Policy of Romanism

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 30, 1882

Policy of Romanism.

JOSEPH SADOC, C. P., Archbishop of San Francisco, makes an appeal to the clergy and laity of his diocese for the establishment of a theological seminary for the education of Romish priests at the old Mission of San Jose. He announces that “after prudent advice, chiefly from eminent directors of Rome, we have secured the precious services of learned and holy professors to conduct the institution,” and for this purpose he directs an annual collection. Whereupon the Catholic family journal “devoted to the propagation,” etc., says: “Woe to those Catholic parents who rob their children of their religious rights by sending them to Beelzebub's battle-ground—the public school—when they have Catholic schools convenient to their residences. Such parents wantonly fly in the face of God by so doing,” etc. “The Pope commands Catholic parents to send their children to Catholic schools. The bishops have all exhorted parents to the same end. The pastors in every see in the Union have spoken to the people from God's altar to save their children to the faith of their fathers by means of Catholic education.” The church organ admonishes parents that they imperil the souls of their children by allowing them to attend the godless public schools, and advises them to withdraw their children, and send them to private and parish schools, taught by Jesuit fathers and Christian brothers, and by Sisters of Presentation, Mercy, Charity, Notre Dame, Holy Names, Sacred Heart, Saint Ursula, etc. If our public schools are such propagandas of the devil as this slanderous and lying organ of the Romish Church declares them to be, why does not the church, through its pope and prelates, its archbishops and priests, its editors and politicians, recommend Catholics to vacate their positions as school superintendents, teachers, janitors, carpenters, etc.? Why permit good Romanists to live upon the earnings of place in our public-school system, if it is such a wicked thing? Why peril the souls of Catholic school-marms by exposing them on Beelzebub's battle-field? Why are good Catholics so anxious to be elected to our Board of education? Why is a certain Irish Democratic Roman Catholic school-master so persistent in his endeavor to become superintendent of the common schools of San Francisco? If the “Catholic family journal, devoted to the propagation,” etc., is not too busy, we hope it will answer these conundrums.—The Argonaut.