Girard0344

27 July 1844 - Father Philippe Calinon to Father Denis Maîtrepierre, Tonga

Based on the dispatch copy, APM OC 208 (Tonga), Calinon.

Single sheet, written on the recto only; the verso bears only the address and Poupinel’s annotation.

Translated by Merv Duffy & ChatGPT, November 2026.

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[p. 2]

[Address]

To the Reverend Father Maîtrepierre.

[In Poupinel’s hand]

Central Oceania / Tonga, 27 July 1844

[p. 1]

Tongatapu, 27 July 1844

Reverend Father,

[1]

A question that you will undoubtedly consider quite serious has arisen between Bishop Bataillon and the Provincial. The latter reads in the Rule that:

One of his first duties shall be to establish within his province, in agreement with the Vicar Apostolic, a mission procuracy in the most central and accessible location, etc. ... With the consent of the Vicar Apostolic, he shall appoint one of the priests of the Society to this house as Procurator General ... He shall inspect the procurator’s registers, receive his accounts and budget, etc. ...

[2]

The Bishop believes that it is his responsibility to establish a mission procuracy that will remain his property and whose administration he will direct. The same applies to a novitiate house, if the term novitiate is replaced with seminary. His reason is that the funds allocated by the Council of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith belong to him alone.

[3]

On the other hand, this leaves the Society without any temporal property whatsoever. Its members remain at the mercy of the Vicar Apostolic. Apprehensions are already arising that what is called the New Zealand system will be established here: a system of concentrating relief supplies around the bishop while leaving the members working in distant missions destitute.

[4]

The Bishop insists that we should live as what he calls a family, of which he would be the father, leaving the care of our temporal affairs to his wisdom. This is undoubtedly admirable, very generous on his part, and highly flattering to us. In my opinion, however, this system has the defect of effacing the Society, preventing it from owning property, and not even providing its members with any guarantee against encroachments by the Vicars Apostolic. Moreover, it nullifies the Provincial’s regulations on several points.

[5]

I have respectfully presented these observations to His Lordship and defer the matter to the Reverend Father General. For your part, Father, please give this matter your consideration and set out the course I should follow for the greater good. The whole difficulty lies in determining the material basis upon which the Society’s temporal affairs in these regions should rest.

[6]

Please accept the assurance of the esteem and respect with which I remain

your very humble and very obedient servant,
Calinon
Priest