The French Government and the Congregations.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 7, 12 February 1903, Page 29

The French Government and the Congregations.

The Paris correspondents of the English newspapers have from time to time lound excuses for the action of the Combes Ministry in its treatment of the French Congregations, or, at least, they accepted the reasons put forward .by the Government lor its action, but evidently the press representatives receded a rude shock when they found that even the Passionist Fathers in the French capital, who, by the way, are British subjects, have been refused authoi isation, and must leave the country. It is evident that it is not the Congregations the Government is bent on destroying, but religion. The correspondent of of the London ' Times ' wrote recently to the Jollowing effect :— I have thus far refrained from taking any part in the discussion which has been going on here for more than a year between the defenders of the religious Oiders and the Government. It seemed to me that the question was one that concerned Frame alone, and I did not wish to be accused oi dealing -with a matter that was none of my business But the situation is no longer what it was As I have already announced, the Passionist Fathers of the Avenue llochc f;guie on the list of the Ciders 1 to be excluded These are the priests whose chapel exists for the reception of all English and Amei ican Catholics who desne a religious set v ice in their own lantruage, and who seek theie a sort of home when cxik'd iroiu their country The Passionists do not belong to the teaching Ordeis They have never opened schools nor had aught to do with politics They pi each Christ's word, celebrate Mass, and hear confessions They do not constitute in any conceivable way a danger to France, cither from a political or social point of view Thov visit the poor without distinction of sect. For English and American Catholics their chinch is a place of refuse and devotion. Cardinals Manning, Newman, Vaughan. Guibcrt and Kichard. Archbishops Ireland. Spalding, and Passadiere have delivered sermons from their modest pulpit, and their eloquent words have consoled and invigorated multitudes of hearers By what extraordinary anomaly anyone should wajit to lav hands on the Passionist Fathets it is impossible to imagine. Why is theie a desiie to incur the indignation of the civilised world by such a violation of the simple laws of hospitality as would prevent thousands of English-speaking people who bring into Paris their money and their intelligence from worshipping in their own way ? If these persons, who spend here the money made in other countries, and who, while never mixing themselves in politics, form as a class one of the greatest icsources of all those who have to do with the luxuiv, well-being, and distractions of Paiis, were to retort to this ostracism of the English-speaking Catholic priests 'hy boycotting the capital, it would provoke here a revolution and seriously cripple French tiade and industry. Why this longing to indulee in an act of such bad taste an act resembling an attack upon foreigners who are sympathetic to France and who like to come and to sojourn hero 9 It is impossible to discover an answer. All that can bo discerned in this umustinablv violent proceeding is a complete want of the true spirit of government and a passive obedience to the dictates of sectarian minds. 1 need not add that the Anglo-American colony. Catholic or non-Catholic, is indignant at the treatment with which those who represent a whole section of Englishspeaking Christians here are menaced, nor need T add that the attention of the English and American Ambassadors has been attracted by this act, which resembles

a barbarous aggression against the laws of hospitality. Great regret, to use no stronger term, ocys the ' Daily Telegraph,' correspondent, ia felt in the British and American colonies here at the fact that Iho French Government has rejected the application for authorisation made by the Passionist Fathers, who officiate at the church for English-speaking Catholics in this city at is impossible to allude in too high terms to the good work which they have done among their poorer febowcountrymen. Even Protestants have not appealed to them in vain. Only last year a tax of £800 was claimed on the church, which was saved by the money being paid by Mrs Mackay, and now this "resh tiouble has come upon it. On two occasions the Cardinal-Arch-bishops of Paris have assured the French Gc\ eminent that the services of the worthy Fathers v ere indispensable, and British and American Ambassadors have also intervened on their behalf. All this, however, has proved useless, in presence of the intolerance displayed by the Combes Cabinet. I learn that Sir Edmond Monson and General Horace Porter are still prepared to do all that they can in favor of the Passionist Fathers, whose departure from, this city would in all probability be followed by the closing of the church. The Government cannot possibly rake up the slightest grievance against them and its conduct in this matter is but another illustration of the nature of the campaign which it is carrying on against the religious Orders, the Church, and, in point of fact, against the Christian religion generally.