The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1906. CHRIST-HUNTING' IN FRANCE

New Zealand Tablet, 20 December 1906, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1906. CHRIST-HUNTING' IN FRANCE

fl-IE last stage in the/ atheist, "campaign. agai,ns.t Christianity, iv France opened on the twelfth instant. The first, skirmishes an the Armageddon of these two" irreconcileable forces are now. . proceeding, and the civilised I world has its eyes upon- the scene and its mind in- tension -awaiting, the .results of the grand onset that'is coming. - The French Ministry has '. niado. its object brutally plain. 'Their object is not merely (as their"' organ, the 'Siecle.', put it) ' to &h.ake off the. joke of the, Papacy. '. The boast of the Premier, M. Clemerieeau,' is he has scaled lieaven anil dethroned God. ; And" his colleague, M. . - Briand, recently, declared , with^'^dliective ewec we '' at Amiens, in wordy oft quoted by "ii's, ijhat the Ministry mean to 'hunt 1 Christ put of -/the Government-* .of France and to ' put an eud : tb Christianity f in tKat unhappy -.country. Mt< is '„;sayjs the. -'-Pall Mall. Gaz- - < : ette '• (London) •• a pity that Hhe • leaders* of" public opuuioh in this^ country should tail to' realise the simple , truth that the present struggle in France •is -not between" the reasonable freedom, of' the State and clerical domination, but between'" aggressive" atheism and the "idee chretienne "-' (Ghiistianityj).. • 'it is- "^ (says a Protestant clergyman, the/ Rev. Oustis-iP: Jones, in a letter written on ~ October , 10 to the Baltimore "Sun') .' the work of the - commoii, cne^y^-atheism— of -Chris- ■ tians of every name, Protestants as well as Catholics, and the success of this foul blow against the Church ;. of Rome would only turn over ' France" to infidelity;, and not to Protestantism '. The following are some of the r features of the new onset against religion in Franco : . (1) A Bill, is to be pushed through Parliament for the immediate confiscation of churches, presbyteries, seminaries; etc., and the conversion of them -to secular uses —with the exception. of. such, churches as have been • taken .over by. schismatic associations of laymen. (2) Bishops and priests who decline to fall in with ' the : Government effort to force* a. lay, instead .of, a hierari chical,.- rule upon, the . Church, will be deprived' of their ; civil lights— in other. words, be treated' as outlaws— aM ) liable to banishment. (3) Persons conducting or assis- • ting at any unauthorised act of > public worship are liable to be imprisoned along with thieves, forgers, and 1 other- common malefactors. (4) Any priest or layman ; who denounces such tyra ; n-ny,!qj; s iersecuti^n is liable to ; fine, or imprisonment. He wilVnbt, however, have the I privilege of being tried, by a jury of his peers, but by ; a Correctional- Tribunal composed of judges , appointed I by -the Government— after the,- fashion of the' promov- ; ables ' and ' remqvables ' of such execrated name in

Ireland! (4) Worship associations composed "of clergy or laity in schism have been 1 declared by the Council of" State to be in full accord with the law ; and (according to recent cable messages) it would seem as if the Ministry, is to take an active part in the attempt to rend the Church..- asunder. Pressure on our space campels us to defer dealing with other features of the new campaign .' of Atheism against Christianity" in lodgeridden France. /