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Public Schools vs. Catholic Schools and James McMaster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Thomas T. McAvoy C.S.C.
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Extract

THE “emergence of the Catholic layman” in the United States which has been heralded sofrequently since the opening of the Second Vatican Council has tended to do a grave injustice to the American Catholic layman of earlier generations. It is true that many of the leading American Catholiclaymen of the nineteenth century were converts from Protestantism, and there were few opportunities for the first generation immigrant Catholic to achieve higher education outside the seminaries. Nevertheless, the “Generation of the Third Eye” has not produced a philosopher of the depth or comprehension of Orestes A. Brownson, nor a defender of orthodoxy of the knowledge and capacity of James A. McMaster nor has it surpassed such men as Roger B. Taney, John Scott, and William J. Read who were called in to address the first Provincial Council of Baltimore, or Richard Clarke who tried to form the first Catholic union in the United States. The number of prominent Catholic laymen and laywomen of the nineteenth century is large as can be seen in the mere listing of the galaxy that participated in the two lay Catholic Congresses in Baltimore in 1889 and Chicago in 1893. Of all these, James McMaster has no equal in his influence on the religious and theological development of American Catholicism.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , January 1966 , pp. 19 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1966

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References

* For permission to copy documents used in this article from the Archives of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, the author is indebted to the generous permission of His Eminence Cardinal Gregory Peter Agagianian, the Prefect of that Congregation. He received assistance in translating Italian documents from Rev. David C. Sherrer, C.S.C., and Latin documents from John Turley, both of the University of Notre Dame.

1 The only biography of McMaster published separately is that of SisterKwitchen, Mary Augustine O.S.F., James Alphonsus McMaster (Washington, 1949)Google Scholar. Another account was published in the Carmelite Review (April, 1894 to July, 1897), Volumes II-V. Most of his correspondence is in the University of Notre Dame Archives.

2 The quotation from Grant and the wording of Blaine's amendment are quoted in Kinzer, Donald K., An Episode in Anti-Catholicism, The American Protective Association (Seattle, 1964), p. 8Google Scholar.

3 SisterDonohoe, Joan Marie S.N.D., The Irish Catholic Benevolent Union (Washington, 1953), p. 33Google Scholar.

4 “The Catholics and the Public Schools,” The Independent, XXV (1873), 1467Google Scholar.

5 Archives of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, , Rome, , Scritture rif. nei Congressi America Centrale, Vol. 25, fol. 232, 234, 235Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., fol. 235–240.

7 Ibid., Lettere delta S. Congregatione Anno 1874, Vol. 370, fol. 147, 148. Copies in the New Orleans papers, University of Notre Dame Archives, and in Baltimore Archdiocesan Archives.

8 SisterYeager, M. Hildegarde C.S.C., The Life of James Roosevelt Bayley, First Bishop of Newark and Eighth Archbishop of Baltimore 1814–1877 (Washington, 1947), pp. 357 and 375–383Google Scholar.

9 Propaganda Archives, Scritture rif. nei Congressi America Centrale, Vol. 26, fol. 386, 387Google Scholar.

10 Ibid., Lettere, Anno 1875, Vol. 371, fol. 101, 102.

11 Baltimore Cathedral Archives, obtained through courtesy of Rev. James O'Hara.

12 In Cincinnati papers, University of Notre Dame Archives.

13 Rochester Diocesan Archives, McQuaid Papers, Bayley to McQuaid, Baltimore, June 25, 1874, obtained through courtesy of Rev. Robert McNamara.

14 Propaganda Archives, Lettere, Anno 1875, Vol. 371, fol. 101, 102Google Scholar.

15 The covering letter to Archbishop Napoleon Perché of New Orleans is dated November 24, 1876, as is the note in the Propaganda Archives, Lettere, Anno 1876, Vol. 513, fol. 513Google Scholar. The decree of the Inquisition is printed in Collectanea S. Congregationis De Propaganda Fide (Rome, 1893), pp. 204, 205Google Scholar, in the appendix of Acta et Decreta Concilii Plenari Baltimorensis Tertii, A.D. MCDCCCLXXIV (Baltimore 1886), pp. 279–282Google Scholar and with a translation that is here quoted, in The Pastor (Baltimore), IV (1885–1886), 232–237Google Scholar.

16 Propaganda Archives, Congressi rif. nei Congressi America Centrale 1875, Vol. 26, fol. 317 to 356Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., fol. 379, 380.

18 Ibid., fol. 362–367.

19 Capita praecipua quae Emi. Cardinales S.C. de Propaganda Fide censuerunt a Rmis Archiepiscopis et Episcopis Foederatorum Statuum A. S. Romae congregatis preparanda esse pro futuro Concilio. Copy from Boston Archdiocesan Archives.

20 The “Minutes of the Roman Meeting Preparatory to the III Plenary Council of Baltimore” is printed in translation in The Jurist, III (1951), 121–131Google Scholar; 302–312; 417–424; 538–547. The discussion on parochial schools is on pp, 422–424.

21 Cassidy, Francis P., “Catholic Education in the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore,” Catholic Historical Review, XXXIV (1948), 257–305, 414–436Google Scholar, is the best account of the legislation of the Third Plenary Council on education. Cassidy examines each step in the promulgation of the decrees. He missed the significance of the Instruction of 1875 and is inclined to misinterpret the decrees in terms of current prejudices on the question when the article was prepared.

22 Figures drawn from the Catholic Directory are not satisfactory because of a change in terminology and a serious doubt of the manner of gathering statistics. Nevertheless the figures given have their interest. In 1884 there were 6,613 churches to which were attached 2,532 schools caring for 481,834 children. In 1895 there were 8,704 churches with 3,725 schools caring for 755,038 children. This was a noticeable increase that might be attributed to the Gonciliar decree. In 1920 there were 10,608 churches with resident pastors with 5,852 schools and 1,701,208 children. The percentage of schools had increased to over 50% of the number of churches. In 1930 when the depression checked the growth, there were 12,413 churches with resident pastors, 7,225 schools caring for 2,248,671 children in the elementary schools. This might indicate that the effect of the new Canon Law was quite great, but the prosperity of the period probably was also important.

23 Acta et Decreta Concilii Plenarii Baltimorensis Tertii, pp. 99–110.