.|alt=Georgetown Visitation Monastery In August 1829, Roothaan sent Dubuisson back to the United States with the responsibility of keeping him informed about the affairs of the Jesuits' Maryland mission. During his travels through Europe on the way to America, he was successful in raising funds for the Maryland Jesuits among wealthy French and
Italian nobles. On 23 October, Dubuisson departed
Le Havre, France for New York City, from where he traveled to
Frederick, Maryland. Soon thereafter, the Archbishop of Baltimore,
James Whitfield, assigned him to
Newtown Manor, from where he would oversee all the Jesuit
parishes in
St. Mary's County. Dubuisson's assignment to rural Maryland did not last long, as by the following year, he again returned to Georgetown as the prefect of studies. He also taught French there, and became the de facto confessor of the nuns of the
Georgetown Visitation Monastery and of the students at their school, the
Georgetown Visitation Academy. As the Jesuits debated whether to sell their farms in Maryland, which would significantly change the character of the order in the United States, Dubuisson argued against such a decision, believing landownership afforded them security in the event of economic disaster. Dubuisson's position was also motivated by the fact that the farms were worked by slaves owned by the Jesuits. He believed that while the institution of
slavery was not itself immoral, the Jesuits had an obligation not to sell their slaves to immoral slaveowners who would abuse them or deprive them of food, clothing, some degree of education, and the right to marry. He viewed
abolitionism as dangerously idealistic and capable of producing a Reign of Terror similar to the one he lived through in France, while also ultimately harming the freed slaves. However, he would later oppose on moral grounds the Maryland Jesuits'
sale of their slaves in 1838. Dubuisson also praised the
racially integrated Masses he observed in parts of Maryland, where blacks and whites received the
Eucharist and sang in the choir
on equal status.
Maryland and Pennsylvania pastoral work Despite his experience in academia, Dubuisson's primary talents were in pastoral work. This transfer was due in part to the fact that Kenney believed it improper for a Jesuit, especially a young one, to be the confessor of nuns and female students, as it created opportunity for sexual impropriety. His pastoral work took ranged from St. Patrick's Church in Washington to St. Francis Xavier Church on the rural Newtown Manor. As such, he ministered to a wide diversity of parishioners, including prominent, established Maryland families, white immigrants who fled Haiti, black slaves, and
Protestant converts. In August of that year, Dubuisson was transferred back to Georgetown, once again becoming the pastor of Holy Trinity Church, In February 1833, Dubuisson returned to Philadelphia as a priest at Old St. Joseph's Church, newly returned to Jesuit control; he became the pastor of the church in April of that year. He was succeeded at Holy Trinity Church by James F. M. Lucas. During this time, with the support of Archbishop Whitfield of Baltimore, Dubuisson was nominated for several bishoprics. His name was first proposed to become the
Bishop of Cincinnati, and then as the
Archbishop of New Orleans;
John England, the
Bishop of Charleston then sought to convince him to become the
Archbishop of Saint-Domingue or a missionary to
Liberia. == Fundraising abroad ==