The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-06

designed to compel the reversion to the
heirs of original donors of property pos
sessions held by certain religious asso-
Citations and the exclusion of such assoc
Citations from the function of public ed
ucation
So far as may be judged at this dis
lance the measure in question has the
favor of the great majority of the
French people without regard to religion,
! and will strengthen the administration
which has secured It's adoption. About
! one-half of the property held by relig-
ious associations in France has been
brought under the operation of the law
as belonging to what are known as un-
authorized congregations. This is to be
taken from its present owners and sub
jected to redistribution. The members
of these same unauthorized congrega-
tons are also prohibited from. engaging
thereafter in public teaching.
That provision which seems to havs
aroused the most opposition declares as
follows: Associations, a majority Of
whose members are foreigners, or which
have foreigners to administer them, or
have their headquarters abroad, shall be
! liable to be dissolved by a decree Of
the president of the republic" The
property Of congregations thus dissolved
is returned to the heirs to whom it would
have come were it not diverted TO the
church originally.
OF course the effect of this provision
is to make those congregations unau-
| thorized the headquarters of which are
at Rome or elsewhere outside of France.
Prominent among these are the Jesuits
and the Dominicans. which, with 9th
ers, are thus deprived Of the function
of teaching, Notwithstanding their great
recognized aptitude for that form of
work
The consideration of the question of the
justice or wisdom of legislation thus
palpably aimed at certain religious or
| ders, If not at the church itself, may
well be left for determination by tho
| people of the countries in which it has
been adopted. The policy or impolicy of
temporal possessions, large or small, by
ministers of the gospel, mas been under
consideration in every country at one
time or another, and today Is receiving
serious consideration in distinctively Cath
Ole countries like Mexico, France, Spain
and Italy. With that feature of the
matter 1t is not necessary or even de-
| sirable on the part of those who are
not concerned to deal; but with the pro-
vision Of such legislation which de-
prives the most skilled educators of a
nation of their faculty of public IN
struction there must inevitably be fault
| found, as tending to Interfere with in
dividual freedom particularly in the one
direction in which freedom of action
should be preserved to the Individual.
OF course it is urged against these re-
ligious congregations engaged in public
education in France that they taught
| doctrines relating to civil and religious
authority which were not acceptable to
|
diately engaged in the administration of
civil affairs. But to urge that on that
account alone they should be deprived
of their right to teach is to preach big
otry and tyranny of opinion as bad as
the worst ever laid at the doors of the
men and the bodies thus deprived by Inc
state Of both property and calling at one
blow.
1t is at best but a small business for
great state, like the French republic,
to go into-that of telling men that they
shall not instruct the youth of the coun-
try because their opinions and influence
tend to lead that youth toward
beliefs different from those which
the state officials think ought
to prevail Surprising, as the French pre-
mier is quoted as saying, that the youth
of French society is today divided into
ditions of liberty and free inquiry and
the other reactionary and clerical; what
warrant does that afford-g1vins the words
chosen by NJ. Waldeck-Rousseau the
broadcast meaning which the worst radi-
cal would ask for them-for decreeing
that educators chosen by the people of
their own volition shall no longer be per-
mitted to follow their vocations? The dis
tinction made between those congrega-
! lions which have their foundations in
| France and those which have such found
! ations outside Of France is a purely ar
tificial one. 1t has operated, fortunately
! for the French nation, to preserve to
the people the services of that great
body of educators, the Christian Broth
ers; but it has also deprived them of the
inestimable blessing of receiving schoIas-
tic training under the care Of that mar
Vicious aggregation of moral and intel
| lectual force-the Society of Jesus.
The republic in France might do worse
than study the provision of the American
constitution which declares that congress
shall make no law respecting an estab-
lishment of religion or prohibiting the
! free exercise thereof
The Argentine republic is getting into
line again as a model Spanish republic
by nursing small Instruction.