Viewed in this light, what a magnificent spectacle does the Catholic

Church present to our admiration, and how does the honest heart of

downtrodden nationality yearn that these happy days may once more

return! Taken mostly from the middle classes, sometimes even from the

most humble ranks of society, the Popes ascended the Chair of Peter; and

these men, who had been the sons of artisans and mechanics, but who had,

by their virtue and talent, gained a merit which neither wealth nor a

noble pedigree could bestow, became the arbiters between nation and

nation, between prince and people, always prepared to weld together the

chain of broken friendship, and to protect, by their power and

authority, the rights of subjects oppressed by tyrannical rulers. It was

indeed a blessing for Europe that Nicholas I. could curb, with an iron

hand, the tyranny of kings and nobles. It was indeed a blessing, not for

Europe alone, but for the world, that there lived a genius on earth in

the person of Gregory VII., who knew how to protect the Saxons against

the wanton lawlessness of Henry, King of Germany, a monster who ground

his subjects remorselessly in the dust, and respected neither the

sanctity of virginity nor the sacredness of marriage; neither the rights

of the Church, nor those of the State; whose very existence seemed to

have no other aim but that of the leech, to draw out the blood from the

hearts of his unhappy subjects. What would have become of Germany had

there not been a power superior to that of this godless prince? It was

Gregory VII. who hurled him from his throne, and restored to the noble

Saxons and Thuringians their independence, not by the power of the

sword, but by the scathing power of his anathema. The same I may say of

Boniface VIII., and of Innocent III. There was, happily for Europe, a

Court of Appeal, to which even monarchs were forced to bow; and that

court was Rome. It was to Rome that the nations appealed, when their

independence was at stake or their rights were trampled upon. And Rome

was never deaf to the cry of distress, whether it came from Germany or

from France, from England or from Poland, from Spain or from the shores

of the Bosphorus.

And when the liberty of a nation was on the verge of destruction, and

when emperors, and kings, and barons rode rough-shod over the rights,

natural and vested, of their subjects, forgetting the sacred trust

confided to them, became tyrants, when neither prosperity nor undivided

liberty were secure from that rapacious grasp; when even the rights of

conscience were set aside with impunity; it was the Popes of Rome who

buckled on the armor of Justice, and humbled the pride of princes--even

if, as a consequence, they had to say, with a Gregory VII., "Dilexi

Justitiam et odivi iniquitatem; ideo morior in exilio"--"I die in exile

because I have loved justice and hated iniquity."

The influence of Catholicity tends strongly to break down all barriers

of separate nationalities, and to bring about a brotherhood of citizens,

in which the love of our common country and of one another would absorb

every sectional feeling. Catholicity is of no nation, of no language, of

no people; she knows no geographical bounds; she breaks down all the

walls of separation between race and race, and she looks alike upon

every people, and tribe, and caste. Her views are as enlarged as the

territory which she inhabits; and this is as wide as the world. Jew and

Gentile, Greek and barbarian, Irish, German, French, English, and

American, are all alike to her. The evident tendency of this principle

is to level all sectional feelings and local prejudices, by enlarging

the views of mankind, and thus to bring about harmony in society, based

upon mutual forbearance and charity. And, in fact, so far as the

influence of the Catholic Church could be brought to bear upon the

anomalous condition of society in America, it has been exercised for

securing the desirable result of causing all its heterogeneous elements

to be merged in the one variegated but homogeneous nationality.

Protestantism isolates and divides; Catholicity brings together and

unites.

The Catholic Church is a grand fact in history--a fact so great that

there would be no history without it--a fact permanent, repeating itself

perpetually, entering into the concerns of all the nations on the face

of the earth, appearing again and again on the records of time, and

benefiting, perceived or unperceived, directly or indirectly, socially,

morally, and supernaturally, every individual who forms part of the

great organism of human society.

Around this Church human society moves like a wheel around its axle; it

is on this Church that society depends for its support, its life, its

energy, like the planetary system on the sun. Show me an age, a

country, a nation deprived of the influence of Catholicity, and I will

show you an age, a country, a nation without morals, without virtue.

Yes, if "Religion and Science, Liberty and Justice, Principle and

Right," are not empty sounds--if they have a meaning--they owe their

energetic existence in the world to the Catholic Church.

Such is the power and such is the influence of Catholicity. Yet I do not

pretend that our Catholic population is perfect, or that in them you

will find no shortcomings, nothing to be censured or regretted.

Certainly in our cities and large towns may be found, I am sorry to say,

many so-called liberal or _nominal_ Catholics, who are no credit to

their religion, to the land of their birth, or to that of their

adoption. Subjected at home, as they were, to the restraints imposed by

Protestant or quasi-Protestant governments, they feel, on coming here,

that they are loosed from all restraints, and forgetting the obedience

they owe to their pastors, to the prelates whom the Holy Ghost has

placed over them, they become insubordinate, and live more as

non-Catholics than as Catholics. The children of these are, to a great

extent, shamefully neglected, and suffered to grow up without the

simplest moral and religious instruction, and to become recruits to our

vicious population, our rowdies and our criminals. This is certainly to

be deplored, but can easily be explained without prejudice to the

influence of Catholicity, by adverting to the condition to which those

individuals were reduced before coming here; to their disappointments

and discouragements in a strange land; to their exposure to new and

unlooked-for temptations; to the fact that they were by no means the

best of Catholics even in their native countries; to their poverty,

destitution, ignorance, insufficient culture, and a certain natural

shiftlessness and recklessness, and to our _great lack of schools,

churches, and priests_. The proportion, however, that these bear to our

whole Catholic population, is far less than is commonly supposed, and

they are not so habitually depraved as they appear, for they seldom or

never consult appearances, and have little skill in concealing their

vices. As low and degraded as this class of our Catholic population may

be, they never are so low or so vicious as the corresponding class of

non-Catholics in every nation. A non-Catholic vicious class is always

worse than it appears; a Catholic vicious class is less bad. In the

worst there is always some germ that, with proper care, may be nursed

into life, that may blossom and bear fruit. Yet, if we look at the

Catholic population as it is, and is every year becoming, we cannot but

be struck with its marvellous energy and progress. We will find that

population more intellectual, more cultivated, more moral, more active,

living, and energetic than any other.

The Catholic population of this country, taken as a body, have a

personal freedom, an independence, a self-respect, a conscientiousness,

a love of truth, and a devotion to principle, not to be found in any

other class of American citizens. Their moral tone, as well as their

moral standard, is far higher, and they act more uniformly under a sense

of deep responsibility to God and their country. They are the most

law-loving and law-abiding people. The men of that population are the

most vigorous, and the hardiest; their virgins are the chastest; their

matrons the most faithful. Catholics do, as to the great majority, act

from honest principle, from sincere and earnest conviction, and are

prepared to die sooner than in any grave matters swerve from what they

regard as truth and justice. They have the principle and the firmness to

stand by what they believe true and just, in good report and evil

report, whether the world be with them or be against them. Among

Catholics you will not find the flunkeyism which Carlyle so unmercifully

ridicules in the middling classes of Great Britain, or that respect to

mere wealth, that worship of the money-bag, or that base servility to

the mob, or public opinion, so common and so ruinous to public and

private virtue in the United States.

The mental activity of Catholics, all things considered, is far more

remarkable than that of our non-Catholic countrymen; and, in proportion

to their numbers and means, they contribute far more than any other

class of American citizens to the purposes of education, both common and

liberal, for they receive little or nothing from the public treasury;

and in addition to supporting numerous schools of their own, they are

forced to contribute their quota to the support of those of the State.

Thus, to take a single illustration, the public school-tax in Cincinnati

for last year amounted to $810,000. Of this the Catholics--such is

their proportion in that community--contributed $230,000, or more than

one-third of the whole rate. This large sum--L162,000--goes to the

management and formation of schools which the Catholics of Cincinnati

are debarred, by their consciences, from entering. They have therefore

their own schools, which they have built, and support entirely at their

own expense, without any assistance whatever from the State. The

education which they give is known to be excellent; but it is based on

religion, and is not controlled by the State and paid officials. The

consequence is, that not only are they not encouraged, but they are

actually taxed by the State.

Thus, for instance, the Cathedral School is obliged to pay to the State

an annual tax of L120, and the schools of another parish L200. The

Catholics of the Cathedral Parish have not only to pay the State

school-tax, and the heavy tax laid on their school-buildings, but they

have to find $3,500 annually to meet the current school expenses. All

this has to be collected by the clergy as best they can.

The non-Catholic has no conception of the treasure the Union possesses

in these thirteen millions of Catholics, humble in their outward

circumstances as the majority of them may be. A true, high-toned,

chivalric national character will be formed, and a true, generous, and

lofty patriotism will be generated and sustained in proportion as the

force of Catholicity is brought to bear upon our American people, and

the life of practical Catholics falls into the current of American life.

Catholics have their faults and shortcomings, yet they are the salt of

the American community, and the really conservative element in the

American population. In a few years they will be the Americans of the

Americans, and on them will rest the performance of the glorious work of

sustaining American civilization, and realizing the hopes of the

founders of our great and growing Republic.

It must, then, be evident to every true lover of the Republic, that the

State, were it at liberty to favor any particular portion of the

community, should favor its conservative element--the Catholics--instead

of robbing Catholics of millions of dollars, to continue, by godless

education, the impious work for the increase of the number of enemies of

the Republic; it should rather supply Catholics with the means to bring

up their children in the spirit of true freedom--in the spirit of

devotedness to republican institutions. But as the State is neither

Catholic nor Protestant, it should at least act justly and impartially;

it should not favor its own enemies; it should not make a lie or a farce

of our glorious Constitution; it should no longer play the usurper and

the robber; it should no longer continue digging its own grave;

it should not tax Catholics any longer to support infidel

institutions--nurseries of all kinds of crimes--and thus continue to

violate most atrociously the very letter and spirit of the Constitution,

and to commit a direct outrage on the most sacred convictions of

Catholics.

It is the well-instructed practical Catholic that is alone capable of

appreciating and realizing true freedom. Ever foremost to concede the

rights of God, ever careful to trench on the rights of his

fellow-creatures, he is, for all this (and precisely _because_ of this),

well aware of his own rights and dignity as a man, as a citizen, and as

a baptized Christian--a regenerated son of God--and, knowing his rights

and dignity, he dares maintain them! He protests against godless

education as a volcano that is destined to bury law and authority, and

bring about universal anarchy, and prepare and establish the reign of

antichrist. We must, then, have separate schools to educate our rising

generation in a religious atmosphere, and imbue them with the principles

of Christianity. All those who oppose any longer the denominational

system, in any manner whatsoever, are traitors to the Republic and the

worst enemies of the country, and from henceforth the vengeance of God

will not be slow to overtake them. On the contrary, he who will be first

and foremost in promoting this noblest of objects--the establishment of

denominational schools--may truly be called the _saviour_ of the

Republic,--the _father of his country_; he will be as great, nay, even

greater, than Washington himself. Upon him the blessings of heaven will

descend in superabundance, and his name will be blessed from generation

to generation.

FOOTNOTES:

[G] By "An Act to restore to Roman Catholics in Upper Canada certain

rights in respect to Separate Schools," passed May 5, 1863, they

provided that "the Roman Catholic separate schools shall be entitled to

a share in the fund annually granted by the legislature of the province

for the support of common schools, and shall be entitled also to a share

in all other public grants, investments, and allotments for common

school purposes now made or hereafter to be made by the municipal

authorities, according to the average number of pupils attending such

school, as compared with the whole average number of pupils attending

schools in the same city, town, village or township."--Cap. 5, sec. 20.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CATHOLIC PRIEST ON THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

So far I have spoken as an American citizen. I have shown to all my

fellow-citizens the tree with its fruits--the Public School system in

broad daylight. All who call themselves Christians, or who consider

themselves men of common sense, and warm promoters of the happiness of

their fellow-citizens, will agree with me in saying that the Public

School system is a tree of which we must say what God said to Adam of

the tree standing in the middle of paradise: "Of the tree of knowledge

of good and evil thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou _shalt

eat of it thou shalt die the death_."--(Gen ii. 17.) It is now time for

me to speak as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. It is the duty of

the Catholic priest to teach the children of the Catholic Church the

language of their spiritual Mother--the Church. This language is no

other than that of the Supreme Head of the Church--the Pope. Now the

language of the Vicar of Christ in regard to godless education is very

plain and unmistakable.

Jesus Christ, our Divine Saviour, has said: "What doth it profit a man

if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own

soul?"--(Matt. xvi. 26.) What will it profit you or your children to

gain all knowledge, and to attain the greatest success in this world,

if, through your fault, and through your exposing them to the danger of

evil education, they suffer the loss of that faith, without which "it is

impossible to please God"?--(Heb. xi.)

_Teaching of the Syllabus._

Guided by this principle, our Holy Father, Pope Pius IX., has declared

that Catholics cannot "_approve of a system of educating youth

unconnected with the Catholic Faith and the power of the Church, and

which regards the knowledge of merely natural things, and only, or at

least primarily, the ends of earthly social life_."[H] Catholic parents

cannot approve of an education which fits their children only for this

life, and ignores that life in which the soul is to live forever. As

faith is the foundation of all our hopes for eternity, and as faith

without good works is dead, we cannot choose for our children an

education which would endanger their faith and morals, and consequently

imperil their eternal welfare.

_Teaching of Pope Pius VII._

This is no novel doctrine, as some assert. In the beginning of the

century, the illustrious Pius VII., in an Encyclical letter addressed to

the Bishops of the Catholic world, July 10th, 1800, thus writes:--

"It is your duty to take care of the whole flock over which the Holy

Ghost has placed you as Bishops, but in particular to watch over

children and young men. They ought to be the special object of your

paternal love, of your vigilant solicitude, of your zeal, of all your

care. They who have tried to subvert society and families, to destroy

authority, divine and human, have spared no pains to infect and corrupt

youth, hoping thus the more easily to execute their infamous projects.

They know that the mind and heart of young persons, like soft wax, to

which one may give what form he pleases, are very susceptible of every

sort of impression; that they keep tenaciously, when age has now

hardened them, those which they had early received, and reject others.

Thence the well-known proverb taken from the Scripture, 'A young man

according to his way, even when he is old he will not depart from it.'

Suffer not, then, venerable brethren, the children of this world to be

more prudent in this respect than the children of light. Examine,

therefore, with the greatest attention, to what manner of persons is

confided the education of children, and of young men in the colleges and

seminaries; of what sort are the instructions given them; what sort of

schools exist among you; of what sort are the teachers in the lyceums.

Examine into all this with the greatest care, sound everything, let

nothing escape your vigilant eye; keep off, repulse the ravening wolves

that seek to devour these innocent lambs; drive out of the sheepfold

those which have gotten in; remove them as soon as can be, for such is

the power which has been given to you by the Lord for the edification of

your sheep."

_Rescripts of His Present Holiness Condemning the Queen's Colleges of

England._

Our Holy Father Pope Pius IX., consulting for the special wants of the

Catholics of Ireland, has not ceased, almost from the very beginning of

his glorious pontificate, to repeat similar instructions in his

apostolic letters to the Irish Bishops. Hence, by his rescripts of

October 1847, and October 1848, he condemned, from their first

institution, the Queen's Colleges, on account of their "grievous and

intrinsic dangers to faith and morals"; and since then he has frequently

repeated his sacred admonitions, warning the bishops and the faithful

people to beware of evil systems of public instruction; and to secure,

by every means in their power, the blessings of Catholic education for

the rising generation.

_Resolutions of Irish Bishops in 1824 and 1826._

Nor have the Irish prelates been unmindful of their duty in this

respect. In 1824, that is to say, five years before Catholic

emancipation, and in the midst of the struggle for that recognition of

the existence of their people as citizens, they presented to Parliament

a petition, from which I make the following extract, which clearly shows

their conviction of the necessity of religious education:

"That in the Roman Catholic Church the literary and religious

instruction of youth are universally combined, and that no system of

education which separates them can be acceptable to the members of her

communion; that the religious instruction of youth in Catholic schools

is always conveyed by means of catachetical instruction, daily prayer,

and the reading of religious books, wherein the Gospel morality is

explained and inculcated; that Roman Catholics have ever considered the

reading of the Sacred Scriptures by children as an inadequate means of

imparting to them religious instruction, as a usage whereby the Word of

God is made liable to irreverence, youth exposed to misunderstand its

meaning, and thereby not unfrequently to receive in early life

impressions which may afterwards prove injurious to their own best

interests, as well as to those of the society which they are destined to

form. That schools whereof the master professes a religion different

from that of his pupils, or from which such religious instruction as the

Catholic Church prescribes for youth is excluded, or in which books and

tracts not sanctioned by it are read or commented on, cannot be resorted

to by the children of Roman Catholics; and that threats and rewards have

been found equally unavailing as a means of inducing Catholic parents to

procure education for their children from such persons or in such

schools; that any system of education incompatible with the discipline

of the Catholic Church, or superintended exclusively by persons

professing a religion different from that of the vast majority of the

poor of Ireland, cannot possibly be acceptable to the latter, and must,

in its progress, be slow and embarrassed, generating often distrust and

discord as well as a want of that mutual good faith and perfect

confidence which should prevail between those who receive benefits and

those who dispense them."

The Irish Bishops again expressed the like sentiments in 1826.

_Address of the National Synod of Thurles._

A National Synod met in Thurles in August, 1860, and again the Prelates

spoke words of instruction, of which recent sad events in France have

furnished a new and most melancholy confirmation.

"As rulers of the Church of Christ, chief pastors of His flock,

religiously responsible to the Prince of Pastors for every soul

committed to our charge, it forms, as is obvious, our first and

paramount duty to attend to the pastures in which they feed--the

doctrines with which they are nourished. And surely if ever there was a

period which called for the unsleeping vigilance, the prudent foresight,

the intrepid and self-sacrificing zeal of our august ministry--that

period is the present. The alarming spectacle which the Christian world

exhibits at the present day, the novel but formidable forms in which

error presents itself, and the manifold evils and perils by which the

Church is encompassed, must be evident to the most superficial observer.

It is no longer a single heresy or an eccentric fanaticism, the denial

of some revealed truth, or the excesses of some extravagant error, but a

comprehensive, all-pervading, well-digested system of unbelief, suited

to every capacity and reaching every intellect, that corrupts and

desolates the moral world. Is not such the calamitous spectacle which

the continent of Europe offers to us at this moment? Education, the

source of all intellectual life, by which the mind of man is nurtured

and disciplined, his principles determined, his feelings regulated, his

judgments fixed, his character formed, has been forcibly dissevered from

every connection with religion, and made the vehicle of that cold

scepticism and heartless indifferentism which have seduced and corrupted

youth, and by a necessary consequence shaken to its centre the whole

fabric of social life. Separated from her heavenly monitor, learning is

no longer the organ of that wisdom which cometh from above, which,

according to St. James, is 'chaste, peaceable, modest, easy to be

persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits,

without judging, without dissimulation,' but rather of that wisdom which

he describes as 'earthly, sensual, and devilish.'--(James iii. 15-17.)

"It is, we feel assured, unnecessary to observe to you, that of all

modes of propagating error, education is the most subtle and dangerous,

furnishing, as it does, the aliment by which the social body is

sustained, which circulates through every vein, and reaches every

member; and that if this aliment should prove to be corrupt or

deleterious, it will not fail to carry moral disease and death to the

entire system. Hence the awful obligations we are under, at the peril of

our souls, of watching over the education of the people whom God has

intrusted to our charge.

"Listen to the emphatic words in which the present illustrious Pontiff

sets forth the dangers to which youth is exposed at the present time,

and the duties which are placed upon the pastors of the people in this

regard. 'It is incumbent upon you,' he says, 'and upon ourselves, to

labor with all diligence and energy, and with great firmness of purpose,

and to be vigilant in everything that regards schools, and the

instruction and education of children and youths of both sexes. For you

well know that the modern enemies of religion and human society, with a

most diabolical spirit, direct all their artifices to pervert the minds

and hearts of youth from their earliest years. Wherefore, they leave

nothing untried; they shrink from no attempt to withdraw schools, and

every institution destined for the education of youth, from

the authority of the Church and the vigilance of her holy

pastors.'--_Encycl. Letter of Pius IX., eighth December, 1849._

"Such are the words of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, which show the

responsibility under which we are placed, and point out our duty to

protect from the insidious snares laid for their destruction the lambs

of the fold--that most helpless but precious portion of the flock of

Jesus Christ which the prophet represents as carried in His bosom."

_Mixed System again Condemned._

Again, in 1859, 1862, 1863, 1867, and 1869, the Irish Bishops renewed

their condemnation of the godless system, and demanded for their

children the advantage of truly Catholic education.

_Unanimity of Catholic Bishops throughout the World on this Point._

The Bishops of Prussia, of Austria, of Belgium, of Holland, of Canada,

and of the United States, in their pastorals, their synodical addresses,

and in their other publications, condemn with one accord the mixed

system, and declare that education based upon our holy religion is alone

suitable for Catholic children. Not to multiply quotations, it will

suffice to cite the following extract from the address of the Plenary

Synod of the Church of the United States, held at Baltimore, in the year

1866. That Council was one of the most numerous assemblies held after

the Council of Trent, until the meeting of the General Council of the

Vatican. Its decrees were signed by seven Archbishops, thirty-seven

Bishops, two procurators of absent Bishops, and two Abbots.

"ADDRESS OF THE PLENARY SYNOD OF BALTIMORE, UNITED STATES.

"The experience of every day shows more and more plainly what serious

evils and great dangers are entailed upon Catholic youth by their

frequentation of Public Schools in this country. Such is the nature of

the system of teaching therein employed, that it is not possible to

prevent young Catholics from incurring, through its influence, danger to

their faith and morals; nor can we ascribe to any other cause that

destructive spirit of indifferentism which has made, and is now making,

such rapid strides in this country, and that corruption of morals which

we have to deplore in those of tender years. Familiar intercourse with

those of false religions, or of no religion; the daily use of authors

who assail with calumny and sarcasm our holy religion, its practices,

and even its saints--these gradually impair, in the minds of Catholic

children, the vigor and influence of the true religion. Besides, the

morals and examples of their fellow-scholars are generally so corrupt,

and so great their license in word and deed, that through continual

contact with them the modesty and piety of our children, even of those

who have been best trained at home, disappear like wax before the fire.

These evils and dangers did not escape the knowledge of our

predecessors, as we learn from the following decrees:

"'(_a_) Whereas many Catholic children, especially those born of poor

parents, have been, and are still, exposed in several places of this

province, to great danger of losing their faith and morals, owing to the

want of good masters to whom their education may safely be intrusted, we

consider it absolutely necessary that schools should be established in

which the young may be imbued with the principles of faith and morality,

and at the same receive instruction in letters.'"--_Council of

Baltimore, No. 33._

_Teachings of the Supreme Pontiff, Pius IX._

In fine, to show the union of the Bishops throughout the world with the

Apostolic See in their teaching respecting education, I add the words of

the Supreme Pontiff Pope Pius IX., in which, replying to the Archbishop

of Freiburg, in Germany, His Holiness clearly expounds, as the

Infallible Teacher of the faithful, the truth I am now developing for

the instruction of Catholics:

"It is not wonderful that these unhappy efforts (to spread irreligious

and revolutionary principles) should be directed chiefly to corrupt the

training and education of youth; and there is no doubt that the greatest

injury is inflicted on society, when the directing authority and

salutary power of the Church are withdrawn from public and private

education, on which the happiness of the Church and of the Commonwealth

depends so much. For thus society is, little by little, deprived of that

truly Christian spirit which alone can permanently secure the foundation

of peace and public order, and promote and direct the true and useful

progress of civilization, and give man those helps which are necessary

for him in order to attain, after this life, his last end

hereafter--eternal happiness. And in truth a system of teaching, which

not only is limited to the knowledge of natural things, and does not

pass beyond the bounds of our life on earth, but also departs from the

truth revealed by God, must necessarily be guided by the spirit of error

and lies; and education, which, without the aid of the Christian

doctrine and of its salutary moral precepts, instructs the minds and

moulds the tender heart of youth, which is so prone to evil, must

infallibly produce a generation which will have no guide but its own

wicked passions and wild conceits, and which will be a source of the

greatest misfortunes to the Commonwealth and their own families.

"But if this detestable system of education, so far removed from

Catholic faith and ecclesiastical authority, becomes a source of evils,

both to individuals and to society, when it is employed in the higher

teaching, and in schools frequented by the better class, who does not

see that the same system will give rise to still greater evils, if it be

introduced into primary schools? For it is in these schools, above all,

that the children of the people ought to be carefully taught from their

tender years the mysteries and precepts of our holy religion, and to be

trained with diligence to piety, good morals, religion and civilization.

In such schools religious teaching ought to have so leading a place in

all that concerns education and instruction, that whatever else the

children may learn should appear subsidiary to it. The young,

therefore, are exposed to the greatest perils whenever, in the schools,

education is not closely united with religious teaching. Wherefore,

since primary schools are established chiefly to give the people a

religious education, and to lead them to piety and Christian morality,

they have justly attracted to themselves, in a greater degree than other

educational institutions, all the care, solicitude, and vigilance of the

Church. The design of withdrawing primary schools from the control of

the Church, and the exertions made to carry this design into effect, are

therefore inspired by a spirit of hostility towards her, and by the

desire of extinguishing among the people the divine light of our holy

faith. The Church, which has founded these schools, has ever regarded

them with the greatest care and interest, and looked upon them as the

chief object of her ecclesiastical authority and government; and

whatsoever removed them from her, inflicted serious injury both on her

and on the schools. Those who pretend that the Church ought to abdicate

or suspend her control and her salutary action upon the primary

schools, in reality ask her to disobey the commands of her Divine

Author, and to be false to the charge she has received from God, of

guiding all men to salvation; and in whatever country this pernicious

design of removing the schools from the ecclesiastical authority should

be entertained and carried into execution, and the young thereby exposed

to the danger of losing their faith, there the Church would be in duty

bound not only to use her best efforts, and to employ every means to

secure for them the necessary Christian education and instruction, but,

moreover, would feel herself obliged to warn all the faithful, and to

declare that no one can in conscience frequent such schools, as being

adverse to the Catholic Church."

I exclaim with the great St. Augustine: "Securus judicat orbis

terrarum." The Bishops of the universal world, united to the Vicar of

Christ, speak with authority; their judgment cannot be gainsaid. Peter

has spoken through Pius; the question is settled; would that the error,

too, were at an end!

_Testimonies of Enemies of the Catholic Church._

However, it is not from the Bishops alone that we learn the dangers of

bad education. Our opponents, too, the enemies of our holy religion,

deem no other means more efficacious for alienating our children from

our mother, the Catholic Church.

One of the greatest enemies of the Catholic faith in the first half of

the last century, Primate Boulter, who took a chief part in founding the

notorious "Charter Schools," writing to the Bishop of London on the

fifteenth of May, 1730, said:

"I can assure you the Papists here are so numerous, that it highly

concerns us in point of interest, as well as out of concern for the

salvation of these poor creatures who are our fellow-subjects, to try

all possible means to bring them and theirs to the true religion; and

one of the most likely methods we can think of is, if possible,

_instructing and converting the young generation_; for instead of

converting these that are adults, we are daily losing many of our meaner

people, who go off to Popery."

And with respect to mixed education in particular, we have the opinion

of another Anglican prelate, who, in despite of his professions of

liberality, may be fittingly classed with Primate Boulter in his

contempt for our people, and desire to subvert our holy religion by the

means of education--the late Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, Dr.

Whately. We are informed by his daughter, that on one occasion he said:

"The education supplied by the National Board is gradually undermining

the vast fabric of the Irish Roman Catholic Church.". (_Life of Dr.

Whately_, pp. 244, first edition.) Again: "I believe, as I said the

other day, that _mixed education_ is gradually enlightening the mass of

the people, and that if we give it up, we give the only hope of weaning

the Irish from the abuses of Popery. But I cannot venture openly to

profess this opinion, I cannot openly support the Educational Board as

an instrument of conversion. I have to fight its battles with one hand,

and that my best, tied behind me." (p. 246.)

The language of the Church, then, and even that of the enemies of our

religion, is quite plain on the subject of godless education. The good

Catholic understands this language of his spiritual mother; he listens

to it; he repeats it to himself and others, and he goes by it. Not long

ago the Catholics of Ireland presented a requisition to the English

Government to show their unanimity, and their determination to secure a

Catholic education for Catholic children. What a glorious array of

signatures is attached to it! There we find the honored names of the

only Catholic lords that the operation of penal laws has left in that

land ever faithful to the Church. There we read the names of the Lord

Mayor, and the aldermen and town councillors of the great City of

Dublin, of many baronets and deputy lieutenants, of several members of

Parliament, magistrates, high sheriffs, clergymen, wealthy merchants,

and land-owners; of men distinguished in the various scientific and

literary professions or pursuits; of country gentlemen, traders,

artisans, and of all the classes that constitute the bone and sinew of

the country. In a word, the requisition is signed by more than 30,000

Catholics of every degree. May it not be considered as a great

plebiscite? Is it not a proof that the laity and clergy are all of one

mind? Is it not a solid refutation of the foolish assertion of some

Presbyterians, that the Catholic laity take no interest in the

education question, and that, were it not for the priests, the laity

would be perfectly satisfied to accept godless instruction for their

children? Those who attribute this baneful indifference to the laity,

misrepresent and calumniate them, and show their ignorance of their real

feelings, and of the efforts which Catholics in Ireland, in Belgium, in

Germany, and in other countries, have made to have and to preserve a

good Christian education for their children. The principal Catholic

gentlemen in Ireland some time ago published an important declaration,

presented afterwards to Parliament, in which they proclaimed their

adhesion to the principles held by the true Church in regard to

education.

As for the Catholic laity of Ireland in general, feeling, as they do in

a special manner, the signal blessing they enjoy in possessing the true

faith, and knowing that it is a priceless treasure with which, far more

precious than worldly substance, they can enrich their children, their

love for Catholic education is proved to evidence by the multitudes of

their sons and daughters who throng every Catholic school, and

especially every school in which the presence of Christian Brothers or

of Nuns gives a guarantee that religion shall have the first place, and

shall impregnate the whole atmosphere which their little ones are to

breathe for so many hours of the day. They have proved, also, their

dislike and fear of mixed education, by turning their faces away from

schools in which no expense had been spared, on which thousands of

pounds of the public money had been squandered, but against which their

Bishops deemed it their duty to warn them. Hence, in several Model

Schools erected in populous cities and towns, where the great majority

of the inhabitants are Catholics, sometimes not ten, sometimes not two

of their children are found within the unhallowed precincts of those

mixed institutions.

In fine, the opinion of all the Irish Catholics on this subject of

education is so well known, that nearly all of the Liberal candidates

who sought their votes at the last elections for the House of Commons,

declared in their electioneering addresses their adhesion to the

principle of denominational education, and their determination to uphold

it, and push it forward in Parliament.

And with good reason are they steadfast in those principles, for they

know the necessary connection between good education and the

maintenance of religion in their country. And they are determined to

struggle for the establishment, in Ireland, of a sound Catholic system

of public education, and never to relax their efforts till they obtain

the recognition of this, their own and their children's right, even as

they wrung Catholic emancipation from a hostile Parliament.

Thus the Catholic laity practise what their pastors teach; and in

Ireland and other countries, both pastors and people are united in

holding that nothing so effectually destroys religion in a country as a

godless system of instruction, whilst they believe, at the same time,

that a good Christian education contributes to preserve true religion,

and to spread the practice of every virtue and of good works through the

land.

Though the Catholic Church and her children are so anxious for the

progress of knowledge, and have made such sacrifices for the

civilization and enlightenment of the world, yet they do not

indiscriminately approve of every system of education. Every one knows

how much is done in our days, by the enemies of religion, to poison the

sources of knowledge, and to undermine religion, under the pretext of

promoting the liberal arts and sciences. In order to give a proper

impulse to study, by securing protection for it, some insist that the

full control of public instruction should be given to the government of

each country, to be carried on by Ministers of State, or public boards;

others attach so much importance to the development of the intellectual

faculties, that they call for compulsory and gratuitous education, in

order to give a great degree of culture to all classes; and others, in

fine, demand an unsectarian education, pretending that God should be

banished from the school, and children brought up without being

subjected to any religious influences. The Catholic Church and her

pastors, being charged to feed the flock of Christ with the food of

truth and life, and to preserve the lambs of the fold from the contagion

of error, cannot approve such systems, which seem to have been invented

by the fashion of the day, a desire of innovation, or a spirit of

hostility to religion.

It was to His Church, and not to the State, that Jesus Christ gave the

command, "Go and teach all nations."--(Matt. xxviii.) "As the Father

hath sent Me, so do I send you also."--(John xx.) "Feed My lambs, feed

My sheep."--(John xxi.)

The office of the Church is to teach and sanctify all men. She receives

the child on its first entrance into the world, and, by means of holy

baptism, makes it a child of God. Like her Divine Bridegroom, she says:

"Suffer the little children to come to me."

Now the Christian school is the place and the provision made for the

training of those who are baptized into the Christian faith. They have

been made children of God, and as such they have a right to four things

belonging to them by a right of inheritance, to which all other rights

are secondary. They have a right to the knowledge of their faith; to the

training of their conscience by the knowledge of God's commandments; to

the Sacraments of grace; and to a moral formation, founded on the

precepts and example of our Divine Saviour. These four things belong, by

a Divine right, to the child of the poorest working man; by a right more

sacred than that which guards the inheritance of lands and titles to the

child of the rich. A child of God, and an heir to the kingdom of heaven,

holds these four things by a higher title; and his claim is under the

jurisdiction of a Divine Judge. But the school is the place and the

provision for the insuring of these four vital parts of his right to the

Christian child. They cannot be taught or learned elsewhere; there is no

other place of systematic and sufficient formation. And if so, then the

school becomes the depository of the rights of parents, and of the

inheritance of their children. The school is strictly a court of the

Temple, a porch outside the Sanctuary. It cannot be separated from the

Church. It was created by the Church, and the Church created it for its

own mission to its children. As the Church cannot surrender to any power

on earth the formation of its own children, so it cannot surrender to

any the direction of its own schools.

It was the Church, as I have shown in the second chapter, that gave life

and being to Christian education; and education must remain under the

guardianship of the Church, if it will not cease to be Christian.

History shows us that it is the Church that has civilized the nations,

and it is the Church that keeps them from falling back into their former

degradation. Learning was not diffused among mankind until the Church

removed the veil of sin and ignorance, made man really free, and widened

the narrow limits of human thought by showing to man the infinite, the

eternal destiny that awaited him. This supernatural light--this "freedom

of the children of God"--is the very foundation, the very lifespring of

civilization. The Catholic Church, then, far from being opposed to

education, is its great and most zealous promoter. But she cannot help

being opposed to the Pagan system of education adopted in the Public

Schools of this country.

It is clear that this plan takes away the right of parents, whom God has

charged with the care of their children, and it must necessarily

interfere with the proper management of families. In the second place,

it ignores the rights of the Church, to whom Christ gave the commission

to teach all nations. In the third place, since governments, as

constituted at present, have no religion, the teaching they give must

tend to infidelity. In the fourth place, if governments take into their

hands the management of things which do not appertain to them, the

probability is that they will neglect, or carry on badly, the great

temporal affairs which it is their duty to attend to. In the last

place, experience shows that education carried on by the State is most

expensive, and that it opens the way to intrigues and frauds. To confirm

all these observations, it is sufficient to refer to France, where State

influence has been supreme for the last seventy years in university

education, and where the Government has exercised an exorbitant control

over every branch of public instruction. What has been the result?

Literature has fallen away, the number of schools has decreased, the

French language has decayed, whilst moral corruption has penetrated the

heart of the country, and infidelity of the worst kind has been

patronized and encouraged among the teachers of youth, and the highest

honors have been decreed to Littres and Renans, and other decided

enemies of Jesus Christ. May we not read the condemnation of all such

proceedings in the lurid flames of the burning Capital of modern

civilization? Now, is it not clear that the primary object of education

must be frustrated in the mixed system which proposes to unite children

of all religions in the same school, and to treat of nothing in the

class hours that could offend any of these discordant elements? If

there be a Jew in the school, you cannot speak of the Gospel; if there

be a Mahometan, nothing could be said against polygamy, and other

degrading doctrines of the Koran; due respect must also be paid to the

teaching of Arians and Socinians, who deny the Trinity of persons in

God, and the Divinity of Christ; and to the opinions of Calvinists and

Lutherans, of Methodists and other sectaries, who assail almost every

point of revealed religion. In this case, how can the atmosphere of the

school be religious; and must not children living in it grow up in

ignorance both of the dogmas and practices of religion?

This result may not be unacceptable to those who are outside the

Catholic Church, because, not acknowledging any Divine authority to

guide or rule them, they have no certainty in doctrinal matters, and

they do not attach any importance to external discipline. But how

different is the case with Catholics! We have many distinctive

doctrines, such as the Real Presence in the Blessed Eucharist, the power

of remitting sin, the Divine origin of the Church, and the primacy and

infallibity of the Pope, all which it is our duty to learn and to

believe. We are also bound to observe many precepts, to hear Mass, to

pray and make the sign of the Cross, to go to confession, to fast and

abstain, and to obey other commandments of the Church. If these

doctrines, so sublime, and so far above the intelligence of man, be not

continually inculcated on the mind of a child, how can he know them, or

believe them as he ought? And if the practices referred to be not

frequently urged on his attention, will he not ignore or neglect them

because they are hard to flesh and blood? And what will be the case

where the Protestant pupils in a school are in a considerable majority,

and the teacher of the same religion? Will not the Protestant children

turn the doctrines and practices of the Catholics into ridicule? And

will not the example, and the words, and the gestures of the heterodox

master, especially if he be kind and friendly, produce impressions

dangerous to belief on the youthful Catholic mind? Is it not probable

that a Catholic boy, observing how his master, to whom he looks up with

respect, is accustomed to act, will easily persuade himself that there

is no necessity of going to confession, or fasting, or making the sign

of the cross, or performing works of mortification? Indeed, the

probability is that Catholics educated in such circumstances, if they do

not abandon their religion altogether, will be only lukewarm,

indifferent, or dangerous members of the Church.

And here let me direct your attention to another dangerous tendency of

godless education. In this system all religions, true or false, are

treated with equal respect; not only Anglicans and Presbyterians, but

Wesleyans and Plymouth Brothers, and the followers of every other small

and miserable sect that has started into existence in modern times, are

put on a footing of equality with the true Catholic Church, which traces

its origin back to its Divine Founder, has existed in every age, defied

the fury of persecution and the ravages of time, and numbers under its

sceptre two hundred millions of faithful children spread over the world.

And is not this to proclaim that there is no difference between light

and darkness, no preference to be given to Christ over Belial, to truth

over heresy, and error and infidelity? In a word, is not this to teach

indifference to religion, or, what is equivalent, that no religion is

necessary? What shall I now say of books so compiled as to meet the

exigencies of godless education? Have they not the same tendency to

promote ignorance of, or indifference to, religion? No religious

dogmatical teaching, no inculcation of pious practices, no mention of

the great and sublime mysteries of Catholicity can be admitted in them,

lest some things should be said offensive to any sect that sends

children to the school. This suppression of Catholic truth is most

detrimental to our poor Catholic children, many of whom never read any

books except those which they use in school, and learn nothing except

what they meet with in those books, or hear from their master. Is not

this a serious loss? Is it not a great evil for Catholics to be brought

up in ignorance, not only of the doctrines, but also of the history of

the Church to which they belong, and of the life and deeds of so many

Christian heroes whose virtues illustrated the world?

How far superior is the system of the Christian Brothers, and other

Catholic educational institutions! Their books make continual reference

to the mysteries of religion, they depict the glories of the Church, the

majesties of the Apostolic See, and continually inflame the youthful

mind to the practice of good works, by proposing to them the lives and

virtues of holy men, and by continually reminding them of their

religious duties, of the end of man, and of other great motives

calculated to induce them to serve God. In regard to this matter, I

shall merely add that the common school-books have been generally

compiled by Protestants, that scarcely any extract from Catholic authors

is admitted in them, that they contain many Methodistical stories, that

their language is that of the Protestant Bible, and that they contain

many things offensive to our love of religion.

Do you want to see what man without God--without religion--can do? Read

the history of the last eighty years in Paris. You have there one simple

phenomenon--generation rising after generation, without God in the

world. And why? Because, without Christian education. First, an

atheistical revolution; next, an empire penetrated through with a

masking philosophy and a reckless indifferentism; afterwards came

governments changed in name and in form, but not in practice, nor in

spirit. The Church, trammelled by protection, her spiritual action faint

and paralyzed, could not penetrate the masses of the people, and bring

her salutary influence to bear upon them. She labored fervently; her

sons fought nobly for Christian freedom; thousands were saved; but for

eighty years the mass of men has grown up without God and without Christ

in the world. These outbursts of horror, strife, outrage, sacrilege,

bloodshed, are the harvest reaped from the rank soil in which such seed

was cast. All this is true. But how did souls created to the image of

God grow up in such a state? They were robbed: robbed before they were

born; robbed of their inheritance, and reared up in an education without

Christianity. Let this be a warning to ourselves! We are told that a

child may be taught to read, and to write, and to spell, and to sum,

without Christianity. Who denies it? But what does this make of them? To

what do they grow up? The formation of the will and heart and character,

the formation of a man, is education, and not the reading, and the

writing, and the spelling, and the summing. Physiology, astronomy,

chemistry, anatomy, and all other sciences with sounding names, and of

Greek etymology, will not teach our children the respect, love, and

obedience due to parents. They will not teach them modesty, which is the

brightest ornament of woman, and renders the relation of man with his

fellow-man harmonious and pleasant. They will not teach them industry

and purity, which insure peace and happiness in the family circle. They

will not teach them the fidelity which the espoused owe to each other,

nor the obligations contracted by parents towards their children, nor

will they teach them to know, love, and serve God in this world, in

order to be happy with Him forever in the next.

For fifteen hundred years Christians served God and loved man, before,

as yet, they received this cultivation of our age; and we, because we

have it so profusely, are forgetting the deeper and diviner lessons. The

tradition of Christian education in this country is, as yet, unbroken.

It has, however, been greatly undermined. It will be completely broken

if we Catholics do not strive, to the best of our power, to preserve it.

We Catholics, therefore, believe that it is our most sacred duty to

bring up our children in "the discipline and correction of the Lord." We

hold that it is our most conscientious obligation to bequeath to our

children the most valuable of all legacies--good religious impressions,

and a sound religious education. We hold that religious education is

the most essential part of instruction.

Now we know that religious education _is not_, and cannot, be given in

our present school system. Our present system of common-school education

either ignores religion altogether, or teaches principles which are

false and dangerous; and if it gives any religious education, it

consists merely in certain vague, unmeaning generalities, and is often

worse than no education at all. Instruction without religion, is like a

ship without a compass. Ignorance is, indeed, a great evil; but of the

two evils, it is even better, in some respects, for our children to

remain ignorant, than to acquire mere worldly knowledge without any

religious training; for without religion they grow up a burden to

themselves, and a pest to society.

Human nature is prone to evil; and the rising passions, especially in

youth, need religious influence to check them. There is a vast

difference between teaching the child's _head_ and forming his _heart_.

Mere instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic will never teach a

young man to control his passions, and to practise virtue. Such

instruction may do for Pagans, but it will never do for Catholics.

We can say that, so far as our Catholic children are concerned, the

workings of our Public School system have proved, and do prove, highly

detrimental to their faith and morals. So strongly has the conviction of

this been impressed upon the minds both of the pastors and parents, that

most strenuous efforts, and even enormous sacrifices have been made, and

continue to be made, in order to establish and support Catholic

parochial schools. In many cities of the Union there is, at the present

moment, in daily attendance at these schools, an average number of

between eighteen and twenty thousand children. The annual expense for

the maintenance of these schools does not fall short of one hundred

thousand dollars; while the amount expended for the purchase of lots,

and the erection of proper school buildings, etc., considerably exceeds

a million.

The Catholics of New York subscribed, in 1868, $132,000 for the support

of their own school, and, besides, they had contributed a million and a

quarter of dollars for the sites and the buildings of Catholic schools.

Nothing but the deepest sense of the many dangers to which the religious

and moral principles of the children are exposed, could prompt Catholic

parents to make such pecuniary sacrifices, or assume such onerous

burdens; for it has to be borne in mind that, while they are thus

obliged, through conscientious motives, to support their own schools,

they have, at the same time, to bear their share of the taxation imposed

for the support of the Public Schools.

All this is true; yet I can scarcely refrain from expressing my surprise

at the extremely abnormal lethargy manifested by so many Catholics, both

in high and low places, regarding a duty, the chief one incumbent upon

them as members of the family, as citizens, as Christians and as

Catholics.

Now the cause for the indifference existing among our people on the

question of Catholic education, may be attributed to a false process of

reasoning. They argue: it will cost money. True; but it is not by

_State_ aid, or _City_ aid, that the work of Catholic daily instruction

and education in parochial schools is to be carried on. These schools

are to be supported, as our _churches_ are, by the alms of the

faithful.

The Catholics of other countries have their duties to perform,

different, in part, from ours, but demanding great self-sacrifice. We,

too, except we be "bastards, and not sons," must make our great

sacrifices. The first, the most pressing, is that of supporting a good

Catholic education. In neglecting Catholic education, we lose that which

money cannot buy. Can we conceive of a parent, a Catholic parent, so

cruel, so depraved, and so God-forsaken as to sacrifice his child, both

body and soul, and devote him to eternal destruction, through eagerness

to spare the paltry pence that a proper education might cost? It seems

quite certain that if we wait for just appropriations from the State

before we shoulder the burden ourselves, wait for it to compel us to

accept of Catholic education, we shall find ourselves in a very unfit

condition to appreciate the favor; and from present indications, this

generation, at least, is likely to pass away before such interest will

be manifested in our behalf.

Now we must be persuaded that if we allow one generation to be brought

up in unbelief, and the course of tradition to be once interrupted, the

following generations will fall into a darkness and ignorance worse

than that of Paganism; living here without a God, and quitting this

world without any consoling hope of a blessed immortality.

So it proved, not long ago, with an unhappy wretch, the child of parents

that had forgotten the law of their God, and sent her to one of the

Public Schools in a town on the North River. She played the harlot, when

she grew old enough, and then sought to add to this the crime of a

horrible _murder_--the murder of the child that was of her own flesh and

blood. In procuring its murder, she lost her own life. In the den of the

monster-abortionist, and finding herself dying, one of the vile

attendants now declares that she shrieked and begged for a Catholic

priest. The Jew into whose murderous gripe she had put herself, found

some means to quiet her cry, and she died without seeing a priest. God

will keep His word! He has said, "Because _thou_ hast forgotten the law

of thy God, I will _forget thy children_!"

I do not say that Catholic parents are obliged, under the pain of mortal

sin, to have _any_ secular education given to their children. But I do

say that they _are forbidden_, by the law of the Catholic Church, to

send their children to _any_ schools where the Catholic religion is not

_practised and taught_.

If neglect to comply with the law of God and of His Church, neglect to

receive the sacraments at certain times, and under certain

circumstances, is a mortal sin, is it much less a sin to neglect the

proper education of our youth, upon which, to a great extent, their

entire future depends? And if the sacraments are refused to persons

persisting in sin, should not a sin of this great character be also

considered in the conditions requisite for the worthy reception of the

sacraments? I hesitate not to pronounce this matter of education a

matter of conscience, and it should be treated accordingly by those who

have the charge of souls. We see ecclesiastical edifices of great

magnitude, splendor, and expense, erected everywhere by Catholics, but

for what purpose? To attract non-Catholics? Bosh! A Catholic can hear

Mass in caverns, in catacombs, or under hedges, as they have often been

obliged to do; but if we lose our children there will be none to hear it

anywhere, nor any to offer the Holy Sacrifice, even in our most

gorgeous cathedrals. Where will be our Catholics? Scandal and disgrace

will be the order of the day.

I do not wish it to be understood here that I entertain any, even the

least, doubt of the indefectibility of the Church, or of the faithful

fulfilment of the promises of Christ; for the Church will exist in spite

of man. But again I say that Catholics are violating a most sacred duty

in not providing facilities for Catholic education.

This, O Catholics! is what the money you are making so rapidly ought, in

generous part, to be devoted to. So _you_ will think, at a day fast

coming, when your bodies will be buried sumptuously, your souls

forgotten by the living, and the estates you have hoarded with so much

industry shall have become, perhaps, the objects of disgraceful

law-suits among your heirs.

Dear Catholics, let us cast off our lethargy; let us be unitedly active

in this matter; let us discard the flimsy arguments of "_liberal_"

Catholics who would discourage the enterprise, regarding every such as

our most dangerous foe. Let us make our voice heard and our actions

felt, and bring up our children in a manner creditable to ourselves, an

honor and consolation to their parents, a blessing to society, worthy

members of the Church of God, and candidates for the kingdom of heaven.

FOOTNOTES:

[H] "Hant propositionem auctoritate Nostra Apostolica reprobamus,

proscribimus atque damnamus eamque ab omnibus Catholicae Ecclesiae filiis

veluti reprobatam, proscriptam atque damnatam omnino haberi volumus et

mandamus."--Syllabus, Prop. xlviii.

CHAPTER XIV.

ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS.

There are some who assert that "there is no sectarian teaching in the

Public Schools, and consequently a Catholic may send his children to

them without exposing them to any danger." Now even supposing there

really were no sectarian teaching in the common schools, even then a

Catholic parent cannot send his children to such a school without

exposing them to the greatest danger. Those who approve of the Public

Schools because nothing sectarian is taught there, act like a certain

husbandman who wished to transplant a fine young tree to a certain part

of his garden. On examining the new place, however, he found that the

ground was filled with poisonous ingredients, which would greatly

endanger the life of the tree. He therefore transplanted the tree to a

sandy hill, where there were, indeed, no poisonous ingredients, but

where there was also no nourishment for the tree. Now will any one

assert that the young tree was not in danger of perishing in this new

place? And will any one assert that the faith and soul of a child are

not in danger of being ruined in those godless common schools? Even if

Protestantism is not taught there, infidelity is taught and practised

there, and infidelity is even worse than Protestantism.

But is it really true that Protestantism is not taught in many of our

Public Schools? This is unfortunately far from being the case. Napoleon

I. introduced the Public School system into France, in order, as he

honestly declared, "to possess the means of controlling political and

moral opinions." Puritans and Freemasons, in this country, have clearly

the same end in view in upholding the present system of Public Schools.

In the early days of New England, and even of several of the other

American States, the Puritans always used the Public Schools as a

powerful means of spreading their peculiar doctrines. When they were

stripped of this power by the liberal founders of American

independence, they still struggled for many years to accomplish, by

indirect means, the injustice which they dared not _maintain_ openly. We

all remember how the poor Catholic boys and girls of the Public Schools

were harassed by colporteurs and proselytizers, who carried baskets

filled, not with bread for the poor hungry children, no, but with oily

tracts, cunningly devised to weaken, or even destroy, the religious

faith of those poor little ones. In some schools even, Catholic children

were urged and enticed to go to the sectarian Sunday-schools, and

pictures, cakes, and sweetmeats were liberally promised, in order to

induce them to go. Teachers were selected with special regard to their

bitter hatred of the Catholic Church, and their zeal for "evangelical"

propagandism. Some years ago, in New Orleans, when the school-board was

composed of bigoted sectarians, many of them sectarian preachers, all

the Catholic teachers, male and female, were turned out of the schools,

merely because they were Catholics.

And even if Catholic children are not always expressly taught doctrines

opposed to their religion, nevertheless the school-books which they use

are, as I have said, frequently tainted with anti-Catholic prejudices

and misrepresentations. Nothing can be more evident than the decidedly

anti-Catholic spirit of English literature in all its departments. It

has grown up, ever since England's apostasy, in an anti-Catholic soil,

in an anti-Catholic atmosphere, and from an anti-Catholic stem. It is

essentially anti-Catholic, and tends, wherever it comes in contact with

Catholic feelings and principles, to sully, infect, and utterly corrupt

them. _Sound knowledge_, a _sound head_, _strong faith_, and _great

grace_--all these combined--may indeed preserve one whom the necessity

of his position may lead into un-Catholic schools; but no one will deny

that this anti-Catholic literature must exercise a most baneful

influence over all those who, without sufficient preparation from nature

or grace, plunge into it, in the pursuit of amusement or knowledge.

Protestant ideas will not make the Catholic turn Protestant, there is

not much danger of that, but they will tend to make him an infidel; they

will destroy his principles without putting others in their place; they

will relax and deaden the whole spiritual man.

In these schools, Catholic children are taught that the Catholic Church

is the nursery of ignorance and vice; they are taught that all the

knowledge, civilization, and virtue which the world now possesses, are

the offspring of the so-called "Reformation." They learn nothing of the

true history of Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Ireland, Austria, and

the other Catholic countries of Europe; they learn nothing of the true

history of Mexico, and the various Catholic countries of North and South

America. They never hear of the vast libraries of Catholic learning, the

rich endowments of Catholic education all over the world, for ages; they

never hear of the countless universities, colleges, academies, and free

schools established by the Catholic Church, and by Catholic governments,

throughout Christendom. Where is the common school book whose author has

manly honesty enough to acknowledge that even the famous universities of

Oxford and Cambridge were founded by Catholics, and plundered from their

lawful possessors by an apostate government?

Moreover, Catholic children are often singled out by their

school-companions, and sometimes even by their teachers, as objects of

ridicule. Now what is the result of all this training? The consequence

is, that either the Catholic children become ashamed of their holy

religion, and despise their parents, or, if they have the courage to

hold out, their tender minds are subject to numberless petty annoyances;

they must endure a species of martyrdom. This is no exaggeration; I have

it from good authority. Practically speaking, the present common school

system is but a gigantic scheme for proselytism and for infidelity.

Now we intend that our children shall be taught to love and revere their

holy Church. We wish to teach them that that Church has been, for over

eighteen hundred years, the faithful guardian of that very Bible of

which Protestants prate so loudly, and which they dishonor so much. We

wish our children to learn that the Catholic Church has been, in all

ages, the friend and supporter of true liberty; _i.e._, liberty united

to order and justice. We wish them to know that the Catholic Church has

ever been the jealous guardian of the sanctity of marriage; that she has

always defended it against brutal lust, and heathen divorce courts. We

wish our children to know, moreover, that the Catholic Church holds the

sword of vengeance uplifted above the heads of the child-murderers, and

the perpetrators of unnatural crimes. We wish our children, in fine, to

regard the Church as the only hope of society, the only salvation of

their country, the only means of preserving intact all the blessings of

freedom.

The Public Schools are not only seminaries of infidelity, they are,

moreover, in many cases, hot-beds of immorality. In these schools every

child is received, no matter how vicious or corrupt he or his parents

may be. "One mangy sheep," as the homely proverb says, "infects the

whole flock." So one corrupt child in a school is capable of corrupting

and ruining all the others. And, in fact, where have our young people

learned the shameful habit of self-abuse, and many other foul, unnatural

crimes, that are bringing so many thousands to an early grave? Ask those

unhappy victims, ask our physicians throughout the country, and they

will tell you that, in almost every instance, it was from the evil

companions with whom they associated in the common schools. Ah! you will

see, only on the Day of Judgment, how many unnatural crimes have been

taught and propagated, from generation to generation, in these very

hot-beds of iniquity.

"But, Father," some one will say, "what harm can there be in sending

children to Public Schools? for many of the teachers are professing

Christians, and exert a continual Christian influence."

But many more are non-professors, and exert an anti-Christian influence.

Go and visit those schools, and you will soon be able to tell the

religious _status_ of the teachers in charge, by the general tone of the

exercises. One presided over by a zealous Methodist resembles a

Methodist Sunday-school, or conference meeting. Another, under the care

of a "smart young man," delighting in love songs, boating songs, etc.,

has the general tone of a young folks' glee-club. In another, in which

one of the professors is an atheist, it is a matter of common remark

among the boys that Prof. ---- said there was no God. In another, one of

the teachers is overheard sneering at a child because she believes in

our Lord Jesus Christ, and has a reverence for religious things.

What I have just said is true. I have it from good authority. It is

therefore no recommendation at all for the Public School system to say

that many of the teachers are professing Christians. Even the very fact

that many of the teachers in the Public Schools are good Catholics, is

no recommendation whatever for these schools, for it matters nothing,

absolutely nothing, whether the teacher be Catholic or not; according to

_law_, no teacher is allowed to explain a single dogma of Catholic

faith. Now the dogmas of our holy faith have been _revealed_, and, in

order to be known, _they must be taught_. Ordinarily speaking, education

is necessary to learn and preserve the faith. The Catholics of Ireland,

indeed, by the special assistance of God, preserved their holy faith,

though they were not permitted, by a bigoted government, to receive the

education they needed and desired. But in this country, where there is

no such prohibition, where parents are free to send their children to

Catholic schools, it is presumption in them, it is a rash defiance to

the ordinary laws of God's providence, to neglect the daily systematic

training of the minds and hearts of their children, in conformity with

Catholic discipline. Julian the Apostate forbade Catholics to be

educated in their holy faith, for he knew very well that there is no

more certain means of destroying the faith than by not suffering it to

be taught.

It is almost certain that wherever there are no Catholic schools,

wherever the Catholic religion is not taught and practised in school,

there the Catholic religion will practically die out, as soon as

immigration from Catholic countries ceases.

Bishop England has asserted that the Catholic Church loses more, in this

country, by apostasy, than it gains by conversions. Archbishop Spalding,

of Baltimore, asserted one day that, in one body of Methodist ministers,

he observed seven or eight who were children of Catholics, and they were

the smartest preachers among them.

Neglected children of Catholic parents become the worst enemies of the

Catholic Church. The young man who set fire to St. Augustine's Church,

in Philadelphia, Pa., was a Catholic, and he gloried in being able to

burn his name out of the baptismal record. By a just punishment of God,

these neglected Catholic children will become our persecutors.

It is not sufficient to teach the Catechism in church or at home. No!

it is not the _knowledge_ of the faith, but the _daily practice_ of it,

that produces Catholic life. Nothing but the constant practice of our

holy religion can train our youth to withstand the dangers of this age,

and this country. It is not necessary to argue this point. Look at the

tens of thousands of Catholics who never think of going to Mass on a

week-day, and who often neglect it even on Sundays and holy days. Look

at all those who never think of visiting our Lord in the Blessed

Sacrament; who never go to confession more than once or twice a year,

and sometimes not even that. Do they not prove, beyond a doubt, that the

practical _habit_ of devotion was not taught them in their youth?

Look, on the other hand, at those congregations who, in the tender,

susceptible time of youth, were in the habit of going to Mass every day

before the opening of the school. See how, when the bell rings, a goodly

number of them find time, even on week-days, to assist at the most holy

Sacrifice of the Mass. In such congregations there is indeed Catholic

life. These pious Catholics carry the blessing of heaven with them

wherever they go. Amid all the cares and troubles of life they are gay

and cheerful, whilst others grumble and are sad. The religious doctrines

and practices learned in youth, can seldom or never be blotted out. The

question of Catholic schools is a question of making the country

Catholic. If this means be neglected, all other means will avail but

little.

There are others, again, who assert "that the discussion of the

education question should be put off for the present as yet, under the

pretence that our adversaries are as yet too numerous, and that it is

well for us to do nothing until their feelings are more in our favor."

If we are to wait until it will please them to say that our claims are

just, the day will never dawn when our rights shall be admitted;

darkness cannot coalesce with light, vice with virtue, or Belial with

Christ. Will those who deny the Divine authority of the Church, assail

her doctrines, and seek her destruction, ever cordially assist us in

obtaining from our rulers a system of public instruction not dangerous

or destructive to our faith? If we consent to defer the education

question until the torrent of bigotry will be dried up, we shall be

laughed at, and compared to the simple peasant who determined to sit on

the bank of a great river and not to attempt to pass it until all its

waters should have rolled by; or we shall be compared to the careless

farmer who allows rank weeds to grow up in his garden, together with the

good plants, till at last the good plants are dwarfed and smothered by

the noxious weeds. In my opinion, our own policy with those in authority

should be to insist on our rights in season and out of season; and even

when our claims may have been slighted or rejected, to continue our

demands until every grievance shall be removed.

We must make great exertions to obtain the object of our desires, and

display great energy in our proceedings. We have numerous and active

enemies to contend with--men as enthusiastic in a bad cause as the

Pharisees of the Gospel, who compassed earth and sea to make a

proselyte, but who cared very little for his moral progress, once they

had secured his adherence to their views. However, we are not left alone

in our struggle for religious education. With us we have the sympathy of

the Catholics of the world, who are fighting the same battle as we

ourselves, and cheer us on by their example. We have with us the

blessing of the successor of St. Peter, who has repeatedly approved of

the justice of our cause, and we have the sanction of Christ Himself for

the safety of the lambs of whose folds we are laboring. But omitting all

this, I believe that the most influential and distinguished members, lay

and clerical, of the Anglican body, are with us, and that the principal

liberal and enlightened Protestants of the Union wish us success.

The State does not interfere with the free exercise of our religion,

neither should it interfere with our system of education;--two measures

of great importance, well calculated gradually to promote the public

welfare of the country. If the State seriously wishes to check the

growth of revolution, or to stem the growing torrent of communism and

infidelity, they ought to discountenance infidel institutions, and give

schools to Catholics, in which they may uphold the true principles of

authority, human and Divine, in accordance with the traditions of the

Catholic Church of America, and thus strengthen the foundations not only

of religion, but of society in general.

Again, some will say, "I do not see why people can object so much to

Public Schools; I myself went there, and I think I am as good a

Catholic as any one of those who were educated at Catholic schools and

institutions."

If you really have tried to be a good Catholic, if you have complied

faithfully with all your religious duties, you will have to avow that it

is all owing to the beneficial Catholic influence under which you were

placed during the time of your scholarship, and afterwards. If you

escaped the general contagion of unbelief and vice, remember that it is

owing to a kind of miracle of Divine Protection. But what I have said in

reference to Public Schools shows sufficiently that such a protection is

extended to but few children--it is an exception to the ordinary course

of Divine Providence, and God is not bound to grant it to any one.

A certain friend of mine--a man of great learning and experience--wrote

to me one day, that "he himself had been, in his youth, subjected to

college training; that, be it by nature or by grace, or both combined,

he resisted and escaped. But," he adds, "from my observation and

experience, I would say it did require a miracle for Catholic youth to

escape the damnable effects of a non-Catholic school education." I have

had opportunities, in this line, that many a priest has never had. I

assert that a Catholic boy of tender years, and perhaps careless

training, can be preserved from moral contamination, in public and mixed

schools, by nothing less than a miracle. I will not chop logic with any

one about it. It is a matter of fact. I therefore assert it as of

ascertained result, that in _most_ cases--_especially_ in those cases

where there are enough of Catholics together to have a school of their

own--their frequenting a school without religion will land _most_ of

them in utter carelessness of their religion.

Grace does not destroy _nature_. And it is _nature_ that--

"... as the twig is bent, the tree inclines."

But let me ask you, How can you think that you are as good a Catholic as

others; you who object to the teaching of the Church, to the persuasion

of all sensible men? Indeed, your language betrays you. Your very

language convinces me still more of the necessity of having Catholic

schools where our children learn the language and imbibe the spirit of

their spiritual mother--the Catholic Church. The Public Schools are none

the better for your having frequented them. Let us suppose a father

wishes to send his children across the ocean. Now he knows for certain

that the vessel which is about to leave for the old country will be

wrecked; he also knows that a few of the passengers will be saved, as it

were, by a miracle, but he knows not who they are. Will he send his

children by that vessel?

Now the Public Schools are like a large vessel. The greater part of

those who have embarked in it have suffered shipwreck in their faith and

good morals. What father, then, will be mad enough to send his children

by this vessel, across the ocean of time, to their heavenly fatherland?

There are others, again, who assert "that we must not attempt to have

Catholic schools until we can afford to conduct them so as to compete

with the Public Schools."

The point in question is godless schools, which are condemned on account

of being infidel in principle. Even with all their faults, our schools

are, it must be conceded, not infidel, but Christian schools. We are at

liberty, there, to teach our children our holy religion whenever we

wish. We can give them good books, and bring them up in a religious

atmosphere. If we do for the establishment and organization of Catholic

schools what we can, God will not hold us responsible for the loss of

those of our children who did not profit by their religious education,

while, on the contrary, we remain accountable to God for those who, for

want of a Catholic education, suffer shipwreck in their faith and

morals, and are lost forever. In the sight of God, the above excuse will

avail us nothing.

Some, even most of our schools, may have been more or less defective in

the beginning. Well, what was the Church at the time of the Apostles?

There were then no gorgeous cathedrals as nowadays. The Christians were

instructed and sanctified in the Catacombs, and in poor private

dwellings. So, in a country like ours, the kingdom of heaven is compared

to a mustard seed. Churches and schools are insignificant in the

beginning; but, by degrees, more life and splendor is infused into them,

and they grow up to perfection.

We honor and venerate the Apostles as the corner-stones of Christianity.

Happy, thrice happy, those pastors who lay solid foundations for future

Catholic life by establishing nurseries--Catholic schools--for its

maintenance and propagation. Their reward will be like unto that of the

Apostles. Our successors will bring our feeble beginnings to perfection.

This is the natural course of things. We may not have the happiness to

witness a plentiful harvest from the seed that we have sown with so much

toil and labor; but we should nevertheless bear in mind that those

bishops and priests who have the happiness of laying the foundations of

future Catholic life in our country, resemble our Lord Jesus Christ, Who

suffered His Apostles to perform even greater miracles than He Himself

had wrought.

I know the above objection is more frequently made in the New England

States than anywhere else. Now it is a well-known fact that the Yankee

race is fast dying out. They have either no children at all, or only one

or two. Hence it is that the larger portion of the Public School

children are the children of Catholic parents. These States foresee that

were the Catholic children to leave their schools, their Public School

buildings would soon be empty, and stand there as eloquent monuments to

tell on the folly of the States for having erected them. Now in order to

keep the Catholic children at their schools, and thus keep up their fine

lucrative establishments, they have, in several places, taken in the

Catholic priests as members of the School Boards. Truly, "the children

of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light."

These priests, by accepting the honor! of membership! of the School

Board, give, thereby, at least a _tacit approbation_ of the godless

Public Schools. Thus the State, by conferring this privilege! throws

dust into the eyes of the people. It is, therefore, quite evident that

were this _tacit approbation_ of the Catholic clergy withdrawn, were

they to erect Catholic schools, the godless schools would soon be

emptied and suspended, and there would hardly be other but Catholic

schools. The Catholic teachers of the Public Schools would follow our

children, and would be too happy in teaching on Catholic ground, and

according to Catholic principles.

Should a sufficient number of children be left for the Public Schools,

this would be no reason whatever to fear that our Catholic schools

could not compete with the Public Schools; for, generally speaking,

Catholic children are more talented than those of Protestants or

infidels. The reason of this is easily to be seen: they have been

baptized; the veil of sin has been raised from their souls, and the

Catholic life which they lead makes their minds brighter, more quick to

perceive, and to understand what is difficult. About six months ago the

priests of St. James's Church, in New York, exhorted the parents to take

their children out of the Public Schools, and send them to Catholic

schools. What happened? Three of the Public School teachers came and

complained to the priests that the brightest gems of their school had

left, and that, on that account, they could not have the exhibition

which they intended soon to give. A short time ago, at an exhibition in

Boston, it was a Catholic young lady that took the prize medal.

And after all, the principal object for getting up Catholic schools is

not to show off their superiority to, or their equality with, infidel

schools--this is not even a secondary end--we want Catholic schools to

preserve our Catholic religion, our Catholic traditions, our Catholic

spirit and morals; we want them to raise in them children for heaven,

not for hell; children for God, not for the devil; children for a happy

eternity, not for everlasting damnation. That's all. Hence Jesus Christ,

on the Day of Judgment, will not ask parents and pastors of souls

whether their schools could compete with infidel schools, but whether

they did all in their power to secure the eternal welfare of their

children by a good Catholic education.

Father John de Starchia, Provincial of the Friars Minor, made

regulations more favorable to worldly science than to the spirit of

piety and religion, attaching, as he did, more importance to the

education of the mind than to that of the heart. St. Francis of Assisium

upbraided him for it, but in vain. So the great servant of God cursed

the Provincial, and deposed him at the ensuing chapter. The saint was

entreated, by some of his brethren in religion, to withdraw this curse

from the Provincial, a learned noble man, and to give him his blessing.

But neither the learning nor the noble extraction of the Provincial

could prevail upon St. Francis to comply with their request. "I cannot,"

said he, "bless him whom the Lord has cursed"--a dreadful reply, which

soon after was verified. This unfortunate man died exclaiming: "I am

damned and cursed for all eternity!" Some frightful circumstances which

followed after his death, confirmed his awful prediction. (Life of St.

Francis of Assisium.) Such a malediction should strike terror into the

hearts of all those who attach more importance to the cultivation of the

mind than to that of the heart, and on that account prefer godless

Public Schools to Catholic schools.

Again, one may object: "The religious development does not necessarily

suppose a literary development too. A person may be illiterate, and yet

learned in the science of the saints, and a man may be learned in

science, and ignorant of his duty towards God and his fellow-creatures.

There were, are, and will be members of the Catholic Church, who,

ignorant of science, of book-learning, did not become infidels, but

exhibited a practical faith throughout life, and died in the odor of

sanctity. Divine faith does not require as a companion, in the

individual Catholic, a knowledge of profane literature, but humility,

compunction, self-denial, and a contempt of the world. Schools are

therefore not absolutely necessary for our children."

As far as the little profit is concerned that mere book-learning does

towards enabling the masses of mankind to accomplish the great end of

their being--the salvation of their souls--I am disposed to go all

lengths with him in this. But he and I must both acknowledge that the

whole current of Catholic influence and practice has set in favor of

book-learning and of schools. The Popes have been constant in this line,

and Catholic Bishops have acted in the same direction.

But grant that _school learning_ is of little account. Something even

harder is said of _riches_. There is no _woe_ on those that spend their

time on book-learning; there _is_ a "woe to them that are rich"!

Nevertheless, Catholics, as others, strive to acquire wealth. So that

they do it honestly, the Catholic Church does not condemn it. Book

education, like riches, is a means of advancement in the world. The

instructed are, on the whole, of greater consideration than the

uninstructed. The business of the Catholic Church is to see that this

source of power is not turned to the destruction of those that acquire

it.

Besides, I fully agree that, as a universal proposition,

school-learning, or book-learning, is not necessary to the salvation of

souls--which is the _great_ end of human life. So far, the objection is

correct in saying that _Catholic_ schools are not, as a universal

proposition, necessary for Catholics.

But, _in hac providentia_; in a condition in which Catholics, like

others, are striving that their children may obtain the mastery,

_book_-learning is, like money, a grand element of strength and of

consideration. This is what those in care of souls must look to.

Book-learning and wealth are neither of them against faith. They are

simple elements of power--_physical paraphernalia_. The great thing is,

how they may be _used_!

Again mark! I do not say that it is of strict obligation for Catholics

to send their children to _any_ school. For the comparatively few that

have at once the means and the disposition, I hold that there is _no_

education like that received under the parental roof. _There_ is the

true home of sturdy independence in men, and of affectionate and chaste

devotion in women. Moreover, it is a great good fortune for

conscientious parents, with growing childhood around them, to have the

charge and responsibility of these children. It is education for parents

as well as children. It brings the strong element of parental affection,

in aid of all other motives for living a good life, as an example to

beloved young ones. We mourn that Catholics, at least, so seldom, when

they have the means, make their own houses the schools for their own

children. But this can be done by few, comparatively. Nor can select and

private schools, with few scholars, and those picked ones, be had. As a

matter of fact, the children of most Catholics must receive whatever

_school_ instruction they get, in large and general schools.

God may, by a miracle, preserve the faith in a whole nation, as He

really did in the Irish, because they were _forbidden_ to use the

ordinary means whereby Catholics bring up their offspring in the faith.

But, when Irish men and women come to this country, where there is _no_

prohibition of their having Catholic schools, and having their children

educated in them, it is, as I have said, a rash defiance of the ordinary

laws of God's Providence, to neglect the daily and systematic training

of the intellects of their children in conformity with Catholic

discipline.

There are some who say "they pay taxes, and they, of course, would like

to profit as well as others by their contribution to the school fund."

It is nothing but right that they should; but they cannot, and ought

not, to do so upon the conditions imposed on them. The Christians of the

first centuries paid taxes to the Roman Empire, for they had been taught

by their Divine Master to render unto Caesar what belonged to Caesar; but

rather than refuse to render to God what belonged to God, rather than

give up their faith, or expose themselves to the danger of losing it,

they went to the lions.

At a later period, the Irish, so much taunted for their ignorance in

reading and writing, paid heavy taxes to the British Government, and, be

it said to their honor, they, for a time, deprived themselves of the

most useful knowledge, not on account of their opposition to schools,

but because when the teachers of their choice were hunted down by

government officials, and shot like wild beasts, if caught in the act of

teaching, they refused to go to the State schools, which they could not

attend without betraying the faith of their ancestors.

We also pay taxes, and will continue to do so in submission to a most

unjust law; but, thanks be to God! we are at liberty to seek legal

redress, and our exertions should increase until it is obtained by those

very means which were used to establish godless schools, viz.: the

press, lecturing, preaching, etc., to form, again, _public opinion_ in

favor of Christian schools, and electing such men to legislatures as are

down upon godless schools, and advocate the establishment of Christian

schools for the well-being of our country. In the meantime, in order to

preserve the true faith, and save the world from the deadly indifference

into which it is falling, Catholic schools must be got up, and kept up,

at any cost.

Finally, there are some of the clergy who say, "It is so much trouble to

get up schools, and to support them--where to get the teachers, and the

money to pay them." True, it is troublesome to establish schools; but we

have to live on troubles. Our very troubles become our ladder to heaven,

if borne for the sake of Jesus Christ. If we do not wish to undergo

troubles and trials of every kind for the sake of Jesus, and for the

salvation of those for whom He shed His heart's blood, we should not

have become priests. Our right and claim to heaven can be established

only by following our Lord, and by carrying our cross after Him.

As to the fear of not getting money for building and supporting schools,

let us look at those magnificent school-buildings in every city and town

of the country. Where did those priests who built them get the money? It

was no angel from heaven that brought it. The parents of the children

that are educated in these schools gave it. Let us rest assured that

money will not be wanting to a priest if his zeal is great enough to

show to parents the absolute necessity of Catholic schools, in order to

save their children from becoming scourges for society in this life, and

from becoming victims of hell in the next. Let a priest unite great

charity and affection for children, and he will at once lay hold on the

hearts and money of their parents. Those parents who have no money to

offer, will most willingly offer their labor for so noble a work. This

has been our experience for years in every place where we took charge

of a congregation. Let every child--the poor excepted--pay from thirty

to forty cents a month. The money thus collected will cover all the

expenses for teachers, and for the books of the poor children. Parents

are but too happy to have a priest who takes a lively interest in the

temporal and eternal happiness of their children. For the promotion of

this happiness, parents will give to the priest the last cent they have

got--nay, their own hearts' blood, if necessary. This we have witnessed

many times. We have established schools in country places, where the

people made very little money; yet they were but too happy to give us

money for the building and support of schools. There are hundreds of

priests who can say the same of themselves. And should there be

refractory characters who do not care about a good Catholic education,

let us refuse them absolution, as penitents who are not disposed for the

worthy reception of the sacraments. We cannot scruple to do this.

The voice of common sense, the voice of sad experience, the voice of

Catholic bishops, and especially the voice of the Holy Father, is raised

against, and condemns, the Public School system as a huge humbug,

injuring, not promoting, personal virtue and good citizenship, and as

being most pernicious to Catholic faith, and life, and all good morals.

A pastor, therefore, cannot maintain the contrary opinion without

incurring great guilt before God and the Church. He cannot allow parents

to send their children to such schools of infidelity and immorality. He

cannot give them absolution, and say, "Innocens sum!" For he must know

and understand that parents are bound before the Almighty to raise their

children good Catholics, to plant in their hearts the seed of godliness

and parental obedience; this was their promise at the baptismal font.

They are bound in conscience to redeem this promise; but they cannot do

this, so long as their children go to the Public Schools; for it must be

conceded that children attending these godless Public Schools are in

_proximate occasion of sin_, and this occasion is in esse for them. This

being so, parents cannot receive absolution unless they remove from

their children this occasion of sin. "I do not see," says the Archbishop

of Cincinnati--and many other bishops say the same--"I do not see how

parents can be absolved, if they are not disposed to support Catholic

schools, and send their children thereto."

"Duty compels us"--says the Bishop of Vincennes, Ind., in his Pastoral

Letter of 1872--"duty compels us to instruct the pastors of our churches

to refuse absolution to parents who, having the facilities and means of

educating their children in a Christian manner, do, from worldly

motives, expose them to the danger of losing their faith. This measure,

however, being very rigorous, we intend that it shall be recurred to in

extreme cases only, and when all means of persuasion have been

exhausted."

As for teachers, there are everywhere many young ladies who have

received a splendid education, and who would feel but too happy to

become teachers for our children, and bring them up in such a manner as

to fit them for business in this life, and for heaven hereafter.

But why so many objections? It was in the following manner that two

bishops silenced all such objections, and made Catholic schools spring

up all over their dioceses in a short time: they told their priests

"that, were they not to have schools within a certain limited time, they

would dismiss them from their dioceses; and that, should their

parishioners not be willing to provide the means for establishing and

supporting Catholic schools, they would withdraw from them their

priests." This looks like believing in the Catholic Church. From the

moment that the priests saw this determination of their bishop--the

people were overjoyed at it--_Catholic schools_, and, with them,

_Catholic life_, sprang up, and diffused itself at once all over the two

dioceses.

Let, then, everyone of our clergy take courage, and the Lord will

dispose the hearts of the rich and the poor in his favor;--the hearts of

the rich to provide him with means, the hearts of the poor to aid him,

by their prayers, in the promotion of so noble a work as is the

establishment of good Catholic schools.

CHAPTER XV.

ZEAL OF THE PRIEST FOR THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN.

It is a matter of fact that the Protestant movement was chiefly directed

against the Papacy, and that it involved a hundred years of so-called

religious wars. This movement gave the princes who took the side of the

Church an opportunity, of which they were not slow to avail themselves,

to extend and consolidate their power over their Catholic subjects, and

to establish in their dominions monarchical absolutism, or what we may

choose to call modern Caesarism.

Under plea of serving religion, they extended their power over matters

which had hitherto either been left free, or subject only to the

jurisdiction of the spiritual authority. They were defenders of the

faith against armed heretics; and they pretended that this excess of

power was necessary, in order to succeed in their undertaking. A habit

of depending on them as the external defenders of religion and her

altars, of the freedom of conscience, and of the Catholic civilization

itself, was generated; the king took the place in the thoughts and

affections of the people that was due to the Soverign Pontiff, and by

giving the direction to the schools and universities in all things not

absolutely of faith, they gradually became the lords of men's minds as

well as bodies. In France, Spain, Portugal, and a large part of Italy,

all through the seventeenth century, the youth were trained in the

maxim--the Prince is the State, and his pleasure is law. Bossuet, in his

politics, did only faithfully express the political sentiments and

convictions of his age, shared by the great body of Catholics as well as

of non-Catholics. Rational liberty had few defenders, and they were

excluded, like Fenelon, from the Court. The politics of Philip II. of

Spain, of Richelieu, Mazarin, and Louis XIV. in France, which were the

politics of Catholic Europe, scarcely opposed by any one, except by the

Popes, through the greater part of the sixteenth and the whole of the

seventeenth centuries, tended directly to enslave the people, and to

restrict the freedom and influence of the Church.

Trained under despotic influences by the skilful hand of despotism,

extending to all matters not absolutely of the sanctuary, and sometimes

daring, with sacrilegious foot, to invade the sanctuary itself, the

people were gradually formed interiorly, as well as exteriorly, to the

purposes of the despot. They grew up with the habits and beliefs which

Caesarism, when not resisted, is sure to generate.

The clergy, sympathizing, as is the case with every national clergy,

with the sentiments of their age and nation in all things not strictly

of faith, had little disposition to labor to keep alive the spirit of

freedom in the hearts of the people, and would not have been permitted

to do it, even if they had been so disposed. Schools were sustained,

but, affected by the prevailing despotism, education declined; free

thought was prohibited; and it is hard to find a literature tamer, less

original and living, than that of Catholic Europe all through the

eighteenth century, down almost to our own times.

As the Catholic religion was professedly patronized by the sovereigns,

the Church, in superficial minds, seemed to sanction the prevailing

Caesarism. The clergy, because they preached peace, and thought to fulfil

their mission without disturbing the State, came, for the first time in

history, to be regarded as the chief supporters of the despot.

They who retained some reminiscences of the liberties once enjoyed by

Catholic Europe, and the noble principles of freedom, asserted in the

Middle Ages by the monks in their cells, and the most eminent Doctors of

the Church from their chairs, became alienated from Catholicity in

proportion as they cherished the spirit of resistance, and, unhappily,

imbibed the fatal conviction that to overthrow the despot's throne they

must break down the altar. Rightly interpreted, the old French

Revolution, although bitterly anti-Catholic and infidel, was not so much

hatred of religion, and impatience of her salutary restraints, as the

indignant uprising of a misgoverned people against a civil despotism

that affected injuriously all orders, ranks and conditions of society.

The sovereigns had taken good care that an attack on them should involve

an attack on religion, and to have it deeply impressed on their subjects

that resistance to them was rebellion against God. The priest, who

should have labored publicly to correct the issue made up by the

sovereigns in accord with unbelievers, would have promoted sedition, and

done more harm than good; besides, he would have been at once reduced to

silence, in some one of the many ways despotism has usually at its

command.