The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-11-15
Parochial Education Again,
cincinnati Telegraph J

We are told by divine revelation to train
up child in the way he should 20 and
when he grow old he will not depart from
it, and also that those who instruct Others
| unto justice will shine as stars for all ct.
ernity. These Scriptural quotations point
! out what the Catholic Church means by
education. 1t means the discipline of the
| mind, the training not only of the mind
| but the education of the heart. Reading.
! writing and arithmetic are only the step.
ladder to education. But true education
is that discipline of the heart of man 80
that he shall neither think nor do anything
contrary to the law of God. The knowl-
edge that it benefits man moet to ACQUIRE
comes only by revelation from God. Now,
the very poorest and most ignorant in ali
matters of secular knowledge may vet be a
profound scholars in that which regards the
salvation of his soul. Lord Macaulay has
said that in matters of revelation the black
foot Indian was as good judge as the pro.
foundest chemist, architect, or scholar
We know that it is a common fallacy to
suppose that ignorance is the cause of vice.
In the statistics of jails and penitentiaries
it is always stated, in support of the theory
that ignorance is the great breeder of
crime, how many of our convicts can read
and write perfectly or imperfectly. Though
no direct use is ever made by the civil
authorities of this knowledge, yet we find
in all the various statistics Of this nature
an undercurrent of thought implying that
because man could not read or write he
was said to belong to what are called the
dangerous classes, and it is insinuated,
that if he were educated, he would be re-
moved from the sources of temptation by
which he was beset and which finally made
him a violator of civil law. But we are of
the number of those who do not think that
ignorance is q cause Of vice ignorance is
rather the result of crime. Children grow
up vicious, mainly, not because they are
not taught to read and write, but because
their parents are negligent of their duties
they fail in imparting due religious instruc-
ton to their children. Here is the ABUNDANT
source of the crimes into which go many
fall who have been so neglected. If the
criminal statistics of the whole world could
be examined, it would be found that those
who were educated far surpass in the in-
genuity and greatness of their crimes those
who have been uneducated.
In Sweden DR.. Laing tells as that po-
pular education is carried to higher de
gree of perfection than in any other couu-
try of Europe but he is at the same time
obliged to confess that it is the most i'm
moral and wicked country ON the globe
considering the number of its Inhabitants
The word Benedictus is employed in HOLY
Scripture both for blessing and cursinR
and the term education has the same doubls
significance.
In these times, when the world has grown
delirious in its pursuit of mere human
knowledge, we cannot remind Catholics too
their children will prove to be a boon 10
them only when it is dominated by religious
This result can only be at
tanned by sending their children, as the
law of the Church requires, to the parochial
week day and Sunday schools.