It is with very great regret that we note that
the official organs of the Vatican are reported to have accepted the decision of the Dreyfus case not with grief, but with satis- faction. The Osservalare _Romano, for example, when dealing with the question, declares that Catholics are criticised "for not espousing the cause of a Semite accused of treason." To this a leader-writer in the Times makes a reply which is as perfect in form as it is sound in substance. " Who founded the Catholic Church but a Semite accused of treason ?" The Roman Church is criticised for not exerting its immense powers in France on the side of justice, and for not preventing—as it could—all persons under ecclesiastical authority inflaming the worst passions of the French mob. The appalling fact about the last year and a half in France is that those who have been calling loudest for the blood of the Jews and the Huguenots have been members of a Church whose imperative duty it is to turn men's hearts towards, not away from, mercy, truth, justice, and righteousness.
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