RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN FRANCE

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4319, 30 March 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN FRANCE

Two closely printed volumes of 1000 pages each have been distributed to the members of the Chamber of Deputies, savs tho Paris correspondent of (he “Daily News.” The printing cf tnem has cost £BOO. - They are pack id with statistics on the fortunes in real estate of the religious orders, and show their progress since 1830, when the worst wave of reaction that France ever experienced.set in. That year they owned properties valued at £2,000,000 sterling. Their ostensible retd estate has since risen to £44,000,000 sterling, but the wealth held in trust and otherwise kept out c.f sight must, it is thought, considerably exceed £120,000,000. Should this ratio of increment continue, they would in another half century possess £400,000,000 to £600,000,000.

What do the religious orders want wmh all this wealth? The alms giving of the religious orders is not groat. Indeed, they are reputed avaricious. Their orphanages are scarcely disguised indus-, trials schools. The profits of the cftdd labour in these houses are considerable, and the children are turned adrift when of age penniless, badly clothed, narrowly specialised and unable to adapt themselves to new conditions. The Bishop of Nancy was a year ago in a hot campaign at Rome and in his diocese against the Order of the Good Shepherd, which is the greatest outfitter of lingerie de luxe in France. The Bishop of Laval quite recently did battle with a begging order in his diocese that also knows how to turn child labour to industrial account. He first remonstrated, and was publicly vilified by way of answer. On an appeal to Rome the Pope decided in his favour, and limited the conditions for the creation or spread of such orders. The ease with which, under the name of religion and charity, the laws against mendicity could be evaded led to the great multip.iplication of religious orders. They have two great sources of wealth —the dowries of new members and begging. The begging leads often- to- iarge -donations and to legacies. There are altogether 3216 religions houses in France. Of these 2748 have l l„ _ C .. 1 Ij-ivwlo i-n/alnrbnnr

kind of orphanages on which the Bishop of Nancy put his foot. down. Since 1877 the religious.orders have swarmed in Algeria, where they .numeher 30,136 members. The numbers are not given of those that swarmed to the other French colonies, and to Canada and to British India, where Roman Catholic enterprise is very great. Sacred Heart Convents go in for elegant education for young ladies. They , have been rapidly gaining ground in Canada, California, and the hill districts of British India. Thete are orders, such as the Poor Clares, Trappists and Carmelites, which go in for fasting and ether mortifications of the body, but they are by far the least numerous. Most religious communities live well. Loyola expressly forbids mortification of the body, which might render the Jesuit a less efficient soldier of thd Cross. He wanted his diciples to he able-bodied, enterprising, resourceful. Saint Vincent forbade every attempt to rise above'the common law, unless.in. observing the vow of celebacy and rising at cockcrow in the

morning. His daughters kept a plain, 1 excellent table. I was once a neighbour in the country 1 of a Sisterhood of St. Thomas de Ville- | neuve, and hired a cook who had been with them for seven years. She was one ; of the best cooks I ever knew in a narrow range. She spoke of the sistesrs as gourmands and gourmets, as hearty eaters and dainty, but without thinking the worse of them for that. They ran a hospital for scrofulous children, and they were assisted by a large staff of servants. The sisters never did servile work themselves, but knew how to get it done. They were not saints, hut certainly were ; not sinners either. They were good to the children, and most successful in begging for them. The worst thing I knew of , their community was that a member feu in love with the gardener, and finally .n- i sistod on retiring from it to marry him. The mayor of the commune, though a clerical, had to post the banns on the quo? of the parish church, to tlie great disgust of the religious people with small minds.