Los Angeles herald., 1907-07-08
BISHOP ADDRESSES
VISITING TEACHERS
TELLS OF CHURCH MOVEMENT
IN EDUCATION
DepIores the Lack Of Religious lnflI.
ence In the Schoos--Speaks Of
Church Schools and
Colleges

Rt. Rev. Bishop Conaty in answer tt
the request of the national educationa
committee preached on education Sun
day, July 7, at 1O:30 mass at the cathe'
dral, which was crowded to the doors
He took for his topic "The Catholic
Church In the Educational Movement,
taking his text from St. Matthew 2S-19
Going, therefore, teach ye all nations.
He extended cordial welcome to the
educational leaders and workers who
are the guests of the city.
Among other things Bishop Conat5
said.
"Christ established his church as the
teacher of the nations and she came
from his hands with church idea and
school idea. She has been the
preacher of the gospel of Christ and
her sacramental system has been the
mission by which mankind has been
united with God. Under her influence
the school has been the place of de-
veIopment for divine and human knowl-
edge.
"For twenty centuries the Catholic
church has been devoted to the moral
and intellectual development of mani
kind. She has looked upon the face of
the Saviour and heard from his lips the
divine commission, to go as he had
gone, and to teach as he had taught.
She has always been an educational as
we'll as a religious force and her in
fiuence has been a potent factor in the
civilization which the world calls
Christian.
Her church idea has its educational
character and the union of the school
idea with 1t makes true education. 1t
is most interesting to study her educa-
tiona1 work from the school idea point
of view and to do this we should read
the history of the Christian world on
every page of which we will find her
efforts"
The bishop began to trace the evolu-
tion of the school idea from the need
of religious instruction with neophytes,
to the demand for broader knowledge
with which to meet the influence Of
Jewish and pagan thought. He then
gave a history of the evolution of the
church system of schools, from the
schools of the early Christians at An
tioch, Rome and Alexandria, st. Je-
rome's scripture school, through the
episcopal seminaries, the palace
schools and the great fnonastic systems
with their outside schools for the peo-
pie, to the universities, and showed how
the early and middle age Christian
world was formed to letters as we'll as
10 religion. by the efforts of the Chris
tan church.
OnuTCH InHuenCe strong
Roman civilization" he said, was
by her, Greek philosophy
was supernaturalized, the barbarians
were changed into the European ma
tions, and the university systems of the
middle ages were the result of her in
1uence. From the sixth to the tenth
centuries her monastic schools in Cath
olic Ireland became the great nursery
Of all religious and profane learning.
The modern age inherited the results of
her labors and even in the modern age
she has been and is powerful factor
n educational endeavor.
1.-THE church in her schools has pre-
served for the world the literature of
he ancients and has kept intact what
yer the world possesses today of the
acred scriptures. for she was for so
many centuries the sole guardian, pro-
ector and promoter of knowledge"
Bishop Conaty dwelt particularly on |
he university idea as the highest ex- |
ression of educational aspiration and |
howed how the universities Of the |
middle ages at Paris, Bologna, Salerno, |
oxford, Cambridge, Edinburg, Dublin |