May 27: On a Mission

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader Podcast. Today is May 27th, and our story is On a Mission. In February 1776, Father John Carroll received a letter from his cousin Charles Carroll. The Continental Congress had commissioned Charles Carroll to travel north to Quebec, along with Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Chase, in an attempt to secure Canadian support for the American Revolution.

Carroll thought their mission to the largely Catholic country might benefit from having a priest along, so he invited Father Carroll to accompany them. Father Carroll consented, albeit reluctantly, writing, I have observed that when the ministers of religion leave the duties of their profession to take a busy part in political matters, they generally fall into contempt and sometimes even bring discredit to the cause in whose service they are engaged. The priest also knew that the Canadians would never support their cause.

In the years leading up to the American Revolution, anti-Catholic prejudices ran high in the American colonies, and Great Britain's 1774 decision to grant Canadian Catholics religious freedom only made matters worse. Since then, every town hall and colonial assembly in America, including the Continental Congress, had been denouncing the British crown in Canadian Parliament as Popish heretics? Now that same Continental Congress wanted Father Carroll to convince Canadian Catholics that they had nothing to fear from America? It wasn't going to happen. The mission was over in a month, a disaster from first to last.

Then, on the way home, Franklin fell ill, and the party split. Charles Carroll and Chase continued on to Philadelphia, while Father Carroll stayed with Franklin, nursing him back to health. Franklin expressed his gratitude for that in a letter dated May 27, 1766, writing, I could hardly have got so far but for Mr. Carroll's friendly assistance and tender care of me.

He expressed the same gratitude seven years later when the papal nuncio consulted Franklin, then serving as America's ambassador in Paris, about the matter of appointing America's first bishop. Franklin, without hesitation, endorsed his friend John Carroll, helping ensure Carroll's appointment and bring about perhaps the only good thing to come of the otherwise ill-fated Canadian mission.

Father Carroll's example shows that the measure of our actions is not always immediate success, but the character and virtue we exhibit. Today, consider how you can offer selfless service to someone, even when outcomes are uncertain. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, May 28th, for another story of faith and courage in America.