The Irish standard., 1906-05-26
THE TROUBLE IN FRANCE,

continues to support governments
which are openly anti-clerical is puz-
cling TO Catholics in this country. The
reason we can not appreciate the
French situation is to be found in the
fact that we have no such condition
existing in this country as exists there.
Fortunately in the United States pol
tics and religion are entirely sep;l-
France, it has been associated With
the RoyaliSt cause. The young mobiles
who have no religion but whose chief
purpose in life is to conform to What
there is considered Il proper standard
of society. go to church because it is
considered the proper thing to do; and
somehow in France allowed itself to
be counted as a partisan of French
royalty.
Doctor Egan, of the Catholic Uni
versity at Washington, writing on this
subject, says: "One can not discuss
the reasons for the present condition
of France without glancing at the past.
The mobiles who fatuitously left France
to RobeSpierre and Marat and The
guillotine are just as fabulous today.
They have gotten religion, it is true.
but religion with most of the Royal
| lists is only il bulwark for the pres
| ervntion of outworn feudal traditions.
And the wretched part of the whole
| situation in France is that conditions
/ are not due To the handful of Free
MaSons but to the group of the noblcsSe
who suck coronetted and gold headed
| canes at Mass on Sunday and think
| tllat they are thus demonstrating their
| attachment to their order. In Paris
they are foolish and frivolous. The
vasaries of Count Boni de Castellane
show what one of the leaders of the
Catholic" party may do. In the pro-
vinces they assume every possible
but the village cure and the more ig-
rorant peasants are willing to accord
the remnants of these feudal priv
ileges. The Church in the eyes of the
Viscnunt de Z. or the Marquis de F..
when he talks politics is simply the
slave of Royalisn-the tool with which
any Republic in France may be defeat
ed.
The Marquis lie b., old Royalist, will
not. when he comes to Washington
make Il call of ceremony on the AM
baSsa,lor of France. Why" The AM
bassador represents a party. Il will
never call on the representative of
the government of France until there
is a king The SONS of this old Mar
quis are pleasant young gentlemen
with no fixed aims or occupations, no
patriotism and no religious connections
who, nevertheless, are of the "Cathnlic"
party-tllat is the Catholic party as
the FoubOurg ST. German sees it, not
as Leo XIII saw it. They came over
here to marry rich Americans, and
they have succeeded. Their wives,
when they go into the Provinces are
also of the Catholic party, though
ladies' assist at Mass in state, and
take large slices of the blessed bread
which are specially cut for persons in
the feudal pew while the peasants who
stand respectfully at the end Of the
chapel and are some times really nun
CRY. get the crumbs. You have only
bread in any provincial chapel in
France to understand why certain
French country people look on the
priest us the paid servant of the chat
eau, and their enemy. The nobility
think that the Church exists for the
restoration of the special form of bad
old monarchy which Louis the XIV
invented and which in the nature of
things can never return
The above picture. painted by a loyal
Catholic serves to give Il small inkling
at least of the reason why the Freach
peasants refuse to follow the lead of
the French clergy. The real French
people who make APP the bone and
sinew of the land are Catholic to the
core. But they are also staunch sup
porters of the Republic. They refuse
to follow the lead of a clergy who
have. contrary to commands of the
great Leo Xiii. allowed the French
Church to be considered in the roll of
Il supporter of Royalty. 1t is not Free
masonry it is not socialism that is
responsible for repeated attacks that
have been made upon the Church, but
it is the action of the French clergy.
in committing the Church to the sup
port of Il political party. The French
people are determined that the Re-
public shall live. The real Catholics
of France are the peasants and they
are republicans. The protligate mobiles
who call themselves the Catholic"
party are not Catholics at all. hut
somehow the Church. through the
French clergy. has allowed itself to be
associated in the minds of the French
people with the despised nobility. 1t
is not q religious struggle. it is not
a contest hatween CatholiriSC, and