The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-11 00:00:00

310 RE ECCLESIASTICAL SCANDAL.

A monk, belonging to the Christian School at
Angers, named Chasse (in religion Brother Casimir
des Anges), has been sentenced to six years' impri-
sonment for assaults upon little boys confided to his
care. The superior of his monastery, Jean Baldit
(in religion Brother Leloius), who was included in
the indictment, has fled from justice.
The Belgian journals announce another ecclesias-
tical scandal—the arrest, at a place called Menin.
of a certain Brother Fidele, a member of the order
of Good Works, but whose real name is Van Bra-
kom, on the charge of criminal assaults on girls
under 14 years of age. He has been lodged in the
prison of Courtrai to await trial.
The late trial in which the Abbe Mallet figured
in so disgraceful a manner, is commented on by the
Opinion .Nationale in the following terms :
" A deplorable case has just been tried before the
Court of Ass'zes of the Nord. A priest, a member
of the higher order of the clergy, a canon of the
cathedral of Cambria, has had to answer before a
court of justice for the carrying away of four young
girls—four sisters. He tried to obtain a fifth, but
she escaped from him. Of the four sisters, twQ
were restored insane to their parents. One for a
long time could not be found, and it was not
known what had become of her. All the re-
searches of justice, joined to those of the parents,
and the authority of the Keeper of the Seals
himself; were vain in presence of denials
and falsehoods. The young girl was removed from
convent to convent under false names; and when
interrogatories are made in the name of the law,
nuns lied, priests perjurcdthemselves, and the least
audacious of them made mental reservations. All
that was done under pretext of religion, and for the
conversion of Jews. These girls then were baptised,
and they were so well converted that they became
insane. And this began in 1863, long before the
affair Mortara, about which so much noise was
made, and which the clerical party rightly
turned into ridicule, since Mortarising was prac-
tised on a large scale in France. In France, how-
ever, the clergy acted with more precaution than
at Rome. They have their convents, which sufficed
for them ; they had, for example, the Sainte Union.
or Order, which has numerous convents in the
north of France and in Belgium. A young girl,
for example, is taken away by a sister of the order
who is provided with a command' from the supe-
riors of the chief house at Carnbrai ; she is made to
stop a few days in different convents, and in each
under a false name, so that it is impossible to follow
her trace. If justice pursues her too actively, she is
taken across the frontier into Belgium, and then the
police are at a loss. One of the sisters, out of five, es-
caped from Canon Mallet ; and of those who passed •
his hands one is mad, another was so, and a third
cannot be found. What has become of the latter?
The accused does not know, his housekeeper does
not know, the superiors of communities do not
know, the Abbe Ratisbone does not know, and the
Grand Vicar does not know. We are thus plunged
into the darkness of falsehood and audacious denials,
in which justice can do nothing, and before which
society shrinks back in terror ! In terror ,
yes,
certainly; for it is now evident that on pious .
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