ANTI-CHRISTIAN NURSES IN FRENCH HOSPITALS

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1909, Page 1730

ANTI-CHRISTIAN NURSES IN FRENCH HOSPITALS

Under this heading La Croix publishes an excellent article suggested by a recent congress of French ' Lay ' Nurses, who, to the regret of patients, and against the preference of the immense majority of French doctors — whether "anti-clerical or not — have been substituted in,. the place.^pf the expelled nuns. Our French contemporary (says Father De Zulueta in the London Catholic Weekly of September 17) 'begins by noticing the different way in which the ' lay ' and the nurse spends the few days' holiday allowed her during the year. The former seeks change and enjoyment (for which the writer is far from . blaming her), while the nun-nurse - retires to her head-house to refresh her soul with religious-,- exercises and ,to examine herself upon the manner in which- she has i acquitted, herself of her duty towards the patients. This year,, however, many of the. lay nurses, male and female, preferred -to hold ,a Congress for the promotion of their professional ' interests.

There is no harm in that. But they went out of their way to lug into their deliberations the religious question, and. to throw discredit upon the devoted nuns. Possibly their attack upon Christian and religious nurses was inspired by a secret consciousness of their own inadequacy to compete - with them in those qualities which the sick most -appreciate. Carrying war -into the enemy's camp is a familiar device for diverting attack from one's own. Be that as it - may, here is the - " Invidious Resolution passed by the Congress of hospitaf nurses: — ' This Congress, considering that an irreconcilable opposition exists between the democratic and the religious spirit; -• - ~ -^ ' Considering that it is possible, though quite as an~ , exception, that religious beliefs may have inspired acts of ' self-sacrifice, but that' the fact of referring everything to the designs of Providence exempts the religious nurse - from imparting to their hospital service an intelligent, devoted, and disinterested collaboration for the furtherance of progress and science; ' Considering that the presence in hospitals of a staff composed of religious involves a continuous' interference with liberty of conscience, and that a terrible religious influence is exercised upon persons already weakened by sickness ; ' Considering that the difference made in salaries, to the advantage of the religious members of the staff, placing its lay portion in subordination to the former, constitutes an injustice ; - - ; ' Resolved, that an active propaganda be carried on for - the laicisation of all hospitals.' The Crushing Rejoinder to this tissue of anti-religious cant and' falsehood, given by • La Groix, deserves full quotation : — ' ' First of all, we have the usual clap-trap about the "irreconcilable opposition between the democracy and the ; religious spirit." That is the hackneyed Masonic preface.' One asks, what is the relevance of this philosophical and political question? But, * then, Messieurs les ihfirmiers, your Congress sessions were being held on the banks, of the Garonne ; so it was needful to offer sacrifice to the spirits of the " Bloc," in order to render them propitious." ' Next, you admit' that religious beliefs may possibly have inspired acts of self-sacrifice, but" to an inconsiderable extent, and quite by way of exception ! Nuns to the Rescue." ' And you dare to say this at Toulouse — at Toulouse, where not long -ago certain hospital wards had to be " clericalised " anew, and to re-open their doors to the nuns, because, forsooth, smallpox had broken out, and the "lay" staff feared to catch itl You have also forgotten that similarly in Brittany, they had to recall the nuns for the same reason at the time of the small-pox epidemic 1 And on the very day that you were insulting religious and those beliefs which nerve them to despise death, a lowly nun — a martyr of charity — was dying at Rotterdam among cholera patients with whom she had shut herself up, thus condemning herself willingly to certain death for the love of Jesus Christ! Gentlemen of the Hospital, take off your hats! Pay your respects to this humble victim of duty l • Verdict of the Faculty. 'You say, further, that religious of either sex, through referring everything to the will of Divine Providence, fail' to work together intelligently for progress and science. That is your assertion. But the Journal de Medicine of Bordeaux affirms the contrary in giving a report of the examination of thirty-six religious belonging to Saint Andrew's Hospital, and the one for children, before the Medical Board, that professional organ writes: "In anatomy, physiology, elementary hygiene, and minor surgery they have given proof, in the opinion of their examiners, of most thorough knowledge. The Board was even surprised that women, every moment of whose times is devoted to the nursing of our sick,- should have been able to acquire such wide information." Pay your respects, gentlemen, to these collaborators in, the cause of science; for out ofthese thirty-six nuns sixteen obtained the mark of "good,"'" and twenty that of " very good," in scientific subjects, and from a jury of doctors 1 " Undue Influence " over consciences, you say? Prove it, substantiate' it byfacts. Answer Citizen Ringuier, a Socialist, a " Simon Pure," who on his appointment as administrator of the Hospice of Saint-Quentin,, designed to "laicise" everything. "But," he wrote in the Combat, "I have viewed the devotedness of the Sisters at close quarters, and I have abandoned my plan." "The patients," he added, "be they Catholics, Protestants, Freethinkers, or Freemasons, all receive the same attention, and are objects, of equal devotedness. What more do we want ? It is true there is the matter "of the religious habit. But that is all, and it is, in my judgment, a secondary point. The_thing of paramount ■ importance 'is that - the"- hospital should', be "neutral;" from the religious standpoint, treating" allalike. That, it is. If I guarantee it, Ido so because I know it for a certainty."

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_ 'Gentlemen,, make your bow to this Socialist-citizen, who has the courage to declare the truth! "Peopie in Glass Houses, " r etc. - 'But the, subordination of the lay to the religious ele-' ment on the staff is — you declare in conclusion- — a violation -of justice. Pray be cautious, gentlemen! or you may -awaken in" vfs grave suspicions. In hospitals where there are nuns, the latter hold the keys, keep count of disbursements, and have an eye upon waste. It was this kind of "subordination" of which one of your fellows at Romans complained: "What can you expect! I am with religious. Their surveillance is excessive. One cannot enjoy life here, so I m off!" How many more av.owals and reports we might produce concerning- such delicate matters ! ' But we shall, no doubt, return to the subject ;late"r. <- \ " ; . ' Meanwhile, gentlemen, one more*" bow. • ' Here you lave the verdict given by science: I read an the- Reveil Medical, No 125, 26th year, the following Medical Testimony, given by Dr. Casset from ,his own personal ■ experience : 'I. The laicisation of .hospitals fiasbeen introduced for political ends,- and not for the benefit of hospital service. '2. Doctors" almost to a man, advocated the retention of .the "religious. • • - , . . -■ ,v, v . :t . „,-- '3. The patients — who, albeit the parties most, con-cerned,-have not been consulted in the matter— are of the same opinion. - '4. The Sisters, who are virtuous, self-sacrificing, and disinterested; nurse better and cost -less than- grasping, wasteful nurses, eager to extort, tips -from the patients — the young nurses, for- embellishing their toilette, and the older ones for domestic purposes. ' " ' -""' ' That's what he says, gentlemen of the hospitals assembled in Congress at Toulouse. - WeU,- 'then; verbum sap.' „ Ourvreaders will no doubt remember our calling attention to an interview had by the editor of the Figaro with a rationalist hospital doctor, "who spoke openly of "'the ahuse/s,, and neglect that followed " upon ;bhe ' substitution by< r 7a£ Socialist municipality of a lay staff- in the place of Sisters of Charity in a large French hospital. The hospital at o'rice fell into debt, the lay staff collected at random, and comprising both sexes, had to be dismissed after a fortnight's trial, in the _ interests pi ' public" morality . "Thesubsequent engagement of a Swiss Protestant DeaconeSsfas" matron, and of a lay staff chosen by "her, -.if it improved^ the moral tone of the establishment, djd\not prevent, --a plentiful dispensation of champagne, which.-riever reached, the patient, the gross neglect, of the doctors' prescript- • tions, or nurses going to bed instead of watching agonised patients on the night immediately, following an operation. ' • '.'!^ :..,: .„. 'But Sisters/ said- the house-surgeon,.^ used, to sit up with them all night.' Similar testimony "to the superior efficiency of. nuns in managing Houses vof Correction in , Italy, from an honest ' Italian lady "journalist, ' attached though she. was to the Masonic 'Vita,' was not long since recorded at length in these columns.^ .- : ,