til the meeting of the General Council of the
Vatican. Its decrees were signed by seven Archbishops, thirty-seven
Bishops, two procurators of absent Bishops, and two Abbots.

"ADDRESS OF THE PLENARY SYNOD OF BALTIMORE, UNITED STATES.

"The experience of every day shows more and more plainly what serious
evils and great dangers are entailed upon Catholic youth by their
frequentation of Public Schools in this country. Such is the nature of
the system of teaching therein employed, that it is not possible to
prevent young Catholics from incurring, through its influence, danger to
their faith and morals; nor can we ascribe to any other cause that
destructive spirit of indifferentism which has made, and is now making,
such rapid strides in this country, and that corruption of morals which
we have to deplore in those of tender years. Familiar intercourse with
those of false religions, or of no religion; the daily use of authors
who assail with calumny and sarcasm our holy religion, its practices,
and even its saints--these gradually impair, in the minds of Catholic
children, the vigor and influence of the true religion. Besides, the
morals and examples of their fellow-scholars are generally so corrupt,
and so great their license in word and deed, that through continual
contact with them the modesty and piety of our children, even of those
who have been best trained at home, disappear like wax before the fire.
These evils and dangers did not escape the knowledge of our
predecessors, as we learn from the following decrees:

"'(_a_) Whereas many Catholic children, especially those born of poor
parents, have been, and are still, exposed in several places of this
province, to great danger of losing their faith and morals, owing to the
want of good masters to whom their education may safely be intrusted, we
consider it absolutely necessary that schools should be established in
which the young may be imbued with the principles of faith and morality,
and at the same receive instruction in letters.'"--_Council of
Baltimore, No. 33._

_Teachings of the Supreme Pontiff, Pius IX._

In fine, to show the union of the Bishops throughout the world with the
Apostolic See in their teaching respecting education, I add the words of
the Supreme Pontiff Pope Pius IX., in which, replying to the Archbishop
of Freiburg, in Germany, His Holiness clearly expounds, as the
Infallible Teacher of the faithful, the truth I am now developing for
the