THE ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS TO M. LOYSON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 315, 2 May 1879, Page 19

THE ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS TO M. LOYSON.

M. Loysok, the ex-Perc Hyacinth, having written some tim 3 ago to tl c Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, to inform him of his intention to oj en a new church in Paris in which " the doctrines of St. Denis " \\ ould be taught, that his scheme bad been approved by the Protestai t Primate of Scotland, and that he regretted the Cardinal Archb:shop could not come and inaugurate his new church, has. received tte following answer from the Cardinal Archbishop : " Sir, — On receiving your letter of January 6, I asked mys3lf in vain what motives urged you to take a step which the commonest decency forbade. So long as you persist in your sad apostasy, no connection is. possible between you and those you have plunged into grie f , after they had heaped upon you proofs of their kindness. But when I knew that you intended to publish your letter to me in the I perceived that you meant to use it in order to get up an excitement about the new worship you are about to inaugurate in the Rue Rochechouart. That is what induces me in spite of my repugnance to reply to you, and to give you no pretext for taking advantage of my silence. It. would be difficult for me to express all I feel in writing to you. My feelings are a mixture of terror and compassion. I see in you a fearful example of the chastisement of God on a soul first overladen with the favours of grace in a sublime vocation, but since fallen into the abyss of the most wicked infidelity. You have allowed the pride which blinds a man to penetrate into your mind, and into your monk's cell the image of those pleasures which you had sworn to renounce. The double temptation by which you were tormented has triumphed over your I'eason and your small courage. Then that which had been the object of your faith ceased to be true in your eyes ; the holy objects of your love had now no charm for your heart. For the last few years you have been dragging your degradation about from place to place without finding that peace which flies from you. That peace which God alone gives, you have at last sought from those who lost it by a fault similar to your own, by breaking the unity of the Church. You perhaps flatter yourself that you will win from men by your eloquence that testimony which your conscience refuses you ; that is another deception in store ior you. Around your schismatical pulpit we shall see a few unbelievers attracted by curiosity. No disciples will be seen. Your sect will make no adepts. You will not even attain the success of the Etflise Francahe of Chatel, which, after a few meetings which resembled theatrical representations, disappeared amidst indifference and contempt. And what sort of place have you chosen for your pulpit of error ? You have chosen the very city in which stands the ptilpit of truth made famous by great orators, and once filled by yourself with some splendour. Your hearers, confounded, will seek for the motives which have induced you to pass from one to the other, and they will certainly not find any that can honour the new mission you have given yourself. I mil not close this letter, sir, without reminding you that you have ceased to be a Catholic. Whatever other titles it may please you to give yourself, the Church has cast you out from its pale. You are crushed beneath tbe weight of her excommunications. A man cannot be a Catholic in spite of the Church, and her true children know that it is forbidden them to listen to heretical teaching. In addressing these severe words to you I am discharging a duty of my office, and I feel myself animated solely by the desire to save you. Ido not forget that the salvation of a soul is never to be despaired of. A day will come, perhaps, when bitter experience will prepare you for repentance, and bring you back into the path from whic'i it has been your misfortune to stray. I pray God to grant you that grace, and to give you time to do penance before calling you before His tribunal. May you soon make reparation for the scandals you have given the Church and your brethren ! That is the only wish I can express to you."'