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Show j WILL IT BE SCHISM? ! Tf the dispatches from the Trench capital are j correct, we have an incipient schism in France. I Fifteen bi-hops. under the present trying and great j difficulties giving to Caesar what belongs to God, j is a new departure for the French clergy. It is I S;1l 1 think that even a small portion of the French I hierarchy would transfer their allegiance from the 1 - Vicar of Christ to his and their enemy. Whilst the I present government, like former French govcrn- I meuts, may pursue an anti-papal policy, it will I ' neither add to the glory of France, nor add to the I stability of th.i republic. The present rulers, like !lhe Bonapartes, show their hostility to the Holy See in their struggle to make Peter subservient to their infidel designs. The history of France is full I of such incidents. Under the Carlovengian rulers I the papacy received royal support, but since the I ' eleventh century, with, the exception of Louis IN French rulers have failed in their loyalty to the f first principles of Catholicity, viz., fidelity to the Holy See. This they unwittingly sacrifice for' pompous pom-pous processions, shrines and outward display, and when the crisis coxnes, though Catholic, they arc i ... too French to stand by the rights of the church. When has the French government stood by the Catholic church for the sake of Catholic truth' Louis Napoleon failed to do so.- Every change for the past ten years has increased the hostility of the government. The present warfare will in due time reach its limit, and when it docs Providence will, as in the past, protect the rights of the " tear of Christ. From the meagre account given in -the dispatches we could not judge what may be the motives of the bishops who consulted Mr. Combes about their resignation, but before suspecting inur. of the least disloyalty to the chair of Pel or we should know why their resignation was asked, and why they consulted the government. Notwith-jtaud-I ing the great hostility of the government, it '-(ill i adheres to the concordat, and does not wish to b:;e j it abrogated. This may explain matters. |