Parental

and the

Free Exercise of Religion

November 15, 1971

UNITED STATES



T
HE Constitution of the United States

guarantees religious and political liberty

to every citizen. Precisely for this reason, we,

the Catholic Bishops of the United States,

feel compelled to speak to our fellow citizens

about certain implications of the recent

United States Supreme Court decision relat-

ing to government assistance for teachers'

salaries in parochial schools. Our purpose is

not to discuss the particular programs upon

which the Court ruled, nor indeed the related

tax and educational crisis affecting the

citizens of many states. Rather we address

ourselves to features of the decision which,

left unchecked, would affect basic freedoms

of all. These freedoms relate to parental

rights, the free exercise of religion, and the

liberty of every citizen to speak, assemble,

petition and vote on matters affecting the

public role of religion in American life.

The fundamental right of parents to edu-

cate their children in non-public schools is

guaranteed by our Constitution and was

recognized a half century ago in the Pierce

case, wherein the Supreme Court said:

"The child is not the mere creature of

the State."

But today the highest court of the land

—

dealing with a case intimately related to

parents—makes no explicit mention of that
right. Instead, by its decision this well recog-

nized right could.become an illusion if it re-

sults in a state educational
4

rrtbnopoly in which

parental rights— if acknowledged at all—will
be enjoyed only by the wealthy, by those who

can bear both the burden of school taxes and

of the separate added cost of non-public

schooling.

Today the effects of taxation, inflation

and rising governmental cost make it in-

creasingly impossible for parents to exercise

their constitutional freedoms in education

without enabling assistance. Government

plainly has an obligation in justice to make

those accommodations necessary to secure

parental rights in education. In order to

DsadtJRted



exercise this right today, parents need and

are entitled to a measure of economic help

—

a share of the tax dollars they pay. Govern-

ment should not tip the economic scales so

heavily in favor of the public schools that

parents can exercise their right to choose

non-public schools only with severe personal

sacrifice.

We are hopeful and confident that the
Congress and the states will promptly enact

legislation, in conformity with the Constitu-

tion, which will aid parents in the exercise of

their rights in education. In no way, however,

should such legislation be construed as con-

tributing to the creation or support of racially

segregated schooling.

Furthermore, we trust that the Supreme

Court will use its vast powers, in appropriate

cases, to emphasize parental rights in educa-

tion and to repudiate every effort to make the

child a "mere creature of the State."

The Supreme Court has said that the

public discussion and political activity re-

quired to achieve enactment of certain types

of state aid to church-related education must

be kept out of the public forum because they

present "hazards of religion intruding into

the political arena." This kind of reasoning

is unacceptable.

The Supreme Court has also stated that

"religion must be a private matter for the

individual, the family and the institutions of

private choice." Religion is indeed a private

matter, but it is far more than that. Since

the founding of the Republic it has been

deemed, in an important sense, a very public

matter. The separation of church and state

is a wise policy. The separation of religion

from public life is dangerous folly. We
Americans have always known that religious

liberty demands, by its very nature, that it be

exercised publicly.

There can be no political liberty in a

society in which religious groups and indi-

vidual believers, as such, may not speak out



on public issues. There can be no religious

liberty in a society in which public issues may

not be discussed in their religious dimension.

We trust that citizens concerned for the
protection of parental rights, religious liberty,

diversity and excellence in education, and the

avoidance of the increased taxation resulting

from a state monopoly of education, will now

work, peaceably and with renewed vigor, for

viable programs of aid to the education of

all children.

We trust that religious-minded citizens
of all faiths will continue to bear public wit-

ness to the truths they hold, so that—as al-
ways before in American history— religion
will continue to have its proper role in the

life of our nation.

* * * *

v

'

'

•'!$£>'

1972

PUBLICATIONS OFFICE

UNITED STATES CATHOLIC CONFERENCE
1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20005