LEO TAXIL INTERVIEWED.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 24, 9 October 1885, Page 19

LEO TAXIL INTERVIEWED.

(From the Paris Correspondent of the Catholic Times.')

No more signal case of a supernatural change of heart has occurred in these latter days than the conversion of Leo Taxil. It is hard to realise that the writer of works so infamous and sacrilegious that it would be impossible to give the titles of some of them in a Catholi c paper has been touched by grace, and has resolved to pass the rest of his life in repentance and reparation. To Catholics all over the

world this trophy of the Precious Blood mast be interesting ; and it

was no mere feeling of curiosity which led me to 35 Rue des Ecoles, Paris, where Leo Taxil resides, and by the side of which is the impious Librairie Anticlericale, which he has now abandoned for ever. The shelves are still filled with the too well-known ccerlet pamphlets, and hanging up in the shop is a framed caricature representing the major excommunication issued against the editor. My duties as newspaper

correspondent often brought me into contact with Leo Taxil in his bad J&B.JB, and it was not without emotion that we clasped each other's hands, rthat I congratulated him on his return to Faith and Fear of God. " You see," said Gabriel Jogand Pages, for Leo Taxil is a literary pseudonym, " that, like the prodigal, I have humbly asked pardon, and hope to try and repair my terrible career. lam pleased that the true account of my conversion should go out to English-speaking Catholics, and here it is in plain unvarnished words. lam now 32 years of age — just that of the great St. Augustine when he gave himself to God. Age is, alas ! our only point of similarity. I began my classical education with the Jesuit Fathers of Mongre. There studied hard, and above all I remember with joy now that I made holy and fervent first Communion. An accident in the shape of a broken leg interrupted my studies, but the Jesuit schooling was so thorough that I was afterwards sent to the College of St. Louis at Marseilles without missing a class. At the end of my studies Iha

typhoid fever, and it was after this that I began to be influenced by my surroundiDgs and to cause deep sorrow to my family by my flagrant impiety. In all modesty and humility I think I may say that possibly my father made a mistake in his treatment of me. He is still alive, thank God. and now that his prayers have been answered, I think he sees it. When he found me intractable, he used his paternal power and had me sent to Mettray, a kind of reformatory. There my self-importance was tickled. N. Naquet in his paper, Le Peuple, of Marseilles, took up my case. I was spoken of as a youthful martyr, and my father was hooted as a bigot. Possibly, if I had been left to myself, my anti-Catholic beginnings might have worn themselves out, and I might have been saved from many of my errors." "How did the active propaganda against religion begin in your case?" " Well, I will go on with the details of my precious life. I joined the Urban Legion when I was sixteen years ot age. I then entered the army by what may be called patriotic fraud. As I was not eighteen years of age I altered my certificate of birth. I then served in Africa. But the fraud was discovered. I was tried by a military tribunal, and escaped with a stern reproof from General Messia, who, however, shook hands with me ostentatiously after my acquittal. It was shortly after this that Garibaldi arrived in France. I was already notorious, and M. Esquiros presented me to the General. Somehow Garibaldi took a fancy to me, and I was, as you know, his intimate friend. The last letter he ever wrote was <o me. It was soon after this that the Asti-clerical League was formed.

What was its object? To bring contempt on the clergy, the religious Orders, and upon the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity — in fact, upon all that constitutes the Kingdom of God and His household upon earth. Do not ask me to say much about this part of my life. Have I been sincere ? I fear I must honestly say not. have always been wrestling with my conscience, and my remorse has affected my mind and bodily health, Thus I, who never made a sacrilegious Confession or Communion in my life, dared to outrage the Blessed Sacrament. I, who realised the beauty of the Incarnation, insulted its brightest development — devotion to the Sacred Heart. I will only speak for myself, but I fear that there is little good faith amongst these God-haters. For the present the less I nay the more 1 shall shine. I must repent in silence, and make a long retreat with the Trappi6ts. But afterwards, please God, I will fight on the side of His standard, and my pen shall be a poisoned arrow against that hideous tyranny known as aggressive atheism. You were present last night when they issued their grotes-que ' excom munication ' against me. I went alone to their assize court. I bore their ineul's and their threats. Why ? Because they would have accused me of cowardice. I had received th>- blessing of the Archbishop of Paris, and 1 felt strong. I resolved to face them and tell them that I was a sinner who had repented, and not a traitor to any convictions, however absurd." "May l a>-k : the immediate cause of your conversion ? " Well, let me be truthful. I think that disgust and discouragement made up the motive which first impelled me ; but I distinctly heard the voice of God while I was writing my 'Life of Joan of Arc' There I found the Catholic ideal of womanAll my materialism was swept away before that bright and Ipure vision, and I began to feel that I could write no more against Teligion. If ever Joan of Arc be canonised, one of the miracles to be imputed to her intercession will be my conversion." "You have, of course, been mixed up with Continental secret societies ? " " Yes ; and when the spiritual part of my probation is over, I intend to publish a book on Freemasonry. Happily, since the Encyclical of Leo XIII., Continental Masonry is slowly sinking. Even in the lodges there are now scenes of revolt against anti-religious aggression. The other day a member insisted on keeping the abstinence of Friday. He said he could do as he pleased ; but the members of the lodge indignantly placed meat before him, and turned him out because he refused to touch it On another occasion a member was asked to give a recitation. He immediately treated the assembled company to a poem on the Crucifixion. Expulsion followed forthwith. Poor Freemasonry ! There are only 300 lodges in all France. My own impression, carefully gathered, is that there are not 30,000 downright atheists from Calaiß to Marseilles. And how many

millions of both sexes are there who go to Mass and otherwise follow their religion ? French Catholics do not know their own strength. If they did, this tyranny and cruel atheism, which is now the parasite of a spurious Republic, would soon be destroyed. May heaven help me to do it ! As, however, I said before, my place is a cloister for the present. Ask the prayers of the faithful Catholics of Ireland and England for that I may live worthily and die well, and that I who, up to now, have been a blasphemer, may endeavour to increase the accidental glory of Him whom I have blasphemed."