The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-09-07

built with her hands, and bathed in her
sweat. It is thus with the working class,
which is also creation of the church its
mother is forgotten, and it Is with difficulty
that she is left little corner in the work
shop but it is there we will endeavor to
replace her with honor, and then each one
of You can cay with the poet Jasmin 81
remember that, when was young, the
church found me naked, and clothed me /;
now that am q man, find her naked, in
my turn will cover her." 1t is this cry
we wish to hear from you.
Again, we hear that "the church is not
the same to the rich aud to the poor.n
When will it be proved, when can it be
shown, that there are two Creeds, two
Decalogues, two codes of morality, two
families of sacraments, two dogmas, two
disciplines, two altars-one for the use of
the great ones of the earth, the other de-
stined for the poor 1t can never be done
They can bring forward a certain number Of
facts they can cite abuses more or lees
deplorable, and which We condemn impla-
cably ; but the equality remains entire.
go further, and affirm that the church has
increasingly favored the humble, the weak,
aud the laborers. They are her privileged
ones, and she has we'll shown it.
Another objection current among the
working class, another calumny which has
triumphed over the minds of the people, un-
wortlily deceived, is the scandalous asser-
ton that " the church ia the enemy of in
structiop," and this abominable faisehood
ion. Now, it is mathematically proved
that, before the establishment of the
church, there did not exist in the much
lauded antiquity 8 single school for work
men. This first proposition is clealy evil
dent, and it is not less mechanically de-
monstrated that, since the advent OF the
church" free schools have been attached
to each nariah aDH confiia6 tO tho iirnc.
ton of the clergy" Such are the words
of learned man of our day, who has best
appreciated this question, and who in or
der to establish his conclusion, appeals TO
texts the most LUMINOSITY authentic. We
will not pause here to speak of the pro-
love which shines forth in every page of
the Gospel nor will we linger over the
epoch of the persecution of the early
church; but we will transport ourselves to
France in tie fret period of our history.
At the commencement of the With CEN
fury, the Council of Watson declares that
for long time in Italy the priests had
brought up young students in their own
houses, and instructed them like good
fathers in faith and sound knowledge" In
the year 700, Council of Roven goes fur-
Their, and commands all Christians to send
their children to the city school: is not
that instruction Christianly free and Chris
tianly obligatory Meanwhile, Charlie
magne appears, and watches energetically
guished, or that they may be relighted.
In 797, capitularly of Theodulph offers
these admirable words: "That the priests
should establish schools in the villages
and boroughs, and that no pay should be
enacted from the children in return" The
the Council of Rome in s26, in the bulls OF
Pope Leo ", and in the capitularly Of
Herard, Archbishop of Tours, in $50.
Observe that these last quotations be-
long to the darkest, most savage epoch of
our history. Feudalism reigned supreme
that redoubtable Institution had recently
come into existence, without having yet
at it's side the Christian counterpoise of
chivalry. But if we make a leap of two
or three hundred years, and arrive at the
XIIth and XILIth centuries, all becomes
brilliant, and history can furnish the list
of all the schools that then existed even in
the smallest villages. These statistics are
many accumulated documents which extend
from 500 to 1870, he conclusion, vigorously
scientific, must be drawn that "from dis
tant period, even at the foundation of our
parishes, the clergy in the country. dis.
pensed instruction to the agricultural
die ages and even at receut epoch we
have seen the priests in many parishes per-
form the functions of teachers" What do
our adversaries think of such exact testi-
mony7 All the schools, then, having
been founded by the church, what satanic
skill was needed to persuade the people |
that the church had not established one.
Still more scandalous is the objection |
that the church has failed in her errand of
mercy; for they accuse her of not having |
sufficiently loved the poor and abandoned. |
We were stupetied, several years ago, to find |
this strange assertion in celebrated re-
view: that the church owed to the Protest.
ants the idea of the Sisters of Charity. !
Now, we have before Our eyes acts truly in
establishing clearly that there |
were many thousand institutions of charity |
in France in the XIItb and XIIIth centu-
ries. During the first ages of the church,
in the midst of the persecution, the poor,
all poor, were assisted in their homes by |
the deacons; and, after the prosecutions,
these same poor were reunited in splendid
palaces, which were divided into as many !
classes as there were miseries to relieve.
But for the fear of being called pedants, we
would cite here the Bretotopher, or asylums
for children tho Nosoconaia, or houses for
the sick the Orphdnotrophia, reserved for
orphans and the Gerontoconsia, consecrat
ed to old age.