The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-10-20

| TO make Tor no one can forget that 1t W as
when the fortunes of France went down
that You rose to the surface it was when
France was humbled 10 the dust, that you
made pedestal out of her ruins by which
to climb to power. AS an Alsacian, have
a right, in the name of my native land, to
| call you to an account for those bleody
follies that crowned our misfortunes and
| tarned defeat into an irreparable catas-
| trophe.
But let US pass from the sad memories
with which your name is associated, and
look at the future you are trying to pre-
pare for US. 1t is, indeed, persecution
| that you promise US, and in a very short
| time, too. For, by what other name can
you call the suppression of religious Or
ders, the suppression of the freedom of
| instruction, the suppression of ecclesiasti-
cal vocationsf 1t is open and violent
persecution, whatever appearance of legal
ity you may throw around it. In language
you designed to be spiritual, and which
was all the more uncalled for, you spoke
of "those thousands of multicolored priests
that have no country" Those priests,
Monsieur, are in the service of your fell
low citizens from morning till night they
are teaching children, tending to the sick,
consoliDg the poor. You have no more
right to interfere with the color of their
dress than they dream of examining the
color of yours. They are citizens by the
same rights that you are; like you and
your friends they have the right to meet
together, to live together, to pray and to
work in common. France is their country
and their nationality is beyond doubt.
What more do you want, and by what
right do you thrust your hand between
their conscience and their God Z
After the freedom of religions associa
tion, the despotism of which you are the
mouth piece tends, as we regard it, to the
destruction of another liberty no lees pre-
cious; that of education. And this you
say, under the pretext, that "we should
our schools" What is it you and the
violent party whose leader you are, that
constitutes yourself the guardian and de-
fender of our national history7 You, who
date this history from 's3 or from '93, and
who see hey ond this nothing but series
of horrors and infamies You, who do
nothing but revile our secular grandeur
and glories, insult our kings, demean our
great men, calumniate our old institutions,
and speak of ancient France, her clergy,
her nobility, her social and political con-
dition, as if it had, for the last fifteen CEN
turies, been nothing more than some Tar
tary or Mongolia! And is it under such a
pretext as this that the despotism whose
programme you are formulating, is prepar-
ing to strip US of the little liberty we now
possess under the law F! For it is mini
mum of liberty, Monsieur, this participa-
tion 80 subordinate, 80 restrained, SO mar
row, not extending even to the fixing of
grades, as you falsely state, for it is alto
gether in the bands of the state, but to the
simple Interrogation of the students. More
over, when it shall please you to bring
these things up again, we shall, in our
turn, claim a right that seems forgotten,
and we shall ask our country whether it is
right, whether it ia just, whether it is
useful that 105 O65 students" belonging to
French families be subject to tests for the
Baccalaureate in Letters, for the Baccal
aureate in Sciences, without one of their
Professors being admitted to seat on the
examining board, We are waiting for you
with confidence on this ground, if ever
You see proper to call us to it,.
Bot where the despotism whose threats
you have just given utteraBce to, breaks
out most vigorously, is in the steps you
are taking for recruiting from among the
clergy OF France. In subjecting the stu
dents of the Sanctuary to military service,
Monsieur, you aim at drying up the very
springs of the priesthood. Now, you must
not talk to us about the obligation of
serving the country; that is ball you
throw out among the masses to deceive
the simple minded. There arc many ways
of serving the country. The instructor,
the professor, who wear themselves out in
instructing their pupils; the priest who
exhausts himself in the iabors of the min
j
as the soldier. These are great public
services, necessarily Indispensable and |
which are worth, in fatigues and in results
all the services of the soldier.
The smallest amount of good sense |
sutflees to explain that social necessities |
impose and justify such equivalents. But |
it is not under the pretext of equality that
you would strike religion to the heart.
Although your tastes and your antecedents
have done very little to give you an appre
citation of these things, you have not to
learn that the regime of the barracks is not
a preparation for the regime OF the semin-
airy, that the Church requires from her
future ministers al entiEity Of qualities
that can only be acquired and developed
in the silence of prayer and meditation,
and that the day when such requirements
as these are added to the duties and sacri-
fees of sacerdotal life, there will be an end
of ecclesiastical vocations amongst US.
But what is that to you7 And ia not
this the very result yon are anxious to
attain At all events, we are warned
4 81. EI,rr krNI