The New Zealand TABLET THURSDAY, MARCH 7 1907. THE FRENCH PERSECUTION

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 10, 7 March 1907, Page 21

The New Zealand TABLET THURSDAY, MARCH 7 1907. THE FRENCH PERSECUTION

11 _ 1 <&fp* A ROCHEFOUCAULD was not the only gilded /fflllrl^ pagan who found something" not entirely disr 1 y jnraJQL agreeable in the adversities of his neighbors. rgSssQ There are those who would set a house afire J|^Mr to roast, their apples, and who ..would^fiddle Jug^S? like Nero on' seeing their- neighbor's roof-tree V*»(L vanishing in flame and smoke. " But they are *** •' the abnormalities, we ween- — the elements - that remind us how hard-frozen and unfeeling our social life would be were 1 " it not for that sweetes.t virtue of 1 the Wess^di three ', the- Christiaih 'oh'a-rity that« is patient, is kind, envieth mot, dealeth not- server sely, bear eth all; things, believeth all things, hojpeth all. things, endureth all things. One oiaturally expects something, better thlan a pajlpaMe misrepresentation or a cheap, sneer from a' minister of t-He Gospel of truth .and brotherly love in dealing, with so grave a theme as the struggle that? is now proceeding between atheism and Christianity- in 1 F,rance. Yet "at last week's Methodist Conference in Christchiirch the retiring- presiideniP-in a speech that roamed) from China to Peru, from last year's earthquakes to , this year's ' new theology '—(permitted ■ ' himself to rejioice with a great joy ov.er the 'trials of" the ■ Faith in -France. In a few sentences he separated the gentle atheist sheep from -the wicked ' Romanist ' goats. - On the former he bestowed his puissant ' benison ; on- the latter his heavy anathema maranatha. His judgment was sweeping and summary. It was also superbly mde 1 ., pendent -of a vast jnass of facts vital to the -situation ; and the horizon of his vision was limited to a formula equivalent to that which is set forth as follows by our gifted- contemporary, the New. York 'Freeman?:—

' The French Government is fighting the ' Catholic* Church ; tfoerefiore, it is in the right. The - Church opposes certain recently enacted laws'; therefore the Church is wrong. The question whether the laws are just or unjust, right or wrong, does not " seem, . .from what he slays, to have entered, his'heayd at all.- «lt is enough for him that they are -State laws, and that they are antagonistic to the Church.' * . - - - - The ex-president's judgment was not endorsed by the Conference. -His julrilation- over the. feats- of the) little tin gcJds cif the Radical-SocraMst ' bioc ', or J machine *\ was passed over in stony silence ; arid so-, it remains;' the mere expression" of ..the personal opinion of .one whose ideas of ' Romanism ' ,are -gathered, in the well-s tyled lodge from wearers of the saffron ' sash. .; .

* - ' - -- ■ • This latest apologist of French" atheism iir exce'lsis pleads textually or in effect thai) Ms friends of the ' bloc ' are actuated by no hostility to religion ; that

the whole and sole object of their ecclesiastical policy is disestablishment— the separation of .Church and State, and that the opposition of Catholics to the" new legislation is factious and unjustifiable. Into three short sentences he has contrived to pack .a barr>elful of misinformation. The objection of the Pope and of French Catholics is not to the separation of Church_and State, but to wholesale plunder, spoliation, proscription, and tyranny under the pretext of a separation of Church and Staite. The Pope has sajid — and the hierarchy, clergy, and faithful of jj ranee are In full accord with ' "him : 'We are ready to submit to separation from the State,, 'but it m/ust be a g fair ' separatioln— -such as- obtains in the United States, Brazil, Great Britain, and Hollartfd-^not subjection _'. f-But *' a fair separation ' — a reasonably equitable disestablishment, such as -took place in Irelalnd in 1869 and in Brazil in 1890— is. 'just the thing that the braided war-council of French political atheism does not desire. .' M. Clemenceau and his colleagues ', says the high-toned and ably edited ' Saturday Review' (non-Catholic) in its issue of January 19, 'are animated by a fierce anti-Christian fanaticism '. The real .aim of their policy has been explicitly or implicitly set forth with brutal frankness by the three members of the present Administration (Premier Clemen Iceau and Ministers Briand and Viviani) who are' the keenest of the political panthers that are bent on rending spoliation, schism, ■ and persecution, the milk-white hind, the Catholic Church in France. -Hatred of religion is the motive power that has produced 'the new French penal code. Here is a translations some • of the less blasphemous utterances of Clemenceau, as given in his own paper, the ' Aurore ', in which.. he makes profession of his allegiance to Satan, the enemy of God :— ' Ah, that terrible word " negateur " (denier) with which Jehovah Himself apostrophised Satan in revolt ! I do not forget that Jaures, agreeing with M. Barthon on this as on many others, has hurled that thun- ' derbolt at me. All those people who construct dogmas out of their passing thoughts— whether 'it be Jehovah, Barthon, or Jaures— anathematise those .of us" who claim to use our reason. Like my noble Father, . the great fallen angel, I have no stomach for subservience '. ' The time has come ', says Minister Briand in his oft-quoted address to teachers, 'to root up from the minds of French children the ancient faith, which has served its purpose, and replace it with the light of free thought '. 'We must ', said he, ' get rid of Christianity '(' il faut en finir avec l'idee chretienne ' — ' Saturday Review ', August 18, 1906). And- again :— ' We have hunted Jesus Christ out of the army, the navy, the schools, the hospitals, insane asylum®, and law-courts ; and now we must hunt Him out of the Government of France '. (The ' Saturday Review. ' of August 25, 1906, gives both the original French and a* translation). In the evil work of banishing God from the hearts of the children, the standard-bearers of established irreligion are strongly seconded by the atheistic campaign' that is being carried on in the public schools of France. Says Richard Davey in the ' Saturday Review ' of January 5 — ' I wish some of our readers would examine the columns of the official "Gazette des Insti<tuteurs "- (" Teachers' Gazette "), and read' for themselves the numerous articles which it contains, full of suggestions for eradicating from the minds of the children reverence for the Deity, all love for Christ, and all hope in a future life '. Speaking in the Chamber of Deputies shortly after his appointment to the Ministry of Labor, Viviani said with a collective ' we ' :— ' All of us, first by our forefathers, then * by - our fathers, now by ourselves, have been engaged in a. work of anttelericalism, a work of irreligion (oeuvre d'irreligion). We have snatched the human conscience . from

-faith. . . That is our work, our work of revolution. Do you-believe that work is ended ? It is but beginning ; it is seething ; it is overwhelming us '. Viviani boasted in the same speech that 'lie and his fellow-politicians 'had permanently ' extinguished tihe lights of heaven- , and taught the people- that ' beyond the skies there is nothing but chimeras '. The Chamber of Deputies showed its sympathy with the l work of ■ irreli'gion ' -by .decreeing . the honor of ' affichage ' to • Viviani's speech— by having copies of it printed and placarded in eVery town and village in France: And more recently they have followed this up *by having the name of God removed from the coinage, substituting the motto of the great Revolution for the ancient and time-honored prayer that ran around the metallic circle : 1 Dieu protege la France ' '(' God protect France^). May God protect France from the enemies of religion ~that ' found a panegyrist at a Methodist Conference in New Zealand ! There can be nci mistaking the object of the legislation which these" pigmy Jacobins, these Robespierres of •the-new revolution had before their mental vision when without any consideration, without consulting or even notifying the other p"arty to the contract, they tore'lnto tatters a solemn treaty (.the Concordat), to which the goodjaith and honor. of the nation were formally pledged. The '-Saturday Review ' (non-Catholio) says editorially : 'To do these- atheists justice, they have for thirty -„ years shouted their beliefs in, the market place: From _" Le clericalisme, voila l'ennemi " to M. Briands " II faut en fmir avec l'idee chretienne ", they have marched steadily on to their goal, which is the "transformation of their countrymen not only into a no>nChristian -but an _ anti-Christian nation. Every word in this 1 connection that the Jacobin politicians say, every act ttolat 'they do, proves them to 'be not only the enemies of 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 same review N remarks : " The men who rule France to-day make no concealment of their hatred and contempt for Christianity and its Founder. . . There is no question here of differences between-'Romandsm and Protestantism. The Pope in this matter is fighting the battle of Christendom.' The same idea finds expression in a -letter written to the Baltimore ' Sun ' on October10, 1906, 'by a Protestant clergyman, the Rev. Ourtis P. Jotties. He says of the anti-Christian legislation in France :— 'It is the work of the common enemy — atheism — of Christians 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.'" , A number of other non-Catholic clergy, whose words are I 'before , us, have "-.written in a similar strain. The London ' Pall Mall Gazette ' will- scarcely be accused of anyi leaning! towards Catholics. Yet it ' puts its finger on the spot ' when it says :—: — ' It is a pity .that the leaders of public opinion in _ this country should fail to realise the simple truth that """ the present strug-gl&in France is not between the reasonable freedom of the State and clerical domination, but between, aggressive atheism and the. I ' idee ohretienne " ' ■ (Chris bianity). " • v Yet a minister of the Gospel lifts his hands in benison over the ' aggressive atheism ' that is bent upon the > suppression 1 of Chrjstian worship " in France. And he pours a hot-shot rain of opprobrium upon Christian men anjdi women who have sacrificed everything— who have suffered' themselves to be stripped to the bone, reduced to penury, and left homeless "and shrlneless — rather than enter into flabby compromises with 1 the avowed enemies of all religion,' or yield a sacred principle to the die- - tates of a cowardly expediency It is a sad position

for a Christian minister to stand in. But it illustrates .the dangers of ex-parte and ill-informed dogmatism. The ex-president's pronouncement will appear in a still more" , odious, light when, in our next "issue, we shall consider-, it in relation to the means adopted by the atheistic ' bloc ' to bring about the extinction of Christian worship in the Third Republic.