Page:Twelve Years in a Monastery (1897).djvu/167

Rh communion and extreme unction from his parish priest, and died without them; the third visibly condescended to confess, saying that it was immaterial to him — he would if I wished. Many others came to confess, saying that they would either confess to me or not at all. Everywhere, even amongst professing Catholics, there was a strong anti-clerical feeling, though they made a curious exception in favour of monks.

And when I went down to assist at Ohain for the last day of the Easter confessions I found the little parish in a curious condition, even to my heretical experience. The curé smiled when I asked how many he expected for confession, and said that he had not the faintest idea. Theoretically he should have known how many had already made their Pâques, and how many parishioners he had: it was a simple sum of subtraction, but he was amused at my simplicity. It appeared that there were some hundreds who might or might not make their Pâques: in point of fact we had about a hundred more than the preceding year. He did not seem much concerned about the matter, said it was not an abnormal condition, and that it seemed irremediable. It was curious to note that a Protestant mission which had been founded in the neighbourhood for some time had only succeeded in buying two dilapidated ‘converts’ after heroic efforts. The Belgians, like the French, are Catholic or nothing.