Omaha daily bee., 1906-12-14
FhnNcH cHrRcH cn1srs.
Character and value OF PROPERTY
RevertinR 60 the state.

RevertinR 60 the state.
Under the separation law now IN opera
ton in France all church property not
taken over by associations I'm accordance
with the law Is subject to seizure by the
state and reverslon to the communes
wherein the property is located The fail
ure Of the Catholics today to comply with
the association feature OF the law gives
the state the opportunity to seize church
property. which the authorities are proceed
ing to do The character and value of the
property involved are detailed by the Paris
correspondent OF the New York Evening
Post as follows:
This property is estimated, for the popu-
lar Imagination, at some 100000, 900 francs;
but so much OF It is unproductive or bur
dened with servltudes that its total dis
possible annual revenue cannot exceed
100000. This does not amount to $50
apiece for the 6s,6OO parishes recognized by
the French state for It's late Inventories
Even the appropriation Of the churches and
other buildings for use as town halls or
public schools is difficult in most cases on
account Of the peculiar construction. A
similar financial misreckoning has hap
pened to the famous "milliard' $500 900, O)O)
Of the religious communities-convents
colleges and other properties which reverted
10 the state when Parliament suppressed
the congregations so far liquidators' ex-
penses have gone ahead Of reallzatlons For
example, at Nancy, the redemptorist church.
rated at 10000 francs and the Dominican
chapel at 1OO,O0O-cost prices-have had to
be sold for 100 francs (s24O) each, the
worth of the materials after demolition.
However such buildings may be adapted
60 the Catholic purposes Of their original
owners, they are Of little civil use.
The property now covered by the separa-
ton law Is OF three kinds:
/. There is that portion Of ancient ca
thedral and other churches, priests houses
and seminares restored to the church after
the revolution, which had conlscated them
to the state as national property. These,
with some 100000 francs annual subsidy.
to be paid by the state to parish priests
and bishops amounting to less than 500
apiece, were accepted by Plus VII as the
only compensation obtainable for the prop
critics confiscated. But the Parliament
which has passed the separation law re-
fuses to acknowledge any such claim on the
property or any other obligation Of the
French state toward the church arising
from the concordat signed by Napoleon
and hitherto observed, even by the repub-
! lie. Except for about 100000 OF superan-
nuating pensions. destined to disappear the
separation law not only suppresses the sub
sidy, but, with the revolution, declares
churches and church property to be possess
/ slons of the state departments and COM
munes. A certain number OF these build
| ings have from time TO time been brought
under the administration OF fine arts and
classed as national monuments of archi-
! lecture and such cannot be sold or de-
rnolished.
| 2. The churches and other ecclesiastical
buildings erected after the revolution very
commonly received subsidies from the To-
calites, or even from the state, Joined with
the contributions of the faithful. These
are also claimed as state property pure
and simple except in the case of authen.
ticated legaoies. which, II the property
should be turned aside from religious pur.
poses, might be claimed at law by heirs
Government has announced that IL Catho-
lies do not take the property, legacies fol-
masses will be retained by the state, al
! though the masses will not be said-some
| thing like the foundations at the Univer.
| sity of oxford after the Reformation. II
the case of schools which had been bull
by a legacy on condition that the teachers
should be church sisters, the Conseil d Etat
as ultimate authority has recently decided
that so long as the building is used ever
for a purely secular state school, without
religious teachers, the legacy cannot b,
claimed by the heirs, but remains in pos
session of the state.
8. There are the various churches erected
principally of late years bY the sole con
tributions of the faithful and owned by
associations OF Catholics without connec
ton with the public authorities. These alst
now revert to the state. since such prop
erty by the separation law can be helC
only by public. worship associations whicl
Catholics refuse to perform. Even tn,
American Protestant church in the Rue d.
Berri. Paris. has had a moment of per
plexity in conforming to the separation Law
on this point The property has Away
been owned by the founders, who reside fl
the United States; it has become necessar!
to rent from them the use Of the churcl
building in the name of a new association
OF Paris residents, as the law requires
But that which is easy for church congre
CATION from the start Is impossible t
Catholics, who have priests, bishops and
pope. and so cannot suffer themselves t
be congregationalized by separation law
II is not always easy 10 say by wha
provision of the law separating churcl
from state certain property reverts TO tn
latter The great seminary of st. Sulpice
where Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop VII
liams and so many other American priest
and bishops had their training, is to be
come a government building, perhaps 70
the ministry of colonies. The present arch
bishops house, so it is said will be take,
almost at once for the new ministry o
labor by NJ. Vivlani, who has appropriately
put out the lights Of heaven I'm his frs
= speech as minister Meanwhile the mu
nicipal council is doing secularization Of It
own and has just sent away from tn
, Hotel Dieu hospital the Augustinian SIS
. ters, whose community had been In charg
: since, a century before Joan Of Arc.