The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1875-06-18
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
A Plain-SpOken Article from the Cath
Ollie Telegraph.
Secular Schools "a GrieVOus and In,
sulting Outrage" to the Church
of Rome.

sulting Outrage" to the Church
Of Rome.
The Catholic Telegraph, of the 81
inst, quotes the following paragraph
in which the New York Tribune CRITICS
es certain strong utterances of the Pres
byterian General Assembly on the rela
tions of the church of Rome to the pub
lie schools
General Assemblies of Protestant
ought to consider that the advocates O
secular education are not fighting thei
battle. Catholics ought to be catholi,
enough to admit that are notopposin[
or even questioning their faith when We
protest against the interference of any
church with the public schools, or thu
interference Of any Legislation with tn,
subject of religion or religious instruc
ton" -..... .........
1t then goes on to say what it hai
often said in substance before, bu
never, we think, quite so boldly anC
plainly. ..I.. ....
Catholics can not make the above ad
mission without ceasing to be Catholics
The forty-seventh and forty-eighth arti.
cles of the syllabus have authoratively
settled for all time that the exclusion Of
religious instruction from daily educa-
ton is damnable religious error, which
Catholics can not approve without de-
nial of faith and commission of sin.
Legislation does, therefore, as far as
Catholics are concerned, interfere with
the subject of religion. The State has
no inherent authority to exclude religion
from public education. When it does
so It plays the tyrant, clothing itself
with a commission of power for which it
can show no warrant. If the State did
not tax us TO support institutions that
deny us liberty of conscience, we would
not complain, at leastfof injustice. The
ruin which secular education will inevi-
tably bring upon the State would, how.
ever, not be averted, But as long as
the present system prevails, the, State
not only questions our faith, but denies
to us it's free and unrestricted exercise.
Moreover, in this denial it givesia pref
erence to a sect, the no-sect, the latest
form of Professionalism. Its creed is the
denial of all positive revealed religion,
and this is the logical sequence of the
full development of the protest which
rebels raised against the divine authori-
ty of the Church three centuries ago.
If there are. thousands in this country
protesting to belong to some one of the
many Protestant denominations, and
who yet favor the elimination of rei-
gion from the training of youth, their
seemingly illogical position can be easi-
ly explained. They have unconsciously
accepted the final conclusion to which
their false religion leads--they think
and act as infdels because infidelity is
the matured fruit of Professionalism.
They favor the expulsion of God from
the school-room because they have ex-
PEELED all belief in Christianity as su-
pernatural religion from their minds.
If any Catholic desires to take the same
side on the school question, he virtually
places himself in the category of those
who boldly deny that the Son of God
the Church to teach all
nations. He admits that the State is
the supreme teacher, guide and law
giver-a very popular religion, it is
true, in these anti Christian days;
but those who embrace it cease to be
Catholics. No State has the right to
say to the Catholic citizen that he must
violate his conscience, and that his child
must drop his faith at the door of the
school house; and any regime of educa-
tion which requires this is goddess, pa
gan, and anti-American.
"The present system of public schools
brands Catholic faith as a crime, and
the American State Furnishes it yearly
by fines equal in amount to the sum
which Catholics are compelled to ex-
pend after the payment of school tax
upon the Catholic education OF their
children. The American school law is a
genal enactment against the Catholic re-
ligion, originating and perpetuated in
the same spirit that has driven the edu-
eating orders of the Church from the
soil of Germany. 1t does not tighten
the grievance, it does not extenuate its
injustice to appeal to the denial of the
right of Protestants to have their chill
dren educated in their faith. The in
jury inflicted by the hand of the State
upon one party is no atOnement; for al
wrong can be no justification of an in
jury done to another. If ProtestantsI
are willing to adopt the teaching of in.
fidelity, this willingness does not confer
upon any political organization the au-
thority TO compel Catholics to pursue
the same course of appostate. He who
hath not care of his own household has
denied the faith, and is worse than an
inidel; and the Church with no uncer-
tain sound, in no ambiguous language,
but In clear, explicit and decisive phrase
ology, has declared to the Catholic
world that the religious education of
their children is an all-important care, al
paramount of duty, which can not be
neglected without guilt There could,
therefore, hardly be a more impudent
falsehood than the assertion that a pub
lie secular system Of education does not
interfere with the religion of Catholics.
1t is an interference that amounts to al
most greyious and insulting outrage; i'll
illustrates most perfectly the brute rule
of a reckless majority in the domain of
religion, from which the letter of Amer
ican law excludes all interference. ItalsoI
teaches truth which it would be well
for sneering, mocking enemies to pom
der and remember-that in the field of
Of politics no American principle of civil
liberty can be violated without violating
some Catholic doctrine, some principle