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Show Schism Threatened In France I. IMWWBBWBBMMaMWii Ambitious Candidates For Bishoprics May " Disobey the Pope. ic-v-i ial 1 'ovrcspondence N'cw York ''"' ' (!. ';n mii's Journal.) noiro. Mar-h . Kome this week h.rdly !;ri"As whether to bo most glad r unvry. "Vrtainly it has ample rea-,, rea-,, for both ir..'tions. I t10 ptnt- "f affairs in Franco fur-1 fur-1 rishos abundant reason for grief to all ! , , j.ivf ih'- catholic church. Not even ,rhai'S a: the time of the great revo-,u:jn revo-,u:jn was religion in such danger .(jf-rc Tn put 1 lie whole situation in a nutshell. France is at this moment cn th brink of schism. For several ! nicr.tlis i'"St a number of farseein.T rhurrlinifii have dilated on the dan- : f.i, but their prophecies were pooh- II onh-rl. Thf fa'-ts of the case may be briefly Ut us f"llf'"'s: The Concordat which j-.jiS be in force for the last century or fn -f'Piilatinp the relations between ih" H"l' ' 0 an' tne French government, govern-ment, lias allowed the latter a certain I jr.fluwe i" ,ho appointment of bishops. The French clergy hold their tempor-ralitirs tempor-ralitirs from the civil power, and the civil power insisted that this being so sn pfTpmis obnoxious to the civil power th'tild bp appointed to vacant bishopric?. bishop-ric?. The Holy See was constrained ;n allew the civil power the privilege f r't omav nding candidates for bish-iirifs. bish-iirifs. and the pa pel briefs by which French bishops have been appointed finrc 1M6 state that the new bishop ha? been -'designated" to the Holy by the head of the state. This I dfsipnation-' is expressed in the Latin I brief by the words "nobis nominavit." f No objections seem to have been tak-. tak-. tn to this form until a couple of years j: hfo, when the French prime minister I vf the time, the notorious Waldeck-j Waldeck-j Rousseau, author of the law which has i driven' the religious congregations from France, announced that he and his gov-f gov-f runout objected to the word "nobis." I sr.d insisted on its omission in future rlcfs. T!ie omission of thnt single v"rd might very easily be made to mean a complete change in the sense A the bri-f, for it would change the vrd designated,": as applied to the French president, to the word "nomi-.eifd," "nomi-.eifd," and the natural inference would y that the appointment to all vacant M5 ill France was made, not by the i.'ly Sec, but by the French govern-ii'i,:. govern-ii'i,:. . . ' Th Huh- See paid no attention to "ta'deck-Rousseau outrageous claim mj tiiithir.g more was heard on the nii'jct until last year, when the Sees j of Amiecy and Carcassonne became va- j cant. The candidates were presented ''!' the French president and accepted ''."'the i,,y c, and the briefs of r.om-::.atiii r.om-::.atiii we:-.- being drawn up in the old ""in. when AYaldeck-Flousseau's threat ' the vent- before Mas put into effect i'J' his worthy successor Combes per- ' '!'Mhe iu,lst unprincipled ruffian who as 'ver l .11 prime minister in France. H itistru. u-,1 the French ambassador the Uuiy see to inform the pontiff '"at the government absolutely refused "n five rffc t to any brief containing ii uurds 'nobis nominavit.' Just 'ut this ti:ne the people at the head 'h0 French government were appar-J'"ly appar-J'"ly uii.ie,.j,,,r HS t0 wnether the new ,e ''"'".ving the religious congrega-sh-.u;.J 1. ,,ut j fuj f0rte or exe. fCl"l in a iti ; I.I form, and it was diplo-i-ally him,., tnat ,Ile resujt largely ndr.f ,,,, Httitude of the J(OI,tiff "Ha"d tli. , l.iims of the government )" v?i:d to ji10 nomination of tho ' sn";'s. I ', .. Holy See was placed in '""y '-iii-Mrrassing position. If it in-'. in-'. r ' its manifest and divinely 'r'i r:m-r 1,, appoint the bishops it .( '' '- death blow to the con-, con-, ;l"i'-: .: it trierl to save the oon-",r oon-",r adopted a policy which .. I '!t'" !,!:d the French hierarchy "jk''av, "'' t"inbes & Co. W-- '' ;";itu'r of fa(t. the Holy T-qft', ! ' v H nioment hesitated, tm-v '''s "f ('aroasonne and An- h'-,. j "1' "-"acant and were admfn-.',, admfn-.',, ' '; ' "' H' respective vieals ca-S, ca-S, ,n s-"'1 eases as this the Holy . ,,.''" :' ' ' ' afford to wait, and li,'rt! " l!l-'t the senatorial t;lec- (Wn':5:!". h;iV':' r"'n'''1 that the ,hl' "s : -'ry w.js not sujijiorted by r"i; i 1 Tr.jj. j,r ' li: ,ls policy of truculence. ;;v,' v,,s unhappily blighted, for !':!,.","" M'y Vi,s 'tvengtheneO. even if, th'X''. "y :h" ''"',j,,S!- Meanwhile ! v4,;it" l:' 1 1 " h dioceses became rnn.:','..' xi':,ls ajn'tular were duly Jiive'rn'' "' ""' ul,iina,'y -u"'s"e the !Krr 'l't would have forwa.rded 'lit. jj j' 1 ' s or the consideration of f,ut . "r - l,i't the days lengthened l,st v'"ks- ""til at the close of Wjv ''oinhns astonished every- r.aii; 1,y 1'iiblishing oflicially the r.Hto,j ' ' ('liurchmen as "nomi- the. 1111,1 is say. appointed, by Ks'V'1""" "' for the three vacant Hoi,., )1"'y Soe was absolutely ig- ""ntjl A !' U (li-vs later lhe conti" Willis.' ii lS annouIK'ed tnat a com-Prtss' com-Prtss' hi"1 l"' reached by the pup-'ordK" pup-'ordK" U"m rhf I'" Pal brief of the Phi- n"!"S " alld ,ht addition of b dSl' h would have made the Sia, j ; "ol the nomination" was 'oi(iin -V ''''''ch government, "ae-t1"' "ae-t1"' ''on,.,,. tho,l()Ilvetion contained In ),o''-h Ut" " Your correspondent at j u&nt for info-mition on this I j r: .V- HOBEIIT EMMET, Hanged 10f) years ago for striving to win for Ireland what England has already granted or is now willing to give. point and found It in a quarter where1 mistake ' i.V impossible. He learned that all the talk about a compromise or a settlement of any kind is absolutely untrue. "If M. Combes," said his informant, in-formant, "has appointed bishops without with-out a previous agreement with the Holy See (and there has been no such agreement) it is to be hoped that the persons chosen will refuse to lend themselves to the government. More- ! over, it is absolutely certain that any person thus nominated without the previous consent of the Holy See will never be preconised by the Holy Father. Fa-ther. The dioceses will continue to be administered by the vicars capitular, and anybody who presumes to take over their functions will be an intruder." in-truder." Will the government nominees accept ac-cept the nomination, and if they do will the one of them who Is not already a bishop find thre? other French bishops, or, for that matter, three Catholic bishops bish-ops of any nationality, to consecrate bim; and if an affirmative answer is to be given to these questions will the new government bishops be accepted by their clergy and their flocks? Three very Interesting, delicate and important questions. The three men who have thus, been named by the government are churchmen of good standing; two of them are already bishops of other dioceses in the French dominions; the third has been twice already proposed j by the government for a vacant see, and each time rejected by the holy see. If they accept in defiance of the holy see they will be guilty of schism. After making the most careful inquiries among French prelates in Rome I am driven to the conclusion that there Is possibly one French bishop who would I lend his sanction to the movement by acting as consecrator of a schismatica! bishop. This deplorable fact is a striking strik-ing indication of the way religion has been undermined in France. The great mass of the French clergy are intensely loyal to the church, yet even in the face of this fact it is hardly likely that the whole-body of clergy in the three dioceses dio-ceses in question could or would abandon aban-don their charge of souls unless expressly ex-pressly commanded to do so by the holy see. As for the people, they are ! divided into really good Catholics and nominal Catholics who never set foot in a -church except for a marriage or .1 christening. It will be seen that the situation is exceedingly grave, and it would appear as though the persistent efforts of the enemies of religion in France for over a century were about to enter on their hour of triumph. And the Holy Father? One of the sublimest features of his pontificate is his patience with France and his confidence con-fidence in the religious future of. her people. Had his repeated and earnest counsels to French Catholics to accept ac-cept the republic frankly and loyally been accepted by all of them the country coun-try would never have been reduced to its present deplorable situation. The law against the congregations has been a heart-break to him, and th5 present menace of schism causes him the most intense sorrow. But I know from those around him that his confidence in the future is unabated. Combes and his compeers may possbly last for a decade or for two decades yet, but the influence influ-ence of the Holy See will be felt and recognized in France centuries after they have been forgotten. Partly on account of the " French trouble and partly on account of "difficulties "diffi-culties which have arisen concerning the nomination of cardinals it has been practically decided to postpone once more the Consistory wheh was to have been held shortly after March 3. May-is May-is now spoken of, but May is a long j time off, and the postponement may be considered as indefinite. There is no truth in the rumor that Father David Fleming is to be raised to the purple immediately, but, on the other hand, it is now quite certain that he is destined des-tined one day to enter the Sacred College. Col-lege. The Biblical commission has begun to hold its meeting. A plenary session is held twice a month in the apartment apart-ment Of Cardinal Rampolla, while the consulters meet among themselves at frequent intervals. An official periodical peri-odical treating of Scriptural questions is to see the light shortly. . VOX URKIS. |