Today is the day that people all over the country of France celebrate the revolutionaries storming the Bastille in Paris and ceasing weapons by force. This is the day that the revolutionaries took firm control of France and King Louis XVI became powerless to do anything.
I expect secularists and opponents of Christianity to endorse this holiday but Catholics have no business celebrating this at all. A Catholic celebrating Bastille Day is like a member of the Orthodox Church celebrating the anniversary of the Turks converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. It’s like a capitalist celebrating the 1917 October Revolution in Russia or a pro-lifer celebrating Roe vs. Wade.
The storming of the Bastille was in the early stages of the revolution. A couple months later, the National Assembly confiscated all of the Church property in France. This included land, monasteries, churches, tombs, art, endowments, and all funds down to the last penny. This was in November 1789.
All of the dioceses were abolished and the state took control of the Church. France was divided up into departments and they decided to make the departments into dioceses for the church. There would be a bishop in every diocese and the bishop would be elected by the people. Whenever anyone tells you that bishops should be elected by popular vote, remind them of this.
All clergy were forced to swear a civil oath to the state and if you didn’t, you were out of a job. Priests who didn’t sign continued to do mass in secret for Catholics and they were called the refractory clergy. There were people in the revolution who wanted Christianity completely abolished. However, they weren’t in power at this point. They’d eventually gain power in 1793 and this is when the reign of terror started. The Constitutional Church was made illegal. The clergy that had signed the oath to the state were betrayed by the same state that they had sold their soul to just a couple years before.
Thousands of priests and nuns were executed for their faith. The French Revolution shows the true face of the enlightenment. Death, violence, and theft marketed as liberty, equality, and fraternity. To this day, the stolen property of the revolutionaries has never been restored, nor compensated for financially. It’s a bit sad to admit but the only political leader that I know of to give compensation for stolen church property in the 19th century liberal revolutions was Benito Mussolini. It’s pretty sad when Il Duce behaved better than every other European leader of the post-enlightenment era in this regard.
I’ve mentioned on this blog before that my favourite philosopher is Joseph de Maistre. Regarding the Revolution, he wrote the following:
People of France, do not allow yourselves to be seduced by the sophisms of private interest, vanity, or cowardice. Do not listen to the reasonsers; there has been too much reasoning in France, and reasoning has banished reason. Put aside your fears and reservations, and trust the infallible instinct of your conscience. Do you want to redeem yourselves in your own eyes? Do you want to acquire the right of self-esteem? Do you want to accomplish a sovereign act? Recall your sovereign.
– Joseph de Maistre, Considerations on France, page 76
v interesting thanks are you a yank or a brit or none of the above. I have just started reading merchants in the temple and even in the first few pages my appreciation of Francis has gone up. I am not quite a roman catholic yet but whist i was brought up as a nominal c of e i would say that i am more Rc than c of e . That said i love the old protestant churches dotted around the country and can sit in them for hours on a hot sunny day specially if they are empty.
“are you a yank or a brit or none of the above” None of the above. I’m Canadian.
It’s good to know that your journey is going well.