Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/507



THE RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS IN FRANCE. 501

tian perfection; and, if it be certain that there are in the Church, and always will be, elect souls aspiring to it under the influence of grace, it would be unjust to hinder their designs. It would, moreover, be an assault on the liberty of the Church which is in France guaranteed by a solemn treaty, for everything that hinders her from leading souls to perfection injures the free exercise of her divine mission.

To strike at the religious orders would be to deprive the Church of devoted co-operators: at home where they are the necessary auxiliaries of the bishops and clergy in the exercise of the sacred ministry and the function of Catholic teach ng and preaching which the Church has the right and the duty of dispensing, and which is de- manded by the conscience of the faithful: and abroad where the general intere'^ts of the apostolate and its chief power in all parts of the world are for the greater part represented by th-? French (ongregations. The blow which struck them would be felt everywhere, and the Holy See, bound by a divine command to provide for the spread of the Gospel, would find itself under the necessity of offering no opposition to the occupation of the vacancies left by French missionaries by the mission- aries of other nations.

Lastly, We should point out that to strike the religious congregations would be to forsake to one's own undoing those democratic principles of liberty and equality which form the rery foundation of constitutional right in France and guarantee the individual and collective liberty of every citizen so long as his actions and manner of living have an honest aim which in no way injures the rights and legitimate interests of any one.

Now, in a State of such advanced civilization as that of France, We refuse to think that there is neither protec- tion nor respect for a class of citizens who are honest, peaceable, and devoted to their country, who, possessing all the rights and fulfilling all the duties of their fellow