In 1826 Eugene went to the Pope with the Rule which the Oblates had been living for nearly 10 years to ask for approbation.
At that moment, the Church was not approving new congregations, but as Eugene was kneeling next to the Pope and talking enthusiastically about what the Missionaries were doing in France, the Pope, at a certain moment, closed his eyes in prayer. Reopening them he said “I want you to go to the Cardinals with this Rule”
The next day the Pope told the Cardinal “This society pleases me, I know the good it does and I wish to favor it.” In prayer he had discerned the work of God in the Oblates.
Saint Eugene writing immediately to the Oblates in France, with the joyful news of our recognition by the Church, wrote these words about the Rule.
They are not an unimportant detail, they are no longer simple regulations, merely pious directions; they are Rules approved by the Church after most minute examination.
Thus it was on the 17th of February that the Church officially recognized that it was the Spirit of God that inspired these Rules, and that the work of Eugene de Mazenod and the Oblates was not a human creation. It was a group that had been brought about by God. It was a recognized charism in the Church.
They have been judged holy and eminently suited to lead those who have embraced them to their goal.
The Rule is the way we live the Gospel: in the light of our charism of evangelizing the poor and most abandoned.
They have become the property of the Church that has adopted them. The Pope, by approving them, has become their guarantor.
Our charism does not belong to us, but to the Church. The Constitutions and Rules are our expression of the charism and they belong to the Church and not to us.
He whom God has used to draw them up disappears; it is certain today that he was merely the mechanical instrument which the Spirit of God put into play in order to show the path he wanted to be followed by those whom he had predestined and preordained for the work of his mercy, in calling them to form and maintain our poor, little and modest Society.
Eugene realized that he has been an instrument of God in bringing the Oblates and our Rule to birth.
While it is the Rule of the Missionary Oblates, it captures the spirit of St Eugene and is thus the foundation of the spirit and mission of our Mazenodian Family, who are an integral part of the charism.
Happy Feastday to each of you!
Alerted that the angry citizens, furious with the result of the elections, which they attribute to the influence of the bishop and of the clergy, are to come tonight to smash the windows of the episcopal residence and to insult me. I will not leave my residence for this and I am ready and waiting.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 27 April 1848, EO XXI
The next day he wrote:
God has just saved us from a great misfortune. It was something quite different from breaking windows that the scoundrels under the orders of certain agitators had in mind.
The plot, which has now been uncovered, was to set fire to the port and the bishop’s palace, and while help was on the way, the conspirators intended first to plunder the Pawnbrokers’ Shop and then the whole town. Theft and murder would have accompanied this horrible disorder. The conspirators had gathered in a house located in the crossroads parallel to the Avenue des Capucines. It was there that the National Guard, who had already arrested some of those on their way to the appointment, seized a large number who were armed to the teeth and equipped with incendiary torches. The newspapers are full of details of this atrocious conspiracy
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 28 April 1848, EO XXI
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“What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by an assassin’s bullet. No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled or uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.” (Robert Kennedy)
April 23: Holy day of Easter. General elections. No episcopal office nor High Mass. I went to vote for the first time since I have been bishop.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 23 April 1848, EO XXI
Despite the progressive euphoria of the Republican Party, the more influential classes had swung to the right and the conservative Party of Order won an overwhelming victory. The majority of the clergy in France had also supported this swing, including Bishop Eugene. Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon I, became the President of the Second Republic.
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“When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,’ be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. (Deuteronomy 17:14 -15)
“Organising free and fair elections is more important than the result itself.” (Fatos Nano)
On the Sunday of the General Elections, the faithful will do their utmost to reconcile the duty of hearing Mass with that of casting their vote; those for whom this would be impossible are exempt from the obligation to hear Mass, on the grounds of the paramount importance of their electoral duty. The parish priests will explain this article to them, and will schedule Mass at the most favorable times.
Pastoral letter from the Bishop of Marseilles, on the occasion of the general elections and the forthcoming opening of the National Assembly, March 20, 1848
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Fr. René Motte OMI commented on this:
“The elections were held in the chief town of the canton. This obliged the inhabitants of the villages to spend a lot of time going to the voting center and returning home, by cart or on foot. This is why Bishop de Mazenod exempted from Sunday Mass those who could not observe the double obligation, Sunday Mass and voting. Now this Sunday, April 23, 1848, was Easter Sunday. And we know that for Bishop de Mazenod Easter is the center of the liturgical year.
We can admire the freedom of St. Eugene who puts the responsibility for the poor, and thus their dignity, before the observance of a religious rite, even if that rite is of primary importance, the Easter Sunday Mass. This example is also an invitation to reflect on the scale of values that directs our lives: the dignity of the poor before a serious law. One must be truly free to make this choice.” (Unpublished writing)
We urge you all to do so, confident that this great act of your social life will be performed in the sight of the Lord, with a spirit of duty and according to the impulses of a conscience strongly dominated by a brotherly love for one another, without exception.
Pastoral letter from the Bishop of Marseilles, on the occasion of the general elections and the forthcoming opening of the National Assembly, March 20, 1848
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Bishop Eugene did not suggest any candidate to be voted for; the choice was a matter of personal conscience. But what enlightens and guides the conscience is the call to charity.
“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” (Lyndon B. Johnson)
We continue to read Bishop Eugene’s Pastoral Letter to the people of Marseilles on the forthcoming elections:
You will therefore strive, our dear brothers, to implore heaven by your most fervent supplications, but you will not restrict yourselves to expressing a feeling of piety and trust at the foot of the altars, you will also not neglect the obligations of another kind which are imposed on you in the name of France; you will exercise the legal action which belongs to you, and you will cast your vote in the ballot box, from which, humanly speaking, the salvation of the fatherland must emerge.
Pastoral letter from the Bishop of Marseilles, on the occasion of the general elections and the forthcoming opening of the National Assembly, March 20, 1848
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“A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.” (Thomas Jefferson)
Religion, whose interests are above those of this world, as much as the soul is above the body, also shows us its sacred cause closely linked to that of the country…
May the Lord grant his Church that justice may inspire all the resolutions to which she will be subject! Then, in her contact with new institutions, or in her confident attitude towards them, she will be able to communicate to them something of that vital virtue which springs from her bosom. Then, what is sick in society will be healed, and divine approval will be granted to what must last. Then, but only then, will God’s eyes rest with complacency on the work of His mercy, as they once did when He saw that the work of His creative word was good, “and God saw that it was good”»,(Gen 1:10), and the heavenly blessing will descend powerful and unceasing to make peace reign among us in strength, as well as abundance of prosperity under the protection of our laws: ” Peace be within your walls and security within your towers.” (Ed Psalm 122:7)!
Pastoral letter from the Bishop of Marseilles, on the occasion of the general elections and the forthcoming opening of the National Assembly, March 20, 1848
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In a world that might say one vote doesn’t matter…it does matter because each person is of infinite worth and value to God… Your vote is a declaration of importance as a person and a citizen.” (Dr. James Dobson)
Eugene saw the positive train of events taking place in France as contributing to a participation God’s plan of salvation for all.
But in order for the Almighty hand, that has designed these divine plans from all eternity, to unfold them before our eyes and ensure their perfect realization, we must ensure that “the Creator Spirit, who is sent from on High and works here below as a second creation”, who in the days of the Apostles “renewed the face of the earth” (Ps 103-104,30), is poured out on the men elected to represent the nation, and gives them the wisdom and strength of which He is the source.
Pastoral letter from the Bishop of Marseilles, on the occasion of the general elections and the forthcoming opening of the National Assembly, March 20, 1848
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“Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.” (Khalil Gibran)
Eugene saw the positive train of events taking place in France as contributing to a participation God’s plan of salvation for all.
But in order for the Almighty hand, that has designed these divine plans from all eternity, to unfold them before our eyes and ensure their perfect realization, we must ensure that “the Creator Spirit, who is sent from on High and works here below as a second creation”, who in the days of the Apostles “renewed the face of the earth” (Ps 103-104,30), is poured out on the men elected to represent the nation, and gives them the wisdom and strength of which He is the source.
Pastoral letter from the Bishop of Marseilles, on the occasion of the general elections and the forthcoming opening of the National Assembly, March 20, 1848
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“Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.” (Khalil Gibran)
The National Assembly would construct a new constitution, which Eugene portrayed as an invisible building encompassing all the citizens of France. Its builders and protectors would be the politicians in the National Assembly. He invited the people of Marseilles to see God’s role in this building process
A new structure is to be erected, bringing the children of France under its roof as one family. Could we not ask the Lord “to build this house himself, which men would build in vain without him” (Ps 126-127,1)? If a new city is to be built, and we are to be its inhabitants, is it not necessary that, after inspiring and empowering the builders, “he himself should guard this city, over which without him those who guard it would watch in vain” (Ps 126-127,2).
Yes, our dearest brothers, those who are sent to work on the constitution of France are called to become, if they faithfully and holily fulfill their mandate, the very cooperators of a merciful Providence, the visible instruments of its invisible action. They will then truly be “God’s ministers for good” (Rom 13:1). What an important mission! And how interested we are in their unreserved dedication to it, animated by the most sincere and generous zeal for the fatherland! May they happily fulfill this glorious mission, according to the loving plans of “our Father in heaven” (Mt 6:9)!
Pastoral letter from the Bishop of Marseilles, on the occasion of the general elections and the forthcoming opening of the National Assembly, March 20, 1848
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“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote…that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” (Samuel Adams)
