THE SAVIOURS OF FRANCE

New Zealand Tablet, 13 March 1919, Page 42

THE SAVIOURS OF FRANCE

Poor France, racked and torn with political troubles four years ago, and in the hands : of men who feared the lights of heaven, how wonderfully has Providence wrought her destiny (comments Truth) ! The patriotism of her children survived persecution. The priests and religious brothers, who were driven from their homes by short-sighted opportunists, flocked to her flag from all the countries of the world. They waited not for conscription-, but rushed even into the conflict, from which their anointed hands might well have exempted them. They were making the sacrifice, not for material France, but. for the soul of France. They were repeating the sacrifice of Calvary, and paying for the redemption of their people by their own innocent blood. The enemies of Christianity die hard, but was there ever such a story as the sacrifice made for France in this war ? Thirty thousand priests and religious fighting in the trenches to soften the hearts of the rulers. Have they succeeded ? Who knows but the Ruler of hearts ? It seems to us unthinkable that now when the Teuton has been driven from France, and the children of St. Louis are returning to rebuild their ravished nation, the old lines of secularist bitterness will reappear. Everything points the other way. For four years the newspaper readers of France have been thrilled with stories of Christian fortitude from the trenches. Men whose belief in God had completely vanished were won back to fervent faith. Leaders who had acquired office through undue influence were found wanting; and the much-despised Christians took their places. The man whose brilliant abilities have done most to win the war was so uncompromising in his faith that he was unable to attain leadership until he could no longer be kept back. And the story of Marshal Foch might be repeated in a score of instances. . All the men who have come through the ordeal with stainless glory are men of fervent faith. Pau, though long past the age when he could withstand the rigors of the field, held up the foe in Lorraine; Castlenau, the noble soldier, who put his faith before preferment, stopped the Germans at the Rivers. Foch showed himself at the very outset to be a master of strategy, but was held back for others less worthy, until circumstances compelled the politicians to rely on him. Retain, another uncompromising Catholic, is the hero of Verdun. And now Gouraud and Mangin have shown themselves to be worthy of the confidence of the brave French nation. Of "the politically-appointed officers nothing need now be said. They were dealt with three years ago, in time to save France. And the politicians who made them, Caillaux, Malvy, 8010, and their press backers, have followed them into wellmerited disgrace. Of the rank and file, the men and women of France, nothing better can be said than that they have excelled the traditions of -their race. The noble mothers of France have bravely held up under overwhelming grief. They worked and they prayed, and can we believe that their prayers have not been heard? The broken hearts that appealed to that Divine Heart from the shrine of Montmartre, from Paray-le-Monial, from many a village in the heart of the hills, have surely had their supplications answered. ■ God has done much for France. Amid the din of battle we are reminded this year from Rome of the virtues of Blessed Margaret

Mary Alacoque; we, feel that the nation, which was not impressed when Lourdes displayed its miracles, may be brought back to faith by the sacrifice and devotion of its holy women. Rheims is gone, the material glory of. France; but Joan of Arc, the spiritual glory, remains; and surely she will restore to this volatile nation the faith that made her the eldest daughter of the Church. ' , France, like Ireland, has, done much to spiritualise the world. To her the world owes St. Vincent de Paul, the protector of little children, whose valiant sons, priests and laymen, and whose sweet daughters of Divine charity are to be found in every land. In the 'frozen north, over the Pacific isles, in the heart of desert Africa, at the Holy Places in Palestine, France’s missionary sons and daughters abound; and, like incense, their prayers and their works incessantly plead for Divine intercession. It may be that her sins are great ; but they have brought on her terrible punishment. The awful crime of race suicide ; the notorious sins of great cities; the senseless intolerance of infidelity, were no doubt hers in great measure, and much has she suffered from them. Is it too much to believe that now when her sous are relieved of this burden they will rebuild a new France, purged of those evils, and full of the faith which we still see in all its strength in the great men who have upheld her honor on the battlefield