Lecture on Church and State

M. PAbbe Klein, Professor at the Catholic University of Paris, delivered a French lecture in Emerson Hall last evening on the "Relations between Church and State in France." W. G. Wendell '09, president of the Cercle Francais, introduced the speaker.

The Abbe pointed out the difficulty of understanding in this country, where toleration has been known so long, the Church and State relations and especially the present attitude of intolerance, which is largely due to the absence of a Supreme Court, which has powers to check the government.

In the last 30 years, no representative of the French government has dared to utter the name of God publicly. In the public schools all religious ceremonies have been abolished, and in the public life, all religious ideas, as far as possible. Quoting many other examples, the Abbe explained that religious toleration and liberty is unknown in France.

When the Catholics, after the final separation and complete confiscation of all church property, refused to accept the "associations cultuelles", the government was compelled to temporarily restore the churches. What the outcome of it will be no one at present can say.

In conclusion the Abbe expressed a firm belief that the good sense of France would triumph over these political schemes; and that the Church and State both have sufficient vitality to withstand these difficulties.