The Most Sacred Rights of Parents: English-Speaking Catholics and Parental Rights in the Schools Question

In the second half of the nineteenth century, nations scrambled to create systems of universal elementary education, prompting numerous policy debates. In the midst of this “schools question,” English-speaking Catholics appointed themselves the defenders of parental rights. Catholic parental rights arguments, drawn from the tradition of natural law, were meant to appeal to their Protestant neighbors by emphasizing rights and appealing to religious liberty. However, in cultures still permeated with traditional anti-Catholicism, Catholic claims to defend conscience and family struck many as implausible. Catholics did not think that the family should be autonomous, and they were not promoting independent consciences. They upheld duty and obedience rather than choice, championing the right of Catholic parents to follow the teachings of the Church. The success of this argument varied. It worked best in the United Kingdom, where Catholics eventually managed to ally themselves with the Church of England in defense of publicly supported denominational education. In the United States, Catholics failed to create a coalition in favor of funding religious education, but they did manage to convince their neighbors that Catholic schools had a right to exist with minimal government interference. Catholics, however, disagreed among themselves on how much control the state ought to exert over the family. Because they grounded parental rights in duties rather than familial autonomy, they could support the state’s attempt to ensure that parents fulfilled those duties. The history of parental rights arguments shows the challenges nineteenth-century English-speaking Catholics faced in attempting to preserve their faith, live in a pluralistic society, and contribute to forming their rapidly changing nations according to their understanding of justice and the common good.