FRANCE AND THE CHURCH.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13350, 15 December 1906, Page 5

FRANCE AND THE CHURCH.

i — **- 1 DESIRE TO AVOID REPRESSION. United Press Association. — By Electric j Telegraph. — Copyright. i Paris, December 14. I There is some prospect of the 'Government- willingly accepting: notification from two laymen in each parish, instead of from the t:lcrtry, thus legalising services and avoiding- raprcasiou, which they view with repugnance. j (The Archbishop of Paris, we wore told, had already repudiated notification giA'cn by laj'inen.) j Cardinal M-arry del Val's letter conjveying the Pope's 'ilslructJon to the-, 'clprjry, reg-arding 1 the law of ISSI coutainfd the following : "Abstain from ali formalities for the present-"' The Vatican declares tho French clergy wero orclei'ecl to, refrain from making the declaration prescribed ' by the Law of<lßßl,,- no;t owing to the ueelar-, ation itself. ' but to other regulations embodied in, & Briancrs circular.- , COLLECTING EVIDENCE. . . t ■ v Received? Deocfmbcr 13, 0.10 p,.m. - , Pari-s, December 1-t. t Masses in the, Paris churches and elsewhere are' scautily attended! , Tho police have collected evidence of infringements of the law. (In a reccrrt issue of the London Tribune," a - Catholic contributor in an article "on the present struggle, says : —"People 'will ask— they arc asking : Wr!! iho Pope ar-d the Frpncl^ Episcopate allow the State to .talce pos^se-s-sicn oi the property of the Church"' ? They have allowed, it before, during the/great revolution. The French .Catholics will not resist the act-ion of the State by physical opposition, They arc canuinandeil by -the Pope to aibstain- from f violer.ce and sedition. Jn anticipation af the closing of the cathedrals and chtirches arrangements are being' made 'fior •, the ' pubhe celebration of the offices of theChurch in private buildings in almost every parish. Owners of mansions ar? offering j thorn l to the, clergy for reltgi : ous purposes. Tlxcre ia no .question of Jixjlcfbrating 1 "the religious ( services' in barns or "in tho fields. And as fto the support of the clergy, the people have tali^n up the burden already. Priests and people are certain, to hold possession of the sacred ©difices until they are removed, by foree — and therfl is a belief in ..high quarters that (even the soldiery will refuse the* office of driving 1 the priests from the sanctuaries. .7. It is admitted the conflict will bo fierce, if bloodless, hut the fear that France will renounce the; Faith does not%exl>t amongst ttte Catholic authorities in Rome or in France, or, indeed, in any part of the Catholic world. FrencE rulers ha ve imprisoned Popes and the French- populace has martyred ,ar< Mm hops, and yet Francs is Catholic. There can be no compromise, ar.d 'any oiler ol settlement must come from thw Government of the R«pifblic. That is t'hc Satholie view.")