A 'Loaded' Gift

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 24, 18 June 1908, Page 9

A 'Loaded ' Gift

Sundry municipal councils that are controlled by the atheistic ' bloc ' or machine, of Paris joyfully accepted charge of the parish churches that were seized under the miscalled Separation Law. They did not then know that the gift was (so to speak) loaded. They knowJt now. The Prefect" of the Department of Seine has recently issued a report' stating that, before the separation of Church and State, the upkeep of religion cost the city a grand total of 250,000 francs (£10,000) ; and that now the expenditure is 2,745,000 "francs (£109,800). The churches are now the legal property of the city, which is bound to keep them in repair— a work which was formerly done by the ' fabriques ' or parish councils. The Catholic churches have treated the Radical-Socialist councils after the manner of McFingal's muskets, which 1 Though oft well aimed at duck or plover, Bear wide, and kick their owners over '. -