Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1903-02-10
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA AT wAs4,no1os.

school at Issy is regarded as model
in every respect.
Whether the French do1ninicians
will establish themselves at Washing
ton is not known; but the American
order of that name has already pur-
chased site at the very door of the
university and will soon build large
convent there. The fact that other
European nations besides the French
have enacted laws that operate as
bars to monastic organizations makes
It even more probable that this coun-
try will be the ultimate home of
many of the disturbed orders.
| What are the conditions in France
that make this exodus necessary?
"A writer in a recent number of the
North American Review asserts that
orders have, by usurption of power,
become sort of politico-religious
''trust." Since France is almost en-
tirely Catholic the supposition that
the present disturbance is an attack
of non-C tholics is declared foolish.
Instead, it is asserted to be an attack
by men who wish to preserve the
power of the republic, upon system
they think tends to undermine the
foundations of the republic.
To understand this point of view it
is necessary to know that for 100
years France has been governed in
matters pertaining to church and
State, by the provisions of con-
cordat which Napoleon I. negotiated
with Pope Plus VII. This provides
that bishops shall be nominated by
the government, but shall receive
papal approval; that bishops shall
nominate priests, these nominations
to be approved by the French gov
ernment; that bishops shall permit
nothing in their dioceses contrary 20
public order or prejudicial to the
state, and that the bishops and the
clergy under them shall be paid by
the state. No provision is made in
the concordat for the religious or
!ders; they have their own constitu-
tons and laws and owe direct al.
legiance to the pope.
The order has been swept out of
the country previous to Napoleon's
time, but were readmitted by him.
They prospered exceedingly and it
was claimed of them that, with the
coming of wealth and power, they
began to exert political influence.
The education of the youth of the
higher classes of France came to be
almost wholly in their control. Their
power began to embarrass the gov
eminent and to brighten those who
believed that the state should be the
sovereign power. Furthermore they
did not submit to the taxation Of
their property. Under monarchy and
empire they were less molested than
under the republic. This fact, co,l-
pied with the seeming evidence dur
ing the Dreyfus trial and at other
times, that certain of the orders
favored the cause of the royalists,
led republicans to the conclusion
that the orders were enemies of the
republican administration and that
their rapid strides in attaining
wealth and influence meant future
disaster for the republic.
THE cabinet of republican de-
fense," headed by NJ. Waldeck- Rous-
seau, prepared the associations bill,
the aim of which was to enable the
government to declare null and void
any association which in character,
design and influence was deemed con-
trary to law; to force native associa-
lions to acknowledge the sovereignty
Of the state; to compel associations |
II Francs controlled .by. outsids At'