The Irish standard., 1906-11-17
Why the Catholic Church Builds and Sus-
tains Separate Parish Schools, Ably
-. Passed Upon.
The Misnamed Elementary System of Edit
cation Has Been Tried and Found
Wanting.

One of the strongest addresses Of
the year on education and the reasons
; inpelling the Church to erect and sus-
tain parish schools, is that delivered
by Right Rev. DR.. L. s. Walsh, of
Portland, Me-, who was recently con-
secrated Bishop Of that See. He said:
Why, then, this duty, this burden,
this sacrifice?
First Of all because the Church
strongly directs. and emphatically SO,
Directs not only by her laws well
known to you, but by the constant
teaching Of her bishops and true pas
tors. This one fact ought to be and
is sufficient for all loyal, faithful Cath
olics. and the time seems we'll nigh at
hand when the Catholics, who think
otherwise ana act otherwise, must be
judged against her, hence to be treated
as the heather and the publican.
"IIe who is not with me is against
me-" LET him. who will not hear the
Church. bs to thee as a heathen and a
publican" :.
i. Tho Church ID not. only the Divine
infallible teacher in question Of faith
and morals, and this educational ques-
tion is surely one Of these, but she is
also the wise experienced Mother Of
Nations.
A prominent professor in one of our
Massachusetts colleges said to me re-
Gently: do you know that it seems
to mo an historic fact. that after we
have wandered far away from the Old
Church and groped about for new and
better ways, we always came back
ana ask the old Mother to take our
hand and guide us through the dan
gerous pathways?" A striking con-
fession and a good sign Of the times.
Yes: the Church is like an expert
enced guide in a perilous country.
She knows the mental and moral
worlds most thoroughly, the mental
and moral geography; knows where
the high and impossible mountains
stand: knows where the fertile valleys
smile in the sunshine; knowe where the
waters flow in muddy torrents or suck
ing whirlpools, and where the gentle
streams and placid lakes invite to re-
pose; she knows where the fertile
slopes abound and where dangerous
precipices allure the new, unsuspect-
ing tourists to his certain doom.
She saw the gilded palaces of Ath-
ems and Rome given over to merely
secular, physical and mental educa-
tion and natural morality, producing
great scholars If you will, like Plato,
Socrates and Cicero, and saw their
teachings lead the princess and the
people into idolatry Of gold and
bronza and stone and the fore fright
ful worship Of human flesh and blood,
In the shape Of man ana woman the
worship of proud Caesar, Augustus
and Of Venus the vile.
She has nurteured monarchies, en-
pires and republics, all equally great
yet doomed to perish, she has edu-
Gated races innumerable from barbar-
ism to proud, glorious civilization,
reaching the highest submits of mem
tai power, moral virtue and devoted
family or social ideals; she has seen
many rise and some fall; she sat by
manhood Italy. Germany, France,
the cradle and nurtured into ripe
Spain and England, she has seen some
Of them turn violently from her bos-
om( because she dared to lead them
onward and upward to higher civic
and religious life, and today, today,
my faithful friends, she emphasizes
more and more the lesson Of all her
history; and that people or race or
nation that attempts to educate its
human, living rational animals with
out keeping as the corner stone Of
that education the knowledge and
love and service Of God and Of Christ,