Catholics' Patriotism Was Beyond Reproach

THE IRISH ECHO, March 10-16—In a story on the history of American Catholic higher education, staff writer Peter McDermott recounted how the patriotism of American Catholics, while doubted in earlier times, could not be questioned following World War II and the start of the Cold War.

“Catholicism became identified with superpatriotism,” noted McDermott.

He cited Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Catholic, comparing the school that once employed him as a professor to New York's Jesuit university: “In the era of security clearances, to be an Irish Catholic became prima facie evidence of loyalty. Harvard men were to be checked; Fordham men would do the checking.”

Florida Hears a Plea For Voucher Program

THE FLORIDA CATHOLIC, March 4—The Florida Legislature is considering the establishment of a school voucher program that would allow the parents of poor children to use public funds to send their children to private or parochial schools, according to the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Miami.

In testimony before a select committee on education, Larry Keough of the Florida Catholic Conference called vouchers “a social justice issue,” reported staff writer Judy Gross.

“Parents are the first ... educators of their children and should not be financially penalized for exercising this right,” Keough told the paper. “This should be especially so for the poor.

Why should inner-city single parents, whose children are in failing schools, be denied the opportunity to choose the schools for their children that other parents can and do choose?” he asked.

U.S. Supreme Court To Decide Student Fees

USA TODAY, March 30—The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether state university students can be forced to pay fees that subsidize groups with views they dislike, according to staff writer Tony Mauro.

Self-described conservative students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison challenged the fee —$168 per semester — because the money was distributed to groups such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Campus Center. “Some of the subsidized groups also lobby legislators,” reported Mauro.

he Supreme Court has never dealt directly with the student fee issue, though in other contexts, such as union dues, it has said that individuals should be given a way to ensure that their money does not go toward speech with which they disagree, said the report.