The Vitality of Religion in France

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 24, 18 June 1908, Page 33

The Vitality of Religion in France

The European correspondent of the : American 'Living Church ' (Protestant Episcopal) refers in one of his" recent letters to a rather hopeful account given" by a French writer of the present status of " the • Church in France.

I pass on, 1 writes the 'Living Church's' correspondent, ' to . still more encouraging facts- which are reported by M. Chevalier. The number of applicants for admission to the seminaries which for a time fell to a third or a half of the average, has now risen almost to the normal figures, and the slight decrease is more than compensated for by the more serious character of the applicants. They come from a class which is used to frugality ; they naturally contemplate chiefly the service of the poor ; they "are constant to the tradition of the Church; but many of them study, and study modern problems by the - aid of modern light. Abstaining from political action, they are concerned with social movements, with the material interests of their people, and with spiritual duties in which there is a revival of apostolic zeal. They command respect by their b'ameless hie, and many of them by their pover : ,v, not touching meat or wine save on Sundays. Tue'y visit their flocks; and aid them with legal and medical advice— a point which gives less satisfaction to us than to M. Chevalier, for we have a distrust of amateur lawyers and doctors. There is a tendency to group together small parishes and to serve them 'by a body of priests who save money and avoid isolation by living in a sort of community. The office of rural dean is a wholesome reality ; diocesan missionaries do useful work ; and the danger of spasmodic religion to which missions are liable is counteracted by parochial institutions. Guilds are constantly organized to form an inner circle of the faithful, whose duty it is not only to nourish their own spiritual life but also to influence those who are without. In 1906 more than 1500 members of such societies met at Moulins, the cathedral city, to arrange for the sending out of preachers and lecturers, lay as well as clerical, to propagate Christian knowledge. We read of bands of young artisans who, after their work, seek religious instruction for themselves and try to bring in their comrades ; of peasant women gathering together the young people ofja remote, farm to say prayers or read good books. In secular matters they are not afraid of the co-operation of persons who are not Christian, while for themselves they avow that their faith is the motive of their zeal.

' Such a movement is not strange to an English reader, but it is delightfully novel to those who are familiar with French parishes^- where religion has been regarded as the concern of the priest, and where the layman has thought to fulfil his duties by formal attendance at Mass. In England it must be confessed that much depends on the initiative of the parson and often of the squire. In Bourbonnais there are few squires, and the priest is usually of the laboring class, so" that the movement has a wholesome democratic character, springing from the people themselves. If to our minds there is a little too much organisation about it, we should remember that organisation is congenial to the French temper.' All this shows (says the ' S.H. Review ') that the French Government has not succeeded in killing religion in France, any more than did their predecessors, the atheistic iconoclasts of the Revolution. The Church in France may be hammered and hindered in her work, but she cannot be utterly destroyed.