Documents
in Quebec History
Last
revised: 23 August 2000 | Les
Québécois, le clergé catholique et l'affaire des écoles du Manitoba / Quebecers,
the Catholic Clergy and the Manitoba School Question, 1890-1916
Extract
from the Pastoral Letter of Quebec Bishops Condemning the Laurier-Greenway Compromise
[November 22, 1896] [Note
from the editor : This Pastoral letter addressed to all of the members of
the clergy in the diocese was written by Mgr. Bégin, Archbishop of Quebec, and
was endorsed by Bishops Laflèche (Trois-Rivières), Labrecque (Chicoutimi), Blais
(Rimouski) and Gravel (Nicolet). It should be noted that there were four other
bishops in Quebec who did not endorse the Circular. At least one of the remaining
bishops was not in the position to sign as he was very sick and died shortly after
(Mgr Fabre of Montreal).] "No
bishop wants nor approve the so-called settlement of the Manitoba school question,
which, in a word, is based upon the indefensible abandonment of the best established
and most sacred rights of the Catholic minority. His Grace the Archbishop of St.
Boniface has sounded an immediate and energetic protest against this agreement;
in doing so he has done nothing bu fulfil his duty as a sheperd and followed the
directions of the Holy See. He could not but defend his flock". Source
: Oscar Douglas Skelton, Life and Letters of Wilfrid Laurier. Vol. 2, Toronto,
Oxford University Press, 1921, 576p., p. 20. ©
2000 Claude Bélanger, Marianopolis College |