The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-07-21

FRANCE.

eral de Cissey, In accepting the amendment,
thanked God that religion was now honor
ed in the army as much as discipline, OBJ
serving that a'great change bad come cver
years ago. sth1heD," he said, = ga soldier
who went to Mass was laughed at, nos. he's
is respected" "It il not asking much, J" ne
added, "to dem and that men who are. daily
exposed to death; should not be obliged 10
die like dogs" Mgr.s Dupanlo up also oar.
period of exemption for stadentss dron
twenty.three to twenty -four gear: OF age
and substitution was permitted botWeon
brothers, and prohibited between other rec
rt'es>5 gsf aEsMANx. -" ygrs 40
The Persecution in Germany.-The Bishop
of Ermeland has sent in his reply to the
summons from the ,Govesnment to obey
the State and not the. Chnrch is purely
OF the land Is only to be obeyed whom it il
not in contradiction to tho law Of God;
that u for the Catholic Church to decide
what the law of God is and that tho ex-
communication pronounced by himself falls
exclusively under the province OF the Lat
law, be withdrawn Without the retraction
Of the errors for which it has been infict-
ed. The actual persecution will probably
shortly begin. After this will it be pre-
tended that the iniquitous law just passed
by the Reichstag and Federal Council is
was, directed not against the Catholic
Church but agaiDet the Jesuitsf It is the
very essence Of the Catholic Church which
the Prussian Government is attacking, for
it presumes to dictate TO whom its Sacre-
ments shall be administered, and who and
pale of its unity. The principle on which
it is acting would admit the leader OF the,
viennese heretics, Alloys Anton, as well as
the coryphees Of the party In Germany,
and that worthy has just Published
pamphlet.in which he rejects the authority
leges to be "full Of neo Platonic and
Gnostic elemental Besides these, in the
Epistles Of st. Paul he finds also ''mys-
ico-allegoric Rabbinism.n He concludes
that the West had falsified tue teachiog Of
Jesus Christ, Whose Person, he blasphe--
mously adds, "became only gradually dei'
fed" And yet on Herr Won Falk's theory,
the State may lawfully prohibit the exclu-
sion of such persons as this from Catholic
communion. It has now rewarded the OK
communicated Professor Weber Of Breslau
by promotion to a higher rank, aud the OK.
communicated priest Grunert by making
him chaplain to the Catholic soldiers. The
movement, however, is becoming more and
more obviously a fiasco every day. Out
of 5000 soldiers at Cologne called upon by
the authorities to say whether they are
not sold Catholics" four only have de-
ciared for the new heresy; though at Mum
lies" would not be required to attend
church at all, one company is said to have
profited by the distinction. The same
motive appears to have operated elsewhere
and somewhat. inconveniently for the
apostate priests. At Kiefersfelden the ex-
parish priest Bernard cannot get his peo-
pie to come to church, and is obliged to tell
them that he will have nothing more to do.
with them. "What would you have Z"
they say to him; sit is precisely because
we wanted to have done with the religious
service that we followed you" On the
other hand, Herr Hosemann at Tunsen-
to furnish him with the necessaries of life,
aud Herr Michelis writes In the Ldteratut-
bIatt of Bonn, that "the great philosophers
ought to occupy. themselves little about
his position, that he knows man does not
live oy bread alone. but that he wants
something more than to be excommuni-
Gated and to remain unknown"
s,0itserland.-As long ago as August,
1874, tue Grand Council of Canton Aargau
stated that Germany expected Switzerland
| to take the first decisive measures against
the Church. Aargau had already sup
| pressed the Catholic seminary, abolished
the Concordat with the Holy See contracted
in 1928, and confiscated the ecclesiastical
foundations belonging to the Bishop and
the Chapter; but in November, 1871 is de-
creed the separation of the Church and
State on the following principle. All fac
ulties and powers possessed by either
which the State chooses to resume it may
resume. Nobody can hinder it. 1t is not
bound to leave any moro freedom than it
chooses to any Confession, and Church
which does not approve of its laws has no
right to refuse obedience to them, or even
to ask that they may be changed. Ac-
cordingly, 1T has prescribed one similar or
ganization for all Confessions, namely, a
lay synod on the model of the Calvinist
Church Synod of 1866. The clergy are to
meet and return deputies who will sit in
the synod, and the synod is to name a
President and Synodal Commissions, who
are to form the central and supreme au-
thority of the Confession. Such q confess
sional corporation may, however, contract
a connection by means Of a iconcordatory
convention with foreign ecclesiasticsi
authority (the Bishop ar Poppy, but in
each case this. agreement must be subject
to the approval of the civil power, As.