The Causes of Modern Anticlericalism in France

New Zealand Tablet, 2 August 1906, Page 11

The Causes of Modern Anticlericalism in France

(By His Grace the ARCnmsnop of Wellington.)

(Concluded from last week.)

B\it there is perhaps another solution in the hands of Catholics alone. It would consist in their striving, with all their might and by every available means, not to afford pretexts to their enemies for hostility, as they have often done in bhe past and are still doing. Surely it is not, or it scarcely is, in their power to transform into generous sentiments and elevated ideas the passions of which they are the victims, and -to convert into moral nobility the habitual baseness of most of their persecutors. But they may avoid the partly warranted charges against them already noticed. They can by dint of goodwill, courage, patience, persistent charity, gradually dispel accumulated prejudices. In political and social matters prejudices last long and 'die hard. Wonderful indeed is the unreasoning and childish, but all the deeper, terror which seizes the French peasant at the mere idea of a return to the ancient regime, to the corvee, the tithes, an-d other abuses of a past ag.e. This sentiment habitually and cleverly exploited and fostered by radical French politicians, is perhaps to-day in French country places more vivacious and stronger than ever, and is quite sufficient to explain, in districts still very religious, the result of many elections otherwise incomprehensible. Catholics in the past have not done all they could to eradicate it. If, on the morrow of the French defeats, they had loyally offered, or if need were, imposed themselves as collaborators on the organisers of the new government ; if they had thrown themselves into the work with ardor ; if they had resolutely adopted and circulated and 1 endeavored to realise the social programme which some of the wisest and most advanced in their ranks had conceived and elaborated ; if they had always gone to the polls and voted, their situation would be widely different from what it now is, and they would have dispelled much un-

merited distrust. The work is to be taken up to-day, in different, but, perhaps, on the whole and in the long run, better circumstances. It would therefore be desirable that the clergy should, as a rule, keep systematically out of politics properly so called, gi\e no pledges to any parties, and especially not to those who have so egregiously compromised them in the estimation of the masses. As for laymen, whom public affairs naturally attract, their loyalty to the Republic will long be suspected ; but if they know how to be patient, to intervene tactfully and resolutely, the sincerity of their convictions and the generosity of their zeal will at length be acknowledged. All together, priests and laymen, must be the untiring representatives and the ardent defenders of the rights of the lowly. The moment the question is to infuse into the laws and facts a little of that ' fraternity ' win h is the last word of Christianity, to more completely realise the modem idea of social justice, to share out more evenly among the toilers and pleasure-seekers the burdens and smiles of life, all Catholics should be first in the breach ; they must in this respect unflaggingly set the example of activity, kindness, a nd disinterestedness. They should furnish not only the most efilcient work, but also the most fruitful initiative. Above all, this social action must be prompted by no political a-riere pensee, reservation, or personal ambition. Whether they get the power back into their own hands or not, is irrelevant ; Hie main point tor them is to do useful work, to entirely fulfil their duties as men and citizens. Their very adversaries must be brought to feel that, if ever Catholics return to power, e\er retrieve their legitimate influence in the general business of tht, country, they have no cause to fear from the new majority, either reaction or reprisals. ( athohes claim no kind of privilege ; they claim only common rights, and they will expect the rights of their people.

The Intellectual Task-

imposed on French Cat hoi i s is equally urgent, and in some sense more essential than the social task. For the Catholic ChuTch has been in history, and is today an incomparable institution of religious life, moral energy, and social activity— this is admitted even by unbelievers of the day most readily, and Tame wrote an admirable page in, this very theme. But the same unbelievers think that there is a contradiction which nothing can efface between dogma and modern thought, an-d .so they try to explain what they call the ' eloquent intellectual mediocrity of Catholics.' If they were right, if indeed it were demonstrated— as it never can be — that Catholicism is after all only the philosophy of dull minds, the question would fairly a'ise whether the Catholic icligion, corresponding to a still rudimentary state of civilisation and culture, ought not necessarily to disapi ear from the face of the earth, and give place to a more refined and broader and loftier doctrine To ruin for ever this objection in the minds of adversaries, it is not enough to prove, by countless instances, that de facto Catholic belief of the most genuine kini is quite reconcilable with the highest, richest, and boldest life of the mind ; but more especially must Catholic thought resume consciousness of all its hidden historical resources, and embody, so to sneak, all the truths discovered outside its own sphere, in every line of research, It can do so without any change of its nature, without any sacrifice of necessary truths ; it can and it must. It must, because it is the very mission of the Church to supply all the religious ne.exls of mankind in all ages ; because nothing is more in keeping with ius traditional glories than to adopt itself to century after century, to evolve, to progress, to wax rich without shadow of alteration ;. because il is not more difficult for it to absorb the modern culture than it was, in Apostolic days, to assimilate the Greco-Roman civilisation!, ami, in the tMrteenth century, the phjlosophy of Aristotle. When this assimilation is effected, and its results have passed into education and become the property of every variety of intellect, high or low, then it will be evident that Catholicism has found, or retrieves, that spiritual power of the new period which many generous and Keen minds of the last century in vain strove to establish. This work of intellectual and moral renovation, this recasting of Catholic mentality is nowhere being carried on, at the present hour, more strenuously and actively lhan in France. In philosorhy, in history, in apologetics, new ways are being opened, or, to speak more correctly, traditions unhappily forgotten are being resumed. The workers in this movement are too generous and too genuinely Christian not to forget the suspicions, the denunciations, the misunderstandings, and insults which they had to endure e\en from those whom they wished to serve. They have only to pursue the way they have opened. Already individual in-

itiativos, already parallel furrows arc nearing each other, already pomts of convergence loom on the horizon. One fcegiius to almost see the moment when> these common tendencies will group togethor, and fuse ink) a harmonious and potent synthesis. 'It is highly desirable for the good of France, for tha general future of Catholicism, that th'S work should be realised, that this ' genius of Christianity,' fitted to the needs of our time, should find an author of strong thought, deep learning, and adequate talent to write it. Then anti-clericalism will be a thing of the past. (Another interesting article by his Grace the Archbishop of Wellington will anpear in our next issue.— Ed. ' N.Z.T.'>