THE BISHOP OF ORLEANS ON THE FRENCH CLERGY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 208, 30 March 1877, Page 15

THE BISHOP OF ORLEANS ON THE FRENCH CLERGY.

A beief report is given in the ' Galignani's Messenger' of the speech of the Bishop of Orleans in the Senate, in reference to the reductions made by the Chamber of Deputies in the payments to the clergy. Monsignor Dupanloup observed that an attentive perusal of the Budget had revealed to him some sad things. In order, however, not to cause any embarrassments, he would°accept in advance the propositions of the Financial Committee, but could not refrain from pointing out that about three thousand communes in France were without cures ; aged priests had no asylum ; and those in active service were worse paid than in any country in Europe; and still, notwithstanding these facts, a diminished credit was demanded! Was the country honored by showing itself so parsimonious in affairs of religion ? The reduction proposed would almost wholly apply to country parishes. Eelative to the free admissions to the training schools for priests, France required 3,493 additional cures in order that the religious services should be properly celebrated, so that the present moment was nob suitable fc-*lor suppressing the three hundred free admissions. The stipends of many of the country cures scarcely enabled the recipients to live ; the priests in many large towns had positions scarcely more tolerable, and the subsidies granted by municipal councils were becoming less frequent. Touching on the question of cures who were not resident in the commune of their functions, the ri»ht rev senator declared that there was no abuse. The real object was to respond to the most absolute needs of religious worship in communes where there did not exist any residence for the cure After referring to the bitter charges made against the clergy, he affirmed that he could reply in the words of Jesus Christ Himself—" We have done many good works among you, for which of them do ye stone us?" But he was far from wishing that any complaint or bitterness of feeling- should go forth from the French episcopacy which was esteemed throughout the world, and was attached to the Church and to the chair of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. It wished for everything that gave vitality and grandeur to the nation The body of the priesthood in the country was actuated by the same views; its members were poor, simple, and devoted ; and whenever their was a grief to console or a service to perform, they were always