The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1906-12-29
AGAINST ALL RELIGION.
Archbishop Ireland Says Frances
Fight is That of voItaire.


the church trouble in France in a
sermon last Sunday at st. Paul, said
in that country is the spirit of inf
deity AID atheism which came into
prominence with Voltaire and the
encyclopedias of the 18th century.
This spirit, he says, dominates the
controlling party in France. The
fight, in his opinion, is on all religion,
not especially on the Catholics. The
sermon of the archbishop is reported
by the Kansas City Star in part as
follows:
W ask, what are the causes Of
conflict? What are to be the results
For the moment the situation is, I'M
doubtedly, as serious for the one as
for the other of the contestants. Yet,
seen more near, it reveals no color
ing of despair, either for France or
for the churc in France. A bright
morning, l dare predict, will at a not
distant time dawn over tine field of
battle, dropping from the skies sun
shine and peace and begetting, both
in the church and il France, joy and
exultation that the passage at arms,
angry as it once was, has opened the
way to a clearer understanding of mu-
tual interest and to a warmer glow
of olden mutual love.
Let not Americans be misled by
words which have a totally different
significance in their land from what
is allowed to them in France. Sepa-
ration of the church from the state
in America means liberty and Justice;
there it means servitude and oppres-
sion. Plus X said of the french sit
%uation: 1--WE are ready to submit to
separation from the state, but it
must be a fair superintendent as
obtains in the United States, il Bra
zil, in Great Britain, il Holland-and
not a subsection No Catholic in the
United States makes objection to sep
aration, for hree separation means ex-
aration, for here separation means ex-
actly what it purports to NEAR
VoItaire's Old Fight,
"It is a lamentable fact that there
is in France a party bent on the des-
truction of religion. The war is made
on the Catholic church, because in
France it represents religion. In real
ity, in intent and il fact, the war
is against Christianity under any
form, against religion of any kind,
against the idea Itself of a God reign
ing over men. The old spirit of Vol
taire and the encyclopedias of the
Eighteenth century never died out in
France. 1t had an outburst of triu-
mph in the revolution, wne1 God was
declared nonexiste1t, and infamy it
self, denoted the Goddess OF RAJ
son. was unified to alteration upon
the altar of the cathedral of Paris.
1t slumbered a while under succeed
ing imperial and royal regimes; it
ha re-awakened to new vigor il the
freedom allowed to thought and
speech by the present republic.
This party of inidels and atheists
is far from being France. Yesterday
it was the premier, Combe, the most
brutal of all; today it is Premier Gle
menceau, somewhat more subdued il
his hatred, but yet a leader in the
fight.
with such men, and with others
dividing with them public power even
if less violent adopts of irreligion,
there reigns another idea-the omnip-
otence of the state. This was ever
the plague of Fraace-eve when it's
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 it is
with the republic. France never has
understood the meaning of a repub-
lie, which is respect for private and
personal liberty, which is to leave as
much as possible to the people.
w are the state, they cry out.
as Louis XIV, once said: 81 am the
state" And the state is the great pow
er and all must think and act as
the state wills and as we will. This
is certainly the spirit of the infidels
who now rule the country; and l am
not at all sure it were not to some
degree, at least, the spirit of good
Catholics, who, were they to be to-
morrow il the ascendency, would be-
lieve it their duty to make everyone
go to mass, as the present government