The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-10-19

Kindly give a brief explanation of
the cause of the recent trouble be-
tween the Church and the French
government.
1t is not a question of Church and
State, but of Christianity and liberty
against atheism and tyranny. All the
rest is mere padding.
The final purpose of the French
Republic is to establish national unity
in national atheism, with church ad-
ministered by servile state function
aries. In saying this, there is no in
tention of eliminating the Republics
as Waldeck Rousseau clearly stated
the governmental programme at
Toulouse. Hence the compulsory god
less schools, run by the government
for over thirty-five years at immense
cost; and when all other means failed
or did not give sufficient and
quick results, then the suppression of
the congregations of both sexes oc,
cupied in teaching was resorted to.
The law against all Christian educa-
ton was decreed by the lodges in 1877.
An abortive attempt was made to
carry it through in 1880. That attempt
was premature, because the Grand
Orient" had not yet gained complete
control. The law became effective in
1901, when nearly every part of the
administration was in their power.
Then came a complete sitting out
of the army and of the judiciary; all
the suspects were displaced, from the
humblest "garde champetre" to the
highest project and magistrate, thus
making it smooth sailing for the coali-
ton in power. The suppression OF
religious orders, the confiscation of
their property, and the spoliation of
the churches was next on the pro-
gramme They appointed a receiver
for the holdings of the Churches and
their pious and charitable founda-
tons; but, disconnected by the atti-
tude of the Papacy and the splendid
unity of the clergy and their f1ocks,
they decided to leave the churches
open, as to storm them and hold
them after they had been stormed,
would be too perilous an enterprise
judging by the troubles caused by the
inventories. So they resolved to re-
duce the clergy by famine, by military
CONSUMPTION, by the suppression of
seminaries, and other vexatious meas
ures. Moreover, the closing of the
churches would be step that would
convince the masses that something
had happened, and that their religion
was really prosecuted, hence Brands
remark to the extreme Left, eve do
not want to strangle the Catholics
right away" Precisely. What they
do wish is to empty the churches by
every means, then close them, one by
one.
Violent measures would rouse
French Catholics from their political
apathy and the government could not
afford to do that; religious liberty
must be destroyed by degrees, and it
is thus that the French people were
fooled and led on, step by step, to
their destruction, the final purpose of
freemasonry being to crush out Chris
tianity.
Is it not fact that great majority
of the French people are Catholic?
Yes, to this day, France is pro-
foundry Catholic, in spite of the mil
lions of public money expended in So
called non-sectarian primary schools
and colleges. Travellers stroll into
French churches, in summer at half
past ten o'clock on Sunday, and be-
cause they sometimes find small
congregation, forgetting that people
had an opportunity to comply with
their duty since A. NJ, spread the re-
port that the churches are deserted
and religion fast dying out. It is not SO.
Never have institutions of learning
and charity under religious direction
been so numerous. New parishes have
been formed in the large cities. No
country has clergy more Jealous, more
learned, more united with the Holy
See than that of France today, and
look at the work being done today
among the rising generation. What
shall we say of her missionary spirit,
or the work OF the Propagation OF the
Faith, of the Holy Childhood, and the
like? No wonder that the powers of
darkness are devising means to
destroy the new structure so zealously
and so laboriously raised on the ruins
accumulated by the Revolution of
1890.
There is nothing so bad as the cor
ruption of that which is best. Yes,
France is still profoundly Catholic,
and it is only natural that the struggle
between good and evil should be sharp
there. The forces of action and reac-
ton are always proportionate. Hence
it is that France has always been the
center of Masonic activity against
Christianity. France has had lately
her martyrs and confessors, almost as
numerous as in the first centuries of