October 22, 1922
On a lovely fall afternoon in October, around 3:00, a traveler arrived with boxes of wood which he delivered to the chapel, then he left right away. One woman saw him, but thought nothing of it. But that night round 8:00, the chapel was a-fire. A person was seen in the fire amidst the flames, but there was a lot of smoke. The person was dressed completely in black, and he got on his horse and rode at full speed towards the west.
My father went to look since his homestead was close to the village; he saw the black figure on a horseback but not as well as the people in the village did; he added that the moon was full and this helped, but not quite enough.
Later, containers, which had held gasoline were found. No one knew what to say; there was total dismay. The chapel had been built by the veterans …so many things to puzzle over…the more influential men of Donnelly decided to notify the bishop.
At that time, Father Josse who was responsible for the people of Donnelly would come twice a month to visit the parishioners. It was decided that the parish should write to the Bishop so he’d be made up-to-date with the happenings and they also asked him to meet with the people. The bishop replied immediately that he’d be in Donnelly on November 22 for the enthronement of Donnelly into a parish and to give it a resident priest. In the meantime, the people were to find a suitable place for the mass to be said. Then Father Josse became the resident parish priest for four years.
This letter was a victory for the Donnelly people and they were delighted.
It is not clear if the Bishop was aware of the fire before he received Father Josse’s letter, but one thing which we knew was that he would have said “ Now I know the whole affair.” (This phrase “Now I know the whole affair was in his writings.”) The Girouxville people lost their wood and the Donnelly people lost their chapel. Father Falher was replaced. Bishop Grouard felt very unhappy and uneasy about the direct and indirect actions of his secretary.
At Donnelly there was a newly built parish hall; the people converted it into a church and later is was moved to a very convenient site and it served the parish until the 1950’s. In 1951 the parishioners built a new church and everyone was very proud of it.
Come to think of it, Father Falher must have been an unhappy man in his life. In all the histories and talks, I have never found one person who claimed he was a friend of his nor that he shared anything with anyone; and he rarely came back to the area. After the enthronement of the Donnelly parish, the parishioners elected their church trustees: Mr. Philias Maisonneuve, Mr. Edouard Cimon , (my father) and Mr. Gilles Lafrance, a bachelor…but then when I think of my father who spoke to us often, he never said too much about this episode. Even if I had asked him, it would not have changed anything.
However one must say that the small Donnelly parish was often blest in a way that only the people of Donnelly and Girouxville were.
No comments:
Post a Comment