On the seventh of June 1907, Fr. Francis Xavier Wernz, S.J., who was Superior General of the Society of Jesus at the time, issued the formal decree which established that the former Mission of New Orleans would now be raised to the rank of a province with its own identity and governance. The document below on the left is the Latin text of the decree issued from Rome.

At the same time Fr. Wernz wrote a congratulatory letter exhorting all of the Jesuits in the Mission to prepare themselves by prayer and sacrifices for the work and ministry that lay ahead. The text of this letter is on the right below.

For larger versions of these two documents in .pdf format, please click on each one.