The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-07-03

mind and the heart, as the air of the
skies to the material body. That the
lessons, the influences of the class
room are paramount in importance, is
the open proclamation of leaders in
plans and systems of pedagogies
What does not enter, one way or
another, into the curriculum of the
classroom, they ceaselessly repeat,
will be no part, or only minimized
part, of the subsequent career of the
pupil. 1t has become truism, that
the classroom is the training-ield of
manhood and womanhood. AS the
pupil in the classroom, so later the
man and the woman. This being the
undenied fact, / put the question-Is
the secularized school-room the place
for the Catholic child? Can the Catho-
lie Church, with loyalty to her prin-
ciples and to the requirements of her
faith, countenance the secularized
school?
The Secularized School, BY Its ExcIu.
sions, Violence to Secular
knowledge Itself.
/ take the secularized school under
it's most favorable professions, such as
it's fair-minded advocates would have
it-absolute neutrality with regard to
religion, to each and every form of
religion, to each and every church or
religious association.
might argue in the interests of
the human mind, and on it's behalf
protest against the secularized school.
Secular knowledge itself forbids the
shortcomings of the secularized
school. Science is led to roam
through the universe, investigate it's
happenings, discover its processes and
laws. But to the surging interroga-
tions whence and whither-sile is
interposed The cause of the universe,
the guidance Of it's movements the
purpose Of it's cravings and aspira-
tions must not be mentioned. TO
speak of the everything God, as
Creator and Ruler, were rank sec
tarianism, offensive to atheist and
agnostic Nor, on the other hand, is
the limitless potency of self-existing
matter to be mentioned: theist and
Christian would raise the cry of alarm.
The annals of history are unfolded to
| the wondering eye. A marvellous
Kaleidoscope drama it is of men and
| of ideas. But what is history, what
are the forces that fashioned it into
shape, inspired and determined its
developments? The providence of the
omniscient God must not be invoked
neither the blind evolution of matter
Either assertion suggests sectarian.
ism, violates religious neutrality.
Heroes, whose names spell magic in.
fiuences, whose hands wrought mighty
deeds, pass in review: their motives
their sources of strength, the result OF
their labors challenge dispute and
examination. One, however, there is
the mightiest in word and work, who
escapes inquiry-Jesus of Nazareth
Who He is-no one must ask, no one
must answer. 1t were sectarianisn
whether the reply were affirmation OF
negation. The literatures of the
world open their pages to nurture the
mind and inflame the heart. But the
book of books, that which is the mos
sublime in beauty, which more thar
all others has dominated the civilized
world, the Bible, shall not be read, no
even seen. 1t is a book of religion
around which controversies rage
silence in it's regard is the price o
peace. What else is the secularizet
school but the woeful mutilation o
the field of secular knowledge, within
the most vitalizing scopes of its owl
reachings?
But my present contention is wit
Catholics: The Catholic school for tn
Catholic child.
The Exclusions Of the SecuIarize
School Fatal to Religion.
! Glacial and soul-chilling this sect
: larized school, from which God, Hi
: Christ, His Church are hidden ava,
r How could the Catholic parent dar
; thrust into the vast void his tende
8 minded, tender-hearted child! To hav
the supernatural world forgotten, d
signedly and professedly, is a sacr
Ilege, a violence to God, a violence
n the soul of the child God is tn
l. Creator, Alpha and Omega of a
e things: Christ is the Saviour, throug
it Whose name there is salvation to me
2, land to nations: religion, the ascensic
q of the soul to God and to Christ, is tt
A. all in all in the life of the human sol
e Yet during school-hours, the time
s. serious thought, God, Christ, religio
k are not spoken of, the entire span
ot the hours being devoted solely to Il
S. earth and to the things of earth. tt
ol compelling effect upon the pupil is Il
of impression that amid the activities
n. men earth and the things of earth pl
re vail, that Heaven and the things
e, Heaven. if at all worthy of motto
le must confine themselves to odd m
IS ments, the hooks and corners
Is human life. The negation of religi
Ks in the schoolroom is fatal to religic
Mt to the sense of its Importance, to t
alvigor of the influences that shot
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