Lamy of Santa Fe

IV. The Desert Diocese • 1851–1852

IV THE DESERT DIOCESE 1851-1852 l. Defiance A LEADER IN THE JUBILANT WELCOME given to Lamy, Juan Felipe Ortiz, the rural dean (or vicar forane) at Santa Fe, reserved until later the most unexpected news he had for the new bishop. Having paid all proper respect to mitre and crozier-Lamy was undoubtedly a bishop -Ortiz, and the local clergy over whom he presided, suddenly main· tained that Lamy was not the bishop for Santa Fe, and refused to recognize him as such. It was astonishing to be told this after all the triumphal arches, the episcopal palace of mud placed at his disposal, the public excitement. How could this be? Ortiz stood his ground, believing he had good reason to do so. Only a few months ago, his own bishop, Zubiria of Durango, had been in Santa Fe, when the two discussed the ruling given to Durango by Rome-that Mexican bishops should "continue to exercise their episcopal authority north of the border." What else (as Bishop Blanc had noted earlier) could have taken Zubiria to New Mexico after the 1846 war? But the papal bulls, the faculties vested in Lamy, all set forth in the documents which he carried with him? Well and good, conceded Ortiz; but he had had no word from Durango that the episcopal power was to be transferred, and lacking such direct authority, the dean would continue to disavow Lamy as his ordinary. His local clergy would do the same, for it was to him that they looked as the representative of Bishop Zubiria. As rural dean since 1832, Ortiz had been responsible for the entire administration of the Church in New Mexico-the duties of the clergy, the upkeep of the churches, the keeping of parish records, the strict observance of the liturgy, the care of sick priests, continuous visits to his parishes, and the making of annual reports to his bishop. Ortiz had shown no zeal II] I I4 THE DESERT DIOCESE • 1851-1852 for his duties, and under his regime his clergy had lost theirs. But in the matter of a change of bishops, he was suddenly zealous, legalistic, and rudely stubborn. Lamy, in his amazement, yet considered the matter from the dean's point of view and patiently concluded that the dean was technically justified in his position. Conferring with Machebeuf, he wrote to Zubiria in Durango asking for a swift confirmation by letter of Rome's new appointment. The news of Lamy's presence and pretensions went to Zubiria from another source-the pastor of Taos, Father Antonio Jose Martinez. "Your illustrious lordship," he wrote, "perhaps knows that New Mexico has been erected as a bishopric [actually vicariate apostolic], and Fr. Juan Lamy was appointed to be its bishop.... I have regretted a great deal the separation of New Mexico from the diocese of your Illustrious Lordship," and he hinted that a "superior authority"-evidently referring to the territorial United States governor-was behind the move. Durango lay five hundred leagues to the south in Mexico. A letter from there must take time to arrive. Meantime, Lamy could not remain idle. His documents made one matter binding-he had in them a legal claim to the Church properties of New Mexico; and even the dean must bow before this. The new bishop moved swiftly to take custody of Church buildings, chapels, and other properties, and succeeded in all but one case. This instance, before it was resolved, was a scandal, a farce, an occasion for the public passion for which the citizens of Santa Fe have always been famous. The case had to do with the Chapel of Our Lady of Light on the south side of the earthen plaza of the old city. This was popularly called the "Castrense"-a word signifying that which belonged to the military. It had been the old military chapel of the Spanish/Mexican garrison of Santa Fe, and, in much disrepair, it had been appropriated by the United States territorial government after the 1846 war, evidently without protest by the rural dean. A United States lieutenant in 1846 noted it as "the richest church in Santa Fe," though it was then in ruins, the roof fallen in, and bones of parishioners once interred below the earth floor lying about in random exposure. He saw the carved stone reredos, dated 1761, with its panels of saints and a central basrelief...