Part 13 (1/2)

Look, on the other hand, at those congregations who, in the tender, susceptible ti to Mass every day before the opening of the school See hohen the bell rings, a goodly number of them find time, even on week-days, to assist at the ations there is indeed Catholic life These pious Catholics carry the blessing of heaven with theo Aay and cheerful, whilst others gruious doctrines and practices learned in youth, can seldom or never be blotted out The question of Catholic schools is a question of lected, all other ain, 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 nu until their feelings are more in our favor”

If we are to wait until it will please them to say that our claihts shall be adht, 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 froerous 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 sireat river and not to attempt to pass it until all its waters should have rolled by; or we shall be corow 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 claihted or rejected, to continue our derievance shall be rereat 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 ress, 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 sy the same battle as we ourselves, and cheer us on by their exa 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 la all this, I believe that the uished lican 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 systereat iradually to promote the public welfare of the country If the State seriously wishes to check the growth of revolution, or to steht 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 Aion, but of society in general

Again, some will say, ”I do not see why people can object so much to Public Schools; I ood a Catholic as any one of those ere educated at Catholic schools and institutions”

If you really have tried to be a good Catholic, if you have coious 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 scholarshi+p, and afterwards If you escaped the general contagion of unbelief and vice, re 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 ofand experience--wrote to me one day, that ”he hi; 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 fro less than a ic with any one about it It is a matter of fact I therefore assert it as of ascertained result, that in _h of Catholics together to have a school of their own--their frequenting a school without religion will land _ion

Grace does not destroy _nature_ And it is _nature_ that--

” as the twig is bent, the tree inclines”

But let ood a Catholic as others; you who object to the teaching of the Church, to the persuasion of all sensible e convincesCatholic 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 eood h to send his children by this vessel, across the ocean of tiain, 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 conde 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 ish We can give theious atanization of Catholic schools e 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 shi+pwreck in their faith and ht of God, the above excuse will avail us nothing

Some, even most of our schools,Well, as the Church at the tieous cathedrals as nowadays The Christians were instructed and sanctified in the Catacos So, in a country like ours, the kingdom of heaven is conificant in the beginning; but, by degrees, row 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 establishi+ng nurseries--Catholic schools--for its ation Their reill 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 soith 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 perforht

I know the above objection is land 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 eloquenterected 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 ive, 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 withdraere 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 co, 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 hter, more quick to perceive, and to understand what is difficult About six o 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 caems of their school had left, and that, on that account, they could not have the exhibition which they intended soon to give A short ti lady that took the prize etting up Catholic schools is not to show off their superiority to, or their equality with, infidel schools--this is not even a secondary end--ant Catholic schools to preserve our Catholic religion, our Catholic traditions, our Catholic spirit and morals; ant 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 dament, 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, ulations 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 assisiureat servant of God cursed the Provincial, and deposed hi chapter The saint was entreated, by soion, to withdraw this curse froive hi 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 : ”I ahtful 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 ious 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 norant of his duty towards God and his fellow-creatures

There were, are, and will be norant of science, of book-learning, did not becohout life, and died in the odor of sanctity Divine faith does not require as a coe of profane literature, but humility, compunction, self-denial, and a contempt of the world Schools are therefore not absolutely necessary for our children”