Part 13 (2/2)

As far as the little profit is concerned thatthe --the salvation of their souls--I aths with hie 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 sa_ is of little account So even harder is said of _riches_ There is no _woe_ on those that spend their ti; 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 advancereater 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 hu 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 rand eleth and of consideration This is what those in care of soulsand wealth are neither of theainst faith They are sireat thing is, how they ain ation 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 woood fortune for conscientious parents, with growing childhood around thee 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 otherones 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 e 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 ordinaryin 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 syste 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 Roht 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 the it, they went to the lions

At a later period, the Irish, so , paid heavy taxes to the British Government, and, be it said to their honor, they, for a tie, not on account of their opposition to schools, but because when the teachers of their choice were hunted down by governht 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 forain, _public opinion_ in favor of Christian schools, and electing such islatures as are down upon Godless schools, and advocate the establish of our country In the meantime, in order to preserve the true faith, and save the world fro, Catholic schools ot up, and kept up, at any cost

Finally, there are soet up schools, and to support theet 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 becoht and clai our Lord, and by carrying our cross after Hi and supporting schools, let us look at those s in every city and town of the country Where did those priests who built theht it The parents of the children that are educated in these schools gave it Let us rest assured that reat enough to show to parents the absolute necessity of Catholic schools, in order to save their children froes for society in this life, and fro victireat 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 ly 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 proive 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 ive usand 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 conde, not pro ood morals

A pastor, therefore, cannot uilt before God and the Church He cannot allow parents to send their children to such schools of infidelity and iive them absolution, and say, ”Innocens sum!” For he must know and understand that parents are bound before the Alood 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 redee as their children go to the Public Schools; for itthese Godless Public Schools are in _proximate occasion of sin_, and this occasion is in esse for the 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 andtheir children in a Christian er of losing their faith This orous, 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 everywhereladies who have received a splendid education, and ould feel but too happy to beco them up in such a manner as to fit them for business in this life, and for heaven hereafter

But why somanner that two bishops silenced all such objections, andup 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 parishi+oners not be willing to provide theCatholic schools, they would withdraw fro 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 the 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 proood Catholic schools

CHAPTER XV

ZEAL OF THE PRIEST FOR THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN

It is a matter of fact that the Protestant ainst the Papacy, and that it involved a hundred years of so-called religious wars This ave 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 e may choose to call ion, 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 poas necessary, in order to succeed in their undertaking A habit of depending on theion 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 al, 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 sentireat 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 despotis to all , 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 greith the habits and beliefs which Caesarisenerate