THE conversation between Leo XII. and Mgr. Mignot, Archbishop of Albi, is truly suggestive!
“What is your opinion of the schism?” asked the Holy Father.
“I believe,” the Archbishop replied, “that under existing circumstances a schism is improbable.”
“Do you realize,” interrupted the Pope, “that it would be a terrible thing at the present juncture to have a schism in France such as that of Luther or Henry VIII.?”
“For a schism to be possible,” said Mgr. Mignot in conclusion, “the people require to be deeply religious, and capable of taking an interest in questions of that nature.”
Such is the conversation reported by the press, and which neither of the interested parties has denied. We may therefore take it for correct. If I insist on its authenticity, it is because of the importance it has in my eyes.
Here then is a Pope, and one whom we must call a prince of the Church, an Archbishop, giving as the rampart of their faith, the indifference and skepticism of the people! The (Roman) Catholic Church, in the person of its chiefs, takes refuge in the absence of all religious feeling which she has herself produced. She has slain the conscience as well as the moral and religious sensibilities, and in presence of this ruin, the worst of all ruins, she raises her head triumphantly and exclaims— “Now, I am secure, I may slumber in peace. For a schism to be possible, the people must be deeply religious, and God be praised! they are so no longer.”
We prefer to believe, for the honor of Mgr.
Mignot, who has not, as Leo XIII., the excuse of old age, that these words were a severe and solemn lesson, directed to his august interlocutor. Taken in this sense, — and all that we know of the eminent Archbishop would authorize us to interpret them thus—they are a protest against that Catholic immobility which persists in presenting to the people a religion of forms, of rites, of debasing devotions, and which prefers the spiritual death of the Catholic nations to the loss of its own supremacy and pride.... It is faith which produces schism, it is infidelity which protects Rome. Ye Bishops of France, ye priests, you who are entrusted with the task of stifling religion, and destroying it in souls! It is for this that Rome has consecrated you, for this that she has sent you forth.
You have performed your task, and yet not quite sufficiently in the eyes of the Pope. You are aware, are you not, that he is trembling on his throne, and before dying the specter of schism haunts him. He sees it everywhere. True, Mgr. Mignot tried to reassure him— “The people are not religious,” he told him, “you may rest content, a schism is not possible.” But the old man trembles still. He sees schism at work in France, he sees it at Rome. Only the other day he declared that schismatic bodies were corrupting his people with foreign gold!!!
From “Le Chretien Francais.”