Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1887 — CHURCH AND STATE. [ARTICLE]

CHURCH AND STATE.

Movement in the French Chamber to Abrogate the Concordat. The movement in the French Chamber of Deputies for the abrogation of the concordat has assumed definite shape. A majority of the committee appointed to study the question of the separation of church and state approve Boysset’s projects for the abrogation of the agreement made in the time of the first Napoleon, which, notwithstanding the many attempts at modification, has been in force since 1801. The concordat signed by the Pope (Pius VII.) in 181$ was never carried out. Upon the restoration of the Bourbons the Pope recalled his « msent. Under the concordat no edict of the Pope can be received by the French church or published, printed, or otherwise executed without the authorization of the government. No messenger can exercise on French soil or elsewhere any function relative to the affairs of the French church. No councils,synods, or other ecclesiastical assemblies can be held without the express permission of the government. No bishops are allowed to absent themselves from their dioceses without permission, and all ecclesiastical dignitaries must pledge allegiance the state. The state holds control of all property and a specified part .of the income from the same is to pay the salaries of the officials.

The population of France in December, 1881, consisted of 29,201,703 Roman Catholics, 692,800 Protestants, 53,436 Jews, and 7,684,906 persons who declined to make any declaration of religious, belief. Under the law any sect which numbers 100,000 adherents is entitled to a grant. In the budget for the present year the allowances made by the State were as follows: Roman Catholic worship, 44,327,123 francs; Protestant wor--1,551,600 francs; Jewish, 180,900 francs; Protestant and Jewish places of worship, 40,050 francs; Musssulman, 14,340 francs. Under the law of the Republic all the religions are to be put upon an equality Ithough the preamble to the concordat, recites that the Apostolic Roman Catholic religion is the religion of the great majority of Frenchmen and the State, and article 1 of that instrument provides that the Roman Catholic religion shall be freely practiced in France, and that its celebration shall be public in accordance with the regulations w’hich the government shall judge necessary for public tranquillity. By article 14 of that concordat the government promises to assure a sufficient maintenance to the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church. The new scheme now before the Chamber, of Deputies declares that the public will respect all religions and will grant substitutes or special privileges to none. ' The various regulations afid laws are to be repealed. The departments and communes will retake possession of the various edifices and real and personal property. The citizens are given the privilege of forming relig- | ious societies or syndicates without government authoriiation, these societies or syndicates to be formed under the laws relating to professional syndicates. ~ This change will be stoutly resisted, and it will undoubtedly give the Reactionaries the opportunity they have been looking for. to inflame the Catholic population against the republican government which they have al] the time described as an infidel government.

It is the LatMt in-Crankiem. Detroit Free Press. A reporter was standing at the confectionery counter of a prominent grocery yesterday, when a burly man came in and addressing one of the young women behind the counter said: “Give me a pound of your best” —r Taking a look at the girl he made a dash for the door, looked up and down the street and returning with a satisfied expression concluded: “your best mixed candy.” After he had received and paid for his candy and gone out,r the clerk said with a pout “That makes me tired. He is the twentieth to-day, if there has been one.” “Why did he go out?” asked the reporter. ” .. “To look for a white horse,” Her hair is a little on the red.