The Work of Christian France

New Zealand Tablet, 22 October 1908, Page 7

The Work of Christian France

A writer (M. Havard) in the Paris Lc Soleil expresses the view m his publication that the people of France are so essentially Catholic that all efforts to secularize their schools must prove- without avail. For centuries .(says M. Havard as quoted by the New- York Freeman) the early training of the children had been Christian, and almost wholly in the- hands of the religious Orders, and in executing the anti-clerical policy of the Combes Government, which . aimed U at the wholesale - de-Chris-ganization of France, the authorities were well aware' that France could never be fully de-Catholicized unless a generation of children was educated in godless schools. _ Consequently they sat about secularising the public teaching institutions by doing away with the chief emblem of Christ tiamty, the crucifix, and anything that recalled to mind the Catholic Church.

- The people of France, says M. Havard, in effect, would riot be true to their essential instincts of civilization if they failed to realize, on at -least their children's" behalf, the educative value

of religion, in as far as it is the only -influence that can touch the heart. Nor have they failed. It matters not to what -quarter one turns, one sees that the "'"schools- of atheism,' as the new institutions are termed, are being denounced by parents and guardians, and that the -new independent church-foundations and Orders are everywhere being encouraged to build schools, which shall take the .place of the old establishments. -,---: -, It is certain, then," says Havard; that the education of the growing generations of France is to remain Catholic; • and • that the anti-clerical party sees itself, beaten again, and the' boasted_ de-Christianisation of France postponed iine die. Of the general attitude" o^ the parents towards the 'schools of atheism,' Havard says" that it is incontestably shown by the fact that since the denuding "of the schools of their .religious emblems and symbols", the" people' of France have, -out of their own pockets, contributed to the founding of . 16,000 schools in which their children shall, as of yore, be taught the truths of ths Catholic Faith. ' - Though the anti-clerical .""faction must admit itself .beaten, it is, nevertheless, full of -resources.- It -does- not shrink even from' tragedy in order to put the "enterprising faithful in a false position. Here is a case in point : .',_., . *" One bleak night last winter, the Jbody of an • .apparently murdered infant was found on the doorstep of -one of. the new Catholic schools in the town of Lille. ' Immediately the anti-clerical press and all. the anti-Catholic' -officials were up in arms, at ~ which they, pointed . out as conclusive evidence of the class of women who were employed by the Catholics to give instruction to : their children. It was established afterwards, as 'La Crbix demonstrated beyond refute, that the infant' which" was newly-born and had died' on coming into the world, had been ' strangled ' after ils death, and had been plqccd, by enemies of the female teachers .in question outside their institution. From that moment on, the -fraud _being so palpable, the numbers in the school, far from decreasing, began to increase rapidly. And soothe Government finds itself powerless to effect any-^ thing to the detriment of these~~schools which are as inviolable, from a legal standpoint, as the churches. Both the church and the school are as sacred as personal property, and boiu are increasing in numbers as the time grows. The atheistic school, on the contrary, says Havard, is practically denuded. It has no influence; it is shunned even by anti-clerical parents who have their children's welfare 'at heart. Its ill success is so apparent, that- one is conscious of a reaction , against its absolute uselessness in the pages of- practical-minded newspapers which arc by no means well disposed to the Church. Has it come to this, asks Havard, that* the enemy lias in very shame to admit his powerlessness? - . ; It would seem like.it. As Sainte-Beuve says: 'You may chase Catholicity from her churches and from your statute-books, yet, if it be-in the .air, what avails any weapon you bring against it?'