\n-\n
\nMost Illustrious and Reverend Signor\n
\n-\n
\nA rather important and delicate task wishes to be entrusted to the activity and prudence of Your Lordship [and] this Sacred Congregation; it concerns the religious interests of the Island of San Domingo. The state of Religion in that Island has deteriorated, especially since the part that belonged to Spain separated itself and brought its entire population under the Constitutional Government presided over by Signor Boyer. You will be able to recognize him in the short but sad report that was given about it to the Sacred Congregation, which is the enclosed sheet. The positions adopted by the S. M. of Leo XII in September of 1826 following the council of the Sacred Congregation to establish some kind of remediation to the many evils were written in the august Name of His Holiness [in the form of] two letters, one sent to the Archbishop of San Domingo, the other to President Boyer; so that you know the contents of them, enclosed here is the copy with a detachable seal. However, being that it has been three years since these letters were sent with the recommendation of Monsignor Poynter, then Apostolic Vicar of London, and there has been no reply, it has been decided by my eminent Colleagues, and with the intervention of Pontifical approval, to task Your Lordship with treating with Monsignor Archbishop of San Domingo and with President Boyer about the objectives contained in the two aforementioned letters, whenever you find that you can safely go and penetrate that Island. If, however, you find yourself unable to go there for some good reason, you are to be tasked with procuring some secure means of ensuring the arrival of the mentioned letters into the very hands of the Subjects to whom they are addressed. \n
\n-\n
\nSome insights and news regarding the Character of the President as well as cautions to be observed when treating with that Government about Religious affairs, communicated to us by a person very experienced in the goings-on of things in those parts of the world, they will be rather of use for the way with which you will have to conduct yourself in the delicate commission entrusted to you, and, therefore, I am sending you an excerpt.\n
\n-\n
\nMonsignor Gisueppe Rosati\n
\n-\n
\nBishop of St. Louis\n
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\nOf Your Lordship\n
\n-\n
\nRome from Propagation October 10, 1829\n
\n-\n
\nAs a most affectionate brother\n
\nD. M. Card. Cappellari Prefo.\n
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\nThe Secular Government behaves despotically regarding matters of pure Ecclesiastical right; the Ministers of Jesus Christ are obstructed in the exercise of their most proper and indispensable duties. The assets of the Churches and Pious establishments are being squandered; it is highly likely that you can imagine for yourself the defects in the principle and customs introduced and fomented by the so-called Philosophy and Freemasonry that have been made widespread. Almost every Negro is free of the contagion of Masonry, and being of a naturally docile temperament, they could be instructed in the mysteries of the Faith and reformed in their customs. If the Government were to cooperate and if the Pastors were at liberty to preach, exhort, and reclaim Sundays as well as Feast days, the Negroes would not come to the Parish on these Holy Days and engage in commerce, about which the parish priests complain in vain. Marriages dissolve down to the bond, dispensations for diriment impediments are granted by the Government, which reserves the right to do so. Against these and other such abuses the Archbishop of San Domingo protests that, by Pontifical concession, his jurisdiction extends over all the Island, granted by the highest Authority. He is not listened to, as all must be regulated according to the organic laws of the Republic and the Napoleonic Code, which is enforced. There is also the beginning of a Schism. The President who portrays himself as reluctant to receive Missionaries from the Holy See readily welcomes Ecclesiastics who arrive there without letters of dismissal from their respective Prelates, and he, by his own authority, against the will of the Archbishop, distributes Ecclesiastical Benefices; he even assigns Parishes to Regular apostates and to Secular Sacerdotes. That is to say, everything is arbitrary and confused with regards to the Government in matters of Religion, and the Apostolic Roman Catholic Religion, which, in the constitution of Haiti, is named the State religion, seems reduced there only to the title.
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\nOn the character of the President of Haiti and on cautions made by observations about the handling of religious affairs taken by that Government.\n
\n-\n
\nI doubt that President Boyer is inclined to respond to letters sent from Rome via the usual channels. The criticism of his position among his fellow citizens perhaps does not permit him to treat in this manner. He knows what prudence he must employ in order not to upset the factions that tear apart his Country—above all, the old Heads of the revolt, who would not forgive the attempt made to procure for the Republic a system that is completely Religious and a local authority under the influence of Rome. These men, rather few in number but powerful, hold against the Religion every prejudice of our supposed strong French spirits, and these prejudices are neither moderated by education nor by customs or regard for the world. The President may even now be constrained either by the difficulty of finding a person close to him who is sufficiently capable of being sent to the Sovereign Pontiff, or by fear of the expenses required to maintain a new order of things, especially at a moment in which he needs all his resources for paying France. Finally, when asking for something, let it appear as not to cause him to spend more than or contrary to what he desires. The Character of the President and the follies of [Bishop Pierre de] Glory lend an immense weight to this last reason, especially knowing the apathy and the natural negligence of men of color, which alone are enough to make him defer both what he desires and what almost every inhabitant of the cities and countryside demands. Perhaps for these reasons his philosophic ideas latch onto Christianity, which make him regard a delay as a little relief, which meanwhile threatens the faith of his Country and may give an opening to the errors of the Methodists, those Missionaries so ardent for Reform. Without being irreligious deep at heart, the President gives the appearance of incredulity; he believes it to be good thunder in Crowned Heads and pretends to consider Religion only as a very essential political tool in places where he fears division on matters of faith. \n
\n-\n
\nThe fastest and easiest method of obtaining some good in favor of the poor population of Haiti, abandoned and exposed without defense to the undertakings of the Wolf and the Mercenary, seems to be to send some sure Person there. This expedition should be conducted secretly; the Messenger should connect…\n
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\nNote: By the Brief of July 14, 1820, the French sacerdote Pietro Glory, consecrated Bishop of Macri, was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Haiti, and precisely in the French part. The conduct of this person disappointed all the hopes that had been placed upon him in the beginning. He brought with him various young Frenchmen, who he had to ordain because they helped him in the Sacred Ministry. Imprudent, quick-tempered, and whose questionable conduct made the Government suspicious, he disgusted President Boyer, who at the beginning had courteously had lodgings prepared for him and paid his travel expenses. The result of this disgust was the personal order to Monsignor Glory to leave the island at once, as he in fact did, boarding a ship on August 20, 1821 for the United States, where he never arrived, as he drowned at sea, together with four of his young Priests, following the shipwreck of his vessel.\n
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