The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1960-01-08
JOSEPH BREIC-
Faith And
The School

ICuID aSUs q a OdWIUuI pUpI TUIIE u VETY lew
IN a public grade school, | suffered painful embarrass-
ment, morning after morning, when a Protestant
prayer was said In unison, and verses were read from
the King James PROTESTANT version of the Bible.
The prayer was the Lords Prayer the Our
Father and of course it is Catholic, and was Catho-
lie for about 800 years before there were any Protes-
tants. But as it was recited in school, everybody con-
Sidered it Protestant.
There we're two reasons for this. Forgive us our
debts, " familiar to Protestants, was used, not forgive
us our trespasses, which is the wording Catholic chill
dren learn; and the prayer closed with the Protestant
usage for Thine hin. is the power and the glory" ETC..
but to show that understand, very well, the opposi-
ton of some Jewish groups to religious exercises in
public schools, and the agitation of some Protestants
when, say, Catholic Sisters teach in such schools.
Fairminded people will admit, | think, as a his
torlcal fact, that public schools until rather recently
were considered by Professionals, by and large, to be in
some sense Protestant schools; at least schools in which
the Protestant touch was to be expected.
Catholics and Jews simply had to adjust them.
selves to the situation. There was no thought of adj
1ustlng the situation to them, or Of making any COM
promises for their sakes.
Never were the King James verses alternated
with readings from the Vulgate Catholic Bible, or
from the Jewish Old Testament version. No Jewish
prayer was recited at any time, nor was the word tres
passes" ever substituted for debts to make Catholics
IN INTERVENING YEARS, we have seen some
strange developments.
For example, the US. Supreme Court, in the Nc
Collum case IN Champaign, ILL.,. barred releaSed-tlme
Catholic, Protestant and Jewish instruction on school
premises, because a ~professed atheist mother said her
son was embarrassed, since she did not allow him to
attend any of the religion classes.
We have also seen some groups objecting TO the
presence, on school property, of plaques bearing the
Ten Commandments, and to Christmas and Hanukkah
%pageantS, Bible readings, and prayers.
Some have even gone into court to fight the prac-
tice of opening school sessions with a non-denomi-
national prayer, approved by Jewish, Protestant and
Catholic leaders, prayer that simply says:
Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence
on Thee, and we ask Thy blessing on our teachers, our
parents and our country"
Thus the wheel has come full turn. Where former
ly the feelings of minorities we're disregarded, today
the tendency is to brush aside the many, and to let
the few dominate.
In the Champaign case, it was not even a case of
a few; it was one against everybody else. The court
decided for the one.
1t is a plain fact that the vast majority of Amer
can parents want their children reared relglously; and
more and more they are troubled over a situation in
which religion is being exiled from education, which
has SO much to do with forming a y~oungster.
THE PRESENT TREND, if followed to its logical
conclusion, would throw the vast weight of the public
schools on the side of the proposition that religion
hardly matters. and is outside the field of the intel
lectual pursuits.
Certainly we do not want a return to domination
of public schools by any religious persuasion. But most
of us. I am confident, want religion and morals to have
their right place in education.
We do not want the public schools progressively
dereligionized to the taste of the most adamant and
doctrinaire atheist,
contend that ways can be found to solve this
problem with Justice and charity for all | think the
American people ought to address themselves to that
task,