The View from Rome: Archbishop Stagni's 1915 Reports on the Ontario Bilingual Schools Question

Susan McKnight is an administrator of the Courts Technology Integrated Justice Project at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.

In the early years of the 20th century, Ontario faced a growing conflict
between English- and French-speaking Catholics over the use of French in
Ontario’s separate-school system. The main problem was deciding if
this was a religious issue or a political/racial issue. Powered by
well-meaning French priests, the Association canadienne-francaise
d’education d’Ontario and the newspaper Le Droit asked the Bishops
of Ontario to intervene, a request that led to the involvement of
Archbishop Pellegrino Stagni, Apostolic Delegate to Canada.

John Zucchi, a professor of history at McGill University, has
translated the reports Archbishop Stagni wrote on both the bilingual
school issue in Ontario in 1915 and the specific situation in Ottawa.
These reports were sent to Pope Benedict XV with the hope that words
from the Vatican would be able to defuse the conflict between English-
and French-speaking Catholics. The French-speaking Catholics felt that
Regulation 17 was denying them their right to educate their children in
their mother tongue and forcing them to give up their language, thus
leading to loss of their Catholic faith.

Stagni’s letters and reports are written in a straightforward yet
reverent style. He includes extensive historical background and
information on legislation pertaining to the status of both English and
French in Ontario and Quebec, clearly pointing out the differences. His
reports display extensive research and many discussions with parties
from both sides of the argument. Although he does not state a final
solution, he demonstrates the need for understanding, compassion, and
recognition that this is a linguistic rather than religious issue.

The View from Rome is a highly interesting look at the history of both
the education system in Ontario and the relationship between the Irish
Catholics in Ontario and the French Catholics who were trying to move
from Quebec to Ontario. The book includes explanatory notes and a
detailed introduction that sets the stage for the reports that follow.
In addition, there are eight appendixes containing documents cited in
the text and the final chapter contains the 1916 letter from Pope
Benedict XV to the Bishops of Canada.