Episode 23: The Apostle of Parochial Schools

The push for compulsory education was heating up in Ohio as Richard Gilmour began his tenure as Bishop in Cleveland in 1872. Like many Catholics, Bishop Gilmour feared that the Americanizing impulse of public schools also had the hidden agenda of taking the "Catholic" out of Catholic immigrants. Gilmour championed Catholic education, battling against compulsory public education and asserting that parish schools should be exempt from property taxes. Catholic grade schools had been a part of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland almost since the diocese was formed in 1847. After the Ohio State Legislature passed a compulsory education bill in 1877, Bishop Gilmour promoted the expansion of the Catholic school system in Cleveland to include high schools for both young men and young women.