Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1902 — CATHOLIC CHURCH SUES MEXICO [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CATHOLIC CHURCH SUES MEXICO

Claims Nearly $1,000,000 Due for the Support of Missionaries. Archbishop ljiordnn of San Francisco has sued the Mexican government before tbe international court at The Hague for

the interest on California’s pious fund. The sum involved is ¥990,802.77. This fund has a curious history and goes back to - tireyear 1G97, when it was started by pious people to enable the Jesuit missionaries to carry on their work in what is now New Mexico and California. The Jesuits

were the trustees of the fund, but when they were expelled from Spanish dominions in 1767 all, their property, including this fund, was seized by the crown, which after that administered this pious fund, and the Franciscan friars were given charge of the missions. When Mexico won her independence from Spain the trust of the pious fund was transferred by Spain to the republic. There were twenty-one missions sup-

ported by it, from San Diego, founded in 1769, to San Rafael, founded in 1847, when California was nnnexed to the United States. In the meatitime Mexico had wild the'properties ot the pious fund in 1842 and turned ihe proceeds into the national treasury, stipulating to pay the church authorities 0 per cent interest on the capital sum in perpetuity. When Upper California .was ceded to the United States by the treaty of Querethro, Mexico ceased to pay it its portion of the interest on the pious fund. Churcfi authorities made a claim for these arrears before a mixed commission organized by tbe convention of 1868. Sir Edward Thornton, the umpire of the commission. gave judgment against Mexico for $48,080.99, with arrears-for twentyone years amounting in all to $901,700. Since then there have been no payments, and Archbishop Riordan is now going before the international court at The Hague to claim the money which has piled up since the church authorities in California obtained their last contribution for the pious fund after Sir Edward Thornton’s finding in their behalf.

ABP. RIOBDAN.

SAN GABRIEL MISSION, BUIL T WITH A PART OF THE FUND.