706 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH/ 



ernment, which elicited a protest from the 

 clergy of Chelm (June 1st). 



In Turkey the general amnesty granted by 

 Murad on his accession permitted Mgr. Has- 

 soun, Patriarch of the Catholic Armenians, 

 who had been banished by the grand-vizier 

 Mahmoud Pasha, to return to Constantinople 

 (July 6th). His restoration gave hopes of a 

 speedy extinction of the schism which had 

 caused his exile. 



The policy adopted by Government jn Switz- 

 erland was maintained, though not so rigor- 

 ously, but Bishop Mermillod remained in exile, 

 and the Catholic churches continued to beheld 

 by the Old Catholics, to whom they had been 

 handed by the state. 



The Church in other parts of Europe had 

 few events of note. In May, Fort Augustus, 

 Inverness-shire, which had been purchased by 

 Lord Lovat, was given to the Benedictines, who 

 established the first monastery seen in Scotland 

 since the Reformation. 



In the United States the influence was felt 

 of the attempt to make the Catholic Church 

 an element in the political questions of the 

 day. In Ohio, a law passed to secure Catholics 

 from official proselytizing in the State penal 

 and eleemosynary institutions was repealed 

 (January 21st). A new diocese, Alleghany, in 

 Pennsylvania, was established, and steps taken 

 to erect a Prefecture Apostolic for the Catho- 

 lic Indians. The cathedral in Baltimore, the 

 first Roman Catholic cathedral in the country, 

 was solemnly consecrated with great pomp 

 (May 25th), and in the same month Archbishop 

 Purcell, the oldest bishop in the United States, 

 and, with few exceptions, the oldest in the 

 world, celebrated his golden jubilee. The oper- 

 ation of the public-school system on the rights 

 of Catholics was discussed in many parts: in 

 January, at Erie, between F. A. Crandall, edi- 

 tor of the Sunday Morning Gazette, and Bishop 

 Mullen, leading to a general meeting of Cath- 

 olics, who indorsed the bishop ; in May there 

 was a public discussion at Kingston, N". Y., 

 between the Rev. James Dougherty and Rev. 

 Mr. Vanderveer; in February Bishop Mc- 

 Quaid lectured on the topic before the Free 

 Religious Association of Boston ; Archbishop 

 Purcell, of Cincinnati, couched bis views on 

 the subject in the following brief sentences : 



DECLARATION TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Enemies of the Catholic Church assert that the 

 bishops and clergy of the Catholic Church are hos- 

 tile to the public schools of the country, and are 

 leagued together to destroy them. Americans! read 

 our Declaration, and learn our true sentiments: 



_ 1. The Catholic bishops and clergy have no inten- 

 tion whatever to interfere with your public-school 

 system. Build as many schools as you wish, we 

 will never say a word against it, and we will leave 

 to yourselves the care of your own children. 



2. You wish your schools to be free from all re- 

 ligious influence; in other words, you wish them 

 not to be sectional or sectarian in any case. The 

 episcopate of the CathoKc Church says, in this re- 

 gard, Do with y^our children as you please. 



' 8. We Catholics, on the other hand, are under the 



conviction that children are sent to school not only 

 to be formed into citizens, but also and especially 

 to be educated into good men and good Christians, 

 and our Church believes, in all earnest, wiih Guizot, 

 the celebrated Protestant statesman of France, that 

 education can by no means be separated from re- 

 ligious influence. Therefore, while leaving your 

 schools and their management peacelully in your 

 own hands, we claim the right of having schools of 

 our own, from which religion shall not be ex- 

 cluded, but be allowed to exercise its salutary influ- 

 ence on youth. 



4. We claim the right on the plea that we are u 

 religious body in this free country, whose Constitu- 

 tion most solemnly guarantees the free exercise of 

 religious belief to all its citizens, and the fullest 

 personal freedom in regard to the dictates of con- 

 science. Now, there is not a more essential or a 

 more precious liberty than that of parents to edu- 

 cate their children in the manner which they think 

 will make them happy for time and for eternity. 

 Therefore, the Catholic people, with logical se- 

 quence, claim the protection of the Government, so 

 as not to be molested in their schools. 



5. We say, protection. No doubt, justice and 

 equality would entitle the Catholic people of this 

 country to exemption from taxation for the support 

 of other schools, or to a share of the public-school 

 fund in proportion to the number of pupils in their 

 schools. But even this claim we are disposed to 

 waive in your favor. 



6. You can have no reason to fear the effect of our 

 system on the Commonwealth, because experience 

 has proved that the students of our colleges, acad- 

 emies, and schools, are as good and as useful citizens 

 as those who come out of your institutions. And 

 if in every other branch of human action you admit 

 the principle of competition and believe in its ben- 

 eficial influence, why should you exclude it from 

 education, and deprive yourselves of the benefit 

 which emulation would produce? 



7. We fear that, notwithstanding this sincere, pre- 

 cise, and solemn declaration, there will yet be found 

 fanatical men and political speakers who will en- 

 deavor to excite their hearers by asserting the im- 

 aginary opposition of the Catholic clergy to the 

 public'schools of the country. It is one of the mis- 

 fortunes of this world that it cannot get rid of men 

 who, like Don Quixote, are perpetually fighting 

 against windmills, under the plea of imminent dan- 



fers to their fellow-men. Such men dp not wish to 

 now the truth, and though we repeat it a thousand 

 times that we do not oppose their schools, any more 

 than we adore images, or trust more in the Blessed 

 "Virgin than in the merits of Christ, they will a 

 thousand times renew the charge and swear that we 

 do. We do not expect to silence such men ; but we 

 appeal to all fair-minded citizens not to be led astray 

 by the bigoted or ignorant ranting of men who would 

 blind them for their own political ends. 



We ask no favor or privilege. All we ask is to be 

 let alone in following the dictates of our own con- 

 science ; and you cannot refuse this, without under- 

 mining the Constitution, and preparing the way for 

 loss of the same freedom for yoursejvew. 



Americans ! we are willing to rally with you un- 

 der the flag and Constitution, and maintain them 

 with our blood, as we have done heretofore. But 

 we cannot help fearing that both are in peril, while 

 a large number of our fellow-citizens, in and out of 

 office, allow themselves to be influenced by fanatical 

 or self-interested politicians, or by infidel and revo- 

 lutionary foreigners, who come to us with the proud 

 pretension of teaching us what republican govern- 

 ment is, about which they know nothing themselves. 

 All we ask is, that you will not go to such men to 

 learn what we aim at what are our sentiments. 

 Give us a fair hearing, and receive this declaration 

 as the sincere expression of our true principles, 

 which we make before God and men, actuated by no 



