Perhaps the greatest reason for the success of their confession ministry came because they followed the moral theology of St. Alphonsus Liguori that was founded on the loving and healing mercy of God. In a society imbued with Jansenism, the ministry of the Oblates touched the hearts of people and led them not to a God who was a severe and punishing judge, but to a God who was Saviour, and whose most prominent attributes were desire for the salvation of sinners.
Remember that you are sent to sinners, and even to hardened sinners. You must expect resistance from the devil; he will not easily let go of his prey. This resistance manifests itself now in one way, and now in another. Jesus Christ is always the victor…
This is all that we desire, this is the result of and compensation for our labours. We are the ministers of his mercy, and so let us always have the tenderness of a father towards all; let us easily forget the insults that are sometimes committed against us in the exercise of our ministry as the good Lord wishes to forget the offences continually being committed against him.
Letter to Eugene Guigues, 20 February 1837, O.W. IX, n. 605
The unfailing insistence of the Oblates on this truth and this methodology was to lead them into conflict with bishops and priests, particularly while they were at the shrine of Notre Dame du Laus – but they never abandoned this approach.