The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-04-02
THE ROMAN DECISION.

a CdOl0Sfaul OIL lu0Sudy ltaSt duuOuuCou
that the Pope had notified our Archbishp
that no doctrinal decision at the present
time would be given on the school ques-
tion. If these tidings be true the guns
of the enemy are spiked for the nonce
and His Grace may now set his face to-
wards home. IF Oh his homeward trip
he does not carry a cardinals hat, he has
every reason to wear a smile as broad as
one and to carry the bearing of a man,
who was without doubt to be .riddled to
pieces, but who somehow comes out Of
the struggle fresh and unscathed, whole
and intact. 1t may take some little time
to cart out all the memorials and sense
less documents with which overheated
nat'onalism has clogged the Roman tri-
bunals in it's insane attempt to becloud a
great and good man, but the moment the
word of the Pope changes living ques-
tion to a dead issue his ministers are
very expeditions in removing their debris
and cleaning the atmosphere. The tea
pot tempest will then have subsidized and
Catholics can give their undivided atten-
ton to- the Columbian Congress- if
they prefer, to the election of Cleveland.
But even if the above mentioned cable
gram be not truthful we at least see every
reason why it should be. The whole
question from the beginning was not q
theoretical but practical one. No man
ever championed Catholic education
with greater persistence or sustained it
with stronger arguments or believed in
it with more conviction than Archbishop
Ireland. In his mind there was no ques-
ton as to the expediency, or the utility,
or the necessity Of Catholic education
for the Catholic child. The whole cues
tion as far as he was concerned was
therefore practical one, viz: could the
requirements Of faith be obtained and as
sured and still such an arrangement be
made with the State that it's constita1-
tional provisions would also be main
evidently be advantageous to the Church,
10 the State and to the child-to the
Church because it's burdens would be
Justly and greatly hghtened;--to the
State, because it would bring into closer
and more harmonious relations large
body of citizens;-to the child, because it
would be brought up with warm and
very proper sense Of gratitude to national
institutions. Now the Council of Balti-
more had left such practical questions TO
the good Judgment of every bishop when
promoting education in his diocese and
consequently Archbishop ireland was
clearly within his right to settle the mat
ter according 10 his own judgment. The
only ones who had any right to appeal to
q higher authority were the priests or
people to whom the state acquired schools
Immediately appertained. But the priests
and people of Faribault and Saltwater,
far from appealing, We're eminently salts
fed that the interests of faith were safe
guarded and that their schools were on a
better footing than ever before. Until
therefore these make such an appeal and
proclaim that on the one hand obedience
to their superior compels them to send
their children to such schools and on the
other obedience to their faith compels
them to withhold their children from
such attendance (which of all absurd
things would be the. most ridiculously
absurd) there is no need OF Rome's de-
scending into the practical adjustment
in the different dioceees of we'll settled
theoretical question. I. 1t was consequent
~ q piece of most unWarranted intrusion
on the part Of others to undertake to
bring Rome to this decision. Such
memorials were not properly an appeal,
since the authors of them were in no way
by the Archbishop's ideas
on the settlement of the school question,
but they were under the circumstances
an insidious and unjustifable attack.
The total failure of this attack is there
fore in the nature OF the case the utter
of these un-American fam
atics and the complete triumph of our
most worthy Archbishop. Long may he
rule!
Where, however, there is no arrange
ment between state and parish, whore
there is no religious influence infused
into the atmosphere Of the school, where
there is no religious instruction after
school hours, and where relgiously
speaking the children are let run wild,
it is evident that thither no one cham
pions the sending Of q Catholic child.
All that has even been written upon this
topic favorable to the public institutions
whom they would be rounded out and
supplemented By . religious surveil lancel