Note 10 — PSEUDO-SEPARATION

On November 17th, 1906, the Bishop of Nancy wrote as follows to M. Briand, Minister of Cults, regarding the sad plight of the Sisters du Saint Cœur de Marie at Nancy: “In 1902, 56 of them were huddled together in a small house situated at the extremity of their grounds.... Their spacious chapel was razed to the ground and in its place three private houses have been built. The property was sold for 527,000 francs. The liquidator promised that in conformity with the law the sisters should receive pensions. Out of the 56 there remain to-day but 44. Of these 10 are over seventy, and 22 of them are over sixty.... In these last four years they have received out of the 527,000 francs only 12,000 in three instalments.... They owe 17,800 to their baker, butcher, etc., and are threatened with starvation if further credit be denied them.... Are these aged women, who have devoted their lives to the instruction of the poor, to die of cold and hunger, M. le Ministre?” And these things happen in the twentieth century under a Government that proclaims the rights of man and of the poor!