(The goals of the Papacy from its inception have not changed. And one of her fundamentally effective weapons in achieving global authority is education, for which she is renown through the work of the Jesuit and Benedictine Orders. The School Choice movement, as harmless and noble as it sounds, actually plays well into their plans. Clever manipulation of every system of governance in every age has equipped the Papacy to adjust her strategies to suit by using whatever tools are available. They are also adept at creating, promoting and magnifying artificial issues that mask their intentions. When Christianity is defined as essentially Catholicism, then supporting Christian education, financially or otherwise, means supporting Catholicism. Professor Swomley is on point) RJG

The Modus Operandi for Trying to Impose Papal Authority

The Vatican wants to extend its authority over civil law, not only in countries with Catholic majorities but in others with religiously diverse populations. The Catholic bishops have decided to try to impose papal authority in the United States through the abortion issue. Their Committee for Pro-Life Activities is the best-funded of the bishops’ thirteen secretariats and committees, with a budget of$1.8 million in 1993. It is more than three times the next largest budget, that of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Affairs, and four times the budget of the Secretariats for Laity, Women, Family, and Youth, according to the latest published information by Catholics for a Free Choice.

Catholic Lay Elites Pressed into Political Service for the Vatican’s Agenda

The Time articles also revealed that the Vatican works in various countries through lay people who function politically without apparent connection to the Vatican. The major study of the Vatican’s use of Catholic laity throughout Europe was made by Catholic Professor Jean-Guy Vaillancourt of the University of Montreal in his book, Papal Power: A Study of Vatican Control Over Law Catholic Elites. Vaillancourt in his concluding summary said in part, “The Catholic lay militant has been pressed into service as an.. . intermediary between the Papacy and the modern state.” In Europe, it is Catholic Action and the Christian Democratic Party which assume “direct political responsibilities” that the Hierarchy must shun. In the United States, it is the Catholic Campaign for America, which was organized in 1991. Its “ecclesiastical adviser” is the ubiquitous Cardinal O’Connor, but the laity on the CCA board and national committee function without publicizing their role in the organization.

The overall mission of the Catholic Campaign for America is “to activate Catholic citizens, increase the Catholic electorate’s influence in formulating public policy, and focus the public’s attention on the richness and beauty of Catholic teaching.” A 1992 newsletter of the Catholic Campaign declared that “separation of church and state is a false premise that must finally be cast aside.”

The Second Vatican Council’s decree on Christian education states:

“Parents, who have a primary and inalienable duty and right in regard to the education of their children, should enjoy the fullest liberty in their choice of school. The public authority, therefore, whose duty is to protect and defend the liberty of the citizen, is bound, according to the principles of distributive justice, to ensure that public subsidies to schools are so allocated that the parents are truly free to select schools for their children in accordance with their conscience.”

The phrase “distributive justice” is an Aristotelian idea that superior status or contribution to society entitled one to greater benefits from that society. It was an aristocratic principle that denied the benefits of Greek citizenship to slaves. The medieval world in which Roman Catholic structure, theology and social principles were largely formed was not opposed to this idea of distribution in proportion to status.

What this means in America is taking money from the public school system and giving it to the largest private-school system - Catholic schools - using parents as conduits. A comparatively smaller group of other religious schools would also benefit, as would private schools in the South and North to which whites have fled integrated public schools.

Distributive justice is based upon the assumption that certain parents as taxpayers are being denied justice if they do not get what they pay in taxes so they can choose private schools. However, the public schools exist to serve the entire community by lifting the level of literacy, education, and ability of citizens to participate in a democracy. Older citizens and those without children do not expect to have their taxes returned.

Another motivation for school choice is the desire to enroll minority students of other religions. Jesuit priest Thomas J. Reese notes:

“Catholic schools are the most successful evangelizing tool available to the church in the black community...Most schools teach the Catholic faith to both Catholic and non-Catholic students.”

One illustration of this is Chicago’s Holy Angels School, which President Reagan visited to propose tuition financial aid for parents to send their children to nonpublic schools. Reagan called it “the nation’s largest black Catholic school.” The Washington Post reported that in order to attend that school both the children and their parents had to be instructed in Catholicism, which resulted in about 80 to 150 Catholic converts a year.

Moreover, the American Catholic bishops will continue to use parochial schools as instruments of political retaliation or benefit, as evident in the Archdiocese of St. Louis forbidding parochial school students to hear President Clinton speak in suburban St. Louis on May 17,1996 because of the President’s stand on abortion.

Dr. John M. Swomley is Emeritus Professor of Social ethics at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. An ordained Methodist minister and a veteran activist he continues to speak, write, and work incessantly on behalf of a broad spectrum of Christian social concerns.
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