The first day of June 2024 came and went, and American Catholics paid no attention. They should have celebrated the date, the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court‘s decision, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, rendered on June 1, 1925.
Arguably, no other judicial decision so directly affected Catholics in this country before or since.
To put everything in context, Catholic schools became a reality in this country two centuries ago. For generations, they symbolized Catholic life in the United States, existing for one overall purpose, to inform Catholic children in the teachings of the Church and to form their consciences in the light of Catholic teachings.
For 200 years, they were an important, if not the most important, influence in the lives of Catholic youth when it came to looking upon life and answering life’s questions.
They came into being when anti-Catholicism was rampant in this country, presenting itself in ways now unimaginable.
Catholics could not get jobs because of their religion. They were socially spurned. An unwritten policy kept them out of government positions — except for enlisting in the military to fight in the wars.
Still, Catholics kept their faith, and they came together. The Knights of Columbus began because Catholic men wished to be together and to stand together.
Many Americans saw Catholic schools as the force that bound Catholics together and, worst of all, in their minds, fortified Catholic resolve to impose the Catholic Church’s doctrines on American life.
For those Americans who had this opinion, something had to be done.
An attack on Catholic schools
Under the federal Constitution, which forbids religious tests in government decisions, no official action could outlaw schools because they taught the beliefs of the Catholic Church, but other ways were available to end Catholic education.
Those ways included legally requiring all children to attend public schools, which were, in much of the country, nothing but Protestant parochial schools.
In state after state, proposals were advanced to make attendance in public schools mandatory for all children in the state.
Oregon passed such a law in 1922, called the “Compulsory Education Act.” Its implementation would have meant the closing of Catholic schools everywhere in the state.
Catholics saw the Oregon law and demands elsewhere for similar legislation as a threat, indeed as a crisis.
Certainly, in Oregon, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, who taught in Catholic schools, saw things this way. The nuns decided to react to the law.
They filed suit against the state of Oregon, personified by Governor Walter M. Pierce. The nuns received a positive judgment in an Oregon court, but the ruling was appealed.
Avoiding the direct mention of religion, the sisters argued that while a state had a legitimate interest in educating the young within its territory, this right was not supreme. It did not supersede a parent’s rights to educate a child as the parent preferred.
Before the Supreme Court, the state of Oregon defended its law. The nuns demanded, first and foremost, regard for parents and parents’ wishes.
A decision to celebrate
The Supreme Court considered the case for 10 weeks. American Catholics anxiously awaited the court’s judgment. Prayers were offered in Catholic churches, in Catholic school classrooms and around Catholic dinner tables.
On June 1, 1925, the Supreme Court ruled without dissent. Associate Justice James Clark McReynolds, a Protestant and the son of a Confederate soldier who had practiced law in Nashville, Tennessee, after attending the University of Virginia’s law school, wrote the opinion, wisely declaring that children are not “mere creature(s) of the State,” and that their upbringing is primarily the responsibility, and privilege, of their parents.
Catholic schools were saved, literally. A genuine, organized threat to Catholicity fell. The Oregon law collapsed. Hushed were proposals for similar laws in other states.
It was a great day not only for Catholic Americans and for the Church’s mission of proclaiming the Gospel but also for freedom and common sense.
