The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-08-09
CATHOLIC FRANCE.
Views of a Former Scottish Minister.

That France as a whole is not to
be judged by her present governing
authorities, or by the clamor and tu-
multi of the atheistic faction so much
in evidence in recent years, is quite
evident from the glimpses we get
now and again through trustworthy
spectacles of the domestic and par
ish life of her Catholic people. Such
a glimpse is afforded us by the let
ter of a recent Scotch convert min
lister which appears in the English
Catholic News. The letter is too long
for insertion in entirety here, but we
extract such portions as bearing direct
ly upon the subject at issue. They
recall the pictures of domestic life
which may be read in Nine. Craven's
Sisters Story" or in the Letters"
of Eugene de Guerin. 1t is not the
phase of French life which secular or
sectarian journalists love to dwell
upon, but, as we are persuaded never
theless, it more truly represents the
spirit and the temper of the people of
France than the noisy demonstrative-
ness of those who war upon Chris
tianity.
"The study of the French charac-
ter" writes this convert, has for me
a fascination, and the opportunities
for prosecuting it could scarcely be
better, meeting as we do with people
from all parts of the land almost
daily, representative of all classes,
from the highest to the lowest. Such
as are genuinely religious are intense
ly so, not on Sundays only when they
go to church, as thousands in old Scot
land whom l had mingled with for
years, but in daily life. 1t is most
interesting and touching to watch
their home life. / doubt if it could be
surpassed or even equalled by that of
any nation in Christendom. In beauty
of character, in simplicity of life and
of manner, in mutual affection the one
for the other, it's participants are
edifying in the extreme. Such sterling
moral quality as we are coming daily
into contact with has not been the
work of a generation; it is the result
of centuries of Catholic teaching. And
leaving out the rabble and the ration
alists-these are the families that
form the heart and core of the French
nation, and that are the sure guaran-
tee of it's survival as a nation of Chris
tians.
81 can see no evidence in this quar-
ter (Alencon)," continues this convert
minister, 'of the decay of religion of
which one sees so much in your Scot
fish Presbyterian prints. Instead of
religion being on the decline here, it
is difficult to see how it could have
firmer hold, and the efforts to deep
en- it were certainly never more ac-
tive, or carried on by better men. /
speak from actual experience, as our
work brings us into contact with the
priests in whose hands the future of
religion lies"
We continue the quotation little
| further: 1--WE were told before we
left home that we should get our eyes
opened if we took up our residence
in France. 1t is quite true; we have
got them open wider than ever to see
beauty in the Catholic religion we
had seen only dimly before, and tC
feel powers beating upon our hearts
necessarily of whose existence, we, as
Protestants, had little experience. We
have, in short, discovered that there
are in the Catholic Church mysterious
and supernatural influences in cease
less operation of which Professionalism
touches only the outskirts"