THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL AGAIN.
THERE is a revival of the parochial school question in the eastern states, due directly to instruction from the Vatican. The Southern Watchman has the following to say concerning the revival of this question in Nashville:— The Catholic Church is fully alive to the importance of keeping its influence over the children and youth. It has provided five parochial schools for the city of Nashville; but Catholic parents do not seem to appreciate their privilege—or their duty—in this respect. While there are several thousands of Catholic children in the city, the attendance at the parochial schools is said to be only from nine hundred to one thousand. The church has taken hold of this subject in dead earnest. Bishop Byrne has issued a letter to the churches of his diocese—that of Tennessee—making it obligatory on Catholic parents to send their children to schools where they may obtain the benefits of “Christian education.” They must not send their children to non-Catholic or secular schools without “a valid and sufficient reason;” and the validity and sufficiency of the reason must be judged, not by the parents, but by the church. This letter is not simply an appeal to the conscience of Roman Catholics and their loyalty to the church and its teachings; but those parents who continue to send their children to secular schools without a reason that the church will accept, “will be denied absolution from their sins, and refused the sacrament.” Think what this means to persons who believe, as good Catholics do, that the church can remit their sins, and that they can be remitted in no other way. This is a sample of the way the Catholic Church tyrannizes over the conscience. But this is not all. The next move is pretty sure to be a fight for a share of the public school money.