Roman Catholics and Public Schools
Roman Catholics and Public Schools.—We are frequently told that Roman Catholics are not against our public schools; and it is doubtless true that many lay Catholics are not; but the hierarchy condemns them in toto. Archbishop Elder of Cincinnati is a good representative; let him speak. In a recent letter to the priests of his diocese, which was read in the churches the last Sunday in August, he expressed his regrets that “some fathers and mothers . . . send their children to non-Catholic schools.” He says that it is “the doctrine of the church . . . that to attend a non-Catholic school constitutes usually a grave and permanent danger to the faith, and that, therefore, it is a mortal sin for any parents to send their children to such a school, except where there is no other suitable school, and unless such precautions are taken as to make the danger remote.” He furthermore declares that the parents are not to decide as to the child’s attendance or non-attendance, but the bishop. Yet the Roman Catholics are rapidly putting teachers in the public schools.