The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-11-15
A cowLED sENsATIoNALIsT.
General of Franciscans Attacks Mon
astic Orders of France.
western watchman.)


When the Franciscans elected Father
Fleming their general in Rome some
months ago we were very much sur
prised. He was an IriShman; and the
order is largely German and Italian
Then, he was a man who had been
mixed in many unpleasant controver-
sizes and had made many personal enc
mics. He had been on both sides of
every controversy that had convulsed
the English speaking world for ten
years. He was the spiritual adviser of
Mivart, and at one time fully shared
his most extreme views. He was the
monk to whom the great English con-
vert referred when he said that his
opinions had been sanctioned by man
of a religious order who stood high in
the councils of the vatican. He was
on both sides of the controversy on
Americanism and was violent parti-
san for and against what has come to
be named American liberalism" He
is very clever man, and ranks high
as writer on literary and scientific
subjects.
He had not quite warmed the gener-
ais chair when he launched upon the
world the greatest sensation of his life.
Last week he published a letter in one
of the London papers which has caused
more talk and pleased and disguised
more people than all his former per-
formances in that line. We refer to
his attack on the monastic orders in
France. He declares that France is
full of monks who are such only in
name; being in fact business men,
spectators and politicians who. use the
prestige of the order to further their
worldly enterprises and don't hesitate
to compromise the church and the Holy
Father when it suits the purpose of
their worldly thrift. He says the
French government is in great measure
justified in its present attitude towards
the orders, and that when the law of
associations will have done its work
the church in France and the orders
themselves will be better off that be-
fore. He is particularly severe on the
orders for their monarchic sympathy
and the underhand methods they en-
ploy to advance the interests of the
royalists, the legitimists and the Bona
parts. The republic, he declares, is
battling against the triple alliance of
landed wealth, the orders and the aris
tocracy.
We do not know just how much truth
there is in this broad Indictment, and
it may be that the picture is little
overdrawn. Still, if people say severe
things about monks it is no proof that
they are enemies of monasticism.
Scholars have written against certain
popes who would lay down their lives
for the papacy. Men have grown elo-
quent over the abuses of the clergy
who worshiped the priesthood and
gloried in the achievement of the min
istry in every age and under every
sky. We don't conclude from Father
Fleming'S philippe that he is an en-
envy of the religious orders, or even of
the orders he inculpates. ~
But we would prefer to see the in
dictment come from a man who was
not a monk; or if from a monk, we
would rather see it placed before the
authorities of the church and not read
before the grand jury of the world. We
think those monks should wash their
dirty habits in private. Let every re-
ligious order that needs reform begin
by reforming itself, and leave the |
force of example to extend the reform
into other religious bodies. The great |
abbey of st. German was spared even |
by the French revolution and was not |
devoted to the general destruction of |
religious houses until two monks of |
the order began to abuse each other in |
the public prints. The church has her |
own tribunal for the adjudication of |
clerical causes and for the correction |
Of abuses of discipline. AS rule the |
orders were never doing better work |
than they are at present; they never
stood so high in the esteem of Rome |
and the world. There may be abuses
here and there, but they are incidental |
to all things human, and in the course |
of time Rome will put the ak of dis |
cipline to the root of the evil and il |
will disappear without unnecessary |
publicity or scandal. The holy father |
has shown himself equal to the emer- |
gency on all occasions, and he will set |
tie these disputes in which the orders |
are unpleasantly mixed quietly, loving |
ly and effectually.