The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-04-30
Communism-Irreligion.

CommuniSm-lrreligi
Prudhon's principle, that the possession
of property by individuals is robbery of
the community, has been formally pro-
claimed as the law of the Paris Communis-
tic Republic, and the authors Of the new
law were not slow in putting it into force
by the practical application of its principle.
They plundered the bourgcoisie as abettors
of the crime of possessing property. If
they did no worse, there are those who
would not say a hard word against them.
The sleek, well-fed, rotund and luxurious
shopkeepers of Paris are not obviously de-
For years they have waxed fat and rich
under the Empire. All nations of the earth
poured their quota Of travellers and sight
seers into Paris in that period, enriching
the Parsians by their profuse expenditure.
But at every election of memb ers of, the
Corps Legislatif the beurgeoisiesbf Paris
invariably voted for Communist candidates.
The redder the candidate for popular suf
frage, the more anarchical his opinions,
and the more ferocious his sentiments and
language, the more certain was he of the
plumed themselves upon such an exhibition
of their independence. Well, they have
now had for some time q government
after their own choice, and they may be
congratulated on their present benign
governors. While we have little sympa-
thy for the sufferings of those who, when
they had a stable government, were ever
the auxiliaries of turbulent spirits, still
this does not find justification in the acts
of the mad spirits who control the destinies
of the capital of France. Indeed, as a
contemporary says, there are some features
in the constitution of the Commune which
are not devoid of an interest moro direct
than that we should be disposed to take in
what concerns the welfare of France. For
good, and alas for evil, France has some
thing cosmopolitan in her nature. The
principles, sound and unsound, that she
represents, have knack of spreading
that an instruction in Rome is to be the
complement of that at Paris. This may or
not be, but the announcement is typical OF
the danger, not merely to France, but to
the world and civilization, from the action
of those who are now in instruction in
Paris. Their first hostility is to religion
next to morality-and lastly, to political
and social order. It is not, apparently, in
this way that events have produced them.
selves; but there is little reason to doubt
that the order in which their principles
have been set, is really that which they
have taken in their own minds. Through
the last they have been stirred up to the
mad wickedness which prompted them t.
seize it. Already the persecution of reli
gion in all shapes has the banner, as
were, of their policy. They begun by for
! bidding mass in the prisons. They pro
, ceeded then to a resolution to sell all tn
r keystone of the arch of their great schem
: for the regeneration of the world, they an
? nounce that education should hencefort
be secular. The advocates of secular edu
/ cation may be proud of the company int
which they get. They would loudly, n
= doubt, deprecate the natural consequence
which flow from their theories. But it
r quite possible to do a much greater mi'
$ chief than one intends. Pulling fe'
. bricks out may, quite uncorsciously on til
part of the mischief maker, cause larG
edifce to tumble about ones ears; SON
Vi small opening which boy could make
o. our Mississippi levee, at the preser
stage of the river, would precipit tie a
overflow that would destroy thousands
oh lives and annihilate millions in propert
'h Those who discountenance the teaching
N relioion discouuteuance religion itself: al