The Irish standard., 1907-11-23

M1NN
wounds they received In the battle. The
number of students has diminished, to
a fearul extent in some dioceses. s.
In the present uncertainty of things
parents will oppose the vocations of
their sons, and the priests themselves
do not care to lead boys into this road
till they see a clearer way out. y
All the foundations, investments of
money, various sources of income and
pension funds have been confiscated, or
more exactly, have ceased to be owned
by anybody, which for the Church is
practically the same thing. * 1t St
In all this ENHANCEMENT of DEGREES,
laws and lawsuits one thing is clear
the money is lost. * This plunder
does not enrich the state; it melts away
somehow. 1t was promised that the So
called milliard Of the congregation
would serve to establish old age pen
sions. Not a penny of it has been ap-
propriated to that purpose; it has evap-
Grated; what has become or is becom-
ing of it is a riddle not easy to solve.
y
Reconstruction Under Difficulties.
Now, what is being constructed on
these ruins? The most pressing prob
lem is now to procure a decent living
for the priests and defray the expense
of the church, and it will become still
more and more pressing, as the younger
priests, who are in receipt of small allo-
cations from the government, will cease
to receive them in three years, and the
older ones, who are entitled to a pen-
sion for life, will die out.
The chief effort has been the tenta-
tive organization of what is called the
"Denier du culte,' i. e. the collecting Of
voluntary gifts that are centralized into
the hands of the Bishop and then
distributed to the priests. The idea is
that not the parish, but the diocese
should be self supporting. so that the
rich parishes should make up for the
insufficient yield of the poor ones. Col
lections have been made in churches
for that purpose and door to- door col
lections have been added. St
! With years it would not be very diff
cult to constitute again kind of patri-
mony of the diocese or the parish by
means of bequests and gifts, if there
was somebody to possess them. What
is badly wanted is a. system of collec-
tive ownership to secure continuance of
possession and inspire the donors with
confidence. St
Would it be possible to form associa.
tions on a foreign soil, say in England,
according to tine English law, which as
sociations would be the owners and
4, Church in France? To an outsider, II
the thing is feasible, several advantages
become manifest. The owning capacity
of those societies would not be limited
like that of the associations cultuelles;
they would be out of reach of the new
laws which the French State would not
fail to make if the Church regained
some property; people would give more
willingly if they knew how their money
J T., hof ~ ic Ia h1o IN a
fresh confiscation. The Bishops ana
their legal advisers will certainly con-
slider this aspect Of the question.
The Poor State Of Religion.
| But, the most important question Of
J all is not the material situation of the
priests; they will manage somehow, al
though with difficulties, to keep sou.
and body together. But what about the
souls themselves? What is the presnt
state of religion? Are there losses or
gains since the separation has been ef.
fected? We are here on disputable
ground. The statements I venture upon
here must be taken as such and as sub.
ject to revision in the future.
Among the clergy, especially the
younger priests, there seems to be an
| outburst of fresh activities.
| AS for the laity, I must say that no
perceptible change is noticed. Yes, we
hear at every great feast that the
churches have never been so crowded I:
we hear every year that the number Of
communicates has increased since last
Easter. But l have heard 1t for years
and years, and if it was true, religion
would have made wonderful progress
which 1t has not.
No reliance, think, should be placed
on the assertions of peasants to casual
visitors whom they want to please saw
ing they did not know their votes would
have such consequences; they have been