'a deliberate and studied equivocation' on the part of Rome." THE VIEW OF CARDINAL GIBBONS TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN Sir: Without being a Catholic, and at the same time being no enemy of that church, I am convinced by careful study of the separation of church and state in France from the beginning of the agitation that Cardinal Gibbons is mistaken in his theory, set forth in the Sun of December 14, that the French government is raging against religion. The new law doesn't touch dogma at all. The cardinal may naturally regard recognition of the supreme authority of the pope as religious dogma, but there are millions of devout and theologically orthodox people in France who do not so believe. They regard the present issue as simply whether a foreign monarch shall reign over France equally with its republican government. . . . Does Cardinal Gibbons imagine does any sensible Catholic imagine that the status quo resulting from Bonaparte's Concordat can ever be restored? If papal armies could deluge France with blood and win victories, would that make Pius X a fount of living waters and animate the French people with love for the Roman Church? NEW YORK, December 15. C. The dominant fact in the whole separation crisis was that the seventy-four French bishops, having met together in plenary assembly on May 30, June 1, 1906, decided by fortyeight votes against twenty-six, in secret ballot, that there was reason to seek for a modus vivendi which would allow of the formation of associations at once legal and canonical. Subsequently, by fifty-six votes against eighteen, they accepted the scheme of Mgr. Fulbert-Petit, Archbishop of Besançon, which allowed submission to the law. It is well known that of this resolution Pope Pius X took no account whatever. M. Sabatier asserts squarely that the wording of the subsequent Encyclical Gravissimo of August 10, 1906, was a deliberate and studied equivocation. "It did not state the reverse of the truth, but it gave it to be understood. Indeed, all those who know the facts only through this document are persuaded that the French episcopate not merely submitted to the theoretical condemnation of the Law of Separation, which had already been pronounced by the pope, but begged for a final condemnation of it. This is precisely the reverse of the truth." The author considers that what he regards as the disingenuous and high handed attitude of the Vatican was a fact much more important than the passing of the Law of Separation. In the face of all this the following newspaper clipping shows how inaccurate some people are in their statements. The American people have had things put squarely before them, and, unfortunately, the ignorant masses don't know it. BALTIMORE, December 13. "The American public does not understand the present crisis in France," said Cardinal Gibbons, when asked this evening for his opinion on the French situation. He continued: "I am getting to be an old man, now, and I think I know my countrymen. They love fair play; they love liberty; they love to see humane dealings, man with man. And the late years have shown how cordially they hate injustice, tyranny, and inhumanity. And yet France has treated her noblest citizens with injustice and inhumanity, and America, which has sympathy for the oppressed of all nations, has raised no protest, nor uttered a word of sympathy. "If I believe that my countrymen would knowingly see a great and beneficent organization unjustly deprived of its property and the means of continued usefulness, would knowingly see tens of thousands of honest men and noble women robbed of their just income and means of support, would knowingly see hundreds of thousands and even several millions of people brutally wounded in what they hold dearest and most sacred, would knowingly see a majority in the chambers utterly disregard and trample upon the rights of the minority and the rights of millions of their countrymen, in the name of liberty, would knowingly see tens of thousands of men and women who happen to be priests and nuns turned out of their homes for no crime, but that of loving God and serving their neighbors-I say if my countrymen can see and recognize all this injustice and tyranny and cruelty, and refuse genuine sympathy to those who suffer by them because of their religious belief, then I will leave life without that faith in American love of justice and liberty and humanity which has been my comfort and support and hope during a long career. "But the American people have not had the things put squarely before them. Our own press has been to a considerable extent the reflection of the Parisian anti-clerical press. Americans have little conception of the French anti-clericals. They look upon the leaders of this party as enlightened statesmen, seeking to preserve the republic from the attacks of an aggressive clergy. There have been honest and sincere lovers of republican government among anti-clericals, I admit. But the majority of them have far less love of the republic than they have hatred of religion. I am weighing my words and I ask, and I say with the most deliberate conviction that the leaders of the French government are actuated by nothing less than hatred of religion. We have no spirit akin to theirs in this country. We have here much indifference to religion, but we have no body of men, no great party that makes it a chief aim to weaken the power of religion and, if possible, utterly to destroy it out of the land. PARIS, September 28. The Gaulois to-day prints an interview which its correspondent at Rome had with the pope yesterday on the church and state separation, during which the pontiff is quoted as saying: "It is not I who condemn the law, but Christ, of whom the pope is simply the vicar. The Saviour granted the church a constitution and a doctrine, against which no human law can prevail. The separation law is contrary to Catholic doctrines and opposed to divine rulings, is an unjust law, and, therefore, carries no obligations to obey." Suppose in future the pope declares a law of the United States to be unjust and carries no obligation to obey, is there any question that, like the bishops of France, the bishops of this country would obey the pope ? This attack on the autonomy of the state is well understood by those who have carefully followed the double dealing and hypocrisy of the managers (Curia) at Rome. And now that the duplicity of Rome is laid bare, and the incorrect and misleading statements of the protesting Catholics (received with great applause and enthusiasm) are exposed, it may not be improper for the "high authority who directed copy of the Resolutions, etc., to the pope, to be read in every Catholic church in New York, to inform his parishioners of the unfortunate mistake he made, before the majority of his fellowmen shall have discovered the deception, that truth is more to be prized than earthly power and public aggrandizement. FRANCE AND THE SEPARATION LAW AND THE PROTESTING BROOK I LYN CATHOLICS T is said eighty-five per cent of the population of through getting control of the women, of the female children when young, and instilling in their minds Roman Catholic dogmas to take precedence of all other teachings. As they grow up, through the confessional and catechism they are absolutely under the control of the priests, and when mothers of families, they in turn are taught to insist on their children being brought up in the same faith. For centuries these people have been held in mental bondage, have attended worship in stately cathedrals, seen the burning candles, listened to the inspiring music, enjoyed the odor of frankincense, admired the paintings and vestments, obeyed implicitly orders from their religious superiors, put their money in the box, with the assurance that their sins are forgiven and their future secured, made in the first place by ignorant and designing. Men in Rome, who for centuries have used the pope. a creature of their own making and a prisoner in the Vatican, to wring from the ignorant masses of this and other nations enormous sums of money under the cloak of religion. The history of 108 |