The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-08-27

OF Church and state, declares that IL
IS doubtful if the authority of the
State or the liberty Of the citizen will
hes e without the supremacy of the
Church.
Hence, the Roman Catholic Church
resists the Public Schools as atheisti-
cal. because they are not under her
control. Her system of education
must be ecclesiastical and political
She opposes the State provision for
general education, because it does not
teach the Roman Catholic religion,
and the Roman Catholic religion
means the supremacy of the Church
in politics. In her system we, see a
power assuming a higher authority
over the consciences of her subjects
than that of the State--for she holds
the spiritual power from which the
State derives its MISUNDERSTANDING
that all political principles are theo-
logical principles, and that the Office
of the State is simply to apply the
principles which the Church decla es !;
holding her subjects in. close politi-
cal and religious organiza ton, under
an ecclesiasticism which denies that
any affairs are secular. or out of her
jurisdiction, and which believes that
the supremacy of political affairs,
making a perfect unity of Church and
State, is necessary to the preservation
of civil and religious liberty.
We have looked upon the, Catholic
as but the naturaljealousy that a
church which for centuries had been
accustomed to rule Governments,
might feel when thrown into state
| which has no religion, and in which
Protestants largely preponderated.
We have regarded it as the result of a
not unnatural feeling of alienism, and
have supposed that this jealousy of
governmental institutions not under
their control might perhaps have been
increased by some over Jealous intro
duction of religious services or of
books into the schools, that were OBJ
jectionable to the Catholics
In. this view we have hoped that
this alienage from the public institu-
tons which the American people be-
lieve to be essential to the public
welfare, and which are certainly very
popular, would be temporary, and
that ere long the Catholics would
merge their schools in the public
school system, and take their rightful
share in their direction, not as q
Church, but as citizens. Inasmuch
as all school education is nearly the
same, and as the standard school
books have nothing Objectionable to
any religion, it was. believed by the
American people that school educa-
ton could be provided at the expense
of the State, without trenchiug on the
parental or Church province of reli-
gious training, and we have hoped
that the Catholic Church would in
time conform to the American sys-
tenn of common school education in
secular learning, and would be con-
tent with the province of religious
training where it would still hold.
and within which it could concen-
trate all it's efforts.
But when we see the Catholic mag
azine, which has distinguished itself
by semblance of liberal ideas, laying
down this theory that the Church is
tn G fountain of The authority of the
State. and that spiritual control over
political affairs is the unity of the
Church and State, and that without
this the State is nothing but political
atheism; and when we see the Gath
olic Telegraph, to which, also, we used
to look for liberal ideas, character
ling our system of public education
as =" the atheistical common school
system, = we have to conclude that no
progress has yet been made in this de-
sired Americanization, and that the
Roman Catholic. theory does not ad-
nit of it. 81 y a'7 9
Is this theory likely to prevail in
America? Will this ecclesiastical
organization of the Catholic popula-
ton which asserts its supremacy over
every. affair in life be Glikelya. to
secure that supremacy in our politics
which the Catholic world declares
necessary to rescue. the State from
political atheism, and to make the
true unity of Church and State? For
midable as a balance of political
power it undoubtedly will, be, but in
any direct issue it will always COM
bine all the other elements against it,
and these, when united, will always
be the stronger And, furthermore.
the more rigidly that church attempts
to draw its ecclesiastical power, the
sooner will it lose its control. The
growth of its Influence in this coun-
try depends on its conformi " to the
spirit of the American institutions.
Our Government does not go back of
the rights of man to find its authori-I
ty, nor will it be- likely to accept any
priesthood as the expounders Of that
authority, nor as the directors of po-
litical affairs upon that assumption.
If this is atheism, it will have to be
endured. 'S. eNab1 .s1,lQ ..t.l2. i