The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-09-03
The Gufbord Case ia .uon,reaig

comply with the order of the Queen
Privy Council directing the Fabriqu,
Of Notre Dame TO permit the remains
of S. GUIBoRD to be Inferred in the
coDsecrated ground of the parish GENE
terry, will attract renewed attention u
a case which has already excited grea
interest on both sides of the Atlantic
In November, 1869, IA printer named
GUIBoRD died in Montreal, and hi
widow made application to have his re
mains buried in the family lot in th'
Roman Catholic cemetery in the parish
of Notre Dame. GUIGoRD was Catho
lie, but he belonged to literary society
called the Canadian Institute, which
was under the ban of the church because
It's library contained books aud newspa
pers condemned by the clergy and the
parish priest, by direction of his bishop
refused to grant the application. Al
the same time the applicant was IN
formed that her husband could DE
buried in unconsecrated ground within
the same cemetery.
The members of the Canadian lnsti-
tutc. who represent large party OF
Catholics in Canada who have fallen
under ecclesiastical ceDsure, determined
to make this test case, and carried the
matter into the civil courts. 1t should
be understood that to the terms of the
oession of Canada to Great Britain by
the French in 1853 it was stipulated
that the worship of the Roman Catholic
religion should remain free, unrestricted,
and without interference from any
source, and that the Catholic clergy
should continue 10 receive their rights
and dues In the long litigation which
followed the Institution of the suit of
the widow GUIBoRD, the precise mesn-
ing of these treaty stipulations was fully
discussed, and finally, the case having
been carried through various courts to
the Queens Privy Council for final de.
cision, decree was made that GUIBoRD
should be buried in consecrated ground
under penalty not exceeding $4,000,
but without ecclesiastical ceremonies.
The announcement of the decision
last fall created great excitement in
Montreal but in time this subsidized, as
the ecclesiastical authorities were not
called upon to obey it. In fact, the
decree of the Privy Council has not yet
reached Montreal in official form. But
a correspondence between Father RoUs.
sELoT and Mr. JOSEPH DoUTRE, the lead.
ing counsel for the widow GUBoRD,
which has just been published in that
city, has caused renewed ebullition of
feeling upon this conflict between civil
ana ecclesiastical authority.
Ii seems that some months ago Mr..
DoUrRE made proposition to the effect
that if the Fabrique wished to execute
the judgment of the Privy Council
without waiting for the arrival Of the
decree, it should be done privately, with.
ont previous notice to the public, so as
70 AVOID all noise and demonstration.
Twenty or thirty witnesses would see
tina; the law was carried out, and not
until the next day should the fact be
announced to the public. IL does not
appear that any notice OF this PROPOSE
tion was taken at the time; but on
Monday last Father RoUssELoT address.
cd 70 Mr.. DoUTRE letter, in which be
distinctly asserted that he woulI not
permit the burial of GUIBoRD in couse.
Grated ground under any circumstances
whatever, his bishop, The only compe-
tent authority, having forbidden it.
In this letter Father RoUssELoT ut
terly repudiates the pretensions OF the
civil authorities to interfere in the mat
ter, and Indignantly upbraids Mr.. DoU.
TRE for taking the case into the civil
courts. We quote his language:
When, in November, 1862 obeying
the order which was given me, | refuse
burial to the deceased, YOU
my dear sir, permit me to tell you, as
Catholic, should have submitted your
self. or if truly you believed you had
reason to complain of the Bishop of
and of me, you should have
carried this affair, not before the civil
courts, but before the superior ecclesi-
.stical tribunals, to His Grace the
Archbishop of the Province, to the Holy |
See, to our holy Father the Pope the
only competent judges in this order of
,hings. Ifyou arc a. Catholic, your duty,
q effect, is to submit yourself to the
avs aud to the authority Of your Church;
f you are no longer a Catholic, then
cave the Church quiet, and ask nothing
more Of it. 1t seems to me that every |
wise man must agree with me in this.
At the present time | acknowledge, no
more than in 1869, the right of the civil
courts to intervene in questions which |
lelong wholly to ecclesiastical authority, |
ND, Notwithstanding my profound re.
pect for our gracious sovereign, and my
,erfeot submission to her authority in
of the civil order, | am, and
hall be obliged to refuse burial to j.
iuBoRD in consecrated ground. so long
IS my bishop forbids it"
To this epistle Mr.. DoUTRE replied
n fierce onslaught upon the priest,
.ccus;ng him of having been encouraged |