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Show Who is to Blame? EVERT WEEK one story or another is printed in our Catholic exchanges ex-changes reiterating the hardships and persecutions inflicted upon the French religious orders by reason of the operations of the "Association's Law" enacted by the French parliament parlia-ment and executed by the government officers. As a purveyor of news, the Intermountain Catholic has published articles treating on this subject from the Catholic newspapers coming to hand, but all of them, by mere coin cidence, happened to be newspapers and periodicals published in the United States. In no instance was a French paper quoted nor any other Catholic paper published In Europe. At first blush the Catholic mind in this country is shocked over such disclosures, dis-closures, and the wonder grows over the complacency of the French people, 'who should be the first to resent attempts at-tempts to banish from the nation those orders whom they had been taught from infancy to love and reverence. France, the eldest child of the Church, standing with arms folded and bidding a not too fervent adieu to the erstwhile inmates of monasteries and cloisters, seeking a home elsewhere! France, whose missionaries have penetrated pene-trated the wilds and jungles of the savage and the barbaric splendor of the heathen, as ready to lay down their lives for the faith as did the early Christians in the bloody persecutions of Nero and Caligula! What has come over the Catholics of France that they witness this expatriation of the religious reli-gious orders without a murmur of disapproval? dis-approval? What trick of the evil one turned the heads of the French peo ple so that they elected to represent them in the national legislature a majority ma-jority of delegates to enact a law like this one now being carried out? These reflections present themselves to pious Catholics, and without further consideration most of them are too ready to waste sympathy upon the religious re-ligious orders and pray for the conversion con-version of the French people who acquiesced ac-quiesced in the enforcement of the law, albeit these expatriated orders did not go, out upon the. cold world minus scrip or purse. The Masons are at the bottom of the persecution, concludes these pious souls, and the government is in the hands of infidels.? What a terrible thing to contemplate! There is jiae Catholic paper in this country that has taken the trouble to investigate the religious conditions of France, and over, his result the editor has written "Hob. Goblin Tales." This paper is the Catholtc Citizen,, published 'at Milwaukee, Wis. In a recent' issue the Citizen says: . - j , "According to the En-cyclopedia Brit- tanica, there are 342 lodges of the Free I Masons jn France. Possibly the num-! num-! ber has been increased since the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia was issued: but, assuming the lodges average' members each (a fair average in this country), we are safe at placing the number of French Free Masons at about 31,000. The little country of Scotland has more Free Mason lodges than France, and, of course, the United States has more Masonic lodges than the rest of the w-orld combined. Now, r while there are 342 Free Mason lodges in France, there are three times that number of religious houses. The membership mem-bership of the French religious orders is estimated at from SO. 000 to 100.000. "These figures are interestnig in enabling en-abling us to discuss the question whether the Law of Associations on the French statute books is the work of the Free Masons: whether it is legislation leg-islation imposed upon the millions of the Catholic French by a fraction of 1 per cent of the French population. And if 30,000 Free Masons in France, bound, it is true bv the compact of oaths, can be so effective, why cannot some 50.000 or 100.000 French priests, monks and brothers, bound by vows no less positive, be simHarlv effective in checkmating such legislation?" That is a question for the religious orders themselves to answer, and the answer may give some solution to the present attitude of the liity of France. It may also give some reasons for the silence of the bishops and secular clergy, who have so far not manifested, any displeasure over U13 enforcement of the Law of Associations, nor raised a hand in warning. As American Catholics Cath-olics we intuitively perceive a difference differ-ence in sentiment of ths faithful here ! with that of the people of France regarding re-garding the monastic orders; and when that difference in sentiment is analysed it will be seen that the internal government govern-ment of the orders in France is apart from that which characterizes the strenuous and patriotic Paulists of this country. The latter are not pensioners pension-ers of the state nor do they owe their livings tq endowments and patents con ferred by royalty. The French people, or the large majority of them, are republican re-publican to the core, and they may have their own suspicions regarding the loyalty of those whom generosity compels to remember the king. They recall some of the causes . which brought about the French revolution. , We do not make this assertion in the way of direct charge, but merely give it by way of explaining the coldness of the French people towards the religious orders and to knock out the credit Free Masons receive for bringing it about. This feeling is too general to be 'ascribed 'as-cribed to Masonic investigation. It Is j evidenced by the recent French municipal mu-nicipal elections, and it is further evidenced evi-denced by the action of numerous local lo-cal political bodies to which the government, gov-ernment, under the terms of the Law of Associations, refers the question whether certain religious orders in such localities shall or shall not be authorized. author-ized. Says the London Tablet, a Catholic Cath-olic paper: "Not the least painful feature of the French situation is the part which local lo-cal option plays in the campaign against the religious orders. Not only has the national parliament declared against them, in spite of their magnificent magni-ficent record of French patriotism, but the municipalities and local boards vie with each other in soliciting the exile and confiscation of congregations which should have been treasured, as local benefactors and well-wishers. One of the provisions of the Associations Law is, in fact, a clause requiring the consultation of local municipalities upon the retention or expropriation of the local convents; and it is dismaying to note how the local expression of opinion pronounces in favor of persecution perse-cution and confiscation with a sort of monotonous regularity. The municipality municipal-ity of Lille, in the extreme' north speaks with the same voice of hostility and hate as the department council of the -Bouches-du-Rhone in the extreme south." The true basis upon which to discuss dis-cuss this whole matter is to assume that the French people are not the tools . of an insignificant little secret society, but they are acting deliberately. Like the Catholic Citizen, we are to consider consid-er and inquire into the real motives actuating ac-tuating an overwhelmingly Catholic people in this unexpected opposition to religious orders. It is the sign of a childish intellect to direct our attention atten-tion to the Mosonic goblin as the instigator in-stigator of the deed. We simply allow ourselves to be deceived and gain no useful lesson out of the episode. We1 help neither ourselves nor the Church. "In studying the mortmainlcgislation of the middle ages, we have no Masonic Mason-ic orders to saddle with the responsibility. responsi-bility. If the real key of the situation be sought, there is a truer hint in these mediaeval laws of association, of the causes back of the French law of today, to-day, than in anj hob-goblin tales, told by people who wo all fain disguise the facts. |