With permission of his superior, given by letter of September 20, Ruland sets down the following points with regard to the petition of the bishop of Detroit. The Redemptorists in the United States have 11 houses which are at the same time mission-stations, from them many excellent missionaries have perished, and there are not enough men to replace them. The Superior of their American Province is disturbed. A vigorous novitiate in their American Province is not wanting, nevertheless, to be successful at least 6 or 8 years are required. As a suitable remedy he is abandoning those stations in which a few of the Fathers remain alone, and which admit no hope of becoming regular. Their stations in Detroit and Monroe are of this condition so Father George Ruland acting Superior of the American Province having received instructions as of March of this year, proceeded to the suppression of these stations. In Detroit, a new reason was added when the Bishop of Detroit recently bought property to build a new German church although the number of Catholic Germans in this city scarcely exceeds 3,000. The building of a new German church would always deprive their Fathers of the necessary means of support. On June 5, the Provincial wrote Lefevere that they were giving up the aforesaid two missions. Lefevere replied in a most vehement letter which the Redemptorist superiors considered unjust. Lefevere in July came to Baltimore and personally asked that Ruland would defer the execution of the mandate, saying that he would write Ruland later. On July 21, and on August 18, he was prepared for any sacrifice whatsoever, provided that the Bishop on his part agreed to two really just and fair conditions: the first, the suppression of the station in Monroe; the second condition, as to the station in Monroe; the second condition, as to the station in Detroit, that the bishop should agree to such arrangements that are necessary to their physical existence and morale. On July 28, Lefevere asked Propaganda that Rome compel their Congregation to continue and be restrained by an edict from giving up the aforesaid stations. The bishop asked that the Congregation undertake an agreement to administer the stations or parishes in Detroit and Monroe for a period of 500 years. But the bishop attributes the giving of these parishes to them to the entreaties of some of the Fathers. The bishop claims the Redemptorists are opening a new house in California. This Ruland denies. As to Detroit, there exists no document whatever signed by a member of their Congregation but merely a record of the bishop by which he had assigned Father Peter Czackert, C.SS.R. , superior of the Fathers in America, and his legitimate successors for 500 years, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Detroit. But an obligation of this kind according to the rules of law demand not tacit but expressed and formal consent. But the Superiors of the American Province never indeed had this intention, nor are they able to have it. Ruland mentions certain other documents about accidental revenues, such as the instruction of July 16, 1845 in which the Bishop gave the Church farms to three Fathers of their Congregation for the price of one dollar, required by American Law, and therefore valid, for 300 years under the condition that one or more Fathers should regularly and rightly provide the spiritual needs for the Catholic community in Monroe. This instruction the Provincial at least approved, but by the approval he did not oblige their Congregation to anything else, nor could he. If Ruland cannot any longer fulfill this condition he is certainly held to restore the land. But from this agreement can it be deduced that the Congregation cannot dismiss the aforesaid care of souls for 300 years, and its revenues. Ruland said the bishop did not make these stations or quasiparishes in Detroit and Monroe as canonically incorporated parishes of their Congregation. They will restore to the bishop the above mentioned land of 25 acres, the usufruct of which was granted to them. They will return likewise both churches, not only in their former condition, but improved. Ruland cannot see why the bishop complains. The subject is of the greatest importance to all religious orders so that their houses may form regular communities, in which, under the vigilance of local superiors, regular discipline may be observed, because otherwise, religious will be carried off gradually by zeal and fervor. Another general reason for their action is the success of their missions. But, however, the introduction of this system is rendered impossible if their Congregation could abandon no station which it had at any time accepted. The ministry in North America must be exercised in three languages, English, German, and French and only a few missionaries know perfectly all three languages. They do not ask leisure and pleasant life and scarcely anyone who knows their Congregation in North America will refuse them proof that they are overburdened nor do they ask temporal reward for missions do not suffice for emoluments of that King. They ask and desire only those conditions of their existence by which the discipline and spirit of their Institute should be preserved. Therefore, most humbly and urgently Ruland begs the Sacred Congregation in no way assent to the petition of the Bishop of Detroit. L. Copy Latin 6pp. 4to. :: III-2-i A.L.S. French L. Copy Latin 7pp. 4to.