Note 153 — III The ‘Clerks’—The Great Betrayal (continued 2)

At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession when the north of France was invaded, Fénelon delivered several sermons in which he told the invaded population that their sufferings were the just punishment for their sins. Imagine the reception of anyone who dared to preach such a sermon to the French in August, 1914! For the manner in which the ‘taught’ Church to-day treats the ‘teaching’ Church if the latter does not say what it wants to hear, think of the reception thirty years ago of Father Ollivier’s sermon on the victims of the fire at the charity bazaar.