The Premier and the Monk

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 19, 7 May 1903, Page 24

The Premier and the Monk

A short time ago a venerable French priest, Father Mario Antoine, of the Capuchin Convent, Toulouse, addressed a letter to M Combes, the French Premier, but the latter has not so far replied to the appeal. Father Mai ie Antoine iniorms M Combes that, though burdened with years and on the brink of the grave, he is threatened with expulsion from a convent which he founded 50 years ago, of which he is the legal owner, and for which he has regularly paid taxes. Now, after 50 years' work, he is to be flung out of his cell, in which he had hoped to end his days peacefully. The device of the Republic, he reminds the Premier, is ' Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ' For over half a century he has acted in the spirit of that motto ; and now. he asks, is his reward to be violent expulsion from his home? Ho further tells M. Combes that he has personal claims on his sympathy, being a native of the department in which the Premier was born, having had as a friend a priest who was M Combes' uncle and who acted as father to him, and having done acts of kindness for a brother of M. Combes when he desired to become a Capuchin. ' If/ sa.v s Father Afarie Antoine, ' you do not prevent my expulsion ; at least spaie me in my old age the hardship of being thrown into the street and give me a shelter in one of the prisons, whore T may live on equal terms with prisoners and console them in their captivity.'