Archbishop A.-A. Tache of St. Boniface: The "Good Fight" and the Illusive Vision (review)

For years, specialists of nineteenth-century Canadian Church history have deplored the lack of a reliable, critical, and unbiased biography of one of the major figures of Western Canadian history: Alexandre-Antonin Taché, first bishop, then archbishop of St. Boniface (1853-1894), in what is now the province of Manitoba. Raymond J. A. Huel's recently published study on Taché and his "good fight" should in more ways than one satisfy these same specialists and put an end to their long wait.

With the exception of Jean Hamelin's 1990 insightful article in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, most of the material published on Bishop Taché, including Dom Benoit's voluminous biography of 1904, is outdated and marred by its obvious hagiographic bent. Professor emeritus of history at the University of Lethbridge (Alberta), general editor of the "Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in the Canadian North West" Series, author of numerous books and articles on the history of the Western Provinces and the pioneering role the Oblates played in that part of Canada from 1845 on, Raymond Huel was well prepared and most qualified to succeed where so many others had failed.

The goals he set for himself tell it all. "In the final analysis," he writes in his introduction, "a biography of Alexandre-Antonin Taché is more than the story of an individual. It is the history of the Catholic Church in Quebec and the Canadian North West and of the Oblate establishment in that latter region. [... ] It is a story of cultural confrontation and conflict involving First Nations, French and English, Catholic and Protestant," but also "Métis and French Canadians, [... ] Irish Catholics and French Catholics" (p. xxv). If one adds to that the complexities and uncertainties of frontier politics, the contentious nature of settlement in vast areas up to then occupied by the Métis or criss-crossed by a variety of Indian tribes, the rapid transformation of the territories over which during his long years of episcopate Bishop Taché had jurisdiction, one can easily understand why so few historians up to now have dared give the bishop of St. Boniface the long, careful and critical look he deserved. If only for that reason, Professor Huel's study warrants our gratitude and admiration. But he has done much more than that, for, as John S. Moir, well-known Canadian church historian, concludes after having read Raymond Huel's book, "this volume is a model of biography at its best."

It is difficult not to agree with this assessment, and for a variety of reasons. First, Professor Huel, making good use of the sources at his disposal, supplies us with a much more nuanced, true-to-life, and therefore believable portrait of Taché than the one accredited up to now by his hagiographers. The contrast between the public figure: distant, authoritarian, and combative and the private one: sensitive, caring, and loving, as revealed by his correspondence with his mother, but at the same time, a certain charisma that endeared him permanently to a variety of people, including some with whom he disagreed or whom at times he had treated harshly: all these and many other features highlighted by Professor Huel point to a complex personality that he does not hesitate to call "enigmatic" (p. 333). One would tend to agree with this portrait of Bishop Taché, but I would suggest that his authoritarian side had probably less to do with his psychological make-up than with the fact that he hailed from a prominent Quebec family, was highly regarded by his Oblate as well as ecclesiastical superiors, and, for these very reasons, was made in 1850, at the very early age of 27, the coadjutor of Bishop Provencher, vicar apostolic of the North West, whom he succeeded upon the latter's death in 1853. What an ordeal...