Copy letter from Fr. Colman Griffin to Fr. Stephen Murtagh

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V.Rev.Fr. Stephen.O.M.Cap. Custos Provincial. 1541 Golden Gate Ave. Los Angeles, Cal. October 13th 1938. Dear Father Stephen : I am in receipt of your letter dated September 28th, 1938, and enclosure containing the Regulations of the Custos Provincial and his Assistants made on August 12th. As the Definitors were in Dublin when your letter arrived we read your communication. We are very pleased with the regulations made for the government of the Custody, and also with the allocation of the Fathers to the different Houses, with one exception, - that of Father Alban. Without wishing to interfere with the rights of the Custos and his Assistants we would suggest that Father Alban should rather be placed in a House where he would have plenty of work to do, rather than in a comparatively quiet place such as Santa Inez. You mention that Fr. Richard has been appointed Vice-Master of Novices. As the number of Novices is small, and as he has not reached the Canonical age, he should rather be termed Assistant to the Master of Novices, as is the case at present in Rochestown. We direct your attention to paragraph 4 of the Decree in the Analecta of May 1937, which prescribes that a Director of Studies be appointed by the Definition, on the recommendation of the Custos and his Assistants. We presume you intended that the Master of Novices should be the Director of Studies at present, and on this assumption we appoint Fr. Cyprian to this office. Moreover, it is necessary that Fr. Richard be officially appointed by you as Lector, so that there may be no difficulty later on about the students' year of study counting for the priesthood. With reference to the erection of the School at Roseburg, we are at a loss to know how we really stand with regard to the Roseburg property. Does the whole, or any part of it, belong to the Order, or is it merely parochial property, on which we have a Canonical foundation? Fr. Stanislaus and I looked up all the Documents in the Archives relating to Roseburg. They include one, of which you probably have a copy also in the Roseburg Archives, dated Nov. 6, 1912, to this effect : Archbishop's Residence Portland, Oregon. 62 North Sixteenth St. Nov. 6, 1912. We hereby agree that, should the Franciscan Capuchin Fathers decide to abandon the parish of Roseburg, Ore. and dependent Missions in Douglas County, Oregon, the property conveyed to them by the Archdiocese of Oregon City shall revert to the Archdiocese of Oregon City. + Alexander Christie . Luke Chechan . C. T. Superior . During our investigations we also found that the Province had loaned on October 9th 1912 a sum of £1,500 for Roseburg. "You will please therefore," wrote Fr. Provincial to Fr. Luke when sending him the Bank draft for this amount, "send to me a written guarantee that not only the principal of this Loan will be refunded, but also the interest punctually paid by the Mission." He also wrote on the same occasion: "It will be necessary for you to get whatever portion of…