The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-08-01
by the Most Reverend Archbishop
Ireland.)

l. II IOudy, III LudIlGIS VI TS1lSlOuS us
|.cipline, truism may be quoted, to
which assent is plainly imperative, it
| is this-A Catholic school for Catholic
children. Years ago the question was
more or less confined to the region of
theory or principle. The consequences
of the Catholic school for Catholic
children, however clear to the mind of
the thoughtful and the far-seeing, had
not unfolded themselves to actual
vision: they were not yet the patent,
manifest facts that those who run
may read, that none can fail to OBJ
serve Today facts are spread broad
cast over the land. That Catholic
children should receive a Catholic edu-
cation is now the truism obvious and
beyond controversy.
The instruction of the child in the
Catholic faith must be deep, thorough
and continuous, if it is to have a last
ing effect, if it is to endure amid the
storms of unbelief and error, with
which it is sure to be. assailed in the
coming years of youth and mature
age. Such instruction as is gathered
up in the home and in the one-hour-a-
week Sunday school when there
| it is at all imparted--is the merest
veneering which the passing storm
quickly melts and effaces. We must
know our times: we must know the
dreadful trials lying in wait for the
faith of our sons and daughters; and
as we value their faith as the most
precious gift within their reach, we
must SO surround its earlier growth
with effective safeguards, that later
4 no peril shall be fatal to it, no battle
shall endanger it's life and integrity.
| To this intent we should hold back
from no sacrifice, we should hearken
to no temptation leading us away from
stern duty; we should resolutely adopt
\ the one course that will save the faith
of our children giving to them a
Catholic education.
The whole atmosphere of school
room from which God and His Christ
are forcibly expelled, makes for Sc
cularism and materialisrn. The lesson
is taught in the very air, in the
studied absence Of the spiritual and
supernatural, that the physical world
is solely worth the seeking, that sue
cess in gathering up pelf and pleasure
is the one goal to be coveted, that to
1 look beyond is to waste time and
labor upon the unreal and the I'M
necessary. More unfortunate yet-in
the none Catholic school, too often it is
not only the tacit negation of the
supernatural; it is, through words and
examples of unbelieving master or un-
believing fellow-pupil, the positive, ag-
gressive warfare against dogmas of re-
vealed religion-against the primary
principles of natural religion itself
From such teachings and such ex-
amples the Catholic will resolutely
guard his children, if he is at all con-
cerned in their faith, and in the sal
walton of their immortal souls.
And will the Catholic parent have
no care of the morals of his children,
of the morals that should be theirs
today and theirs tomorrow? Morals
not imbedded in the conscience are
but shadowy conventionalities, power
less in presence of strong temptation;
and the conscience to be the moral
censor, 1t is destined by the Creator
to be, must be permeated with, solidi-
fed in, religion. The conscience without
God and the Saviour is as tribunal
without a judge. Thoughtful observ-
ers, outside the Catholic Church, give
the alarm that the evil to be dreaded
in America is the decay of religion,
and, as the necessary sequence, the
decay of morals. Should they go
| further and inquire as to the cause
4 Of the decay of religion and of morals,
they will soon perceive that it lies in
the exclusion of religion from the edu-
cation of the youth, and the onrush
into this education of secularism and
materialism. AS things are going, it
is the death-knell of religion. To
Catholics comes the mission to rescue
it from its perils, to save it to them
selves and to the country. This they
will do by championing religion in
| the schools, by giving at least to their
own children, at whatever cost, at
whatever sacrifice, an education,
4 which, while allsufficient to fit them
for earthly responsibilities, fits them
also for their responsibilities to God
and to their own immortal souls. x.
To the praise of Catholics, never
heretofore did they take such concern
in the religious training of their chill
dren as they do at the present time.
| AS body, they are wonderful in their
adhesion to the voice of Holy Church,
and in the pecdniary sacrifices they
make to affirm this adhesion Never,
heretofore, was. there on the part of
our Catholic people the out-pouring of
generosity which we witness today in
the erection of school buildings, equal
to the best in the land in all matters
of useful, and even elegant, equip
ment, never was there the outpouring
of good will visible today on all sides
in sending pupils to fill the halls of
those buildings We thank our Cath
Ollie people; we pray the loving God
to bless and reward them.
To those Catholics, who still, for
one reason or another, keep them
selves aloof from this general move
ment towards Catholic schools, we
send the earnest invitation that they
travel over the better pathways and,
as their loyal fel1ow-C catholics do, see
4 fas Il ~