The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-06-20 00:00:00

COOL CARDS.
After the Oaks,)

SEE your sporting Prophets' sockdology
They take credit (from those they owe to)
For not accepting elpeivy,'
After putting them wrong in Tote—PcNot

ARCHBISHOP MANNING on EUROPEAN
POLITICS and CATHOLIC EDUCATION.
In '• A pastoral letter to the Clergy and Lnity of the
Diocese of AN'estininster, on the Feast of the Sacred i:enrt,"
Archbishop Manning writes :

"We have indeed at this time two paramount
motives to offer this reparatiim to the Sacred Heart of
the Divine Heail of the Chur 1. The one is, that for
nearly four years His Vicar has been morally in
bonds ; his sovereignty denied him ; his city occupied
by invaders ; all his possessions violently taken from
him, save only the roof under which he dwells. Out of
that house he can never get a foot without exposing
himself to those who have usurped his plat* and
power. All these things are done, not so much to
Pius the Ninth as to the Son of God. They have
not rejected thee; but me that I should not regn
over them.' For all these things we must offer
our reparation, praying that the King of Kings
may restore the sovereignty of His Viesx, and that the
grace 44 the Sacred heart may spare those that have
sacrilegiously robbed and dishonoured His represtm-
tative on earth. With this intention we appoint on.
Sunday, the 21st of this month, the anniversary of the
coronation of the Sovereign Pontiff Pious IX., an
Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament from High
Mass to the Benediction, as an act of reparation to
the Sacred Heart, and also of intercession for the Holy
See, and for the Chureh now persecuted in many
places. And this leads us to another motive for
reparation : namely, the deceitful and savage per-
secution now waging against the Church in Ger-
many. Into this we shall enter now no further
than to point out its cause. A mixed and
rationalistic education in the universities of Ger-
many has raised up a multitude of sceptics and
lax Catholics. These, again, becoming legislators, have
united in destroying what remains of the Christian and
Catholic education of the people. The teaching orders
of men, the teaching sisters, the clergy, have been all
alike excluded from the primary schools. Tke poor
schools of Germany are now State schools • and, like
the State itself, without religion. The en of this is
manifest. A population without God will one day rise
up to punish the law-givers and their Government IT
destroying them. When this may be we cannot say:
but that it a-ill be who can doubt? We thank God
that the English people in all its grades and classes,
and the three kingdoms with all their religious diver-
gences, agree at least in this • -and in this agree with a
great resolution of will—namely, that the education of
a Christian people must be a Christian education—
and that they will allow no tampering with
the Christian education of their children. This at
least they have declared in a way to show that those
who would try experiments in this vital manner are a
handful; and that the people of these kingdoms will
not suffer them to touch what is so sacred and dear
to their hearts and homes. It is for this that you are
are called on, dear Children in Jesus Christ, to give
your alms to-day. There can be no education without
teachers, and no efficient e,11,..:.! I,n without trained
teachers; and there can 1, eald Catholic educa-
tion without teaahers first trained and formed in
Catholic faith and Catholic piety. It is to this work
that the Catholic For School Committee devotes its
ebief care ; and it is for the Poor Sehool Committee
that your contrileitions are now asked. Since the year
1854 St. Mary's Training College at Brook-green. Ham
mersmith, has sent out 341 trained and certificated
masters. The Immix:: of students now in the college
is 54. The training school of Notre Dame, Liverpool,
for i.choolmistresses contained in February 120 stu-
dents. The efficiency of our Catholic education in the
last twenty years has been raised from a eonditiim
which we have no disposition to describe to a grade at
which we can fairly compete with any primary schools
in the kingdom. If in the higher standards we are
surpassed, it is readily to be explained by considering
the age at which our children cease to attend school,
and the social condition of children in other schools
around no ; but in the lower standards our schools at
least bear comparison with any in order, discipline.
regularity of attendance, and accurate knowledge of
what they have learned. Inasmuch as the rower
standards are the foundation id the whole work of
educating and forming the mind and character of the
child, we may say with ionfidence that in this our
schools will bear comparison with any."