When Bishop Legal became the diocesan for St. Albert, the Northwest Territories counted eight Bishops, 307 priests, including ninety-eight secular priests, 408 churches, 136 schools, and many hospitals. At Bishop Grandin’s passing away, there were 100,000 baptised souls.
On can easily wonder why the French language did not keep its preeminence in Alberta when nearly all the catholic clergy was Francophone, which meant Catholic education, was in French. Historically, in Canada, French education was synonymous with Catholic education and the same was true for English education and Protestant education. Because of this, in 1867, the separate school system was established. Religious minorities had the right to build and manage their own schools. This was the case for Manitoba at its creation in 1870 and for the Northwest in 1875 when the territory went under the administration of a lieutenant governor. French had an official status at the tribunals and at the legislative assembly in the Northwest. The golden age of the French language in education in the Northwest started in 1884 when two separate committees, one Catholic, the other Protestant, were established to manage education. This age ended in 1892 when the Anglo-Saxon fanaticism and the decrease of the francophone population proportionally to other language groups caused the removal of French’s official status and the fusion of the two separate school committees. Education could only be given in English, but an elementary French class was permitted.
As the formation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan approached, Bishop Legal wished to keep the separate school system to guarantee a French and Catholic education to his subjects. Publicly, Bishop Legal kept a universalist spirit and he did not favour any nation in anyway. When in 1901, the Anglo-Saxon Northwest’s government put Catholic schools under Protestant direction by reforming the school laws, he told a Montréal journalist that he wanted to maintain the separate school system after the provinces’ formation. The journalist played with his words and published an article saying that Bishop Legal was pleased with the current system. Instead of trying to correct the article, Bishop Legal kept silent and refused to sign a circular letter of all the Canadian Bishops exposing the shortcomings of the Catholic schools.
It would be easy to blame Bishop Legal for not worrying over the French Canadians’ issues, but Anglo-Saxon zealotry and the lack of courage of French Canadian MPs are really to blame. The Conservative Party wanting to abolish the separate school system, Bishop Legal named a propagandist for the Liberal Party for the election of 1908. Because of this, he got what he wanted since 1898 from the Ministry of Education; a Francophone school inspector, acceptable schoolbooks for Catholics, the recognition of the normal school certificate of Québec (for recruitment of Francophone teachers) and the prolongation of French teaching to one hour a day from second to eighth grade.
During his episcopate, Bishop Émile Legal encouraged many francophone organisms to establish themselves such as many Sociétés Saint-Jean-Baptiste, the Alliance nationale, and the Union française. French press lived its golden age during Bishop Legal’s years with the publication of eight different weekly newspapers including the Courrier de l’Ouest (1905-1916) and the Union (1917-1929). The Juniorat Saint-Jean and the Jesuit College also sprouted during those years.
As mentioned in previous articles, Bishop Legal had a considerable interest for religious architecture. When he was named coadjutor to Bishop Grandin in 1897, he saw that the cathedral was too small for its parish. When he travelled to eastern Canada and Europe in 1898, he studied the different styles he witnessed there. He decided on a Moorish feel that distanced itself considerably from the Gothic styles that characterized France and eastern Canada. It was quite an unconventional style to choose for his cathedral and the reasons for this might have been that he was looking to give his diocese an eclectic feel or because so many of the newly arrived Catholics came from eastern Europe where the Moorish church architecture was much more common. This project, however, cost quite an important sum and the construction ceased after the basement and the crypt were completed.
On November 30, 1912, the Church ordered the creation of a new diocese for Calgary and the upgrading of St. Albert to an archdiocese because of the important growth in the number of Catholics since the mission was first started some fifty years before. In Calgary, an Irish Bishop was consecrated and many Irish priests started arriving in Alberta, adding to the number of Anglophone Catholics in the province. At the same time, the Church also asked archbishop Legal to move his archiepiscopacy to Edmonton. The St. Albert cathedral lost its reason so he did not seek to finance its completion. In Edmonton, the church Saint-Antoine was used as a cathedral and Archbishop Legal looked to build another Moorish-inspired cathedral in Edmonton, but, once again, the construction stopped at the basement when the First World War dried up his funds.
The Bishop kept his office and administration in St. Albert for a while after 1912 and even though he was at the head of a vast diocese, he took his local parish to heart. As Émilie Michelot recalls, he used to distribute bags of candy to every child in the village on New Years Day.
Archbishop Legal passed away March 10, 1920 and was replaced by Archbishop Henry O’Leary, an Irishman. The St. Albert cathedral was completed, but it followed the plan of another architect who did not keep Archbishop Legal’s Moorish vision. The basement, however still keeps the original style Archbishop Legal wished fpr. At the time of his death, his diocese counted 117 priests, including ninety-five Francophones, and 424 nuns, including 356 Francophones. There were about 40 000 Francophones in Alberta in 1920.
