stood, if some of its opponents could get a glimpse of the cheerful, bright, appreciative children that fill its classrooms, and if they could witness the loving attachment they have for their devoted teachers, all prejudice against the religious school would, I am sure, disappear. The parochial school, far from preventing amalgamation, helps it. The proof is that in business and sport and in the various walks of life, parochial and public school graduates take their place side by side. If there is greater amalgamation anywhere in the world than in Manhattan I should like to know it. A great majority of Catholic children of Manhattan are the product of the parochial school. In regiment, in business, in the office, on the street, everywhere, the parochial school boy associates with the others. As said previously, where there is failure to associate it is mostly for other reasons than those of religion. In some quarters Catholics are looked down upon as socially inferior. This is an inheritance from those days when the poor immigrants came to this country and were obliged to take any work that offered, mostly servile occupations. But the first settlers of our country, whose descendants now pride themselves on their social prominence, began their career here in the same fashion and condition as the Catholic immigrants of the middle nineteenth century. Whatever difference of social caste now exists is a thing of passing importance. Society has its code, and until people qualify for admission, it must not be thought that they are inferior, except perhaps in those conventional requirements which can be speedily attained in this land of opportunity. Catholics by reason of their religion should be the most adaptable people in the world. Catholic means universal. Catholicity knows no limits of race, space or condition. Amalgamation should be second nature to a normal Catholic. But it is hardly worth noticing this charge against the Catholic. It is not made in good faith, ordinarily, nor does it at all square with experience. We have considered it because we hope that by showing its groundlessness it may lead those who were misinformed in this matter to distrust other statements which they may have heard reflecting on the Catholic Church. The parochial school has been made, by those hostile to the Church, a subject of alarm to their fellow countrymen. It is a false alarm. The parochial school is simply a school wherein a child is taught the love, reverence and service of God. This teaching is communicated not merely by occasional precepts but by the entire environment and character of the school. Its tendency is to make religion second nature, a very part of one's being, to give a point of view of life which will make it the way to eternal life. The parochial school impresses upon the child the fact that although he must live in this world he must not live altogether for it. Besides this outlook on life it instructs him in the teaching of revealed religion, informing him on the main points of his creed and inculcating its practice. It will thus be seen that if religion means anything at all, the Catholic Church is taking the common sense way of imparting it. It is also evident that if the soul is more important than the body, and that if eternity means more than time, the Catholic Church by the parochial school takes the common sense way of inculcating these all-important truths. The martyrs in millions sacrificed possessions and life for eternal life. Surely they made no mistake, for Christ has said "He who loses his life for My sake shall find it." Christ put more importance on the individual soul than upon the whole world. "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" In view of God's estimate of the soul, the Church is wise in employing every right means to safeguard the soul. And this is the explanation of the importance which she attaches to the parochial school. It is not that she wishes to educate her people apart, but that she realizes her obligation to do all in her power to cultivate the divine seed of Faith which has been implanted in those committed to her charge. In our age and in our country it is safe to say that the parochial school is one of the very best possible means of making our people good Christians. A good Christian will be a good citizen. The Church therefore is a very important factor in the welfare of our country, and in nothing does she manifest it more than in the religious education she imparts to her members. In connection with this subject I might mention other accusations against Catholics made by malicious or bigoted religionists or so-called patriotic societies, but I may say that these charges are fast discrediting themselves. The Catholic Church is not a foreign power, unless we consider Christ a foreigner. The Catholic Church is universal. Its Head is at Rome. Its power is spiritual. It does not advise its members politically. It does not seek to interfere with any just government. Recently the head of one of our foremost societies for governing our Government wrote to the Pope to have him direct Catholics in this country to join with them to uphold their view of how a Constitutional Amendment should be carried out. One of the accusations, made by those who are misinformed, is that the Pope endeavors to interfere politically in our Government. The head of this society was thus requesting the Pope to do what those of his type condemn the Pope for doing. The history of every country in the world shows that Catholics have the widest possible latitude in their political life. If at any time they feel obliged to take a stand on certain measures, it is not because as Catholics they form a political party, but because as Christians they feel it their duty. Individual Catholics, like those of every creed, may or may not live up to their religious ideals. If in anything they fall short of good citizenship it is for Government to proceed against them individually, as is done in all matters concerning observance of law. But in proportion as a Catholic is true to his faith, Government will find in him the firm support of law and order and the highest type of patriot. Lest it may appear that I have given a partisan view with regard to the subjects treated above, I present in conclusion and in corroboration the views of those whose one hundred per cent. Americanism cannot be questioned. The first is the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Oregon School case. Referring to religious schools taught by Catholic Sisters, it says: "Appellees are engaged in a kind of undertaking not inherently harmful, but long regarded as useful and meritorious. Certainly there is nothing in the present records to indicate that they have failed to discharge their obligation to patrons, students or the State." Having so adjudged the case, the Court then proceeds: "The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all theories of government in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations." So speaks the highest judicial tribunal of the nation. After that official pronouncement, those who oppose Catholics for their insistence on religious schools, cannot do so in the name of Americanism. Let us hear another pronouncement on religious schools by no less an authority than Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University. In his annual report, 1925, having stated the necessity of the study of religion as part of true education, and having deplored the fact that the family and the Church had abdicated as systematic and serious teachers of religion, he says: "Of all the many different branches of the Christian Church which are represented in the United States, it is probably the Roman Catholic Church alone which makes serious, systematic and highly organized effort to give genuine religious training to the children of its faith." Those who are alarmed at the present irreligious trend, and its consequent brazen immorality and widespread crime, should take to heart that message. No less a person than our Chief Executive has repeatedly affirmed that religion is the firmest support of our Republic. In his recent address at Omaha the President emphasized the necessity of respecting the religious faith and practice of those who differ from us: It is not easy to conceive of anything that would be more unfortunate in a community based upon the ideals of which Americans boast than any considerable development of intolerance as regards religion. To a great extent this country owes its beginnings to the determination of our hardy ancestors to maintain complete freedom in religion. Instead of a state church we have decreed that every citizen shall be free to follow the dictates of his own conscience as to his religious beliefs and affiliations. Under that guaranty we have erected a system which certainly is justified by its fruits. Under no other could we have dared to invite the peoples of all countries and creeds to come here and unite with us in creating the state of which we are all citizens. Mr. Coolidge is certainly American. Any organization which aims at stirring up religious or race hatred in the name of Americanism is self-branded as un-American. In a recent address, Roger Babson, a man who is conspicuously American, and one of our foremost authorities on business and finance, declared: "Religion, like everything else of value, must be taught. It is possible to get more religion in industry and business only through the development of Christian education and leadership. With the forces of evil backed by men and money, systematically organized to destroy, we must back with men and money all campaigns for Christian education." It was doubtless with such sentiments in mind that Senator George Wharton Pepper, of the University of Pennsylvania, spoke as follows to the 1922 graduates of Yale University: I am profoundly convinced that the time is not far distant when all men without exception who think at all, and who possess the faculty of reasoning clearly and logically, will understand that the highest use to which the human mind can devote itself is the contemplation of God and His relations to man and the physical universe; and when that time comes, I am certain that a hymn of thanksgiving will well up from the heart of America to the Catholic Church, which through misrepresentation and calumny and slander, and in spite of the most powerful opposition, has always held that great ideal before the minds of the people; has always made God and His Christ the basis and foundation of education. Did space permit I could present many similar statements from thoroughly American non-Catholic sources. Let me conclude with the remarks of the greatest American of them all, next to Washington. Abraham Lincoln in a letter to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855, referring to an organization similar to the Ku Klux Klan said: I am not a Know-Nothing, that is certain. How could I be? How can any man who abhors the oppression of negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it, "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read, "all men are created equal except negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty. Impartial reader, the case rests. It is for you to decide which is un-American, Catholic citizenry or the Ku Klux Klan. MARTIN J. SCOTT, S.J. |