, asked me to give him the written details I had received from our missionaries concerning this matter. This I did, and as your Excellency must know, Mr. von Bismarck took the opportunity to question the French government on the appropriateness of a joint intervention, in the interests of the Europeans of French and German nationality who were being threatened in this way.
The government of the Republic suspecting a trap, did not think it should embark on this path and I think that it was right to decline. In Rome, Propaganda Fide, having in turn been approached by the German government on this issue of the missions in Equatorial Africa, seems to have lent a sympathetic ear to the Chancellor's desire to see German missions favoured, to the detriment of French missions, in the regions on which his influence was due to extend. But hardly had I been informed of such a request and such plans than I called attention to the enormous sacrifices of men and money made by the missionaries in Algiers and so far no one has dared to suggest to me the withdrawal of my missionaries. That is where things are at present. I am determined to support our cause, but it would also be useful if France had it supported by its ambassador to Propaganda Fide, too inclined today to sacrifice everything to the Germans. That, in short, Mr. Minister, is a quick overview of our situation from a political point of view.
From a statistical point of view, as I said earlier, we have, in addition to a procure in Zanzibar, four Apostolic Vicariates, two of which are governed by bishops, Mgr Livinhac and Mgr Charbonnier, and two by chief Pro-Vicars who are priests, Mr Coulbois and Mr Girault. Each of these prelates has with him between ten and twelve missionaries.
Indigenous Catholic communities exist wherever these missionaries are established, but the most recent are still in their initial stages. The oldest, on the contrary, and especially those of Lake Nyanza and Lake Tanganyika, have developed rapidly, and the first of these two Christian communities has recently given, in the midst of a bloody persecution, evidence of attachment to the Christian faith and even of heroism which was completely unexpected coming from Negroes Around one hundred and fifty of these neophytes preferred to shed their blood rather than renounce [their] religion, and those who survived have intensified their zeal and enthusiasm in their desire to spread the faith.
While transmitting this information to you, I wish to assure you, Mr Minister, of my high and respectful consideration, and I profess myself to be your most humble and obedient servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Cardinal Simeoni informing him of the appointment of White Father students in Rome (2 November 1887)
Carthage,
Your Eminence,
As I had announced to your Eminence from the beginning, I had the Council of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Algiers decide to send to Rome a certain number of scholastics who will live in the procure of this small Society at Saint Nicholas of Lorraine and, under the direction of the Father Procurator, will be taking their theology courses and will then be qualified so that they can serve as directors or teachers in their own African seminaries, or those seminaries that the local Ordinaries would later want them to run.
Reverend Father Burtin, our Procurator General, will therefore have the honour of presenting to Your Eminence the first four scholastics we are sending today for the above-mentioned purpose. I would be very grateful to Your Eminence if you personally would indicate to our young fathers which courses would you prefer to see them take. As far as I am concerned, I would prefer the courses at the seminary of Propaganda Fide, since they depend on Propaganda Fide and will have to depend on it for the whole of their lives.
Nevertheless, if for any particular reason your Eminence thought otherwise, I ratify in advance your decision.
Humbly kissing your hands, I have the honour of professing myself with deep respect to be, Eminence, your most humble and obedient servant.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Deguerry concerning a possible transfer of the residence of the General Council (14 November 1887)
Carthage,
My dear Father,
I waited before answering your letter of 23rd October, until the acrimony it caused had subsided enough to allow me to remain self-possessed. I can say to myself today only one thing: Bonum mihi quia humiliasti me. This is also what I say to myself when re-reading the sad letter in which you summarized, as if with pleasure, with the cold harshness that characterizes you, the insults and calumnies that I have received over the last twenty years. You would have saved yourself such a serious wrong if you had questioned me before accepting as truths hypotheses and reports which are unsupported. In point of fact, I certainly have no intention of doing anything in Carthage for our little Society until the end of the international crises that are threatening us. Therefore, you do not have to concern yourself with anything in this respect.
I could stop there, my dear Child, by simply reminding you of the Honora patrem tuum as the condition for God's blessings on you. However, in the midst of all the reasons you seek to gather from all sides, you touch upon a question which, once put in this way, is far too important for me not to tell you clearly my opinion, because it would be weakness and cowardice [on my part] to avoid doing so. The question is that of maintaining the Mother House at Maison Carrée. If it were only a question of feeling, I could agree with you. I am attached to it [Maison-Carée] by all kinds of memories. But the experience of fifteen years shows me that this house, although useful to the Society from a temporal point of view, is calamitous for it from a spiritual point of view. This is because it is at the same time the ordinary headquarters of the Superior , as well as his council, and the centre of a large agricultural holding.
Through a temptation, initially imperceptible and subtle, which then became insurmountable, the superiors are turning into farmers. The same remark could be made of Trappist Monasteries, but since in that case there is only the one house in which the superior resides, the amalgamation does not have such disastrous consequences. In the case of a congregation which is extensive the results are terrible. The Superior is really holding on to only one house, one place of residence, as a peasant holds on to his farm. Not only is he holding on to tit, but he is becoming materially preoccupied by it. It is in the very nature of labour on the land to produce this effect. No more taste for piety, for study, but a kind of intellectual numbness and moral indifference that increasingly gains ground leading to the neglect of the most sacred duties of the Regular Superior , I mean attention to his own spiritual culture, the direction of the souls of his confreres, zeal for supervising them from the religious point of view. From that point on, everything in a community loses flavour. This is the very word of the Gospel. It is the Superior who should be the salt of those under him. Quod si sal evanuerit, in quo salietur?
Your two predecessors did not remain long enough to be tempted and to have the occasion to reach this point. They would have become like you to the point of no longer even suspecting the danger, and increasing it further by planting, with nothing to stop them, hundreds of hectares of vines! It is doubtless a beautiful form of cultivation, but is it for this that a Regular Superior of a community of apostles is appointed? While he acts like a farmer, his flock is abandoned by the pastor. What misfortune and shame follows! I make no accusation of bad will; the temptation, however, is stronger than the will itself. Maison-Carrée, with its crops and vines, is made for a novitiate of brothers, but not for the residence of the Superior, nor even for that of the novitiate of the Fathers who witness there too much work, too much commerce, and too many Fathers who are unedifying.
I doubtless approve of agricultural work and praise it, because it can free you from begging one day; but on condition that only Brothers and one or two Fathers having an aptitude for this kind of work are designated for it. Yet I believe it is pernicious,, I repeat, disastrous for the Congregation, that the Superior himself should be directly involved in it, develops too much taste for it, as is inevitable, and one day finds himself having, without knowing how, the ideas, the feelings, the perspectives of a farmer, hating serious books to the point that one is never seen in his hand and so foreign to spiritual things that he can no longer say a single word to his brothers.
From all this I have long concluded, for my part, that it is necessary to put an end, as soon as possible, to such a disastrous situation for the Congregation, and I am sure that the most virtuous and most advanced missionaries in spirituality share my way of seeing things. However, even if this idea is [firmly] fixed in my mind, its implementation does not seem easy to me. How to move and where to place the Superior and his Council? I am waiting for Providence to show the way. I had thought of Our Lady of Africa, but it is too near; Rome or France would be too far away. But it will certainly be in a house where there can be no farming and no concern [for farming]. I shall do this, if it is possible for me, before I die, in the belief that I am fulfilling a duty which, after such experiences, it would be a grave sin for me to omit.
I have also thought of Carthage, as you rightly suppose, but I am hindered by the prospect of future complications and political rivalry. I blushed for you, I will not hide it from you, on account of several other reasons you found to deter me from this project. They are the true result of the mental habits adopted in Maison-Carrée and show me the extent of the evil seeing in it the absence of any Christian sentiment, in a land bathed with the blood of the martyrs and which evokes such admirable memories.
I finish here, my dear Child, by asking you to read this letter to Father Viven and Father Féderlen, but to no one else, whatsoever.
Your father in Our Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the scholastics in Carthage (1st January 1888)
Biskra,
My dear Sons,
I am touched and thankful for the wishes that you have expressed to me on the occasion of the New Year, but even more for the witness to your good will which Reverend Father Provincial has provided. The more our [missionary] endeavours develop, the more clearly do I see the need to strengthen the formation of the missionaries of the future. I spoke to you about this at the beginning of your retreat this year. Do not forget my recommendations concerning this matter.
Piety and a delicate conscience [are necessary] before all else. After that, study and the acquisition of knowledge. With regard to the latter, the weakness of a large number of you makes me really ashamed. I have just received proof of this general weakness in a way which was particularly painful for me. I am alluding to the impression made on the college of Propaganda Fide by the arrival of four of your fellow students, chosen from among those who were thought to be the most capable. They were found to be really bottom, and after having been placed in the classes which corresponded to the number of years of study they had completed, it was found necessary to put them in lower classes.
The Reverend Prefect did not hide from me the fact that such results were far from doing you honour, and that every effort should be made to do much better. In particular it is esteemed that they have not been trained in the use of the language of theology and that scholastic theology is completely foreign to them. To be judged in this way is a real disaster for the Society to which you belong, because in Rome impressions are long-lasting. It could happen that one day preference is given to missionaries who are more capable, especially for the difficult missions, and that one of those that, at my request, had been originally entrusted to you might be taken from you. There is therefore a need, my dear sons, for a bit of a shake out of your torpidity, and for you to profit more from the courses provided for you.
This is the wish for you that I formulate at the beginning of this year.
With truly paternal affection,
Yours in the Lord,
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Mother Marie Claver on Fidelity to Spiritual Combat (12 January 1888)
Biskra,
My Dear Daughter in Our Lord
I could not repeat to you too often that the essence of the spiritual life, and consequently of perfection, lies in belonging to God with the whole of one’s will. Impressions are nothing but trials if they are bad and courses of encouragement if they are good, and this is precisely because they are not willed. How would it be possible, my dear daughter, for your will to belonging to other than Our Lord? Who has done anything for you effectively, and who one day could give you a worthy reward, if not he? How now! Have you done something that was difficult, almost heroic, in giving up everything in order to follow a vocation marked by abnegation and sacrifice, only to get lost in details which are almost always ridiculous? Have you escaped tempests in the ocean and arrived safely in the harbour, only to create storms in a tea-cup? This is because you did not know how to weigh properly the work of imagination and difficulties of no consequence.
Have you decided to remain attached to Our Lord, yes or no? Never, with the help of his grace, to offend him grievously, yes or no? To follow in the way of his disciples, in other words his Apostles, yes or no? Give me, I beg of you, a clear answer to these three questions, and do not speak about anything else in your next letter to me. Then I myself shall write to you. You do not speak to me about what you are reading. This is nevertheless important. I advise you to give a list of the spiritual books in the novitiate to the Father who is your spiritual director, and ask him to indicate which he considers is the most useful for you.
I bless you, my dear daughter, in Our Lord.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter of the Cardinal to his Auxiliary in Algiers, Monsignor Dusserre, about the Silver Jubilee of the Cardinal’s Episcopal Ordination (29 January 1888)
Biskra,
Monsignor,
I can at last tell your Lordship for certain that it is in the cathedral of Algiers that I shall celebrate the Mass of the 25th anniversary of my episcopal consecration, on Thursday 22nd March next. Several obstacles seemed at first to be preventing the fulfilment of this wish, but I have set them all aside out of tenderness [of the heart] and paternal consideration for what is only right. It is to Algiers that I belong, through the first bonds. It is to Algiers that I must dedicate this day which, so to speak, will provide me with a resume of the most precious memories of my life in Africa.
What I am asking for, moreover, on this occasion is not for solemn celebrations, nor to be honoured. I wish only for prayers, on the one hand in order to ask God to pardon me for past faults which are part of human misery, and in particular of my own, and on the other hand to obtain for me, in the future, a future which cannot be far away, the grace of a holy death, fully resigned [to the will of God].
Please be so kind as to solicit for me, for this twofold purpose, the prayers of the clergy, the religious communities and the pious faithful, telling them how happy I shall be to bless myself those who will be able to join the venerable prelates of Algeria and Tunisia in our cathedral, on 22nd March. These prelates have, in fact, been good enough to announce their fraternal visit on that day.
For the rest, let us remain silent and modest. The sorry conditions in France, and the great jubilee which is being celebrated in Rome at this time and before which all else should be eclipsed, does not allow for any great show .
Be assured, Monsignor, that I remain, with affection and respect, devotedly Yours in Our Lord.
+Charles Cardinal Lavigerie,
Archbishop of Algiers and Carthage.
Letter to Monsignor Brincat about the Launching of the Anti-slavery Campaign (25 May 1888)
Rome,
My Dear Friend,
You will receive through the religious press of Italy, almost at the same time as the present letter, the account of the audience which our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, granted to our African pilgrimage, and the text of his discourse. You will have already read his memorable encyclical in which, after having congratulated Brazil for the abolition of slavery throughout its huge empire, he turned his attention, with paternal consideration, to our Africa. Stigmatizing the horrible trade in black slaves, he invited the Christian world to engage in a crusade in order finally to bring such horrors to an end. I thanked him for this in the name of our Africa.
This sentiment will not surprise you, knowing as you do all that I have sought to do, for over twenty years, in order to send missionaries into the interior of this great Continent, at the price of so much fatigue and so much suffering. They were to combat the barbarous state of which so many human creatures are still the victims. Yet what I wish to bring to your attention today is that the Vicar of Jesus Christ deigned to give me a solemn response. You will re-read his words which have now become for us a law. You will see that he demands of all (in his own words) to bring to an end this frightful trafficking of slaves and to make use of every means to stop this evil from continuing to dishonour the human race. He added, since Africa is the principal theatre of this awful trade and, as it were, the real land of slavery, we recommend to all missionaries to consecrate their whole strength, and even their lives, to this sublime work of redemption. Finally, he closed with an even more direct appeal: But it is on you, above all, Eminence, that we are counting for success.
I stop there because I cannot think of reproducing what follows which only the great indulgence of Leo XIII has caused him to write . It is not only to an old man of failing strength, such as myself, that he makes this appeal but, as you more than anyone else will understand, to you and to all those who assist me in my ministry and support my endeavours. I will therefore not astonish you if I tell you that, for a time, I shall leave everything to one side until I have organized such a crusade. I had thought of returning to Africa for some time. But it is to Paris that I am going to come, not for any ordinary appeals but in order to speak at last about what I know concerning the awful crimes which devastate the interior of our Africa, to launch a great cry, a cry which shakes the very depths of the soul all those in this world who are worthy to be called human and Christian! Moreover, all I have to do now is to bring to light what Leo XIII has just written about slavery in Africa.
So, my dear friend, goodbye for now, that is until the time when I shall be able to leave Rome after having received the final blessing and the last counsels of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. Announce my visit to all our friends. Where shall I speak? Where shall I write? As yet I do not know, but what I do know is that in asking that an end be put to so many sordid excesses, and in proclaiming these great principles of Christian humanism, charity, freedom, equality, justice, I shall find in France and in the Christian world no mind or heart that will refuse to give me support.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Conference given at Saint Sulpice (1st July 1888)
“Where there is no distinction between slave and freeman… there is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything:” (Col 3:11)
Recently, our great Pontiff, Leo XIII, borrowed St. Paul’s words in his Encyclical to the Bishops of Brazil.
By virtue of the Apostle’s teaching, he condemned slavery saying that its very existence among Christians is a crime. Since all humankind are born in the image of Jesus Christ, they are new christs, and hence, brothers. To oppress one another and to deprive people of their freedom is a sacrilege, because this freedom is “nature’s most precious gift”. Jesus Christ taught this truth when he said that on the last day we shall all be rewarded, if we “have gone to the aid of prisoners”, because “in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine you did it to me.”
Also, speaking about slavery as it exists on our African continent, Leo XIII, who normally speaks with moderation and indulgence, energetically condemned slavery.
He declared that slavery is opposed to divine law and to the natural law. “Contra quod est a Deo et natura institutum”. He proclaimed that the traffic in human beings was infamous. Nothing could be more wicked: “Mercatura qua nec inhonesta magis nec scelerata”. Using words of authority and of sadness, he appealed to all Christians to oppose it!. He did not just exhort, he begged, he, the Father of the great Christian family: “Hortantibus nobis et rogantibus”, that this trade should be prohibited and finally suppressed in the regions where it is dominant. “Comprimant, prohibeant, extinguant”. So spoke the Pope in Rome some weeks ago, he, the successor of so many Pontiffs who have demanded for the victims of this slavery, pity, mercy and justice. In the name of the bishops and priests of Africa, I have publicly thanked the Pope, on the very day that his Encyclical had just been published., and he, reading surely in my heart, has deigned to authorise me to preach this new crusade. Truth to say, this additional charge has done nothing to help my health; but how could I refuse such a request from the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and how could I not consider it to be a supreme honour for someone whose life will soon be ended!
I am beginning this mission in the very church where nigh on half a century ago, I began my priestly life, finding a happy omen in what I am thus preaching for the first time, in the midst of a faithful of whom I can say, like the Apostle in Romans 1.8., their piety is known throughout the world. What I am proposing to do, today, is not to give an erudite discourse: this appeals neither to my sentiments neither to your feelings. Clever devices such as this are not for an old missionary.
I have two points to bring to your attention in this conference: Slavery is daily becoming even more horrible in the interior of Africa. And what can be done to end it.
In his Encyclical In Plurimis, Leo XIII has just begun the third solemn struggle that the Church supports against slavery. The Church began the first soon after her birth. This was against pagan slavery. The Church first of all made a frontal attack, through its doctrines, teaching mankind to love one another because they are brothers, sons of the same God. She continued this attack by exhortations from her apostles, her pontiffs, her doctors, who preached justice and pity to everyone. Down through the centuries by her institutions and her example, she caused it to weaken.
True, the combat was long, for it was directed against all the corruptions emanating from the human heart. This same combat was directed to free the multitude of unfortunate human beings. Humanum paucis vivit genus, the poet said, and as Leo XIII recalled in order to describe succinctly the character of a nearly universal oppression. But eventually the day came when this leprosy disappeared from a world become Christian and where the freedom of Christ triumphed.
In the 15th century, following on the discovery of America, the same passions which had maintained slavery in days of old, rose up again. What happened? In order to supplement their small numbers, the colonialists fell back on Africa and established the African slave trade. For more than three centuries, this trade dishonoured the world by its cruelties. The Church rose up against this by the work of its missionaries such as Peter Claver and Las Casas; by its Pontiffs such as Pius II, Leo X, Benedict XIV, and in our own time, Gregory XVI and Pius IX. All the clever arguments intended to deceive, were used in favour of slave owners; the Christian conscience finished by speaking louder than their greediness. At the beginning of this century, a whole host of generous writers and statesmen battled against the enemy and struck blows under which he eventually succumbed. Brethren, you know the names of these noble defenders of the dignity and freedom of others. They are the honour of France, England, the United States of America.
Thanks to them and the use of European warships, slavery successfully disappeared from the colonies. One great empire, Brazil, held fast to slavery. It was Leo XIII who managed to persuade that country to eventually give it up.
But, my dear brethren, even while the American slave trade was disappearing little by little, one could still hear the cries of despair, each day more numerous coming from Central Africa. Belgian, English, and American explorers made the sound of these cries echo even as far as us.
Doubtless, slavery had always existed in these regions, but never in the proportions we hear about today, for it threatens to annihilate an entire people. This fact is still unknown by the civilised world, and it is this that the Vicar of Jesus Christ wants to make known. And this I am telling you now in my double position as Pastor and Father of all these unfortunate people.
I myself have only become aware of these things in the last few years. I had already spent more than ten years in North Africa without receiving any revelations of such infamies, apart from vague rumours from the interior of Africa. Ten years ago, finally, I sent my own sons, the Missionaries of Algiers, right to the centre of the equatorial provinces, still virtually unknown. These were the only Frenchmen who had penetrated and established themselves in these far places. Ten years ago, they suffered all the evils which beset them, plus a murderous climate and endless powerless when faced with the sufferings of a population they were going to evangelise, and which they see sadly perishing from their sufferings. It is by the missionaries that I have heard of the lamentable lot endured by the negroes of the Great Lakes region – chased and hunted down like animals, abandoned by the slave traders. I would have wished from the very first days when I heard what has happening, to have made known to the whole world what was going on in these regions. Nevertheless, I hesitated. I asked myself if my revelations would stimulate the hatred of those I was going to condemn and would in turn condemn my sons to a sure death, thus depriving the black population of the support they so badly were waiting for.
But time has moved on. The explorers have increased in numbers. Perhaps they have not been able to tell everything they have seen and experienced because someone who is only passing by cannot tell everything. Whereas someone who stays in one area can see more than enough. Moreover, Europe is now turning towards Africa. The Powers have in fact divided it up. That which was not possible ten years ago, is possible today. One can now hope to see forming, in spite of divisions among themselves, what Montesquieu was calling already in the time of colonial slavery, a “League for Mercy and for Pity”. This is not only my wish, it is also the wish of the Head of the Church: and that is why following on a time of keeping silence when there was no hope, now comes a time for speaking out.
You should know, dear brothers, that for more than half a century, Islam has quietly invaded, without tiring, half of Africa. In certain regions, those which are neighbours to us, the followers of Islam, have founded empires; in others they have caused slavery to come about. Please, Dear Lord, may I not make use of this occasion to throw out accusations against population and peoples. I am living, moreover, in the midst of Muslims. Even if they do not look upon me as their Father, I must, in my capacity as Pastor, look upon them and love them as my sons. But I cannot prevent myself from stating, today, that among the most harmful errors in Africa, the most sad of all is taught by Islam, that humanity is made up of two distinct races: that of the believers, destined to rule over the others; and that of the accursed, as they call them, destined to serve. In this second category, they say that the Negroes are the lowest of the low, on the same level as animals. According to Leo XIII, in their eyes they are described as beasts destined for the yoke: Nata jugo jumenta!
Through conquest, the Muslims have penetrated to the centre of a continent peopled by a black population. The Muslims have then started work at justifying their doctrine. Bands of evangelists, set up by them, have advanced into the interior, coming from Morocco, from the land of the Touareg, from Tunisia, towards Timbuktu and the countries which surround the Niger, from Egypt, from Zanzibar onwards towards the Great Lakes, and finally as far as the Upper Congo and nearly to the borders of the English possessions and the Cape colonies.
Sometimes the kidnappers hide along the tracks in the forests, in the middle of the crops, and take by force the women, the black children who are alone in these areas. Things have arrived at such a state, near to the Great Lakes, and here I quote textually the words of one of my missionaries, that now “every woman, every child who wanders off even for just ten minutes from their village, is not certain to return”. There is absolute impunity. There is no black chief of the small independent tribes, in which the entire country is divided, who has the power to stop this violence. The slavers, made up of Arabs and half breeds, of negroes coming from the coastal regions, are armed to the teeth. The savage populations of Africa’s high plateaux only have as arms, stones, sticks, arrows and lances. It is impossible for them to fight against the brigands who invade them, or to escape.
But the slavers do not only attack isolated individuals: they organise their expeditions in the same way as a war is organised, sometimes alone, sometimes by a refinement of wickedness, allied to neighbouring tribes to which they offer part of their pillage and who, the next day become their victims in their turn. During the night, they fall on defenceless villages; they set fire to the huts built of straw. They fire on the first people they meet. The population begins to flee, looking for safety in the forest, amongst impenetrable creepers, in dried-up river beds, in the tall grasslands of the valleys. They are chased and the men who resist and the old people are killed. The women and children are taken as captives. But I have already described these horrors. I grow tired of looking for new ways of describing things. Listen, my dear brothers, to what I have to say about the caravans of slaves:
All those captured, be they men, women and children, are immediately marched off into the interior. Then begins for them a whole series of ineffable sufferings. The slaves trudge along on foot; those men who appear to be strong and who might take off, have their hands bound and sometimes their feet, in such a way that the march becomes a form of torture. They are linked one to another so that they cannot escape. Such is the description the missionaries have given in their letters.
They march the whole day. In the evening when they stop to have some rest, the prisoners are given a few handfuls of uncooked sorghum. This is their food. The next day they set off once again. From the first days, fatigue, suffering, the never-ending privations cause a great number to become weaker and weaker. The women and the elderly are the first to fall by the wayside. Then, so as to instil fear in the others, the slavers, armed with thick sticks, approach those who appear to be exhausted; they strike their unfortunate victims with a terrible blow on the neck. The victims fall to the ground in the convulsions of death.
The terrified prisoners then begin to move along once again. What they have witnessed gives extra strength to even the most feeble among them. Each time that someone stops, the same dreadful scene repeats itself. Their bodies remain where they are., that is to say, when they are not hung from the branches of overhanging trees. And it is near to their dead companions, that the remaining slaves are forced to eat and sleep.
But what a sleep they must have! It doesn’t take much to imagine what the prisoners dream about. Among the young negroes we have been able to rescue from this hell on earth, there are who every night for a long time wake up shouting and screaming. They are reliving in agonising nightmares the dreadful scenes which they have witnessed.
It is like this that the marches take place, sometimes lasting entire months, when the expedition has far to go. The caravan is reduced in numbers, each day. When pushed to despair by the bad treatment they are experiencing, some try to revolt or flee, it is then that their ferocious masters strike them with their swords and abandon them along the paths, attached to each other by their yokes. You could say that if you were to lose the way which leads from Equatorial Africa to the towns where the slaves are sold, you would find it easily by the bones of the Negroes scattered alongside the paths.
Finally, the market place is reached, where those surviving among the poor black people, are led. Frequently it is only half of them, or even just a third, sometimes even less from those who had been captured at the departure.
Now begins scenes of another kind, but no less odious. The captive negroes are stood up for sale like beasts. In turn their feet, their hands, their teeth, in fact their entire body is examined, to prove that they can carry out the services which will be required from them. The sale price is discussed in front of them, just like for any animal, and when the price is agreed upon, they belong body and soul to whoever has bought them. Nobody is held any longer accountable for the sufferings, nor for the deaths of the slaves.
The great and intrepid Livingstone summed it up. For many years he had been witness to these inhuman goings on and he wrote as follows. I beg you to think long and hard about what he says:
“When I consider the slave trade in East Africa, I have been careful about what I have to say. I do not want to be held guilty of exaggerating, but in all truth, the subject does not allow one to exaggerate. To amplify the evils of this dreadful commerce is simply not possible. The spectacle I have before me, the on-going incidents of this trafficking, is of such horror that I make every effort to drive them away from my memory, with no success. The most painful memories are erased as time passes; but the atrocious scenes I have witnessed come back to me and, during the night make me leap up, horrified by the intensity of the image”.
But it is not just the general aspect of these dismal scenes, our Fathers have been witness to even more horrible details. They have seen the executioners, boiling with rage with the thought that their victims were going to escape, draw their sabres with which they were armed, and which they used to cut off heads with a single blow, cut off one arm first of all, then a foot, and seizing this debris, throw them onto the edge of some nearby jungle, shouting out to the terrified prisoners: “These are for the leopards which will come to teach you to march”.
In addition (and I tell this for those who deny the possibility of rescuing one day, this oppressed race), faced with the perspective of so much shame and suffering, the savage strength is raised to the sublime. Women captured during a hunting expedition, torn from their children, from their husbands, so as not to become victims to the debauchery, have seized a poisoned lance and plunged it themselves into their breasts.
This, then is what is taking place in the interior of equatorial Africa, in fifty places at once. This is how the Muslim slave traders trample down human laws, divine laws, the natural law, not only creating these ineffable miseries, but preparing shortly the destruction of men, of families, of villages, of provinces of the interior of Africa, in order to bring about an immense desert.
I am not exaggerating anything, and I can only repeat, moreover, with Livingstone that one cannot exaggerate when it comes to African slavery; I am only repeating what my own missionaries have written to me about, and what the most trustworthy English and French, Protestant and Catholic explorers have already recounted in part. Never, and now I take up my own reflections, never the world has witnessed so many sacrilegious excesses. One has rightly spoken out and acted against the colonial slave trade. But the colonial slave trade with its negro slaves was not on the same level as the man hunts, such as now practiced, even more cruelly, every day, in the interior of Africa. It is not on the same level in so far as the number of victims are concerned, the executioners’ beastly cruelty, the extent of the disasters.
The colonial slave trade was more to do with adults and more particularly with men. The American colonists wanted people for work on their plantations. And for that they needed grown men. The children were an additional burden until the day came when they could work in their turn. But things have changed in Africa vis a vis slavery on the land, as envisaged by the Muslims. When they were transported to America, the adult negroes could not flee. The vast extent of the Atlantic Ocean kept them there. But while they are still in Africa, the adult negro has only one thought: to flee in the hope of finding his village once again, or at the very least to keep his liberty among some other tribe. Moreover, on Africa’s high plateaux, the land, the sun, the rain, all help to make the land fertile, to such an extent that men are not needed to work; it suffices to have women for the work. So to kidnap the men, force them to march long distances, feed them until they arrive at the slave markets, is not very productive for the slave traders. Women and children are now needed in the slave markets, and these have replaced the men. Women and children are fearful and they draw back before the uncertainties and the dangers of flight.
Women and children can be bought without fear. Women for the chiefs’ limitless debauchery, children to be used for their odious practices. Since this commerce is now in the hands of polygamous Muslims, the bestial practices of the chiefs have spread far and wide. Powerful chiefs such as Mtesa and today, Mwanga, King of Uganda, have as many as two hundred women at once. Even the poor chiefs have many. In the centre of Africa, the price of slaves does not do anything to discourage these practices. In some places, today, many women can be bought for a goat, a child for a packet of salt. A goat must be looked after, a packet of salt must be brought from the salt deposits, carried from far away; it is sufficient to capture women and children and chain them up. Things have reached such a state in the interior of Africa that men are often the money which replace shells from the lakes and the sea for the smallest purchases.
What a contemptuous sacrilege! O corruption engendered by greediness! Can one even think of it without shuddering, without condemning those who abuse human nature and make it descend to the condition of beasts under the yoke: In truth, we must repeat the words of Leo XIII “Nata jugo jumenta!”
But this is not the only reason which makes slavery within Africa worse than colonial slavery. The journey to the New World was long and difficult. The slaves were carried in sailing boats. So the number of men who could be carried to the colonies was thus somewhat limited. Today, the man hunting and the slave sales can be done by all. It is sufficient in order to keep up the numbers, to have a half-cast with his troop of slavers; poor unarmed black people for victims, and tribes to buy the human prey. So, whilst in Europe we did not know what was happening in Africa, the slave markets were multiplying everywhere in the interior. They are not on the sea-shores any longer because there are no more slave buyers for the countries overseas; but they are to be found everywhere in the interior, in the far off towns of Morocco, in the oases of the Sahara, in Timbuctu, to the south of Niger and as far as Zambezi and further still on the plateaux of the Great Lakes, where the inoffensive population together with the density of the population and the richness of its soil (rather like the situation of the Peru’s Indian population), encourages the effrontery of the negro slave traders and their ferocious appetite.
In the most recent mail, I have received from Zanzibar, I read in our father’s diaries, the report of one of these barbaric scenes. Formally I would not have published it: today, in the name of justice, I am going to send it without any delay to the press. You will be able to read and you will see for yourselves that nothing is respected by these demons, neither the age, sex, or weakness of their victims; how they strike the women dead at their feet when they resist; how our missionaries are obliged to suffer the anguish of a thousand deaths, not for themselves (they have already made the sacrifice of their lives), but because, witnesses to the miseries of the black population, it is impossible to help them, not wishing to expose them to some new massacre by an unequal resistance; and not being able to pay a ransom for all the slaves. On the contrary, our missionaries can see the joy on the faces of those whom they have been able to free and at the same time the despair of those who leave chained up.
I repeat for a last time, dear brethren, this is what the African slave trade is all about as it exists in this year 1888, nineteen hundred years after Jesus Christ. Long live God! If your feelings correspond to mine, I am confident that what you have heard will trouble your consciences.
But enough of the details, however moving they may be, for I am taking up far too much time. Let us pinpoint definite figures which must give rise to a condemnation of the traffic with no appeal. Christians, do you know how many slaves have been sold into the interior of Africa by the Muslim slave traders during the last ten years? I am not going to give you just the numbers provided by my missionaries - they speak about four hundred thousand each year. Cameron says that a minimum of five hundred thousand are sold each year!
Do you hear me correctly? Five hundred thousand slaves sold each year in the markets of the interior of Africa, under conditions which I have just described. I am only talking about slaves who have been sold; added to these, according to the explorers and our Fathers, for every slave put up for sale, must be added the victims who have been massacred during the man hunts, or who have died from their sufferings and from hunger in the caravans en route to the slave markets. Some people say that for every slave sold, must be added four, five or even ten dead before arriving at the markets.
Cameron, in confirming these estimates, reports that in order to procure fifty women to be sold, one of these “tigers” destroyed nearby, ten inoffensive villages, each with a population of as many as two hundred people, and massacred all their inhabitants. If, in the other regions where these man hunts are carried out, the proportions are the same, this makes two million blacks killed or sold, each year. This means that in fifty years the interior of Africa will be completely depopulated. I am not astonished by this consequence, especially as my missionaries write that every day a slave caravan arrives at Lake Tanganyika. When my missionaries arrived ten years ago in the heavily populated Manyema region, the area was totally covered with villages and cultivated fields; today, Tipo-Tip’s slave traders have made most of this region, as big as a third of France, a sterile desert where the only traces of the former inhabitants are the bones of the dead people.
I have completed my task, my dear brethren. It consisted in making known to you, as much as one can in an hour, a situation in all it’s brutal horror, which could not even be imagined. It is sufficient for me now to allow you the time to think about what I have made known to you. I know enough about France, about the Christian world, to be certain that when faced with so many misfortunes and iniquities, there will be an immense movement of indignation and pity, and the human conscience will be aroused and human solidarity will fulfil its duties.
Enough of suffering! Enough of blood! Enough of this infamy! Enough of these insults to civilisation, to all the principles which the Christian world lives by and which it can no longer allow to be trampled under foot! Such is the cry which rises up from every heart. This is what is asked for by God’s Vicar, once again, through my voice.
But, brethren, what are the practical means which must be taken to fight again African slavery? The first is charity, but it is inadequate in itself, because it cannot alone save these millions of human beings. Moreover, there is a danger therein. Trying to redeem all the slaves and announcing one’s intention of doing so, will only arouse further greediness among the slave traders and cause them to multiply their captures. But even if one cannot or must not try to ransom all the captives, and if Leo XIII indicates, as we shall see, a more efficacious remedy, what should be said about a missionary who finds during his travels one of these unfortunate creatures. Must he not, as did the Good Samaritan in the Gospel, look for means to relieve his sufferings and, if he can, remove him from his sad lot by paying his ransom? You will see what my missionaries say in the letter I have spoken about. You will share, definitely, their sentiments and their regrets. Listen to their words of distress and their powerlessness to free the slaves they came across on the very day they wrote:
“The Arab chief promised to leave early tomorrow morning, and allow us to ransom, among the victims of this afternoon’s manhunt, the women and children whose ransom we can pay. And this is what took place. Imagine the joy of those ransomed who could return home, but at the same time imagine the despair of the poor unfortunates who cannot be saved, and who are carried off by force, chained one to another in the middle of their cries of despair! If only we had the means to save everyone!”
It is here, my dear brethren, that your help could be useful, and, however, I am not appealing for it at the moment. In preceding years, preaching in France for my apostolic work, I directly collected alms from Christians. I am not appealing this year in your churches. I dare not ask any more from those among you who are not well off, whilst, in these difficult times, all the ordinary charities are asking for help. But those among you who are more fortunate than the others, take a look at your finances, and if they allow for it, listen to your own consciences, that little something which speaks to you in secret! It is more powerful than mine, it is the voice of the One who teaches that “everything you do in his name for these poor captives, it is for Him you have done it”. He is the One of whom each year that we sing: “in order to redeem us from slavery, God has delivered up his own Son”.
When you have taken the decision to undertake this work of mercy, in the proportions called for, our missionaries are ready to act as your intermediaries. Those among you who are familiar with the history of the past, will recall that in centuries of faith, Christians took upon themselves to include in their Wills an item “for the redemption of their souls”, as they said in a touching manner, “the redemption of captives.” They knew that the most sure way of obtaining mercy from the Redeemer, was themselves to have taken part in the work of redemption.
But I repeat, my dear brethren, that charity, however great it may be, will not suffice to save Africa. A more prompt, more efficacious and more decisive remedy is needed. When our Holy Father, the Pope, had finished appealing for charity, he then appealed for force, a peaceful force, which would be used not for attack but for defence. For that, he addressed himself to Christian nations. These can do a lot through their moral strength with the Muslim princes, on whom these African slavers depend, in making these same feel responsible for the continuation of their infamies.
Our missionaries echo this wish, and they declare in addition that, alone, armed force can stop the slave traders. “Alas!”, they write to us, “when will there be an European power prepared to destroy this accursed slave trade and all the subsequent evils. It suffices to have a detachment of well-armed soldiers who are acclimatised to the tropical climate, to disperse in fifteen days, this entire troop (a bunch of two or three hundred brigands) who spread terror throughout the country, from Tabora through Ujiji right up to Manyema, and throughout Tanganyika as far as Albert-Nyanza”.
I think the same. If my sons’ calculations are correct, their plan is speedily feasible. I think that five or six hundred European soldiers, well led and well organised, will be sufficient to suppress the manhunts and the sale of slaves in the countries which stretch from the high plateaux of the African continent, from Albert-Nyanza to the south of Tanganyika.
Already, a first experience in this direction has been made. A Christian hero, a former officer in the papal zouaves and of the French campaign, came to see me. He wanted, even at an age when youth was no longer on his side, to defend the negroes of Africa against slavery. For a number of years he has been living near one of our missions, at Mpala, alongside Lake Tanganyika. He is alone, experiencing privations and sacrifices. He has made himself the protector of the villages which surround him. He has, with the arms we have given him, formed around him among the neophytes, a militia of two hundred negroes. They are not, truth to say, troops from Europe, but at least they are armed and they control, within a certain area, the half-cast slavers with their Rouga-Rouga.
It is necessary, then, that the European countries which have received zones of influence by the Berlin Congress, should, in their future territories, maintain a sufficient force, wherever the man hunting takes place. But if these same states cannot do so, as I fear, because of difficulties in organising such a force or because of financial difficulties perhaps still insurmountable, why not raise up in these barbarous countries, one or other of the military/religious Orders for the defence of the Christian population, similar to those which existed at a time when the Spanish population, and people living in the east of Europe and around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea - areas which were threatened by Turkish invasions and subsequent slavery. These same Orders are known by their courage and by their services rendered: the Knights of Malta, of Saint-Lazare, of Alcantara, of the Teutonic Order, which, under the authority of the Church and with the protection of the princes, strived, not by conquest and by blood which the Church wanted nothing to do with, to defend the weak, to suppress violence, and make up for what the authority of the existing states could not do.
Young Christians from many European countries, why not do the same in the interior of Africa, for a long time inaccessible to the civilised world. Why not revive these noble enterprises of our fathers? Why not, with the blessing of the Church and its pastors, revive this dedication which was the honour of the past.
Doubtless, what is needed is an organisation somewhat different from those of the past, and in keeping with present times. Noble lineage found in the Orders of old, would be supplemented by courage, abnegation, willingness to suffer and to die for ones’ brothers. We would have, besides descendants of our noble families, intrepid priests to serve as nurses and chaplains, Christian workers coming from the work shops or from the farms, ready to take up the sword and pour out their blood for the freedom and the salvation of their brothers, all for the honour of the Christian name and their respective countries. What better than amid the low morals which invade and dishonour everything, to spend one’s life, to leave behind in dying, the memory of a heroic devotion, and to carry upwards to God, the merit of such a death?
It is true that everything cannot be done through the devotion of these African knights. We must provide material necessities needed at least for the immediate future, for a religious militia which will have to be maintained and trained, that is to say, until such time that one can make use of resources easy to find later on in these immense spaces. But here I dare to place my trust in a generosity which is never lacking when it comes to supporting great and holy enterprises, and I have no doubts that if some young men present themselves in enough numbers, so as to sacrifice their youth, their lives, in the interior of Africa, for the salvation of manking, there will be Christians prepared to participate in such a work and join their names to such a work.
But I will come back on this subject on another occasion, my dear brethren. Today I must stop. Allow me, before I come down from this pulpit, to ask you one thing. In order that such a cause should be successful, it must be publicised. Make it known. Repeat the details I have given you. If you have a powerful voice, if you have access to the press which can form public opinion, I appeal to you directly. Journalists, who among you have never made mistakes which you want to make up for. Whatever tendency you hold, and here I address myself to all without distinction, on the one condition that you love humanity, freedom, justice, mercy to be used in supporting the poor black people, you will obtain, one day, for yourselves the same infinite justice, mercy and pardon!
We read in the Acts of the Apostles that, while St. Paul preached in Asia Minor, he had a vision: a Macedonian appeared and appealed to him in these words, “Come across to Macedonia and help us”. Through my voice, it is this same prayer that the African slaves address to you , today! Christians of Europe, come across the sea which separates us and come to our help! St. Paul lost no time in replying to the Macedonian’s prayer. In Macedonia, he rescued those held prisoners under the yoke of evil. Come across to the country of the black population. Come there, some with your kindness, others by the strength of your arms and rescue these peoples, seated in the shadow of death, and those even more miserable from slavery.
Amen.
Letter to Monsignor Livinhac on different matters concerning the Mission and the Life of the Missionaries (15 July 1888)
Paris,
Dear Monsignor,
It is a long time since I wrote to you. That is due to the excessive amount of my daily occupations which continue to increase as also to the state of my health which becomes more burdensome every day. The nature of my suffering is old – it is a sickness of the nervous system – but the intellectual overload to which I submit myself has given to it an extremely painful character which is even preoccupying. In spite of that, I wish to take advantage of the departure of Mgr Bridoux, who is to be the successor of our late lamented Mgr Charbonnier whose loss is so regrettable , to reply to your recent letters in which you have put to me several important questions. After that I wish to give you some information on a matter which may have very serious consequences for your missions.
I shall start by answering your questions:
1 – You and your future colleagues, Bishops and Apostolic Vicars of the society of Algiers are under no obligation to send reports directly to the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, because I am recognized by the Congregation as the major superior of your Society and of your missions until my death. So I take the responsibility of informing the Holy See of everything that is of interest to it, and this in fact I do. So rest assured in this regard. What Mgr Zitelli says does not create any obligation for you, but rather creates an obligation for myself.
2 – What you tell me about the way in which you have written your report on the Martyrs of Uganda is an extremely delicate matter. In such reports you should never for any reason say anything that would be untrue. It would be much better to put off until later [the account] of details of which you are not certain than to commit yourself in reports which later you would have to deny
For the moment, things being as they are, it is absolutely impossible for me to accept the excuse you are giving me for not accomplishing the canonical enquiry which I ordered you to do in the name of the Holy See. This is for you a serious and urgent obligation. In order not to have to come back on your preceding report which has been read in almost all pulpits of Christendom and published in all the Catholic papers, and to avoid the risk of placing in contradiction with yourself, which would be a dishonour for you and for your mission, you will proceed in the following manner:
- Together with the missionaries who were present at the time of the bloody persecution, you will draw up, or draw up again, in French (it is not necessary that the reports be in Latin, especially if in such bad Latin!) an account or a general picture of the persecution, [indicating] its causes and its characteristics, without naming any of the Martyrs in particular.
- After that you will take each of the Catholic Martyrs, one by one, indicating his name, and you will give on him an accurate report based on the enquiries that you have made through your missionaries or by yourself.
- This report should include the names of the witnesses who have been questioned under oath, whether they be Catholic or not; in the case of non-Catholics they will swear by what is most sacred to them
- Each of these reports or special enquiries must bear the signature of the missionaries, your own signature, and the mention that the others do not know how to sign their names
- If it should happen that you have nothing certain about one of the martyrs, you will not make a report about him. Nor will you say a single word about any of the protestant neophytes, and that will be easy, since you will only be making special single reports on each of the Catholics.
- You will end with a general conclusion in which you will say that regarding other persons and other aspects of the persecution there are rumours that have gone round or are currently in circulation, but that you believe that it was better not to mention them since it has been impossible for you to verify them.
Without wishing to distress you, Monsignor, I cannot tell you how much it pained me to see with what lightness you sent to us, on such a serious question, things of which had no certainty. That would be sufficient, I repeat, if it became known, for you to lose your honour, and to cause the Catholic Church to lose its honour in the eyes of Protestants. Pay good attention to this in future. The Church has, above all, a cult of truth to which it must never be led to betray.
I come now to the questions you have put to me concerning the interpretation of some points of the Rule .
3 – The superior is free, while acting prudently, to prevent a missionary from going out, if he judges that the nature and the purpose of the journey could cause some serious inconvenience. Accordingly it is not sufficient for a missionary simply to inform his superior that he is going out; it is necessary that the superior himself should not be opposed to the journey for motives of which he alone is the judge.
4 –That once in a while a missionary could go alone, accompanied by a trustworthy neophyte, can be tolerated, but not as a general rule and not to other villages, a thousand times no. It would be better to give up the idea altogether.
5 – The missionaries, having taken the commitment to observe poverty, need the authorization of their superior for the expenses they incur, except for their own upkeep and for assistance to their families. So if it is observed that they are spending their money and wasting it for other purposes they should be kindly corrected and, if necessary, an order forbidding this should be given them.
6 – There is no doubt that on the missions spiritual reading should be done, even on those days when there is Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. This is necessary to nourish the interior life.
7 – When necessary, as in the instance that you put forward, in order to preserve the health of the missionaries, it is perfectly legitimate to have the orphans sweeping the huts.
8 – Permission to smoke, and even more so the use of spirits, was granted during the journey only if it was necessary for the health of the missionary, as protection against miasma and the consequent fever . This applies even more strictly in the posts where the danger is less great. So permission for the use of tobacco and of spirits is to be granted only when the missionary really in conscience feels the need to use them as a remedy. In this case, moreover, recourse to them should be taken individually and privately, as one does for medicine.
Now that I have answered your questions, dear Monsignor, I have to add something which I consider to be extremely serious. You will enclosed with this letter a pamphlet containing a discourse and support documents which you must read and re-read most attentively. In the same way you must read the encyclical addressed by the Pope to the Bishops of Brazil which touches on the question of the suppression of slavery in Africa
From all this you will see that it is the will of or Holy Father the Pope that henceforth slavery in Africa be suppressed, even with the use of force. He has addressed himself publicly to the [Great] Powers. What will they do? It is still difficult to say, but you will see also that if the Powers do not respond an effort will be made to organize an association, both religious and military, specifically for this purpose. It is not without serious apprehension that I see coming the moment when this idea could be realized. I fear, in fact, that this attempt to take action against slave-trading will lead the Negro kings to take it out on you and your missions.
I must say to you, however, that in order to determine well the roles to be played and the responsibilities to be borne I did not wish your society to participate in any way either in the formation or the government of the Order or Third Order that will be founded with this aim. You will be, in truth, the spiritual superior of these non-exempt religious, having jurisdiction over them as bishop, whenever any of its [expeditionary] corps will be present in your Vicariate. [The members of this] corps will be instructed to behave in your regard with deference, obedience, and respect. Nevertheless, you may and you must point out that they have nothing in common with you and your confreres, and that they are military envoys sent by Europe to punish those who are guilty of crimes against persons, and on the other hand to protect those who are weak, persecuted and pacific. Moreover if by chance, but which is possible, the new Protestant political society which has now been granted suzerainty in your territory from the sea [the Indian Ocean] as far as Nyanza, or a military corps armed by a religious order and landing in Melinde or in Mombasa in order to proceed to Nyanza, I order you explicitly to withdraw from Roubaga and to cross over to the south of the lake, you and your missionaries, and if possible the neophytes who would otherwise be exposed [to danger]. There is a strong fear, in effect, that in such a case Mwanga and the chiefs around him will try to take vengeance by massacring the personnel of the missions and those who depend on them.
The matters are not sufficiently advanced for it to be useful to say more to you today, but I shall inform you or keep you informed by each mail cent to Zanzibar, recommending to the procurator to take good care that you receive the letters destined for you
I shall leave net week for London where I shall come to an understanding with the Anti-Slavery Society and with Mr Makinson, the president of the Society for the new British Sate in your regions.
Goodbye, dear Monsignor. I humbly and affectionately entrust you, and all with you, to divine protection, and I remain
Yours in Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. From what I have said to you above, namely that, as long as I am alive, you are not obliged to address communications or send reports directly to Propaganda Fide, but it is my responsibility to send them in my quality as Apostolic Delegate for your Congregation and your Missions, you should conclude, as you will readily understand, that you must communicate regularly with me. It is not sufficient to write to Reverend Father Deguerry because often, on account of his occupations and hi absences, or because he does not have sufficient personnel, he himself cannot communicate to me what he receives from all the Missions. So I am not informed and it becomes impossible for me to follow up with the Holy See or elsewhere the questions which concern you. I would like also that your missionaries should write to me from time to time for the same reason. Tell them this, please, and see that they do it.
It was last Sunday, in the house of the Sisters of Sion (Dames de Sion) who are, as you know, in Tunisia and in Jerusalem, that we consecrated Mgr Bridoux. The ceremony was, naturally, very moving and very beautiful. I must tell you that on this occasion Fr Deguerry insisted that the two Pro-Vicars of Unyanyembe and the Upper Congo should be appointed Apostolic Vicars and consecrated [bishops]. But I find myself insufficiently edified and enlightened with regard to the two who are presently Pro-Vicars to know whether I can, in all conscience, propose their names to the Holy See for the episcopate and for such a serious responsibility as that of Apostolic Vicar. Please tell me, as soon as possible, what you think yourself, or give me from within the Society the names of two other Fathers who, in your opinion, could be promoted to these difficult, and indeed formidable, positions. The Council of the Society has put forward the names of Fr Gabory and Fr Lechaptois. It is true that they have some of the essential qualities, but they seem to me not to be ready (incomplets). I would prefer Fr Féderlen, despite his youth. But all this requires serious reflection and recourse to prayer.
In France things are going really badly. We are heading for a catastrophe, both for the Church and for the country .
Conference given at Prince’s Hall, London, 31st July 1888
My Lord, (Lord Grandville)
Allow me to thank you, first of all, for the extreme kindness of your words. One of the most precious memories of my life will be that of having been presented to this assembly by a man whose name is the honour of England, before his own country and before all the governments of the civilized world.
Please allow me also to thank my eminent colleague, Cardinal Manning, for the support given to me today by his presence and his name rendered so venerable by the remembrance of a noble life, entirely consecrated to the service of his country and to that of the Church of which he is the Pastor.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is not a politician who presents himself to you today. I have never preoccupied myself, and I do not preoccupy myself at this moment, with any other interests than those of souls, of humanity, of religion.
Neither is it an orator. Absorbed for nearly a quarter of a century by the works of my ministry in a continent that is half savage, I have almost forgotten my mother tongue. Today I have the double regret of not having learned yours and of not being able to communicate to you the sentiments that fill me except by the tone of my voice and, as has just been said to you with such grace, by the bonds of affection that attach me to those of your brothers who come, each year, in great number, to take a place in the sun of our Algeria. So I am only an old Pastor, half broken by fatigue and years, who wants to plead before you the cause of a portion of his flock, condemned to atrocious tortures and menaced by complete destruction.
I am going to speak to you about the horrors of African slavery. I have already twice solemnly spoken up to condemn them: the first time, in Rome, at the feet of the Sovereign Pontiff, the great Leo XIII, my father as well as the father of all Christians; the second time, in France, my native land. But, having fulfilled this double duty of filial respect and of patriotism, it is to you I come, Christians of England. Despite what separates us, I am certain, in advance, that our sentiments will be the same in a cause which is that of humanity, of justice and of liberty.
I come, then, to you because you, in these sentiments, have been the first sentiments, to declare war on slavery in the West Indies. For three centuries, it has oppressed millions of human creatures cruelly snatched from Africa. It was supported by all the sophisms of greed, and so seemed invincible. You, it is, and your fathers, who, without letting yourselves be scared by any obstacle, have undertaken to destroy it. The world knows the names of the writers who led this noble campaign and of the statesmen who supported them, the names of Wilberforce, of Clarkson, of Buxton. And I cannot forget, pronouncing this last name, that it is the name of the founder of your Society, of this Anti-slavery Society, under the auspices of which we are gathered at this moment. For more than half a century, it has nobly fought for this holy cause. It has just noted its triumph, seeing first Cuba, then Brazil, embrace the ideas and sentiments that, together with the writers of France and of the United States of America, it has publicized everywhere. Now, according to the saying that is common to us, noblesse oblige, and therefore, England, which has made every effort to destroy colonial slavery, cannot disinterest itself from the African slavery, a hundredfold more horrible.
It is England, moreover, which, through the accounts of its explorers, has been the first to raise this new question. They have been the first to make known in Europe the atrocities that are happening, without its knowledge, in the heart of our continent.
After having abolished slavery in America, after having stationed warships in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean to prevent the transport of slave to Asia, the zeal of the Christian nations grew cold. The intense indignation, which had forced the hand of the Princes as well as of the frenzied opposition of the slave traders, faded away. People seemed to forget that slavery still existed on earth. People even forgot the Muslim slavery which, in the countries nearer to us, still continued under a form that seemed less cruel, when, suddenly, fifteen years ago, we learned through our travellers, that it reigned with a fury for which there is no name, in the centre, almost unknown till then, of our Africa. They have said it, and they have asked the Christian world to intervene on behalf of these unfortunate creatures who doubtless do not have the same faith as us, but who are, like us, creatures of God.
At the head of those who declared this new war was the intrepid, the noble Livingstone. As an old African myself, I wanted to visit the tomb of the great explorer, under the vaults of Westminster. You have buried him in the midst of your greatest men. You were right, for Livingstone, by his courage, by his high intelligence, by the abnegation of his life, is the glory of this century and of your country. But if you are the heirs of his glory, you must be the executors of his last wishes. () So it is with an emotion that brought tears to my eyes that I read the final words he wrote and that England has had officially engraved on his tomb, by order of the Government: “I cannot do anything more,” he wrote in the neglected environment where he was going to die, “than to wish that the most abundant heavenly blessings descend on those, whoever they may be, English, American or Turks, who contribute to making the frightful plague of slavery disappear from the world.”
I thank you for these rounds of applause. To me, they are the good omen of the success of our common efforts.
However, I am here not just to solicit your pity and to recall the obligations that such a past imposes on you, I am here to appeal to your justice; for England, by the new empires she has just founded or conquered in Africa, has contracted sacred obligations towards them.
Such are the reasons for my confidence. But before going to the very heart of my subject, I must rectify one of the words I spoke to you at the beginning. I said I was coming to plead the cause of the poor blacks. This expression does not correspond exactly to my thought and I take it back for two reasons:
First, because the cause of the slaves does not need to be pleaded before English Christians, it is already won in their hearts. Secondly, because this cause is pleaded, with an eloquence that cannot be equalled, by the facts themselves and by the accounts your explorers give of them.
Africa does not need lawyers, but simply witnesses, and it is as a new witness that I appear before you. I do not propose, then, to come back on anything that you know through your writers or those of Germany. I have no intention of summarizing their accounts nor of coming back on the sentiments they inspire. But, before such horrors, one might doubt at times their exactness, and Livingstone himself expressed the fear that he would be charged with exaggeration. However, to doubt in such a cause is to lose it, for the doubt brings hesitation, and hesitation, at this moment, is the end of the African interior. If we allow the massacre of its inhabitants to come to an end, it will no longer be time to do anything. What is needed, is to rouse conviction in people’s minds, and, in order to make this conviction unbreakable, to produce new witnesses in agreement with the first.
So I come to bring you my testimony for the portion of Africa that evangelization has entrusted to me. But this testimony is not just mine. In the regions which I am going to speak to you about, I have a legion of eye witnesses. They are my sons, Missionaries of Algiers, or, as they are popularly called in Africa, “the White Fathers of Algeria.”
When I first arrived in that country, more than twenty years ago, I saw that unless I wanted to limit my ministry to the Muslim countries, till then almost inaccessible to the Gospel, it was necessary to penetrate into the interior, among the pagan populations, and that, whatever my strength, I would soon be overcome in such an enterprise, if I remained alone. I gathered around me some young men animated by the purest fire of the apostolate. They bound themselves by oaths which obliged them to live the life of the indigenous people and to suffer for them to the point of death. They were only three to begin with; but it is the glory of human nature that heroism is contagious, like evil. They are now three hundred of various sorts: Fathers, Brothers, novices or auxiliaries. Three hundred living. One hundred are dead, the most glorious. Eleven of them shed their blood as martyrs; the rest succumbed to the climate, to disease, to privations, to exhaustion.
If I speak thus to you, it is not from a sentiment of complacency, which would be shameful; it is in order to put the seal of sacrifice on their testimony and to allow no doubt to persist any longer about the horrors they reveal to us. I recall the word of a Christian philosopher of my country, who, speaking of the foundation of Christianity and of the objections directed against its history, gave in response to them the simple and sublime reason of the martyrdom of the apostles and evangelists: “We must believe, said Pascal, witnesses who get their throats cut.” It is the account of witnesses who get their throats cut, that I will let you hear today, after all you already know.
To avoid confusion, and to make clear the parts of Africa that these testimonies refer to, I must first tell you in which regions my missionaries are established. For more than ten years, they are in the Sahara and the Great Lakes region, from the sources of the Nile as far as to the south of Tanganyika, as well as Belgian Upper Congo. It is from there they write to me, and it is of these regions, immense indeed, that I want to speak to you, leaving to travellers and missionaries who live at other points of our continent to inform Europe of what they see.
To begin by speaking of the first, I mean the missionaries of the Sahara, they testify, then, that whatever others have said about it, slavery still reigns in the same proportion as before, in all the countries of North Africa that lie south of the European possessions. Slave hunting, for these countries, is carried out as high as the Niger, in all the regions where the negroes have not yet been forced to submit, in fact, to the rites of the Muslim religion. The sale of slave, on the contrary, takes place publically in all the Muslim provinces. Thus, all the towns in the interior of Morocco have markets where the slave caravans come. A few years ago, barely five, these markets existed in the coastal towns and as far at Tangiers, just across from your Gibraltar. If they have since fled far from our gaze, to take refuge in the towns of the interior, you know who this is due to: it is the honourable Secretary of the Association that brings us together today, who, by his eloquent and indignant complaints, has forced these infamous merchants at least to hide their work. But, in the interior, the markets are still held and there one sees Muslims openly replenish their supplies of human cattle several times a year. It is the same with the oases in the Sahara, that is to say, those that are found on the frontiers of Algeria, of Tunisia, of Tripolitania and as far as Egypt.
In truth, and to say nothing that is not exact, as I am obliged by my role as witness, domestic slavery does not at all have, in this region, the character of constant butchery that it has taken , as I will prove, on the high plateaus of the heart of Africa. Once bought and received into the interior of Muslim families, they are treated with a fair amount of gentleness. It is in the master’s interest not to cause the slaves to perish, for they cost a high price because of the distance. Perhaps, too, the presence of the Europeans in the neighbourhood scares the slavers. They fear that the groans and cries of the victims might come to our ears…
But one special condition gives, nevertheless, this trans-saharan trade a character of atrocity: it is the crossing of the desert, which requires whole months of travel, because of the herd of women and children that the caravans drag after them. Frightful journey where they must walk on foot, on a dry sand, under a burning sun, in a countryside where food is often lacking, and water even more so. There is food and water for the slave merchants; but the children and women receive only just enough to stop them dying, for by dying they would deny their torturers the profit they expect. Most often, the Tuaregs are the escorts of these herds of human beings. Their hearts are as hard as the steel of their lances, and a handful of raw sorghum, every evening, a mouthful of water, that is all they give the slaves who walk burdened with the horrible forked pole. Those who fall: it is death. The experienced eye of the slaver knows how to recognise if the victim is going to escape him before the end of the journey. If he sees that is so, a blow with a club finishes him off. The hyenas, the jackals will come to devour their flesh, leaving the bleached skeletons to mark the way to the markets of Morocco or of Fez.
But the slave trade in the Sahara and the Northern provinces, of which Timbuktu is the centre, is nothing compared with that of the high plateaus of the interior. That, above all, is the one I must speak to you about. It is there that our missionaries are, at this moment, witnesses of facts that plunge a whole continent in agony.
Twenty years ago, we did not yet know what the heart of Africa was like. People spoke of it as an inhospitable and sterile desert. It has proved, on the contrary, and my missionaries confirm it daily, to be the finest part of it, the richest and the happiest. It had been judged only by the coastal lands. There, in effect, the climate is unhealthy, often deadly, work is difficult, almost impossible for Europeans. Ancient traditions, traces of which are found as far back as Hesiod and Herodotus, seemed to announce that the interior of Africa did not at all resemble its shores, and what announced this no less was the existence of its great rivers: the Niger, the Congo. the Zambezi, the Nile especially, which rightly stirred the curiosity and the conjectures of geographers, historians and philosophers. They were not mistaken, as has been seen since, about the importance of these mysterious water courses.
After the lowlands of the coast, one has noted then that the centre of Africa rises on two plateaus: one of them two to three hundred English feet above ocean level; the other, immense, measuring thousands of mile in length, rising on average two to three thousand feet above the first, giving it a total altitude of four to five thousand feet above sea level. These two plateaus, inundated each year at fixed seasons by torrential rains brought by clouds formed over the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, are dotted as it were with great lakes, or to be more correct, with inland seas, immense reservoirs that nature has created. From these seas and great lakes, as they are called, flow the four rivers of Africa and their innumerable tributaries. That is what makes these countries so beautiful and fertile. Aided by an over-lively imagination and by the four rivers, some, these latter times, have even wanted to see the ancient paradise there. Altitude tempers the burning force of the sun. On the shore of Lake Nyanza and of Lake Tanganyika the heat by day does not go beyond 32 degrees centigrade, and every night, the temperature goes down to 17 or 18 degrees. The soil is of a rare richness. I am not speaking of the numerous mines of which one sees traces and which promise treasures for industry, I am speaking only about agriculture. Helped by the waters and by the sun, it produces without difficulty all that is needed to live on. Wherever water flows, four harvests are possible yearly. That is the experience our missionaries, themselves, have had, for the wheat they grow in order to procure the material for the Eucharistic sacrifice. The woods are of a beauty, of a force, that excites the admiration of explorers. The combination of all these riches should naturally draw and fix a numerous population. That is what has happened in the course of time. Nowhere in Africa, did one see more numerous and more populated villages. Peace reigned there, families were patriarchal, firearms unknown; they were found only towards the coast or on the banks of the Zambezi where the Portuguese had imported them.
Sad coincidence, it is at the very moment, twenty five years ago, that the great explorers and the missionaries penetrated these regions to bring civilization and the faith, that the slave traders, perhaps informed by the very persons who had served as guides to the travellers, invaded in their turn. Their departure points were Egypt and the kingdom of Zanzibar.
Their principal chiefs, the half-casts, horrible race, offspring of Arabs and blacks of the coast, Muslim in name, just enough to profess hatred and scorn of the negro race that they place below animals, and to which, when it comes to what is due, nothing is due except slavery, and if any resistance, torture and death; frightful men, without conscience or pity, equally infamous for their bestial corruption and their cruelty, they justify the African saying: “God made the Whites, God made the Blacks, but the devil made the half-casts.”
Our Fathers arrived, then, eleven years ago, on the high plateaus of the interior, at Tabora, in Tanganyika, in Nyanza, in Upper Congo, to see the work of death, already being organized, grow and finally destroy everything step by step. For the half-casts, in this initial period, these lands were storehouses containing two types of riches. Life was easy there; ivory, the principal object of their trading, was extremely abundant. Never before had anyone come so high and so far looking for it, and in some provinces, like Manyema, not far from lake Tanganyika, it could be found in such great quantity that elephant tusks were used to fence gardens and serve as uprights supporting their primitive huts. The ruin of this unfortunate land began with the ivory. It was not enough to buy at a very low price or to seize it by force, it had to be transported to the coast. Now, to transport it, in this part of Africa, there is no other means than man. The routes are simply arduous tracks, domestic animals are killed by the bite of tsetse flies. To have men, the traders made slaves. The smallest pretext was enough to find reason to quarrel, that is to say, for premeditated massacres. Without pity, without mercy, the brigands fell upon an inoffensive population, massacring all who resisted, binding the rest in chains, and by threats or force, forcing men to serve as beasts of burden as far as the coast where they were sold, together with the ivory they had carried there.
That is how everything started. But greed and blood can create an intoxicating thirst, a terrible thirst which can never be quenched, when it is not repressed by force. The history of pagan tyrants has already shown us that clearly. It is this intoxicating thirst for blood, this scorn for human life, that today dishonours the heart of Africa. The population there is oppressed, taken away, and mown down as it were incessantly. After one village, it is another; after one province, it is a new province, and soon all is covered in ruins and blood.
Our missionaries in Tanganyika write to us that not a day passes without their seeing pass by under their eyes caravans of slaves who are dragged far away, as bearers of ivory, on the markets of the interior, as human cattle. Little by little, these markets have sprung up everywhere; it is especially women and children who are sold there now; since ivory is running out and becoming scarce, men are no longer needed; moreover, they flee when they are in the hands of their new masters and they are killed. The cruelties thus committed defy all description, and the scourge of this sort of hunt, for that is the name it is called and must be called to present a true idea of it, exceeds all scourges. Never, on any spot in the known world and on any page of history, has there been seen killing, butchery and contempt for blood equal to this.
Already millions of human creatures have succumbed in this way, during this last quarter of a century. But the proportion is always increasing and for the high plateaus of the interior, our missionaries exceed the number given by Cameron for the trade along the Zambezi and Lake Nyassa. Now Cameron, one of the Englishmen most worthy to be heard on this matter, because of his long experience of the slave trade, his courage, his noble heart, estimated that already at his time, five hundred thousand blacks, at a minimum, were then being sold, every year, in the markets of the interior.
He is here, moreover, to confirm once more his testimony and the perfect conformity of our sentiments and views. He has wanted to write me to this effect in a letter which I received at the very moment when I was setting out to come among you. I ask him permission to make it public.
Many things divide us, perhaps, Commander, but on this issue, as I said just now, we can only be in agreement on everything.
The cruelty, as consequence of this thirst for blood, which I have already pointed out to you, follows the same progression as the number. Formerly the invaders contented themselves in the midst of an unsuspecting population, to take those who came to hand. Today I learn according to eye witnesses, of scenes where savagery competes with a passion for evil. The blacks of the interior, knowing henceforth what their aggressors intend, flee into the jungles or the wooded areas close to their villages. There they hope to escape their blows. Listen to the procedure the slavers employ to drive them out. That is an impious term, but it is the very excess of cruelty that obliges us to use, for men, terms reserved till now for beasts; that, moreover, is the usage in the African interior: the blacks themselves, when they have slaves, have adopted the terms of the slavers and do not name them in any other way: “my beast, my animal”, they say.
The infernal band, then, surround the high grasses where the natives have taken refuge and set fire to them. The fire soon catches in the lands of sun. Soon, cries of terror and despair are heard from all sides and all that the flames have not reached, chocked by the smoke, rush out fleeing from this burning furnace and fall into the hands of the torturers who are waiting, to kill some and bind others in chains. You will find similar accounts in your explorers and you will not be surprised if the populous and fertile provinces of the heart of Africa are reduced, one after the other, to desolate solitudes where only the bones of the inhabitants testify henceforth that human activity, peace, work had been there at one time.
So before long, the complete depopulation of the African interior can be foreseen. If these humanitarian considerations do not touch the heart of Europe, let it at least think of the difficulty it will soon have to draw from these privileged regions the riches they seem to promise. Once the population is thus destroyed, all work, consequently all agriculture, all serious industry become impossible there for the white man, deprived of an indigenous work-force. Without inhabitants, the traveller will no longer even be able to find food, or shelter on his road, and the paths will disappear, closed by the impenetrable barrier of tropical vegetation. Such is what is happening today, and what will be tomorrow. I repeat, a last time, if Europe does not rapidly stop these excesses, the heart of Africa, in a few years, will be nothing but a desert.
That is why I am here and make this cry of indignation and distress resound in your ears, English Christians, as I did in the ears of the Christians of France.
Without contradiction, it is on the governments of Europe that the obligation to save Africa falls first. The honourable president of this meeting, before giving me the floor, reminded you how in 1814, in Vienna, and later again in Verona, in 1822, they solemnly committed themselves no longer to tolerate slavery in the world. But they must have the will for that. And why would they not have it? Is there an undertaking more noble, greater, more generous? On which questions can they more honourably consult and agree than on the cessation of such frightful evils? One speaks often of their alliances, and the peoples, none of which at heart want war, seem to see in them merely the prelude to struggles where they will cut each others’ throats. We must come back then on the bitter irony of our Montesquieu when he said, more than a century ago, speaking of colonial slavery: “Some little spirits exaggerate too much the injustice done to the Africans: for if the injustice was such as they say, would not the idea have come to the Princes of Europe, who make so many useless agreements between themselves, to make one, in common, in favour of mercy and pity?”
It is true, the European governments think of Africa; but till now, they seem to think about it only to appropriate it. To come together in a congress to draw lines on a map and claim empires for themselves is easy. But Christian States cannot forget that right is correlative to duty. The principle nations of Europe, England, Belgium. France, Germany, Portugal, by common consent, recognized and proclaimed their present and future rights on Africa. Consequently, they have duties towards her. Of these duties, the first is not to allow the indigenous race to be cruelly destroyed and the land that the explorers had opened up to civilization, to be closed up again, by being transformed into inaccessible deserts. It is in their own interest, firstly. But if the voice of interest does not speak to the governments with enough power, occupied as they are by other concerns, they must be forced to hear, to use the words of Montesquieu, the cry “of mercy and pity.” And for that, the cry must be raised by all, indeed, with such power that they are forced to obey it.
This undertaking is, without doubt, the very undertaking of the Anti-slavery Association which gathers us here today, of the eminent men who preside over it and direct it, under the patronage itself of the heir to the throne. But an association of men, no matter how powerful, cannot do everything, and, if I dared to address myself to you, Ladies, I would say than in a very real sense, an undertaking “of mercy and pity” is yours, above all. You know better than a man how to find the way to the heart for you feel more deeply than he does. But that is not the sole reason when it comes to African slavery. The victims of this slavery are now, in fact, especially children and women. That is what my missionaries never cease to repeat. Scarcely two days ago, I received in London a letter from our Tanganyika Mission, in which the Superior repeated the same message: “Here, now, only children and women are sold; the men are killed.” I do not hesitate to say, in this talk, that the women are more to be pitied than the men. Death delivers the men with one single blow; slavery reserves a thousand deaths for the women and children. They are placed without defence in the hands of their masters for the most base debauchery and for acts of horrible cruelty.
In a letter written a few days ago, I narrated the sufferings of these unfortunate women of the African interior at the hands of those who buy them. Let me quote here a passage from this letter:
“Here, I said, is an example of this cruelty, chosen form the lowest rungs of the social ladder, a poor black. It is one of our Fathers who narrated it to me, and I already published it myself two years ago: “During the masika rains, he said, the terrains of the neighbouring plain (of Tabora) became a marsh. Impossible to go there without sinking into the mud. Despite that, a negro of the neighbouring village ordered his woman slave to go and collect wood to cook the evening meal. She went. Scarcely had she entered the fields than she began to sink into the mud and soon she had sunk up to her arms without being able to free herself, and had to stay immobile so as not to sink further and perish. Her plaintive voice called for help but those who passed near there just laughed. The husband, not seeing her return, went to search for her with a stick, no doubt to knock her senseless. He found her in this pitiful state, and without doing anything to help her, threw her from a distance his stick so that she could defend herself, if she wished, he said to her with atrocious irony, against the hyenas that would come at night. The next day, all trace of the unfortunate woman had disappeared.”
Let us go up the rungs of the ladder. One of our Fathers reports with horror that a minor Bukumbi king said to him one morning, with the most tranquil air in the world: “I killed five of my women during the night”, without even appearing to believe that that could be anything extraordinary.
Let us come finally to the powerful. This is what I myself say in the letter from which I took the previous extracts: “Reverend Father Levesque, former missionary in Uganda, told me that, finding himself at the court of King Mutesa and waiting in the exterior enclosure for an audience with this prince, suddenly he saw the doors of the barazah, or royal hall, open noisily to allow two armed soldiers, dragging a poor female slave by her feet, to pass through. She had just been condemned to have her ears, nose and finally her head cut off immediately, for having spoken too loudly before the opening of his audience. The sentence was carried out on the very spot, before the crowd. To the cries of the unfortunate woman, which broke the heart of the missionary, the bystanders responded with noisy hilarity.”
These horrors are confirmed, we will see in what proportion, regarding the negro court of Uganda, where there were one thousand two hundred women, victims of all the caprices of the tyrant, by an eye witness, the explorer, Speke:
“For some time now, he says in his Sources of the Nile, I am living in the enclosure of the royal house, and so for me, the key customs of the court are no longer secret. Will anyone believe me, however, if I affirm that, since my change of domicile, not one day passes where I do not see led out to death one, sometimes two, and as many as three of these unfortunate women who compose Mutesa’s harem? A rope bound round the wrists, led or dragged by the bodyguard leading them to the slaughter house, these poor creatures, eyes full of tears, with cries that pierce the heart: “Hai Minange! (O my lord!) Kabakka! (O my king!) Hai N’yavio! (O my mother!).” And despite these piercing appeals to public pity, not a hand is raised to deliver them from the executioner, although low voices are heard here and there commending the beauty of these young victims.
Christian women of Europe, women of England, it is up to you to make such horrors known everywhere and to stir up against them the indignation of the civilized world. Leave your fathers, your husbands, your brothers no peace at all, use the authority they possess through their fortune, their situation in the State, to stop the blood shedding of your sisters. If God has given you the talent to write, use it in this cause, you will not find a holier one. Do not forget that it was the book of a woman, a novel, Uncle Tom, that, translated into all the languages in the world, sealed the deliverance of the American slaves.
But what is the practical goal for which the States of Europe must unite at this moment? I repeat it, in one word, and very clearly: it is to use force for the destruction of African slavery. The evil is too deep, too extensive, for it to be conquered henceforth in another way, before it has brought its work to completion.
Through persuasion, missionaries can indeed convert isolated populations; they are too few in number to make their action felt over the vast extent of the African interior. In the meantime, destruction goes so fast that all will have disappeared.
I say as much of charity and the ransom of slaves. Several have proposed it, in a sentiment of generous compassion, to withdraw a few victims, as least, from their sad fate. God preserve me from turning Christians away from a sentiment so conform to their law. Charity is its first precept. But on the one hand, how to find sufficient funds for the ransom of so many slaves, and, on the other, would not this ransom be an encouragement to the greed of the slavers? If the ransom is assured, the hunt for slaves will find a new reason to expand.
What is needed, I say it again, is force, a peaceful force, doubtless, and destined solely for defence, but an armed force. That was clearly seen for the colonial trade, where everything was useless till the day when English. French, American warships erected an insurmountable barrier before the slave traders. Today they maintain it in the Indian Ocean to prevent the transport of slaves to Asia. Doubtless they do not succeed in preventing everything, because, thanks to the shortness of the crossings, they can be effected by the Arab dhows under cover of darkness. But at least they inspire fear. I can only, for that, highly congratulate the British government, for the perseverance that the recent Blue Book shows us.
But for slavery on land, warships are insufficient. There needs to be added, following the thought of your great Gordon regarding the destruction of the Nile slave trade, land barriers which close to caravans the routes to the slave countries, and some lightly armed troops which can be transported to wherever the infamous hunt is reported. That is the thinking of all those who know our African question; it is the one that Commander Cameron expressed to me again this very morning in his letter.
But, I am supposing that the governments which often have diverse views or interests, cannot or do not want to agree. In that case, I say it with equal clarity and equal frankness, the same duty passes from the governments to the Christian peoples. They can fulfil it; one can see it by the Christian Missions in which governments take no interest and which peoples have taken on themselves. In this respect, England sets an example for all by the generosity of its alms. France, the other European countries, do the same with their intrepid missionaries and their apostolic works. Why would they not do so for a work that adds itself so naturally to the preaching of the faith? Why would one not see arise among them personal devotedness capable of providing what governments cannot do? They have not yet sent one single man on the high plateaus of Africa. Why would not private associations, like those seen in the middle ages, send them there to teach the blacks to defend themselves against their oppressors?
Has not Stanley shown us what a man, a single man, helped by a few hundred blacks, can do by his audacity and perseverance? Did not Emin Pasha know how to constitute and direct forces which have maintained order around him? (New ) And if I wanted to tell you of a more modest devotedness, I could cite for you, without of course making you jealous, a French hero, a former captain of the Pontifical Zouaves, who, for nearly five years, confronts all the privations, all the fatigues, all the dangers of the African equator to establish an army of blacks and protect by his courage and devotedness the surrounding tribes. His name is Joubert. Others could involve themselves as individuals or associate themselves, as has been done in the past, in the same crusade. They will not be lacking among you, I can see. Already, since I am in London, I have received several offers of this nature. May these offers multiply; may we thus be able to have, on the different points of the African interior, Stanleys, Emins, Jouberts, and the problem will be solved. For what is needed, it is not, as one might have believed, numerous armies. What is needed is men, even isolated, but powerful in virtue, initiative and courage, capable of training the blacks to resist their enemies.
They will still lack, however, and we will still lack one indispensable thing, and that therefore will be the work of all. Courage in war, strength to confront perils and fatigues are the privilege of few; charity is the obligation of everyone, and here it is needed to furnish material resources to those who accept to shed their blood and sacrifice their lives.
You cannot make a better contribution than by involving yourselves in the Work which brings us together today and which gives, under many headings, and to Catholics in particular, by the presence of an eminent Cardinal, the highest guarantees of honour. Nothing prevents similar Works being created in other countries. Only remember that at this very moment I am speaking to you, rivers of blood are flowing under the African equator. Remember that it depends only on Europe to stop it, and that if it does not do so without delay, it will incur the responsibility before God and history. Nineteen centuries ago, the world heard from the lips of a whole people which could with one word stop the shedding of innocent blood, a word of indifference, of egotism and of fear: “Let his blood fall on us and on our children!” The blood was shed, in fact; but the people which had thus let it be shed thereby lost all that a people can lose, its honour and its country, and we see it today dispersed to the four winds of the universe. Let us take care lest the blood of Africa reserve for Europe a similar curse. May God save it, then, from the calamity which threatens to destroy it for ever! May God save it by inspiring in governments generous resolutions, and by arousing in the heart of peoples, Christian dedication and courage.
Letter to Fr Deguerry, Superior General, concerning Captain Joubert (2 August 1888)
London,
My Dear Friend
I do not have time to tell you anything today other than that I have received your letter concerning the report on the junior seminary. This upset me considerably, all the more because the dispositions of the Ministry of Religious Affairs are becoming worse day by day.
I have at present to ask you [to send me] as soon as possible all that exists in the correspondence of the missionaries and in their diaries about Mr Joubert: his activity, the services that he has rendered, etc. I wish, in fact, to prepare in the form of a letter a little note about him, on the one hand out of justice to him, and on the other to present him as an example for those who would one day wish to follow in his footsteps. Please be so kind, therefore, to have these extracts copied for me by your novices and send them to me; they must include the passages concerning him since the beginning, that is eight years ago. Send all this for me to rue du Regard, n° 11, because I shall be back in Paris Wednesday, or Thursday at the latest.
Goodbye, my dear Friend. Yours devotedly,
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. If you have any letters from Mr Joubert himself, please send them to me. They would be of the greatest interest.
Conference given in the church of St. Gudule, Brussels,15th August 1888
My very dear brothers,
You know why I am in your midst. The great crowd pressing round this Basilica and filling it, at this moment, would be enough to prove it.
You have, then, heard tell of this old Bishop, who despite the weight of years and African fatigue, wanted to leave all to plead before the Christians of Europe the cause of the poor blacks whose pastor he is, and who, in Upper Congo, suffer the horrible agonies of slavery.
But since you know my story and that of so many unfortunate creatures, I do not want to repeat what I have said elsewhere. You can read it, perhaps you have already read it, in my Conferences published in London and Paris. Since it is to Belgian Catholics that I speak today, I want to speak to them only about what concerns part of Belgian Africa: the sufferings of the blacks held in slavery.
I want above all to explain to you how it is the responsibility of you, Catholics, to remedy so many evils, out of a sentiment inspired by religion, Christian piety and patriotism. To convince you of this, I must tell you everything.
You will not be surprised, then, by the freedom with which I speak. I am a missionary; I preach only the truth as apostles must preach it. I am sure, moreover, that whatever I may say to you, I will not hurt you. I am sure of this because I love Belgium, your country. I love it for its generous faith. For many long years, I have never found anything but marks of sympathy and charity for my works. If, then, what you will hear may at times surprise your ears, you will understand, simply by the tone of my voice, that I do not want to wound your hearts.
What I must remind you of, or bring to your awareness, has nothing, moreover, that is out of the ordinary. I only find in this history of the Belgian Congo, what I find in the history of all the noble enterprises, and I cannot give you any better proof of this than by showing you how Our Lord spoke about it himself nineteen centuries ago for the future instruction of Christian peoples.
He gave this lesson in the form of a parable. You will find it, if you wish to read it again, in the Gospel of St. Matthew.
Our Lord tells there the story of a man who goes out to sow a good seed, bonum semen, in his fields. But once the seed had been sown by him, his people went to sleep and while they slept, cum autem dormirent homines, the enemy sowed darnel in the midst of the good seed. The darnel soon grew to the dismay of the servants, and no doubt regretting their negligence, they rose and said: “Do you want us to uproot the darnel that is growing in the midst of the good seed?”
If you have understood this well, it is what I am going to set out for you today in new terms. The man who sows the good grain is the Prince who conceived the noble thought of sowing civilization, progress, and at a future date, riches, assured riches for his people, in an Africa till now barbarian. The people sleeping around him, alas, are you yourselves who have not always supported him as much as you could, Belgian Catholics, in what concerns the works of faith and humanity (for these are the only ones that I wish to and can speak from this pulpit.) The darnel which is sown is the slavery which is developing and seems ready to cover everything. Finally, the workers, who, filled with regret, arise to root out the darnel which has grown up, will be you, I am sure, my very dear brothers, when you have heard this talk. But see in my words one desire only, the desire to enlighten your consciences and to render service to your sense of Christian honour. Any other thought is foreign to me. In my mouth, politics, human interests, even distant allusions to them, would be contrary to the duties of my sacred ministry.
I
I say first of all, then, that like the man in the Gospel, the Prince who founded the international undertaking for Africa has sown a good and noble seed. Nothing is easier to prove.
Africa was an unknown world and lost as it were to the human race, until the beginning of this century. It is only then that at one of its extremities, by the commercial undertaking of England, at the other, by the military conquests of France that it seemed to come back to life. But the interior remained always a mystery that explorers tried in vain to pierce. For such a task, isolated individuals could not suffice, no matter what their intelligence and audacity. A hand powerful enough to unite these efforts was needed, and it is your King who, towards this end, made a first appeal to Europe.
It is here, in Brussels, that all the representatives of science, of noble initiatives, met together, ten years ago, under his chairmanship, to begin studying African problems. Action soon joined thought. Explorers, intrepid officers, later on devoted and capable administrators offered themselves, risking their lives. Several died on the field of honour. Others made admirable discoveries, and the face of our continent was changed. One day, it will be the face of the world itself, for one quarter of the earth, closed till now, has opened up, with its countless riches, its mines, its fertile interior, its life-giving sun, its abundant waters. But it is not my role, I repeat, to speak of commerce or industry. I am only the voice crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the ways of the Lord”, that is to say, the ways of truth and justice. It is not my role either, but for another reason; for here it would be just to speak of the royal sacrifices made to attain such a goal, though I know them well.
But it is my role to note, because they are public and concern the topic I am treating, the high motives that have inspired your King. “It is, he said in his invitation to the learned experts of Europe, an idea that is eminently civilizing and Christian: to abolish slavery in Africa, to pierce the darkness that still covers this part of the world, to pour out there the treasures of civilization.” And, in his first speech to the international conference, he said again: “To open to civilization the only part of the globe where it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which envelops entire populations.” And finally, in line with my own harrowing preoccupations: “Slavery, said Leopold II, slavery which exists on a notable part of the African continent, constitutes a plague that all friends of true civilization must want to see disappear. The International Association must put an end to this odious traffic which brings shame to our age.”
What undertaking, then, could be more noble, more human, more Christian, more glorious! In itself, it is enough to assure its royal instigator of a place among the greatest benefactors of humanity and of Christian princes most worthy of this name.
Also, when, after the Congress of Berlin, the foundations of the new States of Africa were laid down, and the State of the Congo was recognized with its immense expanse, its brilliant hopes, the representatives of the great Powers of Europe, England, France, and Germany, were unanimous in their praise for him, and Belgium, the smallest in size of the European kingdoms, appeared that day, because of its King’s initiative, the greatest in the eyes of the whole world. Thus was the good seed sown. Everything seemed to give the assurance of a sound harvest. But now we must return to my parable: “Cum autem dormirent homines”, it says, “while his people slept”.
You fell asleep, then, Catholics of Belgium! From the religious point of view, you have not given to the spreading of the Christian light, to the struggle against barbarism, all the energetic cooperation which was your duty. Your King opened up before you a land sixty times larger than yours, peopled by a minimum of twenty million souls, according to others, by a maximum of forty million. It was, then, an immense field for apostolate and for charity. Could there be a goal to stimulate more powerfully the zeal of a Catholic people? However, I say it with sadness, in this order of ideas, you have not done enough. I know that not all have failed in their duty. I have seen six worthy sons of your Belgium devote themselves to these thoughts of faith; I have seen them fall nobly, martyrs of their courage. I have seen four priests of the dioceses of Gand and Bruges devote themselves, in the Society of the White Fathers, to these new Missions and bravely face all the perils of the extremities of the Congo. Others prepare themselves to imitate them. Two of them are next to me on the steps of this pulpit. They will be followed, these very days, by four new apostles belonging to an excellent family of Missionaries (Scheut). But what is that for all these immense territories?
I say the same about the resources necessary for the apostles. For in the end, if they give their life, the Christians owe them their daily bread. I know again in this respect what some people are doing. But noblesse oblige. In the whole world, you have an incomparable reputation for generosity in all the charitable works, too great a reputation perhaps in some people’s opinion, because it draws all the collectors to you. But while in this way you support Christian works all over the universe, you have sometimes forgotten too much the part of Africa that from now on bears your name.
That is not all. While you were thus sleeping, the enemy, barbarity, which in Africa is the enemy of all Europe’s efforts, has been at work. With the good seed, with the progress of the material organization and the preparation of future riches, thanks to the impetus given by the Sovereign, we have seen the darnel grow and threaten to invade everything.
Listen, then, to what for the past ten years is happening to part of this land which rightly expected from you the blessings of the Christian faith. You have been able to see, in the accounts of travellers and even in the conferences that I have given, to what horrors unhappy Africa has become a prey, on the part of the slave traders; how monsters with a human face, Arab and half-castes bloody by murder, ravage by fire, terrify by the hunt and the sale of slaves, all parts of the black continent: in the north, right up to our Saharan frontiers, in the Muslim kingdoms of the Sudan; to the east, in the regions that border the Nile and the Indian Ocean; along the Zambezi, in the countries that touch the Portuguese provinces and the recent English colonies; around the Great Lakes of the interior. But in no other part of Africa do these horrors come close to what is happening in the lands of the Upper Congo. The explorers have been followed, in effect, by the slave traders looking for an easy prey. It is there that the latter have destroyed everything in entire regions where soon neither villages nor inhabitants will be found.
Recently, in England, a map of the slave countries has been drawn up, indicating their present state by diverse colours. Lighter colours simply indicate the existence of slavery and its atrocities; the darker colours indicate that it has destroyed everything, in a fever of furious impiety. Now in the whole of Africa, there are only five provinces marked with this colour of death, and these five provinces lie along the banks of the Upper Congo. I say it with a double pain, my dear brothers, for I am the Pastor of these lost regions, and my missionaries have been the witnesses of this destruction of entire populations by the cruelty of the Muslims and half-castes.
But a general statement is not enough, proofs are needed to convince you and bring you to decide to stop the evil without delay, for this work of death continues, and if you delay any more, the neighbouring provinces will share the same fate. These proofs, I take them only from witnesses belonging to Belgium or having served in the Congo.
Manyema is the most beautiful of the regions recently depopulated by slavery. Livingstone, who had traversed it shortly before his death, describes this land admirable for its beauty, for its climate, for its natural resources (gold, among them), for the density of its villages and inhabitants. Stanley narrates that one of his guides gave him the same testimony, yet the devastating action of the half-castes who had established their centre at Nyangwe was already becoming apparent. They were soon joined there by a famous Muslim whose name one day will become, I fear, more famous still. Once under the hand of the armed slavers, these peaceful Negroes, without any other weapons to defend themselves but clubs and arrows, were doomed to certain destruction. The one thing that stands out in their atrocities here is their savage rapidity. The Muslims are, in effect, all over Africa, to the north, to the east, to the centre, the enemies of the blacks, and their bands, in the words only too true of an English writer, have invaded the heart of Africa with the deliberate aim “of changing this peaceful paradise into a hell.”
The fact is that for them, as I have said elsewhere but must keep on repeating it to Europe, to reduce the Negro to slavery is a right, I was almost going to say religious, because it is on their doctrines that it is based. They teach, with the commentators on their Koran, that the Negro does not belong to the human family that he is midway between man and animals, that he is even, in some respects, lower than the latter. That being so, to capture him, to force him to serve, is the believer’s right; and not only does he have no remorse for doing so, but he takes a fearsome glory in cutting the black down just as our hunters take glory tracking and cutting down a wild beast. If the Negro is peaceful, one has the right to burn his village; if he resists, one has the right to kill him; if he flees, one has the right to put him to death with horrible tortures, so as to put fear into his companions in misfortune and discourage them from imitating him.
The Muslim executioners and their brigand associates exercise these frightful rights wherever they are the stronger, from the lands subject to Tuareg incursions down to the banks of Lake Nyassa and the Zambezi, now that they have been allowed to penetrate that far.
That is what we have been seeing, in Manyema and the three provinces that surround it. Between the four, they had several million inhabitants, five million, say the most credible witnesses. Today, apart from those, few in number, who have been able to hide in the jungles and escape from their executioners, not a single one is left. I make a mistake. The adult men have been killed, the women sold, but the children have been kept, I speak of those the slavers judge capable of helping them in their infamous trade. Those ones they bring up, train them in the use of weapons, in stealing, in banditry, and, by a sort of unnatural rage, it is the children of the blacks, who after seeing their villages destroyed, their fathers and mothers massacred, now go far away to assassinate their brothers, destroy their homes and their farms, and make new slaves.
A phenomenon so distressing it is hard to find an explanation. The boldness of the Muslims has grown because of their atrocities. The more these atrocities grow, the more, it would seem, they should fear punishment. It is the opposite that occurs. Those who formerly trembled for their slave caravans simply because Europeans were around, have little by little taken courage, and it is before our very eyes that the devastation progresses, day by day, with what seems a drunken haste. They seem afraid that their victims will escape them, through some resolution of the European powers, and they hurry to destroy everything. In this recent period, I mean for about the last two years, the infamous hunt has developed so much that in the Upper Congo, everything is in agony, to use the expression of one of my missionaries. But at this point, my very dear brothers, and to give you a more exact idea of facts unparalleled in history, it is not enough to summarize; the precise statements of testimonies are necessary. So, I will cite the words of eye-witnesses. I will read you a letter I have just received from a missionary in the station of Kibanga, on Lake Tanganyika, where there is a Belgian priest whose intrepid zeal you know well, Fr. Vynke. I put it in a note, I must say, in one of my last speeches; but the newspapers did not print it and it needs new publicity. I am going to read it therefore, in this church, before these altars, as in the first period of Christianity one read out letters narrating the torture and death of the martyrs:
“Several times previously I had visited the market of Oujiji; but at that time, slaves were few in number, and I had not seen this odious trade in all its horror. At the time of this last trip, the town had been flooded, in the full sense of the term, by slave caravans coming from Manyema etc. etc. The slaves, because of the number, were cheap and someone proposed that I buy at a very low price, but almost all were exhausted by fatigue, by misery and dying of hunger; some would even have been incapable of making the journey across the lake to reach the Mission. I was so poor that I had to refuse almost all of them.
The market place was covered with slaves for sale, attached in long lines, men, women, children, in a frightful disorder, some with ropes, others with chains. Some coming from Manyema had had their ears pierced and a little cord passed through to keep them tied together.
In the streets, at every step, you met living skeletons, dragging themselves along with the help of a stick; they were no longer chained because they were incapable of running away. Suffering and privation of every kind were painted on their fleshless faces and everything indicated that they would die rather of hunger than of disease. From the big scars on their backs, you saw immediately that they had suffered ill-treatment at the hand of their masters who did not spare them any beating to keep them walking. Others awaited the end of their miserable existence, lying in the streets or next to the house of their master who no longer gave them food as he foresaw they would soon die.
But it is above on the Tanganyika side, in the uncultivated space, covered in high grasses, which separates the market from the lake shore that we must see all the horrible consequences of this abominable trade. This space is the Oujiji cemetery, or more correctly, the refuse dump where the bodies of dead or dying slaves are thrown. The hyenas, very abundant in this country, are charged with their burial. A young Christian who did not yet know the town, wanted to walk to the shore of the lake; but at the sight of the numerous bodies strewn along the path, half-eaten by the hyenas of the birds of prey, he turned back in fear, not able to bear such a frightful spectacle.
When I asked an Arab why the bodies were so numerous in the surroundings of Oujiji, he replied in a quite natural tone of voice, as if it were the most simple matter in the world: “Formerly, we were accustomed to throw the bodies of our dead slaves in this place, and, every night, the hyenas came to carry them away. But this year, the number of dead is so considerable that the animals are no longer enough to devour them: they are disgusted with human flesh!!!”
Is that enough, my very dear brothers? To incite your horror and indignation, yes, without doubt; but the truth is, more is necessary. In his last work, Five Years in the Congo, Stanley narrates that the first time he descended this river, there was, around Stanley Falls, a land as big, he said, as Ireland, peopled with a million inhabitants; and when he returned a few years later, he found the land deserted and ravaged, and he added this detail, that out of a million inhabitants, eye-witnesses told him that only five thousand escaped. He went on to calculate that out of two hundred inhabitants, only one had escaped slavery or death.
Nothing to this degree had been seen anywhere in Africa. The figures given by Livingstone and Cameron, which already made one shudder, were nothing compared to this. They said: five men, ten men killed for every slave; and on the Congo, Stanley says “two hundred!” Ah! My very dear brothers, the breadth of the waters of this river has been vaunted, but if they were to dry up, and all the blood that has been shed were gathered there instead, one would have seen for a moment a similar flood continue to flow.
But this is still only about the number of victims. Above all, we must speak of their sufferings. What I am going to say is frightful, it is true, but it is necessary to say it. To save the African interior, the anger of the world must be roused.
It is useless to speak to you of the nameless horrors of the slave hunt and of the caravan marches; of the jungles set on fire to force those who fled to give themselves up to their executioners; of the hunger of those left long days without food; of torn and bloody feet from the cruel marches. I have already described that in my previous speeches.
In Africa, once in the house of their masters, the lot of the African slaves is not sweeter. But it has been said that at least, once in the house of their masters the lot of the African slaves is sweeter. I myself have said it, for the Muslim countries of Asia. But in the African interior, in the territories of which I speak and which are now known under your name, the name of a Christian people, their lot is no less horrible than in the caravans or in the markets. I will not go far to look for my proofs, I will only speak to you, in the midst of so many other facts which we have witnessed, of facts I learned just yesterday, here in Brussels, from eyewitnesses returning from the Congo. They are here and can prove me wrong.
One reported to me that the very day of his arrival, in the lands of the Belgian Congo, in Tanganyika, a chief had died. He saw twenty slaves buried alive with their master. Nobody was upset. It is the local custom, they said. It is only too true, and this frightful custom still goes on. One of my missionaries who came to find me here, said, on his part, that one day a chief, neighbouring to the Mission, to persuade him to come and visit him and take up residence near him, promised in his honour to burn eight of his female slaves alive before his hut. He was astonished at the priest’s indignant reaction to such a horrendous proposal, so natural did it seem to him. Finally, for I want to finish with this, near Tanganyika, there is another chief. A monster. He is called king Wemba, from the name of his territory, and he is, as though by an irony stained with blood, both a lover of music and a lover of blood. Now his principal music, a little as throughout our Africa, is that of the drums. But he finds the wooden drum sticks too hard on his ears, and in order to have a gentler sound, he wanted something new. To that end, he had the hands of the slaves destined for his abominable orchestra amputated, so that they would beat their instruments with their stumps.
And would you find that it is not my duty as Pastor to put an end to such infamy! Wise people have remonstrated with me that I am killing myself with my travels and my speeches. But I in no way will be silent or will I stop. I have sworn David’s oath, I have vowed to give no rest to my feet and to my voice till I have aroused in indignation over the horrors of Africa the entire Christian universe.
And I have not said all. I have not spoken of the slaves transported, at this present hour, to the north of India, to the Persian Gulf, to Arabia, to the islands of the Indian Ocean. The maritime trade has been abolished for America. In the Indian Ocean itself, British vessels close the way for Arab boats; but the dhows (that is their name) have only short distances to travel. They have the darkness of the night on their side and thanks to it, they often escape pursuit.
Thus it is that we still find slaves so pressed together that they seem to form one solid mass, closed up in dark holds, where, to hide them from patrol vessels, they are suffocated, covered up by anything that will disguise their presence. Slavers go so far as to sew them up in the sails or in sacks, and thus bound, dying of hunger and thirst, the living attached to the dead, smallpox and leprosy completing the unspeakable process, the survivors will finally people the harems of the Muslims of Asia.
But the sufferings and the death of so many human beings is not yet the worst thing. The worst: it is the social dissolution which is the consequence, because to maintain the hunt they have to nourish the divisions, the hostilities between the black chiefs and change into a frightful disorder the patriarchal way of life they followed.
What is to be done, then, faced with such a spectacle? One famous word sums up the feeling with which I would want to galvanise you all. It is the word of a king of Belgian Gaul, born near your ancestors, perhaps at Tournai, where his father died. Clovis, then, while being instructed in the Christian faith and told the story of the Passion of the Saviour and the cruelties of his executioners: “Ah, he cried out suddenly, drawing his sword if only I had been there with my Franks !” Sons of Clovis, Belgian Catholics, Jesus Christ is crucified again on the plateaus of Africa, in the person of these millions of blacks. The cruelties are no less great; the abandonment is the same; repeat, repeat the word of your ancient king and be there with your courage and your faith.
II
What practical action am I coming to ask of you?
Allow me to state precisely the conditions and to show you how nothing is more simple in itself nor more effective. In my past conferences, in France and England, I had to restrict myself to general views because, there, the hour for decisive action did not seem to me to have arrived. I contented myself to exposing my principal thought, which is that it is on the European governments that falls the duty of suppressing slavery in the Africa of which they have taken possession, and that only if they default should private associations be employed. With you, it is different. You are faced with provinces in agony, to repeat the word I have already used, when speaking to you of the Upper Congo. It is imperative to come to their aid without delay, and to act, not tomorrow, but today, under penalty of seeing everything perish. For the rest, by responding to this appeal, you will be responding to the desires of the King, and not only to his desires, but indeed to his laws. To prove this to you, it is enough for me to read these two articles of the constitutive Act, approved by him at Berlin, for the foundation of the Congo State, and accepted thereafter by all of Europe, as a basis for the Constitution of the new African States.
Here is Article Six of this fundamental Act: “All the Powers which exercise rights of sovereignty or influence in the said territories commit themselves to seeing to the conservation of the indigenous populations and the betterment of their moral and material conditions of existence, and to work together towards the suppression of slavery and above all, of the trade in blacks: they will protect and foster, without distinction of nationality or religion, all the institutions and enterprises, religious, scientific or charitable, created and organized for these aims.”
And now here is Article Nine, even more explicit about the obligatory abolition of slavery: “In conformity with the principles of the right of peoples, such as are recognized by the signatory Powers, the trade in slaves being forbidden and the operations which, on land or at sea, furnish slaves for this trade, likewise having to be considered as forbidden, the Powers which exercise or will exercise rights of sovereignty or influence in the territories forming the conventional basin of the Congo declare that these territories cannot serve either as market or as transit for the trade in slaves of whatever race. Each of these Powers commits itself to use all the means in its power to put an end to this commerce and to punish those involved in it.”
All one could desire is there: the formal prohibition of the trade, the punishment of those involved in it, the freedom and protection of all the Christian undertakings established to abolish it. In France and England, I made reference to the conventions of the Congress of Vienna and the Congress of Verona, where Belgium was not represented, moreover. Here, I do not even want to mention them. The constitutive Act of the Congo is even more formal.
But, with such a law, how do you explain these devastated provinces, these miseries of the blacks, which are such, as an English writer expressed it, “that you do not find anything at all like it under the sky.” How, my very dear brothers? In a very simple way, but one which, sadly, falls again partly on you. The fact is that those in government cannot do everything; their resources, no matter how abundant they may seem, run out; finally, when they have done all that their resources allowed them to do, they stop, out of a principle of wisdom and distributive justice. For them to have fulfilled their duty, it is enough for them by the action taken to have indicated the objective and shown the path of honour. When they have done all they could, it is up to the peoples to compensate for their glorious inability, and when it is a matter of a religious work like this, it is up to the Catholics. And you, Christians of Belgium, remember the Saviour’s parable: “Cum autem dormirent homines.”
Not being able to do everything at once, having obtained too little from you, all the efforts had to be concentrated on the Lower Congo, leaving, for a time, the Upper Congo without a single Belgian administrator, and so for a while abandoning in practice this portion of the Independent State to “the enemy.” Thus the darnel could be sown; but, faced with this mounting tide of blood, I come, as Pastor, to do what no other can do and to cry out to you with the Apostle: “You must rise from this sleep” which would henceforth dishonour you.
This appeal, I address it, from this pulpit, to the public opinion of all Belgium, that its voice make itself heard; to those in authority, that they take the truly effective and truly simple measures which could put a stop to it all; to the young men, that by their personal dedication they support the measures decreed by the authorities; to the charity of Christian, that they take enough from their surplus to allow these new crusaders to reach the battle front and, if necessary, martyrdom.
My first appeal then, is to public opinion. It is the queen of the world. Sooner or later, it forces all the powers to follow it and obey it. But, here among you, public opinion has not yet spoken enough.
Can you accept, Belgian Christians, to hear any longer, without shuddering, the echoes of these butcheries? Can you accept that thousands of human beings be thus reduced to slavery, deprived of their freedom, the first gift of man, dragged far away to the markets where they are in agony, heaped together in dark boats, dispersed to the four winds of the Muslim world, mothers separated from children, each one from another, to be used for shameful debauchery? Can you accept that entire provinces be depopulated?
Let us reveal all. Do you want to carry dishonour in the face of history? Do you want God to call you to account one day for the blood of your brothers? Do you want him to say to you on the Day of Judgment, as he warns in the Gospel: “Away from me! For I was oppressed and you did not come to my aid; I was enchained and you did not deliver me; I was tortured and you did not have pity on me; they shed my blood and you let it flow.”
Ah! No doubt, you could reply, as He suggests Himself: “And when, then, Lord, did we see you oppressed, enslaved, bleeding?” But it will be enough for Him to say, to confound you: “It is with the blacks, with your blacks, that I have suffered and that you have abandoned me.”
Finally, my very dear brothers, have you forgotten, as St. Paul teaches you – it is the rule of Christian solidarity – that when one member suffers in this immense body of humanity, all the others suffer with it? Have you the sentiment of liberty, dignity, the greatness of our nature? Where were you born that you accept to fall asleep under the yoke of slavery? People of Belgium, you are the last, it seems, to whom such questions can be addressed! The love of liberty, noble human pride, you have shown them on every page of your history, and if you are today a free people, enjoying all the rights of conscience, you owe it to the horror of servitude and to the blood you have shed for your independence!
I do not want to believe that these sentiments of indifference exist in the heart of a single person among you, when it is a matter of the sufferings, the enslavement and the death of so many millions of men. So it is to you that I appeal. You have a voice; let it roll out like thunder till it is heard. It is above all to those who speak, every day, to their country and to the diverse factions that constitute it, that I address myself at this moment. Members of the Belgian press, whom I am happy to see in this auditorium, I know what, on other points, divides us and what separates several of you from me. But on this matter there can be no divergences; this cause is one of those on which we are all agreed, for it is the cause of pity, justice and liberty. Be the echo of the plaintive voices that reach you from beyond the seas. They are those of two million men who perish, every year, on the whole surface of Africa. Imitate your brothers in England. I arrive from that great country. I, a Catholic Cardinal, spoke in the midst of Protestant listeners, in this costume which, a century ago, would have been covered with their boos; but doubtless, in this purple which covers my shoulders, they saw the blood of an entire continent for which I came to implore their pity, and they surrounded me with their sympathy and their respect. I do not know of a single London newspaper which did not join its voice to mine. It will be the same in your Belgium!
If an entire people can speak, it cannot as an entire people displace itself and go and fight. It needs volunteers who offer themselves and fight on its behalf. Those are the ones I look for now among you. But before I speak to them, let me first protest against a conclusion that has been falsely drawn because I spoke of fight and proposed a crusade. It has been said: “You ask for the use of force and, consequently, a new shedding of blood! Till now, it was the hand of the Arabs or their auxiliaries that shed it; now you want, in addition, the hand of Christians.” In truth, if this calamity was necessary temporary, I would not withdraw from such a painful necessity; for the blood being shed in torrents till now is innocent blood, the blood of the little ones and the weak, and now the blood of the executioners which should be shed is the blood of frightful criminals.
What I am asking for, besides, is just the contrary, and here I dare to give the advice of my humble but long experience to those who exercise authority. It is easy for them to make the ongoing shedding of blood in the interior of Africa impossible, taking an infallible measure which only depends on their will. It is the measure that France successfully took in its Muslim colony of Algeria. Due to it, peace has been kept between so many diverse races. This measure is to remove from the Arabs and the half-castes who are in the interior, the right henceforth to carry weapons.
One day, a Muslim slaver was asked how he penetrated into the heart of Africa and who was sovereign of that land. “The sovereign of the African interior, he replied showing his rifle, is the powder.” Never was a reply more true and if those who govern these immense territories did not understand it, they would see barbarity reign there.
Therefore, prohibit the carrying of firearms, and consequently, of powder by the Arabs and the half-castes who are the only ones in Africa who hunt slaves, punish them if they do not submit, with immediate banishment, that is all the blood that I ask. The arm of princes has no doubt the right to shed it for the security of society; but the Church can never do it, and according to the maxim of one of our holiest French bishops, it is in knowing how to die, not in shedding blood, that the religion of Jesus Christ has established itself in the world.
I repeat: forbid Muslims, in a State, moreover, where they are only foreigners, to carry the arms which they put to this horrendous use, banish them if they disobey; and, in a short time the whole interior of European Africa would be rid of three or four hundred demons; (know that they are not more, in total, in all the African interior), who, assisted by blacks, they have formed and drag after them, oppress it, render it desolate and cover it with human blood. I say the same for the negroes trained in assassination, and what is more, if I had another authority than that of prayer, I would not allow anybody to carry arms in the Belgian Congo except those having the mission to do so, or at least, formal authorisation from the State. That is a principle of public right. In Belgium and in France, it is applied even to those who merely hunt innocent birds; and in Africa, by a lamentable aberration, it would not be imposed on those who openly take part in this infamous hunt!
It is now that I address myself to you, young people who would want to join this crusade. To ensure the execution of a measure of this sort and thus bring peace, the Government of the Congo needs a force to support it, not to shed blood, as you have just seen, but on the contrary, to stop the bloodshed. We cannot hope that the Arab slavers or the half-castes, that the Negroes they drag with them, will obey the law and disarm themselves. There needs to be a force besides them which inspires fear in them and makes them obey.
If Belgian troops could be legally sent to the Congo, they would be sufficient for this role. But your Constitution forbids it, and we cannot hope to have any Europeans other than volunteers. So it is necessary to find, among you, valiant Christians, ready to sacrifice all, even one’s life, to stop this blood that flows like a river. It is necessary that, out of love for humanity, they renounce the joys of family, country, their Belgium, to go in the name of their God and put an end to so many and such frightful miseries.
Where can I ask for them more confidently than in this country of Christian generosity? In effect, I have no human compensations to offer them, no dignities, no honours, no riches, but only the reward that God reserves for those who have sacrificed everything for their brothers: that is to say, the ineffable joy of having saved the life of a fellow-being, at the cost of his own life. To save one person, that is already to merit this pure joy; but to snatch millions from such a death, what would that not be, especially at the final moment.
At present, moreover, I ask only for a small number of these heroes. One hundred is enough to deliver the provinces of Upper Congo. The regions that must be saved, besides Manyema and Tanganyika, send their slaves at present to the shores of the Indian Ocean and the markets of Ounyanyembe. It would be enough to close the caravan routes to the slavers; it would be enough to render the continuation of their trade impossible. Now, Lake Tankanyika, with its five hundred kilometres, is enough to block the way if it is well defended. It only needs one armed steamship on its waters, some highly mobile troops at its extremities, and for that, a hundred Europeans is enough, adding to them, to form regular militias, blacks already Christians or catechumens from our missions.
But if the number is small, the quality, on the other hand, must be excellent. Hear this, young people. It is not a matter of sending into the midst of the blacks men who are looking for adventure or who are fleeing the consequences of those they have had. The cure would be more dangerous than the illness. Immorality, indiscipline, scandal, for all of these soon go together, would accompany these pretended volunteers and we would see the disorders that have devastated America for a long time. What are required, then, are men who are worthy, not just by their courage and their energy, but also and above all by their virtue, their faith, their life entirely above reproach, of such a noble mission.
Furthermore, complete and precise regulations will soon make known all the practical conditions for these undertakings. I add that the former Zanzibar route, so disastrous for our first missionaries, can henceforth be replaced by a shorter and more convenient route to reach the high plateaus. By the Zambezi River and its tributary, the Chire, one can reach by boat, without fatigue and without the fever-prone forests, as far as the north of Lake Nyassa; and once there, one is on the plateau itself of Tanganyika, where the air is pure, the climate temperate, the route even. And that is why (European travellers no longer threatened as in the past by the loss of some of the men) one can limit oneself to a number sufficient, with the help of Christian blacks, to stand up to the Arab traders or half-castes of this special region, who surely do not number one hundred, and cannot do anything without the blacks they enrol.
But, the dedication of our Christian volunteers being free, and having no relationships with the State apart from obedience to the laws that the latter will see fit to establish, and to its sovereign authority, the volunteers will receive nothing from it. On the other hand, your King cannot, without being imprudent and unjust to his own people, add anything to what he has personally done already. So they must receive everything from the Christians, and it is on that matter that I ask you, all of you, Belgian Catholics, as worthy reparation for past sleep, to share generously in such a noble enterprise.
It is you who must, at this point, provide what is necessary for these crusaders of mercy and pity. This very day, I am opening a general subscription, from this pulpit, and I write my own name at the top, despite my poverty, in my position as Pastor. When I come down, I will go and give my offering to the parish priest of St. Gudule. I make a special appeal to your newspapers, asking them to print in their columns, when the time comes, the key names of all the contributors. This will be like the Golden Book of this new crusade. One finds today, proudly, on marble or in our histories, the names of the ancient crusaders. Your descendants one day will read, with the same joy, the names of these new crusaders. The first list will be published in eight days. From now till then, I ask all those who wish to set the example, either to give to the parish priest of St. Gudule or to remit directly to me, the contribution they want to make. I point out to them that it must not be just an ordinary almsgiving, and that to equip, arm, send to Africa and there maintain soldiers, requires a considerable sum. For a troop of a hundred men and the purchase of the steam ship they will require on Lake Tanganyika, at least a million is necessary. No doubt this is a lot to ask for; but one will find it is little when, with this million, one can save a million human creatures.
And now I will add nothing except that, in Brussels, a National Anti-Slavery Society is going to be formed, consequently composed only of Belgians, all known to you for their high sentiments and their patriotism. It will be free and independent, like the one in England. It is this Society, which, by a directing Council and Action Committees, will decide the requirements for enlisting; it will lay down the internal regulations which, for good order, will be imposed on the volunteers; finally, it will receive the offerings you subscribe to and disburse them according to its votes, so that everything in this undertaking will be truly national as much as Christian, and that, consequently, as I ask God, the blessings of heaven will come on the whole Belgian people.
I have been long, my brothers; but one speaks at length (especially the old men) of those one loves, and I love the poor blacks, whose Pastor I am.
Just a last word to finish. When coming just now to this church, I passed before the statue of this great Godfroy de Bouillion, who was the head of your crusaders of another age. I remembered that when he set out to deliver the Christians of the Holy Land, oppressed by the Saracens, and to avenge the Saviour’s tomb, he was followed by eighty thousand Belgians, led by the Counts of Flanders and of Hainaut, and all the illustrious members of the chivalry of the time. I remembered the enthusiasm of their faith, their abnegation, their sacrifices, their sufferings, their death. But, at the same time, I recalled their glory. Would Godefroy, despite his piety, have this name in history, and would you have erected this statue to him, in the centre of your capital, if he had not sacrificed everything, in a spirit of sublime faith? “God wants it! God wants it!” said he, with all his faithful people; but he was speaking thus of a Master who does not let himself be outdone in generosity, and who rewards, as only He can, those who have sacrificed everything for Him. It is the same reward he reserves for those who participate in our new crusade, and as pledge of this reward, I give you all, at this moment, in the name of the Vicar of Christ himself, whose humble instrument I am here, my paternal blessing.
Amen.
Letter to the President of the Congress of German Catholics meeting in Fribourg-en-Brisgau, 28th August 1888 (Extracts)
As long as Europe was unaware of the vile deeds that today have been revealed to it, Catholics in the various States could do nothing about them. As long as they were not interested in the situation in virtue of the new sovereignty that their countries have acquired, they had no special duty in that regard. But today, not to act would be cruel; even to stay silent would deserve condemnation.
It is not necessary to send numerous armies down there… What they must attempt, in effect, is not to occupy everywhere in one go or even to go everywhere, but simply to erect barriers everywhere the caravans must pass to reach either the public markets of the interior or the secret markets of the coast… It is these same troops who would have the duty of applying the law of disarming the Muslims and the half-casts as they appeared with their human prey. In a very short time, Africa would be cleared of the brigands that oppress it…
I speak only of the heart of Africa. The populations there are pagan, the Muslims till now have penetrated there only in very small number…so there are only five hundred Muslims at most to disarm and send back to the countries from which they came; but here it is necessary to recall the words of Cameron (the English explorer): “It is not by discourses or writings that Africa will be reborn but by deeds.”
Stopping the slave trade, and using force to do so, is necessary to save the population in the pagan regions of Africa; but the evils of slavery do not end there. I have already said, the most deplorable effect of the slave trade is not merely the destruction of human life, but above all the absolute disorganization of the original social order that existed in the interior of Africa.
The bonds which linked the inhabitants of these savage regions in a common order were no doubt elementary but they were real. They were those of patriarchal families. Today, as result of the Muslim invasions, of violent capture, of the flight of populations, of the arming of so many blacks to make them serve as auxiliaries in the banditry, everything is up in the air on these high plateaus formerly so peaceful. Order, authority no longer exist there, and to save them, the social order itself must be reconstituted.
That is the fundamental work of the Catholic anti-slavery societies, once the shedding of blood and of human life has been stopped by force which alone, I will never repeat it enough, can now put an end to it.
Doubtless part of this work of reconstitution could be done by the preaching of the faith, as happened in all the barbarian regions. Whatever one may say, the majority of African tribes are very capable of an intellectual, religious and moral culture. For me, according to the testimonies of my own missionaries in all the tribes where they are established, and they are the only Catholic missionaries present till now on these high plateaus in the heart of Africa, the populations of these high plateaus, who are the authentic type of the African, offer the greatest hopes in this respect.
I do not speak of what we have seen, scarcely two years ago, in the Christian community of Uganda, where the harvest of the apostolate germinated and ripened almost at the same time, and in such conditions that numerous neophytes, almost children, did not hesitate to shed their blood for the faith. Leaving aside these circumstances where the intervention of a force superior to that of man is visible, we have found in our blacks seeds of intellectual and moral progress that we did not expect.
That, it is true, I repeat it, is the special objective of the Propagation of the Faith; it is for that it receives our contributions. But there is another side of this question of social reconstitution which is material almost as much as religious. It is not enough, as I have said, to make slavery impossible henceforth; we must draw together these scattered sheep, and give them, through cohesion, security, confidence, the example of work. Nowhere will people be better able to understand what I am saying than in your Germany where, after the barbarian invasions had destroyed the former Roman organism across all the frontiers, when the whole of Europe was covered in blood and abandoned to disorder, one saw centres of peace and light arise here and there among you. It is around your monasteries, lit by the holiness and genius of St. Benedict, that people came looking for security and rest. It is there that the truly ancient social life was reborn, with that incomparable character that the faith gave to the institutions of the Middle Ages. That is what must be done in our Africa, to repair the evils of slavery and restore it to life; it is the logical crowning of the armed expeditions. The work has begun in fact, in the regions closest to the coast by a German foundation (O.S.B. of the Congregation of St. Odile). But it had already begun in the interior.
One saw, one sees at this moment, around Lake Tanganyika, the miserable remnants of neighbouring populations, so cruelly dispersed, come together again around our missionaries. These, at the same time that they teach the children to understand the Holy Gospels, show the fathers how they can live in peace through work. Here I pay homage in this respect to Brother Jerome Baumeister (a White Father Brother of the diocese of Wurtzbourg).
He trains the blacks in work, he teaches them to build houses in stone, strong and lasting, instead of miserable huts. He pays attention to the slightest details. He has created a herd of cows, calves, a butter and cheese-making factory, in a little agricultural colony of blacks at Kaboua, that is to say, at 10 km from Lake Tanganyika and from Kibanga (northwest of the lake) because there is no fear of the tsetse fly at that place. What has been happening? Little by little, negro fugitives have grouped themselves around the missionaries and the farming Brothers. Every day, new blacks arrive, knowing by experience that, near the White Fathers as people call them, slavers leave them in peace. And thus a population of several thousand souls has already grouped itself there where ten years ago, was only a desert.
Those are the foundations we must multiply. I say the same for the agricultural orphanages for orphaned or abandoned children. One could do there what is already being done at Tabora, in Tanganyika, and what the Fathers and Brothers of the Holy Spirit, had already undertaken, the first to do so, at Bagamayo.
To sum up, once the first task is finished, that is to say, the trafficking ended, such is the crowning achievement that the anti-slavery Society I desire so much to see erected could bring about in the German region of east Africa…
Extracts of the letter to the Anti-slavery Committee of Cologne (4th November 1888)
As long as one can find a large enough number of these unfortunate blacks for sale at the high price one finds today in the Muslim countries, that is to say, 750 to 1,000 Francs per slave, depending on distances, the slavers’ greed will know how to overcome all the obstacles and continue this shameful trafficking in human beings. It is, in effect, an established economic law that merchandise (and, in slavery, man is nothing more than merchandise) is offered when there is a demand for it. If, then, one continues to demand negroes from Africa, she will continue to provide them… No people (European or other) will be capable on its own of stopping the trafficking by force, even in just the regions dependent on it. Suppressed on one side, it will be reborn on the other. If, on the contrary, the Muslim countries no longer ask to buy blacks, the interior trafficking will fall of its own accord… Now, to overcome the resistance, open or hidden, of the Muslim governments, the common agreement of all the Powers interested today in the civilization of the various regions of Africa, that is to say, of your Germany (and the other Powers) is indispensable. If the nations are divided, nothing satisfying or complete will be achieved and all the sacrifices made…will be inefficacious. I insist, then, on the agreement of all the Christian peoples represented in Africa at this time.
News of the 8th Caravan for Equatorial Africa (21 November 1888)
A telegraphic dispatch from Zanzibar has been sent to His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie bringing news from the interior of East Africa. Last August, just a few days before the revolt of the coastal natives , the Archbishop of Algiers had sent to the [region of the] Great Lakes a new caravan of his heroic missionaries who, despite the worries aroused in people’s minds and the consequent dangers that dangers that may be met with, did not hesitate to set out for their destination, namely the missions of Lake Tanganyka and Lake Nyanza.
This little apostolic troop was made up of nine priests or Brothers of the Society of Missionaries of Africa led by Monsignor Bridoux, titular bishop of Utica. He recently succeeded Monsignor Charbonnier, of the same Society, who had died in his mission in March of this current year. The missionaries forming this caravan were of three different nationalities, French, German and Belgian. It included besides three young Blacks who had been ransomed from slavery and then educated at the University of Malta through the care of the Cardinal and his missionaries. They have been studying medicine there and are returning to their country to serve in this capacity as auxiliaries of the missionaries. They were among the group of Negroes who, last May, were presented to the Holy Father during the solemn Audience granted to the African pilgrimage. As is well known, during this Audience, truly moved by n apostolic inspiration, our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, entrusted to His Eminence, the Archbishop of Algiers, the mission which he has just accomplished in Europe [to bring about] the abolition of slavery.
Since its departure from Zanzibar, because of the break in communications, there had been no news of this caravan. The fear was that, like all the Germans established in this country, it had suffered some terrible catastrophe. Fortunately there has been nothing of the sort. The news received today form Mpumpu in Ugogo relates that on the contrary they were respected everywhere they passed and, safe and sound, they are continuing their journey. It is known that the same thing happened with regard to the Holy Ghost Fathers in Bagamoyo, on the coast. Although the local population attacked the German establishments, the missionaries and their institutions, the benefits of which are appreciated, were respected. It should in fact be added that the great misfortune of the German Society , in this whole affair, was that some of its members had acted with brutality towards the local inhabitants among whom they had established themselves, both on the coast and in Ussagara. This is so true that, as several travellers have reported, the language of the Blacks as acquired a new word: to say brutal or wicked, the local people say “deusch”. Generally speaking they [the Germans] have set aside the guarantees [of safe conduct] that the sultan of Zanzibar could give them when they were setting out and have relied too exclusively on the use of force, which in the interior can unfortunately provide no guarantee.
Letter to the Ambassador of Portugal in Rome (26 November 1888)
Rome,
Your Excellency,
I have carefully studied the different methods which could be adopted to carry out the wish of your Government, but after deep reflection I have come to recognize that it would be impossible for me, in accordance with your request, to fix the conditions for establishing a mission on the South-West of Lake Nyassa, without previously having answered the following questions. Now at this moment you alone can provide the answers.
1 – Which is the precise place or post where our missionaries could be placed, and what is the name of this place according to the German maps (I speak of German maps because here in Rome I do not have Portuguese maps)?
2 – What approximately, in kilometres, would be the size of the territory of the mission, in length and breadth, entrusted to our missionaries?
3 – What number of missionaries would the Portuguese Government wish to see at the start of this post or mission? According to our custom they should at least be four.
4 – Where would we be able to establish a procurator’s office near to the sea to receive and forward what would be necessary for the missionaries in the interior? Would it be possible for us to have a small procurator’s office in Quelimane?
5 – Would the Portuguese Government give us the possibility of using its boats for transport on the Zambese and Chire [rivers] ?
6 – Since your Government wishes to see Portuguese missionaries mixed with French missionaries in this mission, would it help with the setting up of a junior seminary destined for the recruitment of trustworthy missionaries of Portuguese nationality?
7 – Finally, what sum does the Portuguese Government propose to put at the disposition of the missionaries for establishing themselves in the first place, and then for their annual upkeep, until such a time when they are able to find on the spot the means necessary for their existence?
I have already had the honour of discussing this subject with His Excellency, the Secretary of Propaganda Fide. I see that it will be easy to come to an agreement on questions of spiritual jurisdiction once we have come to an agreement in principle with regard to this matter with the Government of his most faithful Majesty. Therefore I shall not speak further about this aspect here.
This, Your Excellency, is the sum of information which it would be necessary for me to obtain in order to submit it to the Council of our missionaries. I would therefore be very grateful if you could give me this information, as soon as possible, and in writing, if it is already at your disposal, as I think it is.
Begging you to accept, Your Excellency, the expression of my deep respect, I remain, Your humble and obedient servant
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter of thanks to the Cardinal Archbishop of Naples (Italy) (8 December 1888)
Naples,
Your Eminence,
I had already received, in the past, numerous kind signs of your fraternal charity towards our Africa. You are giving me a new one in inviting me to start in Naples the establishment of the Anti-Slavery Society in Italy and to plead this cause myself from the pulpit of your cathedral. Everything is encouraging me to accept such an offer, both the faith of your people and the religious memories which of old united the Church in Naples with the church in Carthage.
I do not forget, in fact, the under the dome of your cathedral our African saints lie in the midst of your saints. I found the virgin Restituta, the bishops Gaudiosus and Quodvultdeus, one of the successors of St Cyprian and alongside them a multitude of confessors who had imitated them in defending the Faith with the same intrepid courage. The persecutors had piled them into half-wrecked boats, without sails, without a pilot, thinking that they would perish, but the winds and the waves took care to lead them to your harbour . It is there that one of your predecessors, Nostrianus, who himself is revered as a saint, with the same charity that you have inherited along with his see, offered them refuge and allowed them to have, at the very gates of the city, the monastery in which they put the finishing touches to the sanctification of their lives. The Church in Naples has done even more, it has enrolled their names in the list of the most venerable pontiffs and has placed their relics in the altars.
Yet if these memories encourage me, a serious obstacle is stopping me: this is my inability to expound in your beautiful Italian language on the numerous details which are necessary to make this initiative well known an appreciated. I can follow a private conversation in Italian; I cannot, without temerity, speak in Italian in public. I therefore dare to request of you, Eminence, to allow me simply to address an exhortation in my own language to those of your faithful, and they are many, who speak and understand it . For the others I shall have translated into Italian a booklet published in Germany by our anti-slavery committee, at least for the part concerning East Africa. In so far as North Africa and the Mediterranean basin is concerned, which interest Italy more directly, I will have added to it a special chapter giving all the details on the slavery that exists in North Africa and in the Mediterranean basin, [suggesting] the principal actions that members of anti-slavery committees could undertake to suppress or at least to lessen this slavery, and finally the letter that I have just recently addressed to Cardinal Celesia. This booklet is in fact destined not only for the Catholics of Naples but for all those of Italy.
Coming from a town which has seen, even during our own Century, the birth of so many works of charity for the Christian instruction of slaves, for tending to their needs, for the education of Black children who have been ransomed out of charity , and offering it under the patronage of a pastor who through the inspirations of his generous charity, through his heroic courage, has set his name together with those of Charles and Frederic Borromeo, it can only receive a favourable welcome from all.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie,
Archbishop of Carthage and of Algiers
Conference given at Rome in the church of the Gesu, 22nd December 1888
If I cannot treat this grave question with all the details it would require, I will at least say what is necessary, and will try to make up for the rest by a clarity that, I hope, will enlighten your minds.
And first of all, is there any obligation for the Christian peoples, for you Catholics, in the measure possible, to come to the aid of populations so cruelly, oppressed? On this point, there cannot be any doubt to the eyes of faith. It is the law itself of love, of Christian solidarity, that is to say, of the whole Gospel.
Not only does this law oblige us to love one another as brothers, it teaches us that God considers done to himself what we do for those who weep, for those who suffer, for those whom injustice or force hold in irons. It teaches us that on the last day, it is on this precept that God will judge us, calling to himself, for an eternal recompense, those who came to his aid in the least of men, condemning, driving away those who refused to come to his aid. You cannot be in any doubt, then, that Christians, learning of the sufferings of so many human creatures, have the obligation, formal and absolute, of doing whatever is in their power to help them.
I have already expressed myself to the other Christian nations of Europe, on this sacred obligation. Nobody has called it into doubt, no son of the Church has denied it. But in the crowd that has gathered from all parts to fill this church, there are perhaps people who do not believe as we do, and I want to address myself to them nonetheless, in a cause which concerns the whole of humanity. Slavery, as it is practised in Africa, is not only, in fact, opposed to the Gospel, it is contrary to the natural law. That is what our great Leo XIII affirms, with a freedom and a vigour that have never been surpassed, in his Encyclical on slavery: “Contra quod est, dit-il, a Deo et a natura institutum.”
Now the laws of nature apply not just to Christians but to all men. That is why I appeal to all, without distinction of nationality, or party, or religious confession. I do not appeal just to faith, but to reason, to justice, to respect, to the love of freedom, that supreme good of man, as our Pontiff has likewise said. No doubt I am pleading this cause today in a temple, and before altars, but I am ready to plead it everywhere. I have pleaded it in Princes Hall, before the English protestants, in salons, before philosophers, before non-believers, and always I have found in people’s hearts the echo of the sentiment expressed by the ancient poet: Homo sum, et nihil humani a me alienum puto (Quote from Terence: Heautontimoroumenos, v. 77) I am a man and nothing of what is human is foreign to me. It is a cry that came out from Rome and which, also, has its echo through the whole universe. I am a man, injustice towards other men revolts my heart. I am a man, oppression fills my nature with indignation. I am a man, cruelty against so many of my fellows inspires nothing but horror in me. I am a man, and what I would want done to give me freedom, honour, the sacred bonds of family, I want to do to restore family, honour, freedom to the sons of this unfortunate race.
What I say of individual men, of each of you, in particular, my very dear brothers, I say it of peoples, and I am only interpreting their heart-felt wishes, I know, crying out to the four winds of heaven every day: “Enough blood! Enough vile captures! Enough tears! Enough children taken from their mothers! Enough men torn from their villages, from the peace of the domestic hearth, to be thrown at the discretion of a cruel master into the shameful practices of debauchery! Enough, not just in the name of religion, but in the name of justice, of solidarity, of human nature and of the One who has engraved his law in our heart.
But we must go further and affirm our duties towards civilization itself and world progress. God has imposed them on us, by placing us on earth. If he has, as our Sacred Writings say, handed the world over to our free investigation and dominion, it is that we work to improve it and to embellish it, and each of us is called to do it within the nation of which he is the son. But it is not a matter here of a single people. It is a matter of a whole continent and that in circumstances where Africa is the necessary complement of countries where the population stifles henceforth, within too narrow limits, hope of a commerce to which such rich regions promise the natural produce of the soil, and will one day ask in return all that our manufacturing and industries produce.
It is a quarter of the terrestrial globe that a fanaticism, increasing daily, is trying to separate from us for ever. Absolutely no doubt! I repeat; in the ancient world, there is no people worthy of the name, there is no man worthy of the name who would not understand the duty of this crusade of salvation, of mercy, of pity, of progress, of civilization, of justice, who would not understand that this duty is imposed upon him by the name man and by the order established by God: Homo sum et nihil humani a me alienum puto. I am a man and nothing of what is human is foreign to me.
Letter to Father Burtin with information for the Congregation of Propaganda Fide on the massacre of Christians in Uganda (23 January 1889)
Algiers,
My Dear Child,
I am asking you to go on my behalf, without any delay whatsoever, to see Cardinal Simeoni. You will advise him that I have just received directly from Zanzibar a telegram from Fr Jamet, our procurator. I had asked Fr Jamet for exact information on the news that the newspapers were giving about Uganda. Unfortunately, it is all confirmed. Numerous Christians have been massacred and the Muslims have taken over the government of the country (The fault lies with the Germans and the English, but this cannot be said out loud; they have acted with much brutality, violence and lack of prudence).
None of our missionaries has been killed. At the moment they are on the other side of the lake, in Bukumbi, still in the Nyanza mission, together with Mgr Livinhac, their Apostolic Vicar. I do not know what the Good Lord has in store for them, but I know them well enough to be sure that they will [be ready to] be martyrs to the very last one, by the grace of God.
Moreover, at the same time that you receive this letter, or almost, you will receive the issue of the Anti-slavery journal which will provide you with details of how I think and what I believe would be possible to attempt at this time. Please give this issue to Cardinal Simeoni. It will be easy for you to appreciate how deeply affected your whole Congregation and I myself are by such a serious event. But at least we have not had the sorrow of a single apostate, not even among the Blacks . Let us not lose courage.
I have received all your different letters and your accounts. I received today in Algiers your last letter in which you speak to me about the gifts of linen and of vestments for the missions and for Carthage. Send the first to Maison Carrée and the others to Mr Tournier in La Goulette. It is true that Mr Tournier is coming to Algiers where he will find me, and from there he will go on to Biskra, so it would be better to send [these goods] to Mr tournier, Vicar General, or if he is absent to the address of Fr Delattre by telegram.
I stop here for today. I want this letter to reach you as soon as possible.
I remain always your Father in the Lord.
+ Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Fr Jamet in Zanzibar on the situation in Uganda (1st February 1889)
Algiers,
My Dear Father,
You are probably not waiting to receive praise for your zeal in the circumstances in which our missions find themselves. Your negligence is so great that even five days after the Protestant press in England had published terrible news about Uganda you had still not written a single word. And when, full of anxiety as was only natural, I asked you myself for some news of our mission you replied that you did not know of anything extraordinary. So at great expense I had to send you the mine of news given by the Times, and you, still at great expense, repeated the same new in the same terms . Is that how you understand your role as procurator, when it is a question of the lives of your confreres and of the Christians, and of the very existence of the missions? This is unpardonable in the eyes of God and of men. How is it that you do not understand the need to provide us with news and to keep yourself informed?
It is now a matter of knowing what can be done for the interior [of the Continent]. The route overland through Bagamoyo and through Mombasa will probably remain blocked for a long time. I am moreover not of the opinion to have our Fathers return, so if you are able to send them urgent mail, tell them please on my behalf that I wish them to stay on the spot where they are. In this way they shall be less at risk. If they start out they will be massacred by the people in revolt who do not know them, especially when they are coming near to the coast. Tell them also that we are praying for all of them and that we are looking for a means of establishing contact with them by another way.
This means trying to go by water, in other words by way of the Zambezi river, by Chire and Nyassa where it is possible to find boats . From the north of Nyassa one would go to Tanganyka, and from the north of Tanganyka to the south of [Lake] Albert or of Victoria Nyanza. All the routes are clear as far as there. But to gain precise knowledge of this itinerary and the regions [through which it passes] you would hve to go yourself to Quilimane , after having obtained a recommendation from the consul or representative of Portugal in Zanzibar.
Once in Quilimane you should seek information from the Portuguese merchants and travelers. Provide yourself with Portuguese interpreter in order to make yourself understood and to hear all that will be said to you. It is better to provide yourself with one in Zanzibar, since you would not be sure of find one in Quilimane. There are Jesuit Fathers in Quilimane. Go to see them in the name of charity. Ask them on my behalf to supply you with all the information you need. This information is to be taken down in writing.
1- with regard to the most direct and easiest route from Quilimane to the Great Lakes, either by crossing the mouth of the Zambezi which by all accounts is difficult, or going by land from Quilimane to tete.
2- with regard to the means of transport that can be found on the Zambezi, the Chire and [Lake] Nyassa, and also on how it is possible to cross the cataracts of Chire
3 – with regard to how much such caravans by water would cost and the persons one should deal with for this purpose.
What do the Scottish missionaries in Nyassa do? We have good relations with Portugal on African matters. You can trust this country. This information is urgent. It is a question of organizing a journey on which the life or death of your confreres depends. So do not lose a minute. Seize on the first occasion of a boat for Quilimane, leaving Fr Guillermain in charge of the procure while you make this journey. Pay attention not to make any noise about this project, because you are surrounded only by enemies. Just say that you are travelling and, if you wish, let it be thought that you are going to the Cape of Good Hope.
For the expenses you will draw a cheque on Algiers. You will have to calculate that it will be necessary for you to go to Tete in order to calculate the full expense. When you return to Zanzibar, because of the urgency of the matter, you will let me know by telegramme about the possibility of travelling by water to the Great Lakes, and the approximate price, and on how a caravan can be organized. You will use terms such as these: information gathered, route by water possible, approximate expense ten thousand francs, everything secure.
I ask Our Lord, my dear child, to bless what you are about to do for the welfare of your brothers, and I remain, Yours in Our Lord
+Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the President of the Propagation of the Faith (18 March 1889)
Biskra,
Dear Sir,
I should have written, as is customary, to the Councils of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith to speak about our different missions, but following the preaching of our anti-slavery crusade, I was completely exhausted. Added to that came an attack of rheumatoid neuralgia, something from which I have been suffering for a long time, but which had never been so strong. So you will not be surprised that, once again, I drew up my will and testament, thinking that my end was coming .
I came through, but the doctors who have sent me to the Sahara for the rest of the winter forbade me to engage in any work. This is the reason why I have been unable to send you my usual reports. So I beg of you to be satisfied with these few words that I can say about each of our missions, selecting only the aspects which at present are out of the ordinary.
The diocese of Algiers. Finding myself somewhat freer in Carthage after the installation of Mgr Jourdan, I took back again the government of the diocese, still with the active help of Mgr Dusserre, no longer as Administrator, but simply as Coadjutor.
The Government has again this year, at the very moment of my episcopal jubilee, with the considerateness and justice which distinguishes it, committed against us n act of open persecution . For no valid reason, it announced to me last September that on 1 October we would have to leave the junior seminary of Saint Eugène and the adjoining episcopal apartments where Mgr Pavy and I have been living for 40 years. I had to threaten Mr Floquet with a public scandal on account of such an ignoble action which would have put my seminarians and myself out on the street in order to come to an arrangement which still throttles us but which allows us to keep a roof over our heads. We now have to pay an annual rent of 6,000 francs for Saint Eugène. Being unable to go elsewhere, I was obliged to suffer these conditions, but I must think now of preparing another seminary, and of finding the necessary funding. For the rest, nothing has diminished. I would be very grateful, if only to shame this sad band of persecutors, if this year you would add 6,000 francs to the allocation for the diocese of Algiers.
The diocese of Carthage. We had a real misfortune. Monsignor Jourdan de la Passardière, who had asked to come and help me with the administration of the diocese, was continuously ill, or thought he was, which comes to the same thing, from the first day of his arrival until Saturday 2 March last when the doctors sent me a telegram saying that, to avoid a serious catastrophe, they had to see that he went back to France and that he could not return to Tunisia. He wrote to me himself in the same vein here in Biskra where I was already a fortnight ago, and where it was impossible for me to do anything .
I accepted his resignation and established a provisional administration until such time as I can go myself to Carthage. For the diocese this has been disastrous. Mgr Jourdan had committed himself, by means of his numerous connections, his correspondence and his preaching, to help with the construction of the pro-cathedral of Tunis. Because of his [poor] health he was not able to keep his promises nor help the other institutions which have all been left unattended. I find myself in great embarrassment because of this, as also on account of the present state of my sickness, and also because of the immense work of the Anti-slavery [campaign] which is absorbing my whole energy.
The Missions in Africa. You are aware of the state they are in through the frequent reports sent to you for the journal Missions Catholiques, and from what has been said in the newspapers. The Sahara and the Sudan have alone continued to progress in tranquillity. The mission of Nyanza has been violently expelled from Uganda, which constitutes about one third of its territory. [The missionaries], Mgr Livinhac at their head, after having risked martyrdom, have been obliged to withdraw to the south of the lake, in Bukumbi, where other missionaries were already established.
With a touching mark of attachment and faith, 3,000 Christians and neophytes from Uganda have come to stay near their bishop, preferring to lose everything else rather than lose their religion. There is no example of this kind more touching in the contemporary history of the missions, nor to my knowledge in the ancient history of the Church.
This event, however, has put the mission and the bishop in a very embarrassing situation. Mgr Livinhac, who spent eight days in prison, threatened with death at any moment, was stripped by the Muslims of all he possessed, of his vestments and even of his mass-kit, of everything the mission for the orphans and the missionaries, in a word, of his entire resources. Over and above that, he has under his care at this time the neophytes, numbering several thousands, who have joined him. Greater misery cannon be imagined. I recommend him, Gentlemen, to your charity and to that of your associates.
Tanganyka and Unyaniembe, as also Upper Congo, have not up to now face the trial of bloodshed or brutal persecution. They are nevertheless petrified, as you can well imagine, as a consequence of the faults and the unheard of acts of violence committed by the Germans in the region of Zanquebar which have aroused the indignation of all the natives . The fear is that they will wreak vengeance on all the Europeans who are in the interior [of the Continent]. In the meantime we have to think about maintaining our communications with all our missions. We succeeded in doing this at great sacrifice and with many acts of great courage. Out of fear, however, that the Coast will be closed from now on, we are making an essay at this moment which is truly heroic on the part of the one responsible for it. Reverend Father Deguerry, the Superior General of the Congregation, wished to travel himself to Zanzibar, and from there to Mozambique where he is at present . He wishes to go upstream on the Zambesi and the Chire as far as Lake Nyassa to establish a new route to Tanganyika, and from there to Nyanza. His life is at risk, because of the danger of African fevers, given his age, or on account of the peril he could face at each stage. Yet he was off at a flash at the first word I said to him, calmly and with the quiet courage that characterizes him in all things . We must also think, Gentlemen, of a large sum to cover the expenses of such a journey. I dare to request the amount of 15,000 francs to help defray the cost, and we shall still be obliged to find an equal sum.
Sainte-Anne, in Jerusalem – It is in constant growth and the results are increasingly certain and consoling. Father Federlen has told you this in a recent letter. Next year we shall have, I hope, our first Greek Melkite priests, and I can add confidently, the first Greek Melkite missionaries of our Congregation. This is the future.
It is you, Gentlemen, however, who will obtain a blessing in the eyes of God, and glory, in the eyes of men, for having laid such a foundation for, without you, we would have been unable to undertake anything. This very year we are going almost to complete the construction of the major seminary at Saint Anne’s, net to the minor seminary which already exists. We are seeking how to pay for it. That is all I wish to say to you, knowing in advance your [generous] heart, and being unable to continue to dictate this letter which is already far too long for someone in convalescence.
It is with this sense of devotion and gratitude which you know are mine that I have the honour of remaining, Mr President, Sir, and Gentlemen, your most humble and obedient servant.
+Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Louail, Provincial of Europe (11 April 1889)
Algiers,
My Dear Father,
Reverend Father Bresson, who will hand over this letter to you, will explain to you that the council of the Society and I myself have decided to send him on a special mission to Zanzibar. He will shortly be leaving for this difficult post. This will leave vacant the position of superior in Woluwé.
We have decided not to appoint a replacement for him, but to grant to you, in your capacity as Provincial, the special authority of superior of the two houses in Lille and Woluwé. In each of these houses, when you are absent, your place will be taken by two directors, Father Engels in Woluwé and Father Vera or Father Ragnet (the choice is yours) in Lille. It is up to you alone to determine how much time you must spend in each of these houses. We have full confidence in your wisdom, your conscientiousness, and your ability, and we know that you will only act for the best.
You will accordingly find yourself responsible for the appeals in Belgium, and I hope that, for the good of the missionary work, you will know how to make use of a field so fertile in charity and almsgiving. It will perhaps be necessary to provide you with an extra person for making the appeals, but in any case you, with your persuasive language and your perseverance, will always be doing most of the work and with the best results. The time [for these appeals] is most ripe on account of the enthusiasm among Catholics for the question of slavery.
You will say everywhere, and you will be telling the truth, that up to now it is your society that has been committed and is committing itself with the greatest zeal and efficiency to resolving this formidable question. You will say that the money given will be employed under my special direction. Consequently, it will be used in the very best way, a way assuredly blessed by God, since there will be no admixture of masonic and liberal influence as has unfortunately occurred in Belgium .
Do not hesitate to tell Catholics how much I deplore that influence which makes the King refrain from employing the money given to him by the best of Christians for a work which is purely Christian [ in nature]. His Congo is in the hands of Free Masons, and truly if it continues in this way it will not be possible.in conscience, to give the money to the Institution in Belgium (l’Oeuvre de Belgique). Do not be afraid to say that to all the true Catholics you will meet along the way. For the sake of prudence, this should not be said out loud, but it is necessary to enlighten all those who can be enlightened without inconvenience. Say this, my child, and say that you have copied from what I have written, without however handing over the present letter to anyone, because it could be put to bad use in relation to His Majesty.
Farewell, my dear child, may God bless the enlargement of your ministry in which you will see, on our part, an enlargement of trust and, on the part of God, an increase in the number of blessings.
I remain your devoted father in Our Lord,
+Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
An Ordinance appointing two Substitute General Assistants (15 April 1889)
Algiers,
Ordinance of Cardinal Lavigerie addressed to the Missionaries of Africa with regard to the appointment of two substitute Assistants.
Acting as the Major Superior of the Society of the Missionaries of Algiers and have received in this regard from the Holy See confirmation of our authority until the day of our death
Taking into consideration the absence of Mgr Bridoux, Apostolic Vicar of Tanganika, and of Reverend Father Deguerry, Vicar General of the Society, presently engaged in an extraordinary mission in Equatorial Africa;
Considering the fact that these two Fathers are both ex officio members of the Council of the Society, a Council composed of only five members, there remaining only three present in Algiers making it difficult to deliberate and take decisions;
We have laid down and do lay down as follows: As from this day Reverend Father Toulotte, the Secretary General of the Society, and Reverend Father Daugsbourg, superior of the junior seminary of Saint-Eugène will hold the office of titular members of the Council and will therefore have consultative and deliberative voice, active and passive voice, until the return of the two members of the Council indicated above, Fr Daugsbourg losing his rights at the return to Algeria of the first of these, and Fr Toulotte from the return of the second.
This present ordinance will be read at the first meeting of the Council of the Society and, for the sake of validity, will be inscribed in the register of its deliberations.
Given at Saint-Eugène, Monday 15 April 1889
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Allocution pronounced on Good Friday, 19th April 1889, in Algiers Cathedral
Given the responsibility, as I am by the Holy See, of pleading the cause of the poor African slaves, I thought that nothing was more likely to appeal to your pity for their sufferings than to place them, today, under the protection of the memory of the Passion of the Saviour… They, too, these slaves, continue their painful passion, delivered over to vile torturers who hunt them on all sides like wild beasts, who subject them to the most atrocious tortures, to captivity, to the shame of a nameless debauchery, to death.
I know what one could say about the sad degradation where they have fallen during so many centuries of barbarism; but I also know that nothing can justify the frightful sufferings they endure. Should they even be capable, moreover, of the brute behaviour that their oppressors attribute to them, we would have to say again of them, as Our Lord did: “O God, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing!”
Remember, My Very Dear Brothers, what I have just been revealing to Europe. Since about a quarter of a century ago, more than twenty million victims have been delivered into slavery and to the most horrible death. When I drew the picture, following the accounts of explorers and missionaries, I roused horror everywhere. I have been able to calculate, following eye witness accounts, that two million human creatures disappear in this way every year. Do you hear that, My Very Dear Brothers? Two million men, creatures like ourselves of God, that is to say, about five thousand Blacks, massacred, captured, sold, each day, if one counts the victims of all of Africa (Equatorial, East Africa, Western and Eastern Sudan, Morocco). That is still not enough. Massacre and fire are everywhere. It is the destruction of a whole continent. And yet, despite the cries of indignation of all that merited, on earth, the name of man and that of Christian, these horrors continue and multiply.
O God, has history ever seen such an excess of infamy? And if I wanted to say all, if one day I wanted to unmask the hypocrisy, the names which hide themselves, the cowardice, the impious calculations, the ambition of the one, the inhuman indifference of the other; what a cry of horror and condemnation in the civilized world!
There, then, for an entire unfortunate race, is the cruel Passion of the Saviour truly renewed. All its elements are found there. I could point them out one by one. Nothing is missing, neither the Herods, nor the Pilates, nor the Judas, nor the cruelty of the scourging, nor the cowardly insults, nor the cross.
Never has anything in such abominable proportions been seen. In Jerusalem, Calvary was the summit of a hill. It bore only three crosses. In Africa, it is an immense continent. Blood is flowing everywhere, from the veins of millions of Blacks, mixed with the tears of mothers whose children are massacred before their eyes. Cruel abandonment is practised, deliberately, even shamefully preached by some who hold that one can allow to continue, without feeling disturbed, something that has been going on for so many centuries and who are not ashamed to declare it to the world! In the African interior, the cry of despair of Calvary arises from every breast: “Why are we abandoned?” And, sadder still, we begin to detect, even in the heart of Europe, greed, debauchery, hatred ready to join forces for the continuation of this long martyrdom. In their own way, that is what not only the Muslims of Turkey are doing, but those moreover who have undertaken to defend slavery, for love of gold, or perhaps out of opposition to our faith. Their lies, their stories, their sophisms seem to defy shame, in order to reconstitute, as one saw in the struggles at the beginning of this century, the infamous Party of the Slavers.
But we, since the Passion continues so cruelly in our Africa, I beg you to surround with your pity this new Calvary, in remembrance of that of Christ. I read, on the day of your Compassion (Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, formerly the Friday of the First Week of the Passion), O Mary, the hymn which the Church addresses to you to unite herself with you at the foot of the Cross and there invoke your help (=Stabat Mater).
In almost every word, I found there encouragement for my hopes, by the very similarity of the sorrows of your Son to those which the Blacks, your adopted children, suffer today. They, too, are attached to the cross, and what a cross! From the temple we have erected for you on the shores of the Mediterranean (the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa), it extends to the other extremity of our continent. Everywhere the negroes are attached to it and die there in their atrocious torture (At this point, Mgr. Lavigerie paraphrased and applied to the Blacks three verses of the Stabat Mater.)
“This Party is promoted by the Muslims who hope in this way, by deceiving public opinion, to keep the profits and the debaucheries of slavery; by the traffickers of every nation who make their fortune through the commerce in human flesh, with its yearly profit of two hundred million; by the enemies of the Church, who aim at preventing it from thus achieving the finest work of humanity and of civilization of this century. They find accomplices at every level, even among those usually considered honourable, from a Greek Minister in Turkey, who dared affirm in a public letter that the sale of slaves no longer existed in the Turkish empire, to a former French Ambassador who, claiming to base himself on his title and sentiments as a Catholic, openly advised the Catholics of France to abstain in the question of slavery and to reject the repeated calls of the Head of the Church for the abolition of slavery.”
Such, then, my Very Dear Brothers, are the sentiments and the thoughts which must fill your hearts and mine, at this moment, as we hold before us the memory of the Passion of Calvary and of the Passion of Africa…
Doubtless you will pray without distinctions for all the regions of Africa, far and near, where the horrors of the hunt, the sale, the bondage of man still exist. You will pray especially for the regions which are our neighbours and over which our influence spreads more particularly; towards which, in consequence, we have a more sacred duty of charity and justice to fulfil.
One day I will speak to you at length about that, in a special Instruction that I am preparing for that purpose, and I will show you that, while England, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, because of their own interests, have precise duties to fulfil elsewhere, which do not fall likewise on us, we cannot forget that the infamous practices which dishonour and devastate Africa are nowhere more frightful than in the Sahara, the Sudan, at the borders of our possessions in Senegal, Algeria, and the Protectorate of Tunisia.
If the use of force is not yet possible for us or if political jealousies oppose our action, prayer remains for us. It does not know obstacles. It is free, like our faith, and finds the way everywhere to reach the very heart of the God of Calvary. Let us all together, then, make it resound beneath the vaults of this church. They are draped in black to remind us not just of the Passion of the Saviour, but also of the death that hangs over Africa and of the destructions that threatens it.
Letter to the Pope in defence of an Association of Consecrated Women (23 May 1889)
Algiers,
Most Holy Father,
I have within my diocese a Community of the Virgins of Jesus and Mary, and for thirty years I have been I have been following attentively this community and all its endeavours. I have always looked upon it as an absolutely providential institution, especially in countries and at times when there is no freedom of religion. If the hospitals and schools in France had all been under the direction of a similar community which outwardly is indistinguishable from ordinary pious women we would not have lost a single one of our institutions, whereas we have already seen thousands of them disappear . Some narrow-minded persons argue about formal matters and are astonished that the Holy See can admit to the benefit of simple vows of religion those who live in the clothing of the world and in the world itself. They claim that this is contrary to ancient custom, but the humble successor of St Cyprian takes the liberty of calling to the attention of Your Holiness that, on the contrary, the Holy See is reverting to ancient customs of the Church, renewing the tradition of Christian widows and virgins for whom the Bishop-Martyr of Carthage, following in the steps of Saint Paul, has written such beautiful and helpful pages.
We are falling back into pagan times, most Holy Father, and we can certainly do nothing better than follow the example of the Apostles and Martyrs if we wish once more to save the world from damnation. I make bold therefore, most Holy Father, to beg you earnestly to not let yourself be stopped by such poor objections, and to give your definitive approbation to these pious Virgins of Jesus and Mary to whom Pius IX had already granted temporary approbation.
Receive, most Holy Father, the homage of my deep veneration and filial devotion as, prostrate at your feet of Your Holiness, I have the honour to remain.
Your most humble and devoted servant and creature
+Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Louail in view of the Foundation of a Postulate in the Netherlands (2 June 1889)
My Dear Father,
I thank you for your good letter. I see that you are diligently following the recommendations that I had made you. Yet since you are going to visit Holland, I would ask you to keep in mind my idea of founding there a postulate for Missionary Brothers. Woluwé will serve principally for the Fathers (apostoliques).
We have noticed that the Dutch Brothers are certainly superior to the Brothers from other countries with regard to their qualities as a whole, their spirit of faith, their obedience. They have moreover the advantage of being free from military service, so it would be very desirable to be able to increase their number. For that the establishment of a postulate is necessary. This foundation, however, can only take place after the coming Chapter and in accordance with the favourable opinion it will express.
But the question should be studied and prepared in advance. I ask you therefore, together with Brother Theodore whom you will take with you, to be so kind as to search out the place in Holland where it would be easiest and preferable to establish this postulate. It would also be necessary to study the question of a convenient house, with some land around it with which the Brothers could be occupied if necessary. Would it be possible to find some generous benefactors for his house, or at least a Christian owner who would agree to favourable conditions and would not rip us off, as Fr Merlon managed in Woluwé?
I am really happy that you have appreciated Brother Theodore as he deserves , he is certainly the most distinguished, the most intelligent, the best we have. Tell him how grateful I am for the care he gave me at Saint-Eugène, and how happy I am that I was able to return the compliment when he was sick himself. If he asks news of me, tell him that I am still in the same state.
Farewell, my dear Father, and be sure of my tender affection in Our Lord.
+Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince (Haiti) to thank him for his support for the Anti-slavery Campaign (3 June 1889)
Algiers,
Monsignor,
It was with truly with joy that we read in the French press the reprints of the articles published in your diocesan papers in support of the Anti-slavery enterprise, specially created on the initiative of our Holy Father Leo XIII, for the abolition of slavery in Africa. No mark of sympathy could be more precious than that which came to us from your island of Haiti for which France has always had particular preference.
The founders of the French Anti-slavery endeavour are doubly touched at seeing that, despite the multitude of local concerns, the Haitians of African origin had thought of coming to us to put an end to the terrible evils with which slavery weighs down upon the soil of their former homeland
Enclosed with this letter I am sending you the letter of invitation that I recently addressed to the Anti-slavery committees in Europe for the free international congress to be held next 3rd May in Luzern, in Switzerland, which is also the country of freedom. While addressing European activists against slavery I became aware of a desire forming in the depths of my heart to invite to take part in our deliberations those Blacks who have their own independent State or who form large numbers living freely in other constituted States.
These are my very words, Monsignor, for I am insistent on submitting them to your gaze if you have not read them already: “I dare to make an appeal across the seas to all those who must necessarily be more interested in questions concerning Africa. I am referring here, and as I do so I am moved in the depths of my soul, to the Blacks who have gone ahead of their brothers on the way to freedom and enlightenment. They must ardently desire to see an end to the misfortunes of this Continent which is their homeland, because it is their mother country. The free citizens of Haiti, of Liberia, and the millions of Blacks in the United States will respond, I hope, to my appeal through [sending] some amongst them worthy of representing their brothers. I address this appeal to them in the name of Africa, in the name of Europe, who, not without being touched, will hear them speaking to us on behalf of their brothers, and will receive our friendly.”
Strictly speaking there is no formal Anti-slavery committee in Haiti, but I take the liberty of asking a favour of you, Monsignor, namely to see that my appeal reaches the inhabitants of your Republic, either by addressing it to them directly, or by having the present letter published in the press of your island
In our name, I beg of you, please assure all of your black Christians that those of them who feel that they have the power of speech strong enough to get a hearing in a European assembly will receive a most fraternal welcome. Their simple presence would certainly arouse an increase in sympathy of the cause of the interior of Africa.
If you know of some persons in particular who would be able to fulfil such a mission, whether they are within your diocese, or whether they are even to be found already in France or in Europe where their fellow Haitians could choose them as delegates, I would be extremely grateful, and I have no doubt the most Holy Father the Pope, who has so much at heart this great humane endeavour, would also be grateful, for what you could do to facilitate their coming.
I entrust the fulfilment of this wish to your pastoral heart, Monsignor, happy to have this occasion to express to you my fraternal devotedness, as I have the honour to remain, with my respects,
Your must humble and obedient servant
+Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. I am happy to tell you that the Republic of Liberia will also be represented at our congress.
Letter to Propaganda Fide for the opening of a Mission at Mponda in Portuguese territory (20 June 1889)
Algiers,
You Eminence
I have the honour to send you with this letter the text of the contract that I have just signed with the Government of Portugal for the foundation of a Catholic mission, run by my Missionaries of Algiers, in the region of Nyassa. The territorial limits of this mission are clearly indicated the first article: “The centre of the mission will be in Mponda. It will be given the task of making the foundations marked. [It is] in the Portuguese region which has the following boundaries: to the north, the frontier which separates the Portuguese and German spheres of influence; to the south the river Ruo et the 16th degree of latitude south; to the east, the 36th degree of longitude east of Greenwich; to the west, the boundaries of the mission will not be fixed and this mission could extend indefinitely in a northwards direction to the north of the 15th degree of latitude south.”
These boundaries are very clear on the large map of Africa printed in Germany which Propaganda Fide possesses. Part of this territory, that which is to the east of Nyassa, depends on the Prelature of Mozambique which claims that its jurisdiction extends up to the river /Zambezi. The whole area west of Nyassa is at present under no regularly constituted jurisdiction. It will reach in the north the boundary of the mission of Tanganyka.
I believe it is my duty to inform your Eminence confidentially that the Portuguese Government does not believe that the intervention of Propaganda Fide is necessary to grant us jurisdiction in this territory, convinced that it possesses this it holds this jurisdiction through a right granted to it of old by the Holy See. It is not for me to question these rights, particularly at a time when this Government is inviting my missionaries into provinces which belong to it from the point of view of civil administration.
At the same time I do not think that my missionaries could become involved in the foundation of a new mission without receiving authority from Your Eminence. To settle this difficulty and avoid impeding something that is truly good, since the whole area that is offered to us is already occupied by Protestant missions, without a single Catholic priest, I make bold to request your Eminence that, while waiting for all the questions concerning this part of Africa to be settled, you deign to delegate to me the necessary authority to send my missionaries there, granting them the ordinary spiritual faculties, as I did when starting the missions of Nyanza and Tanganyka. This region would naturally take the name of the Mission or Pro-Vicariate of Nyassa, without any further distinctive qualification.
This foundation would be a particular advantage for us at this time because it would open up the interior route of the Great Lakes. This would allow us, crossing by boat the whole of Lake Nyassa, to reach without difficulty Tanganyka and Nyanza (which it is no longer possible to reach by land since the German invasion, and where our Fathers are consequently in a desperately distressing situation). It is necessary, at all costs, to come to their aid by another route, otherwise we shall see them dying of want, after having been exposed so many times to martyrdom. Portugal is opening the door for us at the moment, which makes me full of gratitude for this country, and I ask your Eminence to complete the good work by delegating to me the necessary authority in spiritual matters.
I have the honour to be, Your Eminence, while humbly kissing your hand with great devotion, your most respectful and obedient servant
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Ordinance on the Formation of Brothers and the Responsibilities given to them (21 June 1889)
Algiers,
Charles-Martial ALLEMAND-LAVIGERIE
by the mercy of God
and the grace of the Holy See
Cardinal Priest of the Holy roman Church
with the title of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls
Archbishop of Carthage and Algiers
and Primate of Africa
In consideration of the fact that, due to the prolonged absence and sickness of Reverend Father Deguerry, Our Vicar General for the government of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers, We have been obliged to take up again personally the responsibility of Major Superior, [a function] which the Holy See has entrusted to Us until death in Our capacity as Founder, entailing consequently the duty of seeing how the Rules of the aforesaid Society are observed,
Considering that, while We have had the consolation of being able to note that there is generally regular observance within the Congregation, that a good spirit and dedication reign, and that the Council which governs it ordinarily presided by the Vicar General has carried out the functions entrusted to it with zeal, intelligence and a spirit of submission to Our authority, there are nevertheless some important points which in Our opinion seem to be neglected;
Considering particularly that one of the essential elements of the Rule of the Brothers would seem to have been purposely set aside, whether through negligence or on a lack of understanding of its importance, with the result that the original regulations have been completely deprived of their sense and after so many years We have never found in the Brothers’ part of the Congregation a single example of complete fidelity to Our orders;
In view of the article of the Rule of the Brothers conceived as follows:
Rule of the Brothers - Chapter V § 1
The following are the functions [œuvres] of the Brothers:
1) To take charge of the manual work required for the maintenance and development of the Society of Missionaries, for example: the upkeep of the buildings, maintenance and order, cooking, gardening and agriculture, the exercise of necessary skills such as those of baker, shoemaker, butcher, blacksmith, carpenter, etc. The Brothers designated for these tasks by their superiors can also be made responsible for buying and selling in relation to the outside world, and for keeping the accounts.
2) To help the Missionaries run seminaries, orphanages and schools for the local inhabitants. In such institutions the Brothers can be given the task of supervising the pupils, and those who have the capacity could be put in charge of classes at the elementary level.
3) To help the Missionaries in the Missions to the indigenous; in these Missions the Brothers could in particular be put in charge of the dispensary, and of caring for the sick and wounded; if they have the capacity, they could also be catechists, instructing children or adults in the truths of the faith.
Considering, as has been mentioned above, that at the moment there does not exist in the Congregation a Brother capable of keeping the books and looking after the accounts, nor anyone capable of taking classes at the elementary level, nor a Brother capable of fulfilling the role of catechist, imparting religious instruction to children or adult infidels;
Considering that the absence of Brothers of this kind is due simply to the fact that no thought has been given to their formation along these lines during the novitiate;
Considering that it is impossible for us to allow such a grave neglect of the Rules to continue;
We hereby formally remind the members of the Council of the Society that they are not allowed to escape from the strict obligations which ensue from the text of the Rule, and We blame them expressly for not having taken the necessary steps, in the Brothers’ novitiate, to provide formation to those who were capable of fulfilling the roles enumerated above.
Considering moreover that the members of the Council, having been summoned by Us to remedy this aspect, have asked Us to determine Ourselves, adding it to the text of the directory for the Brothers’ novitiate, what is necessary in order to reach the goal proposed by the Rule in chapter V article 1 given above, namely to have Brothers who are specially designated for studies and for intellectual and apostolic work, alongside the Brothers who are dedicated particularly for manual work; after having invoked the Holy Name of God, and with the authority of Major Superior and delegate of the Holy See, We have disposed and do so dispose as follows:
Article I – As from the date of this present [ordinance], all Brother postulants in the Congregations of the Missionaries of Algiers will be examined on the studies that they have previously been able to complete or are capable of undertaking.
Article II – Before the end of the postulancy the Council of the Society will be called to deliberate, following the proposition of the director of the Brothers’ novitiate, taking each case individually, whether during the novitiate they should be applied specifically to manual tasks or beside these to the studies necessary for them to become capable of fulfilling some of the roles indicated above.
Article III – The novices who are designated by the Council to combine studies with manual tasks should consecrate six hours per day to study, three hours as preparation for the role of teacher: reading, writing, elementary mathematics, book-keeping and the native language, and three hours in preparation for the role of catechist: serious study of religion; on this last point, each Brother will have to relearn by heart and be able to recite the catechism of his diocese of origin, that he learnt as a child, so as not to be exposed to confusion in his mind regarding the answers formulated through learning others. Following that the advanced catechism of Father Gaume will be explained to them every day for an hour and a half by one of their lecturers or directors. Two days a week, on Thursday and Sundays, the lesson will be given by one of the novices in a manner which is simple, elementary, as if teaching people who know nothing. The other novices will form the audience, giving the responses and asking questions, the class being presided over by a Father lecturer or director who has to direct the exercise and guide the one who is giving the lesson, in preparation for this ministry which is so fruitful when it is well prepared
Article IV – Nothing will be changed in the programme that is followed presently by the Brothers who are applied specially to material tasks; whereas those who are specially applied to studies will have a separate programme. With regard to the timetable, care will be taken to schedule the exercises when the two sections are apart and those exercises which are held in common for all..
Article V – The habit of the Brother novices specially applied to studies shall be the same as that of the Brother novices specially applied to manual tasks, except that the sarrau will only be worn by the Brothers who study during the time of manual work; they will wer the long habit of the Brothers for all the exercises and offices in the chapel and for all classes and catechism lessons.
Article VI – In order to provide for the increase in the number of roles that is demanded in the Brothers’ novitiate by this distinction between manual tasks and studies, the novitiate must from now on be equipped with three directors: a principal director for the novitiate as a whole and for spiritual guidance; a Father lecturer for the preparation of teachers and for catechism; a lecturer or monitor for the manual tasks. We order the members of the Council and the directors of the Brothers’ novitiate to put into application henceforth and to the letter this present addition to the rule of the Brothers’ novitiate, except in particular cases where they have requested and obtained from us a written dispensation.
P.S. A temporary article – If there are at this moment in the Brothers’ novitiate persons capable, according to the judgement of the Council and of our own judgement, of undertaking studies, the above decisions will be applied immediately and they will be made to follow the special programme of studies.
Given at Saint-Eugène, near the basilica of Our Lady of Africa, on 21 June 1889, with Our signature and seal and counter-signed by Our secretary.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Algiers
This present ordinance will be read at the next meeting of the Council and inscribed entirely as it is formulated in the record of its deliberations, and thereafter copied once more, under the responsibility of the director of the Brothers’ novitiate, after the rule of this novitiate in the register which contains this rule. Both of these records will be presented to Us, as soon as possible, by Very Reverend Father Viven, the present president of the Council, so that We may apply to the copy of Our ordinance Our signature and Our seal.
Sermon in the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa on the occasion of the Departure of the 11th Caravan for Lake Nyassa (23 June 1889)
My dear brethren,
For many years now the Catholic faithful of Algiers have often attended this moving religious spectacle. For many years missionaries have been setting out on foot from this altar of Our Lady of Africa, generously making in advance the offering of their lives, plunging without any support other than God into the barbarous depths where an immense population is immersed in the darkness of death.
The first among the Catholic apostles of this time, they have arrived on the shores of the Great Lakes in the interior [of the African Continent] from which the Nile and the Congo take their source. They had already shown their courage by inundating with their blood the arid sands of the Sahara. The venture was surely perilous and, as I am aware, there are some who would call it temerarious . Yet in putting into act the offer that they had made to the Holy See and to me of such a sacrifice, I considered, as I have already said, that I was only fulfilling a duty to God, to the Church, to the name of a Frenchman, to the name of a Christian.
It is in fact forgotten today that for the last twenty years we have seen explorers, scientists, professing to be free-thinkers, missionaries belonging to heretical sects and all coming from England, Germany and America, penetrating the unknown regions of Africa, and generously bearing there all kinds of suffering, challenging death and expecting it . Yet no Catholic priest had thought of going ahead of them or following them. They were everywhere on the coast, but there was a fear of failing in prudence by exposing them to certain death, by sending them in the midst of savage populations. I believed that we could no longer hesitate, and that it would be for the Church, for France , an indelible shame to allow error alone to enter the field of battle which it was above all the duty of the truth to conquer.
It was then that took form, in Algiers, this small Congregation, still very weak and little known. I called them the Missionaries of Algiers, after the name of a province which is still almost entirely infidel. To underline their humble origin, in this same spirit I placed them under the patronage of a martyr who, three centuries ago, came from the ranks of native Muslims, Venerable Geronimo. The vox populi, your voice, my dear brethren, has since baptized them, it is true, with a new name.
This voice was right. It has named them White Fathers. They owe this name above all for the white habit that, before your eyes, before this altar, they are wearing. But they owe it even more to the ardour of their charity, to this interior sun that enflames them and lights up their souls, giving them, not only in the eyes of men but also, of greater worth, in the eyes of God, the dazzling whiteness of justice and charity.
How great is the charity, my dear brethren, that draws out these young men for the land of their birth to bring them first among us so that we may prepare them for the combat, under another sky, against the difficulties of the climate, of exhaustion, of infectious diseases common in Africa, of hunger, of barbarity, of wild beasts and from men who are often more cruel than the wild beasts !
From the first day that we witnessed the departure of these heroic troops, as I mentioned at the beginning, how many have perished! They count among their ranks or among those of their Christians, in the heart of Africa, more than two hundred Martyrs who have been massacred. Mong them alone they count too many, alas, who have succumbed to the trials of the journey or of their sufferings, far, far away from all that they loved, often lacking the necessary to sustain their strength, to lessen the pains of sickness, to assuage fever, slake their thirst, having as their sole consolation the love of God, the consciousness of a sacrifice offered, the memories of the affection of their fellow missionaries, their brothers, of all the Christians, the memory of the prayers offered for them, of those which you have just offered with me at this moment of their departure which they will keep with them as a sign of blessing and hope .
Yes, my dear Children, a day will come, and for some of you it may not be far off, when the hour of sacrifice will ring. In the supreme distress which precedes death do not forget Our Lady of Africa and this spectacle, worthy of the ancient days of the faith, which meets your eyes. Recall in your minds this sacred building dedicated to Our Lord and his Immaculate Mother, who would seem to be spreading over the whole of our Continent the protective shadow, these holy flames that surround her statue, this ancient pontiff who loves you and blesses you, all your brothers who surround you together with the representatives of the clergy of this diocese, all the faithful so numerous that nine tenths of them could not enter this church, who englobe you with the supreme testimony of their respect, of their faith, and, invisible to you yet known, their ardent and moving prayer asking God to maintain your strength in the midst of hardships, the holy joy of sacrifice in the midst of cruel suffering, all this preparing you, beyonf the limits of this life in the valley of tears, for the joys of eternity.
It will be the fulfilment of the saying of Saint Paul: « Momentaneum et leve tribulationis nostrae, aeternum gloriae pondus operatur in nobis. » Yes, if you are departing in the fullness of vigour, of youth, of hope, and if you are leaving everything behind, it is because your faith gives you the assurance of the reward to come, and this reward deserves to be bought by the pains of a day. These pains await you, it is true, more than ever at this moment. Since the time that your brothers, the first Missionaries in the Great Lakes, settled in Central Africa, the difficulties and dangers have increased. I am not engaging in politics here, but you know as well as I do, and I do not have any reason to hide it, that all the regions along the coast of the Indian Ocean, from where the stations of our missionaries of Algiers have been founded, are all experiencing revolts on account of the ignorance of the situations and unfortunate acts of imprudence. There is not a single European, a single missionary in the interior [of Africa] who is not exposed to death. The latest news informed us that the Fathers of Unyanyembe were ready to go into exile, while the Fathers of Uganda were brutally chased away by a tyrant, having been kept for a week prisoners of these barbarians who, after having robbed them of everything, toyed with them by telling them at each moment that they would soon be put to death.
What is even more saddening, for me as their Father, is the thought that as long as this state of revolt by the Muslims and the Blacks lasts, it will be impossible to cross these regions in revolt in order to reach my sons, and so it will be impossible to provide them with assistance. Every morning I tremble at the thought of receiving a dispatch from Zanzibar announcing [that they have met] their end. What could I say of this? It would surely be a blessing for them, but for us something full of bitterness. Every morning, still trying to deceive myself, I raise my eyes to the ways waiting, like the father of the young Tobias, for a messenger to announce that my sons are safe.
But no, my dear brethren, the messenger never came. What you are witnessing at this moment is precisely a proof of the contrary. These five new missionaries are departing with an elan of generosity and courage for these same distant regions in order to share in their apostolic work after reaching them. I had been said – I no longer know where, but certainly where the true Catholic spirit is unknown – that we were abandoning our missions, founded at the price of our blood over ten years. Oh, indeed, they do not know what spirit is ours. It is because the danger is more acute that we cannot abandon them. Abandon our neophytes, our catechumens, our ransomed slaves, to save a life for one day? Never! My dear brethren, never! I love my sons, I have consecrated the best part of my life in forming their little Society which has been visibly blessed by God; I love them even to giving my life for them if necessary. But if I saw them giving way to cowardice to save their lives, in truth – listen to what I am saying, my children who are on the point of departure: You have borne witness to the wish to join the combat; if one day you were to flee from it because of some cowardly weakness, I would drive you far away from me… But no, my dear sons, I have nothing like that to fear from you, and you, whatever may happen, can always count on my paternal heart.
These new missionaries are directed, my dear Brethren, for the shores of Lake Nyassa where we have not yet been able to found a mission. They are going there because they can reach this region by taking a different route from that by land which today is closed, and by using the Zambezi and Chire rivers on which Portuguese boats go upstream as far as Mponda, the place of their future residence. From there, going north across Lake Nyassa, they hope to establish constant relations with the missionaries in Tanganyka and Nyanza, get to know the situation they are in and their needs, and so allow us to help them.
And here, my dear Brethren, I must fulfil a public duty of gratitude towards the Catholic Government that is allowing us to found in this way a post on the shores of [Lake] Nyassa. France does not have in these regions any territories under its influence. It is to Portugal that belong the territories in which our missions are going to be established and where they are founding a new province following the recent perilous campaign undertaken under the authority of two courageous explorers . [This Government] has nobly opened its doors to us, and I would not know how to address my prayers sufficiently to God, and I ask you to address your [prayers] to Him so that in His goodness He may worthily reward this act of faith and humanity. By acting in this way, Portugal continues in fact to support the Catholic missions, to vanquish slavery, to spread to its furthest dominions the light of civilization. It is to all this that our missionaries who are there have solemnly pledged themselves to it [the Government]. They did this just five days ago to the representative of Portugal in Algeria .
For anyone who knows Portugal and its past, my dear Brethren, there is nothing to be astonished about here. Such a way of acting is only an echo of its noble history. This kingdom is small, it is true, from the point of view of the number of its provinces and the size of its territory in Europe; but I find nowhere, down the centuries, such valiant hearts, such glorious undertakings. No nation has, in the past, rendered such great services to the spreading of the faith and to fruitful relations among peoples. I shall not speak to you about that it has done in South America where it founded Brazil, nor in the Indies with which it, and for a long time it alone, has had relations, As regard Africa, I shall mention no name, not even tat of Vasco de Gama, that other Columbus; I shall limit myself to saying to you that, five centuries ago, setting off from the coasts of the Straits of Gibraltar its navigators circumnavigated and, as it were, tamed our Continent. They preceded all other peoples at the Cape of Storms, that one of their greatest princes named, and rightly so, the Cape of Good Hope. They had brought under subjection the whole coast from there not only as far as Abyssinia which they penetrated by force of arms, but even to Suez and to the extremities of the Red Sea, leaving everywhere indelible traces of the fearlessness, their skill and their power. I heard this, only yesterday, in the mouth of a navigator who has travelled all the shores of Africa: “there is not one, he told me, where are not to be found traces of its splendour, towns still strong, or ruined towns, fortresses, ports, even on those shores that are now abandoned and deserted, wrecks of ancient vessels and canons still bearing the name of Lisbon and the date of departure”
There is nothing more glorious in the eyes of men; but, for us as Christians, we attribute to the Portuguese a glory that is even purer, namely that of having been the most faithful to support and spread the Christian faith. The number of Christian communities founded by them is considerable, that of its missionaries is even greater. As if to reward them for this great zeal, foremost among these heroes Providence has placed the greatest apostle of modern times, Saint Francis Xavier that Portugal had acquired from the Holy See and had carried to the Indies on its ships.
The first town that you will reach soon, my dear Children, as you arrive in East Africa on a Portuguese ship like the one that transported Xavier, will be Mozambique. The Portuguese national anthem that you heard a short while ago at the foot of this altar, is the one that Xavier heard. I wanted it to resound in your ears, under the roof of this place of worship, at the moment of your departure, as a religious salute to your new country. It will resound again while I kiss your feet.
May these memories sustain your ardour, my dear Sons, and although no political consideration can or should colour your apostolate, do not forget that from henceforth you have two countries; as men you have the country that bore you and which will always be for you sacred, nd as missionaries the one that opens for you the doors to the apostolate.
And I finish there, my dear Brethren, for I do not wish to prolong this ceremony and thus put off the procession in which we are going to take part, as a solemn act of thanksgiving. It only remains for you to kiss the feet of those who are going to depart. It seems to me, my dear Children, that I should kiss your cheeks, for I never see your faces without emotion since they are the faces of my sons; but today it is your feet that I wish to kiss, despite my religious rank and my age. It is not simply an act of paternal love that wish to accomplish, but rather an act of faith in the very words of our Holy Books « Quam pulchri pedes evangelizantium pacem, evangelizantium bona ». You will do as I do, my dear Brethren, and through this act of religious respect you will acquire a right to the merit of the apostles and martyrs. Amen.
Letter to Father Deguerry giving some news (28 June 1889)
Algiers,
My Dear Father,
I am sending you, as you wished, a copy of my letter to the Councils of the Propagation of the Faith. I have sent them also a detailed report on the farewell ceremony that took place last Sunday, 23 June, at Our Lady of Africa. I presided over it and delivered the discourse of which I have also sent them the text. This ceremony, however, which was long and [the weather] very hot, tired me out more than could reasonably be expected, and hs put me for three days in a congestive state from which I have not yet recovered. This proves that my convalescence is not going ahead with giant steps, at that the Congress in Lucerne will turn out bad for me s I had thought from the beginning .
I am happy to see, from your despatch, that you have overcome your fevers of Mozambique and Quilimane It was no joke, and at one stage I feared, without telling you, that you would suffer a state similar to that of Mgr Gillard . God be praised for having saved you from this. A poor old man like myself can disappear, as long as it is after the Chapter . A young man like you can make an effort with some sort of cream to make his hair look white before its time, he has no right to desert his post . This is what Fr Gaudibert, who is wielding the pen at this moment, sustains with his pleasant smile; he allows himself to poke fun at all his superiors, whether major or minor. He will leave me after the episcopal ordination on 7 July for Kabylia, probably for the post of Ouahdias. Fr Thuet, on the contrary, will accompany me to Lucerne like the ivy in the forests of Alsace clings to the old oaks to make them seem still green. I have almost decided to take Fathers Hébrard and Cyprien as their replacements in the secretariat, but I am a bit afraid of their temper and of the story of Cardinal Howard of which I do not wish to furnish a second edition.
Farewell, my dear Father. I keep my paternal affection for you as a father should for his eldest son, and I remain, Yours tenderly.in Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Bishop of ‘s Heertogenbosch (Netherlands) about the opening of a Postulate (14 August 1889)
Paris,
Monsignor,
Reverend Father Louail, to whom I had entrusted the mission to obtain from your Excellency permission to open in you diocese a postulate for Brothers for the African Missions, has apprised me of the friendly and charitable welcome that you granted him. He also informed me that you would like to have from me some particular explanations regarding this subject so that you may have a more complete idea of the institution that we would wish to found under your pastoral authority. Therefore, without delay, Monsignor, I would like you to know:
1) That the Brothers’ Postulate that we wish to set up in your diocese is for receiving, for a trial period of six months, young Dutchmen who desire to enter the Society of Missionaries of Algiers in order to exercise their apostolate as lay-brothers.
After this six-month period, once their vocation has been seriously discerned by the Fathers directing the house, who would be three in number, these young men would be sent directly to the Mother House, situated in the diocese of Algiers, in order to make their novitiate and pronounce their vows, after further two years of trial. The Congregation of the Missionaries of Algiers already has a certain number of Fathers and Brothers belonging to the different diocese of Holland, and generally speaking we could not be happier with them. This is why we naturally wish to increase their number.
2) That the material upkeep of the Postulate will be the complete responsibility of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers who alone will have to find the necessary resources.
That the construction of the definitive building would not cost anything to the diocese of ‘s Heertogenbosch.
That the Missionaries will be subject, following the terms of canon law, within the Postulate House to the regulations established in the diocese.
I dare to hope, Monsignor, that these explanations and assurances will appear sufficient to you, so that consequently you may grant my representative, Reverend Father Louail, the authorization to open Postulate in your diocese, first at Jachtlus-les Boxtel, in a rented house, and then on lands that Mr Cramer proposes to donate to us.
Before closing, allow me, Monsignor, to express once more my immense gratitude for the appeal on behalf of our African Missions that Your Excellency has authorized and blessed. With the assurance of my respectful devotion, I have the honour to remain.
Your most humble servant and brother in Our Lord.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Members of the 10th General Chapter (24 August 1889)
Algiers
My Dear Sons in Our Lord
As the General Chapter, together with the elections to take place during it in extraordinary circumstances, is drawing near, I feel impelled to address to you at least my paternal advice. In point of fact, I shall not be able, for reasons of health of which you are already aware, to be in your midst, and I cannot resign myself to not let you hear my voice.
"This Chapter, according to all human probability, is the last one which you will hold during my lifetime. According to the decisions which you took three years ago, you should in fact only be meeting for a Chapter every six years. However, bearing in mind my infirmities and the extreme fatigue from which I have been suffering for more than a year, it is probable that within those six years provided for by your last Chapter the Lord will have called me to himself. I hope then, with the help of your prayers, to merit his mercy and, in reward for what I have been able to do and to suffer, to gain repose in the bosom of Our Lord.
But since your next Chapter, on this account, is of decisive importance, I must make an effort, together with you, and as far as I still am able, to see that it bears abundant fruit of salvation. To this end, it is important that your choice of those who will be your Fathers and Directors be made under the influence of Divine Wisdom and Enlightenment, as well as in the light of an exact knowledge of the persons to whom you will give your votes.
It is because I wish to help you in the accomplishment of this duty that I wish to observe a different style in this Chapter from the one I have adopted hitherto. I had never, in fact, accepted to say a single word to you, whether in private or in public, to recommend to you those to whom I though should go your votes. I would have feared to put an obstacle, without sufficient motivation, to the exercise of your freedom. Today, however, this fear must give way to the duty of making sure through my advice the future of your Institute. It is obviously not a command that I am giving you. Canon Law does not allow me to do so. It is rather a piece of fatherly advice, which you are free to follow or not, but to which your filial piety and your good spirit will wish to attach due importance. I place myself therefore before God, asking Him to enlighten me regarding such an important matter, one on which depends the future of your Society. After long reflection and having consulted the oldest and the wisest among you, I am writing to you as follows:
After having noted, once again, that Reverend Father Deguerry, who at present exercises the role of Superior General, is requesting with more insistence than ever, to be relieved of this charge, and considering that among the missionaries who are presently members of the Council or superiors of the principal houses of the Society, there is no one who, in my judgement, offers as yet to a sufficient degree the qualities [necessary] for a Superior General in the present circumstances, I have thought that it is my duty to designate for you, as the person best able to fulfil this role in your Society, Monsignor Livinhac, bishop of Pacando, Apostolic Vicar of Nyanza.
This venerable prelate, in fact, unites in himself, to a high degree, piety, wisdom, knowledge and superior intelligence. Moreover the fact that he is a bishop gives him the right and a special grace for the government of a society like yours. It is true that he cannot, without the permission of the Holy See, leave his Vicariate today and accept another jurisdiction. But I propose, if your opinion agrees with mine, to ask the Holy See myself to sever the links that bind him and allow him to accept the position of Superior General, where he will accomplish, it is evident, greater good still than in his present situation.
For the other Fathers who must be appointed members of the Council, the choice is obviously easier if one only looks at the merits of the persons, but it important that the choice should not fall on Fathers who fill or who are destined to fill important positions where it would be difficult to replace them. This is why I allow myself to indicate to you also the members of your Society whose election as members of the Council, it seems to me, would be most desirable. If you wish therefore to follow my opinion which is inspired by the affection I have for our Institute, I would advise you to compose in this way the list of five members whom you should elect: Mgr Léon Livinhac, Fr Deguerry, Fr Viven, Fr Voillard in place of Fr Lechaptois who has left for Nyassa, and also Fr Dausbourg in place of Fr Gerboin who has, in his humility, expressed several times the desire to be relieved of his responsibilities as a member of the Council.
I should not hide from you the fact that, if this list is elected, I propose to appoint immediately, and I hereby appoint from today, Superior of your Congregation the Very Reverend Monsignor Livinhac, Vicar Apostolic of Nyanza, taking on myself the task of obtain the dispensation from the Holy See to break the bonds that attach him to his Vicariate; and I delegate Reverend Father Deguerry to substitute for him until his return to Algeria.
Bishop Livinhac will exercise his function from the date of his arrival in Algiers to the day of my death with the title of Vicar General, according to your Rules and the decrees of the Holy See. I resume myself, with regard to him and until my death, the exercise of my authority as it was before the last Chapter, so as better to safeguard unity during the last period of my life. After my death, and until the next election in six years' time, he will have the unqualified title of Superior General."
The other appointments which will have to be made during or immediately after the Chapter are in no way its concern. I shall not speak to you about them at this time, except to say to you that I ask you also to deal in this Chapter, in the absence of the new Superior, with no other matter, and to postpone the to the Chapter that will have to follow my own death. If there arise urgent questions before this time, the Council will take the [necessary] decisions.
I come to a close, recommending you one final time to the grace of Our Lord, and giving you again my paternal blessing: Pater serva eos in nomine tuo quos dedisti mihi, ne pereat ex eis quisquam . What remains for me to do other than to request of you, in the situation in which the Lord has wished that I be and in which, through his grace, I resign myself to be, the assistance of your good prayers: miseremini mei, saltem vos amici mei, quia manus Domini tetigit me. Amen .
Be assured, my dearest Sons, of the paternal affection that is kept for you right to the end by your Father in Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Deguerry (5 September 1889)
Cambo,
My Dear Father,
I have received your good letters and I thank you for the filial interest you take in my health. It is always poor, unfortunately, and I do not know when this long critical period will come to an end. I am not dying, as you had foretold, but I continue to suffer, particularly from cruel insomnia, and as a result I can do nothing useful.
Nevertheless I wish to say a word about the procurator’s office in Paris. It seems to me absolutely necessary to organize it in a different way: putting there our Fathers, and completely setting apart the general direction, Mgr Brincat and his council . For this purpose I have at the moment a very fine house on the corner of the rue d’Assas and the rue de Vaugirard. It will be rather expensive, but a place as convenient as this will never be found at this price. It is necessary to know now whether we shall have a suitable number of Fathers. First of all, a good superior – it seems to me that this could be Fr Roger – and then two other Fathers together with two Brothers, pious and well-educated. Please examine this question in Council at its meeting which should take place before the Chapter.
What above all would help us with this foundation would be the sale of the college in Tunis, and closing it as far as it concerns us. I have seen Mr Massicault about this, and I fixed a sum of five thousand francs for the college and its buildings plus one million for leasing to the Tunisian State
the whole extent of the surrounding land. The rent would be fifty thousand francs. It would be necessary to divide this between what belongs to the diocese and what belongs to your Society.
Now while I have given my approval to this plan Mr Massicault has not expressed his final agreement, although it would seem that he is very inclined to do so. At this very moment I am going to send him a telegram to have his reply more quickly; as soon as I receive this reply I shall send it to you by telegramme. In this way you will have it in hand when you receive this letter, and you will accordingly for the appointments, taking into account above all the procure in Paris which is at the moment extremely important.
I still have with me the good Father Gaudibert, but for too long a time he has been involved in diocesan matters or disputes which, in the long run, hardly favour an interior and religious spirit. So I shall take provisionally a secretary from the diocese of Bayonne for the post, until the end of your Chapter, and I shall send Fr Gaudibert to make a good retreat with the Missionaries of Our Lady of Lourdes where we are staying. From there he will go to the house in Lille where he will be at the disposition of Fr Louail until the questions which will arise concerning Holland and America have been resolved.
This is all I permit myself to say to you today. My poor head is tired because of sleepless nights. I add the expression of my paternal tenderness and my blessings for you personally, since for the community I have expressed these in the letter that I charged you to communicate to them.
Farewell, my dear Child, pray and have prayers said for me, for I do not think that there are on earth many men who are so tried.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. In the body of my letter I did not wish to speak of Fr Gaudibert and of the great satisfaction that he has given me, because he was writing the letter that I was dictating, and I did not want to arouse in him an inappropriate pride. But a postscript is less serious, and consequently I have no hesitation in giving the testimony I owe him. He has been for me a true source of consolation and support, and I ask that this will always be taken into consideration.
Letter of 8th November 1889 to Leopold II, king of Belgium
In this introduction to ‘Documents on the foundation of the Antislavery Work’, Lavigerie deals more with the legal aspects of his campaign. In order to avoid criticism coming from Muslim states, he adds interesting distinctions between domestic slavery and the actual slave trade.
The first and the most serious difficulty that arose, for such an organization (the Anti-slavery Work having a single international Committee or Council) was having to face the diversity of interests and political views, relative to Africa, between the diverse nations of Europe. Since the beginning of this century, our continent had been the object, on the part of the civilized peoples, of generous attempts to introduce the light in these barbarous regions. There was only one means to succeed in this, that of ensuring direction, and consequently, sovereignty or protectorate…
But if the European governments have so done and are ready to make considerable sacrifices, they expect to draw future benefits from it. This gives birth to interests which must be taken into account and about which the governments and the peoples are rightly concerned. Therefore it was difficult to think, without running the risk of regrettable rivalries and competitions in the very heart of the Work, of forming a single Committee or Council comprised of representatives of all the peoples, as is done in other faith or charitable Works.
The national Councils…are therefore independent of one another; it is in their respective nations that they each seek and find their resources… What is held in common is the thought of abolishing the African trafficking and slavery, which gave birth to the Work itself, the thought of civilization and fraternal solidarity, which maintains and preserves the bonds of sympathy between the various Committees… The antislavery Work is based exclusively on the ground of humanity and religion, it pursues no objective but charity and justice.
Slavery exists in all its forms in Africa: trafficking with its manhunt and public markets, indigenous and traditional slavery and, under the name of freedom, the “Free workers”, that is to say, subject to the yoke for a time instead of being so for ever.
I propose to introduce gradually the necessary solution, to prevent the spread of this slavery, without creating chaos, to make whatever atrocity is in it disappear.
Slavery as it exists among the Blacks, is nothing but a tissue of cruelty and infamy. There is no master more barbarous for the slave than the black master. He claims for himself the right to inflict every form of torture on him. Sitting high up in the pulpit of St. Gudule, I made the Belgians who surrounded me shudder as I described the atrocities committed in the Congo. I spoke to them, quoting the statements of witnesses of their own nation. I have cited other examples no les odious.
I must add that if today the Christian nations have, on this issue, broken with the last traditions of the past and no longer accept within them either the sale, or the transport, or even the presence of slaves captured by the trade, the same is not true of the Muslim nations, despite very clear texts (General Act of the Conference of Berlin, 26th February 1885, art. 6 and 9)…I must, however, make a distinction here between the slavery as it exists among the Muslims, where it has a gentle character, and that which existed formerly in pagan antiquity, and even in our colonies. I know it, for I have been a witness of it for a long time, and I have said it publicly even in our churches.
For I am determined to render full and open justice to a population of which I am not the pastor, it is true, but with which I have been in relationship in the East and in Africa for many long years.
Among the Muslims, slavery has a character of gentleness, and I dare to say it, of family, which resembles neither the horrors of the slavery of blacks in the interior of Africa, nor even those seen in the colonies of America just a few years ago. Among the colonists of the New World, slavery was hard, sometimes ferocious. In the families of the Ottoman Empire, it has quite another character which it holds from the prescriptions themselves of the Koran and of its principal commentators. Thus one often sees slaves not wanting to leave their masters, even when they can, as in Algeria or Tunisia. Their work is moderate, their treatment less severe than it is for the workers in most of the towns of Europe; the attachment between masters and slaves greater than in other regions; marriage, legal adoption, between masters and servants frequent.
But although slavery may be gentle and tolerable among the Muslims, at least in the Turkish Empire and in Egypt, for the same could not be said of the Sudan and Morocco, it is certain that it gives rise in Africa to cruelties and horrors without name by maintaining trafficking and manhunt. The existence of slavery is recognized by Mohammed but only for captives taken in war. Mohammed directs that slaves be well treated and recommends the setting free of slaves as an act especially pleasing to God. The Koran does not approve the separation of husband from wife, nor children from parents (as happens openly in the markets of Morocco)…The mutilation of children for the harems is a crime against God, against human nature and the Koran forbids it…
The Antislavery Work requires that, in conformity with the precise text of the General Act of Berlin, help and protection should always be given, by the Powers, to the works it undertakes and to the personnel it employs, whatever their nationality or character, religious, scientific, or charitable, to achieve the abolition of slavery and, later, the restoration of a regular social order in the interior of Africa.
I myself and the Work appeal not only to faith but we address ourselves to reason, to justice, to respect, to the love of freedom “this supreme good of man” as Leo XIII said (Encyclical “In Plurimis”, 5 May 1888, to the bishops of Brazil on the abolition of slavery in their country). ..“I am a man, and nothing of what is human is foreign to me.” Injustice towards other men revolts my heart, the oppression, the cruelty against such a great number of my fellow beings; what I would like done to restore to me freedom, honour, the sacred goods of family, I want them done to restore to the sons of this unfortunate Africa.
Our Work, by offering each one the means, while serving the honour and the interests of his own country, at the same time to serve those of all humanity. (In addition to money, volunteers are needed but) “I hasten to say it, however, this crusade cannot and must not be other than a peaceful crusade. It is not a matter of organizing a ragtag armed expedition to make a conquest or engage in battles; force is needed, soldiers are needed not to engage in combats but only to maintain order, to prohibit brigands from using arms, to block the route of slave caravans. If I had dared the word, from the very first day, it is a sacred police force that I would have requested for the interior of Africa…”
Letter to Father Toulotte on the Preparation of a Provincial Council of Carthage (26 February 1890)
Biskra,
My Dear Father,
I am entrusting Fr Delattre with a most important commission; he will give you the details and furnish the documents. In fact it amounts to nothing less than the preparation of the Provincial Council which is due to open in Carthage on May 17th next. I propose that the Council be divided into two parts:
1) Resurrection, the bringing to date of all the ancient canonical prescriptions of the African Councils . To do this it will be necessary to promulgate them once more, in the same way that they are recorded in ancient documents, limiting their presentation to explaining, with additional notes [if necessary], the changes that present discipline has brought to these ancient canons. [the drawing up of] these notes will be a task reserved to this coming provincial council, but for this it is necessary to discover exactly and entirely all the ancient prescriptions of which the texts still exist.
Your previous studies have prepared you well for this task, which is why I appoint you as the first theologian of the Council, and I charge you, in the name of all the Reverend Fathers , to prepare this work immediately. You should not forget the Spicilèges of Dom Pitra in which you will find, translated into Greek, a great number of these ancient canons. For this purpose I give you leave to take from my library at Saint-Eugène all the works you will need or, if you do not find them, to have them bought in Paris at my expense.
2) The second part of the provincial council will be dedicated to confirming the principle teachings of our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, who re-established the see of Carthage. This would be a sort of Syllabus. It would, however, differ from the Syllabus of Pius IX which was a catalogue of errors condemned by this pontiff, whereas that of Leo XIII would be a catalogue of the truths taught by the present Pontiff.
This work has already largely been done by one of the directors of the seminary of Saint Sulpice . I am sending you, through Fr Delattre, what he has done so far in this regard, but this first effort needs significant modifications. The author has reproduced in their entirety long passages of [the writings of] Leo XIII, whereas I would wish to have, as in the Syllabus of Pius IX, only a clear and concise statement on each subject. This statement should naturally always be in the actual wording of the document of Leo XIII from which it is extracted.
These propositions should be limited to those which are truly personal in the writings of Leo XIII. It is perfectly useless to repeat, under his name, the texts of the credo and of the Our Father. Study this matter well, and if you have any doubts, submit your ideas to me, but please be careful not to lose any of the papers I am sending you. The propositions should be listed according to the order of the subjects. You can determine the order if that which the theologian of Saint Sulpice does not suit you. I authorize you, when necessary, for the copying of the texts, to seek the help of one or two of your novices, provided they have a good legible hand. I also authorize you, without delay and at my expense, to acquire the works of Leo XIII .
There you are, my dear Child. It will be a lot of work, but it is a beautiful undertaking which can serve the re-founding and the honour of the African Church of which we are the children.
I bless you from afar, my dear Child, and I remain All Yours in Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Viven about the departure of Father Deguerry (7 March 1890)
Biskra,
My Dear Father,
I have received with renewed sadness the letter in which you inform me that poor Father Deguerry is persevering in his resolve. Yet if this affects me profoundly, it does not astonish me. As long as I have known him, he has been for me someone marked with a spirit of insubordination and obstinacy, mild but stubborn, pushed to the last degree. What could be taken for [a mark of] virtue in some of his initiatives was nothing other than a sign of this unfortunate turn of mind.
What he is doing today is but the culmination of a lifetime: « difficile est enim ut bono peragantur exitu quae malo sunt inchoata principio » . Such an example should make us tremble. He had, and will always have, great and lovable natural qualities, but he was lacking above all in a spirit of faith, of piety, and of supernatural virtue.
Today, I am sure without realising it, he is using the language which has always been in the Church that of the schismatics who wished to withdraw from under the authority of their superiors. However great his illusion may be, it is impossible to let it be known publicly. This is perhaps what he is counting on, though without justifying it to himself, in order to escape from the yoke of obedience, following the plans he has made. This is an act which, it is true, will not escape one day divine punishment, but which ecclesiastical superiors are obliged to bear with in silence and with mercy. This is what St Augustine says: in the face of such faults one has only to close one’s eyes. This is what we have often had to do; it is what we have to do again, my dear Father, with tears and prayers for him.
For my part, indeed, I shall not cease to pray and weep, as long as there is a breath of life in me, and the first thing that I shall do when appearing before God, if He deigns to grant mercy to my soul, is to ask pardon for him. Farewell, my dear Father. Believe in the great sorrow with which I remain,
Your ever-devoted Father in Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. It is necessary to tell the Father that he cannot, in conscience and on account of my express order, leave the East before having brought to an end the case of Mr Tyan which I charged him to deal with .
Recommendation granted to Father Deguerry in order that he might return to ministry (22 mars 1890)
Biskra,
Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie
by the mercy of God
and the favour of the Holy Apostolic See
Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church,
with the title of Saint Agnes Outside-the-Walls
Archbishop of Carthage and of Algiers and Primate of Africa
To whom it may concern
We certify that Reverend François Deguerry , a priest of the diocese of Algiers (ordained priest by Us in the year Eighteen Hundred and Seventy, has filled over a period of 22 years different roles with the society of missionaries of Algiers, and in particular on three occasions that of Vicar General.
During long periods of residence in the interior of Africa, and following a last journey undertaken to Equatorial Africa during the year Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-nine , he has contracted resistant African fevers that have greatly diminished his health. At the present time he has been charged by Us with a special mission in the East. He has obtained canonical permission to remain afterwards for some time in a diocese in France, in order to benefit by a change of climate and, after his return, to fill any roles that one of the Lord Bishops of this country will deign to entrust him with.
We consequently declare that the reverend François Deguerry, on account of his capability and also his experience of administration, is able to render valid service in the roles that will be entrusted to him, as he has done in the roles that he has filled for Us. We certify finally that his conduct has never given rise to any accusation regarding matters of faith, of uprightness, of morals, and that he has never incurred any censure whatsoever. We therefore recommend him instantly, for all the above-mentioned reasons, to the justice, confidence and charity of Our venerable colleagues.
Given at Biskra, in the Sahara, under Our signature, the Seal of our coat of arms, and the counter-signature of Our secretary, the 22 March 1890
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Father Burtin about the arrival of missionaries for the consecration of the cathedral in Carthage (23 April 1890)
Carthage,
My Dear Father,
I have received from several of your confreres a request to attend the consecration of the cathedral in Carthage which is to take place, with great solemnity, next 15 May, Ascension Thursday. With regard to this I have decided to adopt a general measure and to give permission, as I do by the present letter, to all the Fathers in residence with you who are able to absent themselves easily and to undertake the journey, to participate in the ceremonies. I would ask you to inform them of this and to request of them only to let Fr Bazin know, by sending a word or a telegram, of their intention to come so that everything can be prepared for their reception.
I am happy, my dear Father, at the thought that in this way I may see some of you again, and while blessing you from afar I beg of you to be assured that I remain
Your Father in Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. The arrival of a large number of Fathers would seem even more desirable since, in fact, I have given them the cathedral in Carthage through forming its chapter exclusively of Missionaries.
Circular Letter to the Clergy of Algiers announcing the coming departure of a caravan for Equatorial Africa (19 June 1890)
Algiers,
Circular Letter of his Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie to the Reverend Parish Priests of the diocese of Algiers, on the coming departure for the missions in Equatorial Africa of twenty members of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers and on the solemn farewell ceremony in the Cathedral of Algiers
Reverend Parish Priests
It had been my intention, immediately following the religious festivities and the Council that we have just celebrated in Carthage, to travel to Rome, in order to share our African joys with the heart of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and to thank him for the paternal encouragement that he had deigned so abundantly to show us on these solemn occasions.
But the very day I was due to embark in Tunis for Italy, I received successively from our missions in Equatorial Africa news of such great interest that I did not hesitate to postpone to much later my intended journey to the tombs of the Holy Apostles, and to return among you without delay in order to take, together with the Council of the Society of our missionaries, the urgent measures that our missions on the African Equator require. Our procurator in Zanzibar effectively announced to me that after some success, soon followed by reversals of fortune, despite the efforts of Muslim fanatics who wished to take control of Uganda, victory turned definitively to king Mwanga who had become a Christian.
You will remember, Gentlemen and dear collaborators, that several months ago, form the depths of my solitude in Biskra, I had raised my voice appealing to the Christian Powers assembled, through their representatives, at the conference in Brussels, asking those of them who believed that they had the capacity to carry out such an initiative to come to the help of the new Christian communities and to extricate them form the invasion of the Muslims who dominate the Upper Nile. It is true that we lack the precise details that could instruct us on all that has been done in Uganda since this time. Yet there is no doubt that, as our missionaries bear witness, they obtained for their missions the assistance of the English Society of the Great Lakes, in the person of Mr Stockes who in successive expeditions had brought them provisions, and before that the help of Emin Pacha and Stanley who had brought back to the Coast one of our Pro-Vicars, Very Reverend Father Girault, and one of our German missionaries, Father Schynse, whom Emin Pacha has since brought back again into the interior. Dr Peters also has just given support to Monsignor Livinhac.
Thanks to this help from different quarters, our missionaries have been able to re-establish in part our disturbed operations, but the number of these missionaries has been diminished by all the catastrophes that have befallen them: fatigue, sickness, persecution, death; Provision has to be made to replace them. For this purpose two appeals have been addressed to me at the same time. One came from Mgr Livinhac who, on the point of leaving his mission to take over the responsibility of Vicar General of our Missionaries, to which position he had been elected, last September, by the Chapter of their Society, cried out in distress on behalf of the poor people he had now to abandon, and asked us, insistently, for new missionaries who alone would be able to save these nascent Christian communities. The other appeal, even more touching, was addressed to us by Mwanga himself. He was calling not only for missionaries, but also for Black doctors who had become Christians, having learnt of their existence through reports coming from Tanganyka where our young Negroes, formed in the practice of medicine at the University of Malta, spread around them, together with the benefits of their skill, those of Christian civilization.
How would it be possible not to respond to such requests in these circumstances which would seem to be providential? But how to respond in the absence of the new superior of our missionaries, the Lord bishop of Pacando, Vicar Apostolic of Nyanza, who at that very time, was in the company of the Prince who addressed me in this way? How to gather and consult our missionaries, far away from them as I was in Carthage? So I came running, leaving everything, even for a time the desire to go to my Father, in order to help my Sons.
As soon as I had returned to Algiers, I launched an appeal to those who would feel capable, with the help of divine grace, of facing up to fatigue and danger in order to save their brothers. The response was not long in waiting. Hardly three days after my arrival, eighteen of our missionaries were presented to me by the Council of their society; two young doctors from Malta offered themselves as well. I accepted all of them. Here are their names and their dioceses of origin. They are the Reverend Fathers and Brothers:
François Gerboin diocese of Laval (France)
Émile Bonhomme diocese of Mende (France)
Achille Van Ost diocese of Cambrai (France)
Julien Depaillat diocese of Clermont (France)
Henri Streicher diocese.of Strasbourg (Germany )
Jean Gacon diocèse of Autun (France)
Émile Pruvost diocèse of Cambrai (France)
Henri Gaudibert diocese.of Westminster (Great Britain)
Jean Marcou diocèse of Rodez (France)
Auguste Capus diocèse of Rodez (France)
Louis Scheier diocese of Haarlem (Netherlands)
Emile Ruby diocese of Besançon (France)
Jean-Baptiste Dooge diocèse of Gent (Belgium)
Joseph Wurffel diocese of Strasbourg (Germany)
Gustave de Vugst diocese of Gent (Belgium)
Victor Claes diocese of Gent (Belgium)
Etienne Capelle diocese of Namur (Belgium)
Pierre Vanderyeugt diocese of Gent (Belgium)
Michel Abdou Soudan oriental
François Goge Soudan oriental.
You will notice how many different nations are represented in this phalanx of new apostles: France, England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Africa itself, as a proof of the apostolic sentiments which animate them all, distinct from any concern of a political nature. Their sole aim, in fact, is to serve God, souls and humanity, in the heart of Africa, and in no way to busy themselves with temporal interests of any kind.
Now we have nothing else to do than to address to God humble and fervent prayers that he may deign to bless and render fruitful what we are continuing to do for his glory, and that he may obtain for us the material resources that we need and which we request with confidence, even today, from the Councils of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith.
With the certitude that a request made in such exceptional circumstances could not be refused, I am happy to announce to you that everything is already prepared for the traditional farewell ceremony. This will take place in the cathedral of Algiers, on Sunday, the 29th day of this month, at seven thirty in the evening. It is the Feast Day of Saint Peter; a more favourable day could not have been chosen for the success of an apostolic venture. I shall preside this solemn ceremony myself, and I urge all the ecclesiastics of Algiers and its surrounding to join me in kissing the feet of the future apostles.
I beg also the Reverend Parish Priests to have the goodness to invite [to this ceremony] the faithful of their parishes and to ask them for the support of their prayers.
Be assured one more, Reverend Parish Priest, of my paternal affection in Our Lord.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Algiers
Letter to the Holy Father requesting the Ordination of married men as priests in Africa (1st July 1890)
Algiers,
Most Holy Father
I have the honour of deposing at your feet a copy of the discourse which I just addressed to the twenty members of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers at the moment of their departure. They are at this very time, as Your Holiness is aware, departing for the African interior, in response to the appeal addressed to me by the superiors of our missions, and in particular by Mgr Livinhac, Apostolic Vicar of Uganda and of Lake Nyanza, today the Vicar General, regularly elected, of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers.
You Holiness, if you would be so kind as to take cognizance of the words that I addressed from the pulpit to the faithful that filled our cathedral and to the departing missionaries, you will see that I insisted on a particular aspect of this departure of new apostles. Among them, in fact, were two Negroes from Soudan oriental, ransomed by me from slavery in the heart of Africa, now over fifteen years ago, together with a large number of other Blacks. They were at that time [mere] children; I had them brought up to serve as auxiliaries of our White Fathers in the African missions. To this end I even founded in Malta, with the permission of the Ordinary and of the English Government, already twelve years ago, in the university of this island an institute for the formation of these children in the study and practice of medicine.
Several of these young doctors, trained in this way, have already left for our missions in Tanganyika. They are enjoying such success that the king of Uganda, Mwanga, who today has regained his throne, is himself spontaneously asking me for some of them.
This circumstance impels me, Most Holy Father, to share with Your Holiness a concern that for a long time has been obstinately playing on my mind in conjunction with the missions in the Negro countries of Africa, namely the formation of a suitable ecclesiastical personnel to look after one day the missions that we are founding at the present time. To hope to be always able to send a sufficient number of European priests is indeed utopian, while banking on protecting them from the murderous influence of the climate is even more of a utopia, judging by the number of victims that it has caused and is continuing to cause in the regions that have been entrusted to us.
What is absolutely necessary is to be able to form priests from among the Blacks. This was our first idea for the young men at the university of Malta, but I had to forego it seeing that it would be absolutely impossible for us, perhaps for centuries, to form a black clergy. I became convinced by my own experience of the strict truth contained in the words of Salvian which are known to Your Holiness: Tam inauditum est Afrum non esse impudicus quam Afrum non esse Afrum .
In a similar situation the serious question that comes to mind is the following: would it not be appropriate to allow for the marriage of the indigenous priests of all the Blacks of Africa as it has been allowed already, from the beginning, for all those who are connected, either by their situation, or by [the establishment] of regular relations, with Negro populations, as the priest in Egypt and Abyssinia.
This is obviously a serious question, but it is not enough to see the inherent difficulties, it is necessary to take a decision one day, and I believe that it would be worthy of Your Holiness, after all that you have deigned to do for the Blacks, to have the initiative taken for a study along this line by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. Most willingly I myself would give to this Congregation, of which I have the honour to belong, the information, in favour or against, regarding the different solutions that could be proposed. It is for Your Holiness in your wisdom to weigh up this idea and to take the decision that would seem to you the most appropriate, but I believed that it was for me a duty in conscience humbly to make this proposal.
With these sentiments, I have the honour, Most Holy Father, to remain at your sacred feet, and to be, of Your Holiness, the most humble and most obedient servant and creature
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Speech given in the church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, on the occasion of the opening on an anti-slavery congress (1st September 1890)
“A Domino factum est istud, This is the work of God.” (Ps.117)
At the very beginning of this address, my dear brethren, I chose the above quotation from the Psalms so as to characterise in a word, the results achieved so far by the Anti-Slavery campaign whose Congress I have just opened.
Please allow me to apply them today to an unexpected coincidence which will surely touch your hearts as it has mine. God sends us at the opening of this Congress consecrated to the salvation of Africa and dedicated to the abolition of slavery, one of its most zealous apostles, together with the first fruits of his apostolate – fruits which are also those of our Work. Mgr. Livinhac arrived yesterday unexpectedly at Marseilles after a long journey. He is accompanied by some young black people who wished to follow their pastor even to the country from which their freedom came. Bishop Livinhac has been able to join us in this solemn gathering.
You are aware, my dear brethren, how worthy he is of your veneration. Consider his twelve years of apostolate accompanied by so much wear and tear; consider the many journeys he has made with so many adversities. Remember his courage and the good he has done. Mgr. was arrested during a cruel persecution when a large number of his neophytes died around him. He was shorn of all he possessed, confined in a narrow prison, yet at the same time finding the strength in an admirable way to practice catholic charity. Much like Clovis did in yesteryears, Mgr. was able to bring the barbaric king, the same who had persecuted him, to the faith and restored him to his throne.
All these factors have come together in this apostolic career, to arouse your interest, your admiration. At the same time, seated beside this young and holy prelate, is the venerable superior of Saint-Sulpice, a true confessor of the faith. He had been arrested by wicked people, and because of his fidelity to the Church, threatened with a cruel death. Thus it is, that I see before me, this venerable man who was the master and the guide of my youth, together with the pious bishop whose father I am. May they both allow me to recall what St. Cyprian, that great Bishop of Carthage, repeated everywhere in his letters and writings, that according to the Church’s ancient discipline, confessors remitted Christians from the debts contracted by them in God’s sight. With this in mind, I ask them to pray for me, together with all the faithful, that my words will prove efficacious.
Two years ago, on the orders of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, I went into this same pulpit to begin a peaceful crusade against the African slave trade. I recalled, then, that the Church on two occasions in her history, had already triumphed against a similar scourge.
On the first occasion, the struggle lasted for several centuries. I reminded you that the pagan world was victim to the passions of a small number of cruel masters who ruled over humanity, treating it like a beast under the yoke. But, although alone and without any power other than that of justice and truth, the growing Church was not afraid to throw the cry of deliverance to this oppressed multitude. The Church taught them that the name of slave must disappear from people’s language, because, as St. Augustine was later to explain, this name is one of a punishment (Nomen servi, nomen poenae), and if humanity was given over to so many cruelties and infamies, it was because it had abandoned the way of justice; but Jesus Christ, in expiating our crimes and obtaining for us heaven’s forgiveness, freed us from man’s slavery by freeing us from the slavery of sin.
This is a true echo of the Apostle of the Nation’s teaching, which the great bishop of Africa taught us in his turn: “You are free; Christ has freed you”. But, if this truth was proclaimed from Christianity’s very first days, mankind’s passions were slow in giving up this sacrilegious prey to evil. It was only little by little that justice, abnegation and charity were to triumph. Twelve centuries after Jesus Christ, the Church, through the voice of it’s Pontiffs, it’s saints, it’s great adherents, worked to extinguish the final traces of that greediness which kept up the existence of slavery.
Once this struggle against paganism ended, there arose another, in a sense even more odious, because it was to be found among Christians themselves. This began after the conquest of the New World. It lasted for three centuries and has just finished, in our own days, by the abolition of slavery in Brazil.
But at the very moment when we received assurances of this latest victory in the memorable Encyclical Letter of Leo XIII to the bishops of that nation, a third crusade against slavery has begun. This time, it is against the existence of slavery in Africa. It was in this very pulpit that I made this known, in the name of and by order of the Vicar of Jesus Christ.
And so it has come about that once again I am in this pulpit in the name of the Pope, not after ten centuries relating to slavery in the time of the pagans. Neither dealing with slavery in America. But after a brief two years to rejoice with you that the civilised world has generously taken up the noble and holy cause against slavery in Africa by accepting the struggle against this modern-day slavery and so guaranteeing it’s triumph. Faced with such a result, I can only repeat the words of the Psalm which I opened this speech with: “This is the work of God – A Domino factum est istud!”.
On the occasion of the opening of your Congress against Slavery, I want to explain what has been done for this great work up till now, and what still remains to be done.
This Church of Saint-Sulpice reminds me of the most memorable circumstances of my priestly life. More than forty years ago, on the floor of this very sanctuary, through the sacrifice of my youth, I offered myself to God and to work for the good of souls. On this very altar I celebrated my first Mass together with the bishop who had just ordained me; and now the Church of Saint-Sulpice will remind me, during the short time I still have to live, of a new and no less dear memory. It is under this very roof that I preached for the first time, about the crusade destined to entreat the pity of all Christians for the black races of our Africa. I thank God for the effectiveness he has given to the voice of this old man, and the grace he has given me in allowing me to plead this cause, at the end of my career, in the same place which has been his birthplace.
What I have said for the first time about African slavery, has been a revelation for many. Truth to say, however, the explorers’ books had recounted at least part of the evils besetting our continent and the Academies were conversant with the situation. Newspapers and official publications had calculated the number of executioners and their victims. Returning travellers from Muslim countries repeated that they had seen the number of black slaves multiplying, whilst the number of white slaves were diminishing in the Turkish Empire, in Egypt, in Morocco, in Tripolitania. But it seemed that the attitude of the civilised world was that of complete indifference.
In this situation, several weeks before I spoke to you for the first time in this place, a voice made itself heard. In truth, it was the voice of an old man speaking out as he neared the end of his life, but it was that of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. At the very moment when he sent his Encyclical Letter to the bishops of Brazil to congratulate them on the abolition of slavery, and to encourage them in their work as fathers and shepherds which they would have to accomplish in their turn, so as to warn against the disorders of a social revolution, the Pope learned from afar, the horrors which brought about a river of blood throughout the interior of Africa, caused by the Muslim slave traders.
He was aroused by what he had learned and recapturing the thoughts he had just expressed in his Letter to the bishops of Brazil, he condemned in a rare strength of style and of thought, in a communication addressed to the missionaries, to the bishops, to the princes, indeed to the whole world, the untold crimes which had struck the world with astonishment and terror. With an energy which had never been surpassed by his predecessors, he declared the African slave trade to be contrary to the natural law, not least to that of religion. He begged, he ordered that everyone, using the triple authority of his supreme ministry, his old age and his social authority, to fight against and to suppress such a scourge.
But one letter did not suffice. We have seen this in the world’s history, likewise in that of religion. We know what the Prophets did, who wrote nevertheless in God’s name; their teachings did not go beyond Israel’s borders. It needed that God who became man should speak out himself to change people’s hearts. The Holy Father wanted then, in addition to the words of his Encyclical, that there should be a living voice, a human heart, as Scripture says. He looked for these where he hoped to find them. I mean to say, people who are deeply affected by the spectacle of so many tears, the cry of children torn from their mothers, the lamentations of so many Rachels. And to better show that he was only obeying a supernatural inspiration, this magnanimous old man chose for such a ministry, another old man whose voice and strength was already half broken by fatigue.
And so I came among you. I began among you by honouring my country in the first of my speeches and sermons. This I did in order to recognise the most ancient aspirations of France for freedom and justice.
From Paris I went to London where the groundwork had also been well prepared by England’s traditions. It’s Anti-Slavery Society provided the touching sight of two Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, speaking to a gathering made up mostly of Protestants who applauded their words. When we had finished, they petitioned the British Government to contact other European Governments to join in suppressing and ultimately destroying the slave trade in Africa. I had emphasised the importance of taking this action. To see what has been done, it is enough to re-read the text of the resolution that the Prince’s Hall meeting presided over by Lord Granville finally adopted.
The same success can be noted in Brussels where Catholicism is strong, and elsewhere in Holland, Rome and Milan. The Catholics in Spain, Portugal and Germany lost no time in taking action following on what the Vicar of Jesus Christ had to say about slavery in Africa.
Indeed, whatever I had to say came from the Pope. Likewise, any action I took. Through his letters, his Papal Briefs, his supreme generosity, he encouraged me in my work. For more than two years, he has never forgotten this great Work we have undertaken and recently he sent me a Papal Brief of congratulations concerning what had been achieved by the great powers at the Brussels Conference. This Brief encouraged us to continue what we had undertaken to raise public awareness so that people would do their utmost to hasten the abolition of African slavery.
A tangible sign of his fatherly blessing, is the presence among us of the Pope’s eminent representative in France. The Holy Father has a constant solicitude in this matter, but what practical steps does he propose to attain this end and consequently to ask me to carry through? Surely it must be action worthy of his wisdom and his great political mind. In the last audience I had with him confirming my mission, the Pope said: “More than ever, public opinion is paramount, and it is there that you must work on. You will only meet with success by raising public opinion on this matter”. The Bishops, especially that of France, allied themselves to the Pope’s thought. They echoed the voice of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. I have received and published in my turn the warm and supportive letters from all the Cardinals, the Archbishops and nearly all the Bishops of France, declaring their adhesion to the crusade ordered by the Holy Father.
Some members of the Hierarchy expressed this in most eloquent terms; all accentuated apostolic charity and indignation, declaring that they associated themselves to the initiative and exhortations of Leo XIII. This is the opinion held by all those I have addressed myself to. You can re-read all my speeches. I do not have the time to quote them here, but I will have this speech printed as I have all the preceding ones, and I will add there my own words. You will see there what I have already said in England: “The obligation to save Africa must be a primary obligation – this is not to contradict the governments in Europe. And why should these same governments not want to do this? Is there any other work which is more noble, greater, more generous? What can be more important than consulting among themselves and agreeing among themselves on how to end such dreadful evils?”
And I added: “But for those who have taken up the cause – if they do not make their voices heard among the governments with sufficient strength – governments which have other cares – they must force these governments to listen to them. They must be forced to listen to, in the words of Montesquieu, the cry for mercy and pity. In order to achieve this, it is necessary that the cry must be pushed to the forefront by all concerned, with such strength that one is forced to obey it”.
At the same time as I renewed among the most important of the princes of the time, the appeal made by the Holy Father to governments, I addressed myself to everyone, even to women, in order to entreat them to bring their influence to bear on the entire population.
I said: “Christian women of Europe, it is for you to make known everywhere the horrors of the slave trade and to awaken against these same horrors, the indignation of the civilised world. Do not give any peace to your fathers, your husbands, your brothers in this matter. Force them to use the authority they have by using their eloquence and their situation in the State, to stop the shedding of blood among your sisters. If God has given you the talent to write, use it to support such a cause. You will find nothing more holy. Do not forget that a woman wrote the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which, translated into all the various languages worldwide, put the final stamp to free slaves in America.
But I have especially appealed to members of the Press, without any distinction of nationality, religion or political adherence.
From this very pulpit, I spoke to French journalists, thus”: I wish to make a request to you all: in order for such a cause to triumph, it must be made known far and wide. You, who have heard me, help me to make it known. Repeat the details I have given. If you have a powerful voice, if you have at your disposal one or other of these press organs which form and influence public opinion, it is to you that I especially dare to address my prayer. Journalists, you have a delicate and important task, but who among you has never made mistakes which should be erased? Whichever public opinion you belong to, and here I address myself to all without distinction, on the one condition of having love for humanity, love of freedom, love of justice, love of mercy to be used in supporting the poor black people, you will in your turn, one day obtain infinite justice, mercy and forgiveness”.
Gentlemen, today I can but thank you for everything you have done, and I offer my thanks without any distinction to those among you who have contributed in popularising our cause and thus assuring its victory. The day following my first revelations from this very pulpit, the entire Paris press unanimously repeated what they had heard from my own lips.
It does happen that some sides make use of information received for their own advantage, particularly when Church-related matters are concerned, and these get mixed up with initial signs of sympathy and approval of what has been said.
You have been able to read for yourselves what has been said on this subject, as indeed I myself have done; but if representatives among the most hostile of publications are present today in this great audience, please allow me to state that I have only kept in mind their invaluable service to our cause. The conspiracy they have been able to hatch against our cause, is the conspiracy of silence. In a Work such as ours, attracting public opinion is all-important. If, then, you wanted to attack me personally, many thanks. Gentlemen, that will be to my personal profit for eternity; but, thanks again that in speaking out against me, you have served to support the cause of the slaves. Basically, all this has produced results in its own good time. Appealed to by England, governments have not been able to resist the manifestations, with public opinion growing each day more general and more pressing.
What has been achieved by the European powers meeting at the Brussels Conference? Those among you who have read the official Acts of the Conference as I have done have been able to give a report on proceedings.
In a word, the great powers present at the Conference have discussed, accepted and consecrated, at least in principle, all the measures we have asked for, in the name of religion, in the name of nature, in the name of pity. When one knows all the public or secret difficulties opposing such a result, one can but admire it. More than man’s hand was needed here. The hand of Divine Providence was at work here. A Domino factum est istud.
I was trembling when I first read the official Acts of the Brussels Conference which had been graciously sent to me. I was afraid I would find there insufficient or perhaps hostile measures to carry out our wishes. But having finished reading the Acts, I wanted to start again, but this time I did so having first of all thanked God that all the Catholic, Christian, dissident, and even the Muslim governments had agreed to follow the inspiration of the Conference, heading their declarations with the sacred name of God.
They declared first of all and without hesitation that to succeed in such a work, it is a prime necessity to use force, armed force. I had said the same thing myself. Faced with what is happening on a continent, victim to a violent greediness which does not draw back from the shedding of blood, only armed force can end such horrors. Those who rejected the use of force in order to ask that one should limit oneself to persuasion and gentleness, were mistaken. Leo XIII was not mistaken. From the very beginning he called for the use of force by Christian leaders. Following this, we called for the same action to be taken by governments, independent associations, by individuals, and this in spite of the rare opposition which arose in some quarters. Everywhere we proclaimed the same necessity in France, in England, in Rome, in Brussels. And the great powers have thought along the same lines as us.
From the word “go”, the slave trade must be cut off from its source, in other words, the manhunts must be stopped. In their final report, the great powers present at the Brussels Conference decided to establish forts wherever this terrible form of hunting takes place, in order to suppress by force, the fury of slavery. But more has been done. A decision was taken to suppress this evil at its very roots, by prohibiting, as we have called for, the entry of arms and gunpowder into that part of Africa dishonoured by the existence of the slave trade.
The savage bands of Arabs and half-casts forced the unarmed population to flee into the interior of the continent, to bend under the yoke of slavery, to confront the flames and smoke of their ferocity, until the time came when they could do nothing else than fall desperately into the hands of the slave drivers. Some, such as the elderly were immediately killed, whereas young men, children and women were dragged along under the yoke to wherever they could fetch the best price. All this, since the beginnings of the slave trade, carried out by the use of firearms. I have often repeated the words of an African chief, who, when asked who were the rulers of the interior of Africa, replied: “Here it is gunpowder.”
The great powers have thus decreed the following clear law: “Without their authorisation, no arms, no gunpowder, can be introduced into the interior of Africa, unless it is for the same powers’ own soldiers or those of the volunteers who will assist them in the suppression of the slave trade.
But laws, even the best, can be violated: this is more often carried out by ruse, violence, the greediness of barbarians. The Christian authorities have reacted against this. Each of these violations must henceforth be punished by the Christian authorities with the same rigor as they would do in their own countries. Unjust attacks, manhunts, rape, odious mutilations which increase the price of a slave when it comes to selling him, are to be punished in the same way as carried out in France, England, Belgium, indeed, in all the civilised nations.
Doubtless, such punishments will terrify, but they are not enough to prevent all the evils, so long as there remain on the African coasts places where this human merchandise can be sold, in order to provide satisfaction for ingrained habits of laziness or debauchery. It is a law of social economy that merchandise must be offered for sale when there is a call for it. So, efforts are made to supply, as long as they are accessible, the slave markets secretly established in the Turkish Empire, in Tripolitania, and openly in Morocco, Sudan, even up to the frontiers of Algeria and in the Saharan Oases.
It is necessary, then, not only to place obstacles, materially, in the places of origin of this trade, but to keep an eye on wherever caravans are formed, and where they pass through. Routes they have hitherto taken must be blocked and the same goes for routes planned for the future. In addition, forts must be established in key positions and patrols must be authorised to stop these godless caravans. Both victims and those who drive them must be stopped, and both must be taken to the coast, to the very dhows by which this infamous commerce is carried out by sea. The Muslims must be forced to close the markets, even the secret ones, which still exist in their domains, and the police in Europe must be given the right to keep an eye on the Muslim police.
I called for these measures to be taken when I pleaded myself on behalf of the slaves. I have said that this trade must be stopped at its origins, at the places where the slaves are embarked, during the voyages of the Arab boats, at the approaches to the markets. This has now taken place, not only on Lake Nyanza and Lake Tanganyika, as I called for, but at all the salient points in Africa. The great powers have agreed to grant their protection and their support to all the undertakings of organisations founded for the suppression of the slave trade, likewise for the undertakings of individual initiatives.
But to think that the members of the Brussels Conference stopped there, is to misunderstand their high motives. In addition to the necessary force which must be employed to allow for the necessary action and the security of such civilizing works, they directly appealed to these same works themselves. First of all they listed them: government, science, industry, commerce, education, and finally the Christian missions for which the great powers promised freedom and protection.
Like myself, you have seen that our Holy Father the Pope, inspired by the Holy Spirit, having acknowledged the means adopted by the great powers, means which included measures of force, reminds us that we have another duty to perform, that of making known the name and laws of God among those who are ignorant of them: Hi in curribus et hi in equis, nos autem in nomine Domini.
He addressed himself to me in a recent Brief, that I should make known to all the Societies which evangelise Africa: the Lazarists, Jesuits, Holy Ghost Fathers, Missionaries of Lyons, Missionaries of Algiers, Capuchins, his desire to see multiply, if possible, the number of missionaries for such a vast Work, in spite of the difficulties of the sad times in which we live.
Such is the Work decided on by the great powers. If they hold to their resolutions and promises, and public opinion has a major role to play here, and it is especially among Catholics that we must count on, there is no doubt that we shall meet with definite success. Such success will not be achieved in one day, and we can say that to attempt to achieve an immediate result on such a large scale, would not even be good for Africa which already has its own social traditions, and to destroy these too suddenly would throw the continent into chaos. The principle is thus set down. It is in the process of being carried out. If it is maintained, as I have no doubt it will be in spite of Netherlands’ momentary abstention, to which, in the name of all the civilised world, we launch a final appeal - slavery will one day be abolished in both its domestic forms and that of the slave trade and the commerce of human beings.
So as to better guarantee the end of such infamy, our Work has decided that following the example of the great powers in political matters, to divide the work and to attribute it to each of its committees. If, in the political order, the great powers had aimed at working together for the civilizing of Africa, but at the same time ignoring any distinction or separation, this would have led to confusion, to rivalry, to useless struggles and perhaps to disorder worse than that of the primitive barbarism. Wisely they have agreed to impose limits proportional to the action taken by each of them within the territory over which they exercise their own influence. The anti-slavery campaign began at the Berlin Congress. The Work is now accomplished without any of the strife that, in the world of today, we had so much reason to fear. Study the most recent maps of Africa. You will no longer find there any barbarous region which is not adjoined to one or other of the regions of Europe. Belgium with its Congo, England and Germany in the Eastern regions of Africa, Italy in those of ancient Ethiopia, France in those areas which were called to complete its dominions from the Mediterranean up to the Atlantic.
In these diverse countries, each nation remains independent, and can work there for its own interests, at the same time carrying out work for all. The political transformation of Africa has thus been hastened, without violent upheavals by the two passions which carry along the people with them most nobly and efficaciously: love of humanity and love of one’s own country.
For the very beginning, this double thought has been that of the great Pope who has appealed to our dedication. He wished with everyone’s free cooperation, without any distinction of nationality, to bring about that abolition of the scourge of slavery, stigmatised by all the civilised nations. It will be one of the most noble of history’s spectacles, that in two years, following on what this grand old man said, such a resolution has been proposed, taken, proclaimed in the Final Act of the Brussels Conference, through the nations’ vote.
But the same thing could have been for our crusade as it would have been for the political division of Africa if, after all of us being united in a common enthusiasm in calling for solemn promises from the great powers, we had not divided ourselves into spheres where each of us must take action.
In anticipation of its actual situation, our Work was divided into as many Committees as there existed different nations which interested themselves in a practical way in the future of our continent. Each of these Committees has to be concerned within Africa with the regions dependant on the nation to which each region belongs. Doubtless, all the Christian governments of Europe keep the freedom to use in their domains within Africa the help which is spontaneously offered to them no matter from whichever side it comes from. English, American and French people offered their services to Belgium. On behalf of Belgium, Stanley twice crossed Africa. In his area, for ten years, our own heroic Joubert courageously arms the African population living alongside Lake Tanganyika so as to keep the peace with his small troop of soldiers, and to guarantee the safety of our missions against the slave traders in that place.
The great powers have opted for providing freedom and protection to all those who present themselves in order to assist in the destruction of slavery: that is to say, properly constituted Societies, isolated individuals, missionaries. The Work of the Anti-Slavery Committees, set up under our auspices and those of the Holy See, wish to work for their own countries, that is to say, after God and the poor black population. United in heart in a common thought which is that of the cessation of Africa’s evils, we have, in thus serving both religion and humanity, the desire and the will to serve each of our own countries in the region which is specially handed down to each country, in bringing about the end of slavery. The English in England’s territories, the Germans in those of Germany, the Portuguese in those of Portugal, the Belgians in those of Belgium, the Spanish in those of Spain, the Italians in those of Italy, and finally, because I am today speaking before a French audience, the French in those of France.
The members of the National Committee of France know the new field that Providence opens to them, after so many others. France did not wait for the present time to begin the conquest of Africa. She came before nearly everyone in this immense duel between civilisation and barbarism. She has, for more than half a century, worked in Algeria, in Senegal, in the colonies of the Atlantic Ocean, and more recently, in Tunisia. But between these countries which for a long time belong to her on the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, still remains an immense region, as large as nearly half of Europe and where slavery rears its ugly head with more cruelties, perhaps, than in the rest of the black continent.
In the Sudan, where the Muslim princes have elevated slavery to a state of a public institution, with their “nègres du tresor”. In the Sahara which serves as a place for the export of slaves and of never ending caravans, with untold barbarities inflicted on slaves destined for the slave markets of Morocco, Turkey and Tripolitania. It seems that behind the doors we have opened widely to European civilisation, to its commerce, to its art, to its industry, to its faith, an insurmountable barrier has arisen in the desert solitude. In order to reach the shores of the Mediterranean where we are the masters, and where from here, it takes just two days thanks to the progress of steamship travel, it is necessary, in order to enter the Sudan which offers us so much hope with its numerous population, its natural products, its silver and gold mines, to skirt round half the continent and come back up the Niger. This is an expensive journey full of countless dangers, whereas, a railway would allow us, in a four-day journey, to open up to our France, to Europe, the final depths of Africa.
How many times have I heard our soldiers regret that from the very beginning, they have not been allowed to push their conquests even further. As for myself, how many times, arriving after crossing the plains already invigorated by the gallantry, the discovery of a country’s wealth, the engineering feats of our soldiers, I say this with some sadness, to see it all limited by the desert. In front of us now, and as far as the extremities of Africa, are millions of souls, people without number plunged into, and never having the possibility to getting out from, an abyss of evil. And this in the midst of a tropical splendour provided by nature. What separates us, then, are these arid sands. But one day with the marvels of modern industry, we could conquer the deserts and cross them in less time that it has taken me perhaps, to come from Algeria to this place. I would add: O God, may this one day be the work of France!
With this thought in mind already twenty-two years ago, I wanted to prepare for the taking of a Christian possession of these lost regions. With his ardent courage, Pius IX had the same viewpoint, and a Pontifical Act dated 6th August 1868 placed under the special jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Algiers, the deserts of the Sahara and all the regions of the interior of the Sudan which stretch beyond the missions already constituted on the Atlantic Ocean, with the mission to prepare the road to Christian liberty and to the Gospel.
I have done what the Church does. The same Church which Our Lord describes as “the Sower”: Exiit qui seminat, seminare. I have sown there that which the Christians sow, as Tertullian puts it, when they wish to guarantee eternal harvests. I have sown there with blood, the blood of my sons, these same White Fathers whom you see at this very moment surrounding this pulpit. Six among them, in addition to those who have been killed in the other regions of Africa, have suffered martyrdom under the blows of the barbarians, and have fallen there whilst blessing their executioners.
How could I forget them today, in this parish of Saint-Sulpice, to which the first of them, like yourselves, belonged from birth, my dear brethren, and from where, six years before his martyrdom, he left to begin his training among us for the tough life as a missionary.
In France, the various forms of dedication for such a conquest destined for us by Providence, have been united as one: science, charity, even the army has left for more than a quarter of a century in the desert, traces of their blood-soaked heroism. And that, thanks be to God, has had to be avenged, because the honour of France and the army was in question, and it is not permitted for a people, especially a Christian people, to dismantle her honour. But sadly, there has been a certain hesitation until now. And so, when the newspapers made known that, through an agreement drawn up between the great powers in Europe, the Sahara and central Sudan, have just been recognised as belonging to our sphere of influence, I regarded this act as the providential revenge for so many sacrifices.
But what has been done is nothing more than the daybreak of what has still to be done. Now must come the real work. For this that once again I am appealing to the French National Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society. Its members are aware, as always, that objections have been made. But for those who have studied the issues and the elements of their material and moral solutions, these objections have already fallen by the wayside.
If you read what has just been written by one of our most honourable, capable and experienced generals, an engineer worthy of that name (General Philibert M. Rolland), there remains just one question of duty and honour. With a leader who is equal to the situation of such an enterprise, a leader who knows how to be careful and to look after others, one would see all the obstacles disappear. Doubtless, are not the most experienced among our soldiers who have taken part in the African campaigns convinced that two hundred French troops, provided with up-to-date arms and assisted by native auxiliaries for the purpose of looking after the material service of the military convoys, able to triumph over every kind of hostility offered them by the ferocious populations, who, not having arms permitting them to offer a serious resistance, and moreover who lack water, are unable to gather in great numbers.
I am speaking according to those who know and to whom as a mark of my absolute confidence, I have proposed to follow them, despite my age, in order to guarantee the help of my ministry for such an expedition.
But after such necessary force, to which I can only offer the support of my prayers and my good wishes, must come the work of civilisation and of peace. I can only encourage the Anti-Slavery Committee to enter into this.
It does not suffice to force the Tuareg into submission; this is the work of our soldiers. Hearts must be won over. And in this connection, how many useful things must be done. The education of tribes reduced to the most abject misery by centuries of oppression, ungodly struggles and all the resulting disorders that these struggles leave behind; wondering tribes having lost all the traditions of work and reduced, in the midst of never-ending hostilities and having only one way of living: that of pillaging, assassination, selling slaves, more frequently and more atrociously and this at our very doors. Life must be brought back to their oases by looking for water which is thought to have disappeared; agriculture appropriate to the soil must be restarted; children must be educated; the sick must be cared for; refuge must be offered to fugitive slaves.
This is the part I have reserved, as you know, to the Anti-Slavery Work in the African Sahara. I do not speak, even to our missionaries, about preaching the Faith. This must not be started in the midst of Muslim populations. Hearts must be won over first of all, and overexciting fanaticism must be avoided.
Close to the settlements where our soldiers will have raised our flag, I will place there, God willing, centres where charity can be dispensed, work found, and help given. My own personnel have already begun this. The house where these are to be trained is ready on the borders of the desert. I call on all those who are prepared to join us, not to conquer the Sahara by force of arms as some have thought they might do, but to make loved the name and influence of France. If such a sentiment inspires our country in this way, it is good to bring it about.
My dear brethren, such is the Work we are faced with. The collection following this speech is for this end. It will be taken up by these missionaries, my sons, the White Fathers, who have accompanied me right up to the steps of this pulpit and who replace me in criss-crossing such a vast audience. Give them your offering as a sign that you approve of what we are going to do in the Sahara. Parishioners of Saint-Sulpice, do not forget that it is the harvest of blood shed by a child of this parish which is going to germinate, thanks to your offerings, and, if you cannot, follow in the generous footprints of your martyr, show at least, that you are worthy of understanding his heroism.
Dear brethren, I end my discourse. It is the last discourse that I will give in France. For a long time I have become aware that I am growing older. I feel that infirmities and fatigue are preventing me from doing more because of my worn-out strength. Your presence in this church at this solemn time is a sign of what I have just said.
(He speaks to Bishop Livinhac) I have obtained from the Holy Father that he will release you from the links which join you to the Apostolic Vicariate of Lake Nyanza, so that I can use your zeal, virtues and talents which you have received from God for the work of leading, under my authority, during my life-time and as my successor the missionary works which have been confided to me. The great Leo XIII, to whom I have been happy to give all my life, has deigned to grant my petition. My Lord, you arrive today. Doubtless I am not the Prophet Elija, but I place on your shoulders, as those of another Elisha, the mantle which I can no longer carry alone. Henceforth, your work will be to replace me in France and within your congregation, to plead the cause of our missionaries and our Works, to hold out these same hands which have been chained for the love of Our Lord in our Churches, and to make them hear this voice which has confessed Jesus Christ.
As for myself, I am going to return to Africa never to leave it again, and if God pleases, to leave me enough courage to face up to my years, happy in the knowledge that I have given my all to work for the sanctification of the Father’s sheep who have surrounded me for more than a quarter of a century, and to end my life in looking for the lost sheep.
My Lord (the Nonce), the living memory, the great figure who has animated this discourse, is that of the Great Pope, whom Your Excellency represents among us. It is from him alone that I hold my mission and which I now hand over to this young and generous apostle. He is the one who must bless us through your venerable hands and humbly I ask this, for this faithful people who kneel before you.
Amen.
Letter to the Congregation of Propaganda Fide announcing the ordination of the firsts priests of the Greek-Melkite Rite at the seminary of Saint Anne in Jerusalem (3 September 1890)
Algiers,
Monsignor,
I have received from Jerusalem, just today, a letter from the superior of Saint Anne’s announcing that four of the students, among the first to enter the seminary already twelve years ago, having completed their studies, are due to receive sacred orders.
Your Excellency is familiar with this institution, having seen it with your own eyes, and I know that you appreciate its real importance. I am writing to request you to be so good as to obtain from the Holy Father, for this occasion, a special blessing for the four ordinandi who are to receive Holy Orders at the hands of a Greek-Melkite bishop designated by the Patriarch. They will be followed, with the grace of God, by a large number of others, for the school at Saint Anne’s has at the moment no less than a hundred pupils. These however are the first fruits and for this reason I wish to recommend them especially to the prayers of his Holiness, so that these first fruits may be more agreeable to God and may obtain for the Institute of which they are the first workers blessings and new increase.
Expressing my gratitude to you in advance, Monsignor, I have the honour to remain Your Excellency’s most humble and obedient servant in Our Lord.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Mgr Livinhac concerning his wish to resign from the position of Superior General of the Society (30 December 1890)
Biskra,
Dear Monsignor,
All that concerns the new association of the Brothers of the Sahara is urgent now, by reason of the coming opening of the novitiate. Today, without further delay, I wish to reply to the different communications in your good letter and in the minutes which you have sent me .
First of all, and I ask you to keep this point to yourself alone, once a decision has been taken and executed with the approval ,both written and oral, of the Holy See, to wish to come back on it, to call everything into question, and to withdraw from the charge that Providence has imposed on you, is a failure, dear Monsignor, which you yourself do not sufficiently realise, in your duty as a missionary, and in the respect that you owe to the Holy Father and to myself.
There may doubtless be persons in the Society who would be capable of filling your post, but we are no longer looking for one . As you are, in fact, we chose you and we cannot regret this, and the Holy See that approved of our choice cannot regret it either. So there can be no going back on it. If you do so with empty words, either in your letters or in conversation, you will lose your necessary authority. This is a type of humility which is out of place and which can only have a bad effect on men of faith and indeed on those of simple good sense.
I beg of you, let there be no question of this anymore . Do you think that I do not have enough worries and embarrassment without your adding to them with such irresolution! If you were aware and understood the pain you are causing me, you would be guilty of sin in God’s eyes.
This is for you alone, I beg you. This is why I am having it copied on its own. I am replying on another sheet of paper to the matter of your Council.
Be assured, dear Monsignor, of my sentiments of affection and devotion.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
The Cardinal looking for seeds for the cultivation of good vegetables (5 January 1891)
Carthage, 5 January 1891
Reverend Parish Priest
I am writing to you in order to ask of you a service for the mission in the Sahara which I am setting up at this time, as you may have seen in some newspaper . It is very indiscrete of me to ask this service of you, but I count on your charity to render it. We would like to cultivate asparagus, but above all we need seeds of choice for the seed-beds. The best in the country, which according to tradition give good promise of success, as you know better than I do, are to be found in Argenteuil , but there, like everywhere else, it is not possible to trust everyone. In order to have choice seeds for good sowing it is necessary to know personally the vendors and to obtain from them, because this undertaking is important and far away, the guarantee that they will only sell us a choice product and no mixture. I thought, Reverend Parish Priest, that enjoying as you do the confidence of all, it would be easy for you, either yourself or through a person of your choice, to obtain for my missionaries what they are looking for. This would be 500 grammes of seeds of the best and most beautiful asparagus of Argenteuil. It would be necessary to send this, by post, to my own address, Cardinal Lavigerie, Biskra (Algeria), in two separate packages, each of 250 grammes. With regard to payment, I would ask you to draw the money from my account or, if you prefer, to send me a telegram indicating the price and I shall send you immediately by post the amount together with your expenses.
This is a great liberty [ that I am taking], but by way of excuse please note, my dear parish priest, that it comes from an old missionary little used, in his barbarous milieu, to worldly decorum. He will try to compensate by his poor prayers the trouble he is giving you and he will retain the lively gratitude with which he remains your most humble and obedient servant.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Pontifical Rescript defining the limits of the Apostolic Vicariate of the Sahara (8 February 1891)
Rescript
At the request of His Eminence Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers and of Carthage, the Apostolic Vicariate of the Sahara having been erected, the Holy Father, at the Audience granted on 14 December 1890, has provided for its good administration through appointing the same Eminent Cardinal as Apostolic Administrator, either to govern the territory himself or to substitute for himself an ecclesiastic worthy to take on this responsibility. Furthermore, our Holy Father Pope Leo XIII, for the good of the souls entrusted to his care, grants him the faculty of using, in the Vicariate of the Sahara desert, the powers he enjoys as Archbishop of Algiers, and to delegate these to his substitute, wholly or in part, except for those which require episcopal character.
In effect, the Apostolic Prefecture of the Sahara had been erected by a decree dated 6 August 1868. Since this time, with the help of the grace of God, through the zeal of the Eminent Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers, and through the efforts of the missionaries he sent there, a number of the inhabitants of this region who were living in darkness and in the shadow of death have come to the light of the True Faith. Accordingly, the same Eminent Cardinal addressed a supplication to the Sacred Congregation for Propaganda Fide requesting that the afore-mentioned Prefecture should be raised to the level of Apostolic Vicariate. Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, in his Audience of 16 November 1890, on the basis of the report presented by the Very Reverend Dominique Jacobini, Secretary of the same Sacred Congregation, welcomed favourably the supplication and deigned to erect the Prefecture of the Sahara as an Apostolic Vicariate.
This Vicariate comprises the whole of the region: extending northwards to the boundaries of the missions of Tunis, Tripoli, Morocco, and the province of Algiers; southwards to the mission of Niger and the mountains of Kong, to the 10th degree of latitude; eastwards to the Fezzan exclusively and to the south of the Fezzan from the 15th degree of longitude in a straight line to the northern boundary of the mission of Niger, to the 12th degree of longitude; finally westwards to the [Atlantic] Ocean and the mission of Senegal.
Letter to Father Daugsbourg concerning incidents among the pupils at the Postulate of Saint-Eugène. (23 February 1891)
Carthage,
My Dear Father,
Is it true, as unfortunately I cannot doubt since it is the Council of your Society that has written to me about it, that the Negro children from Uganda that I myself placed in Saint-Eugène are not treated well by their fellow seminarians? Please be so good as to answer me explicitly and frankly on this point. I find this matter so unworthy of future missionaries that I would not hesitate to order an inquiry and would expel immediately from the seminary any child who would fail to this extent in the spirit of his vocation. What confidence could one have in a future missionary who would give evidence of such dispositions?
Please warn the teachers and the pupils that my attention has been called to such a serious matter, and that if this behaviour is prolonged I shall withdraw my affection and every mark of benevolence from your house to which up to now I have given so much in many different ways.
Be assured, my dear Father, that I remain Yours in Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
P.S. I am in receipt of a good letter written aby a former pupil in the name of all his fellow students, but I can give no reply as long as the question which I am putting to you today has not been clarified.
The Inauguration of the Formation Centre for the Armed Brothers of the Sahara (5 April 1891)
The following dispatch, dated 6 April, has arrived from Biskra,
Yesterday took place the solemn opening of the first house of the Armed Brothes of Africa, or as they are called here in this part of the Continent, the Armed Brothers of the Sahara. It is in accordance with the dispositions adopted by the European Powers gathered in Brussels that this institution has been established. It has been set up to respond to an appeal of the European Powers, protectors of different regions of Africa, for support for their regular troops and to carry out, alongside these, what cannot be undertaken by ordinary soldiers.
It is in order to assist France in completing one day, in the Sahara and the Sudan, the work started by its military that the Congregation of the Brothers of the Sahara has been formed in Biskra. They do not take vows of any kind. Their novitiate is taken up by formation in agricultural labour adapted to the Sahara, in the care of the wounded and sick, and finally in the use of arms which, in such a region, will always be necessary to defend their own lives and those of the ransomed slaves who will wish to gather round them in the centres they will have established.
Yesterday’s ceremony showed how warmly the local population of the extreme south welcomed these pioneers who are called to give them such great service. A large crowd of Europeans and a greater number of the indigenous population attended. Cardinal Lavigerie presided and was assisted by the bishop of Constantine and by a number of missionaries and African priests. The junior seminary had provided its band. In the morning Cardinal Lavigerie blessed the habits of the new Brothers which they put on immediately. At about 4 o’clock in the afternoon The Cardinal blessed the buildings of the new house. The following is the text of the Cardinal’s discourse in the morning.
“My dear brethren, and you above all, my dear Sons, you who have come to occupy a place of honour in the army which has been formed in accordance with the solemn wish to the Powers of the civilized world against African slavery, I cannot think of delivering a discourse to you, but I would blame myself if I did not, in the name of religion, in the name of France, render public homage to your heroic self-sacrifice. It is indeed heroism that you will need to face up to all the dangers. In no part of the world the intense heat, the sterility of the soil, savage barbarity and the horrors of long-lasting slavery have come together to present so many difficulties. It is true that you do not wish to be associated with the use of force, for attacking others or for conquest. This role is reserved for the French army in the regions of the Sahara. It is this army which, after having a half-century ago suppressed piracy in the Mediterranean and put an end to the slave-prisons of Algiers, will repulse the savage hordes that come to the very gates of our territory threatening to eject us into the sea. The industry, arts and trade of the fatherland are getting ready to support and crown one day the work of our intrepid soldiers .
For you, responding to the appeal and in accordance with the spirit of the Brussels conference, once slavery has been vanquished, you wish to contribute, for the protection of the weak and through the creation of centres in the Sahara, a zeal and ardour that nothing can daunt.
It is in the name of religion and of France that I addressed to you the call.to which you are responding today. The wish of the Association of the Armed Brother of the Sahara is effectively to open up for the civilized world in a definitive way the interior of this Black Continent to which access is still forbidden by an impenetrable barrier always presented by cruel barbarousness. By participating in such an undertaking you will earn the right to blessings and reward from above, all the more so because you are doing this without any hope for some earthly gain.
To work with your hands and to carry the burden of the day and of the heat in order to bring to completion the work started by our military, and also, by dint of abnegation, patience and courage, to what ordinary soldiers cannot do, this is what I offered you and why you have come. At the price of so many sacrifices and so much suffering, you wish to help Christian France to write a noble page which will join that of the acts of God through the Franks. While you are devoting yourselves in this way to uphold their cause, France and the Church will not forget you. You offer your strength and your blood to accomplish a sublime act of abnegation; they will wish to support, as they have done in the past, an undertaking that demands such sacrifice.
You have just heard, and you will have been touched as I was, the voice of the Vicar of Christ, the great immortal Leo XIII, announce to the world that it is to you, and to all those who dedicate themselves to the abolition of slavery, that he wishes – and this is an idea which is extremely touching and paternal – to attribute the alms directed to him from Christian world on the occasion of the forthcoming jubilee of his episcopal ordination.
As for France, let her not fear the carrying out of the rare, isolated threats against your undertaking, threats that can in no way have issued from the heart of any Frenchman worthy of this name, and which, if they were carried out, would bring about a new élan and the departure [to this work] of all those who place above passing interests love for humanity and the honour of their country. But to remain at the level of such an undertaking and of multiple undertakings abroad, and yet preserve her identity on her own soil, France needs aid from above, and it is for up to you to implore this for her.
It is you, my dear sons, who must ask God to bless her [France] in return for all that you wish to do in the service of her cause. Request for her above all the highest good of any people, namely the unity of all its sons.
As I was leaving Algiers for this gate to the desert, in order to open this haven where in peace you prepare for your life of work and combat, this was the wish that I expressed with all solemnity as a man and as a Frenchman . I was wishing for the end of the divisions that have inflicted her for a century and which, according to the warning given by Holy Scripture, can only bring about her ruin, if they continue further. As a pastor I was wishing for the unity of Catholics in the sole domain where it is fitting for them to place themselves, to defend in freedom and with energy the interests of the Faith. This is the constitutional domain which our last National Assembly has laid down, despairing to find another as solid and capable of ensuring the future. Consequently, it is in this domain that all have the right to situate themselves to ensure for their country, instead of base and narrow-minded persecution, a Government for justice and true freedom.
Speaking in this way, I was merely echoing the teaching of Leo XIII; I wish again to do the same, here today in the middle of this desert. In the desert the voice resounds more strongly and makes itself heard even by those who go by without paying attention. May my voice obtain this result which is so desirable, may it awaken those who, in the midst of a movement which is evidently already attaining its end, would appear to be half-asleep, not yet having understood the lessons repeated so often by the supreme head of pastors.”
Monsignor Combes, bishop of Constantine, also gave a lively speech in which he expressed his admiration for an idea so daring, religious and patriotic as the institution of the Pioneers of the Sahara. After having recalled at length the work of His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie he ended by saying: “praise, honour and gratitude to the Apostle of Africa.”
Request of Lavigerie to the General Council that it express its opinion on the appointment of Father Toulotte as Apostolic Vicar of the Sahara (7 April 1891)
Biskra
Dear Monsignor
Everything went well here. The children were most edifying and gave me great consolation amidst all my worries . I have charged Father Voillard with the task of explaining to you why I am requesting you today to submit urgently to the Council the question of the Apostolic Vicariate of the Sahara. I would beg of you, my Lord, to put the question in these terms:
1) Is the Council of the opinion to appoint Fr Toulotte as Vicar Apostolic of the Sahara?
2) Which would be better, to appoint from the beginning with or without the rank of bishop?
3) Should Fr Hacquard receive for a special reason delegation as superior of the Brothers of the Sahara, representing in this way the Vicar Apostolic?
I would be grateful if you could let me know, as soon as possible, the decision of the Council so that I can communicate it to those concerned before my departure for Tunis which is now imminent.
Receive, dear Monsignor, the renewed assurance of my warm affection,
Yours devotedly in Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Congregation of Propaganda Fide concerning the appointment of a Vicar Apostolic for the Vicariate of the Sahara. (14 April 1891)
Biskra,
Your Eminence ,
I have received with gratitude the two Papal Bulls confirming the decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide: the erection of the Sahara and the Soudan as an Apostolic Vicariate, and entrusting to me its direction as Administrator, either to govern it myself, or to entrust its government to another ecclesiastic capable of this task.
After mature reflection before God on the circumstances of such an important matter I have come to the opinion that, with all the responsibilities that burden me already, I could not reserve to my own person the administration of the Apostolic Vicariate without doing harm to its future development. The personal presence of the first pastor is absolutely necessary for a Vicariate which is just beginning to exist.
I have therefore believed it my duty, using the powers that the Sacred Congregation has granted me and that the Holy Father has deigned to ratify, to choose without delay the ecclesiastic to whom the responsibility for the Apostolic Vicariate could most usefully be entrusted. After having tried him out on the spot, in the Sahara where I have just spent five consecutive months, setting up [the Vicariate] and organizing everything under my very eyes, I have entrusted the charge of temporary Vicar Apostolic to Reverend Father Toulotte, a priest originally from the diocese of Arras and a member of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers for more than twenty years.
Reverend Father Toulotte, born in 1852, is now aged 39. He is noted for extraordinary piety, with such degrees of mortification, self-denial and humility, that he can be called a ‘saint’, and is so called by all the members of the congregation to which he belongs. He possesses a quality particularly precious for the Sahara, on the one hand because he can support the climate and the food of the country without harm for his health, and on the other because he is a source of edification for the local population among whom he will have to live who attach great importance to the ability to deprive oneself, through mortification, of a host of things indispensable for persons brought up in Europe.
In this way Fr Toulotte has been able to live several years on a diet of dried dates, herbs and raw vegetables, particularly carrots, without harming his health. He has also been able, without suffering, to sleep on the bare ground. These are privations that doubtlessly could not be imposed on anyone, and which must be forbidden to the majority of missionaries, but when someone among them is capable of practising them without harm, it is certain that in the midst of barbarous people, and particularly in the Sahara and the Soudan, they can but have a very good effect.
Alongside these qualities of piety and mortification Fr Toulotte is noted for a no less precious gift of intelligence. He is, without doubt, with regard to African history, archaeology and hagiography, the most learned of all the priests, whether diocesan or Missionaries of Africa. For twenty years he has been dedicating all his free time to study. He has in particular translated into French the three volumes of l’Africa Christiana of Morcelli , with notes and additions based mainly on recent discoveries which have doubled the length and the value of Morcelli’s work.
His proficiency in this type of study is so well recognized that, at the recent council of Carthage held in May 1890, the bishops at the assembly unanimously chose him to draw up the acts of the council which had summarized the whole of African Canon Law as it had been handed down in the early councils of Africa. He accomplished this delicate task to the satisfaction of all.
I can thus say, without fear of contradiction from anyone who knows him, that Reverend Father Toulotte is a model not only of virtue and therefore of zeal, but also of the love of study and of knowledge of all that pertains to ancient Christian Africa. I would add that he is no less remarkable for his wisdom and prudence, of which his discretion in speaking and his love of silence are a signal proof. In a word, the vox populi of the whole congregation has for a long time indicated him as someone who could be charged with prime responsibilities. On several occasions he has been elected by the Chapters of the Society Assistant to the Superior General and a member of his Council.
It is the Council itself that unanimously designated [Fr Toulotte] for the responsibility that I have provisionally charged him with. Today I am requesting the confirmation of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. I therefore beg my eminent colleagues to be so kind as to present to His Holiness Reverend Father Anatole Toulotte to be the definitive Vicar Apostolic of the Sahara, without however requesting for him as yet the episcopate, since the number of Christians in this mission would not seem to demand that the Vicar Apostolic be a bishop.
Nevertheless, in order to conform to normal practice and to give the Sacred Congregation the possibility of choosing one of several candidates for a position of this importance, I take the opportunity of indicating two other persons belonging to the congregation of the Missionaries of Algiers and to the mission of the Sahara who would be worthy to be chosen for the title and office of Vicar Apostolic. The first is Referend Father Charles Desoignie, coming like Fr Toulotte from the diocese of Arras, 34 years of age, and belonging also for a number of years to the congregation of the Missionaries of Algiers. He is already superior of the mission in Ghardaia in the Saharan Mzab, and having all the virtues necessary for a good missionary is his recommendation. Yet he would rank less than Fr Toulotte in age and in the services he has rendered, and also with regard to the merited reputation of extraordinary holiness of the latter, and likewise for his exceptional learning.
The second is Reverend Father Hacquard, coming from the diocese of Nancy, for twelve years member of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers. He is very capable, very ardent, who will later do great things; this is why I have made him the superior of the new Society of the Armed Brothers of the Sahara which I have just created for the abolition of slavery in these regions. But he is younger than Fr Toulotte by eleven years; consequently, he does not have the same maturity.
There in a few words are the reasons for my proposals, and why I would classify them in the following order: Fr Toulotte: dignissimus; Fr Desoignies: dignior; Fr Hacquard: dignus.
I entrust to the regular goodwill of your Eminence the success of the present undertaking, while making bold to beg you for a swift decision which will allow me to free myself of the responsibility and to place into other hands the future of the Apostolic Vicariate of the Sahara and the Soudan.
Receive, Eminence, the renewed assurance of my deep respect, as respectfully kissing your hands, I remain your most humble and most obedient servant.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Mgr Livinhac about different appointments of Fathers and Brothers (24 April 1891)
Carthage,
Dear Monsignor,
I have received your letter, as I had received others, in which you indicate to me, in the name of the Council, that it would be useful to make some changes among those who have been listed to take part in the new caravan for Equatorial Africa.
You remark, among other things, that it would be opportune to send to the mission of Upper Congo as many missionaries of Belgian origin as possible, following the arrangement made from the beginning with King Leopold. This is exactly my opinion, and I insist that you choose for this mission of Upper Congo the greatest number of Belgians possible, not only among the Fathers but also as regards the Brothers. So be good enough to invite the Council in this respect to look for all those whom it would be possible to choose in the present circumstances. There is no advantage in sending Belgian Brothers to work in other parts of Africa. It is necessary to send many to Upper Congo, and if it were possible to send only Belgians, that would be perfect. Otherwise we shall very quickly lose the mission of Upper Congo thanks to the intrigues of the Scheut Fathers
I believe that you have sent to me here in La Marsa a Belgian Brother who seems to me very good, although he is young. If you would like to take him, do so. In this connection, I would like to have here in La Marsa, instead of Brother Arcade, Brother Theodore if he can be replaced in Holland. He would render us great service for the orphanage for young children and for agricultural work.
I would ask you, dear Monsignor, to be so kind as to warn the Council also that it is impossible to leave the junior seminary in Carthage in its present state. . It is a secondary school, and even a bad secondary school, and nothing more. I have already touched on this subject with Fr Voillard. It is true that I am not asking for the college to be suppressed since, even as it is, it can render real service to Christian families who are able to pay the fees of their children, but I would like in it at least a separate section destined exclusively for the formation of future priests for the diocese, through an apostolic school annexed to the college, as in France is the case with the colleges of the Jesuits and the apostolic schools founded by them.
This school, it is true, will not be able to open completely until the beginning of the next school year. There is no need to be concerned with a superior because I am placing there Fr Malleval whose presence at the junior seminary does not please Fr Gillois. It would only be necessary to add one or two truly pious missionaries from among the scholastics who are to be ordained priests. Fr Bazin has indicated to me two who would seem to be very suitable for these functions. But today it is not really a question of personnel, but rather one of principle, and it is on this point that I would ask that the Council would deliberate.
I am too much in a hurry today, der Monsignor, to say more to you with regard to this twofold matter, so I stop, assuring you once more of my respectful and devoted affection.
Yours in the Heart of Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to Cardinal Manning asking him to intervene in Uganda (28 April 1891)
La Marsa
You Eminence,
Venerable and Beloved Brother
For a long time now, I have not found an occasion to renew with your Eminence the relations which have remained particularly dear to me and which, at the time of my journey to London in 1888, thanks to your Eminence, has such a happy result for the resolution of the question of slavery according to the desire of the Holy Father. It was indeed thanks to you that we were able to hold the meeting in the “Princess Hall” , and thanks to this meeting and to Lord Granville that were able to obtain the initiative of Parliament for the international conference in Brussels which, in principle, has finished everything.
I have often been tempted to take up the pen to express to your Eminence my feelings of profound gratitude for such an eminent service, but I held back thinking that you would see this as clearly as I could myself from the press, and also fearing that in expressing to you my congratulations I in turn would not appear to wish to obtain in performing the works of God and on behalf of humanity that which would appear to me of no use to either of us.
Today, Eminence, I am addressing you in order to request you to examine whether you could not render another service to the Church and to England regarding a matter concerning the interior of Equatorial Africa in which I have taken an interest myself. Your Eminence is already aware that, during the pontificate of Pius IX and after the first journey of Stanley to Victoria Nyanza, I had sent the Missionaries of Algiers to Uganda. Their apostolate was blessed by God and a great number of neophytes, today forming a flock of about 20,000 Blacks, have gathered around them and have received baptism.
During this same time Anglican missionaries, sent if I am not mistaken by the Church Missionary Society, have also entered the same kingdom, receiving from the Blacks a welcome probably less favourable but nevertheless fruitful, and so have formed around them a Protestant group about half in number to our neophytes. The Anglican ministers have naturally thought of allowing the English government to profit by their spiritual conquest. They have created within the country a powerful political party which has just recently obtained from Mwanga, the king of Uganda, acceptance of the protectorate of England for two years.
Our French missionaries, who have at their head a bishop from Alsace and within their ranks a Catholic missionary born in England, are not only disposed not to oppose in any way the British protectorate, but are also read to rally to it and to support it, provided they are given reasonable guarantees from the religious point of view . I myself greatly encourage the missionaries in this direction, and I am ready to take all the commitments to the government of Lord Salisbury that he will consider necessary. What our missionaries would request is simply that the protectorate of Uganda ben entrusted to an English Catholic, in order to avoid wrangling between the Anglican missionaries and themselves.
Do you think, Eminence, that there is any chance of such an arrangement being accepted? I would, for my part be very happy, since I have the wish to express in a practical way my old and sincere sympathy for England from the political point of view. I can do this without any inconvenience with regard to Uganda since the French government has made clear to me directly, already a good number of years ago, that it has no claim to any protectorate in East or Central Africa, nor does it wish for its national politics to acquire any influence other than on behalf of the general interests of humanity.
It is to your wisdom, your charity and your zeal for religion, Eminence, that I entrust this matter. It is doubtlessly a delicate matter, but I know by experience that the most delicate matters find in advance at your venerable hands a winning solution.
I beg of you, Eminence, to accept the renewed homage of my veneration while, kissing respectfully your hands, I remain you most humble and grateful servant.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Allocution on the Occasion of the Departure of the 10th Caravan for Equatorial Africa (5 July 1891)
My Brothers,
I am growing old. My feeble voice is hardly able to reach the end of the church. I am already a long way on the road to eternity. This is perhaps the last time that I shall speak to you. Yet today when my dear children, sons of the Catholic Belgium, who are leaving for the far-away Congo, come to offer to their father, who has become old, a final farewell while imploring his blessing, I cannot fail to satisfy their desire in this sanctuary of the African Virgin.
Our White Fathers – this is what they are called in popular language – and this young Negro, one of the first Christians of Belgian Upper Congo, will begin this week the long dangerous journey to their dear mission. They will go into furthest Central Africa fully aware of the dangers surrounding them. That is why, here in this sanctuary, they are placing their journey under the powerful protection of Our Lady of Africa. She was already their mother, but she has become so even more now that the Holy Father Leo XIII, at the request of Catholic Belgium, has put the country of the Congo under her protection.
As for us, Brothers, we are not all called by God to accompany then, but our blessings, our prayers, will remain with them. If it were given to me to go and serve them in these far-off countries, I would think myself happy; at least I would have wished to throw myself at these feet that are going to carry the light of the Gospel to these people who are still plunged in the darkness of paganism. You, Brothers, are going to do this; you are going to kneel at their feet to give the last farewell kiss. As for me…The venerable Cardinal turned to us, with tears of paternal love in his eyes; he could not utter another word. One by one we had to come to him and he embraced us and gave us his blessing.
An excerpt from the Address of the Cardinal at the episcopal ordination of Mgr Toulotte (12 July 1891)
It is not without intention, Monsignor, that this church where you have just received episcopal ordination is entirely draped, within and without, with curtains whose colour reminds us of blood. You Sahara has already drunk the blood of your brothers. It was as if drenched in their blood. Above and beyond those whom we sent twenty years ago, who belonged to the same Society as yourself and who were the first victims of faith and charity in the arid burning sands of the desert, how many other victims have followed them, especially from among the brave officers and the untiring explorers whom no fear could deter from carrying out their noble enterprise.
No fear can stop you either; no fear stops these courageous pioneers who surround you. I myself, at this moment, do not wish to veil the truth from you. To engage in the episcopate in these conditions is to go to martyrdom, and I see you in advance going ahead with the heroic abnegation and the courage which have so far always sanctified your life. These young Christian soldiers, these Armed Brothers who surround you at this moment and who represent here those they have left behind at the edge of the Sahara, will follow you, Monsignor. They will mingle their blood with yours. I have just said to you that both within and without this temple they can see today the colour of blood, as if foretelling (lit. like an anticipatory sermon) their sufferings and their martyrdom. On the very door of this temple I have had inscribed in letters of gold, in this midst of these blood-red hangings, the saying of one of our holiest and most ancient bishops of France: Ecclesia Christi morendo non occidendo triumphavit
This is the great lesson that they will give, once again, to the Christian world. It is in this way, my dear Brethren, that these soldiers engaged in a new crusade will respond to the calumnies that are showered upon them by an unbelieving and impious press which, measuring all things by their own standard, paint them as a society formed to exploit the riches of Africa, or even through fanatic passion, to rouse the fanaticism of the Muslims of the Sahara
No, my dear Brethren, their fanaticism, if this can be reproached of them, is to sacrifice everything here below, without excepting anything, their affection, their hopes, their wealth, their lives even, in order to carry out a great patriotic and Christian duty. They surely wish to win the victory, for the honour of France and for the honour of God . This victory, they wish to gain it only at the price of their death.
Letter to Mgr Toulotte with some advice (25 August 1891)
Cambo
Dear Monsignor,
Your letter of 20 August from Boulogne-sur-Mer which I received the day before yesterday in Cambo, surprises me a little since it shows that you do not realise your situation. You are the coadjutor for the Sahara and the Soudan and, as such, you alone are responsible for all the expenses incurred in the Vicariate, including those of the Armed Brothers since, according to their rules, you are their direct superior. Fr Hacquard is only your deputy . All the expenses of the Vicariate of the Sahara, whether for this institute or for the rest, are therefore your responsibility and it is for you to find the funds necessary for those under you, since I have off-loaded the burden on to your shoulders.
If the funds are lacking, it is to the associations responsible for providing them that you must go. If necessary, you should send Fr Hacquard to beg [for money]. You have, moreover, at your disposal the subsidy given by the Propagation of the Faith for the mission of the Sahara. This is reserved for you [with the treasurer] at Maison Carrée, Mgr Livinhac has told me, and Fr Voillard has confirmed this. You will also have your part of the collection carried out by the Anti-slavery associations, which I have already received and which I am still to receive. It surprises me that you seem to be unaware of these things. Above all I consider your presence in the Vicariate as necessary after such a long absence. With regard to material and in particular financial expenses, nothing can replace the eye of the master, especially when all round there is an inclination to spend. Fr Hacquard is already speaking of changing the habit of the Armed Brothers. You will not go far with such auxiliaries if you allow them to throw money out of the window.
I am also very astonished at the visit you have received from Fr Louail in order to ask you to preach the retreat at Saint-Laurent-d’Olt. I had manifested to him clearly my unwillingness to impose such a charge on the Vicar Apostolic of a mission which is being founded. I see that he is misleading you, and this I regret. So I renew in your regard, not only the advice this time, but the strict order to return to Biskra.
Farewell, dear Monsignor. Be assured that I remain always Yours in Our Lord
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter from the Cardinal to Fr Payan d’Augery telling him about the difficult crossing (19 September 1891)
Alger,
My Dear Friend,
You had foreseen too well the weather which was waiting for us on our departure from Marseilles, and the resolution that I had taken to anticipate [this departure] in order to be here in Algiers before our annual retreats has not helped at all. As we left your port, a light breeze was hardly noticeable, but five hours after having left Marseilles we got caught in a terrible storm caused by a wind from the south. This storm accompanied us to Algiers, arousing the usual emotions, even that of absolution in extremis and all the vicissitudes with which you are familiar.
After a gap of 24 years it was a renewal of the journey on l’Hermès, except that the dimensions of ship, much larger in the case of the Ville d’Alger, enabled us to avoid the final anguish, and we arrived almost on time.
But that was not the end of it for me, and that very evening I received the crown of our adventure. I had gone to bed using the mosquito-net which the cousins make necessary in Algiers in this season, and I was hardly in bed and had closed my eyes on the pillow, exhausted as I was, because of my poor health and the fatigue of the journey, when I was woken up by a sharp pain in the leg and the arm: my mosquito-net was on fire through a false movement on my part when putting out the candle, and I was surrounded by flames that were attacking my bed. I jumped out immediately and threw myself face down in the middle of my room, where there was no one to help me. The result was a serious bruise of the hip joint and the whole of the right side. The burns have not yet healed; the dislocated joint is still painful; and the doctors who have just been to see me say that rest is still necessary for me.
There you are: the full account of my adventure, and I would ask you to tell it to Monsignor, your good bishop, thanking him once more for his fraternal hospitality. Despite everything I am not reassured as regards the future, and I reckon that God gives me so many warnings only because he has the end in store for me which is drawing nearer every day and for which it is necessary to be prepared. Help me, I beg of you, with your good prayers, my dear vicar general.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Holy Father proposing Mgr Livinhac as Coadjutor Bishop for the diocese of Tunis (4 November 1891)
Algiers,
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I dared to inform you, a few days ago, that my state of health had seriously deteriorated, that I had asked for and received the sacrament of Extreme Unction and that I thought it was my duty to express to you the supreme homage of my heartfelt filial affection and that of my obedience and my devotion which know no limits.
I have already received, Most Holy Father, the telegram by means of which His Eminence Cardinal Rampolla has deigned to make known to me the sentiments of Your Holiness with regard to my humble person. Yet, since God would seem to leave me still a few days of life, I have another favour to beg of the Holy See. I have sought indeed to put in good order all the matters which depended on the authority that I had received from Your Beatitude, whether in the dioceses of Algeria or in the other missions of Africa that have been put under my jurisdiction. Only one of these episcopal circumscriptions would seem to me to be in a difficult situation, and I have the special duty, before dying, to call this matter to the benevolent attention of the Holy See, and that of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide in particular.
Tunisia, not being as yet French territory, and consequently not belonging to the areas subject to the application of the Concordat of 1802 , there is nothing decided in advance to provide after my death for the exercise of jurisdiction. This could be the cause of great embarrassment on the one hand, the French government and the Tunisian government could question the right of Your Holiness to appoint freely a new Archbishop. On the other hand, they could present someone who might be less than desirable for such an important office. It would seem to me, Most Holy Father, that the simplest thing would be for me to ask our government in advance for the appointment of a coadjutor and then to request your Holiness, as I do today, if there is still time, to deign to give me a coadjutor with the right of succession. In this way everything would be arranged without difficulty from one side or the other.
So, Most Holy Father, I began to take steps several months ago by approaching Mr Massicault, the Resident Minister of France in Tunisia. The most naturally indicated person to be my successor in Carthage is Mgr Livinhac, bishop of Pacando, former Vicar Apostolic of Nyanza, and already elected as my General Assistant by the Chapter of the Society of Missionaries during the course of last year, 1890. Your Holiness will doubtless remember that you met him in Rome, at the time of my last journey. He had just returned from Nyanza where he had confessed the Faith and had in advance accepted martyrdom. I then designated him myself as the future Superior of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers after my death.
This prelate, Most Holy Father, has already had long years of experience in the mission in the heart of Africa. He has given there an example of heroic courage, faith, devotion and self-denial. I recognize in him only one fault which can be overcome only by obedience: that is extreme humility which gives him a horror of all high office, and he would refuse, as he has himself declared to me several times, the title of Coadjutor of Carthage. The authority of Your Holiness, however, would easily remove this obstacle, if you would consent to give him, as I beg you to do, a strict order, following the decision of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. Moreover, he has, in the difficult times that we have been going through, rendered great service to different European expeditions that have followed into these far-off countries, and he has won the esteem of all through the practice of the most admirable apostolic and episcopal virtues. He would therefore seem, Most Holy Father, to be naturally designated after me for the See of Carthage, with the title of Archbishop of this new Church which your apostolic authority has gloriously resurrected.
There would be for him a double advantage in the exercise of this responsibility: the first would be quite naturally to find support for the Society of Missionaries of Algiers, of which he would be the Superior as I have been myself; the second would be to give satisfaction to this new diocese which is still lacking important institutions. It would be easy for Mgr Livinhac to create these with the help of his missionaries. These have already the cathedral of Carthage, the major seminary, the minor seminary, an orphanage for young boys, several parishes and a military chaplaincy; they could be entrusted with the development and multiplication of these institutes. They would even have, from the French point of view, a real advantage in establishing themselves outside French territory strictly speaking, at this time when the religious congregations in France are threatened with undergoing a new persecution in their Mother-Country, through what is ironically called “the right to growth”, in other words the right of spoliation with regard to each of them
Finally the universal reputation that Mgr Livinhac has of gentleness and holiness, in Tunisia as in the whole of Africa, and the absence of any reason whatsoever to oppose him on the part of the Italians and Maltese, provides us with the assurance that there is nothing to be feared from this quarter, no opposition such as that which faced me. I have naturally had to be concerned with regard to the choice of Mgr Livinhac, if your Holiness deigns to give him to me as coadjutor before my death, to have him accepted by the authorities of France and of the Bey . I am assured that the authorities of the Bey will not make any sort of objection. I can say more or less the same of the French authorities, particularly the authority at their highest level, Mr Massicault, the Resident General. I had a long conversation with him on this delicate subject, and I have led him to sense the advantages of it from the French point of view.
In such conditions it is with complete confidence that I charge with presenting my request to Your Holiness our Procurator in Rome, Reverend Father Burtin. He has a thorough knowledge both of the prelate I have the honour to present and the situation of the diocese of Tunis, and of the good which will result from such a choice, for the diocese, for the missions of Africa and for the congregation to which he belongs. He could therefore easily treat this affair with the Eminent Prefect of Propaganda Fide presenting to him a terna for the appointment of my coadjutor. The members of this Sacred Congregation would then naturally be called to choose which of the three candidates should be my successor.
This is the last favour, Most Holy Father, that I shall solicit from Your Holiness with all the humility and all the confidence that a communion of interests gives me. I shall add nothing more, relying in such a question on the great wisdom and the pastoral solicitude of which I am only the humble representative.
Once more prostrate at your sacred feet, Most Holy Father, I have the honour to remain of Your Holiness the most humble, most obedient and most devoted servant and creature.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Letter to the Congregation of Propaganda Fide for the appointment of a new Pro-Vicar Apostolic in Upper Congo (7 November 1892)
Algiers
Your Eminence,
The extensive mission of Upper Congo, situated within the territory of the independent State and serve by the priests of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers, is at the moment without a leader. Reverend Father Coulbois who had been in charge of the administration this last period, with the function of Pro-Vicar Apostolic, returned to Europe in April of the present year for serious health reasons and finds himself obliged, for the same reasons, to resign definitively from his previous office.
It is my duty, Eminence, as Superior General of the Society of Missionaries of Algiers, to call the kind attention of your Eminence to this situation so that it can be regularized by having our Holy Father the Pope accept the resignation of Fr Coulbois and designating, at his choice, the priest who should succeed him as Pro-Vicar Apostolic.
Of all the missionaries who are working at this moment in the mission of Upper Congo, the one who appears to be the most worthy and the most capable of fulfilling this important office is Father Léon Marquès. Born 15 November 1863 in Thourout, in the diocese of Bruges, in West Flanders, Fr Marquès too his Oath as a Missionary of Algiers on 17 October 1886 and was ordained priest on 17 July 1890. He unites in himself knowledge and virtue. Educated at the College of Propaganda in Rome, and having a doctorate in theology, he has always been noted for his zeal, prudence and piety. And finally he has been for a year now in the Pro-Vicariate of Upper Congo. This is the missionary that I would venture to propose today to Your Eminence to be appointed by the Holy Father Pro-Vicar of the mission of Upper Congo.
While expressing in advance my gratitude for the welcome you will give to this proposal, I have the honour to remain, Eminence, respectfully kissing your hands, you most humble, most devoted and most obedient servant
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie
Archbishop of Carthage and of Algiers
The Death of the Founder
Here lies Charles Allemand Lavigerie, priest,
Archbishop of Algiers and Carthage
Cardinal of the Holy roman Church
Primate of Africa
Now dust
The Spiritual Testament of Cardinal Lavigerie
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. This is my spiritual testament. I begin it by declaring, in the presence of the eternity which is opening up ahead of me, that I wish to die in the spirit with which I have always lived, namely in obedience und unlimited devotion to the Holy and Apostolic See and to our Holy Father the Pope, the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth.
I have always believed and I do believe all that they teach and in the way they teach it. I have always believed and I do believe that apart from the Pope or against the Pope there can only be in the Church trouble, confusion, error and eternal loss. He alone has been established as the foundation of Unity, and consequently of life, for all that pertains to eternal salvation.
I have the high honour of belonging more closely to the Holy and Apostolic See through the fact of being a priest and a bishop, and through my title as Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. Without doubt these honours, far above my wretchedness and weakness, have been bestowed on me for my confusion especially at this moment when I am contemplating presenting myself before the tribunal of God. Yet I see in them a cause for even greater gratitude and fidelity toward the See of Peter and towards our Holy Father the Pope who has showered on me the marks of his trust and his goodness.
I have served to the best of my ability, as long as I have been able. Not being capable any longer now, I ask Our Lord to accept the sacrifice that I make to him of my life, and of the suffering that will accompany my death, for the lengthening of the precious days of the life of Leo XIII and for the triumph of his noble designs.
I join my devotion to the Holy See with that which I have always felt for Christian France and for the Missions of Africa at the head of which I have been placed. The peace, the glory, and even the life of France are closely bound up with its Catholic faith and consequently with its fidelity towards the Holy See. It is above all with reference to it [i.e. to France] that it has been possible to say on each page of its history Sacerdotium et regnum cum inter se consentiunt, bene regitur mundus. Cum autem non concordant, non tantum parvae res non crescunt, sed etiam magnae miserabiliter dilabuntur .
I have done everything I could, with the strength and the intelligence given me, to maintain this so desirable concord. I can say in all truth that this is bringing about my death, for the sickness that is leading me to the tomb is the consequence of the superhuman fatigue that I imposed upon myself last Summer, in Rome and in Paris, in order to prevent the evident breach which everything seemed to be making inevitable. There, in a way, I was working more for my poor dear country than for the Church. For the Church has the assurance of immortality, whereas France has no other promises than those made by Providence to the nations of the world, having against it, alas, this divine threat: Omnis civitas contra se divisa non stabit.
Oh, if only I could still speak to it from the depth of my tomb! If only, with that detachment from everything that is characteristic of the life to come, I could put before it one last time, as I have done so often before those who govern it, that which can give it peace! I see it with bitter sadness decline from the degree of power and honour in the world where it had been placed through the faith and virtues of our fathers, the wise and persevering policy of our kings.
I am not speaking about its internal system of government. I have never become involved in the action and above all in the passion of political parties. My life, since becoming an adult, has been spent almost entirely outside [this domain]. It is from this perspective that I have been able to gauge its decadence and that I have seen, as it abandoned its faith and it national traditions, how its voice was less listened to and less respected.
Is France coming to an end? Is God going to withdraw from it the mission He had entrusted to it, to defend and to protect with generosity the cause of justice and truth in the world? My supreme prayer is that it should be spared this misfortune, but what is the prayer of a man in the face of divine justice?
It is to you that I come now, O my dear Africa! I sacrificed everything seventeen years ago when, urged by an interior force which came visibly from God, I left all things to give myself to your service. Since then, how many troubles, how much fatigue, how many sorrows! I recall them only in order to forgive them, and to express once more my unutterable hope to see the portion of this great Continent that of yore had known Christianity return fully to the light, and that which remained plunged in barbarity come out of its darkness and death.
It is to this work that I have consecrated my life. But what is the single life of a man in relation to such an enterprise? I have hardly been able to sketch out the task. I have been only a voice in the desert calling those who are to prepare the way of the Gospel. I die therefore without having done anything other than suffer for you and, through my sufferings, prepare for you apostles!”