The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-07-02
The ConcOrdat.

When that famous agreement between the First
Consul Bonaparte and Plus VII, signed III
1901. and put in force the year after, 1t was con-
sidered very happy move by both contracting
parties, and the beginning of an auspicious alliance
fer them.
The Beginning
Bonaparte. indeed wanted the clergy to help
| him in his general policy and i'll his personal de
! signs. The Supreme Pontiff, the other hand,
most gratifed to have the Church and the
state welded once again For it Is one of the prin-
cpal dogmas of the Church. an essential tenet Of
Catholic orthodoxy In normal condition of things,
that the state ought to make open profession OF
Christian faith; that divorce between the tenn
poral and the spiritual domain is downright and
dangerous heresy. Catholieism-we belieye-is
l. wonderfully logical in upholding that doctrine.
But for all that it still remains open question
whether for the interest of religion and of the
Church, that particular agreement of 1901 was the
best one that could be imagined. or whether it
not exposing again both religion and the
Church. to the old, inveterate and irreconcilabe
animosty of a large party in France a most in
fuentiai one besides, since it calls itself, and is
sidered abroad the intellectual elite of the nation.
The reader to whom French affairs and history
are not quite familiar, may not know that the rap
pEOehement brought about by the COneordat
intensely resented by the middle class (bourgeoise)
in Paris; SO much that the four political assem-
blies then in existence. though dreading Bona
parties enmtg and spirit of revenge, plainly mani
Tested their ili-lumor and displayed their anger
when called upon to discuss the Coneordat. The
Legislative body, the Senate, the Iribunate, the
Council of State made it clear to BoBaparte that
his Concordat to them annoying any
thing could be-
Napoleon's Work.
In fact the treaty would never have been voted
by these assemblies if Bonaparte had not made a
second coup d etat, by renewing the legislature
and the Tribunate and filling these bodies with
of his own personal choice. And even then
the first consul felt obliged to pacae public opn-
ION. That is why, pro tranquillitate pubica, (as
the object of the Concerdat itself termed), he
added to the treaty seyenty-seYen articles, called
Organic articles of the Catholic cult" These ar
tleles were decreed without the least assent,
knowledge of the Pope, and deliberately put the
Church, body and soul at the will and at the mercy
of the French government. Religion became
department of the government, a subject of admin
istration"
Count Portals, who endeavored in a memor-
able speech, to justify the Concordat before the
legislature, was accused of having turned cal
mighty God into French funetionary." In point 1
of fact, that was exactly how Bonaparte looked at
religion. my gendames"-said he-"my priests
and my projects have to attend to the peace and
order of my empire" Discipline, doctrine and
dogma were placed under state control, as will be
shown later on. 1t IS interesting to note that
quite few cardinals were not at all agreeable to |
that ConeoFdat, even offered strenuous resist
ance to Plus VII. The Holy Father, however, per-
sisted and in the Brief Tam Multa, as well as in
the Bull Ecclesia Del he gave the motives of his |
actions. The sainted Pontif was actuated assur- |
edly by the nnbest impulses, by the loftiest rea-
sons Maybe that If he had known of the "Organic
articles, soon TO be published he would have kept
back hls aequeseenee and refused his cooperation
Possibly the reader will inquire what, in ease the
had not been enacted and enforced
would have been the fate of the Church The an
'wer IS easy enough to give The Church would
nave Jared then and henceforward in France as
t fares today in England and America. This can
'e demonstrated briefly. Yet, first let us reeapit
llate what had taken place in Paris in regard to
ellglous matters between the years 1889 and 1901
The Assembly.
The ."Constituante" (assembly called upon to
make constitution G7sg=i7g1), forgefful of
IS principles, had presumed to organize the Cath
tic clergy. and, indeed had deereed the "civl CON
htuton of the clergy" The majority of the clergy
etused to submit to the preposterous scheme and
injured Tor the sake of their faith, every kind of
ersecntion. The Church was at that time com
letely disorganized The Convention G792-
l95) IN which the Jacobins were all-powerfuI.
lought that some sort of worship should be main
AIMED One party therefore, proclaimed the cult
I the Goddess Reason" So Notre Dame and
Tenty-fve hundred churches in France, were
into Temples of Reason e. of Athe-
m. Another party afterwards, that of Robes
lerre put down the Goddess Reason and pro-
aimed the cult Of the Supreme Being That ne
od called very properly the Carnival of Irreli-
op, lasted from November 1913 to July 1874
he rabble had its day. Now came the reaction
he middle class, taking courage again, in their
rn sent the Jacobins to the guillotine and ac-
,mpllshed the reaction. called of Thermidor
july). They proclaimed the neutrality of the
ate IN matters OF religion. Indeed people had
more than enough that the interfer-
ice of the civil power in ecclesiastical questions
and ever must be- grotesque, absurd and intol-
able. Consequently, from September IS, 1894. to
pril IS 1862. France lived for eight years under
c regime of separation of Church and state the
vernment having decreed the complete liberty of
1rshp and made known its firm intention of sub
iizing no clergy That last clause was. undoubt-
~ a.downright Injustice to the Catholic Church.
ace all her estates had been robbed from her and
Id under the revolutionary regime 1t is very
obable that the penury of the French clergy was
e OF the reasons which determined Plus VII to
cept the overtures OF the first consul with a
ew to a mutual understanding and support