The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-06-19
The Catholic Church and the Public
Schools.

The attitude of the Roman Catholic
Church towards our public school system is
one of aggression. 1t desires to get con-
troll of the education of the young with a
view to priestly instruction. Our common
school system is the offspring of free peo-
pie, and could only exist in a country of
free institutions. Indeed, it is unsuited to
the habit of priestly tyranny, which could
emily alter it's character and destroy its vir-
tue. The Romish Church breads the pub
lie school because the youth instructed
there know nothing of priestly intolerance.
Bishop McQuaid, at Cincinnati, denounced
the public schools of that state as " Goddess
Schools as there was no religious teach
ing. The outrage perpetrated by the
Bishop, and of which he ought to be
ashamed, consisted in the fact that the
reading of the Bible in the public schools
of Cincinnati was dispensed with through
Roman Catholic influence. A State does
not undertake to teach religion; but among
Christian nations, in the education of chill
dren, the Bible is not an unknown book.
A religious sect in this country like the
Roman Catholic Church, which banishes
the Bible from the public schools in local
ity where the ignorance of its church men,
beers abounds, cannot stigmatise those
schools as Goddess on that account,
without deserving and receiving severe re-
Duke. What it gains in Cincinnati in this
respect, it will lose with contempt in States
where the Roman sect has less power.
Is it not strange that in Rome where the
Pope dwells and the whole machinery of
the Catholic Church is at work, the Roman
bor In ha or ha OH
They desire to break away from all priestly
instruction and have their children educat-
ed to become good citizens. They find
that schools under the supervision of priests
are not such as they desire to perpetuate.
Even the Romish Parochial Schools"
now clamored for by the Catholic priest
hood of New York, the Romans hate, and
will not have. There are, therefore, "God-
less schools in Rome which send out
pupils better trained for the duties of life
than those taught by the priests.
Moreover, the political power of the
priesthood is .curtailed in Rome, and the
Romans are not to be hoodwinked as to the
political character of the Catholic Church.
In the Goddess schools" in Rome the
Bible is read, and the boys and girls are
taught to love their country and be loyal to
their sovereign, while the pupils in clerical
schools are not, but taught that their fdel-
ity is due first of all, to the Pope.
The difference is great. The elements of
patriotism and obedience to law are want
ing as subjects Of instruction in clerical
schools, which exist in the public schools
of this country. The founders of public
schools and those who support them desire
that they shall be made available for the
instruction of children in the best and
noblest precepts of citizenship. Where
the Roman Catholic Church is powerless
for political evil, the children read the
Word of God with profit. The Republican
party is the party Of education; and has
done more to extend the public school sys-
tenn during the last decade than the Demo-
cratic party during it's whole existence
The Democratic party, for political rea
sons, is in league with the Roman Catholic
Church. That party will aid the church in
its designs for the sake of the Catholic
vote, which is cast at the bidding of the
priesthood. Free public education is one
of the cardinal doctrines of the Republican
party; and it expects the support of every
right thinking man; for its principles are
those which alone can preserve the freedom
of the country, and keep it in the true path
| of progress.