The Irish standard., 1908-06-06
PAROCNIAL SCHOOLS
Of New York Save the City
~ $5OO,O0O Annually
And Educate One Hundred
Thousand Children.

master general, has the following in a
| recent issue of the New York Herald:
When 1 had gathered the full sta
tistics which tell so amazingly of the
growth of the parochial schools of the
Catholic Church in the city of New
8 York, was reminded of an experience
5 of twenty-three years ago and of the
great changes in the way of liberation
/ s sympathy and respect which have
characterized the community since
ious brotherhood
In February. 1885, bill was intro
duced in the state legislature at AL
bany under the title of The Freedom
: of Worship BILL which. if it We're
passed. would give to Catholics, or, in
Il fact, any denomination, the right to
give religious instruction and counsel
# to the children of their own faith who
q were confined in the various houses of
refuge.
The mea sure appealed very strongly
q to me, and without any solicitation on
I the part of anyone I wrote a letter to
my friend Senator Frederick 8. Gibbs,
i then representing New York city
| district in the senate at Albany. in
which I urged as strongly as l was
able favorable consideration for this
4 measure. This letter was shown by
7 the senator. and in that way what
had said became known to the public
! To my astonishment on reading a..
newspaper one Monday morning 1 saw
that had been bitterly attacked by a.
a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal
1 church from his pulpit the night be-
I fore. l regretted exceedingly that
! there should have been such a spirit
/ of intolerance and such utter lack of
& sympathy with the measure then pend
ing as this clerical discourse dis
closed. In the course Of the attack this
clergyman had imputed motive to me
I. having discovered as he thought, my
Z reason, which was, as he said, that
Y when President Cleveland began his
/ administration he would reappoint my
'Sson- in law, the late Henry G. Pearson,
as postmaster at New York, and that
| to procure that result. the price which
paid being approval of this Free
I dom of Worship bill. The utter
! falsity of this accusation, not even re-
Y t411
1 Ier having the shadow of justification
4 for a suspicion of that kind, only illus
trated to me the intensity to which,
| religious intolerance may go.
This measure was adopted by the
! legislature and is now the law of the
I state; Archbishop Corrigan desig-
/ mated a clergyman under the bill as
4 chaplain. and the navy department at
I Washington detailed another chaplain
for like service, he being of the
Protestant denomination. These two
chaplains served faithfully at the
houses of refuge at Randalrs Island,
! and the good results of their work
were within a short time made very
apparent.
It SO happened that about two or
three years thereafter a. reverend gen
tleman called upon me and informed
| me that he was the Catholic clergy
man at Randall's Island. He said he
had come to see me to know if 1 was
acquainted with Amos j. Cummings,
member of the house Of representatives
+ from New York, who was a member of
the committee on naval affairs in the
house l informed him I was acquainted
with Mr.. Cummings, and he asked me
to write letter to Mr. Cummings re-
/ questing him to procure a continuation
4 of the detail of his associate chaplain
at Randalrs Island. the Presbyterian
I clergyman who had been detailed by
the navy department for that work.
l remarked to him that it was a.
I very gratifying fact that an appeal of
/ this kind should be made by Jesuit
3 priest in behalf of a Presbyterian
g8 clergyman, and I recall distinctly his
III reply, that they We're brothers en-
H gagged in sympathetic work and that
1 1t would be impossible to place in that
post of responsibility a man better
htted, more kindly, sympathetic, CON-
R siderate or conscientious than was this
~ Presbyterian clergyman.
There was exhibited the true spirit
/ OF sympathy, liberation and Christian
Brotherhood, and it was a fitting an
gs swer to the attack which had been
made upon me. 1t is but Just that /
4 should say that my friend Bishop New
III man. of the Methodist Episcopal
s church. called upon me after. seeing
n the sermon attacking me and said that
II was an outrage and scandal and
that he would call 1t to the attention
of the clergyman who made it, The