St. Paul daily globe., 1893-01-29
THE CATHOLIC QUESTION.

"A Bit of History and the Present
Status of the Ancient Church.
Atlanta Constitution.
Few students of history need to be
reminded of the controversy between
the holy see and the Gallican church,
which has never been satisfactorily
adjusted. Indeed, from an early
period the relations between the
French and Italian cardinals have
been somewhat strained as touch
ing the extent of the papal author
lty. So serious was this friction that
at one time the residence of the holy
father was removed from Rome to
AyIgnon, where it remained for the
better part OF q century. The Italian
and Spanish cardinals were disposed TO
speak of this as the "Babyl0nian cap
tivity." Through the action of the cOun-
Gil of Constance and the concord at of
Bologna this rupture was ultimately
healed. From that time the Eternal
City has been the capital of Catholic
ChristendOm. In this statement we
make no mention of the brief inteIreg-
mum when Plus VII. was held as a state
prisoner of Fontainebleau by the first
Napoleon.
IL 10 llOb lsIlIlS IpOSSlUlC tudt lllc
coming OF Archbishop Satolli as q papal
legate, followed by the prompt reStora-
tiOn of Dr.. McGlynn to the priesthood,
may produce grave complications. Ger
tain it is that this action has caused no
little dissatisfaction among some OF the
high dignitarleS of the church, and may
cad to temporary eStran gemen.
All right-miuded ProteStantS would
deprecate anything of Western SchSm
i'll the American church, for it should
be said that it is doing a good work
amongst the poorer. as well as the
richer, classes of our principal cities.
Not only SO. but through its mission
aries, ii has done much i'll the far West
to civiliZe and Christianze. the wild
tribes which hover on the outskirts of
the white settlements.
Fortunately for the peace of the
church, the present p0ntiff is mild
hammered and conservative i'll his pol
icy. For this reason his Forthcoming
enclyclical is looked for with special
interest.
The same good sense which he dis
played in Germany in his negotiations
with Bismarck-his well-choseE attitude
towards the French repnblic, and his
Skillful management Of the Irish ques
tIOIl, VIII l6Ittl IlIUl W lilO CtlOpllOH vi
measures that Will tranQuilize mat
The bitter fight which, is be-
ing waged against parochial schools
in some localities, where puritan Sentl-
ment is largely predominant, Will at an
early day receive satisfactory settle
ment. New England may be hard to
pacify, for she is inherently q turbulent
section. For nearly 200 years she has
made fetish of the town meeting and
the district school, and, yet, nowhere in
the older cOmm0nwealthS is there a
greater measure of moral delinquency
and political perver SeneSS.
Long agO Herbert Spencer, in his
social states. demonstrated that mere
education was 10 adequate remedy for
crimes or lesser social evils. Indeed, so
far otherwise that in English and Amer
lean communities where illiteracY is
least-other things being equal--the per-
centage of crime is greatest. Archbishop
Spalding has likewise shown. by COM
pariSon between the criminal statistics
of the six New England states and six
Southern states before the war, that the
same truth holds. Crime is nowhere
the result Of mere ignorance of grammar
and geography, but the fruit OF heredlty
and environment, the latter composed
OF crowded tenement houses and lack
Of food, fdel and other comfortable con-
ditiOns Of living.
Moral education in the lower grades,
for which Judge Hammond made such
a vigorous fight in the Atlanta board OF
education, was in the right direction. A
barefOOted boy with the thermom eter at
zero is candidate for reformatory or
the chain gang; a girl of fourteen, poor,
Iy fed and i'll tatters, is OH the direct
road to DEGRADATION and death.
We must cultivate the religious spnti-
ment, nor does it much matter whether
it is done in parOchlal or public schools
without this feature education is a
stimulus to crime and a stepping stone
TO damnatIOn.