In 1874, Rev. Marcel-François Richard, pastor of St Louis, disappointed that St. Joseph’s College in Memramcook was becoming more and more anglicized, decided to open a college for Acadians in his parish, while at the same time starting a school for young girls under the tutelage of the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame. Because of a misunderstanding with Bishop Rogers, he was forced to close his college in 1882 and thus ensued a long conflict with the Bishop concerning this issue.  Father Marcel Richard became the chief spokesperson in defending the rights of the Acadians and particularly in trying to obtain from Rome an Acadian Bishop.  At that time, the Acadian population  formed the largest majority of Roman Catholics in the Maritimes, especially in New Brunswick, but the leaders of the Church in this province were Irish.  It was a great disappointment to the Acadians when, in 1898, they learned that Bishops Thomas Barry and Timothy Casey wee named coadjutor Bishops of Chatham and Saint John respectively.  Disappointed and humiliated, all the Acadian priests, except the Vicar General of the Saint John Cathedral, declined to attend the ordination of the new bishops on February 11, 1900.  When Bishop Rogers resigned in 1902, Bishop Barry became Bishop of Chatham.   

Father Marcel-François Richard went to Rome twice, in 1908 and 1910, to plead the Acadian cause to the Holy Father himself.  Pope Pius X promised Father Richard that the Acadians would have their own bishop, going so far as to give him a golden chalice as a pledge of that promise.  It was with some emotion that John-Paul II recalled this symbolic gesture, as he celebrated the Eucharist using this same chalice, in Moncton, on September 13, 1984.  Finally in 1912, an Acadian, Bishop Edouard LeBlanc, became Bishop of Saint John.  But in 1914, Rome appointed another Irishman, Bishop Louis O’Leary as Auxiliary Bishop of Chatham, the largest populated diocese in the Maritimes, with a Catholic population of 80,927, of which 64,604 were French speaking.   The Acadian priests again boycotted the episcopal ordination of this Irish Bishop on June 11, 1914.  After that, the supporters of the Acadians became more and more vocal in asking that the next bishop to be appointed in Chatham be French.  Bishop Edouard LeBlanc, Bishop of Saint John, made a special trip to Rome and, supported in their efforts by the Bishops of Quebec, the Acadians were finally granted their wish.  Unfortunately, Monsignor Marcel-François Richard did not live to witness the realization of his dream.  He died on June 18, 1916 and was interred in the basement of the Monument of the Assumption, which he had erected to the glory of the Patroness of the Acadians.  

Upon the death of Bishop Barry, Bishop O’Leary became Bishop of Charlottetown, while his brother, Bishop Henry O’Leary was transferred to Edmonton, where he became Archbishop.  In 1920, the Holy See named Bishop Patrice-Alexandre Chiasson, Bishop of Chatham.  The newly appointed bishop asked that the episcopal seat be transferred from Chatham to Bathurst, a more central location for the Acadian population. It was in that city that Bishop Arthur Melanson; archbishop of Moncton installed him as Bishop of Bathurst, on May 15, 1938.  The Diocese was then placed under the patronage of our Lady of the Assumption