Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/508



502 THE RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS IN FRANCE.

countrymen, have, either in the vows they make or the Ufe they lead, no other end in view but to work for the perfection of their own souls and the good of their neigh- bor. They only ask for liberty, and the measures taken against them would appear to be all the more unjust and odious since societies of quite another sort receive at the same time a treatment altogether different.

Of course We are not unaware that as a justification for these rigors there are people who go about declaring that the religious congregations encroach upon the juris- diction of the bishops and interfere with the rights of the secular clergy. This assertion cannot be sustained if one cares to consult the wise laws pubhshed on this point by the Church, and which We have recently re- enacted. In perfect harmony with the decrees and spirit of the Council of Trent they regulate on the one hand the conditions of existence of persons vowed to the prac- tise of the evangelical counsels and to the apostolate, and on the other they respect as far as is necessary the authority of the bishops in their respective dioceses. Whilst they safeguard the dependence due to the head of the Church, they also in a majority of cases give to the bishop supreme authority over the congregations by way of delegation apostolic. As for the attempt to make out that the episcopate and clergy of France are disposed to give a favorable welcome to the ostracism with which it is desired to strike the religious orders, it is an insult which the bishops and priests can only repel with all the energy of their priestly soul.

There is no need to give any more importance to the other reproach that is made against the congregations, of being too rich. Even if we admit that the value set upon their property is not exaggerated there is no con- testing that they are in honorable and legal possession, and consequently to despoil them would be an attack upon the rights of property. It is, moreover, necessary to remark that they possess nothing for their personal