The Irish standard., 1892-12-17
SATURDAY, DECEMBER II, 1892.
RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS.

RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS.
Three Protestant ministers of this city
entertained their respective hocks last
s ,nday with discourse on the Far'-
bault plan OF education and religion in
the public schools. The first, but not
the greatest or broadcast, was the pug,
nac;ous pastor of Calvary Baptist church,
the ,edoubtable GoLightly Morrill,.
His di course was sort of a medley en-
titled s.Found Out" and in his usual
style he had fling at Mgr. Satoljj,
whose plan of religious Instruction he
denounced as being "foreign to the prin
ciples of the American constitution and
the practice of loyal American citizens. y
When it is remembe ed that Go-Lightly
is the chaplain of the loyal Orange lodge,
and that it's members arrogate to them
selves the title of ''loyal Americans" it is
surprising that the il]ustrjous papal
delegate escaped SO we'll as he did from
his vituperative tongue.
The Rev. H. Fl. French, pastor of the
Wesley Methodist church, is altogether
a different man from Morrill, both in in
tellectual and religious breadth OF
thought. That reverend gentleman
frankly declared that he did not share
the opinion of these who saw danger to
American instructions from the Roman
Catholic Church. "This Church," said
Rev. French, lis leading Christendom in
applied Christianity to-day, is reaching
down to. the masses and doing them
rood. would not destroy it if 1 could.
The powers of assimilation of the repub-
lie are too great to cause any thought of
danger arising from the heterogeneous
population. The address of Mgr, Satolli
emphatically indorses the Faribault
plan, and places Archbishop Ire
land ON top Continuing, Rev. French
declared that ''the protest against god,
1883 schools was legitimate, and if the
children belong to the state, 1t is to her
interest that her wards should be edu-
Gated along the lines OF religion and
morals, aud some unsectarian basis on
which all men can agree ought to be in
troauced into the schools for religious
training"
Rev. Henry M. Simmons, the liberal
and scholarly pastor Of the First Unita-
rian church, delivered an excellent
sermon on the Faribault plan. He
hoped that the experiment. might
be continued until it had been thor
oughly tested. Wishing to know how
the plan was working he had written to
a prominent member of the Faribault
school board who said in reply that the
experiment will not be disturbed by the
three new members of the board who
were elected last October. Rev. Sim
mons declared that the Catholics had
acted fairly in the matter, that they had
given up all religious exercises in the
building during school hours, and ex-
changed their own text books for the
pnblic school series. He quoted from
Supt, Kiehle to the effect that in q ma
iority of the public schools Of Minnesota
the Protestant Bible was read or some
form of religious exercise was carried on
That was the case in every one OF the
school buildings in Faribault last year
with the exception OF the one in which
the Sisters taught, and hence it dld not
seem unjust to him to make the same
concession to the Catholics who con-
formed in every way to the public school
cnrriiculum. AS long as the Protestant
religion was going to be allowed in other
schools it seemed very fair arrange
ment; and It brought that long desired
|, sr,,asult. the union OF Catholic and Prot
eetant children in one course OF study
ssnnder one management and into an IN
creased intimacy and sympathy which
would heal their old hostility and pre-
pare both for better and more harmo-
.nious citizenshiip. We are always glad
,tgo report Rev Simmons views on the he
, sohool ;qnestiion ere the educ ational
dilfcal LETT atolli and q! this l1ii'
4 Is; IN Ior luton il would
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