CATHOLIC UNION (DE CLA R ATI 0 N, &c).
RETURN to an Order of tlie Honourable The House of Commons,
dated 27 February 1873 -j—for,
COPIES "of tlie Declaration of the Catholic Union, forwarded by the
President to the First Lord of the Treasury, in January last
" And, of the Resolutions of the Roman Catholic Archbishops, and
Bishops referred to in that Memorial, and transmitted with it."
DECLARATION of the Catholic Union of respecting Education.
It is generally looked on as certain that Parliament will, in the coming.
Session, be called on to consider the necessity of making important changes in
the conditions of University Education in Ireland.
This subject being one of vital import to the spiritual and temporal interests
of Irish Catholics, we think it is the duty of the Catholic Union of Ireland to
declare once again the principles on which the coming legislation should be
based, if it be intended to meet the just and reasonable requirements of
Catholics.
Those principles have been affirmed again and again in authoritative declara¬
tions of the Catholic Hierarchy, and, in particular, in the resolutions adopted at
the meeting of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, held at Maynooth;, in
August 1869.
Only two years ago they were endorsed by the signatures of the largest body
of educated Catholic laymen which have ever been attached to any public
document in Ireland.
The tv^o documents referred to are appended. The principles embodied in
them are unchanged and unchangeable.
On behalf of the Council of the Catholic Union of Ireland.
(signed) Granarcl,
8 January 1873. President.
Enclosure, No. 1.
RESOLUTIONS adopted by the Roman Catholic Archbishops and Bishops
on 18th August 1869.
The Catholic Archbishops and Bishops of L-eland, assembled at St. Patrick's College
Maynooth, on Wednesday, the 18th August 1869, his Eminence Cardinal Cullen pre¬
siding, deem it their duty to place on record, at this important crisis, the followino-
Resolutions respecting the Education and Land questions: °
I. They reiterate their condemnation of the mixed system of education, whether pri¬
mary, intermediate, or university, as grievously and intrinsically dangerous to the faith
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