The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-02-17

POSITION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
IN THE UNITED STATES, AS DEFINED
BIZ THE PLENARY COUNCIL OF BAL
TIMoRE.
The Rev. D. j. o. Sullivan of st. AL
bans, known to some of our people here,
writes the Messenger on this subject,
and we copy it as contributing to an in
teresting discussion of the school ques-
ton as viewed by the Roman Catholic
church. He says: The extract from
the Reuiet1 of RepielOs published in your
edition of Thursday, has suggested to
me the expediency of stating in your
columns lhe true position of the Church,
in this country, ON the school question,
and the mission of Mgr. Satolli. Not
withstanding the complaints and pro-
tests of Catholics, the teachings and aims
of the Church are frequently misrepre-
sented and distorted, in the pulpit and
the press, by men who treat with lofty
Indifference or contempt, the only
sources of authentic and reliable infor-
nation on the subjects which they at
tempt to discuss.
The following brief review of the mat
ter, may be of interest to your readers.
The third plenary council of Baltimore
made certain laws concerning parochial
schools. BY these laws, pastors, wher-
ever it is practicable, are directed to pro-
vide parochlal schools for their people
Where such schools exist, parents are
commanded to send their children to
them. Wherever the school is plainly
inadequate to the wants of certain classes
of children, the parents are free to send
their children to other schools, provided
their faith er morals are not endangered
by them. When doubt arises as to the
sufficiency of the reasons alleged by par
ents for not sending their children to es-
tablished parochial schools, the decis-
ion of the matter is left to the Bishop,
and to his prudence and Judgments in
trusted the enforcement, in his diocese,
of the enactments of the council. When
there are no parochial schools, or where
such schools, in the Judgment of the
diocesan authority, do not provide the
required secular instruction, pastors are
strictly forbidden by the Pope, the Prop
Uganda, and the council of Baltimore, to
censure parents who send theiI children
to public schools, in which their faith or
morals are in no wise imperiled.
Such is the legislation of the council
of Baltimore. 1t has received the Pope's
confirmation.
1t was reiterated by him in the decree
concerning the Faribault and Saltwater
eases. 1t was repnblished with anthem
tic references, as to its source, as pre-
amble to the propositions submitted by
Mgr. Satolli to the Archbishops. These
enactments are still In force. No Bishop,
no set OF Bishops, not even Papal dele
gate has any power to change or revoke
them. They can be modified or abro-
gated, only by the power that created
them, or by the Holy See that sanctioned
them. A Papal delegate is vested with
judicial authority, but, by himself, he
has no legislative powers. Therefore,
tile assertion that Catholic parents are
entirely free to choose between the pa
rochial schools and the public schools
is untrue. And the boast that the friends
and promoters of Catholic schools, have
been rebuked and silenced, arises Fl IN
q misapprehension, or malicious per-
version, of facts. The very articles from
the council of Baltimore, which forbids
priests to modest parents who are au-
thorized by that council to send their
children to the public schools, have been
stupidity attributed to Mgr. Satolli, and
Haunted as signal of defeat, in the
faces of the very Bishops who originated
them. The DEGREES from the council of
Baltimore which prefaced the PROPOSE
tions of Mgr. Satolli, were generally
omitted in the press reports of the docu-
ment composed by him.
When full account of the proceedings
of the ArchbishOps' meeting was pub
lished, the Baltimore DEGREES were in
serted before the Satolli propositions,
and at once, DR.. McGlynn, with his char.
acteristic accuracy in the discussion of
the Catholic doctrine, exultingly pro-
claimed, that he had discovered the sup
pressed Satolli propositions, which had
put the everlasting qnietus on the friends
of the parochial schools.
The Bishops of the United States are a
unit in unfolding the council of Balti-
more. In certain sections, there is an
honest divergence of opinion concerning
the apparent efficiency of the parochial
schools, and the nature of the conditions
which may justify pastors in dispensing
with Catholic schools, in compromising
with the public schools, or allowing
their children to frequent them. 1t is
not the principle, but It's practical appli-
cation, which is the subject of dispute.
We look to our Bishops, aided by the
counsels of the Holy Father and his rep
resentatives, for a wise adjustment of
any existing difficulties. The majority
of our prelates in their aversion to polit-
ical entanglements, and knowing the
genius of own American institutions,
disaPprOve of the suggestion to enter into
any compromise with the State, in the
matter of education. The church has
always acknowledged the true preroga-
tiVes of the State; but she denies its
right to dictate to parents, the kind OF
education their children shall receive.
She does not seek the destruction OF
the public school system. She merely
considers certain features of it, TO be
dangerous to the faith of her children.
She objects, for instance, to the use OF
certain text books, which, like history
of England, which has been, and for
aught know, is still, used in the st. AL
bans High School, bristles with calum-
MES against the church, and insults to
the faith of Catholics. When, in the use
of our American citizenship, we claim
the right to educate our children as ouI
conscience dictates, and to censure schools
which we believe to be unjust to parents
and children, we refuse to be branded as
bigots or rebels. We are not actuated
by selfish or sectarian impulses, we are
simply trying to carry out what we be-
lieve to be the most effectual means OF
enriching our beloved country with the
best types of Christian men aud women.
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