Show I CHURCH YS STATE i I The Conflict Between the Chilian I Government and the Priests The struggle between the Catholic I Church and the liberal progressive element I ele-ment in Chili which has been going on I for a number of years is now at its height In Chili there ha s been no confiscation of church property as in Rome of the j other Slates and at the capital there are r still over 2000 monks and as many nuns The Jesuits have been expelled for engaging en-gaging in conspiracy against the Government I Govern-ment but the other orders of friars aro permitted to remain A dispute between t the Archbishop and the President some years ago caused the former to retire from j Chili and the Pope sent over a nuncio to I 1 try and arrange matters hut this legate criticised the Government so severely from the pulpit that ho was given a passport pass-port and an escort of militia and now j I there arc no relations whatever between j the Pope ang Chili The radical element i of the Liberal party favor extreme I measures but the Conservative factionof which President Santa Maria is the leader wisely prefer to take steps slowly I and avoid revolutions The Liberal party has a majority in i Congress and have passed laws under which the authority and influence of the Church has been greatly crippled they have recognized the Papacy the established es-tablished religion but have placed the appointment of Bishops in the hands of the President of the Republic instead of the Pope They have declared civil marriages mar-riages to be the only legal ones they have opened the cemeteries to Jew and Gentile have taken the registers of births marriages and deaths out of the hands of the Church and given them to the civil magistrates have established estab-lished free nonsectarian schools and passed a compulsory law under which all citizens who send their children to the priests and nuns to be taught have to pay a tax or fine to the State These measures have all been bitterly fought by the clergy who have been compelled to yield in every instance Just now the Act of Congress in this direction establishing estab-lishing civil marriage and recognizing the legitimacy of only those children born of parents wedded in this way is I the bone of contention and has caused the bitterest struggle the State has seen At the Presidential election which I occurs next spring the issue will be tho I enforcement of the civil marriage law and if the Liberal party is successful as undoubted it will be some measures will be taken to reduce the church to subjec tiqn and a law has already been proposed pro-posed to expel from the country priests who intimidate persons from obeying the Civil Marriage Act This will be open war and priests who threaten to excommunicate will be sent into exile where they will shortly be followed I fol-lowed by the monks and nuns and a general gen-eral confiscation of church property will be the next step It is estimated that onethird of the entire property in Chili is owned by the church Cor Philadelphia Philadel-phia Times |