The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1892-12-31
IT'S sIeNIGIcANcE.

There is great significance in the
controversy provoked among Catholics
by the address of Mgr. Satolli, the
delegate from the pope, whose au-
thority to speak as he did some have
attempted to discredit. The signi6-
cance is that the leaven of modern
thought derived from the free institu-
tiors of America has got into the Jumps
of old world prejudice, of religious in
tolerance and narrowness, Of misappre-
hension and uncharity, and is creating
new spirit of intelligent purpose.
There would be no disagreement be-
tween the heads of the Catholic church,
the archbishops and bishops, says the
Chicago Inter Ocean, but that the
body of the church has felt the quick
ening of new ideas and become restive
under outgrown restraints.
The educated Catholics of this coun-
try are successful business men, law
yers and physicians; are active in poll
tics, are factors in society; and while
they have lost none of their religious
devotion to their church they have
learned to temper that devotion with
an intelligent appreciation of the moral,
political and social being of this coun-
try. 1t is an absurd waste of time for
the priests to tell an American busi-
ness man who happens to be a Catho-
lie that his children viii be damned if
they do not attend a parochial school,
and will be doubly damned if they do
attend the public school. The think
ing citizen knows it to be as much his
paternal duty to provide for the intel
lectual development of his boys and
girls as to look out for their spiritual
welfare. As he is proud to be an
American citizen he takes pride in
having his children qualify to become
good American citizens, and he per-
celves thah the best way to produce
the desired result is to have them
thoroughly acquainted with American
institutions and educated in a way to
compete with their Protestant associ-
ates in business, professional or public
life. He is willing that the church
should follow its own ideas in the re-
hgious and spiritual instruction of his
children, but he insists upon the privi-
lege of choosing what be believes to
be the best medium for the intellectual
benefit and equipment of his children.
Itis this self-assertion. coupled with
the indisputable fact that the free
public school offers thousandfold bet
ter educational advantages to the poor |
than do private schools of any charac-
ter or denomination. that has done so
much in recent yeacs to correct old
false notions and compel the head of
the church to take more liberal view
of the Catholic needs and demands in
this country. Americans, Catholic or
non-Cathollc, cannot be chained by
twelfth century errors, and will not re-
main subservient to an authority that
insists upon the abrogation of secular
rights by ecclesiastical edicts.
Moreover it Is strange commentary
upon the spiritual control of the Gath.
olic church that schools in which the
mind is educated without regard to re-
ligious sentiments are lnimical to the
office of the clergy that is concerned
with the salvation of the soul. If the
home and the church together cannot
create moral balance to the influence
Of the schools in the mental develop
men. without prejudice to spiritual
then the fault must lie some
where between the home and the
church, if it does not involve both.
We must confess to some impatience
Of such criticism as that from Arch
bishop Ryan, of Philadelphia, who OBJ
jects that the public schools do not go
far enough in the mission of training
or calling out the power of the soul.
Does the learned archbishop forget
that the absence of religious benefits /
in the public schools is the result of a
to the Catholics who de-
manded the expulsion of the Bible
from these schools? Let there be
common sense and no denominational
Or creed sentiment in discussing an in
,titution that is as dear to and as well
liked in the American heart as the
,tsaIf