FRANCE -HOLY SEE

De Gaulle's visit marks new step in relations
By HENRI ROLLET
GENERAL DE GAULLE, President of the French Republic, was to be received by the Holy Father last Saturday. This visit comes two years after the audience granted to President Coty by Pius XII, which was the first visit of a French Head of State to the Pope since that of Charles VIII in 1494 and the first to take place in Rome since that of Charlemagne in 800.
And so with this second move within two years we enter upon a completely new phase in the relations between the French Head of State and the Sovereign Pontiff, a phase of relations which will be personal. normal, and regular. Public opinion, for which President Coty's visit was a sensation arousing some lively Protests, is this time very calm about it and seems to find the President's g e s t u r e quite
Courtesy call
General de Gaulle's move is essentially an act of courtesy. In going to Italy to celebrate the centenary of the great Franco-Italian victories of Solferino and Magenta which led to Italian unity, the President of the Republic wanted his visit to be a manifestlition of Euronean solidarity with one of the "Big Six." and he showed this by continuing his first official journey as far as Rome itself.
And, quite naturally, being in Rome he went to the Vatican. But the General, who knows His Holiness personally, is also respectfully showing his friendship for the Holy Father.
Their first meeting was rather strange. The Liberation Governme.nt had demanded the withdrawal of the Papal Nuncio at Vichy, Cardinal Valera in October, 1944. The post was vacant when, on the General's return from Moscow, the first reception for the diplomatic corps was being prepared for January 1st, 1945, and it became apparent that the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps was the Russian Ambassador.
A new Nuncio To avoid having to give first place to the U.S.S.R., the Government begged the Holy See to send a new Nuncio. Mgr. Roncalli arrived on the very eve of the ceremony, presented his credentials to General de Gaulle at 9.30 a.m. on January 1st, and at ten o'clock took his place at the head of a diplomatic corps which he had never seen to offer their respects to the President of the provisional government. That was the beginning of the friendship between the two men.
In Rome. "free" education (private and p a r ticularly Catholic schools) was one of the subjects most likely to be discussed. It is interesting that General de Gaulle's father
opened the first free school to be run by laymen in Frence; it was known as L'Ecole Fontane. Mgr, Veuillot, the new 13ieliop of Angers, was a pupil there.
Urgent need Since the general came to power a year ago the position of schools the Catholic hools has hardly developed at all. They are in need of urgent n financial aid from the State. Parents and teachers insist that the State teachers in th
should pay teache free schools the same money as is paid to teachers in State schools.
In delaying its decision, the Government has allowed a Gove lively opposition campaign toa develop which in turn demands the nationalisation of all the free schools. The Ministry of Education has recently announced the names of the members of the commission it has set up to enquire into the problems of the free schools. The chairman is the former Minister of Education and Socialist deputy M. Pierre Olivier Lapie, and there are four Catholic members, including the former French Ambassador to the Holy See, Count Wladimir d'Ormesson. The 12-man commission also includes a Protestant, a Jew, and a Moslem, as well as representatives of the Universities and the legal profession. It is now certain that no decision will be taken before the holidays. Supporters of the free schools are becoming increasingly c onfu sed and anxious.