M. VEUILLOT ON THE SITUATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 180, 8 September 1876, Page 7

M. VEUILLOT ON THE SITUATION.

The Eastern question, which European nations are now about to settle, has been shown by M. Louis Veuillot in his journal, the ' Univers,' to be more than a question of empire, more than a question of race, re ore than a human question; it is a religious question. Long standing accounts between Christ and apostate nations are about to be settled now. All will now be settled. Two centuries ago Russia had no existence : it was Europe separated from the Pope that made Muscovy what it is. Just about the same time Prussia began to be hatched : —

Prussia rose out of a sacrilegious theft, and took shape under the bald and dirty wing of Voltaire, to negotiate the murder of Catholic Poland. The Pope pronounced anathema against tho3e who would receive the Elector of Prussia amidst the family of monarchs. But of what import were the terrors of the Papacy to the sovereigns of those days? They cared but for temporal advantages and temporal pleasures. The Kings of Spain, of France, of Naples, of Portugal, and of Austria, degraded their countries; all concurred in attacking the Papacy ; all were more or less the disciples of Voltaire, and even of Rousseau. In the group of crowned heads, two possessed more sense than others. They were Frederick of Prussia, and Catherine of Russia, and they were the two most prominent figures of the century — two Popes in their own barbarous dominions, who r,ot only felt contempt for their peoples, their clergy, and their God, but professed that contempt openly and defiantly. This is a chapter of almost contemporary history. The last century, full of infidelity, saw the enemies of France grown in exactly the same proportion as the enemies of the Church. One and the other were synonymous, and France, under the impulse of the fatal spirit of error she herself had propagated through the world, lost the premier rank. She had been first of national forces, because first of Catholic nations. Her supremacy dated from the Crusades, and survived her virtue. She ambitioned to be the most impious ; and the war of 1870 has terribly verified her title to the glory. Oh, justice ! who will arraign the reprisals of God ? The travail continues, and the arm of the Lord is still raised in anger. It is the schismatic nation — the nation which, while retaining the name of Christ, abjures His Church and declares itself her enemy — the nation which is anti-Papal in the very essence — it is this nation M'hich an inscrutable Creator has selected to punish Europe and avenge Him !