Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-15
Church Schools Doomed.
French Parliament Is Expected to Make Further
Enactments Against Them Soon.
Many Indignities Reported.

is teaching contrary to the law. The
church feels that this is nothing short Of
tyranny. 1t Is low sort of espionage
that the colleges face. unless they are
a part OF the government system, which
admittedly has great faults
The teachers in the semnaries have
always been priests. The Masse project
says they must be laymen. The canoni-
cal prescriptions give the bishop OF the
diocese the sole power to appoint instruct
ors in the church colleges. it being his
duty to select ecclesiastics who are known
for their piety as well as their learning.
Whatever may be the fate of the bin
the future of the secondary free school
is hopelessly compromised. The govern
ment has called upon the professors to
decide whether they shall cast their lot
with these institutions or so over to the
establishments under state control. A
number of poor men have found this
painful decision. If they elected to re-
main with the church scnools to which
they were originally attracted by better
pay than the government would give, they
knew that the doors of the national uni
versities would be forever closed to them.
They would be blacklisted in case the
power of parliament was thrown against
the schools as it was against the churches.
Sooner or later they realized that the
schools would fall under the absolute con-
troll of the state The church made its
one great fight against separation and
lost. Its power has waned since then. 1t
IL,
but all the forces that count seem to be
arrayed in opposition.
The many .ndignties that have been
heaped upon ii through the passage of
the separation law have caused the church
to strengthen itself for this last assault.
The sympathy of the volatile Frenchman
can seldom be counted upon for long. Yet
there has been a considerable revulsion
of feeling in favor of the church. caused
by such actions as those of one mayor
who. urged on by the council, put up at
auction the parish church with the stipu-
lation that 1t should be removed at once.
II sold for $50 and the contractors imme-
diately started razing the soldly built
stone structure which dated from the six
teenth century. The mayor took the fount
for horse trough and still dissatisfied
with the affront to the church, had the
communion table made part of pigsty.
In the face of such brutality, the priests
themselves have remained calm. For the
most part they have shown that they can
be good citizens. Country priests have Of
late known about every insult. They have
been stoned and spat upon by the rabble
that curries favor of the officials by such
outward demonstrations of affection for
the government. They have gone through
personal danger to open their little
churches every day lest some one should
want to come in TO pray after the manner
of their fathers They have been living
on next to nothing. Often they have
gone hungry.
Now they have turned to other pur-
suits, confident in their belief that mat
tiers will some day be Strengthened out to
the glory of the church. They have asked
for work. Their well-trained minds are
to be thrown into the world Of work.
There is nothing they cannot do. The
monks have ever been an independent
class. They were leaders in agriculture.
in stone carving, in architecture. They
were artists well as preachers. Many
lived in parishes that were too poor to
support them. They gave willingly Of
spiritual comfort and then went about
making a scant living through engaging
in some pursuit that would bring a small
! income There are scores of priests who
now earn their living by the most ordi-
nary pursuits. There are so many of
them, in fact. that they have organized
the Alliance of Working Priests. The aim
of this association is to gather those
priests "who wish to fulfill their duty in
every respect. who intend always to be
faithful everywhere to their spiritual mis-
sion and who see in labor a present ne
cessity. healthy, useful, in conformity
with the social conditions of the imme-
date future and with the traditions Of the
past"
1t is such an indomitable energy as
this that France faces in trying to close
the churches and the schools that lean to-
ward Catholicism unless this leaning is
exercised as the state dictates. Freedom
in France is becoming byword.