THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23. 1907. CHURCH AND STATE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13835, 23 February 1907, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23. 1907. CHURCH AND STATE.

A writer 011 the subject of Church and State assures us in an American journal that it is not a mere coincidence that the English people are making a determined attempt to free national education from ecclesiastical control, that the Emperor of Germany dissolved tlie Reichstag in order to put an end to the dictation of the Clerical party, that the Spanish Government lias inaugurated a policy which can only end in the separation of Church and State in that country, and that the French people have registered their determination that the union between the State and the churches of all kinds shall cease, and that education shall be throughout Prance as far as possible secular. These, we are iuvi'ocd to believe, are but different phases of a movement which began with the Reformation and will not end until Church and State are everywhere disassociated—a movement which means the drawing of a hard and fast line between politics and ecclesiasticism and the ultimate freedom of the Church. For, lie says, the attempt of the Church in various countries under various names to exercise direct political control has been more inimical to its influence and growth than any other single condition Christianity lias had to face since it began its Westward march. So we are encouraged to think that this movement, though it may have an antireligious appearance, is a. manifestation of the deeper and broader spirit of modern times, and Will result in a victory for religion rather than for secularism. There is the characteristic of optimistic insight about this conclusion, it will be allowed. But we are asked to have a. better faith still and accept the prophecy that, "when the process which has been going on since the Reformation is

accomplished and the Roman j Catholic Church ceases to be identified with political organisations and to take part in party politics; it will enter upon a stage, of influence and power likely to surpass anythiug that it has attained in those periods when its power was almost unassailable." Therei will be those who will be sceptical as to this prophecy, aiid the prospect it suggests does not seem, to have appealed irresistibly to the Church party, in its protracted struggle with the State in France. An attitude of hostility and resentment in that party does not indicate any particular consolation, in the reflection that what has been done by the French people has really been in the interests of the Church. Any feeling of that kind does not, it may be judged, go much further than the philosophic reflection that makes the best of a bad business. Such feeling is, however,, not unworthy of attention. The prediction of schism in the Roman Catholic Church consequent on the enforcement of the Separation Law in France and on the attitude of the Vatican has apparently not been fulfilled. Ah eminent Parisian church dignitary, has described the clergy as resigned and absolutely united. He said lie looked forward to a great renewal of life and influence for the French Church to be won by the sacrifice of her worldly property and the zeal which comes of persecution. .Such a view is only differently expressed by a journalist who asserts that" whatever may be said from the standpoint of human policy, the action of the French Church stands out as a very remarkable moral protest and a display both of the apostolic spirit and of absolute discipline at a moment when especially union is strength.".. The Saturday Review has referred to. the stand which French Catholics V-have made as " historically remarkable,", and has scolded the greater part of Christendom for showing but a .scant sympathy with the persecuted Church. It is this attitude also that Mr Wilfrid Ward, editor of the Dublin -Review, emphasises lit his article in the Century for last month. In a! discourse of moderate tone he essays :: 't'q put the English press right in ' the' attitude it hag taken up 011 this question, and to point out how the almost universal opinion of Catholics as to the events that have taken place and are taking place differs materially from that which is generally maiptained or assumed in the English journals. ' The general view current in England is that the Separation Law is directed against the encroachments of clericalism and against a political Catholicism which is a danger to the State. While it may be recognised that the law is somewhat hard on the Church, the trend of opinion is with the anticlericals. We cannot here follow the editor of the Dublin Review into all the closely-reasoned arguments in which lie repudiates every item of the view current in the English press, but it is to .be noted that he states that if English journalists had taken into account the Pope's well-grounded mistrust of a. set of men who, whether their attitude is for the moment more or less conciliatory or not, never forgot tlieS ultimata ol>jecb of "im-

catholicising; France," they would hardly have represented the rejection of the teniis held out in M. Briand's circular of the Ist. of December as a final demonstration of blind and unyielding ignorance. He tells us that the true key to an understanding of

the present attitude of the Vatican, and its unanimous and for the most

part enthusiastic acceptanca by the French Church is to be found in a proper appreciation of the .fact; of

which French Catholics are as a body convinced, that what is going on i 3 not legislation with a view to the ultimate liberty of'the Church, de-

signed to purge Catholicism of its political elements, but is, on tho contrary, iu the minds of its chief promoters, part of a campaign directed through the Church, against Christianity. Ho assures us that whether or not his action has been

•ise, judged by diplomatic standards,

the Pope has recognised clearly the spirit of relentless aggression which

tlie French Government desired partly to veil and has acted on that recognition: far from inventing a statb of persecution 110 has brought

into relief a real state of persecution which its authors wished to disguise. Such is the position briefly indicated'

from a point of view that has received rather less prominence than that to

which it is contrasted. It is interesting to set against it tho view ol

his question taken by M. Charles

Waglier, the Protestant pastor of "Simple Life" fame, a view entitled to the respect attaching to the judgment of ii patriotic Frenchman of high ideals and religious principles, not personally committed to either extreme in the struggle. In an interesting article which he adds to the journalistic discussion, on the subject he tells a very different story and considers that tho Pope has inflicted upon the Church of France a terrible ignominy of which the consequences wilV Jong endure. The faithful among tho laymen, we are told, are of no account, and the clersrv are consulted only to be contradicted: without conviction and without confidence they follow their chief in the

till knowledge that he has given

them fatal orders as lie has himself received fatal advice. " And thus," concludes the writer, " a system most massive and most- logical has led to incoherence through the exaggeration of authority. l In' olden times a council would liave been called and light would have arisen out of discussion. Tb-day there is one individual who thinks for all the rest. And as lie is badly informed, lie stands in the position of'a- blind man , leading those who see clearly with, their own eyes. Never llavb the enemies of the Catholic Church done

t as much harm as have its own

institutions at this present crisis." So a. position as to the merits of which opinions differ thus widely continues to develop slowly.