Albert de Zutter/Key photo Cardinal Adam Maida speaks from the rostrum of the Missouri House of Representatives Sept. 2 during the annual Missouri Catholic Conference Assembly.

The so-called "Blaine Amendment" was written into 38 state constitutions - including those of Michigan and Missouri - during a wave of anti-Catholic-immigrant bigotry during the mid-1800s. It is named after James G. Blaine, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and 1884 Republican candidate for president who failed in a bid to add it to the U.S. Constitution in 1876.

Cardinal Maida, in his keynote address Sept. 2 at the fifth annual Missouri Catholic Conference Assembly, said that Michigan voters can begin a movement that will sweep across the nation.

"It's bigoted, divisive, anti-religious and anti-God," Cardinal Maida, departing from his prepared text, said of the Blaine Amendment.

"It doesn't belong in Michigan's constitution and it doesn't belong in yours. If the Blaine Amendment can be defeated in Michigan, it can be defeated in Missouri," he said to a burst of applause from more than 650 Catholics from across Missouri who gathered at the state capitol for a day of hands-on workshops and practical political instruction.

Nine states, including Michigan, had provisions barring public aid to religious schools written into their state constitutions before Blaine introduced his version.

The so-called Blaine Amendments, which legal scholars today agree were the product of anti-Catholic bias, began to be written into state constitutions soon after the first wave of Irish Catholic immigrants reached the United States during the potato blight of the 1840s.

Varying slightly from state to state, Blaine's version stated: ". . . no money raised by taxation in any state for the support of public schools, or derived from public funds therefor . . . shall ever be under the control of any religious sect."

Michigan wrote its version into the state constitution in 1851. Kansas entered the Union with a "Blaine" amendment in its constitution. Missouri adopted its prohibition against aid to religious schools shortly after Blaine narrowly failed in his attempt to make it the law of the land.

As recently as 1970, Michigan voters took the amendment one step further. When the Michigan Supreme Court upheld a new state law that would have allowed state aid for the teaching of secular subjects, such as math and spelling, in Catholic and private schools, voters approved an initiative referendum that not only wiped out the new law, but added a provision specifically barring a publicly-funded voucher system to help parents pay for religious school tuition.

Cardinal Maida, who holds a law degree and is licensed to practice law in his home state of Pennsylvania, predicted that the same coalition that scored a stunning victory over assisted suicide two years ago would hold together to wipe the Blaine Amendment off the books in Michigan and provide education vouchers of up to $3,100 per child to parents living in failing public school districts.

"In the space of just three months, we were able to turn the tide of voter opinion from 70 percent for (Dr. Jack) Kevorkian and assisted suicide to the eventual two-thirds voter rejection of the same proposal," Cardinal Maida said.

The cardinal said the difference came in the inner cities of Detroit and other Michigan cities where he and other Catholic leaders were able to convince Protestant, African-American leaders that poor, minority populations without health insurance were particularly at risk if assisted suicide were legalized.

Speaking weekly at Protestant Sunday services, Cardinal Maida said he even turned down an invitation for lunch with Pope John Paul II because he was scheduled to speak that weekend against assisted suicide at a black Baptist church. The pope's reaction: "He said to me, 'Go and do your work.'"

The same inner-city pastors now understand what the voucher referendum means to members of their congregations.

"There is no way out of the ghettoes of Detroit except an education rooted in a value system," Cardinal Maida said. "No matter how rich or poor you are, parents should have the right to send their children to the school they choose.

"Very sadly and most frequently, those with limited educational choices are precisely the very families who most urgently need a quality education to advance economically and to develop their fullest potential as persons and future citizens and leaders," he said.

Cardinal Maida said the Michigan Catholic Conference learned valuable lessons during the campaign against assisted suicide.

"First of all, a coalition of various parties is essential. We had to avoid the label of a 'Catholic issue,'" he said.

"Secondly, we found out that less is more. A few well-chosen slogans, a few sound bites (on television news) and a few stories or images can convey a powerful punch, raise questions and inspire a fresh perspective on things," he said.

The slogan for the Michigan voucher effort is three words: "Kids First! Yes."

"A third lesson we learned: We dare not ignore any particular part of the population. In fact, sometimes our critical edge can come from reaching out to unlikely partners," he said.

His outreach to Protestant congregations also broke "new ecumenical ground," Cardinal Maida said. At one Baptist service, he was introduced as "our cardinal," he said.

"People are not ultimately persuaded by rhetoric or logic. All the most eloquent theology in the world would not have won the day," he said. "It's person-to-person human contact, flesh-and-blood witness that moves the day. It is specific questions, concerns and relationships that are uppermost in people's minds and hearts as they vote and make all the great and small decisions of life."

Cardinal Maida said that public opinion is shifting dramatically away from a state-funded monolopy on education - flowing only to what he called "government schools" - toward publicly funding for a wide range of schools including charter schools and religious schools.

He noted that a 1993 Gallup poll showed only 24 percent support for a voucher system. "In 1998, just five years later, the figure had risen to 51 percent," he said.

Another poll taken in 1999, he said, "indicates that minority populations, both Hispanic and African-American, express much greater support than the general public."

Cardinal Maida said that vouchers are only part of the solution to the problems of education today. He said vouchers will help build stronger public, private and religious schools through competition, while providing a choice of options for education to serve an increasingly diverse population.

"We can't have one cookie cutter and have everyone come out the same way," he said. "Given the diverse needs for the full development of young people today, no one single model or means of education is adequate."

Cardinal Maida also noted that there were virtually no public schools in the United States until the 1830s. Most schools in early America were founded by Protestant religious congregations, all received tax-funded support, and Protestant religious instruction was common.

But with waves of Catholic immigrants reaching the United States in the mid-1800s, Catholics began forming their own schools. Anti-Catholic bigotry led to measures to make certain that no tax money would go to Catholic schools, the cardinal said.

Cardinal Maida drew audible gasps from the audience when he read a line from an 1875 speech given by President Ulysses S. Grant, who gave ther Blaine Amendment his blessing.

Grant said that if there would be another Civil war, the dividing line would not be Mason-Dixon line, but "between patriotism and intelligence on one side and superstition and ignorance on the other."

"'Superstition and ignorance' were widely understood as referring to Catholicism," Cardinal Maida said. "It was a code designation."

History has shown, the cardinal said, that Catholic schools have done an outstanding job of educating millions of children for more than a century.

Today, he said, more than 3 million children are enrolled in Catholic elementary and secondary schools.

"Many of these children come from minority backgrounds and are not members of the Catholic faith," he said. "Under very difficult circumstances, Catholic schools have consistently been successful in educating students to the highest standards of intellectual, moral and social development. We have reason to be proud and we can work from a position of strength as partners in a dialogue for educating students for the common good."

Cardinal Maida acknowledged that Catholic schools have succeeded without publicly funded vouchers. But Catholic schools also save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year.

"If all private and religious school students were suddenly to be enrolled in public schools, we would be adding a minimum of $34 billion to the nation's tax rolls," he said.

"Educational reform and broadening educational choice is a matter of justice, especially for those who do not have equal access to educational opportunities," he said.

Cardinal Maida congratulated the hundreds who gathered on a scorching hot Labor Day weekend in the middle of Missouri, and urged them to take the message of the Gospel to the rest of the state.

"In this very gathering, there is tremendous energy and potential for education, transformation and renewal in every level of the church and society," he said.

"As the Lord Jesus told his disciples, we have the potential to be salt and light to our world," Cardinal Maida said. "May the Holy Spirit guide the electorate across our country that we will make wise and prudent choices and truly become one nation, under God with liberty and justice for all."