The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1915-07-03
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOR CATH
oLic CHILDREN.
CONTINUED from Page ~

J r -
lie Church, with loyalty to her prin
ciples and to the requirements of he
faith, countenance the secularize,
school?
The seeularized School, BY Its Exclu
sions, Violence to Secular
knowledge Itself.
take the secularized school unde
its most favorable professions, such a
it's fair-minded advocates would hav'
it-absolute neutrality with regard t,
religion, to each and every form o
religion, to each and every church o.
religious association.
might argue in the interests O
the human mind, and on it's behal
protest against the secularized school
Secular knowledge itself forbids the
shortcomings of the secularizet
school. Science is led to roam
through the universe, investigate its
happenings, discover its processes and
laws. But to the surging interroga
tions-Whence and whither-silence is
interposed. The cause of the universe
the guidance of its movements, the
purpose Of its 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 it's
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
fluences, 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 sectarianism
whether the reply were affirmation or
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 most
sublime in beauty, which more than
all others has dominated the civilized
world, the Bible. shall not be read, nor
even seen. 1t is book of religion
around which controversies rage;
silence in its regard is the price of
peace. What else is the secularized
school but the woeful mutilation OF
the field Of secular knowledge, within
the most vitalizing scopes of it's own
reachings?
But my present contention is with
Catholics: The Catholic school for the
Catholic child.
The Exclusions of the .secuIarized
Schools Fatal to Religion.
Glacial and soul-chllling this secu-
larized school. from which God, His
Christ, His Church are hidden away.
How could the Catholic parent dare
thrust into the vast void his tender
minded, tender-hearted child! To have
the supernatural world forgotten, de.
signedly and professedly, is sacri-
lege. violence to God, a violence to
the soul of the child. God is the
Creator. Alpha and Omega of all
things; Christ is the Saviour, through
whose name there is salvation to men
and to nations; religion, the ascen-
sion Of the soul to God and to Christ,
is the all in all in the life of the
human soul. Yet during school hours,
the time of serious thought, God,
Christ, religion, are not spoken of, the
entire span of the hours being de-
voted to the earth and to things of
earth. The compelling effect upon
the pupil is the impression that amid
the activities of men, earth and the
things Of earth prevail, that Heaven
and the things of Heaven, if at all
worthy of notice, must confine them.
selves to odd moments, the hooks and
corners Of human life. The negation
of religion in the school room is fatal
to religion, to the sense of its impor.
lance. to the vigor of the influences
that should radiate from it across the
whole sphere of mans thinking and
acting. Memories of youth endure:
to the adult whose formative days
were spent In secularized school
room, memories those are of a hui
mainly without God, without Christ.
The secularized school is the expul.
sion OF God and of Christ from the
mind and the heart of the child, with
the resulting expulsion of Him from
the mind and the heart of the adult.
But we must go farther and accept
facts as they really are. There is no
neutrality in the secularized school.