Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1914-02-14
Able Address Delivered by Ben
edict Elder Last Sunday
Evening.
Necessary to Fit Man
For His True Destiny In
Heaven.


|
could be adequately treated in a
book; IL could be intelligently
treated in a lecture; it can only be
outlined in an after-dinner talk.
Catholic education is the develop
ment of the whole nature of man,
his spiritual as well as his material
faculties, his moral as we'll as his
mental traits; it is the building OF
human character along the broad
architectural lines of eternal happi-
ness and Interchangeable truth. 1t
begins with the simple and obvious
truth that there are two distinct
orders in the universe, the natural
and the supernatural, and to CORE
spond with these man Is created
with a body and soul. To the in
fidel, the materialist, to all who
deny or doubt the existence of the
supernatural, Catholic education is
superfluous; but to the believer. and
especially to the Catholic, 1t is nee
essary in order to fit man for his
true destiny in heaven. He would
sooner think of binding one of his
eyes or of paralyzing one of his
arms than he would think Of hinder
ing or neglecting the development Of
the spiritual and moral faculties of
his character. Having denied the
lever consistently decries Catholic
education, and in that far is he
justified. But he is without justifi-
cation who believes in the souls ex-
istence and yet neglects or refuses
to attend to its harmonious develop
ment and training.
Catholic education is opposed to
secular education. Secular educa-
ton teaches many branches Of
knowledge touching on material
things, but it does not teach so
much as the name of God; 1t teaches
biology, embryology, physiology,
psychology, all about the body, but
not so much as the existence of the
soul. 1t develops the material side
Of human nature, teaches the mind
and draws out the mentality; but it
neglects the spiritual side, does not
train the heart or discipline the will
or cultivate thl moral traits of hui
man character If good men and
women come forth from its school
Ing, which all will admit, it is not
because of the neglect of these
things, but in spite of it; not Ian
guage or mathematics or CONNER
cialism, which secular schools teach
make men good, but the fear and
love of God and the hope of heaven,
which these schools do not teach
Catholic education is not opposed to
public schools or to free schools as
such. but only to those schools
which neglect the development of
the spiritual side of human nature
and thus. fall short of true educa-
ton. Instead of training up a cor
rectly proportioned man, these
schools make sort of monster man,
who has only one side of his charac-
ter all swelled and bloated while the
other side is all swivelled and
dwarfed. Catholic education stands
for the harmonious development OF
the whole nature of man. We are
told that the first and greatest duty
OF man is to love God with his
whole heart and his whole soul and
all his strength and all his mind,
and II is plain that to do this re-
quires the faculties of mans whole
nature, and to do 1t we'll requires
the training of those faculties.
Catholic education is not only
necessary to the correct development
OF sthe individual; 1t is also neces-
sary to the orderly constitution OF
society. No government can survive
the destruction of Catholic training
among its citizens-family ties
Unnld ha hrnLan n,AraI y ohtkc aAo.
doned, law and order would die,
liberty would be crushed and civili-
cation buried by the passionate on
slaught of barbarities unrestrained.
Catholic education is religion, and
without religion man lives an aim
less and unworthy life; like a rud-
derless and dismantled ship in the
night. he drifts across the ocean of
life in a dark and somber cloud, now
moved by an unknown instinct, now
drawn by an unknown destiny.
But needless of this plain truth
and unmindful of the experience of
nations in the past. the American
people have established a system of
teaching that banishes all thought
OF religion. Barely two generations
have gone since this system was set
up, and what do we see? Fifty per
cent. of people do not go to church;
half as many do not even profess
religion; the spread of infidelity and
its landmarks, socialism, anarchy
and vice, has become portentous.
Crime is on the increase; we have
more crime than any other ten ma
tons except Russia. Suicide has
grown apace; an American city is
credited with the highest rate OF
suicides in the world; suicide clubs
exist in some OF our cities and every
year we add 10000 to the list OF
self-murdered. Race suicide Is even
more common; II threatens to con-
sumo the body as we'll as the soul
Of the nation. so forward has be-
come this hellish practice that our
capital city not long since witnessed
the spectacle Of woman rising In
women's convention TO say that
II ought 10 be a disgrace to be the
father of large family. Divorce is
an unholy twin evil of race suicide;
II is Americas national night
mare!" In Ireland there is one
divorce in about forty-four hundred
marriages; In the United States
there Is one In every twelve. In
Canada there are about twenty-five
divorces annually; In our country
there are more than 10000. We