The Jersey City news., 1906-12-11
CHURCH WAR BEGINS
Legal Title to Many Millions In
Ecclesiastical Property Taken
Over by France.
PREMIER DEFIES THE VATICAN

] It'll - 81 iLO III EAtIOFts
CIemenceau Declares Pope Plus Is Now
In Position of Foreign Power Which
Tries to Dispute Governments Au-
thority-DisposaI of Churches Is a
| Puzzle.
1 Paris, Dec. 11-.'If the church wants
war it shall have it. But the worid
4 will bear witness that the Vatican is
now in the position of a foreign power
| which tries to dispute in France the
authority of the French government
| SO Premier Clemenceau, the real au-
thor of the separation law, summed up
the situation
All the newspapers, of whatever re-
ligious or political tinge, recognize the
! extreme gravity of the issue precipi- A
tated by the popes order to the church
In France to passiVely resist the en-
forcing of the separation law. Several
newspapers predict religious warfare.
Today more than S200,000000 worth
of church property will come into the
governments hands, SO far as legal
| title to it is concerned
The separation law was finally pass
| ed Dec. II, 1905, to go into full effect
! year from that cate. TIE law rescinds
/ all state, departmental and municipal
grants to the church, requires that all
real and personal property derived
from the state shall be returned to it
and that ecclesiastical property of all
kinds shall be turned over to the so
cieties organized for public worship
under the associations law of 1901.
Churches Free to Societies.
ecclesiastical buildings belonging to the
state and the municipalities for two
years after the actual passage of the
law and afteIward Oh renewable leases
for ten years
A year has gone by Today the i'm
mensely valuable churches, the episco-
! pal and clerical residences, the sem
4 inaries, schools and institutions will
become nominally the property of the
/ government and actually so as soon as
taken over by due legal process.
In nearly all the $4,000 parishes of
! France there is no body of laymen le-
gally entitled to take charge of the
church property.
/ Priests Won't Form Societies.
This strange state of affairs has been
brought about because, 0beying orders
from the Yafiean, the French clergy
has refratned from forming the church
societies which under the new law
i were 20 take he church property.
u Such associations have been formed
only in Isolated cases BY schismatic
bodies or rebellious priests. SO after
another rear the church property ac-
CURED since Tie concordat win lie
turned over to the municipalities, while
A the state viii then take absolute pos
session of the property the church
4 owned before the famous treaty be
tween the French government and the
holy see made in 1891.
The clergy in Paris will leave their
residences upon demand by the au-
(, thorities but If they are driven from
the churches they viii organize private
religious services.
Very few of the churches can be
used for any other purpose, so it is
hard to see how the government will
profit by their seizure. No true Catho
lie would bid for the land if the
churches were razed. and any one who
4 did would become the object Of his
CatLoiic neighbors' deepest hatred
There were very few bidders for the
hundreds of millions worth of converts
and monasteries sold since 1901 at pub
lie auction after the expulsion of the
religious orders. All this property did
not bring the government 5 per cent
profit on its value, so enormous were
the expenses of its sale.
/ Cannot Sell Art Treasures.
The art treasures in the churches are
worth $12O00O000 at least, but the
government cannot sell them because
law enacted few years ago makes
them all the inaliena5le property of the
state
The only source of revenue to the
government from the new law will be
found in the saving Of SS,500,000
year in salaries paid to priests, bishops
and clergymen. OF this sum the Prot
estant denominations received $250,000
and the Hebrews $31,000 year, the
balance being paid to the Catholic
clergy, but it will be at least twenty
years before the French government
can save all of this sum, as the law
i provides gradually extinguishable pen
sions for all clergymen of whatever
denomination. The Catholic bishops
and priests will receive no pensions
because they will not obey the law. Sc
the state will save here about $3,000,-
coo year. the amount gradually in
creasing. But against this will be the
enormous expense Of administering
q and maintaining the church properties.
a Pn~LaFeIIer,e fyeonoe 'ToEd