Bavarian Btshops' school protest
MUNICH.
. The Bavarian Hierarchy consider the recent criticism of the new school law of Bavaria by Mr. Charles D. Winning, American public affairs officer in Munich, an " insult to tho Holy Father ", says a letter addressed to American High Commissioner, Mr. John McCloy.
Mr. Winning had referred specifically to article 135 of the Bavarian Constitution, which provides that parents have the right to choose the type of schooling they desire for their children.
Mr. Winning's view was that this does not provide sufficiently for the needs of non-Christian parents. The Hierarchy protest that Mr. Winnings criticism is directed against the Bavarian Concordat with the Holy See. an instrument of international law.
Bavarian Protestants are equally emphatic in insisting that the law is In keeping with their own State concordat.
Dr, Alois Hundhammer, Bavarian Minister of Education, points out that 74 per cent. of the school children of the state are Catholic and 25 Protestant.
"The confessional school," say the Bishops, " was violently taken away from us by the Nazi regime. Is it now to be restricted in its scope, or even abolished by the American occupational power 7 Is the explicit will of the parents to he disregarded in this era of democracy? "