Dupanloup, Felix Antoine Bishop of Orleans, Versailles, France, to Archbishop John Baptist Purcell, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1871 May 6

Doupanlup asks Purcell a favor for the church in France and all Europe, asking that he give him answers to certain questions which he lists. 1. Despite the separation of Church and State in the United States is there any relation between the clergy, either Catholic or Protestant and the government? 2. In grand calamities and social crises does not the government demand anything of the church? For example in the late war, did not President Lincoln call for prayers from Catholic bishops and protestant ministers? Were not the youth placed under orders? How does Purcell expalin that Archbishop John Hughes was called to give a discourse to Congress? 3. Does the state really ignore the Church in the United States? Is it without any official religion? Atheist? 4. Has the clergy, Catholic or Protestant, any share in primary instruction? Is the school entirely separated from the Church? Are the children raised in a practical atheism? 5. Can one freely teach atheism in the schools and in the great chairs of the State? Because these questions will soon be discussed by the National Assembly, Dupanloup attaches great value to the answers to these questions and asks an immediate answer. :: II-5-e L.S. French 3pp. 12mo.