A Contrast.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 40, 2 October 1902, Page 6

A Contrast.

Wo (Avo Maria) commented recently in these columns on the contrast between German liberality and French intolerance m the matter of religions Congregations A contiast equally discreditable to tin; Republic wherein ' li|>erty, equality and fraternity ' has become a meaningless formuln, is emphasised by a circular. which the (ierman Minister of War has went to all giarnson conunaindant« in the, Empire, relativ e to the obbor\anco by the soldiers of diflerent religious festnals- Catholic soldiers are. dispensed from all military ser.vico on Easter, Pentecost, Chi istmas, the Circumcision, the Ascension and Corpus Christi The commandants are fur.ther ordered to see that, .so far as the demands of the ser\ ice wiill permit, Catholics in the army may obser\o Epiphany, the Pur ideation, the Annunciation, the Assumption,, tho lminncula te Conce|)tion, and the feast of SS Peter and I'aul Moreover, general ofl'icers ,\y^ authorised to takes account of local ieligiious festiNaJls, customs and usages and allow their troops to take ])art therein whenever the loqunements of tho service permit such participation. When one turns from these genei ous provisions! to the )}>etty tyrannicaij proclamations issued by the War i)e-

pantment of France— the thousand and one prohibitions that debar the French soldier from attending to his religious duties — one. is moro than ever inclined to discount the frothy protestations about the ' liberty ' enjoyed (by tho citizens of tho great European Republic.