The herald., 1896-12-29
the plous fund and their secularization

the plous fund and their secularizaton
| or abolition.
| When the government expelled the
Jesuits from Mexico 1t took the picus
| fund under it's own control, and ad-
ministered it through officers appointed
by the crown. But the government rec
ognized that the fund was held by
| them for the purposes outlined. and
more or less faithfully the proceeds were
appropriated to the purposes Of the
| trust
On the independence of Mexico from
Spain, Mexico succeeded her in control
| of the pious fund, and its income was an
pl1ed to It's proper purpose down to SEN
| tenber 10, 1886, when it seemed neces-
sary to appoint bishop for the Califor-
| Mas.
! One of the Franciscan fathers. Fran
| CISCO Garcla Diego Moreno, was ap-
pointed the hrst bishop, and to him the
mexican government entrusted the
management of the pious fund, as agreed
! upon oy the government and the sover-
eign pontiH This continued until Feb
| ruary q, lS42. when SO much of the law
! OF 1886 as conflded the MANAGEMENT of
the pious fund to the bishop was abro-
| gated by decree of Santa Ana, presi-
| dent OF the republic, and the trust was
\ again devolved upon the tate.
On October "a, 1912, another decree was
| made by the same provisional presi-
oent, reciting the inconvenience of and
unnecessary expense of administering
the fund through paid public officials,
and thereupon directed that the entire
property belonging to the pious fund
be sold for the sum represented by its
income Capitalized on the basis of G
per cent per annum), that the proceeds
or the sale as well as all cash invest
ments be turned into the public treas
ury, and recognized as an obligation on
the part of the government to pay per
cent per annum on the capital thereof
thencefOrth. The sale under such cir
cumstances was necessarily at a great
sacrifice, individual favorites profiting
by it.
And as a matter of fact. though by the
decree of thus transferring to the gov
ernment the properties of the pious fund
properly so called, the sale embraced
much of the property that was the pro-
duct of years of labor and sacrifice on
the part of the missionaries and Indians,
and used for the same purposes as the
pious fund.
The sale so made realized about $2,-
100000 gold coin. That amount was
turned into the treasury Of the Mexican
government and it is supposed to be
there to the present day. From the time
Of this sale of the property of the pious
fund the interest was paid quite irregu-
larly and only with great inconvenience
to the missions until it ceased entirely
February 2, 1S4S. The first bishop died
April 80, 1S46, and it was not until 1850
that his successor was elected in the
person of Bishop J. S. Alemany after
wards Archbishop of San Francisco.
After the cession of California to the
United States by Mexico it became i'm
possible to collect the interest on the
pious fund in the ordinary way; and
Archbishop Alemany, Bishop Amat of
this diocese. and Bishop O'Connell of
Marysville, finally began a suit against
Mexico to recover the interest accord
ing to the terms made by the Mexican
government itself. The suit could be
carried on successfully only through
international negotiations. These me-
gotiations dragged along as all such
matters usually do, particularly when it
is a question of private citizens against
a government.
At last a joint commission was ap-
pointed by Mexico and by our own gov
ernment to adjudicate the claim. Sir
Edward Thornton, then British minis
ter at Washington, was mutually chosen
as umpire in the matter. and he rendered
his decision November II, 1875. BY that
decision Mexico was adjudged as owing
the pious fund the interest that had ac-
crued from the time of the cessation Of
payment up to the date of the decision.
He could not decide concerning the fu-
ture payment Though Mexico satis-
fled that Judgment in the time stipulated
by the umpire, no effort has been made
by her to pay one cent of the interest
that has accrued from 1875 to the present
moment, though the honor of the ma
ton is pledged to pay in perpetuity.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is to my
mind the secret of the secularization Of
the missions, That secularization was
nothing else than the practical abolition
of the missions, and the secularization
owes it's explanation to the cupidity Of
government to possess itself of the prop
erty of the missions. Had the missions
had no flocks nor herds, nor property CT
any kind, they would never have beea
disturbed and the history of the mis-
sions for hundred years or more show
this conclusion most clearly.
AS we know many of those missionary
structures, left without tenants robbed
of the voluntary donations to sustain
them, the Indians themselves, for one
cause or another, gradually disappear
ing, these old missionary structures, l
say, are falling into decay. 1t is the
noble purpose of your society to pre-
serve, not to restore them; to preserve
them as they are, as silent monuments
of historic interest; monuments of SELF
sacrifice, of Christian heroism and Of
| sublime spirit of humanity. This pur-
pose may be said to be based upon senri-
ment, it is true. But sentiment directed
by reason is the noblest faculty of the
soul. Mere intellectual effort unaccom-
panied by sentiment has never done
anything for mankind. And mere COM
mercial considerations, with no senti-
ment to sweeten their labors, are un-
worthy of the intelligent man. What
we of this age and nation need is sentl-
ment. We are driving at break neck
speed in intellectual and commercial
pursuits, oftentimes at the expense OF
sentiment, which enobles all these. The
heart needs cultivation. Without it
| man dwarfs his own development Our
young genration needs high ideals, and
consider the work of your club as fur
nishing field for this cultivation.
Whilst it attempts to cultivate the finer
feelings of our nature, it does so in way
to break down party lines that cause an
unnatural estrangement between men
of the same nation and the same blood
Your effort to keep before the minds of
the present and preserve to future gen.
Grafton these old monuments of pass
ing civilization cannot but be most ben
ef1ciai. We must not measure every
thing we do by the bankers scales
The very architecture of the old mis-
sions has stamped it's impress upon the
country. In fact, think we might al
most say that it is the only distinctivelv
characteristic architecture that we have.
There must be something beautiful in
it, for it is copied with little modifica-
tiOn into many structures of the stara