The Irish standard., 1892-12-24
THE PAPAL ENVOY
The Famous Document Of Mgr. Sa-
toll on the School Question
Ably Interpreted.
A WRITER IN. DANA'S. SUN

lls5rAa -s.
Reviews It and Declares That
American Catholics Have Rea-
con to Hail it with Joy.
A Baltimore writer under the initials
~ ~. D." sends the New York Sun an
excellent article on the famous address
Of Mgr. Satolli on the school question,
from which the following extracts are
given:-American Catholics cannot but
hail with JOY the stateemanlike document
apon the school question defining the
Holy Fathers views. which was lately
published by his intimate friend and rep
seeentative, Archbishop Satolli. In our
hands it can be a powerful instrument
for good. Among other uses it will serve
to disabuse our fairmlnded Protestant
fellow citizens OF more than one common
misconception. For this we rejoice, be-
cause we, as may be no other Catholics
in the world, taken on masse, are brought
into constant and intimgte association
with Protestants, and they in turn meet
us at every step in life. We labor to-
ðer in the fields, on the streets, in
workshops, mills and manufactories; we
secreate at the same common resorts;
we buy and sell with one another, are
united in commercial enterprise and
business agressiveness; we belong to the
same labor organizations and literary So
oieties: politically we are bound by COM
mon party ties, and patriotically there is
but one aim for all-the welfare of these
United States. Now, through this all
round contract, both OF us, Catholics and
Protestants, have come to know one
another we'll, a kno Wedge that has begot
mutual respect.
However, acquainted with the Catho.
sio Church, as an institution, only
through OK p,..te statements. and inher-
iting the rrNudices Of generations, it is
not so remt kable that our non Catholic
aountrymen have come to look upon US
as q particular species of the genus Ro-
man Catholic; species largely differ.
entiated from others Of the family found
elsewhere, more product OF our Ameri-
can environment than of our religious
influences; in word they very often con-
slider that We are what we are in spite OF
our faith, rather than because of it. This
opinion finds frequent expressions. An
influential Protestant weekly, for exam
pie, speaking, not long since of those Of
ia who favored the "Faribault Plan,"
said:
"They are trying to iberalize the
Catholic Church, and there is nothing
else which, as patriots, we can desire
mere than to see the Church liberalized
and relieved of rnedimvalism, while be-
coming not particle less but rather
more Christian" You conclude ut once
shat those Catholics to whom reference
is made were mon holding views far in
advance of their confreres beyond the
waters.
Archbishop Satolli's document proves
thnt the opinion is erroneous. From it
it is clear that the churchmen among Us
who are popularly esteemed as most in
harmony with American Institutions
for example, His Eminence Cardinal
Gibbons, Archbishop Ireland, and Bishop
Keane. of the Catholic University are
also the ones closest in line with the
Pope's own opinions. Their liberalism, I"
as it has been suspiciously termed, fs not
an Amercan product; it comes from
Rome; it is championed by those than
whom others cannot be more Catholic.
Archbishop Satolll is the accredited
snouthpiece of His Holiness; surely mo-
body questions the orthodoxy OF his
opinion. Well, this foreign Archbishop,
An italian OF Italians, brought up from
childhood in the midst Of the most con.
aervahve-medimval, il you will eccle-
siastical influences, an unquestioned
master in Thomistic philosophy and the
elogy {thesohool which dominates Catho-
lie though today, lays down the thesis
that in matters Of .faith and morals"
the Church is the authority, but in secu-
lar education the State has its inherent
and inalienabie rights.
La not the conclusion warranted that
just the opposite Of what Proteetants
think IL true? Are not European theo- |!
sogians far more il harmony with Ameri-
ean ideas when they declare that the
State has Alright Is educate than thoee
q our own who never needed naturaliza-I
tion papers o. crede tialso of their oiitizen-
AMP, and who asim that such Q prin-l
eiple is opposed q tholio theology In
face of this is there i ilIaii u eanis
catholic thsol
American