The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-08-02
EMINENT AUTHOR AND JOURNAL
IST WAS FEARLESS CHAMPION
OF THE OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
FOR DEFENDING POPE Plus TX.

OF THE cHURcH-PERSECUTED
FOR DEFENDING POPE Plus TX.
France is celebrating this year the
lot, the great Catholic French journal
ist. No one, writes Rev Louis Lalonde,
S. j., in the Boston Pilot, deserves
more to be recalled to the memory of
Catholics not merely of his native land,
but of the whole world, we're it only to
show the power a fearless pen can ex-
ercise when used in the interests of
Gods Church.
While the literary world halls
Veuillot as among the first prose
writer's of his epoch, and journalists,
as man who honored the press not
merely by his talent, but also by his
calm convictions and his strength OF
character, Catholics the world over
salute him as a loyal and obedient
son of the Church, as the upholder OF
her dearest interests, as the uncom
promising defender of the See OF
Peter.
Louis Veuillot was born in Boynes
in Burgundy, in 1913. He came from
the humber classes, his father being
a journeyman cooper and his mother
a peasant. He was five years old
when his fathers employer, by refus.
ing to pay for the labor of several
months, was guilty of gross act OF
injustice, which reduced the family
to such straits that the Veuillots had
to go to Paris to hide their poverty
Louis went to school there and made
his first Communion, although his
parents, like most of the French who
were born during the Revolution, prac
tised little or no religion.
At thirteen the boy had to star
out to earn his living, poor begin
ming for his future greatness. Bu
there were in him marvellous laten
talents, awaiting only the moment O
evolution. A taste for reading grew
with the months and augmented hi'
Unsuitable craving for knowledge
He devoured every book he laiC
hands on and stored up the contents
in retentive memory.
These habits of reading and stud!
opened up new avenues to his intel
Iectual activity. At nineteen he wa!
doing journalistic work at Rouen
later he was editor of a newspaper il
Perigueux. Four years afterward hi
had learned to take the measure o
men, and not the least of "le trou
peau de farceUrs illustres" who EN-
ployed him. His frank, Independent
character made him despise them
and he began to get a foretaste o
the pleasure that was to be his s.
intensely in after years in wagin
war on anti-clericalism with his mel
ciless pen.
The Catholic faith had not yet pei
meated his soul or given a direction
to his mind, but his instinct, his in
nate uprightness, drew him toward
the down-trodden, especially toward
the Church which was being insulte
and oppressed in those years il
France. The aversion he felt for tn
anti-clerical cliques, then uppermos
in that country, caused him to rebe
against his salaried slavery amon
was to turn him into champion @
Catholicism began to be felt. H
obeyed the call of grace, started fo
Rome, and there became conver
out and out. He was only twenty
four.
From the moment of his CONVEX
sion, Louis Veuillot devoted himsel
entirely to the interests of God an
His Church. The first exercise G
his zeal was on his brother Eugene
whom he brought back to God. H
worked hard to provide a home fo
his two sisters, Annette and Elsie
and he put aside the thought of MAJ
riage until they had been provide
for. The ten years of married lif
brought to his home six daughter
four of whom died early with thei
mother.
When Veuillot returned from Rom
he was for time in the employ {
the Guizot Government, and later se
retary to General Beauregard in A
giers. An offer of a splendid post
the ministerial press was refused b
him, for he wished to have free han
before God and his conscience.
Then began for this doughty Knigf
of the Pen that career of incredibl
labor and sacrifices, heroically born
which, according to- Jules Lemaitr
made him the greatest writer of h
age. He gave to the world forty-fiv
years of uninterrupted work. He b
queathed to posterity sixty stout vo
umes, every page of which is redoleI
of truth, justice and literary craft
manship.
The greatest outlet of his pros
was his own newspaper, L'Univer
and when, in his defence of Plus Z
he incurred the enmity of Napoleo
III and had to submit to the suppre
sion of his paper, he rapidly wrote o
pamphlets, books, reviews, articles
ETC., which even today are counte
among his masterpieces.
The mark that characterized tn
work of veuillot above everythin
was his absolute fearlessness befol
the enemy, and the most preciou
result of this labor was the new ton
he gave to Catholics and Catholics
in his own country. Up to his tin
the Catholics of France covered III
der the sneers of Voltaire and hi
satellites. They we're then spinele: