DETRE
758
DETROIT
aging the principal in the case are guilty of grievous
injustice. When, however, one's attitude is simply a
passive one, i. e. that of a mere listener, prescinding
from any interior satisfaction at the blackening of an-
other's good name, ordinarily the sin is not mortal
unless one happens to be a superior. The reason is
that private persons are seldom obliged to administer
fraternal correction under pain of mortal sin (see Cor-
rection, Fraternal). "The detractor having vio-
lated an unimpeachable right of another is bound to
restitution. He must do his best to put back the one
whom he has thus outraged in possession of the fair
fame which the latter hitherto enjoyed. He must
likewise make good whatever other loss he in some
measure foresaw his victim would sustain as a result
of this unfair defamation, such as damage measur-
able in terms of money. The obligation in either in-
stance is perfectly clear. The method of discharging
this plain duty is not so obvious in the first case. In
fact, since the thing alleged is assumed to be true, it
cannot be formally taken back, and some of the sug-
gestions of theologians as to the style of reparation are
more ingenious than satisfactory. Generally the only
thing that can be done is to bide one's time until an
occasion presents itself for a favourable characteriza-
tion of the person defamed. The obligation of the
detractor to make compensation for pecuniary loss
and the like is not only personal but becomes a burden
on his heirs as well.
NoLDiN, Summa Theologias Moralis (Innsbruck, 1905); Geni- COT, Theologifs Moralis Institutiones (Louvain, 1898); Lehm- KUHL, Theologia Moralis (Freiburg, 1887).
Joseph F. Delant.
Detre, William, missionary, b. in France in 1668, d. in South America, at an advanced age, date uncer- tain. After his admission to the Society of Jesus, he was sent by his superiors to the missions of South America in 1706, and seven years later was appointed superior-general and visitor of all the missions of the Amazon embracing a tract of over 3000 miles. He is credited with translating the catechism into eighteen different languages for the various Indian tribes under his jurisdiction. It was he who sent to Europe the celebrated map of the Amazon drawn by Father Sam- uel Fritz, S. J., and engraved at Quito in 1707. In 1727 he was appointed rector of the College of Cuenca, where he continued the zealous exercise of the func- tions of the ministry. He left an interesting "Rela- tion" dated 1 June, 1731, giving curious details about the uncivilized races of the Amazon. It is inserted in volume XXIII of the "Lettres Edifiantes", original edition.
MicHAUD, Biog. Univ. (Paris, 1814); Sommervogel, Bibl. de la C. de J. (Brassels, 1892), s. v. Samuel Fritz, III, 1003.
Edward P. Spillane.
Detroit, Diocese of (Detroitensis), established 8 March, 1838, comprises the counties of the lower peninsula of the State of Michigan, U. S. A., south of the Counties of Ottawa, Kent, Montcalm, Gratiot, and Saginaw, and east of the Counties of Saginaw and Bay; an area of 18,558 miles. Suffragan of Cincinnati.
To the martyr Father Isaac Jogues and his fellow- Jesuit Father Charles Raynbaut, belongs the honour of planting the Cross in Michigan when, in 1642, they began their mission to the Chippeways of the Sault Ste. Marie. Father Ren6 Menard, also a Jesuit, fol- lowed them in 1660, and was martyred the next year by a band of prowling savages. His death did not deter others of his brethren in the Society of Jesus from hastening to this field of labour, and we find I'ather Claude Allouez, at Chegoimegon, 1 October, 1065, preaching to the Ottawas and Hurons, and with him these other missionaries: Fathers ('laude Dablon, Louis Andr<5, Gabriel Druilletes, and the famous Jacques Marquette. The hust, in 1671 , began at Mich- ilimackinaw, his mission of St. Ignatius, where the first chapel for white men in Michigan was estab-
lished. France took formal possession of the West in
1671, but England entering the field to dispute for the
mastery, political intrigue followed, to the disaster of
the old missions auKinu the Indians. Fort St. Joseph,
established at Detroit m 168S, developed into the post
established there in 1700 by La Mothe Cadillac, who
brought with him a number of Canadian families.
This mission was served by the Recollects and under
the pastorate of the Rev. Nicholas Benedict Constantin
de I'Halle, on 26 July, 1701, the church of St. Anne
was dedicated. This is the mother-church of the
Northwest, and the parish records are preserved in an
unbroken series in the archives of the St. Anne's
Church of the present, the building being the si.xth of
the name in the line of succession. The first entry in
this registry is that of the baptism of a child of Cadil-
lac, the founder of the colony. It is asserted that no
other parish in the United States can present a similar
record. This church was burned by discontented
Indians in 1704, and again during an Indian outbreak
in 1712. Father de I'Halle was killed by the Indians
in 1706.
Other pastors during this period were the Recollect Fathers Bonaventure, Dominic de la Marche, Cheru- bin Denieau, Hyacinth Pelifresne, and Simplicius Bo- quet (1752-82) and the Sulpitian Fathers Calvarin, Mercier, and Thaumur de la Somce. Detroit re- mained under English domination until 1796, when with the change of political control the spiritual juris- diction passed to Bishop Carroll of Baltimore, and the Bishop of Quebec recalled his priests from the Michigan territory. Among those ministering at Detroit during the English occupation were Father Thomas Portier, who died in 1781, and Father John Francis Hubert, who was made Coadjutor Bishop of Quebec in June, 1785.
At the dawn of the nineteenth century Detroit, still a military post, had a population of about 20(X), mainly French Catholics. St. Anne's parish then comprised the whole of the present State of Michigan and most of Wisconsin. In 1796 Bishop Carroll sent the Sulpitian Father Michael Levadoux to take charge at Detroit. In June of the same year Fathers Gabriel Richard and Dilhet were appointed to assist him, the latter taking up his residence at Raisin River. Father Levadoux was recalled to Baltimore in 1801. Father Richard succeeded him and became not only pastor of St. Anne's, but one of the leading figures in the devel- opment of the West. This remarkable priest was born at Saintes, France, 15 October, 1767. His father was a government employee, and his mother Genevieve Bossuet, a scion of the same family as the great Bishop of Meaux. He was ordained as a Sulpi- tian at Paris, in October, 1791. The Revolution drove him from his native land, and with Fathers Marechal, Ciquard, and Matigonon, he arrived in Baltimore, 24 June, 1792. It was intended that they should be teachers at St. Mary's Seminary, but they were as- signed to missionary work instead, as the seminary was not then ready for them. Father Richard was sent to Prairie du Rocher and Kaskaskia, Illinois, where he spent six years of hardship and privation, but fruitful in the results of his zealous ministrations. When he arrived at Detroit in June, 1798, he found religious conditions far from ideal, the town having been for years an Indian trading centre. He began at once to exert a salutary influence for the reformation of existing abuses and devoted himself also to promot- ing the W'Clfare of the numerous Indian missions in the surrounding country. In the summer of 1801 he had Bishop Denaut of Quebec visit Detroit on the invita- tion of Bishop Carroll and confirm 521 persons of iiges ranging from thirteen to eighty years. His manu- script list of their names and ages is still kept in St. „ Anne's archives. In 1804 he started a Young Ladies' ' Academy and a seminary to foster vociitions foi-the priesthood for young men, but a lire which destroyed
