The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1880-03-17
TIE ROMAN oArHoLI0 QUESTION.

tween our common schools and those of
Rome. 1t is we'll to compare them intellect
ually and morally, in their aims and tenden-
influence upon the character and future Of the
pupils, and their effect upon the respectable
ity, safety, and prosperity of the State. This
necessity is forced upon the intelligent Roman
Catholic fathers and mothers who know that
papal decree on mixed education has no in
falbility, who value American institutions
and the rights of their children as American
citizens and who look with parental care to
their fitting instruction.
Let the Jesuts once become to tho State
as regards education, an emporium in imperio
let them, independently of the civil power,
determine the character of the studies and the
selection and approval of the teachers, taking
care, as the Syllabus directs, that the schools
shall not he in conformity to the will of the
rulers or the prevailing opinion of the age, but
shall be Joined to the Roman Catholic faith
and the power of the Roman Catholic Church
and on the principle that he who controls
the education of country controls its future,
they may with reason regard their hoped-for
control of the schools as the capture of the
outworks and bulwarks of the Republic,
whose guns may be turned against all that
shall remain of its political and religious
freedom.
But the antagonsm between the Christian
teaching given in our public schools in regard
to chastity, truth, and justice, etc., aud that
a,,tl I'd l,ut ha l..
will presently appear, very striking and the
views of the Roman Court as to the intellect
ual education which they approve for their
subjects are equally opposed to those of the
American people for what they demand for
their children as the future sovereigns of the
Republic.
Cardinal Cullen, in his evidence before the
Educational Committee, given In their report
of 1870, frankly stated his opinion that ednca-
ton should be limited to " the three RS, the
reading of the Scriptures, and the history of
the Church. Too much education would
make the poor disconnected with their lot and
insult them for following the plough, using
the spade, hammering iron, and building
walls.n
view similar to that of Cardinal Cullen
was expressed to Mr. Dexter A. Hawkins, of
the New York bar, by His Exeellency, Cardi-
nal Antonelli, who said " that lie thought IL
better that the children should grow up in ig-
norance than be educated in such a system of
schools as the State Of Massachusetts supports.
That the essential part Of education the
catecnlsm and while arithmetic and geogra---
ply and other similar studies might be useful,
they were not essential
Without referring to similar statistics abroad
of reformatories and industrial schools, we
find at home census and police returns all tell
ing the same story-that Roman Catholic
schools, as compared with our own are prop
uganda of ignorance, superstition, vagrancy,
paupersm, and crime that they endanger
society by recruiting the dangerous classes !;
that they burden society with load of taxa
tion, and that they endanger the stability of
our institutions by debasing our civilization.
We shall presently ask how far those infu-
ences are accounted for by the character of
their teachings.
Mr.. Hawkins has shown from the United
States census of 1870, the comparative number
of illiterates, paupers, and criminals, to every
10000 inhabitants, produced respectively by
the Roman Catholic parochial schools, the
public schools in twenty one States, and by
the public schools In Massachusetts. When
they are arranged for more easy comparison,
1t is easy to appreciate the objections Of AL
derman Reardon and his friends, of Cam
bridgeport, to transfer their children from the
State schools of Massachusetts, to that Of
Father Scully.
10 EVERY 10000 INHABITANTS.
Hitter Pau Grim