The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 6

QfMany Things by Edgar Andrew Collard The old Church of Notre Dame tie Grace Founded Junt 3. 1778 Punted end Published bv Gouttt PrintmQ Company tLirrited 000 St. Antoine Stteef, Montreal 101 A Southam Newspaper Charles H. Peters Publisher Denis Harvey J. Peter Kohl John Meyer Executive Editor General Manager Editor Second elosj moil regulation number 0619.

All right! of republication reserved Saturday, July 8, 1972 SKETCHBOOK MTA demeans itself The common front would probably not have respected a formal decision not to participate in the strike. It did not respect such a decision on the part of the English-speaking Catholic teachers, many of whom were forcibly kept out of their schools. But what is the respect of the common front worth, especially if it is sought through loyal compliance with demands that it had no right to make? It is time for the MTA to stop playing this game. It should be healing its wounds; instead, it is aggravating them. It is punishing teachers who refused to join in a strike action which they realized was not designed to promote the interests of themselves and their colleagues.

The MTA is not dealing here with minor and isolated problems of syndical discipline. It is deepening the bitterness and the divisions among the members it is supposed to serve. There are times when it is unwise for an association to use powers it may possess to coerce its members. This is one of those times in the Montreal (Protestant) Teachers Association, which has informed 104 of its members that they must pay fines for going to work during the common-front strike in April. The MTA is demeaning itself.

The MTA executive felt itself bound to support the strike for political reasons. They were not masters of tiie situation. They functioned, not as an autonomous syndicate, but as pawns of the common front. We are about as ready to believe that the majority of English-speaking Protestant teachers in this city supported the objectives and tactics of the common front as we are to believe that the Ganges flows into the St. Lawrence.

if -1 mmstik It's somebody's move Boulevard was well-used, M. Larre" had many visitors. His courtesies were outstanding in their ready thoughtfulness. When he knew in advance that someone was coming (such as the chaplains who came to visit the nearby Villa Maria Convent), he had everything made ready to welcome them. A fire would be lighted in the room, and some "litMe surprises" planned for the dinner table.

His regularity, though strict, was never gloomy or morose. His conversation was lively, with an old-fashioned grace. He narrated stories in an original, dramatic style, and would set everyone laughing. Disputes he did not relish. If someone at his dinner table began a debate, he would pick up his big carving knife and pretend to threaten him until he stopped.

He loved his church M. Larre1 loved his handsome new church. He embellished and furnished it in every way possible: with bells, Russian stoves, paintings, even with a fire-engine, and a rod for the beadle. Whenever he saw a stranger in his church, he would go over to him to give an explanation of the pictures and speak a few words of spiritual edification. Everyone was taken with his friendliness, his charm.

But M. Larre was to be in charge of Notre Dame de Toutes Graces for only seven years. He suffered from hernia. The first symptoms alarmed him. As early as September, 1854 he made his will.

Death came six years later. One day he neglected to wear his truss; it proved fatal. He went to the infirmary of the Seminary on Place d'Armes. He died, in a spirit of peace and assurance. The Sulpicians continued to appoint the clergy for the church in Notre Dame de Grace.

But a change was coming. The second Bishop of Montreal, Msgr. Ignace Bourget, was introducing many new regulations into the administration of the diocese. In 1865 Bishop Bourget obtained from Rome the authority to break up the old single Parish of Montreal, and to set up individual parishes. These would be no longer dependencies of the Sulpician Seminary; they would be directed by him from his Palace on La Gauchetiere Street.

He, not the Sulpicians, would appoint the parish clergy. The Sulpicians resisted these changes. Their rights and privileges had endured for more than two centuries. They emphasized the disadvantages that would result. Changes come But Bishop Bourget was a resolute man.

The parish of Notre Dame de Toutes Graces was one of the very first to be detached from the authority of the Seminary. It was set up as a separate canonical parish in 1867; it became a separate civil parish a few years later. Early in the Twentieth Century another change came to the parish. It was placed under the charge of the Dominican Fathers. The Dominicans first came to Canada and the United States in 1873.

In that year they were established at St. Hyacinthe. They went to Ottawa in 1900 and were established in Notre Dame de Grace in 1901. Notre Dame de Grace is very different today to what it was in the 1850s. The farmlands have given way to the suburb.

The old country road to the east of the church is now the Decarie Expressway. But somehow a certain country-fied mood still lingers about the! old church and its surroundings, where M. Larre once laid out his farmyard and his gardens. Though much changed within, the old church, from without, looks almost exactly as it did when completed from John Ostell's designs, and its facade still embodies something of the spirit and designs of King Louis XV's engineer. How did the Montreal suburb of Notre Dame de Grace get its name? The answer lies in an old stone church.

It still stands near the northwest corner of Notre Dame de Grace Avenue and De-carie Boulevard. This church, opened in 1853, was named the church of Notre Dame de Toutes Graces. It gave its name (with a few modifications) to the large country area it served. This church was built and maintained by the Sulpicians the Gentlemen of St. Sulpice.

As the ecclesiastical seigneurs of Montreal, they directed all the Roman Catholic churches on the island. In fact, Montreal, since the middle of the Seventeenth Century, was only one parish the Parish of Montreal. It really had only one parish church Notre Dame Church in Place d'Armes. All other churches on the island were established by the Sulpicians as dependencies, or chapels not as parish churches, in their own right. Sulpician control The Sulpicians, from their old Seminary on Place d'Armes (still standing just west of Notre Dame Church) appointed all the priests to serve in the outlying districts.

These priests were accountable to the Superior of the Sulpicians. This ecclesiastical direction was unified and centralized in the Seminary, as the headquarters. For this reason the Sulpicians did not look with favor upon the appointment of a Bishop of Montreal. They had preferred the old system, when the Bishop of Quebec had included Montreal in his vast diocese. Quebec was far away, especially in those days of hard travel.

The Sulpicians had felt they were left more or less to themselves to direct religious affairs on the island. In the 1850s the Sulpicians saw the need to establish several churches to meet the growing needs of the large districts to the west of the city. Notre Dame de Grace (then known as Coteau St. Pierre) was one of them. This district was bounded to the northwest by Cote St.

Luc, and to the northeast by Cote des Neiges. It extended southwards to the terrace some distance above the waterfront. Notre Dame de Grace was almost entirely farmlands, though with an increasing population. Even after it began to be developed as a residential suburb of Montreal, much of it remained as havfields and apple orchards until after the First World War even, in some parts, until after the Second World War. The church of Notre Dame de Toutes Graces was built by the Sulpicians about the same year in which they built St.

Ann's Church in Griffintown. The same architect, John Ostell, drew up the plans for them both. Historic facade The church of Notre Dame de Toutes Graces (which came in time to be known simply as "Notre Dame de is architecturally one of the most attractive churches, as far as its exterior is concerned, in all Montreal. It was built in what was known as the old "Jesuit Style." Though it has rococo features, these are held in pleasant restraint. The most interesting feature of the church is its facade.

This brings down to modern times one of the dominant features of the Old Montreal of the French Regime. It is a reproduction, or adaptation, of the fine stone facade of the old parish church of Montreal the Notre Dame Church on Place d'Armes that preceded the Notre Dame Church of today. This earlier Notre Dame Church stood immediately in front of the present church. It covered land where Notre Dame Street now runs; fragments of its foundations are still under the asphalt. It had blocked Notre Dame Street; any- If the world chess championship finally gets under way in Reykjavik Tuesday, nine days after its scheduled opening, it will owe more to luck than to good management.

Chess is a game reputed to require considerable mental agility and some maturity, but the performance of Bobby Fischer, the American challenger and, to a lesser extent, that of Dr. Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation, and defending champion Boris Spass-ky, has been basically kindergarten. Fischer, it is true, demanded and got more money than Iceland could raise, but this was due solely to the eccentric philanthropy of a British millionaire. In the process, Fischer jeopardized the entire match by pleading a spurious medical excuse and turning up two days late. An angry Spassky then said he had been insulted, demanded an apology from Fischer, an unspecified penalty to be imposed on Fischer by the federation and the award of the postponed first game on forfeit.

Dr. Euwe, on his part, admitted he violated federation rules in allowing the delay a shabby precedent. Finally, however, things are beginning to be set right. Fischer has written a personal apology to Spassky, saying forthrightly, ''I simply became carried away by my petty dispute over money with the Icelandic chess organizers." Spassky has not insisted on the forfeit, and the two contestants shook hands when they met to draw for the first move, which Spassky won. So the match will apparently proceed and produce some fine games, although Lothar Schmid, the referee, is still cautious.

"It will begin if everything goes according to plan," he said. "Things can still go wrong." These must be bittersweet days for Iceland, a small nation which has made the preparations for the contest a national effort. Chess, the most rational of games, appears to be also the most unpredictable. Healing the wounds rules for the way of life the clergy were to follow. The regulations for the presbytery of Notre Dame de Toutes Graces were to be essentially the same as those in the Seminary itself.

All the clergy at the new church would be Sulpicians, selected by the Superior. Prayers should be said every day by the clergy there, lasting at least an hour. Everything in the way of furnishings and equipment should be suitable, but simple and modest. The table must be frugal. All the servants must be men.

The priests should remain in their presbytery, except when they were visiting in Notre Dame de Grace, or were visiting other priests in the neighborhood, or the Seminary in Place d'Armes. They were to extend free hospitality in their presbytery to all travelling priests. Striking personality The first director of the church of Notre Dame de Toutes Graces was a remarkable man. His personality and way of life have been vividly recorded. He was M.

Salvat Romain Larre (all the priests of St. Sulpice were "Monsieur" not M. Larre was born as Osses, in the Lower Pyrenees in 1803 and came to Canada in 1828. Everything about his appearance was striking, even commanding, not least his auburn hair and beard. His personality was sensible, good-natured.

He was also strict, and extremely orderly and businesslike. The Sulpicians assigned him at first to a number of posts, such as a teacher of rhetoric in the College de Montreal, and treasurer. In 1853 he was placed in charge of the new church of Notre Dame de Toutes Graces. Before long the environs of the church were almost a model. Under his brisk administration everything was well-kept, in good repair.

The farmyard and dovecot were well-planned. The paths in the garden were "as straight as a die." All the carefully-swept paths ran between abundant flowers arid fruits. At the bottom of the garden was a long arbor. There he would stroll and talk in the evening. As the road that today is Decarie one going along Notre Dame to east or west had to make a detour into Place d'Armes to get around it.

Though the old church, at Place d'Armes had been commenced as far back as 1672, it was a plain building, in need of enhancement. Tne Sulpicians decided to take advantage of the presence in New France of one of the most eminent engineers of the day, Joseph Gas-pard Chaussegros de Lery, engineer to King Louis XV. He was in New France, in the course of the Eighteenth Century, to design and supervise the fortification walls of Montreal. Chaussegros de I-ery was a man of great eminence. He had designed most of the important fortifications of Europe: his treatise on fortifications was long regarded as the pre-eminent work in its field.

While in New France he carried out some church building. He designed the Basilica in Quebec, as well as the facade of Notre Dame Church in Montreal. It is evident with what fondness the Sulpicians regarded that old facade, for when they commissioned the architect, John Ostell, to design the new churches of St. Ann and Notre Dame de Toutes Graces, in the 1850's, they instructed him to reproduce it as the facade for them both. A central tower, later introduced by an architect named Hudson, altered the appearance of St.

Ann's. John Ostell had to make a number of modifications in the facade to fit the new church in Notre Dame de Grace, with its greater height. But the spirit of Chaussegros de Lery's facade is there, and many of its essential features. Cost $75.000 The new church in Notre Dame de Grace was completed by the Sulpicians in 1853. It had cost them $75,000.

The new church was the dominant landmark in the landscape of the time. Nothing obstructed the view of it, as it stood in farmlands. It could even be seen from the river. At the same time as they built the church, the Sulpicians built the stone rectory beside it. As the Sulpicians directed all the churches of Montreal from their headquarters in the Seminary on.

Place d'Armes, they laid down countries under the United Nations banner intervened on one side and China on the other. A million people were killed, two and a half million made homeless, and the dividing line remained about where it was. After the war vituperation continued and the armies grew even larger on either side. The need to rise above miserable reality has never been greater. A catalyst to action undoubtedly has been the rapprochement of Pyongyang's and Seoul's big-power allies, China and the United States, and the diminishing chance of their again going to war over Korea.

President Nixon's visit to Peking as provided a shock treatment of unexpectedly fruitful effect. In a statement of purposes at once rational, humane and eloquent, the Korean communique states that the unification will be achieved without outside interference, that it will be peaceful, and, finally, that "as a homogeneous people, a great national unit shall be sought above all, transcending differences in ideas, ideologies, and systems." Not only Ireland and Germany but the world can benefit from this vision. We are all, in a larger view, a great homogeneous species needing, above all, a planetary unit transcending differences in ideologies and systems. When, as Pete Seeger sings, will they ever learn? In a surprising and constructive effort to resolve one of the Cold War's most intractable problems, North and South Korea have agreed to call off the slander and the shooting, and work to make, whole their divided land. They intend to do it by themselves at their own pace, or so they say.

The agreement is an outgrowth of Red Cross talks begun last August to assist in reuniting families divided by the country's partition. Intergovernmental talks began in May. Three stages of progress are forecast: first, agreement on the divided families: second, agreement on non-political questions such as cultural exchanges, trade and communications; and finally, political problems. Lee Hu-rak, the South Korean negotiator, has warned against over optimism. "Dialogue," he observes, "is not peace." Progress will be gradual, but Koreans have learned to be patient.

Their country was ruled by Japan from 1910 to 1945 and divided after the Second World War. North Korea's attempt to unify the country by force in 1950 ended in a disastrous standoff after the United States, with assistance from Canada and other B.C's unemployment record acutely embarrassing to Bennett NDP leader Dave Barrett will not make the mistake of his predecessor in 1969 and import Schreyer to add respectability to the NDP campaign, but he will point out to Mr. Bennett in no uncertain terms that an NDP government does not mean economic ruin as Bennett has been suggesting for years. He may also point out that a labor force doesn't have to stand still in order for unemployment to go down. For while Manitoba's jobless dropped 5,000 between April and May, the province's labor force jumped by 14,000 putting it 11,000 higher than a year ago.

However uncomfortable it may be for Mr. Bennett, Manitoba's statistics show, as the Winnipeg Tribune pointed out in an editorial, that the province "is doing very well, in spite of economic trends in many other parts of North America and the 'endoom' opinions of those who fear socialist governments so much, they ignore trie facts." among western industrial nations, as the reason for continuing high unemployment. Ottawa has said, in effect, that it can't cope with the increasing number of Canadians who want work and so has Mr. Bennett. Election in offing With a provincial election expected in late August or September, the B.C.

premier has been reversing field continuously to try and cope with his worst political problem. He is abolishing succession duties next April" after having legislated them into effect only this spring against the opposition of other parties. And after saying for years he would never do such a thing, the premier is setting up a Crown corporation to help finance secondary industry. These moves are too late, however to stop unemployment being one of the major issues in the coming campaign. wipe out the meagre gains elsewhere.

The other nine provinces took 6,000 unemployed off the rolls in the year ending this May, while the total of jobless in B.C. rose 15,000. Premier Bennett tends to blame everyone but himself for the British Columbia problem. He says that Ottawa has no policy at all to fight unemployment and his province's situation is aggravated further by the labor strife which creates so many strikes. Increased population However, the main factor he points to is B.C's rapidly increasing population.

In the past 12 months, the provincial labor force has grown by 5.7 per cent compared with the national rate of just over three per cent. In blaming the population growth, the premier is using the same excuse as Ottawa which points to either an increased participation rate, cr the fastest growing labor force 6.8 per cent a year ago, Manitoba under NDP Premier Ed Schreyer has virtually full employment. Manitoba's record Only 3.2 per cent of the Manitoba labor force is cut of work; that is 13,000 people, down 5,000 from April. Most economists regard this amount of unemployment as equal to full employment. And whatever advantages Mr.

Schreyer may have over Mr. Bennett in keeping the jobless rolls down, this is a remarkable achievement. British Columbia's Record, on the other hand, is so bad that the province is dragging the rest of the country down with it. If it were not for B.C's soaring unemployment, the national rate would actually have decreased over the past 12 months. In other words, the record of B.C.

and the Beniiett government has been bad enough to By NICK HILLS cf The Gazette VANCOUVER The problem of unemployment, which has plagued the federal Liberal government for more than two years, is becoming an acute political embarrassment also to Premier W. A. C. Bennett. The British Columbia premier, who has always maintained that a free enterprise economy is the only healthy business environment in which jobs can be created, now has the worst 12-month unemployment record in the country staring him right in the face.

Making matters worse To make matters even more humiliating for Mr. Bennett, the socialist, mixed economy of Manitoba which he so scorns currently boasts the best job record in Canada. While unempfoymert in B.C. has hit eight per cent of the province's work force, up from.