{"id":4796,"date":"2021-07-05T02:00:57","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T00:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=4796"},"modified":"2021-06-20T23:07:07","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T21:07:07","slug":"men-so-imperfect-who-have-deceived-my-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=4796","title":{"rendered":"MEN SO IMPERFECT WHO HAVE DECEIVED MY HOPES"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have seen the optimistic and lofty ideals and the dreams of Eugene and the missionaries regarding the first group of Oblates sent to Canada. Now, one year later, the cracks began to appear. It is normal in any human enterprise to encounter misunderstanding, to fail, to blame others, and to experience discouragement. Eugene, however, did not take kindly to this behaviour and his passionate nature shows in his reaction.<\/h3>\n

One of the missionaries in Canada, the 28-year-old Lucien Lagier, had been negatively influenced by another member of the team and had written a fault-finding letter to some people in Europe which had come to Eugene’s attention.<\/h3>\n
\n

I have read a letter from this little Lagier which should be handed to the flames by the executioner, so unworthy is it even of a man who has retained only the initial notions of his duties. I have bowed to the law of necessity in sending so far, to fulfil so fine a mission, men so imperfect who have deceived my hopes and who have worked to destroy what God had founded. I am sick with disappointment.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Letter to Fr. Francois Bermond, 8 September 1842, EO I n 12<\/em><\/p>\n

Eugene continued to boil as he poured his feelings into his private diary:<\/h3>\n
\n

Things would not go less well in America if Fr. Baudrand had not sown this internal division which inspired in poor Lucien Lagier this foolish letter…<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Here is the letter which this young brother has the insolence to write to me. It is good to safeguard such documents for the judgment that must be passed on false men whom hell has introduced among us\u2026what insolence, to dare say this in front of his superior, to a bishop, to teach him his duty which, according to him, he has failed to observe, whereas no one has ever read in the rule such a command contrary to good sense and to the basic rudiments of regular administration.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eugene de Mazenod\u2019s Diary, 20 September 1842, EO XXI<\/em><\/p>\n

Eugene’s irritation and disappointment with Fr Lagier did not last long and he recognized the goodness of this missionary who gave the next 32 years of his life in generous and successful service to the people of Canada.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have seen the optimistic and lofty ideals and the dreams of Eugene and the missionaries regarding the first group of Oblates sent to Canada. Now, one year later, the cracks began to appear. It is normal in any human … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}