The Morning Star And Catholic Messenger

Cincinnati School Decision.—The most judicious of the Protestant press freely condemn the singular decision of Judge Storer and his associate in regard to the action of the Cincinnati School Board. Here is what the New York Independent says: Having read the able and exhaustive arguments, pro and con, before the Superior Court, we did not discover any just legal grounds for the decision arrived at by the court. To us it seemed that the Board of Education simply done what they had a legal right to do as the official administrators of the school system of Cincinnati and that the question of discretion was one for them to determine, without any interference by courts of law. We presumed that such would be the doctrine of the court. As to the general question in application to our American system of common schools, we have no doubt as to what is expedient and consistent with our theory of civil government. Those who insist upon Bible-reading and religious singing in the public schools must do so for a reason, and if they will trace that reason to its final ground, they will find themselves adopting a principle which had been rejected—as we think, wisely—in the organization of our political and civil institutions. We can well understand how those governments which unite Church and State, and blend ecclesiastical and civil functions, should carry this principle into their systems of popular education, so far as they have any, but we do not readily perceive how or why religion should be made a part of State education among a people who utterly disclaim all union between Church and State, and base their civil system simply upon those rights which are the common heritage of all, without any modification or qualification by religious tenets or dogmas. To us it seems clear that the system of education conducted by the authority of the State,—and supported by general taxation, should not undertake the work of religious teaching. We do not believe that the latter falls properly within the province of the former, either as a means or an end. The fact of history is, that the State has always proved itself a very poor religious teacher. It is not adapted to the work, and the better way, alike for the interests of religion and the State, is to leave this branch of education with the family and the Church, and such other agencies as individuals spontaneously choose to establish and sustain. This is the only theory that is consistent with our system of civil government.