The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-17
STATEMENT
 FROM FARLEY Archbishop Discusses
 French Affair. NcoEcEIyABLE TO AMERICA
Says Clergy Is Fighting Battle
 of Christ.
NDraws Parallel With ETorfs of Free Kirk In Scotland for Grown Rights of savior--AH ChristIans
 should sympathfxe.

New York Dec. 16.--Archbishop John M Farley of New York today gave out the following statement on the church and state controversy in France.
 Here in America. where there is no attempt made by the State to interfere with the various religious denpmina- tions, the people at large are naturally Exposed to condemn clergymen, who by declining to comply with the be- nests of the government, expose them. selves to charge of rebellion against the authorities of the land
 @But, In order to understand the re- fusal of the Roman Catholic clergy of France to fulfIl the requirements of the new law of separation, 1t must De explained that the provisions of the statute in question demand the consent of the chupch and of its ministers to the alienation of allsthe property that has been established and donated them to be held in trust for religious and phifanthroplc purposes. It ls property . which they do not derive from the gov ernment but from the maunincence of the pious and of which they are mere- ly the trustees
 The situation created by the new law of separation which is the cause of the present crisis in France is as if for instance the. Legislature of New York were to enact laws compelling the trustees of the Trinity church corr poration, under the penalty of Gonfis- sation, to give their consent to the alienation of all it's vast property to other uses than those for which 1t was intended and to transfer it's adminIs- tration and control to people who might either belong to rival denomina- tions or even professf atheism.
 Tt is as if the Legislature of New York were to enact a statute .equiring the Catholic church, under the penalty oE the conflscation of it's property of one kind or another, to, consent to the transfer Of the management and con- trol of it's sacred edinces, seminaries, rectories, hospitals, protectories and other educational and charitable instI- tutions or assoQiationg in which not merely avowed. foes oE Catholicism among the protestant denominations, hCt also agnostica and scheming poli- ticlans, indifferent to any kind of re- ligious belief were in. the majority. 4
 Enconeeavahle tO People.
 Tt is inconceiyRble to the American people that the Legislature of New York or indeed, of any other State of this great and free republic, should enact any such laws of virtual spoila- tion. Yet, that Is precisely what the French government has done.
 ."In a word, the new law requires of the church the alienation of all It's property to boards of laymen in the selection of which 1t has virtually no volce; this board to have full and per- feet control, net only over the funds but even over the religious edifices ana over the exercise of divine worship 1t. self. Independent of priests. bishops and canon law.
 The property of the state consists of about 3O,0OO churches, of which less than 300 have been built with the aid of State or municipal money and the property accumulated by means of en- dowments and legacies during the last hundred years, since the last coniisca- tion of church property at the time of the great revolution and amounting to considerably over 9100,000,JoO only @ portion of this vast property is des- tined for purely ecclesastical purposes. the great majority of the funds being designed and used for purposes of charity and philanthEophy.
 'Of this property the clergy are the trustees by virtue of the conditions un- der which 1t was donated and establish ed Their acceptance of the new law, and their transfer of this property of the trust to the associations cultuelles, would alieniate forever the estate of the 1 church and in deference to an iniQui- tious law which may be repealed by another Parliament. .
 Position of Briand.
 "Aristides Briand, the Minister of Education in France, and the author and executor of this iniquitous law, has sOlemnly declared that without the written consent of the clergy to the es- tablishment of these boards or 'as8o- citations cultuelles.' and without the transfer of the clergy of the property of the church to these bodies, there could not only be no public exercise of Divine worship. but there would also follow the confiscation of the sacred edifces. the Tectories and the other ecclesiastical property by the State.
 There is no question of differences between the various religious denomi- nations. The Pope and the Roman Catholic Chuch in France today are fighting with far better Justification and much greater moderation the very war that Chalmers and the other foun- ders of the Free Kirk. waEed in Scot land sixty years ago for ''rhe Crown Rights of Christ"
 ''The clergy of France, in one word. are fighting the battle of Christendom and should have the sympathy of every Christian church, no matter what its dehdmination, which owns property and endowments to be used for Divine wor- ship and for the dispensation of char. fty according to its own rights"