THE CHURCH IN FRANCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7, 20 February 1908, Page 14

THE CHURCH IN FRANCE.

Scarcely a day passes (says a well-informed writer in the ' oathoiic Times ) on which "the respectable French newspapers "do not print- extraordinary figures witu respect to the disappearance 61 the vast sum — one tnousand millions of francs (atoat £aU,ooU,Uoo.)— which was .to have been debited from the "sale oi the effects ef t-he cti!»pe±sud re.i o iuus Orders and' applied to the payment of old- u ge ptnoiuns for the poor, we mentioned, when hrst it became public tain., the manner in which this large amount of money had disappeared— mainly, so far as can be ascertained, into the pockets ,of the otticial li a uidators ; whilst the wording people, whom the wholesale s^oLation .of the unfortunate monks and nuns (more esi-eaally the latter; was to have enriched, have not gained a penny by the change, .and, indeed, in distiieis where, in times of distress, they used to be help^ed by the charity of the now departed Orders they have been the losers by the action of those men whom tn«y (giving credence to their false promises of a golden future) voted in. a that power they have so abused. Lately since the publication of the report of .M. Dessaigne, additionals details with respect to the liquidation scandal have crept out. Up to the present the amount received from these sales, etc., by the Exchequer oi the Repullic is not more than 190,000 francs (about £7600) ; and that, the result of Six Years of Laborious Liquidations ! This .sum represents the result of the complete liquidation 115 Congregations ; there remain 562 to be liquidated, but there is small livelihood that the above figure will be raised.. It must be unde r stood, moreover, that the Government has had to put down over eiglit xniiLon francs (about £320,000) to pay for the attendant law-suits, over which the liquidators up to now have not gained more than three millions (about ,£12,0000) ; so that the Government itself is at a loss over the business. It is interesting to pick out a few items at random from the long list of the results of these sales. The convent of the Sacred Heart nuns at Marseilles, valued at 1,235,000 francs (circa £49,400). was sold for 69,000 francs (afcout £-2760) ; the Eudist College at Rewnes, valued at 1,145,000 francs (about £45,800), only found buyers at 100,000 francs (about £4000) • the efiects of the Christian Bio.h.rs at' Baris, of the value of eighteen million francs' (£720,000), were liquidated for 329,000 francs (about £13.,160) ; a property (religious) at Versailles, priced at a million francs, was sold for 34,000 francs (£1360). And so on, ab lioitum. Rut f -om lh.se ridiculously low there has' yet to be deducted the heavy cost of the liquidations. The total gam by the sales up to the present is thirty-two million francs (about £1,280,000). As we have said, the St^e has only rccei ed 190,000 francs (about £.7600) ; the difference being made by the enormous sums spent on tna liquidating operations.' Last year a liquidator, at Versailles, who sold effects to the value of six hundred francs (,£24), spent 7000 francs (about £280) on the liquidation ; and the only result of the sale of a<Carnrlite house at Niort was to give the State a debt of 2000 francs (about £80) to pay— that is t 0 say, the expenses of this liquidation cost two thousand francs (£80) above the income from the sale of the property. One of the principal liquidators, a certain Menace, who took charge of the limrdTtion of twenty-seven importo».« r « llrlol ' s houSPS » sold th-ir effects altogether for V^nnn^ 8 ' about £148 > 400 )> *ut as he spent f HA - fra ?. cs raKout £151,000),- the State finds itself saddled m thus case with a debt of 65,000 francs (£2b00). ' v These Figures Speak for Themselves. ' - b "f . we . Jave not yet reached the end of the trail. 'To . shield itself, the Government affirms that the small tKf ♦ ?i+ » S. 8 ~ al f s of the ecclesiastical properties ar c teh+Jh ° f the ? atholics > Church, they say, having ir lR htrned away buyers by the threat of excommunication—not perceiving that by using this theory they are "' arguing against themselrea, hecause if, as the' London ' tt^S^S! PPar, ari s correspondents (writing at' the dictation of the French Government} wo'ild have us belipve ' fE? Fr°7 ° f \ tS6l£ totally deparfed fr ™ the hearts of hostS £ R° P ft W \ O c fre( 3 uentl y represented a s Rome ' rLrt Sl?"*'S 1 ?"*' then f rely the ' ««™ters of HVn^^rohasts" 6 * **"""* to businesnecSon^X^^T* 3-?3 -?^ 6 Var!oUs l^uits in conMUwSjpJ l^idations have shown themselves not a whit less rapacious than the other functionaries

The official report indeed places the figure of their charges very low, and we know that some .provincial ad!"vocates did not really ask more than 50 Irancs (about £2) for defenuing the liq/uidators ; but the Parisian lawyers made up for this by charging heavily. M. Albert Clemenceau, brother of the Premier, would not speak on behalf c£ the Government in a law-case over the effects of .the Congregations for less than 500 francs (£2O) ; and M. Millerand, ex-Mindster and- advocate for not less than 2000 francs (£80) \, Many other advocates, belonging to the Chamber of Deputies also only assumed the deftnee cX /the liquidators for important figures. Yet of all this the British Press takes not 'the least notice, unless it b© a few' lines here 'and there punted at long intervals of time. It is true this is not an international question ; indeed, it is a purely local one. But,, then, so are the sordid murders in the slums of Montmartre and the nasty plays at the Paris an theatres, both of which elevating subjejts receive such a large share of the Paris correspondents' atttnxion. To turn to another side of the question : it is wonderful that the French worning-man has not ere this revolted against the way m which the. promises made to him in the past, 'of forthcoming old-age pensions .and gain generally to Ihinu from- the dispersal of the Congregations, have been broken ; probably when the facts are further- revealed or dePned, he will realise the tric'-^ery practised upon him ; and adding this to other internal troubles, it is not difficult to see that, ' q t uand l'orage eclatera,' it will do so with suoh violence as to overturn much 'that has now. the appearance of standing firm for many years to come ! , « i