THE NANCY CASE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 11 June 1903, Page 3

THE NANCY CASE

MORE PARTICULARS

We have more than once made passing observations DneT m wh^ eh the non-Catholic press mouth! Upc Y? !J hat it; insiders a spicy tit-bit of scandal, or alleged scandal affecting the fair fame ol persons or institutions pertaining to the Old Church of Ages. The decision of the CoWt of Appeal o? Nancy fnrn^h^ 86 ?! c middl^««ed ' orphan • woman Lecoanet furnishes a luminous case in point. From day to day w© nSpr^tT? ™ pie X Ol recea , t issues ot New Zealand Pf^ is .^, at « ly e the usual exaggerated and distorted ™t °U he Case ' su ,PP res s all reference to the rebutttag 5t? r ' Ju" 1 ' M u ? ua i m such casea ' ta ke it for granted that the corporate honor of the Catholic Church is involved in the conduct of each of its members— a principle which they never dream of applying to any other W £ haVe delireditorfally frS Vh?£il i*T i Wi V\ the ncy case - but the following article in the last issue to hand (May 2) of our valued contemporary the ' Glasgow Observer ' contains some further particulars which will be of interest to our r©£i dors «~~~« ~~~ < 1 . < r lt is u unf °rtunate that since the Court of 'Appeal of Nancy has given the decree for the closing of the Institution of the Good Shepherd there, even some Catholics m this country conclude that the Sisters must have been guilty of the very grave charges alleged against them One point of view from which the case might be viewed, however is that the Sisters of the Good Shepherd are a religions congregation, and the Courts which serve the infidel French Government could scarcely be expected to show any consideration towards such a co»munity, and it would be surprising if even ordinary fair play were allowed. That is not the aspect of the case that we desire to bring out, however, and we simply putl before our readers briefly the charges against the nuns and their refutation. The Bishop's Charges. ' The Bishop of Nancy, Monsignor Turinaz, from the elevated position he holds is the most fo-rmidable of the accusers of the Nancy penitentiary. His charges against the nuns are, briefly, that they sweat the penitents and orphans ; that they employ them at useless labor, and that they use them for the purpose of making money for the nuns, and pay them no wages. Others who accuse the nuns are some of those who have been inmates of the Nancy refuge, and relate what they state were thei.r own experiences. These 'experiences'' indicate the most lively imagination on the part of some of the writers. By these the Sisters are accused of starving the chi dren, of practising the most heartless cruelty. One child was said to have had an eye gouged out and a fre?u Cnt uK r , aCtice was alle &ed to have been that of kicking, the children In the breast so as to generato consumpThe Origin of the Trouble. 'The quarrel between the Bishop of Nancy and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd dates from 1893. Up till then Monsignor Turinaz was a warm friend of the community. In that year a chaplain was appointed to the. convent who seems to have been unenlightened as to what was his exact duty at the institution. The Sisters who had control of the penitents, found that the chaplain assumed an authority over them that belonged to the Sisters, and they protested ; and according to the Sisters themselves (Defense contre les Attaques de Mgr Turinaz) found that a number of the inmates of their refuge were incensed against them, and many hod to be dismissed for insubordination and for causing dissension among the others, with the result that out of about 150 only a third of the number were retained. Monsignor Turinaz declined to change the chaplain, and the nuns were compelled to complain to the Cardinal-Prefect in 1894, and as the Holy See decided In Favor of the Convent, the chaplain turned completely against the convent (vide letter of Superior-General to Cardinal Protector). Following the decision In favor of the nuns, the Bishop was invited, if ho thought fit, to refer the matter back to the Congregation to be re-heard In a plenary session, and two years were allowed to elapse in order that the Bishop and the nuns might fully state their respective cases. The second decision was given on March 27, 1896, and was also adverse to the Bishop. ' The Bishop of Angers, in whose diocese the Motherhouse of the Order of the Good Shepherd is situated, was able to submit satisfactory answers to the charges of the Bishop of Nancy. With regard to the charge that th« penitents are turned out of doors after having labored and earned a good deal of money for the institution, without resources, without situations, and without exhortations to revisit the house, the answer is that the girls had often to be taught their work, and it was not until after a long time that they were able to earn anything. The Average Profit of their work amounted to about 2s 3d per week — which would not suffice to pay for the maintenance of one person and pay her a salary on leaving. The difference between tho amount earned and the amount of expenditure was met from private charity, from the dowries the nuns themselves bring to the Congregation, and sometimes from State grants. Besides all this, the Sisters answer that

they were not accustomed to send the girls away without any provision. If a girl became the cause of insubordination or dissension among other penitents, she had to be sent away ; but even she would be given something with which to make a start. Should a girl, leaving under ordinary circumstances, lose her situation or be in danger of falling into misery or degradation, she would be welcomed back again to the convent to remain or to wait until she obtained and could take another situation. Monsignor Turinaz complained also of sweating, saying that the girls worked more than civil laws permitted — " twelve to fifteen hours being usually imposed." The answer is that in winter the girls had eight and a half hours sleep, and in the summer eight hours ; so that if they worked from waking till going to sleep again, they would have sixteen or fifteen and a half hours' work. But the penitents heard Mass daily, they had breakfast, dinner, and supper, they had morning prayers, they had religious instruction in the course of the day, they had evening prayers, and had Benediction, and every day they had two hours for recreation, all of which, taken together, could not mean less than about five hours in which they did not work, to be deducted from the waking hours, so that the time at their disposal for work would be eleven hours in summer and ten and a half in winter. The Sisters assert that even the penitents did not work for more than ten hours.

' Father Sydney Smith, S.J.,

in an article in " The Month," for June, 1900, traced the origin of these charges made against the nuns by those who were formerly inmates of their houses to a series of articles penned for an anti-Catholic organ — tho " Aurore " — by a person eminently suited for the task — an ex-priest (a type with which we are familiar) named M. Guineuleaju. We must be pardoned for believing that had these grave charges of cruelty been founded, Monsignor Turinaz, the Bishop of Nancy, would not have hesitated to formulate them himself against the convent. The " experiences " of those who have to be dismissed from refuges for misconduct have not to be accepted any more readily than the " experiences " of an ex-priest who trades upon the misrepresentation of the duties he was called upon to perform when he held his faculties , yet upon such alleged experiences were M. Guineuleau's articles based. The articles of the " Auroie " stirred public feeling, which was not surprising considering the cruelty alleged to have been practised, but still tho olncdals of the Government that sought to destroy the existence of religious Orders in France did not seem to attach importance to them.

Parliament Intervenes

' It was then (November, 1899,) that a member of the French Chamber, M. Fourniere, believed to be an Atheist and a Socialist, demanded the more severe inspection of charitable institutions, to extend " lay " charitable institutions (i c., godless institutions), and to impure into the truth of the alleged facts (against the Nancy house) He cited the claim made to the Courts- ot .Justice against the Nancy convent by

M arie Lecoanet ,

who believed that nineteen others and herself had kept the entire institution with its two handled inmates by their earnings. Abbe Lorn ire answered M Foumieie with absolute denials He reminded the Chamber that only the year before the Good Shepherd House at Nanc\ had received a sil\er-gilt medal from the State authorities as a special expression of gratitude, and q/ioted W orn an official l eport that the merits of the institution wet c " Very groat in all lespects " He, in lustice to the convent., joined with M Fournieie in demanding the nillest inquiry. 'With regard to the claim of Mane Lecoanct, who left the coinont anaemic and nearly blind, it is woithy of note that she lett eat ly in March, 1889, and that it was in November, 1899, that Waldeck-liousseau delivered himself of these reports in the trench Chamber Bishop Turimi7, ol Nancy, m November, 1889, eight months alter the departure liom the Good Shephei d ol Mai le Lecoanet — when she was alleged to ha\e been cast on the streets without resources, marly blind, and suffering from anaemia — lurnished a long letter under the title ol "Appiohation tie Monsignor Turina/, evccjiie de Nancy ct de Toul in which he eulogises the work ol the Good Shepherd convent at Nancy. Two veais later, on the occasion of the canonisation of the foundress of the Order, he wiote another letter, in which he said • "We have o) v selves a house of the Sisters ot the Good Shepherd m out diocese, and we are made happy by all the good that these worthy Sisters ha\e done with so much de\ otedness to the poor women who have been entrusted to then charity." Later still. in 1892, Monsignor Tin maz wrote on tho occasion of the least of the Mother Superior at Nancy • " I ptav tint >St Charles may protect and bless this house " It can scarcely bo imagined th.it the Bishop would pray for a blessing on the work of the Good Shepherd if that work consisted, as he has since alleged it consisted, of exploiting then penitents as a souice ot wealth. ' As the matter stands at piesent Monsignor 1 unna/

Answered by his Own Words ,

the charges are dispro\od by himself, by hundreds who have passed thioiiL-h the hands of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd by the Bishop of Angeis, in whose diocese the headquarters of the Order are situated, by the Sacred Con-

grogation at Rome, by the reports of the inspectors appointed by an ireligious Government that seeks to suppress the religious Orders, and by Waldeck-liousseau himself. The Freemasons, however, have succeeded, according to a local organ, " Es>t Republican," and the decree has closed the Nancy House of the Good Shepherd. ' The Bishop of INiancy has perhaps followed his course of action without due thought, but his attitude has served as a bulwark from behind which Atheists and irreligious bigots lire upon convents and religious institutions generally, and since two years were allowed him to prepare a case to be stated before the CongiegaUon and since the Congregation declared against him, we are justified in holding to the view that the Sisters at Nancy have suffered a severe injustice.'