Eugene was not satisfied and not prepared to wait until the matter came before Parliament in the distant future (if ever it would have). By now everyone in Aix knew why he was in Paris, and he could not return there empty-handed and become the laughing stock of all who opposed him. Consequently on 31 July he renewed his approach in a letter to the Minister:
If I return to my diocese without bringing back some little sign of Government approval, I will have lost half of my effectiveness and even run the risk of seeing the priests united around me become discouraged, return to their homes and some may even leave the kingdom as they had considered doing before I attracted them to myself; and then we would have to forsake all the benefits that religion, society and the State could expect from their zeal.
He sets forth the good done by the Missionaries, not only for the Church but also for the good of the Kingdom:
I view the little known ministry which I have undertaken as being of the greatest importance in the present circumstances, not only for the good of religion but for the service of the King and public order… But I do not want to hide from Your Lordship that, in order to bring about the immense good assured us by the first success Providence has granted us, I must be invested not only with the confidence of ecclesiastical superiors, such as they have granted me without restriction up to the present, but also with the approval of the Government for which I have been working as efficaciously as I have been for the Church.
Until Parliament gave legal approbation to the Missionaries, Eugene asked for a royal ordinance from the King that would grant him some form of official recognition:
… I will limit my request at this time, what, I almost dare to say, I claim as a recompense for my zeal, is that the King can at least, by a provisional ordnance and until a law definitively determines the manner of this establishment’s existence, authorize the Abbé de Mazenod to join with several priests of good will in the former house of the Carmelites at Aix in order to devote themselves to the religious instruction of youth and to travel from there into the parishes of cities and especially of the countryside which are calling to their ministry for help.
Letter to M. Lainé, Minister of the Interior, 31 July 1817, O.W. XIII n.9