The Irish standard., 1908-06-06
The Change Has Not Brought the Results
That Were and, in Fact, Are Still
Being Prophecied.
The Church's Attitude Towards Contending
Political Parties One of Reserve
and Neutrality.

Church and State in France have
now had a gear and a half's expert
ence of the new regime of separation.
says the London Tablet.
To neither has the change brought
the results that were, and in fact still
are, prophesied by those who
wrought it. The anti Clericals de-
clared that the Church would die of
liberty. and that the people would
benefit largely by the abolition of the
Budget of Worship. When the Pope
rejected the Law of Separation and
forbade Catholics to form the associa-
tions cultuelles which M. BRAND and
his colleagues had devised for the
Church's undoing, these prophets of
disaster took more confident tone.
Plus Il, they said, was but mystic,
Il inediaeval fanatic, who knew not
the trend Of modern thought or the
movements of modern society. The
churches were by the law to be hand
ed over to the associations cultuelles:
If there were no such associations
formed, the churches would no longer
be available for Catholic worship.
That would involve the end Of public
worship, the disorsanization of all re-
ligious life and the disarray of the
clergy, who were now without homes,
resources, or even the bare necessities
for a livelihood. The light of heaven
had been quenched, and those who
still clung to a belief in them on earth
( would be scattered. In this the ene-
mics of religion did but voice the de-
sires of their hearts, and reveal the
aims Of long years of active and per-
sistent hostility. But SO far these dis
NAL prophecies stand unfulfilled, nay,
falsif1ed, by the events which have
happened since the PRONUNCIATION Of
the law by which they were to be
realized. 1t is to be noted, in the first
place, that the government itself has
not been able to persevere in its at
titude of intransigence. The law, it
was proudly said, was intangible. But
circumstances have been too strong
even for M. Clemenceau and M.
BRAND. 1nf1exibility there has indeed
been, but it has all been on the side
of the Pope, who, having once pro-
nounced the Non Possumus which
cost the Church of France her world
1y wealth. has faced unmoved the
consequences of that great renuncia-
t'on. AS for the government, it re-
membered the spontaneous outburst
on the part of the people against the
Inventories; it knew besides the dis
Quieting tone of the reports of the
projects. The law that was intangible
has had to be modified or Supple
mented," as M. BRAND has preferred
to phrase it. Afraid to face the storm
that would have arisen if the churches
had been closed. they were suffered to
remain open so that public worship
was carried on in them in defiance of
the law. Then M. BRAND offered to
iegalize the stuation by assimilatine
gatherings for worship to ordinary
public meetings on the condition of
notice being given to the MAYORS.
This was refused by the Church, and
the raid on the nunciature was the
governments revenge. for it's disap-
pointment. Then came the law of Jan
of last year, by which the churches
We're placed at the disposal of Catho
lies for the purposes of public wor
ship. the clergy being left in the DO
slt'on OF simple occupiers This law.
concession in extremis. was almost
victory for the Church, and it has
enabled her to carry off another, for
under it she has been able in spite
OF numberless difficulties, to continue
her worship and astonish the world
ny fresh display of that resource
fulness which has never failed her at
times of crisis.