A Communication
June30, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 217 A COMMUNICATION THILAIRE BELLOC AND CHARLES...
...An American reader is likely to be obdurate enough FOR CATHOLIC PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS to hold that as long as race suicide stigmatizes the French BOARD OF EDITORS people, there is only one conclusion to form about the force Editor of Upper Grade Readers, T. of their Catholicism...
...429 Main St...
...do French apologists make in claiming that those who create illustrations by MARTIN F. GL _ISON, Supervisor of Art, Member of ideas at several points favorable to the Church are necessarily Summer Faculty, Illinois State Normal University...
...There was," declare our quartet in all association of the Church with the corruption of the state...
...O.S.IE, A. M. (Supervisor), St...
...The Church was, an article in the Yale Review for January, 1922, Mr...
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...Had it indeed survived, the Church foundly divorced by the action of vivid and tragic historical in Gaul would doubtless, in spite of its attachment to so mun- memories...
...itannon, D.D,-RELIGION HOUR...
...McLncoxr.iy...
...of protesting, praises...
...It is impossible for "It fructifies and expands immediately under the touch of the theologian, or even for the practical ecclesiastical teachers a lethal weapon...
...Supervisor), St...
...their writings...
...would have returned, by some creative reaction, to its principle of life...
...though it is the defense of those same habits of contrast a supposed pre-revolutionary 'Catholic' society with the thought and conduct, of clear principle and close reasoning revolutionary fury...
...was fed by the belief that religion was a dying superstition, "Was there," he asks, "a necessary and fundamental quarrel the conviction that the wealth of the clergy must be seized between the doctrines of the Revolution and those of the to ameliorate the poverty of the people, and the apparent Catholic Church...
...Dominic, Caldwcil, N. J. according to the customs of the French, that is to say, re- List Price $1.08...
...Spearman's assertion as an attitude of Bourget's, ro x g, $a.so, Net $i.6...
...a penetrating analysis illuminating, not only the situation in "You could not have had the revolutionary fury against France today, but a somewhat similar condition in Mexico, the Catholic Church in France if the preceding generation had give me Hilaire Belloc's chapter on The French Revolution been actively Catholic even in a considerable portion...
...it has at its very roots the conception that to put his finger upon a political doctrine essential to the Revo- material prosperity is stifling to it, poverty and misfortune lution, and to say, `This doctrine is opposed to Catholic dogma nutritious...
...Nor does this and toy with the conception of national independence, but they, non-rational but very real feeling lack support from the utterand all the official organization of French Catholicism, put the ances of those who, in opposing the political theory of the security of the national establishment and its intimate attach- French Revolution, consistently quote the Catholic Church as ment to the general political structure of the state, far beyond its necessary and holy antagonist...
...other active forces of the mind which play upon religion in Rfter a note about Maurras, which appears in connection with any Catholic state, had full opportunity...
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...or to Catholic morals.' Conversely, it is impossible for the The disastrous turn of events might even then have been Republican to put his finger upon a matter of ecclesiastical shaped otherwise, but the civil constitution imposed upon the discipline or religious dogma and to say, 'This Catholic point clergy "dug the pit which divided Catholicism from the Revois at issue with my political theory of the state.' lution at the moment of the foreign invasion, it segregated "Why, then, it must next be asked, has there in practice the loyal priest in such a fashion that his order could not but arisen so furious and so enormous a conflict, a conflict whose appear to the populace as an order of traitors, and it led, in activity and whose consequence are not narrowing but brdktden- the furnace of 1793, to the great persecution from the memories ing today...
...Belloc thinks only the non-Catholic, or the But the Church was not dead...
...Second : What errors English, University of Pennsylvania...
...The very fact that the Church tions did nothing to eliminate it, and that even in our time had thus become in France an unshakable national institution, the older men, in spite of pure theory, cannot rid themselves chilled the vital source of Catholicism...
...dane a thing as the crown, have still survived to enjoy one The last three paragraphs explain much...
...Patriotism demands that if we do not think as our an- dramatization, narrative, biographical and problem project aids...
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...discussions as these, will answer the first question quite neatly...
...sically quotes to similar effect a French priest named Sullivan, Abbe Dimnet resents both the Sullivan and the remark as a ACCESSORIES...
...but expands the answer to our first question • RJCAa' CARDI V.4J...
...June30, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 217 A COMMUNICATION THILAIRE BELLOC AND CHARLES MAURRAS BENZIGER Pittsburgh, Pa...
...That the record of France in the pro- • raIAa CURTis, A. B., LL.B., Principal, Alexander Hamilton Junior High School, duction of books on religion and devotion and in the supply New York...
...It is true that I neither practise nor believe in the Introduction...
...Book One...
...Detailed plans for handling the material in the Pre-Primer Gallic incredibility...
...Scric$ lI (too phrase cards) 21 x 3, $3.00, Net $2.25...
...the sanctity of Catholic dogma or the practice of Catholic "This generation will not see, nor perhaps the generation morals...
...Dctoils and special prices for inrrodactlo:: on apMcatiofa...
...Bourget himself, in 19o5, By WILLIAM H. J. KENNEDY, Ph.D., praised Fustel de Coulanges, the famous historian, for writ- Dean of the Teachers College, City of Boston, and ing in his will the following passage: 'I wish to be buried SISTER MARY JOSEPH, Ph.D., Sisters of St...
...Illus"All our doctrine is based on the sentiment of patriotism," trated by MARTIN F. GLEASON, Supervisor of Art, Member of Summer Faculty, Illinois State Normal University...
...Catholic religion, but I must remember that I was bred in THE TEACHER'S MANUAL to AMERICA'S STORY, in developing the teat for the busy teacher takes into regard the newest study courses, it...
...Belloc seems to have altered his opinion...
...Jernrne fl...
...He answers our two questions with a superb detach- ciation with the oppressive executive government a hatred that ment...
...First: What is the nature of the in- Supervisor of Parochial High Schools, Sisters of Charity, Convent Station, tellectual ideas being brought to the service of the Church in N. J. Advisory Editor, ARTHUR H. QUI\1, I'h.D., Litt.D., Processor of France by certain schools of thought...
...Paul Bourget, whom he evidently much admires, not only FLASH CARDS FOR PRE-PRIMER: Series I (:08 w=ord cards) admits Mr...
...and the Catholic Church in his volume, The French Revolu- The Church, then, Belloc explains, drew to itself by assotion...
...Cap.-THE CATHOLIC TEACHER'S lics' who view the Church as a useful element in the Com- 10MII'ANIO...
...O the Editor:-Those Americans who were quartered BROTHERS in France during the war and have visited the provinces since then are probably every now and then somewhat be- PUBLICATIONS wildered on reading in our Catholic periodicals articles so warmly optimistic about the resurgence of the Faith among R New Series of Catholic Readers the French that one fears a wish is made to father a roseate AMERICAN CARDINAL READERS view...
...of those resurrections which never failed it in the past, and ELMER KENYON...
...cestors we may at least respect what they held to be the truth.' By Fm...
...M. GERTRUDE, A.M., Former about two questions...
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...But for the moment the consequence of this (It will add to the interest of Mr...
...as a believer without incurring disgrace, and Bourget, instead List, $o.at...
...This means that one can both be an unbeliever and act By Rrv...
...R. Kelly-OUR FIRST COMMUNION and THE MASS FOR CHILDREN...
...Yet when Frank H. Spearman whim- • ti- ate rise Pupil's taste and rurich his mental life, and implant in the rduld's fried the germs of his many-sided spdritnal inheritance...
...succeeding it, the issue of the struggle between two bodies "That political structure-the French monarchy-seemed to of thought which are divided by no process of reason, but probe of granite, and eternal...
...Editor, EDITH M. McLAUGHLIN, Former Critic Teacher, Parker Practice School, Normal School, Chicago, Ill...
...Associate Editor, SISTER M. AMBROSE, O.S.D., A.M...
...families in the old tradition will say so...
...The struggle, as it develops, will inevitably the security of one work which contained its supplies of draw the defenders more and more toward the central corps food...
...monwealth...
...Among the mem- and Traeker's lIomials for Grades a•g...
...Kirsch: 0. If...
...he says...
...Hence, it seems to 218 THE COMMONWEAL June 30, 1926 me that the vital course to take is a relentless stripping of ful way in which the Revolution treated the Church.' And the masquerade that, as Alphonse Lugan vigorously and truly as they say this, the converse truth appears obvious and .they holds, is poisoning Catholicism for the French and reenforcing seem to imply, `Think how different it must have been before the bitter prejudice against the Church among those who the Revolution persecuted the Church!' The very violence cherish the inflaming legacies of the revolutionary era...
...Is he, then, one of those 'political Catho- Dy Rmm...
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...Former Critic Teacher, Parker Practice a tribute to what must inevitably be a comparatively small School, Normal School, Chicago, Ill...
...are given in the Teacher's Manual accompanying it...
...BENZIGER BROTHERS To the American reader of Bourget, Barres, Ernest Daudet, Established 1792 Maurras, and of the satellites who derive their inspiration NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO from this quartet of French artists and thinkers, there is only 36-38 Barclay St...
...The Editors...
...but for without a strong and continuous historical backing...
...It was as though a garrison, forgetting the defense of our civilization who are still strongly inimical to the main defenses of a place, had concentrated all its efforts upon Catholic Church...
...Wits...
...of the modem reaction toward Catholicism has exaggerated That one must go back, indeed, to the French Revolution the revolutionary persecution, and in doing so has made men to understand the tenor of the recent contributions in The forget that, apart from other evidence of the decline of reCommonweal is with some bias partially made clear in the ligion, it is obvious that persecution could never have arisen last chapter of Abbe Dimnet's monograph on Bourget...
...2. Teacher's MIanual...
...Joseph's The discussion in The Commonweal turns, it seems to me, College and Academy, Adrian, Mich...
...READ/IRS will comprise a Pre-Primer, a Primer, a First Reader and Eight Other Books ;etch Accessory 3fateraI "What sort of a Catholic was he...
...The writings of such men as Charles Maurras, who hap- 0TT READY TO READ A Pre-Primer pens to be the best example-but, after all, only one example- Accompanied by a Series of Flash Cards (Word and Phrase of the French intellectual so often claimed as Catholic in such cards...
...archy in which the Church became merely an element of the "The picture of the priest, his habit and character, as the national tradition, Belloc concludes: "But there were two fatal and necessary opponent of the revolutionary theory, beelements of disruption in that homogeneous body which Louis came so fixed in the mind of the Republican that two generaXIV apparently commanded...
...And again, "A true Nationalist places his mother- 4IIIiRIC.4N CARDIX-Al READERS oi:n to de clap reading ability, land above everything...
...of Catholicism, but the defense is not, inclusively, a Catho"The Catholic reaction in our time perpetually tends to lic defense...
...Belloc so to speak, not concerned to defend itself but only its method writes: "There are a host of men supporting the increasing of existence...
...TEACHER TELLS A STORY: Book One...
...Look,' say its champions, 'at the dread- which are a product of the Faith...
...r. Word and phrase cards for class use...
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...Editor of Lower Grade of missionaries remains the marvel of the Catholic world is Readers, EDITH 3I...
...Kenyon's thoughtful fixed political establishment was that scepticism, and all those letter to note that Mr...
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...Associate Editors, SR, M. AM13ROSL, body of practicing Catholics...
...Curiously, Abbe Dimnet, himself, in writing a little book on "READY TO READ" meets every de:nand pedagogically List Net and mechanically...
...of which the relations between the French democracy and the Tracing the steps that led to the development of the mon- Church have not recovered...
...Joseph's College and Academy, Adrian, Mich...
...one answer : they are primarily "political Catholics" or, as Maurras one called himself, "pagans...
...205-207 W. Washington St...
...bers of the Action Francaise with whom Bourget is in sympathy, many are practising Catholics, while some of the most AMERICA'S STORY prominent are confessedly unbelievers, but the latter uphold A History of the United States for the Lower Grades of Catholic principles quite as much as the former, from patriotic Catholic Schools or, as they say, positive motives...
...Not only did the of an imagined connection between the Catholic Church and hierarchy stand in a perpetual suspicion of the Roman See, an international conspiracy against democracy...
...Catholic in essence...
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Vol. 4 • June 1926 • No. 8
