CRUEL AND RELENTLESS PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH IN FRANCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 39, 22 January 1897, Page 27

CRUEL AND RELENTLESS PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH IN FRANCE.

The whole world looks with horror on the atrocities which the Turk continues to perpetuate in Armenia without any effective protest on the part of European statesmen. A persecution less bloody, though not less cruel and relentless, is going on in Russia, Italy and France. The Czar shows no mercy to Christians who are not in communion with the Greek schism : hence we occasionally hear non-Catholic journalists raising their voices to denounce the fanaticism of the Russian Government. But not a word of objection have these same journalists to offer to the still more brutal fanaticism with which the Masonic Governments of France and Italy are striving to do away with the very existence of the Church. Mr. Duncombe Jewell contributes to the October number of the Month an able article on the '■ Present state of politics in France," in which he gives an insight into the persecution at present existing in that unhappy country. We cannot share in his opinion that France is not yet prepared for republican rule, or that any lasting good would result from the establishment on the French throne of one of the three pretenders who represent the houses of Bonaparte, Bourbon and Orleans. The majority of Frenchmen are neither atheists nor anarchists. The best thing they can do is to stop their unseemly squabbling with one another, forget their exaggerated notions about the rights of dynasties, and try to make something decent out of their republic. However, there is no denying that the present Masonic Government is guided by the same principles and has the same designs as the bloodthirsty assembly of 'S.) ; that it is essentially God-hating ; that it will stop at no means however unjustj ust or cruel in its warfare against Christianity as represented by the Church. Mr. Jewell makes this very clear. The following facts which we select from a number cited by him in the course of his article, will give our readers some idea of t he present state of affairs in a country which was once styled the Eldest Daughter of the Church, which even now stands pre-eminent for charity and missionary zeal, and which, in spite of its sufferings, contributes more for the work of the Propagation of the Faith than all the rest of the world together. No individual in France, who is a professed Catholic, HAS ANY HOPC 01' OHTAINING JUSTICE at the hands of magistrates, prefects, or judges. Because all these are appointed by the Central Government, and none are appointed unless they be Freemasons. Whatever his rights or his injuries, the man who is no Freemason cannot obtain redress against the man who is. He may appeal right up to the head of theiState, who is always a Freemason, and the verdict will be invariably against him. Only in the case of one Freemason against another, or of one Catholic against another, is the semblance of justice preserved. It is the same in THE ENACTMENT OF LAWS for the Government of the country. Within a period of twenty years no laws have been made that have not first been approved by the Masonic lodges before they have been introduced into the Chamber. The points of attack have been threefold : the Seculars, the Regulars and the bulk of the faithful. The bishops and secular clergy have been treated more circumspectly and attacked less directly than have the regular Orders. The bishop who has chanced to leave his diocese without first seeking and obtaining the permission of the Government, has, equally with the poor cu re of a country village who has dared to speak openly against Freemasonry, atheism and the worship of Lucifer, been deprived of his salary. And this mode of bringing a cleric to his knees, at once summary and drastic, has recommended itself to the Government to such an extent that at the present moment there are very many priests throughout the length and breadth of the country who hare RECEIVED NO STIPEND FOR YEARS. Biahops not a few have suffered in the same way. Vacant Sees remain for months untenanted. Arrears in such cases are never paid. Nor is any attempt made to explain what becomes of the money appropriated to the payment of the clergy, but which has never been expended on its legitimate purpose. The second way in which the secular clergy are attacked is by means of the conscription ; a direct violation of the Concordat, and an invention for the ruin of the Church which is quite of modern origin. Seminarists are torn from the training colleges at the moment when attention to sacred studies is most necessary for them, and sent to the barrack and the camp ; for only one purpose, the chance that their contaminating influence may f turn them from their holy purpose or operate to make bad priests 1 of them. The danger of their retaining any connection with their religious life while in the army is cunningly guarded against by a couple of military regulations : one providing that no soldier shall exchange his uniform for mufti ; the other enacting the most severe penalties against soldiers in uniform taking any part in public religious services, ho that the poor seminarist may not even serve a Mass or carry a candle in a procession during the term of

his military life. The result of this iniquitous law is that there are in most dioceses NOT HALF SUFFICIENT PRIESTS to minister to the needs of the people. In lSi> t the ordinations in one diocese in the north amounted to three priests to fill 128 vacancies. In Brittany last year nine^tenths of the members of one seminary were drawn for active service. These seminarists are not wanted to bring the army up to its proper footing. On the contrary, in 1 Si) I the Minister of War was obliged to send back many thousands of soldiers to their homes, one year before the completion of their full term of military service, in order to make room for the conscripted seminarists. Amongst the number of those thus released was to be found not a single potential priest. But the vindictiveness of the Masonic Government of France is not stayed there. Each year it insists on those seminarists who since their return from the army may have completed their studies and been ordained priests, rejoining the colours and performing their twenty -eight days' annual training. As this occurs in each district simultaneously, there are thousands of parishes LEFT EACH YEAR WITHOUT A PRIEST, and without the Sacraments for nearly a month. Since the priest does not perform his duties during this month his stipend for that period is not paid him : a manifest economy of which an account is rendered by the Ministre des Cultes. Into whose purse go all these sums embezzled from the Church ? THE POWER OF FORBIDDING RELIGIOUS PROCESSIONS is vested in the prefects and mayors. The extent to which they use their authority to subvert and contemn religion is almost incredible. In May, 1594. the Commissary of Police, on the information of the Mayor of L'lsle-sur-Sorgus (Vancluse) proceeded so far as to issue a proees-rerbal against the bishop for infringing the Mayor's proclamation forbidding religious processions : the charge against him being one of heading a procession of the clergy from the church to the presbytery after having performed the ceremony of confirmation. IN EDUCATIONAL MATTERS the action of the Government is unceasing and flagrant. Schools established so recently as four years ago, built, founded and endowed by private patrons still living, on the express condition that they should be conducted by religious, have been compulsory laicized ; and the benefactors have now the pleasure of seeing the building's that they erected and the funds they provided appropriated by the Government to the use of imparting anti-religious education to the children for whose souls' welfare they have made such great and unavailing sacrifices. There are MANY OTHER METHODS OF ANNOYANCE discovered by the zealous worshippers of Lucifer for the annoyance of the faithful : too many to mention in detail. Churches, for instance, have been arbitrarily closed by the authorities, and sentinels posted round them on the ground that the crowds frequenting them caused annoyance to the dwellers in the vicinity. There is no depth of pettiness to which the officials will not descend in order to inflict suffering and annoyance upon the poorest Catholic. Here are two exemplary instances. In the first, two nuns belonging to an orphanage in a Norman town had been sent into the country with their bags to collect food and necessaries for the children under their charge. On their return the contents of the sacks were examined at the Octroi. Eggs, butter, odd scraps of food and a whole cheese were found amongst the miscellaneous gifts which the charity of the outlying farmers had bestowed on the orphans. The Octroi duty amounted to a few centimes. The nuns not being allow ed to take money had none wherewith to pay the imposition. Whereupon the Octroi officials confiscated the cheese — worth several francs— m payment of the tax, and the poor nuns had perforce to curry home but the least \aluable results of a long and fatiguing day's work. In Paris, during the severe w inter of IS!)."), when the streets were mere sheets of ice, the municipalitydetailed men to throw sand on the sidewalks and roads. In one case, substantiated by responsible witnesses and reported in the Tahht during January, ]>S!)5, the foreman of the gang was overheard giving directions that no sand should be thrown down before a certain convent, the nuns of which were distributing soup gratis during the inclement weather to all poor -\\ retches who chose to apply for it. Comment in these cases is quite unnecessary. Such acts of flagrant robbery and brutal injustice are continually being committed in the name of the republic throughout the land. — Catholic Tih ijraph.