----- Original Message ----- From: <VCrawf@aol.com> To: <ILSTANNE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 10:43 PM Subject: [ILSTANNE] deathbed second-thoughts? part 1 > > Here's the article I promised Bill la Fountain some time ago - didn't find it > till this minute. It had been given me by my cousin Margaret Bedard along > with other papers, and wasn't on the surface. Sorry, Bill - now it's coming > your way. > > But I think most everyone will be interested, since this is part of the > continuing story of the division of the St. Anne area community due to Fr. > C.P.T. Chiniquy's rejection of the Roman Catholic church (and its rejection > of him) and his establishment of the Christian Catholic Church in 1859. > > It is probably not surprising that those who blamed Chiniquy for the upheaval > and ill will and family acrimony and feuds that were the results of those > actions would like to have seen Chiniquy recant and repent and want to return > to the RC church. The Church, too, had a vested interest in showing that > Chiniquy subsequently realized he had been wrong and a failure as a leader > and that he now feared the torments of a Roman Catholic hell. > > Well, it developed that one of Chas. Chiniquy's nieces, a daughter of Achille > Chiniquy, became a Roman Catholic nun. The story went that she was > instructed to try to gain entry to Chiniquy's home in Montreal when he was > near death in 1899, in the hope and expectation that she could be a witness > to his recanting the faith he had embraced and seeking again to embrace Roman > Catholicism. > > I'll return to this story later, as I have some clippings from the Kankakee > papers about her visits. To end any suspense: Charles Chiniquy maintained > to the end his faith in the protestant beliefs he had outlined in founding > the new church, and he died peacefully in his bed, full of years (90) and > honors. > > But anyway, there were those who pursued the very members of the Christian > Catholic Church (which in its St. Anne identity became Presbyterian) to see > if any would turn back to their old beliefs when death approached. The > newspapers, which at that time could and did print just about anything > without fear of reprisal, were hungry for this kind of stuff and were not > above inventing it where reality did not provide enough zing. (Wasn't this > around the time the Hearst papers single-handedly manufactured the > Spanish-American War out of whole cloth?) Of course, some of what the > papers wrote could actually have been true. > > So now you have the background for what this clipping tells us about the Rev. > La Fountaine - who is not related to Bill of this list, so far as I > understand, but for the co-incidence of the surname. > > The clipping is dated 18 March 1903, Kankakee Daily Reporter. But I've > gone on too long and will have to send you part 2 tomorrow. > > Oh, the suspense! > > Salut to all, from > > Ginny > > Ginny Crawford > listowner-administrator, ILSTANNE list > > > ============================== > Ancestry.com now has more than 200,000 subscribers! To celebrate, > access to ALL of Ancestry.com will be free from July 18 to July 31! > http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/freepromo.asp?sourcecode=A11AM