The San Francisco call., 1906-12-24
IRELAND BERATES
THE REPUBLIC
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are state they cry out as Louis XIV
once said, am the state. And the
state is the great power and all must
think and act as the state Wills and as
we will.
II know her city and her villages; I
know her people-her aristocracy, her
bourgeoise and her peasantry-and l
know them to be Catholic. How then,
explain the political situation? There
are several causes to be noted. The
masses are not used to political life.
For ages they were governed, they do
not comprehend the art of governing.
Put party in power; it names the
hundreds of thousands of officials, from
the prefect of a department to the
humblest. schoolteacher, to the village
constab able; they obey the order received
from Paris; they speak from the crowds
around them-crowds who read little;
who think little, and the crowds in turn
obey the mandate. An independent,
self-argued suffrage has not entered
into the popular life Nor is there
among the masses the ambition to
gain political victory. Pari4 for a CEN
tury and half has ruled France.
Establish q new regime, monarchicaI
or republican, in Paris this evening;
the provinces awaken tomorrow morn
ing monarchica1 or republican.
sIt will require long years to decen-
trAlise power In France, to give to each
citizen consciousness of personal in
dependence, to obtain through universal
suffrage a true expression of the ma
tional will. There IL no other country
where wel1-organized and stirring
faction OF the population can sway so
easily the masses md impose upon
them its will.
The clergy, who are now the chief
sufferers. are much to blame. They,
too have retained, even at the altar and
in the pulpit, the spirit OF passive obe-
dience inherited from old regimes. Ad-
mirable in teaching the catechism, in
administering the sacraments they
have never learned the virtues of pub
lie life; they have never quickened be-
meath the activity of the battlefield.
Their example and their preaching have
left their disciples In the same pas
sivity, and these know nothing of the
fore the altar. they are towards before
the electoral urn.
UNFORTUNATE IN LEADERS
Then French Catholics have been
unfortunate in many of their leaders
and spokesmen. These remain partisans
Of buried political regimes. If the
masses of the people have learned any
one thing it is this: That France is
republic. that they are republicans. But
the monarchists are numerous, chiefly
the old nobility, the most generous pa
irons of religion, and too many of the
clergy who still read their politics in
Bossuit and Massillon judge the repub-
lican form of government by the ia
Goblin republic of contemporary France
Here is the weakness Of the Catho-
lies of. France-the infidel the Socialist,
who solicits votes, cried out: The re-
public is in peril: no republican must
cast his vote for monarchist even
II that monarchist be otherwise the best
and purest OF men; and the masses vote
for the inf1del or the Socialist in order
that the republic may survive, trusting
to the republic to do what In the long
run is most serviceable for France and
even for religious principles them
selves What happens? The moderate
republican candidate Is defeated; the
infidel or Socialist is elected. This is
what is witnessed in numerous circum-
spections on every election day. No
one understood France better than Leo
XIII He bade all Catholics seek the
welfare of country and of church within
the. ranks Of the loyal adherents of the
republic Had Leo been listened to.
France in all probability would have
escaped the religious persecution of the
present day. Monarchica1 ideas and
plottings have done dreadful injury to
the church In France"
4ssF