Girard0017

Bishop Jean-Baptiste-François Pompallier to Fr Jean-Claude Colin, Valparaiso, 20 July 1837

APM OOc 418.1

Most of a paragraph translated by Jan Snijders

Text of the Letter

[10]

I wrote to you on 16 January from Santa Cruz. Did you receive my letter? For important things we must get used to keeping copies. Since I have left France I have received nothing, no letters, no answers. Still, ships have left Bordeaux long after our departure, and have arrived in Valparaiso before us. They could have carried mail. But then one needs to know when there is an opportunity. Therefore one has to have someone in the ports who is alert and willing to be of service. Or one has to rely on a shipping journal that carries such news. Alas, Rome, Lyon, Belley, all are cloaked in silence as far as we are concerned, and, dear superior, we had wanted so much to get some news of the congregation, the priests, the Sisters and the Brothers. We are very mortified to have to leave Valparaiso without having received any word. ...Now it may be another year before we can be contacted.