Show THE POPE AND DEMOCRACY THE pastoral address issued by the roman catholic Cat holto archbishop of montreal and ottawa attawa in relation to public schools is naturally enough evoking comments from newspapers from citizens and from educationalists in general the address was read in all the churches of the archbishops Arch bishops diocese last sunday the author of the address is a cardinal as well as a bishop he is one of the highest dignitaries of the church of rome borne the college of cardinals is supposed to be composed of seventy persons though it is rarely up to its full strength A place in thle this college to is the highest round in the church ladder of rome borne the papal chair of course is in the acme of all church dignity but the candidate for this chair must be a member of the seventy cardinal taschereau is eligible for the op edom therefore his utterances in a church signification embody the will of rome borne the pastoral referred to was promulgated because of an act recently passed by the legislature of the province of manitoba abolishing sectarian and parochial schools the roman catholic church has taken a decided stand in opposition to this act and the dominion government to is asked to veto it ou on the other hand the protestants throughout the length and breadth of canada are fighting to sustain the manitoba school chool act sir john macdonald to is placed in a rather delicate position his party owes its victory of a few weeks ago to the active support of the french canadian priests and people will he sustain them in this demand to veto the manitoba law but the catholics demand its ito abrogation on the ground that the right to maintain parochial schools was accorded to the provinces at the time of the confederation this places the matter in a rather peculiar situation if such is the case the canadian province to a certain extents extent is analogous to our state and this manitoba law raises a question of state rights in canada the complication politically and religiously in canada to is not re assur ing ina the catholic church is composed of french canadians almost entirely they speak french and even teach it in their schools they are well organized politically and religiously they form perhaps a fourth of the total population of canada while in some provinces they are far in the ascendant the canadian protestants are coin posed largely of orangemen orangeman Oran gemen they are a stubborn belligerent crowd an timathy to rome borne is intermingled with the granules ot of their blood as froude would say the prospect in canada is not the most reassuring in addition to this comes dispatches from rome stating that the pope is gradually coming to the democracy and giving the cold shoulder to the dynasties and royal families of europe the french republic has been recognized by the roman church as the legitimate government of prance france this throws aside the aid of rome borne from royal pretenders the dispatch says the pope sees seen that the future belongs to the democracy he is convinced that the uni united taft states will furnish the form of the conclusions of european society as well as an ecclesiastic questions he believes sincerely that europe is marching towards democracy with republican institutions as the predestined goal these statements with regard to the policy polley of rome borne are based on speeches badt by cardinal lavigerie Lavi gerie and on letters written by cardinal both of whom are chief counselors of leo XIII it is also said that rome is thoroughly conversant with the drift ot of political thought in every country both in europe and in america the church is certainly taking the aggressive on this continent already there are two cardinals and the probability is that another will soon be appointed for the latin american countries the cry that the church is in revolutionizing itself and espousing the cause of democracy may bring to it adherents who are not now in harmony with any religious sect |