Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

---

1855

pg 268            It would be a mistake to think that we feel the least 
             resentment against our Fathers.  We have sincerely regretted the 
             pain that we seem to have caused them and the impossibility in 
             which they placed us of doing the good that we hoped and desired 
             to do and to advance the interests of the Congregation.  But in 
             the eyes of God merit is not always gauged by success nor by the 
             development of an enterprise.  We sincerely desired and sought the 
             good; this is all that we can say or wish to say.  May God be 
             thanked even for this good desire with which he has inspired us.  
                  When the V. R. Father requested F. Sorin to resume charge of 
             the house of New Orleans, it was not a favor that he was granting, 
             but a burden he was imposing, and which called for devotedness 
             rather than eagerness on the part of the Lake.  This is the origin 
             of the great mistake of Ste. Croix.
                  It was not F. Sorin's business to dictate to the Rector what 
             arrangements he should make with the asylum to prepare them [the 
             people at the asylum?] for the change he was about to make, 
             especially as his opinion was not asked.  It was for F. Sorin to