The third Assembly of French Bishops, summoned to discuss the
Separation Law, met in Paris on Tuesday. The Bishop of Dijon, one of • the secretaries, has just returned from Rome, and it is hoped that he may have instructions from the Vatican which will relieve the strain of the situation. The Bishops have only till February 3rd to save the temporary allowances of the priests, and the loss of them will mean a very serious embarrassment to the minor clergy, who are bearing the brunt of the conflict. There seems to be no very ready response to the appeal for funds, even in strongly Roman Catholic districts. In the Chamber of Deputies on the same day a striking speech was made by the Abbe Leruire, who, while attacking the taking over of the diocesan funds, took up the Republican point of view on the general question. M. Briand in reply defended the way in which the Govern- ment had administered the law, and declared that for any hard- ships the Church was wholly to blame. The diocesan funds would be handed over to the communal benevolent institutions, and the Government would make it their duty to take charge of aged or infirm priests, " doing for them everything that the Catholic rulers had not known how to do."
