The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1906. THE CHRIST-HUNTERS

New Zealand Tablet, 13 December 1906, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1906. THE CHRIST-HUNTERS

. N yesterday,-*. December 12, the Lodge in exX . celsis .entered upon the latest and bitterestf phase of its war to- the death against Chris-, tianity in France. .There -is, fortunately/ no mistaking > the." object of the .aggressive, Freemason official atheism that at present rules the French, Republic. The Premier, \ M. -Clenieuceau, though brought up a Protes- : taut, carries his* atheism upon his' sleeve. He »is (says' an - English^ ''.contemporary) 'a militant" atheist, .and" loves to talik- "of having scaled heaven and dethroned' Gdd-V--f-And'- M. Briand, Minister of Justice and' Education, spok'n* for his coyeagues as well as for himself

when, with a collective-' we, ', he made ./the following - v brutally frank declaration of 'ministerial policy. at the recent Congress of Teachers at .Amiens :—: — - -, ■-'"-' We v - must : get~ rid of' Christianity. . . We have hunted Jesus Christ- out .of- the schools, out of the university, out of thef .hospitals, the refuges, nay, even out .. of the gaols 'and the} Puna tic -asylums. We must now hunt 'Him out o'f i "lh'c- i Goy eminent of" France V „.- : The ■,- closing and confiscation of Catholic institutions all over France,- of -27,, 000' schools, the proscripWonT or banishment of 160,000. -persons devoted to Christian education and Glirist-ian charity is now succeeded by the new of the so-called 'Law' of Separation. It -is an effort- to- substitute >a lay for an .ecclesiastical - government' of t,he'-' Church;' and-f-f ailing) this—to v confis- ' cate' to secular uses every church', seminary ». and presbytery in. the, land. - And in addition tovthds, -the Christhunters "forbid; all. public "worship, unless' carried out with the knowledge' and sanction, .of '"the," Government -. and under such restrictions as it may impose. All'persons-dar-ing without leave to worship God in'the temples of "their fathers are to' be treated'^as if - : j>h'ey were ~thiey.es or for- _• ' gers. The old worship the Most High/ God is; now ' a high crime against- the Freemason-Radical-Socialist 'machine' that " now '" Tammanies lodge-ridden France. Even so strong a socialist as M.- Paul Meuhier (deputy for Aube) recently published a protest "againsj^-the socallecULaw of Separation."^ He' said in part :— -/ 1 The law of December 11, 1905, is not a law of separation between the churches and the State. It is a law "that has the' outrageous pretension to reorganise 'the churches in France. .T iP is a civil-"'constitu-tion 'of the clergy: -It- is a>" bad law. 'The Pope, .is • justified. . lie: wfll-^not .haveJthe associations for. -public - w6rship.. .-That 'is ftis^business. He- is the absolute- Head -of the Catholic .Church/. He ..organises, his Church, as he : fitii That v is V! none :..of- our: business, and I 4o not' approve J of the French - leplslator substituting himself', f or ' the Pope" and the Bishops- for »the organisation and government ' of " the Catholic Church in France.'' ; " ~ s And even so strongly, anticlerical ,an organ as the Paris ' Temps -' recently pleaded-'for 'liberty of ' conscience ' j it. condemned as ' anti-republican,'. the>lattempt to. ' impose upon" the -jUathoJLierreligion a mode of government that Is foreign td^fe -principles. ' ; and it , pleaded for Christians in Fr.adce. the same' consideration , that is extended to- Mahometans in.. Algeria— even though the -Mussulman's 'Mecca is -in Arabia, and the" Khalif, Mahomet's successor, reigns in Coustantinoiple '„ Events will move at a pretty rapid pace -in France during the nex,t few mont/hs. ; and the proceedings- of the- Caristhunters will v bc watched with- interest by the. civilised world. As to, the jiltimate .result of this atheistic persecution 1 , we have no. fear. ,' v ' ;' <-' -