PM with ms notes. Ponenza [prepared for the CG of 17 February, then adjourned until 24 February 1823] in five chapters and 39 paragraphs, followed by 16 queries to be answered by PF, on the state of the church in Canada. [1] On the matter of abp. Plessis's acceptance of a seat in the Legislative Council of [Lower] Canada, his letter [to Litta] of 26 July 1818 [see SOCG 091] is recalled, in which he wrote that he had accepted the offer. After the CG of 23 November 1818 [see Acta 039], followed by [Fontana's] letter to Plessis of 13 March 1819 [see Lettere 076], four questions were submitted to the abp.. Plessis insisted on the importance of his sitting in the Council in his letters to Fontana of 10 November 1820 [see SOCG 394-396] and of 25 June 1821 [see SOCG 424].
[2] On the problem of marriages, reference is made to Plessis's letter [of 25 June 1821], dealing with Lake Champlain, Acadia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape [Breton Island]; the original of said letter was given to the cdl. ponente [Castiglioni]. [3] This deals with a marriage dispensation granted by the vicar general in Montréal, Roux, that Plessis refused to approve, and with the erection of a chapel [Sainte-Vierge] in Saint-Roch, a district of Québec; reference is made to Plessis's query of the past year [25 June 1821], to Cappellari's opinion [of 5 June 1822; see SOCG 369], to a letter to Plessis of 15 June 1822 (which the abp. has not yet answered), to the opinion of Maréchal, abp. of Baltimore, then in Rome, and to Plessis's letter of 25 June [1821].
[4] On the appointment of Lartigue as vicar general instead of full bp., Plessis insisted that the Holy See grant direct faculties to Lartigue; the Holy See answered on 20 May 1820 that that was not possible. Maréchal and Duclaux, the Sulpician Superior in Paris [in his letter of 1 April 1822; see SOCG 421], argue that Lartigue and Plessis are trying to suppress the Montréal Seminary in accordance with the wish of the British government. [5] On [A.B.] MacEachern's project, contained in his letter of l [recte 9] November 1819 [see SOCG 256], which suggested uniting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and erecting several new bishoprics.
Reference is made to Panet's appointment as coadjutor of Plessis [at the CG of] 24 [recte 21] July 1806 [see Acta 004], to the CG of [21] September [recte 23 November] 1818 [see Acta 039] which appointed Lartigue, McDonell, Provencher and MacEachern [yet Lartigue and Provencher were appointed in the CG of 24 January 1820; see Acta 046], to the CG of [21] May 1821 [see Acta 096], which deferred the appointment of Lyons as substitute for the late E. Burke as vicar apostolic in Nova Scotia, pending Plessis's opinion.