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France's Church-State Separation Upheld

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 31, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 22.

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France's Church-State Separation Upheld

THE recent parliamentary elections in France reveal a strong public sentiment in support of the policy which has separated church and state in that country, and the result is viewed by many as a rebuke to the Catholic Church. The people, it is stated, want peace. The only thing that has recently disturbed the peace in France is the Roman Catholic attitude of opposition to the governmental measures for carrying into effect the abolition of the Concordat. The Catholic Church sought to provoke a revolution which would overturn the government that had severed its union with her; and when there was a prospect that the attempt might succeed, after there had been extensive riots, and even armed resistance to the government by Catholics in some places, the Catholic Church pointed to the Masonic order as being responsible for the disturbance. A prominent American Catholic journal, The New World (Chicago), said in its issue of May 5:—
At this moment France, as a result of the unscrupulous and irreligious conspiracies of the Masonic sects which Speaker Cannon recently honored, contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, is on the verge of revolution. The church, the ever-vigilant and invincible guardian of social order, has been crippled, and the French republic, deprived of her aid and guidance, is drifting on the rocks of anarchy. It is inconceivable that a man with the sagacity and foresight of President Roosevelt should encourage this diabolical enemy of free institutions and social order in its efforts to triumph over the historic church that can alone guarantee the stability and permanence of social institutions.
So far as the power of Rome can be used against them, stable and permanent institutions will not be permitted to exist in any government that is not conducted upon the principles of the papacy. That is Rome’s position both in theory and in practise.