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Show Selfish Attitude of French cfergy. A curious light is thrown on the general indifference in-difference on the part of the people and secular clergy of France as to the fate of the religious congregations at tho introduction of il, Waldeck-Rousseau's Waldeck-Rousseau's bill on associations iij an article in the current number of the Ushaw ilagazine. The writer, Kev. Thomas Hcnshaw, was a student stu-dent at the Institut Catholique in Paris for three years, and, speaking from personal observation, he says: "When H. Waldeck-Koussoau first brought forward for-ward his project for the new law on congregations, one naturally expected every Catholic voice in the country would be raised in indignant protest against this unjustifiable interfcicnce with the freedom free-dom of the Church. One thought of the. commotion that Mould have been caused iti Protestant England, had such a measure been brought forward in par-1 liament. and one was proportionately surprised at the indifference and inaction of Catholic France in general, and of the clergy in particular. "The Catholic members of parliament did make a fight for it, but it was evident from the beginning begin-ning that they were doomed to defeat. Catholic journalists or, perhaps better, journalists on the staff of Catholic papers wrote against the law, bu judging fnomVhat 1 saw 'during that phase, of the fight which ended in the retirement of if. Waldeck-, Waldeck-, Rousseau, the proportion of French Catholics who ' were really anxious about the issue of the struggle was very. small indeed; and. if the truth must be. told, the general attitude of the clergy not immedi ately affected by the law seemed to be oiic of delighted de-lighted expectancy. "There was no mistaking this framc'of mind in the case of the vast majority of the ecclesiastical'' students at the university: Sitting, as I did, at the sanre table with between twenty and thirty ecclesiastics, eccle-siastics, mostly priests, for the space of three years, I have been astounded at the open rejoicing of nearly all of my companions as the government proposed and carried through stricter measures against the religious.' The English .students at the other seminaries reported that a' simila restate of feeling existed in the houses which they inhabited. "Some members of congregations t;ven,'' proceeds pro-ceeds Father Ilenshaw, "thinking, at the beginning of the discussion, that the measures were directed against other orders and not against thejr own, regarded the proceedings with equanimity and even approval. The superior of a seminary,. himself an influential member of one of the largest congregations congrega-tions in France,' expressed his conviction several times to those under his charge, that the measure, as it was first proposed, was a good one, that sonic control was necessary, that the number of religious associations was increasing abnormally, etc.,' but he changed his opinion a few weeks later, after attending at-tending a debate in the chamber of deputies, 'from which he returned, convinced that the measure was not prompted by love of the Church, but by hatred of God; that, it was not reformation, but destruction, destruc-tion, that was intended. '- Is "He saw, what no one could fail to see very soon, that, even granting that the leader himself was in good faith, he would not longiheUible to control the powers of evil which he had let loose; that he would be forced to go further and further: that his followers would soon become his leaders, and would not rest till they had banished' God and the Church from France." - . . '' A little lower down Father Hens,ww guards the reader against generalizing too freely from the foregoing remarks: . : . "To argue from the general indifference and laisser aller of so mairy"Frcnclf Catholicjs when their religion is attacked, to the conclusion that Catholicity, is dead in Franco,, would be very unjust. un-just. In France one still, sees vtondr rt'ul ;6xli h'i t.ions of devotion amongst the people." Jondonv Tablet'. .' : ! ." . I "' ' '',' "St.- to |