THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 33, 2 November 1907, Page 5

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

'.-■■■. ■ SOME EVENTS IN FRANCE, ; ; ■ A NEW BILL. '■'-'" THE ENCYCLICAL - AN ARCHBISHOP -..RESIGNS. BY TELEGRAPH—TRESS ..ASSOCIATION— COPTRIOnT., ........... Paris, October 31. M. ■ Briancl, Minister for Public Instruction, has introduced into the Chamber of Deputies a Bill to transfer:to the Communes, forjtho boncflt of.thc'poor, all ecclesiastical property unclaimed by public worship .associations. ~; • ; The Bill is intended to >stop twenty thou- i sand law'suits, initiated by relatives of tho original donors of foundations. Dr. Lacroix, tho wolUknown Archbishop of tho; Taientaiso, has resigned as a protest against , tho Popo's Encyclical on Modernism. , Under the Religious Associations Law, which has caused so much excitement 1 in Prance during the last -two..years,- Church property ivas vested .in tho-public worship associations. In pome pliices these have"been formed.'.The relatives of the original donors,- v no doubt, object to bwjuests Tiindo Tor religious, purposes, being diverted to other 'uses'; ,, ..- ' '.;■' /.','..' '" . The "Catholic 1 Titnefi" (London) states:— "In the name of.higher thought,<science, and intellectual progress, movements have been parried on which, without directly attacking Christianity, steadily sapped its foundations. They involve perils ifor believers, more serious than open antagonism to religion.. The undisguised enemy is recognised and .eschewed or combated; the enemy who appears in' the guise of a friend, often works mischief boforo the true'bearing of his efibr r ts is (liscovoml, It was to enable Catholics to discern the false tendencies, of,the. day in, relation to Faith that tho Syllabus was issued. The Pontiff now explains, more , fully how , " incompatible' with allegiance to the- Church is-the spirit of innovation which, he calls Modernism. , That tho Encyclical would evoke criticism • from thn : Press , was to 'be expected; -The h'ohOntiiolic journalist who is ever in quest of what is new and strange does not understand the doctrinal attitude of Catholics. To his. mind : it is too. unswerving, too rigid. ; Bnt. ■ Catholics' cannot. trust, as ho "does; to th'p smoky lamp of reason. They commit themselves to the guidance of a Church which, as She depository of Divine-'Revelation , ,- can never countenance .change er- make, any compromise with error." .... ':■; ' ~ ■' . -,' ..■•:'.. .