The Irish standard., 1911-04-01
IRREL|G|0N IN
ITALIAN SCHOOLS
Teachers Paid by the Government
Scoff at Religion in Presence
of Pupils
Lack of the Restraining Power of
Faith Results in Abnormal
Suicide Rate.
Pope Plus Continues to Take Act
i've Interest in Progress
of Science.

A few days ago the writer met an
English-speaking prelate who is OH a
visit to Rome, the scenes Of his stu
dent days, after an absence OF many
years. He has been walking over the
Eternal City, though the quaint, mar
row streets that recall old days, and
the new, wide ones that belong to the
period of Victor Emmanuel. And he
has been reading every kind OF news
paper printed in the city, Catholic,
anti-Catholic, Socialist, Republican,
Monarchist and fireater, for he wish
ed to bring away q complete knowl-
edge Of how things stand here. There
is one conclusion firmly fixed in his
mind: "They must bring back reli-
gion to the schools, whether they
like it or not, in short time" writes
the Rome Correspondent of the Cath
olic Standard and Times.
The prelates saying is correct. For
the past fortnight not paper can be
taken up without reports Of the most
brutal murders and suicides glaring
at one from its pages. 1t seems as if
an epidemic of the murder and sui
eide sort had taken possession of a
city where neither one nor the other
was known forty years ago. Some
of the crimes have been committed
in high circles, others in the lower
walks of life, but all show that the
rulers OF the country are reaping just
as they have sown; for they have
made the schools Goddess during
many years, and they have deprived
the inmates of the only power they
possessed to restrain them from
crime.
In many of the schools OF Rome
where the Italian Government pays
the teachers religion is scoffed at be-
fore the pupils; the Church and its
ministers are ridiculed by those i'm
ported adventurers from every part
OF Italy. What wonder is it, then,
that We find so many young people
flinging themselves from the heights
OF the Pincian Gardens or into the
Tiber because OF troubles at which
their regiliously trained companions
first laugh and then surmount? Let
a young fellow fail at his examina-
ton, girl get crossed in love, let
their elders fail to obtain work or
meet reverses in business, and despair
takes hold of it's victim with alarm
ing frequency of late years and hur-
ries him or her to suicide. After see
ing this side of the capital of So
called Omitted Italy," the prelate pre-
scribed the old, old remedy which
the invaders of 1870 banished from
the schools of Rome. s The Rom
an exhibition opens on the 9th inst,
and already, it is reported, the Presi-
dent of France has decided to forego
his visit to Rome! And his change
of mind, says the report, has been
even announced at the Quirinal, where
the Masonic puppet was so eagerly
expected, and would certainly be
heartily welcomed. The announce
ment seems too strange to be true, for
just as a box of pork, sent from Chi
cago to Philadelphia, might be ex-
pected at it's destination in due time,
so M. Fallieres was expected to be
forwarded this year from Paris to
Rome. For Masonry does things with
quickness and dispatch. 1t is only
to be expected that the secret society,
which never loses an opportunity of
embttering the life of the Holy Fa-
ther, should hurry one of its chief
minions to celebration which marks
the fortieth year of his Imprisonment
within the walls of his own palace
and the rule of the stranger in his
own city. And so it is that prudent
people will wait to see whether the
President of the French Republic is
to be sent to Rome or not In the
year 1911.
Pope Plus Interested in Science.
Prisoner though he is since his cor.
onation, and prisoner he shall be in
all probability while he lives, Plus
x. continues to take the liveliest in
terest in the progress of science. In