Catholic World

forgive me?" he asked. "But why? The situation is the same. I let you go and lost all traces of your existence. What is prompting you to give me this chance of atonement ? Is it "-and he rose and came towards her, the old tender light which she once knew so well shining in his eyes,-"is it that the old love still lives within you, that the memory of the old days has overcome your pride?"

"It is that, and more," she said, and her lips were parted in a radiant smile. "When I left you, Jim, I had, as you know, very little if any religion, and what I had was vague and unsatisfactory; but lately, within the last six months, I have been led to the light, and I believe. I am a Catholic, Jim, and it is a Catholic's duty to forgive. That is the principal reason why I came to you as Miss Seaton's substitute this Christmas Eve. I took up typing when my aunt, with whom I have been living, died; and going to the office to inquire for your address, I took this opportunity of seeing you at once. Shall I stay, Jim, and spend Christmas with you?"

He rushed forward and took her in his arms, and the sorrow of their past vanished at the touch of a present joy. Presently Ethel Clayton raised her head from her husband's shoulder with a demure little smile. "What about those burnt-out embers, Jim ?" she inquired. "Do you think we shall be able to rekindle them, after all? "

He looked down at her fondly, with a laugh in his eyes. His face appeared ten years younger, and his manner was that of a school-boy newly released for his holidays.

"We will have a try at it anyhow, little woman," he said. And outside, that Christmas Eve, the snow-flakes fell faster and faster and the reunited lovers looked out together upon a white world.

THE CHURCH IN FRANCE AND THE BRIAND BILL.

BY MANUEL DE MOREIRA, Ph.D.

RANCE once more is making frantic efforts to root out of the country that religion which for centuries has been a legacy from the noble and great of the past. About a year ago they succeeded in expelling from their native land

men and women whose praises were sung in every country. The army, inactive thanks to a prolonged peace, was called to enforce the new law, and we, in this home of freedom, read in our daily paper the venturesome deed of France sending one or two battalions of infantry and cavalry to evict eight or ten nuns, and a whole regiment, backed up by cannon, to expel a few peaceful monks, who had devoted their lives to the doing of good, and who had succeeded in relieving the country for miles around of poverty and suffering.

But that was a year ago. Since then they have tried incessantly to plan a last move, which, while in theory and under American conditions would mean the removal of heavy chains, still under French customs means impoverishment and suffering for the French clergy. The plan of this governmental campaign, which is to result in the separation of the church and state, has been championed by M. Aristide Briand, a man well known for his hatred of religion and of matters ecclesiastical. The bill makes French Catholics ask: Is the plan of the great Napoleon to be shattered? Is the dream of the infidel to be realized? Are the French clerics to be deprived of their lawful support? Free-thinkers, on the other hand, boast that the day of liberty is about to dawn, and that the rule of the cassock is to be ignominiously broken.

To understand clearly the present situation we must keep before our minds the terms of the Concordat, according to which the relations between church and state are now regulated. It will be remembered that the Concordat is the famous document drawn up between Napoleon the Great and Pius VII., while the pope was still more or less a prisoner at Fontaine

without a definite religion could not last, and that a merely national church was, under the circumstances, an impossibility. He resolved, therefore, to make the best of the situation, by compelling the pope to agree to certain plans which would give the emperor a leading influence in church matters. The extent of this influence will be best gathered from the following articles of the Concordat, which we outline in substance:

Article I. The Roman Catholic and Apostolic Religion shall be freely practised in France. Its worship shall be public; subject, however, to those police regulations which the government may judge necessary to preserve order and peace.

Art. II. New boundaries will be made for all dioceses. These boundaries will be arranged by the government in concert with the Holy See.

Art. III. The first consul shall name within three months the candidates for archbishoprics and bishoprics of the new dioceses. His Holiness shall confer canonical institution according to previous custom.

Art. IV. The nomination to vacant bishoprics shall also be made by the first consul, and the canonical institution will be conferred according to the previous article.

Art. V. The bishops, after receiving canonical institution, shall take, in presence of the first consul, the oath of allegiance. to the government.

Art. VI. Diocesan priests shall take the same oath, in the presence of a magistrate approved by the government.

Art. VII. At the end of the divine service the following prayer shall be recited in all the Catholic churches in France: Domine, salvum fac rempublicam; Domine, salvoș fac consules.

Art. VIII. The bishops can name for rectors of parishes only those persons who are acceptable to the government.

Art. IX. All metropolitan churches, cathedrals needed for divine worship, shall be put at the disposition of the bishops. Art. X. The government will sanction any new foundation made by persons in behalf of the church.

When Napoleon made known the articles of the Concordat, he published simultaneously with it a Code of Organic Laws, with, as it was supposed, the view of rendering the acceptance of the Concordat less objectionable to the "Corps Legislatif, by which it was ratified April 5, 1802. These laws are in sub

THE CHURCH IN FRANCE AND THE BRIAND BILL.

BY MANUEL DE MOREIRA, Ph.D.

RANCE once more is making frantic efforts to root out of the country that religion which for centuries has been a legacy from the noble and great of the past. About a year ago they succeeded in expelling from their native land

men and women whose praises were sung in every country. The army, inactive thanks to a prolonged peace, was called to enforce the new law, and we, in this home of freedom, read in our daily paper the venturesome deed of France sending one or two battalions of infantry and cavalry to evict eight or ten nuns, and a whole regiment, backed up by cannon, to expel a few peaceful monks, who had devoted their lives to the doing of good, and who had succeeded in relieving the country for miles around of poverty and suffering.

But that was a year ago. Since then they have tried incessantly to plan a last move, which, while in theory and under American conditions would mean the removal of heavy chains, still under French customs means impoverishment and suffering for the French clergy. The plan of this governmental campaign, which is to result in the separation of the church and state, has been championed by M. Aristide Briand, a man well known for his hatred of religion and of matters ecclesiastical. The bill makes French Catholics ask: Is the plan of the great Napoleon to be shattered? Is the dream of the infidel to be realized? Are the French clerics to be deprived of their lawful support? Free-thinkers, on the other hand, boast that the day of liberty is about to dawn, and that the rule of the cassock is to be ignominiously broken.

To understand clearly the present situation we must keep before our minds the terms of the Concordat, according to which the relations between church and state now regulated. It will be remembered that the Concordat is the famous document drawn up between Napoleon the Great and Pius VII., while the pope was still more or less a prisoner at Fontaine