"1899-11-11 the police occupies l'Assomption, 6, rue Fran?ois Ier. The Augustin brothers are accused in court for breaking the law forbidding unauthorized assemblies. .. 1900 Thomas, mayor of Kremlin-Bicêtre, forbids the wearing of the ecclesiastical costume in his town. This example is followed by others..." Reading further we may learn that later in 1901 to 1904 the various Catholic orders are forbidden or dissolved and most French Church property seized. In 1905 a law decreeing a separation between the State and the Church is narrowly and bitterly voted and a struggle between France and the Pope begins ... Between 1914 and 1918 25 000 priests and seminarians are mobilized and app. 5000 among them fall. This disarms many of the Church's enemies and in 1920 funds are appropriated for the re-establishment of the French embassy to the Pope in Rome. etc. etc. Today the Catholic religion is tolerated more or less in the same manner as Judaism, Islam etc. (SR.)_______________________________________________________________________Notes:
[1] The Budget of 1881. 17,010 desservans of small parishes have 900francs per annum; 4500 have 1000 francs; 9492, sixty years of age and over, have from 1100 to 1300 francs. 2521 curés of the second class have from 1200 to 1300 francs; 850 curés of the first class, or rated the same, have from 1500 to 1600 francs; 65 archiprêtre curés have 1600 francs, that of Paris 2400 francs; 709 canons have from 1600 to 2400 francs; 193 vicars-general have from 2500 to 4000 francs. -AbbéBougaud, "le Grand Péril," etc., p.23. In the diocese of Orleans, which may be taken as an average type, fees, comprising the receipts for masses, are from 250 to 300 francs per annum, which brings the salary of an ordinary desservant up to about 1200 francs.
[2] The fees, etc., of the curé of the Madeleine are estimated at about 40,000 francs a year. The prefect of police has 40,000 francs a year, and the prefect of the Seine, 50,000 francs.
[3] Pr?lectiones juris canonici, II., 264-267.
[4] Ibid., II., 268.
[5] "The Ancient Régime," pp. 119, 147. (Ed. Laffont I. pp. 92, 115.)(On the "Chartreuse" of Val Saint-Pierre, read the details given by Merlon de Thionville in his "Mémoires.")[6] Pr?lectiones juris canonici, II.,205. (Edict of Louis XIII., 1629, art. 9.)[7] The following are other instances. With the "Filles de Saint-Vincent de Paule," the superior of the "Prètres de la Mission"proposes two names and all the Sisters present choose one or the other by a plurality of votes. Local superiors are designated by the Council of Sisters who always reside at the principal establishment. - With the "Frères des écoles Chrétiennes," assembled at the call of the assistants in function, a general chapter meets at Paris, 27 rue Oudinot. This chapter, elected by all professed members belonging to the order, comprises 15 directors of the leading houses and 15 of the older brethren who have been at least fifteen years in profession.
Besides these 30, the assistants in function, or who have resigned, and the visitors of the houses form, by right, a part of the chapter which comprises 72 members. This chapter elects the general superior for ten years. He is again eligible; he appoints for three years the directors of houses, and he can prolong or replace them. With the Carthusians, the superior-general is elected by the professed brethren of the Grande Chartreuse who happen to be on hand when the vacancy occurs. They vote by sealed ballots unsigned, under the presidency of two priors without a vote.
[8] The reader may call to mind the portrait of Brother Philippe by Horace Vernet. For details of the terrible mortifications inflicted on himself by Lacordaire see his life by Father Chocarne. "Every sort of mortification which the saints prized, hair-cloth jackets of penance, scourges, whips of every kind and form, he knew of and used. . . . He scourged himself daily and often several times during the day. During Lent and especially on Good Friday he literally scored and flayed himself alive."[9] Notes (unpublished) by Count Chaptal.
[10] "état des congrégations, communantés et associations religieuses, autorisées et non-autorisées, dressé en execution"according to article 12, law of Dec. 28, 1876. (Imprimerie nationale, 1878) - "L'Institut des frères des écoles chrétiennes," by Eugène Rendu (1882), p. 10. - Th. W. Allies, "Journal d'un voyage en France, p.81. (Conversation with Brother Philippe, July i6, 1845.) -"Statistique de I'nstitut des Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes," Dec.31, 1888. (Drawn up by the head establishment.) Out of the 121 houses of 1789, there were 117 of these in France and 4 in the colonies. Out of the 1,286 houses of 1888, there are 1,010 in France and in the colonies. The other 276 are in other countries.
[11] émile Keller, "Les Congrégations religieuses en France" (1880), preface, xxIII., xvIII., and p. 492.
[12] In 1789, 37,000 Sisters; in 1866, 86,000 Sisters ("Statistique de la France," 1866); in 1878, 127,753 Sisters ("état des congrégations,"etc.).
[13] . (But today, around 1990, there are only 5 nuns per 10,000inhabitants. SR.)[14] émile Keller, ibid., passim. - In many communities of men and of women the personal expenses of each member are not over 300 francs per annum; with the Trappists at Devielle this is the maximum. - If the value of the useful labor performed by these 160,000 monks and nuns be estimated at 1000 francs per head, which is below the real figures, the total is 160 millions per annum; estimate the expenses of each monk or nun at 500 francs per head and the total is 80 millions a year. The net gain to the public is 80 millions per annum.