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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 23, 28 September 1883, Page 27

The Lancet writes :—": — " Whatever the antagonism of the present rulers of France to the national religion of that country, the abolition of the hospital chaplains must be regarded as a most extreme and cruel measure. It is not a question of creeds. It is the deeper question of relieion, and of provision for the consolation of sick or dying persons. Violently to withdraw such a provision from the thousands who fill the hospitals of Paris is an outrage on the religious sentiment of the people immediately affected, and of the nation itself. We shall not be suspected of any undue respect for Catholic priests or their ministrations, but we know what are the susceptibilities and the wants of the sick and of the dying — whether Catholic or Protestant. We know how resolutions for a better life, or considerations favourable to a happier death, may be fostered. In Paris, where the hospital system is so highly organised the withdrawal of such a provision is more than usually offensive to all good taste and feeling ; and we venture to believe that it will be reconsidered. The hospital is not the place to fight the battle of reason versus faith, and those who force such a fight in such a field will have th« worst of it,