Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-03-17

The virtual expulsion of one hundred Cath
Ole children from one of the Boston schools
has FASTENED into notice one Of the most diff
cult and delicate questions which the friends
and guardians of the public schools are called
to decide 1t concerns the authority which
has been wisely vested in the hands of school
committees it also concerns the constitution
al rights and sincere convictions of many Cit
zens, which cannot be sneered out of sight.
1t should, therefore, be considered in that toll
Grant and Christian spirit which respects sin
cerity of religious conviction, by whatever
name it may be called. Certainly, the public
mind should not be swayed by that partizan
spirit, which has already, before the facts have
hna- sa+:faats-ils- olaitad sa;zad the ss.;rcun,-
OF Catholicism which clings to many otherwise
liberal and tolerant people with the tenacity of
chronic disease. We have miscellaneous
enough of the cause of the difficulty, and rep
ititions of the absurd clamor about priestly in
reference and Jesuitical conspiracy But they
are neither charitable nor convincing APP
peals to sectarian prejudice and passion are
sometimes unfortunately effective, but they
display singular narrowness of mind and heart
The primary cause of the present difficulty,
as derived from the most impartial sources,
was that the Catholic children, who constitute
a majority of the Elliot school, when they
came to repeat the Lords Prayer and the Ten
Commandments, repeated the version with
which they were most familiar, and which
they had been taught to believe correct The
variation in the Prayer is very slight, the
Catholics emitting the last phrase, Chime
shall be the kingdom &c." and changing one
or two unessential words. The Command
ments in both versions are the same, though
differently enumerated. The Catholic boys
had been undoubtedly advised at home, or
elsewhere, to follow their translation rather
than the Protes tant, which they believe to be
wrong. Some reports say that other offences
were committed; some go so far as to assert
that there was an organized rebellion among
the Catholic boys against devotional exercises.
But the evidence yet given establishes no more
than we have stated. The original offence for
which one boy was chastised with cruel sever
ity, was the refusal to repeat the Protestant
rather than the Catholic form of Command
ment and Prayer.
1t is not for us to judge the motives or the
sincerity of others who profess to cherish the
Christian faith. Wherever on Gods footstool
there lives a man of. consistent practice
and pious life, protesting faith in the rev.
Citations of God, and willing to make sacrifices
for his faith, we are willing to assume the fact
OF his christianity, whatever he may choose to
call himself 1t is sheer Pharisaism and hypo-
ocrisy to judge men by the standard of per-
ishable ereeds and rituals, and to enforce
rigid compliance with one or another of them
at the peril of social and civil prescription
Our system Of free schools derives much of
its benefceaee from the fact that they are
not sectarian The theory on which they are
established is antagonistic to every kind of re-
hgicus distinction. Catholics and Calvinists
meet there on common ground, for common
secular purpose, tacitly consenting that the
convictions of both shall be respected. They
agree, according to the light which is given
them and the advantages which they enjoy, in
their appreciation Of the Common Schools,
and in the propriety of associating with the
ordinary methods Of instruction, all proper
manifestations of religious devotion and
belief They simply ask that the devotions
shall not be of such a character as to amount
to practical denial of their form of faith.
And, with rare exceptions, they have asked it
with modesty and dignity which no hon.
est Protestant can find it in his heart to censure.