CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 7, 14 February 1907, Page 12

CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE

AN ENGLISH VIEW OF THE SITUATION

As the wires flash across the .Channel the daily alarums and excursions incidental to the war against Christianity now inaugurated in the land of St. Louis, Englishmen (says the ' Saturday Review ' )begin to realise the meaning of the gigantic act of plunder and sacrilege recently perpetrated by tne French Republic. The truth is that the pigmy Jacobins to whom French folly has entrusted- the destinies of a great nation have torn up the religious settlement- which the administrative genius of Napoleon de-

vised and which for a century had given to France some . measure of religious peace. The reasons that have urged these Robespierres and Dantons to this colossal crime are notorious outside England.

To do these atheists justice) they have for thirtyyears shouted their beliefs in the marked place. From "Gambetta's 'Le clericalisme voila l'enrfemi ' to M. Briands '11 faut en'finir avec l'idee-, chretienne,' they, have marched steadily on, to their goal, which is the 'transformation of their ' countrymen into not' only a - non-Christian' but an anti-Christian nation.' Eyer^ word in this connection that the Jacobin politicians ,«ay,

' every .act that they do, • proves them to be not only the enemies 6i Catholicism, but also of Christianity. The Catholicism which they attack ' is allowed' •by learned' French . Protestants to "be the only form- -of

Christianity that practically counts in France: The contemptuous^ toleration that the Republic extends to pow- *

erless Calvinistic sects in no way interferes with its general purpose, and serves to blind the eyes of Pro-test-ant England to Its ultimate designs. While The Faith of Christ • . is assailed on. the opposite side "of the Channel, the tone even of those English journals that .are presumed , to appeal to the "religious section of the community is pitiful and contemp tune. That the organs of "the dissidence of dissent should be willing to see Christianity imured, so long as^ the Papist suffers "thereby, will surprise no one. it -is ,more surprising to lmd Conservative journals seeking ' to cloud the issue in a fog of anti-German and No-Pppery bigotry. ' Such an attitude on the part of a press that opposes' the " n.d;ucauon Bill and dreads Germany argues fatuity or bad" faith. If the' Pope 4s to be Dlamed for his ' resistance to the attempt' to de-christianise France, on what logical principle can .the Bill be resisted ? if Englishmen ought to - sympathise' with the eradication of Christian ideas froni French "soil, the able and eloquent pleas of a, newspaper"- .liice the ' {Standard ' for doctrinal ■ teaching in English schools become ridiculous and dishonest. Nay, grant 'even that it is right to saorihce' religious to worldly 'interests; such an. attitude- is none the'Jfess fatuous. If the- Ger-- 1 * man Emperor be -indeed the remorseless 'enemy to Eri'g- "' land that 'certain Conservative writers' proclaim him- to N be, could a worse service, be ' donfe to the interests' of this country than to limit his "na'ine .with the cause, of faith against -atheism, and to hold him up alike to the believing and unbelieving world, even in Morocco, as the new Charlemagne who has come to the rescue of Christianity 'in its hour of need ? In our comments on the betrayal of the French Christianity by the newspapers that find their way into English parsonages, we have 'given to those responsible - the credit of -good faith. The belief, however, is widespread that in their comments on French ecclesiastical matters they, are tuned by the Jewish financial rings on the Continent. It is an unpleasant fact that their representatives in Paris are generally Jews ; at' any .rate very seldom Christians. 'The ♦ Times,' for one, is represented in Paris by a Semitic gentleman. Newspapers which ' exist mainly by the support of Churchmen . and Roman „. Catholics permit their readers to" this attack i on the faith of Christ only through Jewish spectacles. While the attitude of Our -Press is Contemptible, • the silence of the Anglican Church is regrettable; Our Primate a short time ago made a right protest against a Jewishi massasfe in a foreign country ; but he and his colleagues are willing to* leave to" the -Roman Catholic hierarchy of this country the honoo: of being the sole English protesters against this outrage to the household of the Faith. - Their . silence is enough to make us sigh for an hour, of the Georgian episcopate. „ . The 'English<bishops who extended the hand of • sympathy to the oppressed ■ Galilean ■ Church of the days of- i,he ..-First Revolution adorned not themselves'- with' iriitres or pectoral crosses. They did not -e.ven call themselves Catholics. To be frank, they fell sadly short of .Chris- '- tiaiy perfection. However, in a great crisis of religion they showed a zeal for the common heritage and the common good of Christendom that their, successors today in a like .crisis do not display. Perh-aps the - most offensive feature in this* press campaign is the attempt made to represent the Pope as the assailant of the laws and liberties of Frenchmen, and to drape this Jacobin anti-Christianity 'in the honored mantle of Gallicanism., The truth' is that throughout the struggle* ,the Republic and not „ the Pope, has been the lawbreaker/ The very pretext for the Separation Law was the Pope's interference "to abate a grave ecclesiastical scandal which no Church in Christendom could tolerate. The dissolution of the Concordat without notice to the Holy See was in 'the circumstances a discourteous violation of the diplomatic usages of civilised nations. The Separation Law violated the spirit of the Concordat in a most dishonorable manner. The paltry salaries paid to the French ' clergy .under ' that treaty represented then nation's shabby compensation of the great wealth with which % tbe, piety .or penitence of the. pre-revolutionary ages nad , endowed" the Gallican . Church, and of .which the Revolution robbed her; -If the „' Concordat was to be dissolved, -' Justice and.Logic Required . • that -from, a, pecuniary point of view the Church should be-t-placed. .again in- the same position in which • she stood in 1789. Practically no. doubt this \ would have been impossible, still -in view.of past guarantees it was i?hp duty of the (State- to 'make compensation • not only to .the individual clerics but, also to the Church as •a ' corporate body on a generous .scale. Practically the

Republic offered no compensation whatever to the Church, but allowed the ecclesiastical fabrics to be leased to associations cultuelles who were to" be -responsible for public worship, and whose orthodoxy was to be. vouched not ,by .the bishop of the diocese but/ by. a council of • state nominated by the Jacobin government of France, it ill becomes Anglicans, -who recall the Welsh Disestablishment Debate and remember the indignation aroused even among -Liberal Churchmen at- Mr. Asquith's proposal to place the Welsh cathedrals under the control of commissioners-, while safeguarding' their exclusive use for Church services, to blame the Pope for . his refusal to acquiesce .in a far more cruel . injustice to French Catholics. As, however, it is repeatedlystated in thei - press that but for the Pope fthe French episcopate would have accepted the dishonorable' pro-, posal, let the British public know that- they were absolutely unanimous in rejecting it. The only basis in fact ' for the absurd statement to the contrary is that -certain bishops did consider whether" it was possible to form associations under the Separation Law on ,a canonical basis and that they gave up the attempt ■as hope-_ less. This week also the absurd, fiction" has been revived, that the Pope has in Germany.' accepted the principle of associations cultuelles. • This argument has been, invented almost entirely for English consumption. In France they know better than to use it. The fact is, that German Church councils arc perfectly canonical, for, like Engish churchwardens, they are' merely administrators of Church property, not organisers or controllers of Church worship. "* But why, say our. Erastian journalists, did the Pope' and the bishops refuse to fall in with M. Briands kind offer and not legalise Church worship under the .law of public meetings ? The answer is that to haye N done so would, have compromised the whole position off the Pope and the Church, and^ at the best have, saved the churches from desecratidn only for a year. It may further be added that M. Briands proposal that a single notice should hold good for a year was in - itself a counsel of lawlessness, and that the Pope has left it to the Jacobin Ministry to violate alike . .- the Statute Law and the Rights of Man. It is, a relief to turn from these hypocritical sophistries to contemplate

The Stand of French Catholics.

Their attitude is historically remarkable, for never before in the struggle between the State and the Vatican in France has French Catholicism so unanimously ranged itself on the side of the Papacy. When Louis XIV. raised the standard of G-allicanisnT against Innocent XI. he could count „on the aid of Bossuet and the flower of the French episcopate. Even Pius Vl. 's condemnation of the civil constitution, did not <prevemt four bishops and a large section of the French clergy from giving their adherence to - 'the religious establishment inaugurated by "the National Assembly. In ■ the stern contest between Pius VII. and Napoleon . a . large section of the French ' clergy were imperialists. __ Why, if there' is a grain of truth in the allegations of the English supporters of the regime, of persecution, . is no such aid forthcoming to M. Clemenceau and his , merry men^ to-day? True, the French Church. may" be more Papal* in sentiment to-day than it was "of yore ; but certain recent controversies, for instance those on Anglican orders and Biblical criticism, have revealed the important fact that a considerable section of the French priesthood is not in sympathy with extreme Ultramon-. tanism. Such facts render the solid unity in the Catholic Church of France and the united resolution of its members to suffer undeserved loss and shameful- persecution the more impressive. Only an issue of the first moment could have united so great a body, hampered as it is by Exastian traditions, in so magnificent a protest. In its courage lies the best hope for ' French religion. For the time the clouds are black and there seems little hope -of *a popular reaction against Jacobinism in the land of St. Louis. From the greater part of Christendom, to its shame" be it said, there" comes but scant sympathy with the persecuted Church, History, happily/ may be trusted-to set the. wrong right,' and to 'do a generous if tardy justice to the brave men who are fighting the battle "af religious liberty for the world and are reserving for France' the' faith of Christ. • ■ '..*-.