The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-24
IRELAND SPEAKS ON
CHURCH AND STATE
France Wars Against All ReIig-
ion, Says Archbishop
SITUATION Is VERY SERIOUS
Says Separation in America Means
Liberty and Justice; In France it
Means Servitude and OPP
preston.
SITUATION is VERY SERIOUS

| ST. Paul, Mimi, December 23--Arch-
bishop Ireland in his sermon at the Ca
thedral today spoke on the topic, "Chruch
and State in France" He said in part:
''ahe conflict raging at the present time
| between the church and the state in
France awakens universal and profound
interest il could not be otherwise were
it only for the personalities of the con-
testants-on the one side the Catholic
church, which for ages has swayed the
moral and religious life of tens of mil
lions of mankind, and demands as in
Heavens name the right to continue its
work down the coming ages on the other
the Grande Nation which since the
day of Clovis and Charlemagne has rev.
elled in the title of Eldest DA@ghter' Of
that church. and has held 50 long amid
peoples the most conspicuous place in
the vanguard of religion and of civiliza-
ton.
Cause of Conflict.
I'VE ask what are the causes of the
conflict? What are to be the results?
For the moment the situation is, un-
doubtedly, serious, and now by act OF
parliament the concordat is abolished,
regime of separati ton is instituted
'Let not Americans be misled by words
which have a totally different signifca-
ton in their land from what is allowed
to them in France. Separation of the
church from the state in America means
liberty and justice; there it means servi-
tude and oppression.
Speaking on Friday last to the cardi-
nails present in the vatican Plus said
of the French situation:
We are ready to submit to separa-
ton from the state, but it must be a
! fair separation-such as obtains in the
United States, in Brazil, in Great Britain,
| in Holand-and not a subjection.
mo Catholic in the United States makes
| objection to separation for here separa-
ton means exactly what it purports to
| mean.
Under advice from the head of the
church the bishops of France refused
the associations offered by the law of
separation. They acted from principle;
| in the interest of religion they could
not approve such associations. they could
4 not by tolerating them. appear~to APP
prove them. They are not rebels against
the laws of the country. The fassocla-
tions,' as the minister of education, Nj.
BRAND, himself has declared, were not
statutes binding upon citizens; they were
privileges rendered TO the church which
she was free to accept or reject She has
rejected them.
Destruction of Religion.
sIt is a lamentable fact that there is
in France a party bent on the destruction
of religion. The war is made on the
| Catholic church, because she in France
represents religion. In reality. in intent
| and in fact, the war is against Chrls-
| of any kind, against the idea itself or
a God reigning over men. The old spirit
of Voltaire and the encyclopedias OF the
| eighteenth century never died out IN
| France. 1t had an outburst of triumph
| in the revolution. 1t slumbered whiie
under succeeding imperial and royal re-
| eines; it has reawakened to new Vlgor
| in the freedom allowed to thought ana
speech by the present republic.
| "rhis marty of infidels and aethe1sts is
| far from being France, but it is active,
persistent, unscrupulous and 1t mas
| erasped the helm of power. 1t steers
| the ship of state into the darkest depths
of unbelef and irrelgion. Yesterday 1t
was Combes, the most brutal of all; TO-
day it is Clemenceau, somewhat more
subdued in his hatred, but yet leader
| in the fight
| "With such men and others dividing
with them public power, even II less vio-
! lent adopts of irreligion, there reigns
another idea-the omnipotence of this
| state This was ever the plague OF
France-even when her rulers were de-
vout Catholics. The state must control
all agencies of power; it must brook no
rival Even the church must be in the
hands of the government. So was it with
Louis XIV and with Napoleon, so is 1t
| with the republic. The republic is
name in France: it has been well said of
| it that it sleeps on the bed of Louis XIV.
| France has never understood the mean
| ing of a republic which is respect for
private and personal liberty which is to
leave as much possible to the people,
| to take to the state only what is needed
for the public veal. The most republican
| of republicans seated in parliament set
out at once to regulate all things to their
own liking
State Great Power.
eve are the state, they cry out as
Louis XIV once said I am the state
| and the state is the great power and all
i must think and act as the state wills, and
| as we will This is certainly the spirit
of the infdels who now rule the country:
! and / am not at all sure 1t were not to
some degree at least the spirit of good
| Catholics who they be tomorrow in the
ascendency should believe their duty to
|
ent government assumes it as their duty
to let no one go to mass. French Catho-
| lies have been unfortunate in many of
their leaders and spokesmen. These re-
main demeaners of the past, partisans of
buried political regimes. If the masses
| of the people have learned any one thing,
| 1t Is this-that France is republic; that
| they are republicans. But the monar-
chists are numerous, chiefly the old no.
bility, the most generous patrons of the
religion, and too many of the clergy who
still read their politics in Bossuet and
Massilion, who judge the republican form
of government by the Jacobin republic
| of contemporary France. Here is the
weakness of the Catholics of France-the
infidel the socialist. who solicits votes.
cries out The republic is in PERIL no
| republican must cast his vote for a mon
| archist, even If that monarchst be other
| wise the best and purest of men, and the
masses vote for the infidel or the social
ist in order that the >republic survive.
| trusting to the republic to do In the
| long run what is most serviceable for
France and even for religion itself.
mo one understood France better than
Leo XIII. He bade all Catholics seek the
| the ranks of loyal adherents to the re-
| public Had Leo been listened to France.
| in all probability. would have ESCAPED
| the religious persecution of the present
day. Monsrchial ideals and plotting have
done dreadful injury to the church in
France