OUR LETTER FROM FRANCE

New Zealand Tablet, 23 October 1913, Page 43

OUR LETTER FROM FRANCE

.- ;•■ Paris, September 1, 1913. A New Decree of the Consistorial. According to general canon law, ecclesiastics are excluded from taking upon themselves the offices of members of parliament, municipal councillors, mayors of boroughs, and so on. However, in some countries, in special circumstances, and for the good of religion, priests have been permitted to seek election to these civil functions. In France, for instance, priests have been for a long time members of parliament. At present there are two such —the Abbe Gayraud and the Abbe Leinire. By law, though eligible for the House of Deputies and for the Senate, the clergy were not allowed to assume other civil functions. From 1913 onward, all restrictions are taken away. Forseeing that a greater number of priests may in future present themselves for election to different offices, some French bishops have asked the Holy See for guidance in the matter, and the Sacred Consistorial Congregation .has replied that it will be lawful for priests to become candidates on two conditions—viz., that they. have the permission of their own bishop, and of the bishop of the place where they canvass. A very reasonable rule. Religious Toleration in Prussia in 1913 ! Recently a religious retreat conducted in Coesfeld had been interrupted because it was conducted by the Jesuit Fathers, who are not tolerated in Prussia. Recently, a secret circular has been sent to the mayors of one of the Rhine provinces ordering them to give detailed reports of missions and retreats given in their towns, of the names of the missionaries, and of the religious Order to which they may belong. They are asked to be particular in the matter as-to whether the missionaries say anything against the government and the established order of society. Just fancy ! Atheists, Socialists, Anarchists may spout out their views in halls and street corners on the government and the established order they may even try to rouse their hearers to club together to overthrow them, and not one mayor, or magistrate, or policeman, says a word ! Indeed, the spouters are protected by the police from molestation. But the priests of some religious Congregation, who come to give a quiet retreat or mission, according to the established forms of the Catholic Church, must be watched lest they set about overthrowing civil society ! Can stupid bigotry go further ? How long the antiCatholic intolerance, suspicion, and hatred roused three hundred years ago take to die ! The comical aspect of this curious .phenomenon in religious" fanaticism is this, that those, under this cloud of ignorance and prejudice, are the ■ people who talk loudest of their enlightenment and of their spirit of tolerance, and who accuse Catholics of narrowness and intolerance! But then we must remember that a man is his own standard of judgment; he thinks all others are like himself. The Old Catholics of Germany. Dr. Dollinger's sect still lives, but it only just lives. It is reaching the end of its absurd career. In June the sect held a synod at St. Imier. The bishop, one Herr Herzog, declared that he had recently received letters from 25 priests ' emancipated from this •tyranny of Rome.' The alleged emancipated or escaped reverend gentleman asked to be' admitted to this Old Catholic Church of Switzerland. When questioned as 1 -to where the new apostles were, the bishop said he could not receive them as he had no work for them to do, nob even for one of them ! The congregations in the parishes of his lordship's diocese, by his own admission, are clearly not going up in numbers. But never say die till you're, dead. Keep on boasting of your health and strength till the end. 'Tis best; it will encourage yourself to hold on, and some one may believe you and thing you are thriving. So the* Old Catholics are going to hold a general council or congress at Cologne from September 3 to September 7. They have invited all 'the independent episcopal churches' in the world to take part.and help to realise

the dream of the great Dollinger of a truly Catholic Church. No doubt some Anglican bishops and some American Episcopalian bishops, who may be on tour in Germany at the time, will take part to show their Catholicity. The writer of the encyclical calling the council, grandiloquently exclaims: ' Let this congress be a demonstration and a manifestation of our sentiments and of the sentiments of our co-religionists before the great world public, and of the need of a Church Catholic, truly Catholic, and yet independent.' Magnificent from a tailor of Tooley street, who has got hardly a co-religionist left! But it is the age'of the tenor and of the big drum; and seeing that he is 'independent/ why should not the one tailor shout and strike and make a noise ? Fortunes are made by noise—mere noise. But hardly such luck in the case of the poor Old Catholic sect; it is on its last legs.

A Shouting Parliamentarian Disappointed.

- Shouting and bombast do not always succeed. Elections for some of the cantons have been just held in France. The elections were a test as to whether. the nationalist parties (amongst these, of course, are the truly Catholic deputies and senators) or the socialist and radical parties had popular sentiment behind them. The Nationalist parties have been, all spring and summer, trying to carry the Lot de trois cms. This law had for its object to create and keep up to an efficient standard an army fit to defend France, and make her feared and respected in the present troubled state of Europe. The Socialists and Radicals have done everything in their power to obstruct the passage of the law. They have even raised mutinies of a dangerous kind in four or five of the large barracks. They have by their speeches and newspapers left nothing undone to arouse an anti-army feeling through the country. Treason to the interests of beautiful France could "not go further. Her degenerate sons, in their wild socialistic fanaticism, deputies of the House, and conductors of influential newspapers, have been using tactics calculated to drag her down to the status of a second or third-rate powerthe easy prey of her powerful neighbors. One of these radical-socialist deputies, writing in the Lanterne, on the eve of the elections in which he was one of the candidates, beat the big drum thus: 'I have full confidence in the good sense of the electors. This consultation of the country will turn out most interesting—a revelation of the public feeling of France. It is in the secrecy of the ballot that one finds out truly the 'popular sentiment. • Victory will be ours, and the clericals and adorers of the good God will go to hell.' But on the morrow the electors of Dampierre sent M. Ponsot home to attend to his private affairs, and write articles on le sentiment populaire for the Lanterne. He now knows the sentiment populate. Beating the big drum did not succeed for M. Ponsot, late deputy of Dampierre. Freemasonry Expelled From the Republic of Columbia. Columbia is advancing with . rapid strides in religious, social, and economical prosperity. This is due to the way in which . law and order, and interior national unity and peace are maintained. Freemasonry and its accompaniment, disorder, and revolution, have been.the curse of the South American republics. The people of Columbia know Freemasonry and its dark plots and intrigues, and they will have none of it. M. Casas, a member or the Chamber of Representatives, recently introduced a proposal for a law to banish Freemasonry completely from the Republic. He delivered a powerful speech in introducing his project. Here is a summary of it: ' The Popes, from" Clement XII. to Pius X. have condemned the Masonic sect as opposed to Christian doctrines and morals, but according to article 47 of our constitution sects or associations of that kind cannot be allowed to exist in Columbia. Again direct proofs of the corrupting influence of Masonic lodges, and of their participation in the gravest political and social crimes of modern times, are to hand and are decisive. Further, the Masonic society conspires against law and order, if these be ( based on Christian morals and Christian doctrines. The events

which have recently taken place in France and Portugal show, with a terrible eloquence, the cruel truth of this statement. It is useless, therefore, to recognise the Catholic religion as an essential element of that social order, which the civil power is bound to promote and protect, if a law be not passed to repress that sectarian fanaticism which, with an increasing daring and ferocity, threatens the Church of Columbia.' The proposed law has been passed a second time in both Houses of the Columbian Parliament. Columbia should congratulate 'itself on the result. When will lodge-ridden France, wounded to the heart's core by the intrigues of secret societies and their profit-hunting masters, be able to pass a similar law ? When will a statesman, like, the Columbian M. Casas, arise in her legislative chambers to chase away the ogres who darkly conspire to : destroy French morality, French religion, and French patriotism, and who have no shame whatever in plundering other people's property scruple in interfering with the most elementary principles of the liberty of the subject. And whilst these dark-lantern conspirators perpetrate these outrages, they are loud in proclaiming themselves the great promoters of truth, justice, charity, brotherhood, and all the virtues; the masters and leaders, who are always the profit-sharers in movements, persuade the dupes who follow them they are the prophets and forerunners of a new and high and better civilisation. $ The Plundered Seminaries of Saint-Brieux and Arras Turned Into Barracks. The Masonic government of France has recently turned the seminaries of Saint-Brieux and of Arras into soldiers' barracks. In 1906, the professors and the students were . chased from these colleges. Now the government is turning the vacant buildings to use — buildings erected by the priests and people of these dioceses over 60 years ago for the purpose of educating their young students for the priesthood. The 'bishops of both. places have protested strongly. In a moving letter to his clergy and people, Mgr. Moreille, of Saint-. Brieux, after declaring his refusal to agree to what was being done, said: ' What will be the effect of this sacrilegious act of plunder? To burden the consciences of those who take part in it, to astonish all honest men, to inflict on the Catholic people an incurable wound and, at a time when national union is so necessary, to create in this town and in this diocese an object of constant irritation.' This piece of plunder and spoliation will no doubt astonish all honest men; it will inflict on the souls of all Catholics a very deep ' wound; but will it trouble the consciences of the plunderers and of their agents It may trouble the conscience of an official or a policeman forced to do the dirty work; but as to the consciences of the leaders, the Masonic Ministers of government and the Masonic Deputies spoliation will not trouble their consciences in the least. They have none left.

Preaching in the Cathedral of Arras on the Feast of the Assumption, Mgr. Lobbedey, Bishop of Arras and St. Omer, denounced the local act of plunder in language which sent a thrill of angry emotion through the large congregation. Denouncing a governmental act whereby their beloved seminary, for 60 years the home of study, virtue, and prayer, was being converted into a common soldiers' barracks, he asked: ' Who built this seminary? The bishops of Arras. Who contributed voluntarily towards the building ? The clergy and Catholic people of the diocese of Arras. For what purpose did they contribute? That this building should be the centre whence through coming ages the religious life of the diocese of Arras should radiate. Have we consented to the change? Not a bit. Have we abdicated our rights? Never. What happened, then, in 1905-6 when the seminary was seized by the Government and the students and v professors expelled ? Merely the abuse of powerthe exercise of violence and tyranny. Assuredly it is sad/ concluded Mgr. Lobbedey, l to see the Government of France, whose duty it is to protect and promote the general interests and peace of society, seizing with violence and without thought of compensation our seminary, for sixty years

the soul of this diocese, the object of our faith and our liberality. It is sadder still to see our fellow-country-men, Frenchmen, whom we would > gladly love and esteem, giving themselves over to thoughts and deeds dishonorable to our country and discreditable to our race. ■ ' . ,

',. Mean Proselytism. . • - * It will be remembered that after the great earthquakes at Messina and in Calabria, some years ago, a large number of children ? whose parents had perished, were left behind. A committee, of benevolent old gentlemen and 'gospel' ladies took hold of many of these children and graciously provided for them ;by sending them up to friends in Northern Italy, especially to Piedmont. But lo and behold! it was soon found out that these children were taken to be Protestantised, and were sent to the care of the Vaudois or Protestant ministers to be boarded out amongst Vaudois families. The discovery made, a protest was raised, and the little proselytising game of the good old gentlemen and of the ' gospel' young ladies was put a stop to. Quite recently (says the Liberie of Freibourg) a thriving little business of the same proselytising sort has been discovered at Turin. Extraordinary are the sums of London and New York Protestant money expended annually in Italy to draw the Italians, old and young, from the faith of their fathers to ' the gospel according to' Luther or Calvin or any shoddy prophet whatsoever, provided he be strong in his protest against the Catholic Church. The committee of the Ospizio degli Esposti at Turin receives orphans and the children of unfortunate parents unable or unwilling to support their children. Well: it has been discovered that this committee has also been sending the orphans and the others to the care of the Vaudois ministers, and that the children were being Protestantised. A row has 'been made; the committee has ceased to send Catholic children to these Protestant ' soupers,' and the children sent out, as far as they can be found, are ordered back. A rowa strong protest— very effective sometimes. Good people should not be too good, or too shy, or too timid, to make it. But what is the secret of this proselytism ? This has also been found out. The Vaudois, Methodist, and other Protestant proselytisers of Italy, belong to the Masonic lodges — lodges, mind you, of the ancient and accepted Scottish rite. A Protestant parson is at the head of these lodges. His name is Fera. The lodges have influence with the Ministers of Government, and in particular with Signor Sounino and M. Mortier, both Protestants, and heads of the Charitable Aid Boards. Behold unravelled the mystery of this mean underhand Protestantico-Masohic proselytism of the poor unfortunate Catholic orphans of Messina, Calabria, and Turin.

A Successful Diocesan Catholic Confederation.

Confederation, association, union—these are the words in the air amongst all the true Catholics on the European Continent at the present time. The new form of Catholic association in France is the Unions Dioeesaines. These diocesan unions have the same objects, and pretty well the same programmes as the Catholic confederations of America, England, Australia, and New Zealand. The central idea is separation from all local political parties and active concentration to safeguard and promote Catholic ideas and interests— and political—where politics and religion meet. The Church must no longer hang on to kings or presidents or political parties. Catholics must be Catholics first; God not mammon must be their master; principle, justice, religion must dominate their movements, not selfishness, personal axe-grinding or self-aggrandising boss-leaders, be they Monarchist or Bonapartist, Republican, or Democrat, Conservative or so-called Liberal. Catholic first; anything you like provided it be honorable, open and fair in the matter of party politics second. That is the basis of the new confederating movements. Laymen, at all events, have too long left their religion out of the light in their public action. They have made a fearful mistake. They are coming fast to see that now, and hence their readiness to unite and confederate at.the call of the

Pope and the bishops. All the French bishops -as they return from their visit ad limina are enthusiastic in getting up the Unions Diocesaines. It is well known, then, whence the inspiration has been derived. Instaurare omnia in Christo is at the back of it. Now, one of the most active bishops in organising the new confederation of French Catholics is Mgr. Humbrech, of Poitiers. A great part of the diocese of Poitiers is already organised. Almost every parish has its little Union, vivante et inielligtnte. At the centre of the cantonal federation in Poitiers, the Bishop has 3000 men ready to listen to his instructions. They have won their first victory. At the recent cantonal elections they returned M. Taudiere, their own candidate, with a sweeping majority over his liberal-Catholic and lodge opponents. Bravo, Poitiers! This is the beginning of the new spirit, which is taking hold of the minds of Catholic men. May it grow rapidly more and more and spread from country to country ! Mgr. Humbrecht is now known under the name, Le vatllant eveque de Poitiers —the valiant Bishop of Poitiers. Quite naturally a man of his kind will have enemies. During a Church festival recently the Papal flag flew over the residence of the Bishop and the houses of many of the citizens. The Bishop and thirty citizens were summoned for displaying the Pontifical colors! The resident magistrate, M. Sabion, fined the Bishop and the others two francs each, on the ground that the Pope is no longer a monarch and is consequently entitled to no flag. If he were a monarch and ruled the Pontifical States as of yore the fine no doubt would be much larger, inasmuch as the flag would be one belonging to a foreign potentate'! The sentence of M. Sabion was received with laughter in court. The defendants refused to pay and appealed. The Catholic Confederation of Poitiers is about to establish a monthly review for the members; and the central committees in the towns of the diocese are making arrangements for an annual mobilisation generate of the officers and members of the surrounding parish-unions. This means something like a great county picnic of the Catholic Federation. The organisation of such a mobilisation, it is said, will give the committees something immediate to do and something worth doing. This is an idea for central Federation committees in Australia and New Zealand.