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Show THE DEMANDS OF SOCIALISTS IN CATHOLIC FRANCE Conclusive Proof That it is the Inveterate foe and Antagonist of Church and Society-Would Sacrifice all Principle to Accomplish Its Vindictive Designs. (From the New World.) We have seel; lhat the Socialist movement his shown it-lL . verywbe. l'p"e I ..-.Catholic id-aK. ; In Ihe programmes .which the Sociab-s addvos. d ' to the electors, in l h-manifest.- of i'. v: n.irt'i-. in ; their discourses, in their writings, they ' declare themselves, positively ai.l i-reliirh.us. They want- ; ; they say it eonrinually in Em nee to destroy lh power of the Church which is a barrier to their dangerous doctrine. The Socialist movement in parliament, nas been , .lirecrrdin just the a.ne way. Wl:eu in t'n-nnnovity. ; Wddeck K'-UsM-au and ihe Socialists were constant- ; Iv'in opposition. They would not .vote for ministers wh..iu tliev said were hourgois,nie.iter. under when, , Socialism could Impe to,- nr.thing. 'Ihey t might . j thein inunercifully. Uit they had the opUonolpn- . . ; . senting anti-clerical proportions. I nder aMoek Koii.m an. one of the... took part in the government. ,;f M "Villcraud a Socialist chief, who was minister of' commerce At the same time all the Socialist deputies became government ticklers 1 bey gave . their confidence to the ministry. VUnb- Millerand was in ollice he siistaine.1 tlie.anti-Chnst.au laws. He stuck up for then, also under the Combo ministry min-istry until the day when he perceived that Combes was onlv advocating anti-clericalism so as not. to , . end social reform. Then he abandoned the government. gov-ernment. He withdrew his confidence from the ministry, but the other Socialists were not in st hurry to vote for social reform. What thev wanted above all was to get the and- . religious spirit into parliament. ZUillerand was, ; . . . , therefore, ihe only one among the Socialists who : would not follow the Combos ministry. This hurt the bitter, who was governing in such high-handed . fashion that h finally was forced to abandon his ' place of H.wer. -Hut on the eve of his departure. he ordered that more than 4M) religious schools j should close their doors. L'p to the. hist moment he ; J persecuted the Catholic church. 1 I The minister who has succeeded . him. M. j i i i i i,:,.n t.. i;hf.r;i1 TTo ! Conner, nas ueci.uco non.-t" - wishes peace instead of war. But just because he says he will be tolerant, the Sociali-ts are now hostile hos-tile to him. They are beginning to oppose him because be-cause he is not ant i-clerieal enough. They want to oblige him to be as anti-religious as Combes, or else they will refuse him their help. f. Kouvior said the' other day in the chamber of deputies "I wish to , pass the military law. instituting the two years' service. I wish to have voted the workingmen's pensions, pen-sions, so that the old people will bo assured of mam- ' . . reliance after having worked all their live? : I wish j to have made into law the revenue tax. We shall study then how can we effect, the separation of Church and State with-mt hurting Catholic con- . ! sciences.' ' But ihe Socialists want the separation nt once. , They forget about social reform. They think only of one thing, anti-clericalism. They never have thought differently. When they were not in the government, they look upon them- ' pelves the initiative in anti-Christian laws. Since, the coming of Waldeck Rousseau they havo done nothing but applaud the pa.-sage of such. In fact the governments of Kousseau and Combes gave them, entire satisfaction. These last five years can certainly cer-tainly be counted as among the worst for French 5 Catholics. Waldeck Kousseau began the cycle of i the religious war. He wanted to regulate the Tivcv of the religious; he hoped to become master of ,1 events; but, the Socialists who were sustaining him j became more and more insistent and under the re- !; gime of Combes they were the real musters. "VVal-deck "VVal-deck Kousseau marked his reign by his law against . ' . the associations. Did he think he could assure the liberty of associations.' Toward the end of hia life, as he'saw his successor drawn into an unmerciful , war upon the Catholic Church, ho said he should . f not have gone so far. He gave an appetite to the i Socialists and they would go on to the cud. They . ! would have gone, they would go even into bloody , 1 revolution to crush the Church.. And so they were; f vntb the work of Waldeck Kousseau, who I was for them a good beginner. They did not want f to embarrass him in their discussions in the eham- her, in proposing more violent measures than he ' j proposed. ' ' I One Socialist, however, M. Zeraes. expressed . their desires in part. He asked the chamber to vote. the complete, absolute suppression of all religious congregations of men or Avomen. whether they were .' I teaching or charitable orders. He did not trouble. ; j himself to think whether the children, sick, need. orphans or infirm received by the religions could be eared for in the state institutions. Waldeck Kou- . scan wanted to oblige the congregations to solicit ' their authority from those in pnver. He was not ; f far-seeing, for it was certain that under a govern- l ment. which shared their ideals better, the Socialists would refuse them all authority. And, in fact,- j Combes refused authority to more than eishty con-. gregations of men and sixty of wortin. He closed . f more than ir,X0 religious institutions. The So- ' ; cialists still thought he was too -eritle, and one of them. M.-Girard, a senator, askl of the senator ' ; that, they take from all priests, whether secular or ; f regularthe right to teach children. He had the ,; same idea as a Socialist, deputy. M. Pegeante, who said in the Chamber of Deputies: "The missionaries are not, Frenchmen: they are without, a country." He also proclaimed the right to whistle in the churches. . ... ' Combes did not dare to take from priests th right to teach, but, he declared that in principle h Continued on Page 4 ) '. . DEMANDS OF SOCIALISTS IN CATHOLIC fRANCE FT (Continued from Fase 1.) X 9 I was in accord with M. Girard, and so the congroga- h tions were forbidden to teach. f Here are a feAV of the things which the Socialist have obtained thus far: That there be no longer ;i chaplain at the naval or Avar hospitals; that all religious re-ligious nurses .working in civil and military hospitals hos-pitals be sent away; that soldiers bo forbidden to go to Catholic clubs; that the crucifix he removed from all courts of justice where it had been for centuries, and on which the oath was always taken; the closing of seminaries for the instruction ef priests for the foreign missions; that priests and nurses be sent away from the hospitals in several colonies. But what they have not obtained and which they desire is the separation of the Church and State. They do not want it. in order to have liberty; they want it in order to make a tyrannical law to tako away the liberty of public worship. They want th1! state to take possession of church buildings and ecclesiastical property and rent it to the clergy. Then Ave would see our Catholic churches used on day for worship and the next for public meetings, o perhaps for a concert or a theatre. By this law priests vyould be forbidden all liberty of action, and be heavily fined for any words or gestures which may not happen to please the government. Will the Socialists accomplish this ? Tliey would like to do so. The minister of worship of the new , I premier, Rouvier, who is anti-clerical, says that thi . separation must be effected, or else a new- concordat made Avith the Pope. Many Catholics will not be hostile to the separation separa-tion of the Church and State, if the latter will give them their liberty. But they do not believe an anti- .religious government will fjive them this liberty. On the other hand, it is said that M. Rouvier is not himself a great partisan of the separation. I If the Socialists do not .obtain this last satis- I faction they will become resolute adversaries of. ths? I government. ! , I have tried to show that, the French Socialist I dre the enemies of Catholicity. I trust I have siif- . ceeded, and I ask pardon of Xew World readers for " having kept tbmi so long over this question of So-cialisin. So-cialisin. Paris Correspondence. I |
