PITTSBURGH: LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

Posted on August 15, 2024 by franksantucci

“Fathers Adrien Telmon, Augustin Gaudet and the scholastic Eugène Cauvin were appointed to staff the major seminary and they left on September 15, taking over the seminary on October 3. They found that there were only six students, lodged in a poor little house which was then under repair and was destined to be an orphanage. They were there for only a few weeks, because on January 3, 1849, Father Telmon wrote to Mother Bruyère in Bytown saying that the seminary was now in another house which was also undergoing repair and he added: “So, what else have I done since my last letter? Alas! only the same as I have done since my arrival here. I build, I do carpentry, I clean, I wash, I get covered in dust, I ruin myself, I wear myself out…” Father Telmon sent news to the Sisters in Bytown and Longueuil but he wrote very little to the Founder.” (https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/pittsburgh-pennsylvania-united-states-1848-1849/). Eugene reproached him for not communicating that the Bishop had not been transparent about the real situation in the seminary – and that Telmon’s own lack of transparency had been wrong.

I beg you all to put order into your correspondence with me. You should have kept me up to date with all your activities. Never in any Congregation or Religious Order can it be maintained that local superiors might insist on not corresponding directly with their Superior General (especially when he has reminded them several times of this duty) in order to keep him informed of the state of their community, of the activities of their ministry, of the financial condition of their house, etc.

Letter to Fr. Adrien Telmon in Pittsburgh, 5 November 1848, EO I n 105

REFLECTION

“The single most important ingredient in the recipe for success is transparency because transparency builds trust.” D. Morrison

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1 Response to PITTSBURGH: LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate says:
    August 15, 2024 at 14:13

    Hear we find Eugene asking Fr. Telmon, why he had not written to him or his Superior and being truthful about what was happening to him. Whether it was out of fear or his own woundedness this has rippled through his community and slowly made it way back to Eugene de Mazenod. And I wonder what effect this was having on Fr. Augustin Gaudet.

    I am reminded of the letter that Blessed Joseph Gerard wrote to Eugene filled with the truth and disappointment he was experiencing in South Africa and of the love and support he received from Eugene’s letter to him.

    I know how quickly and I can act out of fear and my own woundedness and how this can allow me to start out on a path that can lead me to darkness and death.

    Communication takes love, daring and trust. It takes courage to share our disappointments and woundedness with others. St. Eugene knew how they were suffering because of his own times of fear and of not being heard when he was silenced by Rome during his “Icosia Affair”: this affected the whole family, the entire community at that time.

    I think again of the Oblate Tapestry that I often picture of my mind and how some of the threads and wools become weak. A patch will not work, but only with the whole community drawing that thread to be strengthened and renewed so as to again be integral with the other threads so as not to be the agent of unravelling.

    The beauty and love portrayed in that weaving will again stand in the light of the Cross and the light of the Charism shared and passed on by St. Eugene and his sons and daughters.
    It takes all of us to remain strong, whole and alive. It’s perfection is in our walking together as a congregation, as a family. This too is how we nourish not just ourselves, but each other.

    Reply

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