The record-union., 1894-11-27
TIE ROW AMONG THE PRIESTS.

When Archbishop Corrigan CT New
York attempted to discipline Father
Ducey of the Roman Catholic Church, be-
cause the latter attended the sessions of
the Lexow Police Investigation Commit
tee, we said that the Archbishop was
wrong, and that the priest. in his hot pro-
test against the rebuke of the Archbishop
was right; that the vestry and the study
are not the only places in which the cler-
ical gentlemen should acquire their
knowledge of worldly affairs; that it is
not only right and proper for the clergy
man to go into the public assembly and
observe, hear and form his judgment,
but that it should be the rule for him to
do so. and not attempt to pass upon pub
The Lexow Committee was sgreat bene-
fcence to New York; it stripped the
robes from fraud, peculation and mall
feasance in Office, and disclosed the cor
ruption that dominated in New York
municipal government. Yet here we
have bigh dignitaryiof a leading church
pronouncing that investigation shameless
and disgraceful. and that priest in at
tendance at the sessions ofthat committee
must be soiled,
one of the chief complaints against the
Catholic Church has been and is that tie
directors of that organization have not
acted in the open where the church comes
into quasi-political relations with the
State. If the priesthood were free from
this reproach there would be no cause for
fear that the church would trespass upon
the functions of the State-as in the
demand for a division of the school
funds, the contribution to the support of
parochial schools by the States, and the
use of State or National funds for the
support of any institutions in whole or
in part under ecclesiastical control or
management. 1t is this fear that has
given birth to such societies as the Ma
tionaI League for the Protection OF Amer
lean Institutions, which association has
for its main purpose the adoption Of the
proposed sixteenth amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, which
is to provide that no State shall con-
tribute any money, credits or things of
value to any institution, directly or inGi-
rectly, that is in whole or in part under
ecclesiastical control.
That association has so far succeeded
that the substance of the amendment has
been adopted into the Constitutions OF
twenty-one States, it having been placed
in ten State Constitutions, we believe,
prior to the formation of the League. 1t
has succeeded also in inducing all re-
ligious denominations except the Catholic
and Lutheran to withdraw applications
for money from the National Treasury
to be used in the conduct of Indian
schools, and it is now announced that il
is the policy of the present Administra-
ton to discontinue the appropriations to
these churches.
Now comes Bishop McQuaid of Roches-
ter and takes Archbishop Ireland OF
Minnesota to task for leaving his arch
diocese, coming on TO New York and
taking part in the recent campaign in
favor of cleanliness. The Archbishop is
charged by McQuaid also with support
ing a liberal Catholic as church repre-
sentative upon the Board of Regents oi
the State University, who is opposed to
any sustenance being furnished by the
State to church schools, under any guise
whatever. The rasping which McQuaid
gives Ireland Is unprecedented. Not in
modern times has church dignitary
dared to so severely, openly and bitterly
call TO account a superior official of the
church. McQuaid's complaint is that
Ireland has been reasonable to the
church, inasmuch az he labored for the
selection of this regent, who is opposed
TO the mixing of tho parochial schools
with the public school system. lie says
regarding the part taken by Archbishop
Ireland in the late campaign:
If his conduct in this last political cam
IA ron were not ceDsured aha condenned.1t
would not be possible for me 10 restrain the
priests OF this diocese from lnilatlng his
example and descending from the pulpit 10
tiss political platform and marsnaiing their