Only he who is blinded by passion is capable of making accusation
against the lay school such as we have here reproduced, and against
which the first to protest will likely be the Dominican friars in
the Philippines whose mission in Formosa, has a girl's school for the
Chinese and Japanese in the Capitol, Taihoku, which I visited on my
trip to that island. Reverend Father Clemente Fernandez, a Dominican
and the Apostolic Vicar of Formosa, did me the honor of accompanying
me in visiting such a school, called Beata Imelda, situated in the
barrio of Daitelei, in Taihoku. It is a beautiful school of which
the Dominicans can justly be proud. But it was not the material or
educational organization of the institution that impressed me so much
as the absence of all religious images in the rooms, classes, halls,
and other rooms used for and by the girls.
On my noticing the existence of so singular a case, Reverend Clemente
Fernandez made it known to me that, among the conditions stipulated by
the law of public instruction of Formosa, both for the government as
well as the private schools, is the absolute prohibition of religious
education and the presentation of images and objects of worship. This
is therefore a lay school, a godless school, upon which should also
fall the surprising accusation of a prelate who makes use of the
liberty afforded him by our government to teach his religion in our
schools, but abusing such right and attempting furthermore to impose
his will upon the Government, accusing it of teaching homicide, theft,
immorality, and corruption of customs in our schools.