, 1877-04-07
The Popc's New Enc,clicaI.

The New York Suadoy Den,oc,ot re.
Gently published the iullowlng:-
The Holy Father is not unmindtul o
his children in the United States. and
has addressed, AS We stated last week, An
encycical to the Cardinal, Archhishops,
and Bish rps, IN which he condemns the
public school system
1t has been the fashion for the Cntho.
lie advocates of the public schools to
distinguish between the system of god,
less education condemned in Europe
and that followed here. In his enCycI.
ca! the Pope does not admit Of any dis.
tinctinn, and quotes from the celebrated
POntiical letter to the Archbishop of
Freyburg
The Pope leaves it TO the discretion of
each Bishep to judge of the propriety OF
publishing the encycllcal. How tar the
Cardinal will enforce it we have no
means of knowing
The sangune optimists who imagine
tkat Catholic hostility to the public
school system means no mischief, or will
soon blow over, are the worst possible
advisers of the American people at pres.
ent. The iactsnrc, first, that the Roman
Catholic Church, with its vast, powerful,
and rapidly growing organization, is re-
solved to exert its utAost energy to
overthrow the principle OF State educa-
tion altogether in this country, and to
substitute us tar as 1t can the principle
of denominational or Churh education,
relying on its own ability to kin out its
Protestant rivals; and, secondly, that
this invetcrnte and determined hostility
threatens the whole State school system
with real danger whi h it is faulty to
underestimate What Is it
Not 50 much that the Roman Church
will succeed in getting control Of the
public schools or in securing their i'm
mediate abolition; but that it will drive
the defenders of these schools into a
position which in the long run will wean
the people from them. whatever the
relative number Of Evangelical Protest
ants and of thorough liberals in the
United States, the political power is all
in the hands of the former for the sim
pie reason that, relatively conside'ed.
they are effectively organizcd; and
whatever the EvangchcaIs, therefore, re-
solve to do will certainly be done, us
matters now stand. II they adopt u
fixed and unanimous line Of policy with
respect to the public schools, they will
Just as certainly carry it into execution
ns they shut up mominally ut IeasO the
International Exhibition lust summer.
Blrstel aud boasting will avail the lib
erals nothing they will be cOntemptu-
ously showed aside just so long ms they
remain unorgunzed on a large scale, and
will be compelled to swallow whatever
pill, no matter how bitter, their Ortho-
doN masters ay choose to force between
their teeth. The conflict ;hickens; the
decisive hour approaches; and the lib
erals remain politically zero, because
they have not vet learned the lesson OF
combination and cooperation.
What policy, then, is it likely that the
Evangelicals will adopt under the gall
ing and irritating fire of the Catholics!
1t will probably be exactly shat which
the Catholics secretly hope they will
adopt; namely, to uphold the State
school system, but Mt the same time
strive to redeem it from the crafty re-
proach of being "godless," That is, it
wilISje to defend the Bible in the schools
with at least 50 much of religious wor-
ship AS now obtains in them and human
nature will not be quite So human n
usual, fit does not prompt the demand
for mole than now obtains, Hut this
policy cannot be carried out successfully
ns things now are; the secular idea is
spreading rapidly every day, and in sov.
eral places, as Chicago, Rochester, At
bany, Troy, hus proved itself in the as
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