When the French Canadians migrated to the Lewiston/Auburn area in the 19th century, they were determined to retain their faith, culture and language as they assimilated into their new environment. Even before they could afford to build their own homes, they built their own churches and schools as they had done in Canada, where each parish owned its own property.

Unfortunately, they had never heard of Corporation Sole and were no doubt surprised when they discovered that what they had built automatically belonged to the bishop of Portland. The bishop’s takeover (via Corporation Sole) of all Catholic properties in Maine, including Franco-American parishes around the state, was said to be beneficial to those parishes since many of them were in financial trouble, but so was the diocese, which found a quick solution to its own problems by taking possession of other people’s assets.

Since no Franco-American was ever appointed full bishop in Maine even though Franco-Americans formed a large segment of the Church, the people who had built and continued to pay for the confiscated parishes were never given a say as to how their property would be administered.

It was an Irish bishop who, without the people’s consent, ceded administrative control of St. Peter’s Parish in Lewiston to the Dominicans of France. In spite of this situation, however, Franco Americans continued to support their institutions. Any Franco-American who grew up in Lewiston in the mid-20th century no doubt remembers the continuing requests made of them in church to contribute to “la future école St. Dominique” — i.e., “the future St. Dominic High School.”

The goal was to relocate classes held in the old St. Dom’s building on Bartlett Street (“the Alamo”) as well as those held in the larger St. Peter’s School building on Bates Street into one new high school facility. People gave to that cause for years and yet never got an accounting of where that money went. It wasn’t until generous donations of land and money given 25 years ago by friends of the school that the new St. Dom’s facility finally started to take shape.

People in Portland and elsewhere in Maine who hear the name “St. Dom’s” probably think of it in terms of its history as a hockey powerhouse or its more recent remarkable sports achievements, but the school has meant more than that to the people of Lewiston/Auburn. Its graduates — generations of doctors, lawyers, priests, nuns, teachers, business owners, artists and performers, loving parents and upstanding citizens — have made contributions to the city, the state and the country that have been a source of pride to the community.

That may explain why this small school survived so long in a community besieged by financial and other difficulties through the years and unfairly cast into the shadows by many Mainers who still refuse to acknowledge its rich cultural history and its amazing resilience.

Now that the bishop of Portland has closed the only Catholic high school in Androscoggin County and further impoverished the Lewiston/Auburn area by claiming another institution created and paid for by the community, one should ask whether or not the Church, the diocese and the Dominican order owe the people of Lewiston and Auburn some financial remuneration as reparation for the historic injustices done to the Franco-Americans in this community.

At the least, forgiving any debt incurred in the running of the diocese-controlled consolidated elementary/high school for the last five years and giving local people a chance to save a cherished institution should not have seemed like too much to ask.