BUT THEY STILL LACK SOMETHING THAT THEY DESIRE WITH GREAT INTENSITY

Eugene’s petition to the Pope included the letters of support for the Oblate Rule that he had received from seven bishops.

Pope Pius VII granted liberal indulgences to the Society of Missionaries and the Bishops have not ceased to encourage their good works. It was soon necessary to expand beyond Provence and go into Dauphiné and Languedoc to respond to the wishes and concerns of the Prelates. All those in whose dioceses the Missionaries are working have approved their Rule in most flattering terms. There are seven of them. Several wanted to write this approval in their own hand so as to give in this manner more force to their honourable witness. All accompanied it with the most touching expressions of the liveliest and most sincere interest…

 But they still lack something that they desire with great intensity, that which each of them begs with greatest insistence through their spokesman, the Abbé de Mazenod, their superior: they still lack the approval of Your Holiness.

Petition to His Holiness Pope Leo XII, 8 December 1825, EO XIII n. 48