p. 8 | ROME AND OUR SCHOOLS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 10, 1904

ROME AND OUR SCHOOLS.

By Editor

FROM an editorial in the Union Signal of January 14 we take the following striking setting forth of the attitude which the Roman Church sustains toward the public school system of the United States. It is well to remember, too, that this is her attitude toward everything else which she does not control in this country; and while remembering that, it would be well to remember that her cause is not weakened, but rather strengthened, by the efforts of Protestant editors and preachers to bolster up Sunday, the pet child of the Papacy, by legal enactments. We quote:—

The Roman Catholic Church is persistent in its attacks upon the American public school. Its chief open objection is that our schools are “godless,” and the latest notable renewal of this charge is that made by Cardinal Gibbons. Had some individual priest or bishop expressed himself in precisely the same words as did Cardinal Gibbons, the incident would have lacked most of its significance, but when the man pre-eminent in Catholicism in America sees fit to utter his views upon any public question, it may serve as an index to the thought and purpose of the Catholic body as to the matter concerned. In this case the Cardinal’s remarks not only call attention again to the attitude of Catholicism on the school question, but they would also indicate two things: First, that Rome in America believes she has reached a degree of strength that brings bold and defiant utterance within the bounds of things to be taken seriously; second, that the public school system of the United States is one of the chief obstacles to Catholic domination in America, and hence an institution to be destroyed if possible.

Were our cities overwhelmingly peopled by men and women thoroughly American in sympathies and views, the irruption of this question now and again might be allowed to pass almost unnoticed, but when we remember that our urban populations are for the most part of foreign birth and parentage, and also that an increasing proportion of this majority is now coming from countries where Catholicism has ruled the minds of the common people for generations, then the statements of the leading Catholic on this continent demand serious treatment.

Cardinal Gibbons has said that “the system of public education in this country is imperfect and vicious, and undermines the religion of our youth,” and also that “the education of pupils therein is shallow and fragmentary, and often proves a curse instead of a blessing.”

It will be noticed that he attacks our schools upon both the moral and the intellectual side. It is, then, in perfect order to inquire as to the moral and intellectual benefits that Catholic education has conferred upon those peoples that have long been guided by that church.

Of course, the line of attack upon our schools is the demand that the funds for public education be so divided as to allow the Catholics to use a portion for their parochial school system. That is, all taxpayers must assist in paying the expenses of denominational schools. We note that some of our religious exchanges rather ignore the possibility of this being a serious issue in America, falling into our common American error of reading the future only by the past, overlooking the fact that we are a nation of changing populations and ideas, that to the majority of our citizens of foreign birth the ideals that inspired the founding of this nation are practically unknown.

We are rather inclined to agree with Dr. Bliss, when he says: “It seems a concerted movement all along the line. Prominent Roman Catholics—including among their number the great name of Cardinal Gibbons, and making use alike of contributions to the popular press and more learned articles in the American Catholic Quarterly—are attacking our public schools as Rome has not attacked them for many years. Some believe that it is a new movement directed from the Vatican; but, however, this may be, the battle is on, and it behooves Protestants and all loyal Americans of every faith to be both forewarned and forearmed.”