The Irish standard., 1894-06-23
THE BIsLE IN THE SCHOOLS.

the namss OF 10000 persons to be pre-
sented to the board Of education asking
that body to allow the Bible or selec-
tons from it to be read in the public
schools for the moral instruction OF the
pupils. The petition declares that ire
ligion in the sense OF doctrines and
creeds belongs to the church, but red-
gion in the sense of high character and
good citizenship also belongs to proper
system Of education 1t then goes on
to say that since the religious congresses
held in Chicago in 1898, made up of the
of the many forms OF re-
ligious belief, did not object to the use
of the Lords prayer, it ought not to
be difficult matter to get Catholics,
Professionals, Jews and others to agree
upon some plan by which moral and re-
ligions precepte can be made part of
the work Of the public schools. The
memorial is signed by William j. Ona-
han, one of the leading Catholics of the
city, President Harper OF the Chicago
University, and G. c. Benny, president
of the religious congress at the Worlds
Fair, as we'll as by representative men of
ali religious denominations, and some OF
the daily papers of the city endorse the
petition and say that the moral training
now given in the public schools is not
enough, and that purely intellectual
education only prepares the children to
be greater rascals and criminals than it
is possible for them to become if left un-
educated. They think that if the plan
agreed upon by the Professionals and
Catholics of Toronto, Ont, be adopted,
everything would be lovely and the pu
pills would grow up to be fine christians.
The Toronto plan is to read selections
from the Scriptures in the public schools
of that city.
With all respect to the good ladies of
Chicago who believe in combining reli-
gious with secular instruction in the
public schools, We cannot see how the
plan can work without producing dissat-
isfaction. How can the children of Jews
join in reciting the Lords prayer or
reading selections from the New Testa-
ment? How can Catholic children join
with Protestant children in reading the
Protestant version, or how can Protest.
ant children JOIN the Catholic children
in reading the Douay version? Has the
reading of the Bible in the Toronto
schools produced good fruit? Alas! no.
The Orangemen and Catholics of that
Canadian city are ready to jump at each
other like tigers every 18th of July in
spite of all their Bible reading IN the
schools. We have no desire to adopt the
school plan Of Toronto, for it would
prove source of discord and contention
among our people. That plan has been
already tried in She United States and it
is far from satisfactory. At Edgerton,
Wis, the King James version was read
in the public school while Catholic chill
dren we're obliged to go outside in the
cold during it's perusal. The supreme
court of the state decided that the Bible
reading should discontinue and that the
King James version was sectarian. We
dare say that the ladies belonging to the
Woman's Educational society of Chicago
are all Professionals and that they would
object to Catholic prayers in the public
schools. They would also object to Jew
ieh prayers, and they would coerce the
children of unbeiievers and agnostics to
listen to and join in Protestant prayers.
The only thing to be done to avoid un-
pleasantness in the public schools is to
have the children pray at home and re-
ceive religious instruction from their own
parents and pastors. The Chicago la
dies in their petition say that during the
religious congress "the whole world
united without objection in the univer-
sal praise to Our Father who art in
heaven" The fact is that Catholics and
Protestants disagree in the use of the
relative pronoun in the Lords prayer,
the Catholics using "who'' and the Prot
estants (which" The Professionals end
the prayer with words that the Lord did
not utter, and the Catholics add the
"Ha1l Mary" A large number Of Amer
lean citizens who send their children to
the public schools do not acknowledge
the Bible rs the inspired word Of God,
and DR.. Harper, whose name is on the
petition, is considered by orthodox chris
tlans to be shaky in his belief in the
Scriptures.
In order to preserve and perpetuate
the public schools as they are now con-
Quoted the Bible and religious exercises
must be kept out Of them. The only
plan by which religious instruction could
he given is the Poughkeepsie or Fari-
bault plan and that was declared unsat-
isfactory not only by Professionals but by
q large number Of Catholics also. The
Protestants condemned it on the ground
that it divided the public funds for sec-
tartan .y,,,rnnaaka while Catholics meralv