M. Frerc ()than made a great speech on Tuesday in
the Belgian Parliament, on the subject of the conflict between the Belgian Bishops and the State in relation to the Belgian educa- tional legislation, and showed how strongly the Vatican had. deprecated the extreme lengths to which the Bishops in their warfaq had gone. Leo XIII. does not, indeed, deny that in the principle of their objection to the Education Law, the Belgian Bishops are dogmatically right ; but he does think that they have pushed their opposition to it, under existing circumstances, to a most dangerous and excessive point. What the Pope had evidently desired. was, that the Bishops should do all they could legitimately, to defeat—and, later, to improve— the law ; but that while it is law, they should not strain their authority to the point of compelling the people to choose between their Church and their Government, between Catholic rites, and. tolerant, though not_Cath_olic., legislation.
Previous page
