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Show BISHOP M'FATJL ON THE SCHOOL. Reports of His Recent Address Were in Some Respects Misleading. Some of the reports of the address of Bishop McFaul of the Trenton diocese, made at the laying of the cornerstone i of St. Patrick's parochial school, in i Jersey City, last Sunday, were in some respects misleading. ' What the bishop actually said concerning parochial 1 schools was: I "Here we have a system of schools ; wherein all religious teaching is eliminated. elimi-nated. Catholics consider the system : dangerous to free institutions. Still, If our fellow citizens, regardless of re-I re-I suits, must have this system, we can only appea'- to them for we also are American citizens not to tax us for the support of schools which our conscientious con-scientious convictions will not permit : us to patronize. It is no answer to say to us: 'There are the schools reidy , for you and anyone else; if you do not desire to send your children to them, it is no fault of ours. Non-Catholic citizens citi-zens select a system of schools which 13 obnoxious to their Catholic fellow citizens, citi-zens, and then they have the hardihood to say to them: 'You shall be taxed for their support; whether they are suitable suit-able to you or not does not concern us.' I Must not the freedom of conscience to which an American citizen is entitled I be held inviolable, and should not his , fellow citizens, by virtue of the con-j con-j stitution, protect him in the exercise thereof? Shall not our country supply our Catholic children with a system of ! education acceptable to the Catholic ; conscience? I This is an important question. It has j been solved in other countries; let it be solved here. Let some sort of compromise com-promise be made and the parochial schools become a part of the Public school system. The state should not pay for religious education. The parochial pa-rochial school scholars should be examined ex-amined at certain times, and the state pay for the results attained in secular branches. Such a compromise is necessary, neces-sary, because secular or intellectual and religious training should go hand in hand to make loyal citizens-and good Christians." |