The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-06

With December 18th the great comedy
of which France Is Just now the theatre,
reached Its crisis. Upon that date the
whole property OF the Catholic Church
was technically oonilscated to the use OF
public bodies. and 1t waa SO confiscated
because the Papacy and the hierarchy
with the exception OF small and In
significant minority now tnveled) re-
fuse to accept that provision In the Law OF
Observation-Disclosures which sets up what were
called associations cultuelles."
France. which is always tile arena In
which take place the great European
struggles, ls therefore to be I'm the i'm
mediate future tho scene of what will
perhaps be- though not the most noisy
the most Important OF all modern COM
bats. There is definite and active war
declared between those who at present
hold the executive power In the country
and the organization OF the Catholic
Church. or the chances OF victory In
this struggle on either side ] do not pro-
pose to speak in such short notes as
these; what I rather purport to do is to
define as 1 see them the essential fac
tors of the situation.
What Catholicism Means.
The first and the greatest determinant
In the whole matter Is one upon which the
no information or experience whatsoever
and that Is tho quality OF the opposition
which Catholicism arouses where Cath
nlicism IL strong. Those who profess to
tolerate" Catholicism. by that very pro-
fession confess Themselves completely
ignorant of their subject. The Catholic
Church. setting forth into and against
the world. may be accurately compared to
human group setting forth into and
against the forces OF nature. Let
tribe of men land upon n hitherto I'M
inhabited island. They will al once be-
gin 10 build to cultivate. to Kill animals
for food and In n hundred ways to trans
form their environment TO their own
uses In other words. II they are to ex-
LIST they must conquer. Conversely the
animals. the SOIL, the forest. the torrent,
nre all struggling against this tribe The
will of each-if one may use such
word of vaguely conscious or wholly I'M
conscious animals and things-ls different
from. and. therefore, necessarily in
antagonism To the more conscious and
the more definite Will OF the human
being. SO It is. and SO 1t always has
been. with the Catholic Church and what
IS called the world" The catholic
Church has no object hut to transform
Its environment In the service Of It's own
great end. which is by It's own hypothesis
the only true and the only good end
Against such an effort all that IS not
OF II Is necessarily. though not always
consciously leagued.
In countries like England. where tha
Catholic Church is little known. whore
It's members are either alien tas are the
Irish) or form tiny and almost i'm
perceptible group OF well-to-do men to
whom eccentricities are permitted. the
character OF the opposition which the
Catholic Church excites in communities
where she is strong cannot be appreciated.
France as the Stronghold of
Catholicism.
Now the community of the modern
world In which the Catholic Church Is
strongest Is the French nation. 1t is
there that you still get the old rigid
discipline which al once detects and i'm
mediately brushes heresy; it il there that
you still get one of tho chief notes OF
Catholicism throughout the ages. an in,
telectual contempt for its opponents; it
IS there that you get the only readable
hpologetics which the church is publish
ing to-day; It is there that you get the
great men Of the nation, men like Pasteur.
men like Coppee. men like the late II.
Brunetiere. not only Catholic. but rnilitant-
" Catholic. In the Ceramics southern
Catholicism is intellectually humble be-
fore the Protes tant philosophy and meth
od and of the North. In Spain and Italy
Catholsm is intellectually silent or but
Just beginning 10 SPEAK, 1t IL In France
alone, I repeal that you have surviving
the chief characteristic namely. that an
active Catholicism feeis itself intellectual
Is superior TO it's intellectual opponents.
France produces half the money and
more than half the men for all the foreign
missions over more than half the world;
ten times the religious she had a
century ago-a crowd OF new churches in
n stationary population; finally, 1t is upon
French soil alone in Europe that you
will find Catholic vitality intimately al
lied with the material advantages of mod
ern learning.
Against Catholicism armed In this fash
ion the battle is necessarily desperate
You cannot ignore. despise. or DO polite
to an opponent OF that sort You must
conquer 1t or 1t will conquer you.
The Opposition of the Modern
Huguenots.
That is the first feature in the situa-
ton, The next feature is the character
OF the group that opposes Catholicism
What is 1t in France fears to be con-
quered by Catholicism and making so
desperate stand at this moment against
the forces of Catholicism? 1t is an al.
lance of all the forces, however dis
similar, that happened not to be Catholic.
and an alliance under the leadership Of