The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-09-08
Continued from page ID
The Orphans of France

Inc Urpnans OF france
clause requiring respect to be paid
to "the liberty of parents or guardians
or the testamentary dispositions of
the father" But such references are
surely too vague and obscure to be
Of avail in legal text. They thus
provide a ready way to abuse, and
may prove an obstacle against redress.
There can therefore be no surprise
that Catholics demonstrated, and beg
ged that a Law which was so adj
mirable in it's principle and object
should not be vitiated and rendered
suspect by the omission of any securi-
ty that the children would be brought
up in the faith of their fathers.
JustfiabIe Fears.
And their apprehensions and fears
were doubtless strengthened by the
apparently complete control over the
wards given by the Law to the Ma
tional Office, and the fact that this
Office is connected, not with the Min
istry of Justice, but with the Ministry
| Of Education, from which Catholic
parents have suffered so much in re-
cent years, and that the families of
orphans are to be under the super
vision of the Departmental Offices
i. e., in the last resort, of the Pre-
fects. 1t was felt by these provisions
the rights of the parents were
| jeopardized and way left open for
the invasion of political passion in a
matter from which it should be alto
gether excluded. We can therefore
well understand the demand of Car
dinal Andrieu, Archbishop of Bor-
deauX that parental right should be
regarded as sacred, and that 1.-The Ma
tiOnal and Departmental Offices
charged with the distribution of as
conditions which will never allow
politics to work to the detriment OF
justice and liberty of conscience" So
too, Cardinal Annette, Archbishop OF
Paris, in inviting his people to form
a War Orphans Committee, urged
that Catholic orphans must be as
sured of some sort of official represen
tation, and one strong enough tC
speak in their name and intervene in
their behalf" AS it was, though al
most every great public body was
given representation for the carrying
out of the Law, there was no provi
sion for securing the representation
of the Church.
Government Deaf to Appeals.
But the Government showed itsel
deaf to all appeal and argument. M
de LamarZelle's alternative Bill fel
to the ground; in the Senate few
small but altogether insufficient
changes were made; and in the Cham
Der the Government demanded tina
4 their Bill should be passed in it's en-
tirety as it had come down from thu
, Senate, remonstrance and appeal be
ing regarded and even resented as oh
struction. 1t was declared and &C
: knowledged that the Bill contained
errors of drafting and worse; and yet
; as the Journal DIES Debats justly com
plains, "all amendments were rejected
, even such as would have repaired the
} manifest errors of the Senate tina
, were admitted as such by the Depu
ties"
M. Piou moved an amendment tt
provide that the clergy should b.
given representation in the NatiOna
Office by the inclusion of five min
listers of religion, three of whom
should be Catholic. For, he argued
the non-religious State which pro
fessedly ignored religion could not il
this regard supply the place of thu
father to the orphans; and he per
tinently reminded the Chamber tina
these children were to be the wards
not of the State, but of the nation
which had the right, in a work car
ried on in it's name, to, the co-opera
ton of all the elements of which i
was composed. Again, he asked VIII!
: it should only be possible for thu
clergy to be admitted by way of cleo
ton, which could be set aside by thu
Education Minister or the Project
| hO III COChSO VI IhC CIC1 Sy Wouiu W
the affirmation of a principle and thu
: acknowledgment of right M. Wv
+. iani's reply was that the Law coult
, not recognize the cures, as the Churcl
} had not formed the association o
: worship prescribed by the Law 0
Separation.
Robs Soldiers Orphans.
M Piou further urged that orphans
without parents would be almos
forced into unbelief: "The war ha
, made him an orphan; the State make
him freethinker. Neither famil.
nor religion; that is the price the chill
| dren are to pay for the heroism o
f their fathers" And M. Groussau pu
into nutshell the fears of Catholic
: when he said that what they regretted
} was "the anxiety about the interven
3 ton of the administrative, which
r seemed to dominate the Laws. Blu
) the Ministry was obdurate and stucl
to the text, the whole text, an,
) nothing but the text, and dc
/ manded an immediate vote, though
Z they had waited a year before acting
) allowed the Senate another, and tn
|