USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Catholicity in northern Ohio and in the diocese of Cleveland from 1749 to December 31, 1900, Volume I, pt1 > Part 12
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The following are the conditions on which any society within the diocese will be permitted to enter any church with its regalia on :
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1. Their constitution must be approved either by the bishop or priest.
2. Each society shall place a priest at its head as spiritual director, and receive from him reasonable direction.
The acceptance or rejection of the above rules will not inter- fere with the individual members of the societies. To them the doors of the church are open as to all others; and to them will the priest grant all the privileges usually granted to Catholics. But as societies, their privileges will depend upon the acceptance or rejection of the above conditions.
There is much weak faith and many loose notions on the subject of marriage. Many of our Catholics act as if they thought it mattered little whether they were married in or out of the Church ; whether they were married by the priest or the squire, or whether they had God's blessing or God's curse upon them. Marriage is a sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ, through which the married couple receive grace and blessing. It is a grievous sin to get married out of the church; and often such marriages are null and void in the eyes of the church, because of existing impediments. We most solemnly warn the faithful everywhere to avoid such abuses. Seek, dear children, husbands and wives amongst the members of your own faith; be published in your own church, and married by your own priests, that thus God may bless you and your lives be happy. Remember that a bad beginning usually makes a bad end.
And now, beloved brethren, we exhort you to renew within you the spirit of faith ; to be earnest, to be zealous, knowing not what the morrow may bring forth-you must be always prepared, for as a thief comes in the night, so will God call ; perhaps tonight.
Are you in sin, repent ; have you injured another, restore in kind. Owe no man anything. Let your speech be yea, yea; nay, nay. Be pure, be sober; let no contradiction or contention be amongst you. Go often to the sacraments; in them you will find life and salvation. Early train up your children in the ways of God; give them good example. Be not as the sign-post that ever points out the way to others, but itself walks not in it. Let the holy season of Lent be spent in prayer and self-denial. Mortify your passions that you may keep them in subjection. Cling to your faith ; it is of priceless value ! so live by its teachings that you will be known to be Catholics by your virtues.
The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
¡R. GILMOUR, Bishop of Cleveland.
As above stated, the Bishop was bitterly attacked for his pastoral letter, notably by the anti-Catholic Cleveland Leader, and
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by the Rev. T. P. Forbush, a Cleveland Protestant minister. The Bishop published in the daily Cleveland papers several cards in defense of his pastoral letter and in answer to his opponents.
To show the nature of the controversy that arose because of Bishop Gilmour's pastoral letter, the subjoined editorial from the Cleveland Leader of February 26, 1873, and Bishop Gilmour's reply, also published in the same paper, on March 3, 1873, will serve as fair samples :
"SUPREMACY OF THE POPE IN OHIO."
"The readers of the Leader will find in another column the Lenten Pastoral of Bishop Gilmour, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, which is the most extraordinary document of the kind that was ever issued in this latitude. It is pitched in as high a tone of dictation and supremacy as the allocutions of the Pope himself.
"One would think, in reading it, that Cleveland is another Rome, and that the temporal power had been specially transferred to the Western Reserve. No bishop, even in the most Catholic country of Europe, could go farther than the bishop of this diocese in exalting the spiritual over the temporal power, the church above the State, the Pope above the law. He says 'we must learn that we are Catholics first, and citizens next. Catholicity does not bring us in conflict with the State, yet it teaches that God is above man and the Church above the State.' This doctrine is different from what is commonly known as the 'higher law.' That simply asserts the liberty of the individual conscience; but this claims authority for the particular religious organization, namely the Catholic church, to rule the consciences of men and control their social and civil duties and relations, even in contravention of the civil law. This doctrine is the legitimate and logical result of the dogma of Papal infallibility, and makes the church identical with God, and its authority paramount with His. It is but one step from this position to the Inquisition. All that is wanting is power to compel uniformity, for Romanism, so expressed, to crush civil and religious liberty.
"And the Bishop of Cleveland proposes to go as far as he can in this direction, by turning his Catholic voters into a political enginery for the purpose of wrenching the 'rights' of the church from the State. This is his programme in the matter of the public schools :
"'At present we have nothing to hope from the State. Yet we must not therefore cease to insist upon our rights, and if needs be, at the polls demand them. Were Catholics alive and united
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on the school question ; were they to demand from every man who asks for their vote, the pledge that he would vote for our just share of the school fund, legislators would learn to respect the Catholic vote, and give us our just rights. Catholics are too timid, they seem to go upon the principle that if they are tolerated they are doing well. This is a mistake; if we let our rights go by default, we should not wonder if we lose them. We must be decided in our demands and present a bolder front to our enemies. It is unjust to so organize the public schools that we cannot in conscience send our children to them, and then tax us for their support. As well create a State Church, and tax us for its support.'
"This is a bold demand, and a signal of aggression which the friends of our common school system will do well to heed, for the bishop's objection is not to the fact that religion, not Catholic, is introduced into the public schools, but to the fact that such schools are not under the direction and teaching of his church. It is the system of secular education, under the care of the State and not of the priest, which he denounces. If the Bible was never read or the Lord's prayer repeated, his anathema would fall just as heavily on all Catholics who should send their children to such godless schools. The bishop threatens the most vigorous dis- cipline against Catholic parents 'who refuse to send their children to the Catholic school;' even to the extremity of authorizing a confessor to refuse the sacraments to such parents as thus despise the laws of the Church, and disobey the command of both priest and bishop.
"We have nothing to say as to the Bishop's order that 'a priest must be put at the head of every Catholic society,' that being purely a domestic affair. But when he takes the whole title and control of the church property into his hands, and says that 'here- after there are and will be no trustees;' we think it time for the law to step in to protect the rights of congregations in property which they have created for their own use and benefit. Our approaching constitutional convention may have something to say upon this and kindred points."
In answer to the above and similar attacks, Bishop Gilmour sent the following reply to the Cleveland Leader. It was published on March 3. 1873 :
"To the Editor of the Leader :
"My late Lenten Pastoral has considerably disturbed the peace of newspaperdom and disquieted the nerves of the timid. Dark designs, ulterior moves, danger to the constitution and the public schools, priestly dictation, are the watchwords that remind one
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ST. JOHN'S SCHOOL, CANTON.
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of the old Know-Nothing times, when press and pulpit rang with most bitter intolerance against Catholics and the Catholic church. "So long as Catholics are silent, and submit to the dictation of the Protestant dominant party, pay their taxes, develop and increase the resources of the country and in time of need give their lives and property to the defense of the State, they are excel- lent citizens. But let them complain or in any manner claim equal justice before the law, then they are disloyal and must be silenced at all hazards. Hence this cry against me, because in the spirit of a few men I dared to say a word upon the questions of the day. Reared in America since my fourth year, and for nearly half a century believing I was a free -man, trained as an old Scotch Covenanter, educated in the public schools, a citizen without a declaration of intention, and for the last twenty years a resident of Ohio, I thought I had a right to a word on the ordinary topics of the hour. But it seems that as a Catholic Bishop I have no rights, or if in the name of my flock I dare to complain, I must be unsparingly attacked. Would not this intense hostility and bitter prejudice against Catholics go far to show that the Massachusetts Puritan is not dead yet, and that he would be as intolerant today as he was in the past if intolerance were needed to carry out his aims? He is quiet only because he is master, yet with gilded words and genial platitudes of tolerance and liberty to all men in Church and State he conceals his intolerance to all that opposes him.
"It is hard to understand these periodical outcries against the Catholic church. Why these dark insinuations? Why these constant cries of danger ahead? Our doctrines and actions are before the world. We do not hide our light under a bushel. Does the State command, we obey ; does the State need our property or our lives, they are at its command. No man has been more loyal to the stars and stripes, whether in the War of Independence or in the Mexican war, though waged against a Catholic nation, or in the recent struggle for the maintenance of the Union. Catholics do not ask 'is it a Catholic or Protestant government under which we live?' They simply ask does my country need me? In proof see the Catholic Prussian in the late war, and Catholic Ireland to tyrannical England.
"For eighteen hundred years the Catholic church has been a protector of the weak against the strong, and minorities against majorities. She first took the slave by the hand and taught the haughty Roman and Greek that he was their equal. For eight hundred years, by threats and by laws, was the contest carried on. but in the end she, and she alone, abolished slavery in Europe. When Feudalism rose she became the defender of the serf, and at the head of the English barons she, in the person of Langton.
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Archbishop of Canterbury, wrested from the King of England the great Magna Charta that constitutes the paladium of an English- man's rights, and on which is built the grand, and I pray lasting, constitution of the United States. Her whole history has been resistance to oppression, and whenever she has seemed to act otherwise it has been from forced union of Church and State, the union of which I will never become the advocate.
"Why then this cry? Why this chimerical fear that ever con- jures up ghostly images from the timid brain? Talk of Catholic superstition in the face of this universal bugbear of Protestant superstition that ever sees in Catholicity but evil! Our doctrines are before you, our repeated declarations, loyalty and readiness to support the flag of our country, clear and emphatic. But nothing we can do, and nothing we can say will protect us the · moment we dare to complain, or refuse to accept the one-sided legislation that is framed against us. A system of education is inaugurated that we cannot accept; institutions are founded in which we have no rights, as reform schools and houses of refuge, in which the Catholic priest cannot have the paltry privilege of giving the Catholic children, unfortunately there, a little religious instruction. Because in the minority, we are placed at a disad- vantage everywhere, and we are called factious and disloyal if we dare complain. And if the priests or bishops speak a word, then comes the cry: 'danger, danger, DANGER; oh! these scheming priests, take care, take care !'
"Is this fair? Is it manly? Turn the tables and suppose the Catholics in the majority and that all the State institutions were created in their interest. What a howl would rise from the Protestant minority ; 'oh ! the tyranny of Catholicity, the oppression of conscience; the revival of the Inquisition, and the auto-da-fes;' falsehoods of history that modern honesty is beginning to explode, like the lying Froude who has so lately been sent home, his historic wings clipped and his glory gone. Be just ; let not prejudice warp your judgment. Give the Catholic equal rights with his Protestant fellow citizens.
"Much has been said on my proposition that 'we are Catholics first and citizens next.' Well, I do not see that that is such a wonderful proposition, nor that there is so much to be alarmed at in it. I think it will be found that every man who has any religion at all acts upon the same principle, and I must confess I would think but little of the religion, and less of the man who would think or act otherwise. A man who will not be true to his God will not be true to the State.
"The Catholic church teaches that we owe duties to God as well as to Cæsar; that the Church and the State have been created
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by God and have their power from God for distinct and clearly marked purposes; that the Church is for the soul, the State for the body; and that each is supreme within its own sphere; that to the State, if needed, belong the property and the life of the citizens, but his soul is his own. Besides she teaches that God is above man, the spiritual above the temporal, and that the Church repre- sents the spiritual above the temporal. Now, as the Church repre- sents the spiritual, and spiritual (which is the soul and God) is above the temporal, so in this is it true to say the Church is above the State. But this doctrine does not mean, nor is it intended, to teach that the Church has a right to dictate to the State, for the State is supreme within its own sphere; but when the State goes out of its sphere and assumes to do what the Church has been appointed to do, that the Church resents, and says to the State: 'Mind your own business.' Wherever the Church and State have come in contact, it has invariably been because the State assumed to do the work of the Church. Now the Church is as independent in her own sphere as the State, and has as just a right to freedom in her actions, so long as she keeps within her own sphere of action, as the State has. This is the only basis upon which religious free- dom could at all be asserted or maintained.
"But this doctrine does not teach, nor does the Catholic Church teach, that a citizen is not to yield a ready and dutiful obedience to the State: on the contrary she teaches that the citizen must give an unqualified obedience to the State in all that does not conflict with the law of God, and is not against natural justice; but the moment the State attempts to oppress the citizen. then the State transcends its bounds and becomes a tyrant, and though the citizen may submit, (and oftentimes it is best to submit), yet in such case, but in such case only, he is not bound to submit, and if able, would be justified in resisting. It is this injustice of the State, that could at all justify resistance to its authority, or in any manner justify rebellion. If this is a doctrine that places the Church above the State, and offends sensitive nerves, pray on what doctrine would you justify the American Revolution? Was that revolution organized and justly carried on, because England unjustly oppressed the colonies and thus lost her right to rule?
"With this explanation of our doctrines, I don't see that there is much cause for serious alarm, or that the Catholics are likely soon to rise in rebellion. Keep cool, gentlemen. There is no serious danger. In the hour of need our right arms will be as ready to strike in defense of the stars and stripes (which I assure you I value very dearly), as the best and bravest of the land. Our past is proof of this.
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"I am fiercely attacked on the school question, charged with aiming at its destruction, and being the enemy of all State educa- tion. To this I have simply to state: I am nothing of the kind, nor would I, even if I could, put a straw in the way of its success. However, I honestly believe that the education of the child belongs to the parent, not to the State, yet if the parent likes to yield his right to the State, that is the parent's business.
"My objection is not to State education, for the bishops of Prussia, Austria, Canada and Ireland have accepted State educa- tion, and here it would be accepted by the bishops of the Catholic church with ready willingness if the State would make the same provision for our conscientious scruples that it does in the countries above mentioned. Our objection is not that the State educates, but that she but half educates, for we hold that it is impossible to properly educate a child without religion. Hence, our objection to the public schools, in which religion is not taught and, as they are constituted, could not be taught, and should not be taught. We say, so construct the public schools that religion may be taught, just as parents may wish, and thus avoid all further trouble, and let us live in peace. So far the appar- ent difficulty has been that this could not be done satisfactorily to all parties. But what has been done, and is elsewhere success- fully done, can again be done, and may be done in America as well as in despotic Protestant Prussia, and poor, benighted Catholic Austria, and is done in Canada and Ireland, where today the system works successfully and Catholics accept cheerfully.
"The system is very simple, and is as follows: Where Protestants and Catholics are in such numbers that each can fill a school, separate schools are opened; but where only one school can be, as in smaller towns and country districts, then both denominations are educated in common, and within school hours religion is never mentioned. However, before or after school hours, or during school hours, by the separation into separate rooms, provision is made for the clergymen of the different denominations to meet their own children and in their own way instruct them in their respective religions. Why this cannot be done here is a mystery hard to explain, unless on the principle that might makes right, and that minorities have no rights that majorities are bound to obey.
"To prove that I am no enemy of State education, and that my opposition is only to the one sided, and as I hold. unjustly organized character of the public schools, I make the following proposal to the School Board in Cleveland, and on its acceptance or rejection will be seen the liberality that characterizes not only the School Board, but the justice of this Christian community.
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If accepted, I promise to place the Catholic schools of the city under control of the School Board; if rejected, then cease to talk of justice towards Catholics :
"1st. We shall build our school houses and collect into them our children. When there, we shall place them and their teachers during school hours under the entire control of the School Board, receiving from the School Board such direction as it may give.
"2nd .. During school hours no religion or religious instruc- tion of any kind shall be given.
"For these concessions, which are certainly all that could be demanded, we will only ask that, either before or after school hours, we shall be permitted in our own way to instruct our children in their religion. And secondly, that the teachers shall be Catholics and be paid by the School Board.
"This is already done in several places in the State, and is found to work satisfactorily to all parties. Try it, and let us see if there is sufficient freedom from religious prejudice to do what not only can be done, but so easily done, and to the satisfaction of so large a portion of the community as we are, and thus harmonize the discordant elements of both parties. So long as the majority trample on our conscientious troubles, and will make no effort to satisfy what we consider our just demands, or will make no advance to a compromise, but simply say, take what we choose to give, they need not wonder if we cry out against this openhanded injustice. Nor will it do to cry wolf, where there is no wolf, nor will it do to say we are opposed to what we are not. Let truth and justice prevail if the heavens fall.
¡R. GILMOUR, Bishop of Cleveland."
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CHAPTER IV THE RT. REV. BISHOP GILMOUR'S ADMINISTRATION. (CONTINUED.)
BISHOP GILMOUR AND THE DIOCESAN SEMINARY-PURCHASES SITE FOR A NEW SEMINARY-THE CATHOLIC CENTRAL ASSOCIATION-THE SCHOOL TAX SUIT -BISHOP GILMOUR'S LETTER EXPLAINING THE SCHOOL TAX SUIT-BISHOP GILMOUR BUILDS EPISCOPAL RESIDENCE-THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSE FOUNDED IN 1876-FOUNDLING ASYLUM ESTABLISHED IN CLEVELAND- URSULINE CONVENT ESTABLISHED AT YOUNGSTOWN-ST. VINCENT'S HOSPITAL OPENED AT TOLEDO-BISHOP RAPPE'S DEATH, SEPTEMBER 8, 1877-HIS REMAINS BROUGHT TO CLEVELAND-EXTRACTS FROM BISHOP GILMOUR'S PASTORAL LETTER, PUBLISHED MARCH 13, 1879-DIOCESAN SEMINARY ENLARGED-ST. JOSEPH'S CEMETERY, CLEVELAND-ST. VIN- CENT'S ASYLUM, CLEVELAND-ST. VINCENT'S ASYLUM, TOLEDO-SIXTH DIOCESAN SYNOD, 1882-BISHOP GILMOUR VISITS ROME-CALVARY CEME- TERY, TOLEDO-SEVENTH DIOCESAN SYNOD, 1889.
B ISHOP GILMOUR took a special interest in the diocesan seminary. He disliked its location, its antiquated buildings and lack of spacious grounds. At the Synod of 1873 he appealed to his clergy to aid him in securing for seminary purposes a tract of land in the country, and yet not too far from the city. He gave his reasons for the much desired and needed change of loca- tion, on which eventually he hoped to erect a seminary building worthy the flourishing diocese of Cleveland, and large enough to comfortably accommodate all the seminarists needed for his rapidly growing diocese. The clergy readily assented and voted that a part of the diocesan fund be set aside for that purpose. After making a careful search for a suitable site he finally secured a most beautifully located tract of land in Euclid Township and comprising 35 acres. The Euclid Road passes almost midway through it. The price was $32,000. The purchase was effected in October, 1873, about the time of the "Black Friday" financial panic, whose dire effects, how- ever, did not reach Cleveland until the following year, and were then felt for nearly eight years. In consequence of this fact the thought of building a new seminary had to be abandoned, and every effort had to be directed by the bishop towards meeting the
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ST. MARY'S CHURCH (INTERIOR), SANDUSKY.
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debt incurred in the purchase of the land. This all the more, because the financial depression was so great and universal throughout the country that it also affected the hoped for diocesan revenues out of which the new seminary site was to have been paid for in a few years. The bishop was therefore obliged to borrow nearly all of the purchase price and await further developments. By degrees the debt was paid, and the mortgage cancelled in 1883. As soon as the diocese is financially able, the seminary will be built on the splendid site above mentioned, according to the plan pro- posed by Bishop Gilmour.
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In 1874 Bishop Gilmour organized in Cleveland the Catholic Central Association, composed of representatives from all the parishes and Catholic societies of the city. Its influence for good was soon felt. Since the opening of the Workhouse in Cleveland, in 1870, the unfortunate Catholic inmates had been denied their rights as Catholics. No Catholic priest was permitted to visit or instruct them. After much opposition the bishop finally succeeded in getting the consent of the Workhouse authorities to allow Catholic prisoners the consolation of their religion, thus far denied them. To the Catholic Central Association,* through some of its leading members, was due in large measure this concession. Since 1876 Mass has been regularly celebrated, and appropriate sermons preached, at the Workhouse on alternate Sundays, and on every Sunday the Catholic inmates receive catechetical instructions.
In spite of a decision rendered in 1874 by the Supreme Court of Ohio, declaring Catholic schools not taxable, the Catholic school property of Cleveland was put on the tax duplicate in 1875, by County Auditor Benedict. As soon as Bishop Gilmour was informed of that unjust act, he had a suit of injunction entered against the County Auditor. This suit aroused Cleveland's bigotry and when tried before Judge Jones, it created widespread interest. Bishop Gilmour published in the Catholic Universe, of December 20, 1883, a full account of the celebrated "Tax suit case." The following are the salient points in his statement of the case:
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