The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-09-09
CATHOLIC EDUCATION
A Matter of Serious Concern to All Catholics

Let us speak the patent fact. AS
the effect of the exclusion of religion
from schools in America, America with
road to what at best is cultured pa
ganism. God and Christ are being
crushed out of the lives of it's citi-
zens, because God and Christ are be-
| ing crushed out from the school-rooms
into which are thrust the childhood
and the youth of the land.
Then, if you wish that your men
and women of the future be valiant
Catholics, put your children into Cath
olic schools; help to maintain and
develop those schools. The Church
knows we'll it's needs: it pauses before
no effort, before no sacrifice, to bring
to all its little ones a Catholic educa-
tion. Catholic parents, send your
little ones to Catholic schools. Cath
olics all, take deepest interest in the
work of Catholic education, whether
or not your children are it's immediate
beneficiaries. 1t is the Church that
makes the appeal, for her own sake,
for her own life, for her own welfare.
Let us care for the Catholic children
Of today: the morrow of the Church
will be provided for in America. Let
us neglect Catholic education: the fu-
ture of the Church in America is to
be despaired of.
What is it right here in the City of
st. Paul, that gives us hope for the
e,,+, e. 80 aI,
Is it our temples, the number of our
priests, our noble Cathedral? BY no
means! Our hope lies in our Catholic
schools and colleges. Thank God
these are not wanting. In the parish
there is the school for preparatory
education: over and above this there
are our high schools for boys and for
girls, taught by our Christian Brothers
and our self-sacraficing Sisters: and
over and above our high schools, there
are our colleges, that of st. Thomas
for young men, that of st. Catherine
| for young women. Those we have
and what we have we are resolved to
maintain and to set forth into fuller
and wider lifeT and prosperity. There
lies our hope. The question was once
asked by a non-Catholic, viewing the
| Cathedral: How shall this building
| be filled in the future? The ques-
toner was aware that outside of the
| Catholic Church it is an age of empty
pews. A companion, also a non-Cath-
Ollie, gave answer: See near the
Cathedral the splendid Catholic
school? Thence it is that the pews
in the Cathedral will be filled in fu-
ture days as to-day they are filed"
Whence is it that we have been able
to build our superb schools and col
leges? l give the reply. They are
the fruits of Catholic self-denial.
There is the self-denial of parents,
who, from their scanty earnings, are
willing to set aside the money needed
to build schoolhouses and to defray
therein the expenses of the education
of their children. There is a self
denial of Priests, Brothers and Sis
ters who work without thought of
worldly remuneration, giving them
selves in utter oblation to the cause
of Christian education, because that
cause is the cause of the Church of
God For aid to Priests, to Brothers,
to Sisters in their magnificent work
of Christian education, | call on every
Catholic to make their work his own
work, to value that work as the high
est charity, the most precious gift to
be made to the Church, to be made to
God Himself.
| am not sure that Catholics clearly
understand their duty towards Catho-
lie education. Gifts in its behalf are
erous as they should be. If Catholics
contribute to charity, to the immediate
relief of poverty and suffering, they
assume that their full debt is paid.
God forbid that | lessen the value of
help given to poverty and to suffering.
But when all is said, beyond all this
there is the vision of the wider
Church, by preserving to it it's means
of future life and vigor. 1t is the
very life of the Church that is at
stake when we speak to you of Catho-
lie education. Catholic education is
the vital question of the day.
Shall the Church live and work
among us as God wishes that she
should live and work? Admire as you
wish your Cathedral, your other
temples of religion. Should you wish
to see the surer signs of a happy
future for the Church in St Paul
stand some morning in front of the
. nearby school-building and feast your
eyes on the throngs of little ones
Fastening to its class-rooms, where
together with sciences needed fol
their worldly success, they hearken t.
the sweet words so necessary fol
their life beyond the grave-God the
Creator, Jesus Christ the Saviour, the
Catholic Church the harbinger of The
truths and the graces of the Incarna
tion and the Redemption.