In the face of the laws of 1828 which undermined the role of the Church in Christian education, barred religious from teaching, impeded minor seminaries, and expelled the Jesuits, Eugene was moved to action.
The decree which, by expelling the Jesuits, deprives all Christian families of the kingdom of the sole means that remains to them to have their children raised in the principles of our holy religion and to preserve their morals from the frightful contagion that the University colleges propagate, is a public crime which has as many accomplices as it has people to approve it.
To make matters worse, it was a Catholic Bishop in the government who had published these laws:
The scandal of seeing a Bishop countersign this decree and provoke it by a revolting report, is also a misdeed which it will not be easy either to expiate.
How can I express the sorrow that I feel at the sight of such great disorders? You understand, you who share so well my sentiments. It is not enough to groan, one must make resound in the entire world the voice of the strongest protests…
Letter to Henri Tempier, 24 June 1828, EO VII n 304
In Marseilles, Eugene responded with and through his uncle, Bishop Fortuné. In Aix, however, where the Oblates were influential Eugene responded as Superior General by many public acts of support for the Jesuits.
Taking a stand – Eugene was taking a stand. And I think of the many ways that we, the members of the Mazenodian Family and so many others join with the Church and with peoples of the world to take a stand. Not just in France at the time of Eugene but
even before, throughout all of time and into today. The many voices of JPIC being heard, teaching, discussing, reflecting, walking-with….
I think of the small and the big ways, whether it be marching on the White House or Parliament Hill, joining in a local Pride parade or taking part in Truth and Reconciliation activities. We do it when we become members of the White Helmets in Allepo and as we pray the Prayers of the Faithful during our Sunday liturgies. Our children too take a stand when they stand up to a bully or stand with those who are being bullied.
I think of Eugene doing it through the proper channels (through his uncle, Bishop Fortuné) with letters and support and of course prayers, and then with his Oblates and his people in Aix. It begins it seems with the small and the ordinary – the everyday stuff , then moving and growing in an outward spiral.
It’s funny how we – well I know this stuff and hear of it but do not really take it in until it is more personal – as in Eugene pointing the way. What do I stand for? Who do I stand with? How is this lived out in my life?