616 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



the French Chamber in 1899, was resumed in 1900 

 with singular ferocity. It began in January with 

 the trial of the Assurnptionist fathers. Like all 

 French trials, the proceedings ranged from the 

 merely offensive and irrelevant to the broadly 

 comic. Twelve of the fathers were accused of 

 being an association of more than 20 persons, and 

 nf dealing with questions of a political, social, and 

 religious nature. In explaining the case for the 

 prosecution, M. Bulot declared that l,800,000f.were 

 said to have been seen at the Assumptionist head- 

 quarters, and that there were grave reasons for 

 supposing that the premises they lived in belonged 

 to them. The gravamen of the charge, however, 

 lay in the fact that the defendants published a 

 newspaper in which the Government had been re- 

 peatedly criticised. The defendants were convicted 

 and fined 16 francs, and their community was 

 ordered dissolved as illegal. Although the priests 

 appealed from the verdict and the Foreign Office 

 practically promised to prevent the dissolution of 

 the order on account of its mission work in the 

 East, yet Cardinal Richard, who visited the fathers 

 while under trial, was reprimanded by the Prime 

 Minister, and the salaries of 6 bishops who had 

 written letters of sympathy to them were stopped. 

 When the Archbishop of Aix, Mgr. Gouthe- 

 Soulard, who was one of the victims, denounced 

 this act as a piece of spoliation, since the salaries 

 paid by the Government to the clergy under the 

 terms of the concordat are part of the compensa- 

 tion due by the state and accepted by the Church 

 in lieu of the confiscated ecclesiastical property, 

 the contumaciousness of the archbishop, for whose 

 punishment no law existed, caused M. Waldeck- 

 Rousseau to bring in a bill amending the penal 

 code and punishing, without trial, any member of 

 the clergy criticising the Government or any pub- 

 lic authority. It was on the face of it so incom- 

 patible with all principles of popular liberty that 

 the committee appointed to examine it recom- 

 mended its abandonment. 



A much graver matter, however, was the lot 

 de scolarite, introduced in January into the 

 Chamber, the object of which was to kill off the 

 Catholic secondary schools. The bill proposed to 

 make an attendance of three years at a lycte con- 

 dition precedent to admission to such institutions 

 as the Polytechnic, the Naval School, Saumur, 

 Versailles, or Fontainebleau. In other words, if a 

 youth desired to enter a military, naval, or civil 

 service academy, he must have spent three years 

 in a lyccc. Achievement or excellence acquired 

 elsewhere could not avail him, since it was not 

 so much a point what he learned as where he 

 learned it. The committee to which this bill was 

 referred gave it a rebuff. 



These two bills were introduced, however, and 

 with them two others worse than the first, and 

 to the passage of all four the ministry was com- 

 mitted. The third provided for the regulation of 

 religions Congregations. Its terms were, briefly, 

 that six months would be allowed for congrega- 

 tions not " regulated " to become so; failing which, 

 their property would be confiscated. The fourth 

 measure presented the other horn of the dilemma. 

 Those already regulated and those who might be 

 driven into regulation by bill No. 3 met a 'heavy 

 special tax, whose conditions would be certain to 

 drive them into bankruptcy within a short time. 

 \"iie of the bills }\n<\ been passed when the year 

 closed, in spite of the efforts of the ministry. 

 'I'" inflame the Socialists, M. Waldeck-Rousscau 

 had an inquiry made as to the proper! v of the 

 congregations. The result of the examination 

 showed a total of 1.060.530,030 francs. While this 

 was probably exaggerated for political purposes, 



and because the phrase " a milliard of francs " 

 made such a comfortable and impressive mouth- 

 ful, still the sight of so much wealth at their dis- 

 posal sharpened the appetites of the Socialists, and 

 made exceedingly probable the passage of one or 

 all of the bills before the session should end. 



But what the Government could not accomplish 

 in one way toward injuring and insulting the 

 Catholics of France it could in another, and no 

 reasonable opportunity was neglected. The acts- 

 ranged from mere comedy to the height of lilas- 

 phemy. It had been the immemorial ciistom of 

 the French navy to lower the flags and deck the 

 vessels with crape on Good Friday. This year a 

 telegram was sent to all the ports in France by 

 the Minister of Marine to forbid the ceremony. 

 M. Waldeck-Rousseau in April issued a ukase for- 

 bidding missions and special sermons by religions 

 orders. And following their chiefs, the prefects 

 and mayors joined in the hue and cry. In Tours 

 Hospital the mayor ordered the crucifixes removed 

 from the walls, and prohibited the circulation of 

 any religious book, even a Catholic almanac being 

 confiscated. In St. Florine the mayor issued an 

 order interdicting the wearing of vestments by 

 priests at funerals. Numerous cases of similar 

 petty tyranny were reported, none, however, show- 

 ing a more luminous conception of law and logic 

 than the following: In Brest, early in February, 

 a man named Jean Bartheleme was seized as he 

 left the Jesuit College, having in his possession 

 several articles which he had stolen from that in- 

 stitution. On his being brought to trial the public 

 prosecutor held that the Jesuits had no legal ex- 

 istence, and that therefore there could be no thoft 

 of any articles belonging to them, and the pris- 

 oner was discharged. 



The Pope in February conferred upon M. Brune- 

 ti&re the rare distinction of the order of Com- 

 mander of Pius IX, in return for his signal services 

 to the Catholic religion. 



On the third anniversary of the fire which con- 

 sumed the Charity Bazaar in Paris, May 4. 1S!I7, 

 and in which 115 lives were lost, was consecrated 

 a memorial chapel in the Rue Jean-Goujon. The 

 entire expense of it, 300,000 francs, was contributed 

 by the Countess de Castellane. 



By a brief dated Sept. 13, the Pope sent to the 

 . \rciiconfraternity of Our Lady of Compassion, or- 

 ganized for prayer for the conversion of England, 

 his blessing and his hope for success. The ex- 

 treme Left of the Chamber of Deputies immedi- 

 ately made outcry, saying that it would disturb 

 international relations between England and 

 France. But the affair was not so regarded in 

 Downing Street, where no notice was taken of it 



Between Sept. 10 and 14 a clerical congress w 

 held at Bourges, the first since the Revolutk 

 attended by more than 800 priests. 



Archbishop Ireland delivered the address at tl 

 unveiling of the statue of Lafayette presented 

 France by the United States. The ceremony 

 performed on July 4, and the archbishop's addv 

 was a long panegyric on Lafayette, the keynote 

 which was praise of liberty. 



1'cre Didon. O. S. D.. one of the most faimn 

 preachers in France, died suddenly in Toulon-r. 

 March 10. Other vacancies in the rank- of the 

 clergy were caused by the deaths of Mgr. Mandn. 

 Bishop of Angouleme. July 15: of Mgr. 

 Poulard, Archbishop of Aix, Sept. 8: and 

 Baptifolier. Hishop of Meude. Oct. 1. 



Germany.- A somewhat serious eonlliet 

 started in February between the Cat holies of 

 sace-Lorraine and those of the rest of the entpii 

 over the proposed erection of a Catholic tacult 

 of theology at the University of Straslmrg. 



