Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-04-01
ATTACK ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Iniquify of the Public Schools
Sermon by Rev. Father Walker.

New York Herald of Monday. -.,....f
The congregation of st. Lawrence
Roman Catholic Church in Eighty
fourth street, which has been accus-
toned to the refined preaching of men
Hike Glackmeyer, Beaudevin, Thebaud,
EGockien, s Moylan and Archamband,
was somewhat startled yesterday by q
strikingly original sermon on the pub
lie schools by the Rev. Father Walker,
8 very jealous Irish Jesuit prizes, recent
ly transferred from the South. Father
Walker has a very vigorous, direct
way of speaking. There is no mineing
matters with him. He talks right out
in the very plainest and frankest style,
but it is very doubtful whether his
style will prove either popular or ef-
fective in his present field of labors.
In announcing yesterday that next
Sundays collection would be for the
benefit of the parochial schools he took
occasion to denounce the public school
system of New York in the most bitter
and iniudicious manner. Woe be to
the parents shouted he in the manner
of one hurting anathemas, woe be to
the parents who send their children to
these public schools Woe be to those
who secretly favor them in their hearts!
I would not like to be in their places
on the day of judgment. The public
schools are the nurseries Of vice. They
are Goddess schools, and they who send
their children to them cannot expect
the mercy of God. They ought not to
expect the sacramepts of the Church in
their dying moments. 1hOpe you and
1 will live to see the day when it will
be understood that parents who COM
NIT this great sin will refused the sacfa-
ments of the Church. what let them
die without the rites of the Church,
you will ask. 'Yes, / may say SO.
would as soon administer the sacra-
ments to dog as to such Catholics.
Did not Jesus Christ suffer one of his
apostles to die without the rites Of the
Church in despair? So would let
these wretched Catholics perish. Cath
Olics! They are no Catholics. They
are Catholics of the pOthouse politician
stripe-men who deceive and betray
tho poor ignorant, innocent Irish emf
grants when they arrive in this cOun-
try; men who make their poor coun-
trymen; when they are only few
months in this country, perjure them
selves to become citizens; men who
have no faith or charity in their hearts.
You may say, 'Ah, but l know good
men and women, good priests and
bishops, good fathers and mothers, who
were brought up in the public schools
True, but they are the rare exceptions
-one il thousand or ten thousand.
You will say, also, But some of the
teachers are Catholics What of it?
What do they know about the vice all
around therl-the contamination and
villainy: They don't know it; they
never see it. But We priests know it.
Go look at the water-closets in some of
your public schools, and see there the
scribblings and markings on the wall,
and you will realize the vice and infa-
my that prevail at these masteries of
crime. l tell you, Catholics, you do
not realize the dangers to your child
rem. The great effort of the en-
emy of Gods Holy Church in these
days is to get control of the education
of the youth, in the hope of this coun-
teracting the blessed influence of the
priests of God. The enemy has aban-
doned every other effort. Look to it,
then, that you fall not victim to his
insiduous arts"
The preacher then alluded to the
wonderful growth of the Church, and
the iniquity of taxing Catholics for the
support of schools they did not want
and could not send their children to.
He said there were 600,00 Catholics in
this diocese alone, 100000 more in
Brooklyn diocese, and hundreds of
thousands more in Albany, Buffalo
and Ogdensburg. If all these banded
themselves together yalisntly TO de-
mand their rights, think you they
could fail? No; they could not. They
would soon show their strength, and
triumph in their fellow Catholics in
Ohio.
The remarks of Father Walker made
a profound sensation among those who
heard them, and opinions differed very
much as to the wisdom of soundness of
such radical utterances.