Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-12-02
tn T. PRIEST AND THE
TEACHER.

luIiou. NOIWitHS taHuiHS INC iaoS
that all the venerable old fossils
unite in bewailing the degeneracy
of the men of the present day the
same sturdy Puritan spirit that
threw the chests of tea into the
waters of Boston Harbor and made
the first file that was employed in
saving off the shackles of Ameri-
can slavery seems still to live in
and actuate the people living in and
around the Club of the Universe. !"
This controversy of which we speak
is the same one now going on in
some of the Catholic countries of
Europe, viewed through TIE small
end of the telescope.
From the very nature of
our institutions religious polemics
assume o milder form with
US than they do in those
lands where religious freedom is to
be found only on paper. It's an open
secret that the authorities of the
Roman Church do not view with
feelings of any great kindness the
public schools of America, but until
quite recently the disfavor has not
been manifestedb by any marked meth
cd of opposition. That Church always
has been believer in the " train
child in the way he should go" idea,
and, where it is possible, has con-
trolled absolutely the education of
its youth. To this is due the wons
derful success that has attended its
efforts in times gone by. Its teach
ers, until a comparatively recent
period, have been the finest in the
world and their influence upon the
malleable mind of the young was
incalculable. In America the au>
thorities have been rather cautious
in using the vast influence that the
church machinery puts into their
hands, knowing full well that it res
quires but short breath Of
freedom to foster spirit of indie
pendence that is hard to battle
against.
A demagogue, though, can some
times spoil the work of a
dozen statesmen, as we Of
this State have reason, to our
sorrow to know; and an impru-
dent man can sometimes render
utterly worthless the efforts of the
wisest and most cautious men.
Such thing happened in the town
of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts,.
The priest in charge of the parish
is Rev. Father Scully. This man
has for some time past been untir-
ing in his efforts to prevent the
members of his flock from sending
their children to the public schools.
Finally, finding that all his milder
modes of treatment would be unable
to cope successfully with the evil, as
he considered it, he published a
pronunciamento, setting forth that a
camel might more easily pass
through the eye of a cambria
needle than child educated in the
public schools could enter the
blissful land prepared for true
believers, and furthermore an
nounced it as his unalterable de-
cision that parents who persisted in
sending their children to the sun
godly public schools should be
denied the last sacraments to thf
dying.
Even this heroic treatment, cut
ting as it did at the very seat Of
life of Catholic belief, was not
attended with such good effects as
the Rev. Father fondly hoped il
would. A poor mans fortune il
his offspring, and where there was a
large fortune, the tuition at the
parish school was beyond the pocket
of many of the members of his
church, and they must needs dis
obey the mandate or leave their
little ones to grow up in ignorance
and vice. Now, parental love is
mighty thing, in fact, it passes al
comprehension. Numerous parents
resolved to brave the wrath to come
rather than entail upon their chils
dren the curse of illiteracy, and to
the nnhlic school these children