SCHOOLS CLOSED IN FRANCE

New Zealand Tablet, 29 August 1912, Page 23

SCHOOLS CLOSED IN FRANCE

INJUSTICE OF THE GOVERNMENT The illusions of the French Catholics who were inclined to magnify the liberality and tolerance of the present Ministry, as contrassuig favorably with the rabid anti-clericalism of MM. Waldeck Rousseau and Combes, have been rudely dispelled; The Government has lately issued two decrees, that condemn to destruction one hundred schools directed by religious men and women in Paris and in the provinces. These ■ schools were free. They were supported solely by the Catholics and they were popular among the people; yet, on October 1, the Sisters of Charity, Christian Brothers, Sosurs de la Sagesse, Franciscans, and other religious, will be brutally expelled from their houses and forbidden to teach, merely because of the habit that they wear (writes the special correspondent of the Catholic Times). The indignation called forth by this tyrannical measure has been warmly expressed. Among the schools that are doomed to destruction in Paris is a large school for boys and girls and an ‘ Asile ’ for infants under the direction of the Sisters of Charity, situated in the Avenue de Clichy. They were founded nearly half a century ago by the Western Railway Company for the children of the railway servants, and over 850 small boys and girls now attend the classes. The Western Railway was bought by the State three years ago, and this is one of the consequences of the disappearance of the Company, by whom the school and ‘ Asile ’ were established.

The destruction of this particular school is, in every way, unjustifiable. The primary schools of the same ‘ arrondissement ’ are filled to overflowing, and it is impossible to make room for the 850 children who, after October 1, will be thrown on the streets. New schools are being built, but they will not be ready before October 1, 1913, and the railway servants, among whom the Avenue de Clichy schools are deservedly popular, wonder anxiously what is to become of their children in the interval.

The suppression of the school directed by the Christian Brothers at Passy is no less odious. The director is 79 years of age. For over 50 years he has labored unceasingly for the children of Passy; in 1870 he volunteered as a military infirmarian and worked heroically in the service of the wounded soldiers. One of his former pupils, a man of the people, in an indignant letter states that the good done by him can never be rightly estimated, for who can count,’ he adds, the number of worthy citizens that have been trained by this excellent and devoted teacher?’

The Injustice and Cruelty of These Measures are aggravated by the fact that the law of 1904, ordering the eventual supression of all the schools directed by religious, allowed a delay of ten years. The Ministry that many Catholics considered a Ministry of conciliation has thus forestalled by two years the limits fixed by the iniquitous law. Let us add that the chief strfferers in this case are the children of the people and their parents it is upon them that the measure issued by a so-called democratic Government press most heavily. There is, however, no discouragement amongst the Paris * Cures,' who are the organisers of the free schools in their respective parishes. The reporter of a leading Paris paper who sought for information at the Arch-

bishop’s House received the following assurance: We hope, in spite of the heavy claims that Catholics have to meet, that we shall be able to find a sufficient number of lay teachers to replace the expelled religious.' And the reporter’s informant went on to say that whereas the candidates for the Government posts are daily becoming more scarce, the single diocese of Paris has this year alone received offers of service from 350 male and 500 female teachers, a proof that the Catholics not only give their money, but also their personal efforts to the cause of Christian education. ‘ Allow me to remark,’ added the speaker, that our free schools do not cost the town of Paris or the State a single penny. Even from a financial point of view, it might have been wise to leave them alone.’

The efforts of the Catholics to save ' the souls of their children from the influence of the Government teachers are stimulated by their knowledge of the spirit that reigns in the lay schools. A significant article on the subject has been published in a periodical called I Instituteur Francais ; it is written by a Government schoolmaster, who views the question merely from a moral standpoint. He enlarges on the increasing 1 indocility, impertinence and indiscipline of the children,’ who not only rebel when their master or mistress command, but even when they venture to counsel. Orders are continually given to the directors of schools to bear anything from the son or daughter of an influential elector ; not to punish, whatever may be the provocation, a child whose father happens to be a leading Socialist or Radical. We ourselves have gathered many facts of this kind from the lips of the teachers themselves. It has often been said that in France Politics Deteriorate Whatever Comes Within Their Sphere, and this is true even among the working classes. In a school in one of the poorer suburbs of Paris, we know a capable and zealous young teacher who is repeatedly warned by her chief not to punish this child or scold that one, because at election time his or her father is a valuable Government agent. After deploring this condition of things the writer in Vlnstituteur Francais goes on to suggest that the only remedy for the evil would be to establish a strong discipline, neither violent nor weak, and to give ‘ the moral idea of duty’ the prominent place that it deserves. He does not venture to touch on the religious question, but his meaning is easy to gather when he adds that the reform must be carried out, irrespective of the religious and political ideas of those who are interested in the question, and when he urges * a return ’ to traditions that have been ruthlessly, and foolishly swept away to make room for idle and dangerous theories. .

The confession of this Government teacher, who is evidently a sincere, if narrow-minded, man, speaks volumes; his testimony is further confirmed by the terrible increase of youthful criminality, and also, in a less tragic fashion, by the number of illiterate citizens that exist, in spite of the enormous sums spent on educational purposes. The Government teacher of to-day, who is nine times out of ten a political agent, lacks as a rule the patience, disinterestedness and sense of duty of those who performed their humble task, irrespective

Earthly Satisfaction, Interests or Honors. ■ ■ Most of the Catholic papers, when commenting on the renewal of the anti-religious campaign, sound a note of resistance. TJiey know, that the secret of this persecution is not so much in M. Poincare’s personal views as in the fact that, being gravely threatened by the Radicals, he is anxious to conciliate them by pandering to their anti-clerical passions. ‘The Catholics,’ says M. Leo Archer in the Gaulois, ‘are tired of being victims of expiation, to be sacrificed whenever the political interest of the Government appears to demand ii' in •* 1 i have discovered within the last few days that this state of mind is general. The Catholics that i have seen are decided not to allow their nuns to be thrown into the streets and their schools, ‘ asiles and patronages” to be made over to the State.* I know a Paris cure who has already given proofs of courage. He

will, when the expulsion is decided upon, put himself at the head of his parishioners and resist, and he is not the only one.’ The recent action of the Catholic workmen in the matter of the nursing Sisters of the Poor was successful enough to make the Paris Catholics realise the value of the determined action of a body of resolute men, fighting for justice.