The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-02-12
THE GLOBE
TO Be CONsECRATED
THE STORY OF BISHOP BLAN-
cHET's EFFORTS TO RECEIVE
CONSIDERATION AS FIRST VICAR
APOSTOLIC OF OREGON.

In the first of series of articles
on the Chronology of the Catholic
Hierarchy in the United States" which
Bishop Corrigan, of Baltimore, has pre-
pared for the Catholic Historical Re
view" there is given very interest
| ing and curious fact about the conse-
Grafton of Bishop Francis n. Blanchet,
the first Vicar Apostolic of Oregon
When the Vicariate Apostolic of
Oregon was established in December,
1S43, Father Blanchet was appointed
Vicar Apostolic and titular Bishop of
Philadelphia. Upon representation to
Rome that his title was apt to lead to
confusion with the Bishop of Phila-
delphia, at that time the Most Rev.
Francis Patrick Kenrick, he was
transferred to Drasa The news of
his appointment reached him in the
autumn of 1914; and he was confront
ed with the serious difficulty of finding
a Bishop to consecrate him. The
nearest Bishops were in Mexico, Que
bee and the eastern section of the
States. Bishop Blanchet went to Mon
treal by way of Honolulu, Cape Horn,
London and Boston and was conse-
Grated by Bishop Bourget, of Mon
treal, July 25, 1S45, after journey
of $4,000 miles. Such a voyage in
itself is historic, but there is even
a more interesting side to it still.
Bishop Macdonald, of Victoria, B.
c., in letter to. one of the editors of
the Catholic Historical Review"
writes as follows:
Father Blanchet's circumnavigation
of the globe in quest of a consecrat-
ing prelate, as it came to me, is rather
more romantic. got it few years
ago from the Very Rev. P. F. Hyle-
bos, of Tacoma, Wash, who had it
himself from the lips of Archbishop
Blanchet. Receiving from Rome in
August, 1874, the letters appointing
him Vicar Apostolic Of Oregon and
titular Bishop ofs4s1iladelphia, Father
Blanchet made his way alone to the
nearest Bishop, somewhere in Mexico.
On his arrival he produced his papers,
which were authentic, indeed, but
there was no one to identify him, and
he could not be consecrated. Not
being able to find a ship going at once
around the Horn he took passage to
Honolulu, where he boarded bark
bound for some port in France. On
landing there, after a voyage of six
months, he went at once to the near
est Bishop, but he again faced the
same difficulty-there was no one to
identify him. He then proceeded to
Liverpool, whence he sailed to Boston,
and from there went by rail to Mon
treal, where at last he was identified
and consecrated. What were the
voyages of Aeneas-'m 'multum lille ct
terris jactatus ct alto'-compared with
those of the apostle of Oregon!"
Worn out with the long and hard
campaigns of his diocesan work, Arch
bishop Blanchet resigned his see in
1880, and died June Is, 1883. His
successor, Archbishop John Seghers,
was murdered during a visitation of
his archdiocese in 1886. There is
noble list of these early warriors in
the City of God in America awaiting
the pen of the biographer-the Blan-
chefs of Oregon, the Kenricks, Seq
hers, the convert Bishops Wood,
Bayley, Young and Curtis and the two
American Bishops to be made Car
dinals, Cheverus (Boston) and Persico
(Savannah), after their return to their
native land.
Catholic school and college COM
mencements will be in preparation dur
ing this spring, adds the Catholic
Standard and Truth" of Philadelphia,
and how much better it would be to
allow our young men and women to
bring these old memories back again
to their audiences rather than the
usual sophomore attempts to settle
the complex problems of the day.