The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1906-12-31

the saints, throw her treasures OF sacred
art upon the market, turn her affairs and
churches, as has been threatened. into
haylofts and stables. the unspeakaoie
wrong would rouse all the civilized ma
tions OF the globe
1T is not your affair alone. 1t Is mine.
II is the affair of humanity"
Concluding. he spoke OF the righteous
protest against the actions Of the nom
Catholics, and said;
In the same spirit. and In my humble
way, I join with you tonight. l am
free. You are free. France must be free.
In the great name Of freedom, We must
stand side by side
The last speaker Of the evening was the
Rev. D. J. Stafford. whose weIl-known
eloQuence moved the large audience
nightly. Frequently he was interrupted
by applause, and his powerful peroration
was greeted with cheers. Father Stat
ford said:
Father stafford Speaks.
The action OF the French government
has shocked the moral sense Of every
righteous man In the civilized world. No
where is the shock more keenly felt than
in the United States, and 1T is felt not
only by Catholic. but by nOn-Catholic as
true sense. both civil and religious, and
we are, therefore. able the better to
judge. and the more heartily to condemn,
the tyranny and persecution Of the So
called French republic. In principle and
In fact, to-day, the situation In France is
the same as the situation at the time OF
the French revolution 1t is again ques-
ton Of forcing a civil constitution upon
the clergy, OF having constitutional bish-
ops. Of making the state omnipotent Of
taking not only civil administration, but
also dogma and spiritual superiors from
the government; Of utterly changing and
destroying the constitution Of the Catho-
lie Church. And II this be not done or
accepted by the Pope and the Catholics
we will take your property away, abolish
your worship. says the chief highwayman,
e lemenceau, and BRAND. the brigand, and
we will call this separation. The Pope
and the Catholics would be very simple to
be deceived by such q proceeding. There
is only one step more 10 make the parallel
between the present and the French revo-
luton complete. and that is to gather the
bishops and priests together on some in
nocent pretext and shoot them down in
cold blood. And these worthy sons Of
their Jacobin sires are capable of that.
The COncOrdat.
The beginning of the present acute
/ situation is the concordat, or treaty. en-
| tered into between Napoleon and
/ Plus VII after the French revolution. It
came about in this way: When Napoleon
began TO remake France he found the
need OF religion. he took the initiative
and sent 20 Rome, requesting the sending
/ of commission to Paris with full powers
| TO enter into an agreement BY which the
| Catholic religion could be again estab-
/ lished in France. The result was IN.
/ concordat or treaty, which. notwith-
standing the changes Of government and
| the forms Of government in France, has
lasted until the present. Now the first
and most important article OF the con-
/ cordat reads: The Roman Catholic re-
/ ligtOn being that OF the vast majority OF
/ Frenchmen, shall be freely exercised
subject only 10 those regulations which
govern public assemblies" And yet be-
fore the ink with which that contract
was written was dry. Napoleon, without
! consulting the Pope, added TO the con
cordat what are known as the organic
/ laws" or organic articles" which rem.
dered the cCncordat a contradiction, and
/ rendered the free exercise Of the Catholic
/ religion impossible Thus began the lying
/ deceit. cunning, and dishonesty in deal
ing with the church which the French
government has kept up TO this day, and
/ the government, which declared that the
Catholic religion being that Of a vas
majority Of Frenchmen should be freely
exercised. has. by continuous Iegisla-
ton, rendered the free exercise of thai
religion impossible. The Pope protested
! against the organic articles and has neyel
| accepted them.
Church Property.
The question OF title to the church
property came up, as the nation in as
sembly had confscated all church prop
erty saying: 1T was placed at the dis
pOsaI Of the nation" So now they agreed
to give back as much as was actually
necessary TO carry on public worship. and
provided that the church would give VI
title TO the other part cOnfscated. they
would pay for the support Of religion ans
acknowledge. as the government did aft
erward, that the stipend paid to tn
clergy was part Of the national debt Tit
amount thus paid was about l per cen
on the value OF the property retained
Now we are prepared to appreciate
what Clemenceau calls separation an,
giving liberty to the cults. The French
government forced the issue. The POp'
made every concession he could, until i
came to the associations Of worship
| which placed the church entirely unde
the Jurisdiction Of laymen, and there h
stopped. And the French episCOpate
clergy, and people stand back of him; L
do otherwise would mean simply apps
tasy.
THE French Press Association deserves
that prize which has been offered b.
some Englishman for the finest eXampl'
Of lying by telegraph as a fine art. The
continue to call this proceeding separa
ton, and 10 compare 1t 10 the American