The monarchical group in France known as Action Franfaise has
been finally banned by the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Church, itself historically based upon a rigid discipline, has always taken the view that it is wrong for members of the Church to resist the discipline of established forms of Government. Pope Leo XIII. discouraged all kinds of conspiracy against the French Republic although the Republic was the enemy of the Church. A certain number of French Roman Catholics who are monarchists have never been able to accept this Papal policy as reasonable. For them monarchy and Catholicism are almost identical. The Roman Church, however, has never wavered and has now made more explicit and definite than ever hefore its condemnation of Action Francaise. The Archbishop of Paris has instructed his clergy to remind those who persist in their membership of the group that they are public sinners in the eyes of the Church and that if they remain disobedient they will be deprived of the Church's benefits.
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