Page 190 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

Chapter 29
TOIL AND TROUBLE

,Ttrr-Yren
1857 wAS A vERy rRyrNG oNe, physically
.,1- and mentally, for Brorher Ryken. to aild'to his
worries was the growing premonition that death would
strike him suddenly. In writing ro one of the Brorhers
who was undergoing treatmeni for tuberculosis in a
..pray
sanitarium in Germany, he added this postscript:
also for me. Invoke St. Rose of Lima whose^ feast we
have celebrated on the thirtieth of August when I
reached sixty. How long I shall celebrate this feast I
do not know. f feel that my strength is declining mark-
edly through the burden of'my offi--ce.,,
The political situation in Belgium upset him. Aided
by skilled propagandists from tfie Masonic Lodges, the
Liberals.had elplysld neural schools in violent"opposi_
tion to the Catholic party which sought ro have religious
instruction in the schools with the- Catholic clerfy in
charge of it. Ever since rhe Liberals had. won theii'firsr
national elecrion in 1847, Belgium had seethed politi-
cally. The Liberals hammered away at.,the encioach-
ment_of c-lergy."
-tle Jh.y lampooned all religious as
"Do Nothings" and "Lazy Bonei." They made-.,Black
Robe" a term of derision. Their carefuly fomented
riots kept the mounting. Finally came the elec-
-tension
tion with a triumph for the Lfuerals.
On All Souls Day, 1858, Brother Ryken confided to
a priest-friend in Holland: ..With
the'last election the
Catholic Party has lost everything. We do nor know
what the future will bring.,,
Brother Ryken's grear hope that his Brotherhood