Oxnam Opposes Public Aid For Parochial Institutions

The Catholic catechism condemns liberalism and the freedom of the press, Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam of the Methodist Church declared last night at the spring's third Law School Forum. Debating the subject "Public Aid to Parochial Education," Bishop Oxnam opposed such Federal aid on the grounds that it would drive a divisive factor into American unity.

On the other side of the discussion, Dr. Vincent A. McCrossen, professor of philology at Boston College, said that such an argument against federal aid was totalitarian, and that state support of public schools alone violates the Catholic's individual rights and would set up an "oriental caste system."

Catholics Penalized

He maintained that public schools were not adequate, and that Catholics, when forced to use them, are penalized for freedom of religion. Totalitarianism, he continued, was founded in Rousseau and protestantism.

Dr. George H. Williams, lecturer on Church History at the Divinity School, distinguished between the two kinds of state aid. The first, tax exemption for schools, food, and medical care for school children, he supported. The other, federal subsidy for textbooks and transportation in parochial schools, he opposed on the grounds that non-Catholics should not be asked to pay for Catholic education.

No Separation

James M. O'Neill, professor of speech at Brooklyn College, stated that the Constitution's first amendment had no bearing on the subject. He denounced the Protestant argument that there is a "Wall of Separation" between church and state. He added that the division between Catholic and Protestant opinion, is not as strict as it would seem.

George C. Homans, associated professor of Sociology, moderated the discussion.