OUR LETTER FROM FRANCE

New Zealand Tablet, 27 November 1913, Page 24

OUR LETTER FROM FRANCE

Paris, October 7. Military Manoeuvres. It was Windthorst who called our Catholic congresses ‘ Autumn Manoeuvres. A German Protestant paper palled them ' the annual review of the Catholic troops.’ These reviews have demonstrated this autumn more vigorously and more numerously than before. Reports from them com© in all through September. Here you have news of a great congress of Catholic Slavs, held at Lemburg in far Eastern Galicia; there you have the details of the Swiss congress held at St. Gall. Here you have the congress of lawyers, journalists, and clergymen at Lyons; there you have the congress of English Catholics at Newcastle. But the parent and model of them all, and the greatest of them all, is the Congress of German Catholics, held this year at Metz, and officially known as Die General- Versanimlung (Assembly) dev Katholiken ' Deutschland*. This mighty annual expression of Catholic unity and solidarity is the greatest popular assembly the world at present knows. Such a meeting (non-Catholic writers have called attention to the fact)'is impossible outside the unity, authority, - and obedience of the Catholic Church. In the General Congress of Catholic Germany you have an assembly made up of princes, counts, members of Parliament, merchants, mechanics, laborers, university students, professional men, priests and bishops, abbots and monksall meeting at the sessions, through the day, in serious, solid discussion, and in the evening in friendly conversation over the' everpresent German glass of beer. There you have the most diverse classes and interests, all met together for a common purpose—to protect the liberty of the Church and to promote the interests of religion and the social and political interests of the whole Catholic people, but most especially of the poor. The enthusiasm at these congresses is thrilling. There you hear Prince Aloysius Lbwenstein speaking of the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Societies, and he is followed by Herr Johann Hoffmann, schneidermeister (master-tailor) of Breslau, and president of the St. Vincent de Paul sodality in that city. , At another session, and in another hall— eight or ten halls are required by the different bodies of deputies— hear Count Clement Hroste von Vischering, one of Germany’s most esteemed noblemen, proposing to establish labor unions at Munster, and his proposition is seconded by Friedrich Heun, carpetmaker, of Heidelberg. Again, you hear his Highworthiness the Abbot Herbert, 0.5.8'., of St. Ottilien’s, advocating the cause of the foreign missions, and ho is

supported by .Father Muetsch, pfarrer of the little mountainous parish of Marlach in Wiirtemberg. ‘ Here you have his Excellency Friedrich Phillip von Albert, Archbishop of Bamberg, pleading the, cause of the Catholic, newspaper, followed by Dr. Spahn, leader of the Centre Party, showing how that cause has been and can be further promoted. At this great congress, with the voice and spirit of 50,000 Catholic men s of all classes and conditions vibrating in unison through the halls of session, you feel what it is to belong to a great Catholic people you feel your strength to be equal to that of ten men. Beifalle (rounds of applause), Eandeklatchen, hocks/ and bravos stimulate the speakers at the general sessions. It is a life-enduring memory to have been there. At this great National Assembly was planned, begun, and co-ordinated that vast fabric of societies, vereins, confraternities, unions, and guilds which display the rich life of the present-day German Catholic Church. Every German, whether present at the congress or through the reports of Germany’s 250 Catholic daily papers, hears the speeches of the deputies of two hundred organisations. He has the condition of things all through the Empire, from the Catholic point of view, brought before his eyes. He sees how the land lies. He sees wherein he can be of use. He steps into line, and so the Catholic legions grow inspired, in great measure, by the transactions of the annual General-Versammlung der Katholifcen Deutschlands.

Twenty-four Timid Men Began the Work. Would you believe that twenty-four timid men began the organisation of those great German congresses? Common, ordinary men of the city of Mainz they were—men out of whom persecution had driven soul and self-reliance and aspiration. ‘You don’t say so?’ I hear in reply. Yes, I do; but, then, there was a twenty-fifth, who was not timid or ordinary, to galvanise those into life and action. Fifty and sixty years ago the Catholic Church in Germany was at a very low ebb, indeed ; it was in chains. The Protestant Government, as usual making loud professions of liberty and toleration, carried out a system of petty bitter persecution against Catholicsclerics and laymen . The Government interfered in the appointment of bishops, abbots, and all dignitaries, and then obstructed them in the exercise of their functions; it even dictated to them sometimes what they should preach ! Protestant mayors, magistrates, and police inspectors worried the parish priests. Protestant class-books and a Protestant spirit were forced upon the Catholic schools. The laws of the Church in regard to mixed marriages were made treason. Martin von Dunin, Archbishop of Guesen and Posen, was tried for treason because he upheld the Catholic laws and discipline in the matter of mixed marriages. He was found guilty and imprisoned. This was in 1840. Catholic laymen were excluded from Government billets, great and small. The Catholic people were slaves out of whom the soul had been driven. But there comes a moment when the worm turns there comes an act of provocation, and all patience snaps. When news spread that Clement Augustus Droste, Archbishop of Cologne, was led off to prison for defending the Catholic marriage laws, the hour had struck. The great Gorres hid himself in his library for a month and then came out with his slashing Athanasius, a book which poured shot and shell into German Protestant methods of government and sent a ringing summons to all Catholics to be men and to rise and defend their liberties. This, book caused a commotion. Father Lennig, a priest of the Cathedral of Mainz, appealed to the young men of his literary and debating society. He asked all, who were ready to do some fighting for their religion to come forward to establish a Catholic defence association. Twenty-four young men, out of a' much larger number, timidly stepped out, not / knowing precisely what they were going to do, and fearing to be in gaol before a week, as the Government closely watched every Catholic combination. But Father Lennig inspired them with his own courage. Meetings were held. The defence Verein was formed. "Branch associations grew quickly. The people, before hopeless, began to think that they were

capable of doing something in the way of righting their wrongs. In the course of not many months an assembly of delegates from all the branch associations took place at Mainz, under the -presidency of Professor Dr. P‘ r an l7 Ritter, of Preiburg. These meetings commenced on October 3, 1848. On that day was born that gigantic institution, the General Congress of Catholic Germany. The Mainz Congress was the first; the Metz Congress last September, was the sixtieth. Volumes would be required to tell the work accomplished at these sixty congresses. Did twenty-four timid men ever before originate a national movement so great and deep ?

The Swiss Catholic Congress of 1913.

All well-conducted newspapers tell the world of the transactions of the great German Congress; not so in regard to these meetings in the smaller countries. But a congress deserving special mention is that of the Swiss Catholics, held this autumn at St. Gall. A short reference to it should be interesting, particularly to the Catholics of Australia and New Zealand, who are now beginning to set up Catholic confederations for themselves. The Swiss, like you, are a pusillus grex, a small flock, surrounded by a vast Protestant and infidel population. They are a million and a half in round numbers. They held their triennial national congress this year at the old cathedral city of St. Gall, a city of some interest to all Irishmen, for it gets its name from St. Gall, an Irish monk who, in the seventh century, converted the province round about it. Like Ireland, the province and city of St. Gall have never swerved in their allegiance to the Catholic faith. The Swiss 1913 congress was full of verve and enthusiasm. Eighteen thousand men walked in the opening-morning procession; 240 banners floated in the breeze; 18 bands thrilled to electric life the light Swiss mountain air. The congress was carried out in imitation of the German congresses. The cathedral and the churches were filled every morning to overflowing; and I should not omit to say that the preachers did not forget to pay their toll of gratitude to that Green Isle far away, whose missionary sons brought the faith to so much of Switzerland and South Germany. They spoke of Gall, of Killian, of Totnan, of Columbanus— ‘ those 1 never-to-be-forgotten representatives, in other days, of faith and Christian culture,’ as one of the preachers said. Dr. Jann, a noted Capuchin preacher, speaking from the pulpit of St. Gall’s Cathedral, concluded his sermon thus; —‘O glorious St. Gall, deign to look down upon us to-day who are striving to maintain the glories of thine ancient Catholic Switzerland, and bless this golden harvest of religion and culture, which this morning waves so richly around thy grave.’ Enthusiasm was helped on very much by the workingmen’s choirs. They sang religious and national songs in perfectionan art in which the Swiss take the palm. The congress was divided into sections—social, charitable, educational, political. The workingmen’s social section discussed questions relating to social reform, the cost of living, strict observance of the Sunday, factory laws, employment of women and children, and insurance for the sick and the aged. The most impressive speaker in this section was Herr Widmar, town councillor of Zurich. He reminded his hearers that Christian effort towards well-being must be grounded on the Ten Commandments and on the doctrines of the Gospel, and he bade them remember that there was no heaven to be enjoyed here below, that the way to Golgotha was really the way to happiness and peace. The Gesellenverein (apprentices’ union) was an important section. The principal speakers were its director-general (Father Claudius Hirt) and Dr. Schohl. This Verein or society, originated in Germany years ago by Father Helping, has 25,000 Swiss members. It is doing admirable work among boys, apprentices and young men in both countries. The education section attracted 350 professors and schoolmasters, who debated points relating to freedom of education, character formation, the means for child-training most suited to changed modern conditions, school, not sex, hygiene, and so on. Professor Fischer, of Lucerne, made a powerful appeal to parents to do their duty towards their children,-espe-

cially in their infant period. He insisted on the doctrine acknowledged among pedagogists, that a man's ' character is formed during the first seven or eight years of his life. , ■

Strong Speaking at the Political Section.

Here some important questions were discussed, among them, that of ‘ proportional representation ’ — a method of election of great consequence to minorities. The principal speakers at this section were Herr Zaumberger, a leading journalist of Zurich, Herr Baumgartner, also a newspaper man, and Herr Adalbert Wirz, a member of the Upper House. Herr Zaumberger delivered a powerful speech, full of thought supported by facts. He dwelt on the injustices under which Swiss Catholics suffer even at the present time. He contrasted the Edict of Constantine with the present laws:— ‘ The Edict of Constantine, 1600 years ago, gave freedom of worship to all religions. Have we, men of Switzerland, that to-day ? Surely not, So long as the Bishop of Basle must get Government permission every time he gives Confirmation, every time he consecrates a church. Surely not so long as Catholic processions and demonstrations in the open air are for-, bidden; so long as in a certain canton a parish priest may be forbidden to say daily Mass. That is not freedom that is brutal tyranny over conscience.’ The speaker also spoke warmly against the laws excluding the Jesuits from Switzerland, and those forbidding the foundation of new monasteries and convents. * Surely to a religious people like the Swiss a convent is of more value than a new kino-theatre or a new vaudeville house; a -Jesuit is more useful than a modern • variety artist; a nun incomparably superior to a ballet dancing girl. Yet for the latter there is liberty for the former there is not liberty.’ The speech of Herr Baumgartner was another vigorous trumpet-call to Swiss Catholics never to rest till they had smashed up all those legal restrictions, which now hung over themselves, their schools, and their Church; ‘Forward, Swiss Catholics!’ he exclaimed, ‘Forward in solid ranks to claim and maintain your rights. This is the spirit of the fourth Catholic Congress of St. Gall; this is the spirit that rises from the graves of your fathers here in this grand old fighting canton of St. Gall. Be brave in insisting on your rights; this spirit will be fruitful of great good to Holy Church and to our dearly loved Fatherland.’

Speech of Senator Wirz.

Herr Wirz is one of the ablest members of the Swiss Tapper House. He took ‘Catholic Politicians’ for his subject, and scourged with scorpions that class of socalled Catholic politicians, common in France, Spain, and Italy, and perhaps elsewhere, who run with the hare and hunt with the hounds; who are all things to all men in order to gain as many as possible to help them along with their private wheelbarrow, in the proper milieu talk loudly of liberality and broadmindedness, who declare religion to be one thing and politics another, yet, on the plea of being Catholics, climb on the shoulders of their fellow-Catholics into position, office, and wealth, and then forget them and all Catholic interests; nay, sometimes secretly and cowardly betray these interests. These selfish, private axe-grinders are a pest in Catholic politics* In order to keep office they betray the most sacred interests of the Church. ‘We know only one Catholicism,’ said the speaker the distinction between a religious and a political Catholicism is to us unknown; we will not be halfCatholic but all-Catholic. What we do not understand is an indistinct, a watered-down, a white-livered Catholicism. We are united on the platform of religion. We stand true and fast by the Pope and his teaching. He is the centre of Church unity, the upholder of Catholic principles and . Catholic truth.’ Whenever the Holy Father’s name was mentioned it was greeted with loud applause vivats and vives and, vivas and hocks—in the languages of four races German, French, Italian, and Romansh. The counds differed, but the sentiments and ideas were all one. This is a characteristic of these great congresses— extraordinary reverence shown to the Pope and the bishops, the representatives of Catholic authority.

‘ A Sacrament of Unity.’

With a stroke of eloquent genius peculiar to his nation, a Frenchman called the German general Congress ‘ a sacrament of unity.’ No better description could be given in words so few. One of these, congresses is a pageant and a power; it is significant of unity and it is efficacious of united action. At the congress at Metz you had deputies from Wurtemberg and Hamburg, from Silesia, and Lorraine, and twenty kingdoms and duchies lying between—men of different social positions and interests, counts and carpentersmen differing in race and language, they were all, bishops, priests, and laity, of one heart and one soul. St. Luke’s description, in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, of the early Christians, could, allowing for different world-conditions, be literally applied to them. So, too, at St. Gall’s. There you heard men speaking German, French, Italian, and Romansch different voices, yet in harmony. The hochs, the vivats, the vives, and the vivas went up together, when some well-known bishop or member of parliament or priest or deputy stood up or gave impressive expression to the common faith and feelings of those diverse Swiss races. At these congresses is seen a wonderful unity.

No Sterile Unity is It.

And this unity is not in word merely. It is not a sterile unity; it is like a sacrament, active, efficacious. Catholic leaders and men of thought have, at length, grasped what meetings, associations, confederations, congresses can effect. They now understand—bitter experience at the hands of a united enemy has taught —how little can be done by one good man, even if an enthusiast, working alone ; he needs companionship, encouragement ; he needs reinforcement and inspiration from others. They realise how much even a small number of ordinary men can do, when combined. They have come to know that within every man possessed of fair health, good will, and common sense, there is a great fund of power for doing good in the social and the religious sphere; and that all that is needed is association to develop that power. Get a man to work; get him to have a hand in this society, in that confraternity, in that guild, and you turn, perhaps, a sour critic, a timid citizen, a lazy log, into an interested worker, often into a very efficient and zealous worker. Most men do not know what is in themselves; occasion and opportunity bring it out. Leo XIII. understood; Pius X. understands the value of combination, for the common good, of laity and clergy. One cannot help thinking that all these confederations, unions, and congresses, now rising and spreading among,, you may say, all Catholic peoples, are the heaven-guided answer to the desires and prayers of these two great White Shepherds of Christendom. They are evidence of a new Catholic time-spirit. Though in Australia and New Zealand you, like the Swiss Catholics, are comparatively a pusillus grex, a little flock, still, like the gallant Swiss, nolite timers, be not afraid; be up and doing, in committee, in confederation, and, when the time is ripe, in national congress.