Church and State Education
By L. A. S.
THROUGH the spirit of prophecy we are instructed that the time will come “when Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power,” and “our country . . . shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions.” And when this occurs, “then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near.” It is chiefly through its educational system that the papacy propagates its falsehoods and delusions. It is this educational system that has made the existing friction between the papacy and France. If the papacy should secure governmental support for its educational system in the United States, provision would be made here for the propagation of Romish errors as the prediction specifies will be done. This instruction gives added interest to the fact that in this country Rome has made strong and persistent efforts to accomplish just this thing. Rome understands the value of education. She understands the importance to her interests of getting control of the instruction of the young. She sees in the rising generation, the great recruiting ground for the future army of her adherents. She greatly regrets that the vast majority of the youth in this country now attend the public schools instead of the parochial schools. It is the cherished plan of the papacy to Romanize the public school system, so that the vast power of that system shall be exercised to build up the Catholic Church. To this end Rome persistently denounces the public school system as a godless one, and argues for the necessity of religious instruction in the schools. But Rome does not desire that any instruction shall be given of which she does not approve. The papacy aims to secure representation on public-school boards, and to have Romanizing teachers placed in the public schools, even going so far in some cases as to insist that nuns be allowed to teach in the schools, clothed in their distinctive religious garb. Another aim is to secure recognition of the parochial schools as being entitled to public support, by the appropriation of public funds for their maintenance. The great Catholic federation which is now perfecting its organization in this country, has among its chief aims the promotion of an alliance between the state and the church in the matter of public education. Recently a convention of the federation of Catholic societies of Louisiana was held in New Orleans, at which the following resolution on “Christian education” was passed:— Resolved, That we observe with deep satisfaction the gradual growth among our non-Catholic fellow citizens of the conviction that religious instruction of some sort in the school, is absolutely necessary for the welfare of our country. Witness the discussion of the National Educational Association and of the Religious Education Association, both of which fully justify the position maintained by us Catholics for the past half century. To this was added a proposition to place parochial-school buildings at the disposal of the state, reserving the right to appoint teachers, who are to be paid out of the common school fund. If Rome were given the privilege of appointing the teachers in the public schools, but little more, if anything, would be needed to convert them into Catholic institutions. A Catholic priest, “Father” Thomas5A. Hendrick, was for some years a member of the board of regents of the University of the State of New York. When he was appointed to an ecclesiastical post in the Philippine islands, it was understood that his successor on the board of regents must be a man who would be a representative Catholic. About that time there was published in the New York Tribune, an account of an interview which Priest Hendrick had with Pope Leo, in August, 1902, in which the pope made reference to the priest’s connection with public education in the United States. The latter in his description of the interview says:— He had heard that I was a regent of the University of the State of New York, and with that power of grasping the details of unfamiliar things, he showed that he understood what this meant. “The cause of education is of the greatest importance to the state,” Leo said, “and for this reason I bless every institution under your care. I am much pleased with the great and generous American people, who saw fit to elect you, a Roman Catholic priest, to such a position of trust. It shows they recognize the value of a Christian education; and because they have recognized such qualifications in you, I, too, am sure that by you the Christian education of young boys and girls will not be neglected.”
The account further states that the pope on this occasion “paid a high compliment to the American people, and also to the educational policy of the State of New York.” The reason of his compliment was not that this educational policy was an excellent one from an American standpoint, but that it was so largely in the interests of the papacy. It was opening the way for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions. It was an approach to the church and state system of education which is the papal ideal, as expressed in the official organ of the Vatican, the Osservatore Romano, which, in speaking of the educational system of the United States, said: “In those states, indeed, religious conditions suffer enormously on account of the unhappy principle of the separation of church and state, which in practise means a struggle against Christianity and Catholicism.” This pro-papal educational policy in the leading State of the Union occasioned no small stir among those Protestants who discerned in it an effort to divert public funds to the upbuilding of Catholic schools; but we have not heard that the policy has undergone any modification. The policy of religious teaching in state schools is a distinctively papal policy, to which true Protestantism is necessarily opposed. Christianity can not be taught by the agencies of the state. The Roman religion, however, requires only human agencies for its inculcation. It is a religion of externals, of outward forms and observances, and of dogmas based only on human authority. All these can be taught in the state schools and good Catholics can be made by a church-and-state system of education. But Christianity is a religion resting on superhuman authority and wisdom, and requiring for its promulgation superhuman agencies over whom the state can have no control. Its text-book is the Word of God, its teacher the Holy Spirit. It is the science of the knowledge of God, and no advancement at all can be made in it without that power of spiritual discernment which necessitates a change of heart. This removes it altogether from the province of state education, and when the state attempts to teach Christianity, the necessary result is to inculcate religious error under a Christian name. But the movement for religious teaching in the public schools is apparently gaining ground, and if Rome, through the Catholic federation and other influences under her command, shall succeed in setting up an educational system based on an alliance of the state with the church, it will then be true that “our country,” will have made “provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions,” and that the time for the final marvelous working of Satan has been reached. L. A. S.