In France

New Zealand Tablet, 11 October 1906, Page 23

In France

' The prospects of war between Church and State in France are,' says the ' Catholic Times,' ' enlarged by the ' consciousness among Catholics that the aim of the Government is the gradual extirpation of all ecclesiastical power and influence. They remember that Jules Ferry in 1879 told them to found as many free schools as they liked ; the Government would not interfere. They relied upon this understanding, asCatholics here did on the understanding of 1870. But they have lived to see M. Combes close 15,000 of these free schools and turn their religious teachers adrift. They have just seen M. Clemenceau close nearly 1000 more, and send word to prefects to root out such of the religious teachers as may be hidden here and there throughout France. . They expect to find- the rural clergy forbidden to teach children, and, worse than all,, they, are daily faced with the fact that the lay teachers are busily engaged in teaching their little children a contempt for religious beliefs and practices. With all these things in their mind they may well wonder whether the time has not come for staking life and limb in defence of their rights and their children's to worship God according to their conscience.'