The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-01-25
Federalized Schools and Religion

into the heart. Even were the Sunday
school all that it should be, it ''hap-
pens" but once a week, and then only
weather permitting" A series of bad
| Sundays, followed by an outbreak of
measles and other juvenile plaques,
may. put an end to the religious educa-
! ton of the children.
The ParochiaI School.
Earnest Catholics are now rec
| ognizing these shocking conditions,
Lutherans, the Jews and the Episco-
| palians, are endeavoring to correct
them by founding the equivalent of
| parochial schools. But the passage of
| the Smith bill substituting the public
school will completely block their
| praiseWorthy efforts. Federal domino.
tion over the schools will mean in the
| long run the complete triumph of edu-
cation without God. Destroy the Cath
| Olic parochial school, the only COM
plete system in the United States
which dares to teach the child some.
thing about God and His rights over
| His creatures, make other religious
| schools equally impossible, and how
much Christianity will be left in these
United States by the year of our Lord
| 2020?
Even as matters now stand there
| are very few Catholic parishes that do
not find great difficulty in providing
teachers, buildings and suitable equip
ment for their boys and girls. Add
1 the Federal tax under the Smith bill,
increase the already heavy state tax;
open in every ward new public schools
| housed in magnificent buildings; staff
| them with officers whose words are as
music in the ears of careless or climb
| ing Catholics, one day to merit the
penalty of eternal punishment for
scandalizing their children, and what
will be the result? Just this: The
heartbreaking toll of the parish priest
and of all who do not wish the chill
dren in schools which teach them that
| God is a gas, a myth, or a prejudice,
and religion subject not to be men,
toned in polite society, will be almost
| as futile as Mrs. Partington's attack
| on the tides. <-
State Rights. E.
Catholic opposition to the Smith bill
is not mere special pleading. In COM
mon with at least a few million Ameri-
can citizens, those Catholics who have
given serious thought to the subject
to be what it has ever been in the
past, one of Gods greatest gifts to
the world, the rights of the respective
| States in those matters over which, by
| the Constitution, they have exclusive
jurisdiction must be upheld in their in
tegrity And education is one of those
matters. The fear that the Smith
bill will by degrees overturn the con
j stitutional balance of power between
! federal and state authorities is not a
monster conjured up for the occasion
1t is an actual and present menace,
the embodiment of a semi-Socialistic
paternalistic spirit seeking to confer
powers which every community
worthy of freedom must reserve to it
SELF upon a government bureaucracy
Governments, as governments are or
ganized nowadays, know very little o1
| God: He has no vote and is not 9
corporation; and the Smith bill spe
cifically excludes schools which &C
knowledge the sovereignty of Goo
from the financial benefits of it's pro
visions All that the Smith bill re
quires is acknowledgment of the SOW
ereignty of the Federal Bureau of Edu
cation. Furthermore, Catholics be
lieve, with other millions of Ameri
cans, that this country cannot safel.
afford to neglect any factor which
will preserve it, as it has been de
clared by the Supreme Court, a Chris
!, tian nation. The Catholic parochia
school, in their belief, is the creates
force in the United States, next to tht
Church herself, which today activel.
works to that end. That no othe
school system even pretends to b.
founded on the precepts of Christian
; ity is plain.
We are not asking, as conceivabl
, we might, either our share OF tn
school funds, or exemption from tn
tax. We only ask not to be crushe
by further taxation, state and fedora
for the maintenance of schools whic
we cannot in conscience use, and W
: protest the injustice of special govern
I mental favor towards all school
which formally disavow God and Hi
5 Christ. We will pay for our ow
f schools, poor as we. are, and we wi
> pay gladly They are part of our COZ
3 tribution as Americans to the tru
! prosperity of our beloved countr,
\ and the monument which we rails
+ to tho o1ory of thp Ono tr-1Jp Cod