RURAL FRANCE AND RELIGION

New Zealand Tablet, 25 January 1917, Page 45

RURAL FRANCE AND RELIGION

GLIMPSES OE VILLAGE LIFE.

-P ?7 a A “y happy fortune this year to spend the Feast of AIL Saints in a part of France where the ancient faith is deeply rooted, where traditions of disciplme order respect for authority still: hold good, in spite of the advance of Socialism and religious indifference in certain country districts (writes the special correspondent of the Catholic Times, under date November 12). Here the lords of the manor keep their influence ■ and are looked up to and consulted. In the particular village whence I write, the ‘chatelaine’ is a widow, who, true to the traditions implanted by her predecessors is the friend, the adviser, the providence of her people, Notre maitresse.’ as they call her, is one with em in joy and sorrow; the fact that, in this theT y w ar ’f l9l f’ h i Gr ° nly S ° n is afc the front increases the bonds of mutual good feeling that have long existed between the village and the ‘chateau.’ Respect for the Dead. dim IT/ districts where the light of faith has grown pX] the j easts °j All Saints and All Souls are devoutly celebrated, for, deep down in the heart of every French peasant is rooted respect for the dead. This respect is a redeeming feature among indifferent Catholics. P How much more touching are. its manifestations in a region r a h "d heritage ! 6 dmg to their ICli * io “ S habits as f ° a At Long Distances from the Church. The second priest of this particular village, which numbers about 950 inhabitants, being at the front, the order that° the MaSS ° U Week ' das is ' at 6 o’clock, in older that the women may attend it before beginning hem day’s work -, The excellent ‘cure,’ who, for th! “ that Tt yea rs has wo y ked among these people, tells me that about a hundred persons attend Mass daily all the year round, and, on an average there are sixty WW'make 8 ver -y morning, on days that are not feasts What makes these statistics interesting is. the fact that hairing a group of houses, that stand in the shelter of the church, the other habitations are lonely farms, reaHm rV ai a ” d Wlde ° n & large effacei some are only leached by narrow country roads, which, being shut m between steep banks, become,- in rainy weather, a most impassable. Many of the women who, winter and summer, attend daily Mass, have to walk for more tdan an hour to reach the church. Hearing Confessions All Day. d-iv d! 1 X eS ? t °° tobe , r 31 ’ the ‘care’ spent the whole day m the Confessional; on All Saints’ Day, before •hoXff k ’ j'VX t s ere again - Man y men and women,, who attended the first Mass at six, started from home m the darkness and went to confession before Mass. 1 lie war has made their lives more difficult; all the ablebodied men between 20 and 47 are at the front. Only the old men, the infirm, and boys under 19, are left to. lelp the women in their laborious task task that weighs heavily on these wives and mothers, so heavily indeed that there was a question of enlisting the services of the German prisoners, who, in the adjoining districts, are employed to work in the fields. But in! this particular region, the people, who have lost many soldiers on the battlefield, were strongly opposed to the abandoned 11301181 ' 8 am ° ng them ’ and the proposal was Out of 950 inhabitants about 200 are engaged in the war, and of these twenty-seven have been killed Among those who are left, said the good pastor, to whom this particular village owes so much, barely ten or twelve men did not approach the Sacraments on All paints Day. Those who speak of France as hopelessly irreligious would, if they became acquainted with her western provinces, recognise that in these privileged ‘ regions there are more than ‘ ten just ’ left. Sweeping assertions are apt to be unfair and, to judge France as a whole, it is necessary to penetrate below the surface of her nrovmcial and rural life. This few strangers have opportunities of doing.