L. A. S by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Aug 25, 1904

L. A. S

By L. A. S.

Speaking on the text, “Render therefore to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s,” a Catholic spokesman at the recent Catholic convention in Detroit said:—

The principal contention between the church and the state to-day is in regard to the education of the young. The church did not propose this question for discussion. It is not a debatable question among Catholics. It was the state, both here and in Europe, that threw down the gauntlet by usurping the prerogative conferred by Christ on the church when he told her “to teach all nations”—a prerogative which she exercised from her very foundation, and which was not called in question by the state until infidels and atheists acquired control of the governments in Christian countries.

The state has no authority to teach religion, but it does not follow thereby that the state can exist without religion. History proves that no state, ancient or modern, ever existed without some form of religion. Religion is the corner-stone of order in any state.

This states the Catholic claim in regard to public education. The state has no authority to teach religion, it says (which is very true), and the secular educational system of the state is, in the Catholic view, a usurpation of “the prerogative conferred by Christ on the church;” hence it follows that the state has no right to teach at all, and that all education, both secular and religious, should be in the hands of the church. In Catholic countries this is the educational system which prevails.

And this means the complete subjection of the state to the church; for if the church has full control of the education of the young, she can put her mold and stamp upon everything, and make the state as papal as is the church herself. The state is then merely a power to enforce the church’s bidding, by its police, its legislatures, and its courts, and it is the church that really exercises the power of the state. The two are really merged into one, that one being the church, though outwardly they are separate organizations.

The education of the young is the surest avenue to that complete control of public affairs which the Catholic Church desires, and this is why that church is making such persistent efforts to obtain vantage-ground for her educational system in this country. To yield to Rome in this matter in any degree is to contribute that much toward the future extinction of the state save as an appendage of the papal church.