Bishops' Gambit

Unless all signs fail, this session of Congress will mark the nth time that Federal aid to education has been blocked by the irrelevant demands of pressure groups. In past years, it was certain self-styled Negro leaders--notably Adam Clayton: Powell, Jr.--who sabotaged the program. By inserting amendments prohibiting aid to segregated schools, Powell no doubt gained some votes in Harlem. He also insured enough Southern opposition to defeat the whole measure.

This year, another element has come forth to champion the cause of substandard public schooling. In a recent statement, fifteen top Catholic ecclesiastics declared that they will oppose all Federal aid to elementary and high schools unless it includes assistance to private (a cuphemism for "parochial") institutions as well. Since this group included all five U.S. cardinals, its views will probably not go unheeded by the nation's 35 million Catholics.

As President Kennedy has pointed out, the Constitution may pose a slight obstacle to the subsidization the cardinals desire. Some jurists, however, believe that the First Amendment can be interpreted to allow aid to parochial schools, since it is "indirect" rather "direct" assistance to religion. At any rate, the cardinals have come up with a legal dodge: instead of direct grants, they want long-term, low-interest loans. Whether or not the Supreme Court would accept such a device is a moot point.

Another point, however, seems quite clear: if the Catholic hierarchy persists in its present attitude, there will be no Federal aid to education bill passed during this session of Congress. As the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal has noted, such bills confront three overlapping opposition groups. These are the economic conservatives, who don't want to spend any more money; the political conservatives, who dread increasing Federal power; and miscellaneous Southerners fearful of Powell-type amendments. So far, these three alone have won their fight. Add a substantial proportion of the nation's Catholics to this coalition, and you produce an unshakeable majority in Congress.

Most observers agree that the Church has little chance of writing an aid-to-parochial-schools clause into the Administration's bill. Even if it should, there would probably be enough Protestants who found it unacceptable for the whole measure to be defeated.

Confronted with this dilemma, President Kennedy has suggested that supporters of the cardinals' position introduce a separate bill embodying their demands, while leaving aid to public schools unmolested. The bishops and cardinals have flatly rejected this proposal.

Ironically enough, their dog-in-the-manager attitude may hurt the Church's interests in the long run. For many years, American Catholics have striven to convince their fellow citizens that Catholicism in no way conflicts with the national interest. But despite the President's efforts to demonstrate his independence, this latest ecclesiastical ultimatum can do nothing but inflame religious antagonisms which had seemed to be dying out.

Apparently the cardinals and bishops have not yet found a lesson in the recent experience of their Puerto Rican colleagues.