Atlanta Catholic Centennial

The Catholic Church is not antagonistic to public schools, but the Catholic Church contends that no matter how efficient a public school may be, there is one element in the education of a child that is lacking. And that, the most important of all, his knowledge of God. Due to the various religious sects that exist in this country, it is not practical to teach religion in public schools. Therefore, Catholics pay their pro-rata share of taxes for public schools, and in addition pay for Catholic schools that their children may acquire a knowledge of God and a knowledge of other subjects in their proper relation to the Divinity.

“In 1873, Bishop Gross and prominent Catholic citizens of Atlanta attempted to obtain a division of school funds for the benefit of Catholic schools but the principle was held to be unsound and the petition was denied. The following year the petition of Bishop Gross for the establishment of Catholic schools by Council was likewise refused.” -- From the Story of the Immaculate Conception Parish, by Very Rev. Joseph E. Moylan, V. F.

In a recent issue of the Catholic Review an article regarding Catholic Schools contained the following interesting information: “Many citizens of the United States who are not members of the Catholic Church, and sometimes a few uninformed who are, wonder why Catholics maintain a separate system of public education for their own children. To some it seems that Catholics are deliberately running schools in opposition to the public schools. The tax-supported schools in their eyes are something pre-eminently American. Anything which dims their glory or casts the shadow of a doubt on their right to such a title is regarded as un-American and unpatriotic.”

“History does not bear them out. The founders of the nation never had any such idea. Catholic schools existed in American 200 years before anyone had any notion of such a thing as a public school and the United States existed as a nation fifty years before the public schools were generally accepted.” -- By Rev. Father Harold E. Kellar.

The Catholic Church has been a teacher and an educator for nearly two thousand years. Her educators are now and have been in the past second to none. The world today owes its thanks to the Catholic Church for much of its knowledge and much of value in its educational institutions. Public schools are efficient but they are not superior to Catholic schools.