The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-12-26
POOR FRANCE.

In last issue appeared reprint of a letter
published in the Catholic World by Manuel De
Morera regarding the last battle of French inf
dels against the Church. The new legislative enact
ments by NJ. Arstide BRAND are to annul
the Concordat mutualy agreed upon by
Napoleon the Great and Plus VII. The former,
though battling with the Church, realized that
every state owes its existence to some definite re-
ligion. Aristide BRAND thinks differently. He
has drawn up new and Independent code which is
to direct the relationship of Church and State.
Its chief aim is to cripple the Church in its infu
ence and, as far possible subject it to the State
Judging from the provisions of the new regula-
tions, NJ. Arstide BRAND must be a lineal descen-
dant of Voltaire. Doctor OHagan, of the Uni
versity of Louvrain after an extended trip through
France, gives his impressions of the French peo-
pie in letter to the Milwaukee Sentinel His
description of the present state of society in
France is appalling, He shows that the masses of
the people have lapsed into heathensm What
singular and a peculiar race those French peo
pie, who are always extremists. During their long
existence we find them either very good or ex-
tremely bad. The cause of their present hostility
to religion we look for in vain among writer's who
in the scale of morality and Christian ethics the
French race has descended, but he does not give
the cause of their descent. The cause has been
attributed to the very small percentage who
troll political matters, and who eagued with
the avowed enemies of the Church But, peril
nent question would be: Who made these rulers
enemies of the Church! They have been instructed
in Christian schools, and graduates of Cath
olic colleges They are elected to their Offices by
the French people who told still retain
the faith In France the Church has enjoyed less
freedom than in England Germany Because
of her dependence on the State there was always
a restraint In enforcing her spiritual discipline,
and many of her courtly prelates, the offspring OF
the State, were more loyal to Caesar than to the
Papa authority in Rome. Catholic faith was not
taught in all its vigor, but its development in the
erection of shines, which appeal only to the
senses and are seldom sanctioned by the head
of the Church, was weak and sentimental. This
dependence on the State which made it necessary
for bishops and priests to obtain its permission for
the exercise of their sacred functions, has always
produced a strange anomaly in France of too
much Catholicity or too little. The excess lacked
that bold, strong faith and loyalty to the Holy
See which is the center of unity and without
which Catholicity is impossible. The direction of
the Church in executing the divine mandate, to
teach direct and guide souls in the way of saliva
ton instead of being controlled by strong, vigor-
Gus minds, left to the guidance of pious
men whose visions and dreams substituted for
Catholic faith. This made the faith in many in
stances weak and langud. Another great obstacle,
too, to the growth and strength of Catholic faith
in the past has been that whilst in France Cathoi
city the faith Of the people, yet the Catholic
faith alone was the only faith restricted by the
State. NJ. Montalambert aludes to this. From
him we learn that there is no law in France that
requires one to believe even in God that pre-
vents him from denouncing and execrating the
founder of Christianity. All religions except the
Catholic religion, have been free in French soil.
The country is teeming with bad literature and i'm
moral works. The irreligious press freely attacks
the Church on all sides, i'll her dogmas and NOR
ais, whilst the Papacy is denounced. But sooner
does the Catholic press defend the rights of Peter
and the independence of the Church. than the Min