Evening star., 1955-11-28

dA4d va Aly f0SAo oNS' AAAAA0ASSA
uniformity confounds civil and
religious and denies the prin-
ciples Of Christianity and
civility.
The American state
cannot, in consistency with the
principles of it's own organiza-
ton. and impartial justice
towards all the people. UNDER
take the work of religious
teaching or worship In any
form Of the idea. A state diff
ferently organized, might do 50
in consistency with its own
principles, but an American
state cannot"
Many forget the reasons why
Thomas jefferson was so
strong for a free school system.
In his day all educational ma
terial was crammed with re-
ligious references. He never
professed to take away the
right of private schools to
exist. quote from American
Tradition in Religion and Edu-
cation" by r. Freeman Butts.
page 1l9: ''One of the sections
of the revision of the laws Of
Virginia which Jefferson pre-
pared and which was intro
duced in the Virginia Legisla-
ture in l77p was a Bin for the
More General Diffusion of
knowledge. This bin for
establishing a system of public
elementary and secondary
schools paralleIed Jefferson's
Bill for Religious Freedom.
The education bin recognized
that II no person were to be
compelled to support any re-
ligious place whatsoever then
education must be available
freely to all and should con-
tain no religious instruction"
If anyone thinks that the
bishops viii stop at securing
bus transportation, etc. for
parochial schools they should
read what Paul L. Blakely,
S j., has to say in a pamphlet
entitled May an American
Oppose the Public SCHOOL,"
/ quote: Our first duty to
the public school Is not to pay
taxes for its maintenance. We
pay that tax under protest +. j.
The first duty for every Cath
olic father to the public school
Is to keep his children out of
it."
No man has the right to
weaken or destroy the public
school system.
Marion C. Hall, Jr.
X
As an American citizen and
taxpayer ! wish to express my
opposition to Federal aid to
parochial schools. The annual
statement Of certain bishops
Of the Catholic Church con-
tains a strong plea for such aid
for Catholic schools here in
America. In this connection /
would like to ask the bishops
If non-Catholic schools oper-
ated on a religious basis would
have any chance of receiving
Federal aid in Italy, Spain and
other Catholic countries. And
also If they would favor a
change in the constitution Of
Argentina so a nom Catholic
could become President of that
country.
II is true that according to
the laws Of the United States
the Catholic Church is free to
maintain and operate paro-
chial schools, and hold church
services without interference
of the civil authorities. But I
hardly think the non-Catholic
population Of America win ap-
prove Of Federal aid to the
Catholic schools when not
even religious freedom in the
true sense of the word is en-
joyed in predominantly Cath
olic countries. The Lord said.
Therefore all things whatso-
ever We would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to
them: for this Is the law and
the prophets" (Matt. vii, l2).
So, Il. the Roman Catholic
Church wants to have such
broad freedom and liberties in
this country 1t should be her
policy to grant such freedom
to others. Now would be an
opportune time for the vati-
can to make a public an
nouncement to the effect that
, the Church Of Rome stood for
freedom of religion for all
mankind in every country
throughout the world, and
that 1t should be the policy of
all nations to accept anyone
as the chief ruler who was
elected to that position by the
citizens Of that country. Then.
and certainly not until then,
should the idea Of Federal aid
to Catholic schools be con-
sidered,