ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



751 



by the Cabinet majority, part of whom held that 

 the question was too important to be settled 

 out of hand, part that no efforts of conciliation 

 would woo Ireland to a proper fervor of loyalty, 

 and the third part, headed by Lord Salisbury him- 

 self, that a less considerable reform would suf- 

 fice as a pledge of amity, while not committing 

 the party to a definite policy in the matter. His 

 counsel prevailed, and before the end of the year 

 several unimportant concessions were agreed 

 upon. 



The new cathedral of St. Canice, Kilkenny, 

 which had been building since 1843, was com- 

 pleted early in the year at a cost of 60,000, and 

 formally "opened by Cardinal Logue, Archbishop 

 of Dublin, April 9. The vacancy in the see of 

 Meath was filled June 24, by the consecration 

 of Rev. Dr. Gaffrey. 



France. The work, begun in 1898, of removing 

 from the hospitals and charitable institutions the 

 members of religious orders who had previously 

 managed them and placing the institutions under 

 lay control was continued in 1899, with no par- 

 ticular benefit to the institutions concerned and 

 the creation of a deficit in the national budget. 

 Under the sisters the average cost of daily main- 

 tenance per patient was 2 francs 50 in the Paris 

 hospitals; under secular control it rose to 4 

 francs 20. Early in the year the Augustinian 

 Sisters, who had done service for 1,200 year* in 

 the hospitals of the French capital, were expelled, 

 and on the day of their expulsion they had no 

 roof to shelter their members. A deficit of 217,000 

 francs in one hospital alone was attributed to 

 the discontinuance of fasting and the increase of 

 wines at the nurses' table. The results of laiciza- 

 tion thus far were summarized in the Paris 

 Journal of April 6 : " Incidents of varied kinds 

 give the public no chance of forgetting that our 

 hospitals are in lay hands; attendants figure in 

 the police courts, distorted figures of charity; 

 nurses little the better for drink are found on 

 the very steps of the hospitals whither they go 

 on duty; a poor patient is forgotten in an over- 

 warmed bath, and threatens to die as OOH8Omm6 

 Humain" Of the 1,486 congregations in France, 

 male and female, 731 were in 1899 still recalcitrant 

 as regarded the heavy tax levied in preceding 

 years, and had refused to pay it. In a good many 

 cases the congregations were engaged in active 

 charitable work or in foreign missions, which un- 

 der the law exempted them from the new rule of 

 taxation, but in the majority of instances the 

 exempt orders made common cause with those not 

 exempt. Under an order of the Council of State 

 issued in October the Minister of Finance pro- 

 ceeded to stringent measures to collect the tax, 

 and succeeded in dishousing 9 congregations. A 

 further measure of repression was indicated by 

 the Government the same month, when the cere- 

 mony of consecrating the Abbey Church of Font- 

 gombault was prohibited by the direction of M. 

 Millerand, Minister of Finance. The abbey, 

 which was founded by the Benedictines in 1141, 

 and was destroyed in the French Revolution, had 

 previously been rebuilt, and elaborate ceremonies 

 were announced in connection with its dedica- 

 tion. This celebration, the minister announced, 

 he could by no means allow, inasmuch as he 

 had already solemnly dissolved the Benedictines, 

 who, having no further existence, could not legal- 

 ly consecrate a church. He, however, permitted 

 a banquet to take place in the abbey, though all 

 toasts were suppressed. In the following month 

 three bills were introduced into the Chamber of 

 Deputies aimed at the religious congregations. 

 One provided that candidates for the service of 



the state in any capacity must have spent three 

 years in a school affiliated with the University 

 of Paris; the second was intended to enforce pay- 

 ment of the droit d'accroissement the tax above 

 mentioned; while the third formally prohibited 

 any citizen of France, male or female, from mak- 

 ing irrevocable vows, any renunciation of indi- 

 vidual rights. 



The royal chapel at Versailles was closed in 

 September by a resolution of the Chamber of 

 Deputies dismissing Canon Tessier. The chapel 

 was closed during the Revolution, but opened 

 again by order of Napoleon. Since the establish- 

 ment of the republic it has been the usual place 

 of worship of the presidents. The Budget Com- 

 mission in November recommended to the Cham- 

 ber of Deputies the closing of 35 episcopal sees 

 and the suppression of the embassy at the Vati- 

 can. 



The great celebration in honor of Jeanne d'Arc 

 at Orleans was inaugurated on May 6 by the 

 unveiling of a large equestrian statue of the 

 maid in the courtyard of the bishop's palace in 

 the presence of an enthusiastic throng. The fete 

 lasted three days, and was marked by the pres- 

 entation of the banner of La Pucelle by the mayor 

 to the bishop and a panegyric on the maid de- 

 livered by Archbishop Ireland, who laid stress 

 upon the duty of patriotism incumbent upon 

 Catholics, and pointed out how in the long-hoped- 

 for canonization of Jeanne d'Arc the Church 

 would give to France a patron saint of patriotism. 



The Pope, between whom and the French Gov- 

 ernment has not existed an understanding as 

 complete as his Holiness desired, took occasion 

 in May to tell M. Henri des Houx, who is writ- 

 ing a life of Leo XIII, that the republican Gov- 

 ernment had his fullest sympathy and support. 

 His Holiness recommended Catholics who fa- 

 vored the old dynasties to set aside their political 

 predilections, to acknowledge the republic loyal- 

 ly, and enter its service. This statement of the 

 Pope, made in a public manner, was evidently 

 intended to destroy the contention of the royal- 

 ist party that the Church still looked for the re- 

 vival of monarchical government, and indirectly 

 it was intended to create a closer sympathy be- 

 tween the present Government and the Vatican, 

 Mgr. Lorinzelli, Archbishop of Sardis, was ap- 

 pointed in June by the Pope Nuncio Apostolic to 

 Paris to succeed Mgr. Clari. In presenting his 

 credentials to President Loubet, the nuncio as- 

 sured the President of the declared intention of 

 the Vatican to further in every way the inter- 

 ests of the republic, and to exhort Catholics to 

 loyalty to the existing form of government. 



His Holiness under date of Sept. 8 addressed 

 a long encyclical letter to the French bishops 

 and clergy on the selection of subjects as candi- 

 dates for the priesthood in the work of the mis- 

 sions at home and abroad, and on the manner in 

 which the priests should discharge their sacred 

 duties. In the letter the Pope renewed the affirma- 

 tion of his affection and solicitude for France, 

 and urged the clergy to increased devotion in 

 view of the strong atheistic tendency in France. 



Upon the appearance of the papal letter on 

 Americanism, Cardinal Richard issued a pastoral 

 letter to the clergy of France, calling on them to 

 give the papal document a careful study, and 

 pointing out to them the errors it mentioned. In 

 reply Abb6 Klein sent to the cardinal his declara- 

 tion of submission to the Pope, and regretting 

 the errors mentioned if he had inadvertently fall- 

 en into them in his preface to the French version 

 of the Life of Father Hecker. He also stopped 

 the sale of the book. 



