RELIGION IN FRANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16174, 27 December 1924, Page 6

RELIGION IN FRANCE.

PAPAL NUNCIO OFFENDED. (From a Correspondent.) PARIS, November 5. A "diplomatic incident" has arisen out of. the speech delivered at Valence on Sunday by M. Franoois-Albert, the Minister of Education, in which he made direct allusion to Mgr. Cerretti, the Papal Nuncio in Paris. The passage in the speech which has caused offence was the following: "We have had the strange surprise of seeing the representative' of. a foreign Power break the habitual reserve which diplomatic agents make a Joint of maintaining, in order to lend the authority of his presence and speech to the Institut Catholique, described as the sole heir and legitimate successor of the old Sorbonne."

The allusion in this passage was to a speech made by Mgr. Cerretti in November, 1922. After reading. M. Francois-Albert's speech, Mgr. Cerretti, with the encouragement, it is said, of other members of the Diplomatic Corps, visited the Quai d'Orsay on Monday and expressed his astonishment at being accused of a breach of diplomatic convention. M. Baudrillart, Rector of the Jnstitut Catholique, has written to the newspapers to point out that the remark made by Mgr. Cerretti two years ago merely recognsed the fact that the old Sorbonne was a purely theological college and not, as it now is, the seat of various university faculties. It is understood that the Cabinet yesterday discussed the incident, but decided that rather a controversy over ideas than a question of a personal attack. Possibly some explanation along this line will prove satisfactory to the Papal Nuncio, but at present the incident is not regarded as closed and there is even some talk of Mgr. Cerretti's appealing to the Diplomatic Corps, of which he is the doyen. .

Whatever may be the outcome of this particular incident, M. FrancoisAlbert's speech against clericalism seems likely to have an effect which was certainly not' expected by the Minister himself. Curiously enough, as it will seem to English readers', it is' expected in some quarters to react unfavourably upon French finance. It is actually predicted that the country clergy will advise their flocks not to invest their money in the new internal loan which comes out on November 12. Over this loan, indeed, as well as over the renewed fall in French rentes and in the exchange rate of the franc, a good deal of anxiety is perceptible, and the customary suggestion of malicious "attacks" on the franc is already to be heard. Long propaganda articles extolling the position of French finance are appearing, but, nevertheless, L'Ere Nouvelle goes so far to-day as to say:—"Logically, we ought to have reached the bottom of the fall. If, to-morrow, we see a fresh fall n French rentes an inquiry must immediately be opened, for there would be proof of an attack, very cowardly, but very serious, on France's credit. Unfortunately wc fear that this attack, to-day fjgarded as a painful hypothesis, may shortly become a cruel reality. Wc know from a sure source that the clerical party, which places its interest above its duty, has decided upon a great financial offensive against the Republican Cabinet. The enemies of the Government consider that our credit is in their hands as a hostage; .A panic on the Bourse or a surrender on the question of secularism —that is the deal proposed."