DOC~UMENTA - Sant'Alfonso e dintorni

so
A simple exposition of the facts of the case will convince your
Lordship that I have acted with perfect good faith and that I must
suppose that Fr. Petcherine has done the same.
Fr. Petcherine wrote to tell me that a young man at Oscott
had consulted him on the subject of his vocation. The young man
told him that some time before he had determined on making a retreat
in order to determine on the best manner of executing his design
of joining a Religious Order, and which he had formed for a considerable
time.
I could not suppose that at Oscott any rule prevented a student
from consulting on the affairs of his conscience a priest exercishrg
the sacred ministry under the authority of the Bishop, and as the
young man said that he had the right to spend the vacation where ever
he pleased, in order to examine him I allowed him to come to Clapham.
On conversing with him I found that having studied so little
he would with very great difficulty be admitted to the novitiate by
the superiors of our Congregation 1
and considered at the same time
the great advantages offered to him by your Lordship in giving him
his education at the expense of the diocese and which advantages
by going to Belgium he might have to renounce without our being
able to give him any assurance that he would be received in Belgium,
and added to this my wish to know what arrangements he had made
with your Lordship and my desire [for] Fr. Petcherine to consult your
Lordship or in your absence the Vicar General.
The answerthat I received was that you both were absent. We
could not keep the young man Ionger at Clapham on account of his
room being engaged for another. A Belgian gentleman, who was returning
to Belgium, wished to take him with him and as the young
man assured me that he was under no obligation to your Lordship
beyond his pension for six months which, if you required, he could
pay with his brother's assistance; considering then that he did not
belong to the diocese of Birmingham either by birth, orders or benefice
and that he has the right to spend his vacation as he thought
proper, I could not oppose his spending this where he could best become
acquainted with the life to which he thought hirnself called.
These are the facts of the case which to my great regret have
caused your Lordship so much displeasure. But how could I foresee
it since in no country, Italy, Germany, Belgium or France do seminarists
require permission from their Bishop to enter a Religious
Order. Wehave received even a young man from St. Edmund's Col-