The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-24
IRELAND ON
 SITUATION MonarchiSts Enemy to
 Church. CAUSE OF THE SEPARATION Relations Between Bourbons and Catholics loo Close. strict Republicans Have Voted for AahcIats and InfIdels In Hope to naintaiu tbeir Fwn of
 Government.

today. spoke on the topic. Church and state in France" He said in part:
 'The conflict raging at the present time between the church and the state m France awakens universal and pro- found interest. It could not be other wise, weie it only for the personalItles of the contest--on the one side, the Catholic cnurch, winch for ages has sway ed the moral anu religious Ilfe of tens of thousand of millions of man. kina anu delnanas, as in heaven n1Ine lne rignf to cVnrinde it's work uown tns comang ages; on the other tlIe grande nallon, which since the days of Clovis and ChdrlemRsne has revelIsd in the tirle of "Eldest uaushter" or that cnurch and has held so long amid peo- ples the most conspicuous pace in the vanguard of rei.g.On of the civinE4- ton.
 we asls. what are the causes of the conflict? What are ta oe the results?" "t'or the moment the situation IS undoubtedly serious and now, by act of parliament. the cOncordat. is abol- lshed, 8 regime of separation Is in stltuted.
 Let not Americans be misled by words which hava a totally different signification in their land from what is allowed to them in France. separA- tion of the church from the state ln America meaus liberty and justices; there 1t means servitude and oppres- sion.
 aspeaking on Friday last to the Cardinals present in the vatican. Plus x said of the French situation:
 We are ready to submit to separa- tion from the state. but 1t must lie a saa. akf kE4f a United States, In Brasil, in Great Britain, Holland. and not . subJection-
 "No Catholic in the United states makes objection for separation, for here separation means exactly what it purports to mean
 'TTnder advice from thA head of the church. the bfshops of France refused the associations offered by the law of separation. They acted from principle; in the interest of reIIwion they could not approve such associations: they could not by tolerating them to appear to approve them.
 '"They are not rebels against the Jaws of the country. The Associations as the minister of education. M. Briand, himself has declared. were not statutes binding upon citizens; they were privi- Iegos tendered to the church which she was free to accept ~ reJect, She has rejected LneHlR
 Destruction Of RrlfGiOA.
 "It ia a lanentabse fact that there Is in France party bent upon the de- struction of religion The war is made op the Catholic church. pecause she in France represents religiona In reality. In intent and In fact the war Is against Christianity under any form. against religion of any kind. against the idea itself of a God reignlng over men,
 "The old spllrt of Voltaire and the encyeI6pedists of the eighteenth cen-, tury, never died outNIn Frarne It had an outburst of triumph, in the revo- lution. It slumbers white under suc- ceeding imperial and royal regimes; it has reawakened to new vigor in the freedom allowed to thought and speech by the present republic
 "This party or infidels and atheists is far from being France, but 1t Is active, persistent unserupious and 1t has Rrasped the helm of power. It steers the shin of state into the dark est deptha of unbeiief and irreligion. Yesterday 1t was Combss, the most bru- ia, of all; today it is CIehienceau, some what more subdued, in hls hatred, but yet a leader in the figat
 with such man and with others dl- viding with them public power, even If iess violent adopts of irrellgion, there reigus another idea-the omnip- otence of the State. This was ever the p;aEue of France-even when her rul- CTS were devout Catholics. The state must control all agencies of power; 1t must brook no rival. Even the church must be in the hands of the govern ment.
 go 1t was with Louis XIV and with Napoleon. so is 1t with the republic. The republic Is a name In France; 1t has been well said of 1t that 1t sleeps on the Led of Louis XiT. France has never understood the meaning of a re- public, which Is respect for private and personal liberty wh oh iS to leave us much as possible 70 the people, to republican of republicans, seated in parliament set out at once to regulate all thines to their own liking.
 French Catholics UnfogtuRate.
 We a.e t.e at.ite. thsy -ry odl. as Lou,s AIV once said: I am the State, and the State Is the great power ana all must think and at as the Stase iy the sniritA of the inLoe.s wnO now rule the country: and I am not at all sure it was not to so ae degree 4, were tney fo be to orrow In tne cendanoy should bcl eve 1t the duty to make every one go tO mas a. a : iheir duty 10 let ID one go to mass French Catholics have been unfort nate in many of their leaders and
 These remain reminde of the nnst partisans 1f bu le., politi a! e Kimes If toe masses O he peo le have learned any one th.ng It !s = that France is a repuh4.c. taat the are Repub jeans, But the monar hists are numerous, chiefly the O noh.iitg. the most generous patrons of the re Iigion. and too many of he cler y, who still read their D litics in Boss uet and Massil on. who judge the Repubh- can form of government hy the Jaco- hin republic of contemporary France.
 .'Here is tho weakness Ot the Catho- iics of France--the intidel. the soctat- ist who solicts votes. cries out-'The ronublic Is in peril; no Republican n,ust cast his vote for monarch st even if that monarchst be oth arwise the best and purest of men; and the masses vote for the inhde or the so- ciaI in order that the republic survive, trustinE to the republic to do in the