The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-05-29
The HOLY FATHER AND
THE FRENCH FLAG
paris Correspondence of the Irish
Catholic, DublinO

correspondence of the Irish
Catholic, Dublin.)
The Pope kissed the French flag. the
emblem of the eldest daughter of the
cilurch! On learning that Plus X had
mus PUBLICLY shown his love for the
fTench nation, all the French Catholics
VINO had been unable to swell the
crowd of French pflgrims-whose ap-
pause rang through St Peters at
hoIne-Were moved with infinite graft
tude TO the great Pontiff Though they
nate the terrible scourge of war, there
are no anti-mil tarists among thee
French Catholics, because they are
patriots And is not Joan of Arc the
symbol of the purest patriotism? Yes.
the Holy Father asserted it publicly
several times, and added that she was
not the property of any political party.
The spontaneousness and sincerity of
the Pope's act constituted, pedhaps, the
most striking practical REPUTATION tits
possible to imagine of the assertions of
the enemies Of the church, who pre-
tend that Plus Y did not love France.
and that the Vatican was the enemy of
the republic. Though the French pre-
lates and pilgrims were urged when
they started for Rome to escheW poll
tics, it is impossible to deny that the
ceremonies of the Identification have
The Pope kissed the tri-color flag and
recognized the powers that be. He
refused to join the revolt of any politi.
cal party against the republic.
Last Thursday, at st. Louis, Cardinal
LucOn, archbishop of Rheims. gave
eloquent expression to that fact. In
the course of his Grafton in praise of
Joan of Arc he pointed to the provi-
dental reason for her Identification at
the present moment. He showed that
society. and especially French society,
IS suffering from philosophical natural
ism and political and social naturalism.
In reappearlng so brilliantly Joan of
Arc rallied the French nation to the
faith Of their forefathers and to their
mission in the world Mgr Lucon In.
sisted that naturalism was the mega
ton of all religion. Today political
and social naturalism tends to make
France forget her mission. BY re-
appearing Joan of Arc refutes that
political and social naturalism She
calls on the nation to resume her mis-
sion. and for that, said the Cardinal
Archbishop, there is no need to aban-
don the existing republican inst1tu-
tons. He added:
Most surely if Joan of Arc could
return to life on this earth amongst
US, she would, IN the first instance, be |
astonished not to find that form of |
power without which the people of her |
century could not conceive the exist |
ence Of another country. But if she |
saw that France of the twentieth CEN
she had adopted a new |
cOnstitution-still shows herself re- |
spectful of the past, that while seeking |
to reform the abuses of preceding cen
turtles, she renders justice to their |
works, merits and glory; that she con-
tinues to recognize the rights of God |
and HIS church, and that she remains
faithful to the secular alliance between
the Franks and Christ that would
suffice to reassure her patriotism and
her Christian faith. She would under
stand that nothing is eternal here
below: that with time new aspirations
spring into existence and that 1t is
necessary to satisfy them by appropri-
ate institutions. Shewho was so COM
passionate for the people would ap-
plaud all the suppressions of abuses
and all the progress realized +"