(Carroll), John, Bishop of
Baltimore, (Maryland)

to Bishop Luis Penalver y Cardenas
New Orleans, Louisiana

Don Joseph Jaudenez transmitted on March 29 Penalver's favors of January 15 and 27 with all the documents to which they refer. The following day Father Paul (de) St. Pierre arrived in town. Carroll congratulates Penalver on his arrival in and elevation to the See of Louisiana and assures him of his cooperation. Penalver will find by his letter of March 31 that Father Paul is returned to St. Genevieve, (Missouri) by the river Ohio with Penalver's letter to Father (James) Maxwell. On examining the papers produced by Father Paul, Carroll found that Father (Pierre Huet de) la Valiniere, Carroll's vicar general in the Illinois country some years ago, had appointed Father Paul and recognized him as a parish priest of Cahokia, (Illinois), a circumstance unknown to Carroll before. Since father Paul went to that country without any ecclesiastical mission and Carroll had not granted him faculties, Carroll got an unfavorable opinion of him when he was informed that he exercised his ministry there and instructed Father (Michael) Levadoux, (S.S.) to inquire about his conduct. But Father Paul had already left the diocese. Carroll may have given caution to the French nuns about him under this same impression. Being certified that Father Paul was empowered Carroll could not suspend Penalver's benevolent intentions toward him and delivered into his hands Penalver's letter for Maxwell. However, Carroll is obliged to add that he recommends further attention to Father Paul's conduct because of information he has been given about him, such as his worldliness, his inattention to the spiritual advantage of his parish, a neglect of receiving the Sacrament of Penance, of not reciting his breviary and a suspicion of his having forged signatures on certificates. He recommends to Penalver his proposal to build a cathedral in Baltimore, the seat of the first episcopal chair in the United States.

IV-5-h A.L.S. 4PP. 4TO.
8