The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-03-03
Lack of Parental Control
FATHERS AND MOTHERS OF OUR
DAY FAIL 70 ASSERT THEIR
AUTHORITY OVER THE Chill
DREN.

OhEN
Ihefe was a time when parents
exercised a true vigilance over the
llVes OF their children. Many fathers
and mothers of our day have departed
from this traditional solicitude. Neg
lect that IS positively criminal has
crept into the home. The child no
longer respects the word of the parent
as law Disrespect and irreverence
are the inevitable consequences.
Times have changed, and we have
changed with them. Youth is given
full and unrestrained rein. Age no
longer constitutes a barrier In for
mer times the child Of tender years
was at home after nightfall. He re
spected his elders, and strOve TO imi-
tate the perfection OF their lives.
But now we are rearing a generation
that will far from bless their pro
genitors.
Lack OF control, free exits from
the home at any and every hour Of
day or night, and that, TOO, without
the need of explanation, looseness of
morals even before the very eyes of
parents and superiors; all these are
potent influences in the destruction
OF high ambition, the ruin Of limo
cence, and the shipwrecking Of many
4 promising career.
Anyone conVersant with conditions
will observe that there is sad def
cheney of control among parents.
They have forgotten their sense Of re-
sponslbllity toward their children.
But the toll must one day be paid.
Misfortune will visit not only the
children whose young lives have been
stranded upon the shoals of parental
stupidity and neglect, but the parents
themselves. In time and in eternity
the price OF parental derelictiOn viii
be demanded.
The home thus loses it's sacred char
acter, for there is none who senses
the spirit OF religion, none who will
impart the principle Of faith. AS a
consequence, dissension, discord and
strife, disrespect, irreverence and
abuse will usurp the throne when
love of God, delicate conception or
ones duties to ones neiGhbOr, and
consideration for ones temporal and
spiritual welfare should reign.
In eternity, parents will be called
to strict account. They are the sworn
guardians of most sacred trust.
Gods glory and the salvation OF those
children depend to an enormous de
gree upon the faithful discharge of
parental responsibility.
The attention of parents has been
called time and again to the many
dangers of our day. They have been
warned of the immoral amusement
house where turks the dragon that
Stran9lcS the innocence Of youth.
They have been adnonished against
the frebrands of evil that glitter in
the shades Of night. They are ap-
prised of the peril of eXcusing the
faults and moral defects of childhood
and treating them as though they
were virtues; and, finally, they are
cautioned against the prOdigality of
SdCI lHCtjlS TIE SOulS vi lllSll I'll
upon the altar of ambition and
temporal gain.
Parents will do we'll to heed the
danger signal in time. 1t is during
youth that character must be formed
and the child's destiny shaped. This
is the time when the individual is
started upon the road to destruction
or salvation, when society loses or
gains by his presence in the world,
when God reioices in his innocence
or prepares to hurl the thunderbolts
of wrath and justice upon the heads
of perfidious and improbable serv-
ants to harass them in life and tor
ment them in death.