EXCLUSION OF PRIESTS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2090, 27 May 1907, Page 1

EXCLUSION OF PRIESTS

NOT ALLOWED TO VISIT DYING SAILORS.

A resolution was submitted to tlio French Government recently by the Abbe Gayraud protesting against the exclusion of a priest from the bedside of the dying sailors of tho Jena, the French battleship on which a terrific explosion occurred a few weeks ago, demanding that it should not :rocur, and that tho Government should respect liberty of conscience. Several members of the Right supported the Abbe’s view, condemning

the Government regulation which forbids the admission of clergymen to jnaval and military hospitals unless tho inmates specially ask for their visitation. A number of the injured crew of. the Jena, it appears, were in a comatose state when brought to the hospital at Toulon, consequently they were incapable of asking for a clergyman. It was brutal, said the speakers, to deprive these men, who had given their lives for their country, of the consolations of religion, M. Thomson, Minister of Marine, defended the official regulation, and maintained that its enforcement rospeets the liberty of conscience. When a sick sailor or soldier asked for a clergyman his wish was always respected. The motion was rejected by 378 to 164.