THE PRESENT POSITION OF CATHOLICS IN FRANCE. 



1900. As the relative proportion of eatliolios declined, so the 

 demands of the cleriiy and the contributions of the State 

 increased. It is manilest, that an oi^anisation and a budget 

 whicli were devised when the nation and the church were 

 practically identical, were no longer equitable when the church 

 had dwindled into a fraction of the people. For that reason 

 alone, a readjustment of the concordat was demanded. But 

 there were the other and moi*e imperious reasons, to which I 

 have alluded, viz., that the nation and the church hold incom- 

 patible ideals, that their principles and methods are iri-econ- 

 c liable, and that through the growth of ultramontanism the 

 French catholics, instead of being national in spirit, had 

 succumbe 1 whoUv to tlie influence and control of a foreign 

 power. The church in France was not only a rival system 

 within the State, but it was a foreign, a hostile, and 

 an aggressive organisation within the State: claiming and 

 exercising a supreme control over property and persons, 

 though deriving its influence to a very large extent from the 

 revenues and position which it received from the government. 

 All this, as French Liberals thought, quite reasonably, was 

 anomalous, intolerable, and even suicidal. A nation certainly 

 has the right to say whether it wiU or will not have official 

 relations with any ecclesiastical system. It also has the right 

 either to end or to modify existing relations. 



The financial scheme of separation was not only just, but 

 generous. All i>ersoual and existing interests were respected. 

 The c iange was to be gradual. Salaries were to be paid in a 

 diminishing scale for four, and in some cases for eight, years 

 after the passing of the law. In some cases age, and in others 

 length of service, entitled ecclesiastics to a life pension. 

 Certain public chaplaincies continue to be paid by the State. 

 But with regard to all parochial ministrations, the legislatiu'e 

 decided that the majority of the nation no longer desired 

 them : that the existing system was a sham, and was 

 inequitable : and that all such services should lie provided 

 and paid for by those who wanted them. 



With regard to fabrics, it must be remembered again that 

 there was no ecclesiastical property in France. This was made 

 plain by the concordat, which was only ratified by the State on 

 condition that this was recognised by the clergy. The churches 

 themselves were State property, so were the bishops' houses. 

 The presbyteries were either national, or municipal, or com- 

 munal property. In all cases they were public property, even 

 imder the concordat. There was. therefore, no confiscation. 



