The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-09-15
Fashionable Evils.

If go is it wrong to be present at place
| where they are used May Catholic send
bis child to . school from which sectarian-
ism is excluded May he do SO even with
the advice of y priesta
To which we would reply that tho
Church has made no positive prohibition
in the one case or the other. In fact there
would be too many distinctions necessary
to be drawn. Thus, it would be foolish to
prohibit little children Of the same sex from
round dancing, on the ground of its sinfui-
ness, and it would be Puritanical to pro-
hibit the sending of children to non Sec
tartan school taught by good Catholic, in
a eparsely settled country where NO other
school could possibly be reached. There
can be no doubt of the tinfulness of round
dancing in many cases, perhaps we might
say in most cases, and the same thing may
be said about the practice OF sendiDg chill
dren to non Catholic schools where Catholic
schools are just as available or nearly so,
but the exceptions are too many and too
dificult of universal comprehension to admit
of the feasibility of a general prohibition.
Two young girls are waltzipg, We sup
49,
modeety in their dress, their movements,
their intentions or their thoughts. In
neighborug ballroom fast young lady 10
polking with a gay gentleman of uncer-
tain principles her dress is extremely
dccoliete, her movements are unnecessarily
free and voluptuous and her policy is noa
of that kind which keeps people at "rm's
length, on the contrary, the intimacy Oh
her contact with her partner 10 scandal-
ously indecent. Would it do to class the
two caees together Certainly not. In
the former instance there is no wrong
whatever, and the Church cannot, there
fore, prohibit the act, while between it and
the latter case there are dozens of differ
ent degrees of imm odesty and abandon
ment. There can be here no indiecriminate
rule, and the Church merely prouounces
the general principle that round dances
between persons Of opposite sexes are ex-
tremely dangerous and ought to be rigor-
ously discouraged.
Unsectarian schools generally means
goddess schools, and their direct tendency,
too, is to make, or at least permit, children
to grow up goddess, unspiritual, worldly.
But sometimes there is scarcely an alter
native to them except absolute ignorance.
A parent may think: will guard my
| children the more Watchfully and be care
| full to imbue them with spiritual senti-
ments, but it is the only school in this part
of the country, and do not want my off.
spring to grow up in ignorance. In such a
case the father would be held excusable.
But what do we often sect A Catholic
becomes rich the world commences to
flatter him and he is hugely grateful for it;
! the incense is sweet and he prizes it above
all things except his money, perhaps above
! that he strives to please the world, gives
up his old fashioned Catholic ways, and
| apes society. The extravsgance, the sel6sh
ind ulgence, the fashionable dissipation, the
familiarity between sexes, the gadding
| about of his female family, their insolent,
frivolous, useless life, the semi nakedness
| Of his daughters in opera or ball dress, all
the miserable paganisms Of the world
gradually take possession of him and his
wife until they conclude that their younger
| children must be educated up to the new
| standard. They must be sent to the select
aristocratic academy of uppertendom
where all the airs and graces of q corrupt
society are taught scientifically, as a
veneering for the moral and perhaps INTEL
lectusl emptiness within.
This man is guilty of the spiritual mur-
der of his children, or, at least, of an at
tempt at it. Between him and the case
first supposed, how many degrees of guilt
and innocence No unbending rule covers
them all. Each and every case is control
led and judged by it's own circumstances,
in the light of a general principle of repre-
heneion-but not under the ban of an in
flexible anathema.