1888 - Pompallier, J. Early History of the Catholic Church in Oceania - CHAPTER I

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EARLY HISTORY

OF THE

CATHOLIC CHURCH IN OCEANIA.

CHAPTER I.

THIS history contains the narrative of facts which may prove singularly interesting to science and piety; nevertheless, I am unable to write all the details which could be told of the apostolate of the Catholic Church in the Western Pacific Ocean. To do this would occupy too much time, would necessitate my writing several volumes, and composing a considerable work, so rapidly have facts and events succeeded each other and accumulated during the ten years which have just passed. What I am about to write will be a history touching slightly on the voyages and works of the first three years, and an abridgment of the principal events of the following years. Each missionary station that I have been enabled to found and direct would in itself furnish interesting matter enough for a separate history. I shall limit myself to speaking of what I myself have witnessed, and to saying a few words of the part which God caused me to take in the works, trials, difficulties, and successes of this Apostolic Vicariate. Hereafter, if the work I have in hand and time should permit, I will willingly write a complete history of the whole mission. The details which I am about to write will show the foundation and the development of the Church during the earlier years. These, with an analysis of the principal events of later times and the statistics of all the missionary stations, will give a very substantial idea of the whole.

It was in the octave of Pentecost, 1835, that the Apostolic Vicariate of the Western Pacific Ocean was erected by our Holy Father the Pope, Gregory the XVI. of venerable memory. From that moment the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda devoted itself to securing the success of the project of His Holiness. It set itself to find among the clergy of the various Catholic nations priests with a vocation for foreign missions, from amongst whom might be selected a Bishop as Vicar Apostolic, who would commence to labour in this mission, so new and so far remote. The Sacred Congregation cast their eyes on the French clergy, more particularly on those of the Diocese of Lyons. A Primatial Canon named M. Pastre lived in this city at that period, who for a space of nearly twelve years had filled the position of Apostolic Prefect in the island of Bourbon, but who had been forced to relinquish it through failing health. To him, then, the first addresses of the Propaganda were made; they begged of him to accept as

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soon as possible the charge of the Apostolic Vicariate of the mission in the Western Pacific Ocean, and to have an interview with the Ordinaries of Lyons and the neighbouring dioceses, in order to choose individuals to complete the mission. M. Pastre, owing to his advanced age and continued ill-health, being unable to accept the charge that was offered to him, begged Monseigneur de Pius, at that time Archbishop of Amasie, and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Lyons, to seek amongst the members of his numerous clergy someone who could replace him, as well as several other priests who might be enabled to respond to the wishes of the Holy See. His Lordship, filled with a holy zeal for the Faith, and aware of the reasons which forbade M. Pastre to accept the new Apostolic Vicariate, hastened to reply to the Sacred Congregation, and occupied himself with one of his vicars and M. Pastre in choosing five or six priests who would consent to dedicate themselves to the labours of the proposed mission, about to be started under the high and immediate authority of the Holy Father by Propaganda. My consent to become a party to the projected work was asked at the suggestion of Monseigneur de Pins, and my name was taken down to be sent to the Holy Congregation. At the same time I received orders from His Grace to employ myself on my side in completing the number of persons for the new mission required by the Sovereign Pontiff.

At this period I had been for seven years a fellow labourer with some fifteen ecclesiastics who belonged to the Diocese of Lyons; some of them, however, were of the Diocese of Belley, which had been separated from that of Lyons after the restoration of the Bourbons in France. We formed as it were a kind of society with kindred intentions as to projects and works, that is, so far as was practicable among priests who were not independent, but were all subject to their respective diocesan authorities. Our aim was to labour for the work of the Faith by maintaining colleges, by the exercise of the priestly ministry, and above all, by labouring for foreign missions. This species of ministry necessarily required for those persons who were called to it, a delegation from the Holy See, which has spiritual jurisdiction over the whole globe. Our association being merely diocesan, under two ordinaries and without any head, naturally suffered in its action and development; each bishop claiming, according to the canons of the Church, ecclesiastical authority over the priests under his own jurisdiction.

Under these circumstances, His Grace the Archbishop of Amasie employed me in seeking for priests with a vocation for foreign missions. Naturally enough, and even at the express desire of His Grace, I turned to my brethren of the Society of Mary, since we had always cherished the desire of labouring in foreign missions. Several of these priests had no hesitation in consenting to the propositions made them, and insending in their names to Monseigneur de Pins, who was in correspondence with the Congregation at Propaganda, and who was to bring them under its notice. Though not numerous at that time, we were able to furnish the number of persons demanded by the Holy See for the mission to the Western Pacific Ocean.

Two motives induced myself and several well-disposed priests of the Archdiocese of Lyons to enrol for this mission the members of the Society of Mary, then only in a state of formation. Firstly, to make the society known to the Holy See, and secondly, to secure for the newly-proposed mission individuals not only to commence it, but a nursery, as it were, for future missionaries, who would form a spiritual posterity to succeed the first workers. These ideas were speedily communicated to all the members of the infant society--to some by personal visits, to others by means of letters. Two priests of the Diocese of Lyons, M. Servant and M. Bataillon, and two others of the Diocese of Beliey, M. Chanel and M. Bret, were definitively admitted to the mission. Their names, together with my own, were left with the Archbishop, and Monseigneur de Pins sent them without delay to the Holy Congregation of the Propaganda. An immediate correspondence ensued between that Congregation and His Grace favouring the infant society of the Marists. The result to all these communications with the Holy See about the Mission of Oceania was, to my great surprise, a formal demand

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from His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda that I should repair to Rome, there to receive instructions with all the spiritual powers requisite for this mission, and afterwards the Episcopal consecration, with the charge of Vicar Apostolic of Oceania. Shortly afterwards, Pope Gregory XVI. issued several briefs--one for the Vicar Apostolic just named and another for the Society of Mary. This brief gave to the latter the power to elect a Superior-General, to give the simple religious vows, and to take in hand the preparing of persons for the mission which was being formed under the immediate jurisdiction of the Vicar Apostolic.

All this correspondence of the Archbishop of Lyons with the Holy Congregation commenced toward the month of August, 1835, and terminated towards the month of May, 1836, when I was sent to Rome as had been demanded by His Eminence Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of the Propaganda.

In this holy city I received the dispensations, instructions, and spiritual powers necessary for the Apostolic Vicariate in the Western Pacific Ocean. According to the decision of the Holy See regarding this mission, all that was connected with ecclesiastical and pastoral jurisdiction was concentrated exclusively in the hands of the Vicar Apostolic, and all that concerned the observance of their rule as religious was confided to the Superior-General of the Society of Mary for the persons he provided for this mission.

According to the correspondence which had passed between the Holy Congregation of the Propaganda and His Grace the Archbishop de Pins, the Apostolic Vicariate extended only to the archipelagoes and islands of the western part of the Southern Ocean--that is, in latitude from the equinoctial line to the end of the inhabited lands of the south, and in longitude from the Society Islands, exclusively, to the furthest islands of Polynesia to the west, excepting such as were already constituted under canonical authority by the Holy See. But after my Episcopal consecration, which took place at Rome on the day of the commemoration of St. Paul, 30th June, 1836, His Holiness Gregory XVI. thought it better, notwithstanding my remarks, to add to these first limits of jurisdiction the northern part of Oceania above the line and in the same proportions of longitude, and with the same reservations as those already stated.