The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-03

hSihC anu tiiS iiuASAiy iiOI tiiO SSaiOcA or the market place. |
 These humiliating facts are at last bringing home to the minds of all thoughtful men-Catholic and non Catholic the imperative need of re- ligious instruction in our schools. This Is the reason for the existence of your parish school, and of the thous- ands of other parish schoo ols through out this country. We believe that mo- where can the religious foundation SO essential to to the full develop ment of our God-given faculties, and
 to. the preservation of civil society
 be laid more firmly than in the school-1om where an atmosphere Of religion envelops the child. Youth is called the seedtime of life, and the ideas that are turning In the mind Of tomorrow. In childhood the mind IS simple and plastic, the soul pure and
 candid and the heart may be cast
 easily into any mold. It Is because
 of this fact that we wish to form
 them from the very dawn of their
 conscious life along the lines of Christ's teaching.
 We believe that there is only one remedy to stem the tide that bids fair to sweep away our Christian civiliza- ton, and to undermine ths foundation of good citizenship, and that remedy is the religious school. In that school are to be found the elements of edu- cation which make for the strength and perpetuity of this Republic. In | .he Catholic school civic ideals arc | taught end love of country is fostered 1 not merely by the waving of flags, | but chiefly by intoxicating that patrio- tism in an act of religion intimately ! connected with and flowing from a | of ho iS | taught that all authority comes from ! God and obedience to lawful au- 1 thority binds under pain and sin. | Mans first duty is to the God who | created him. his next Is to the coun- l try which gave him birth, or to which 1 he has sworn obedience. He must give to Caesar the things that are | Caesars and to God the things that are Gods. A man t~ained to patrio- | t!sm such as this will never set l limits to the sacrifices to be made for l his country.
 l This is the patriotism taught in every Catholic school and from every | Catholic altar throughout this com 1 monwealth and throughout this na- 1 ton. That it is taught thoroughly and ] assimilated completely the thousands 1 of service flags swung above the DOT | tnls of every Catholic church through l out this country proudly testify. | Those flags tell in no uncertain tones | who's who in America. The hundre ds | of thousands of young men enrolled | in Catholic schools and kneeling be-
 fore Catholic altars yesterday, are the | hundreds of thousands of young men | enrolled in the army and navy of the
 United States today. Though com | prising but ten or twelve per cent
 of the fighting forces of the nation | Others may give of their wealth and
 treasure, the Catholic father and
 mothers give of their own flesh and
 blood that we might be spared the
 sufferings and the horrors now cover
 ing blood-drenched Europe. America
 can thank God that this is the offer
 ing of Catholic parents. America car
 thank God for the school and church
 which has ever kept before theil
 children the solemn teachings o
 Jesus Christ as to the sacred char.
 acter and sacred purpose of marriage
 and has continually hurled the curse of God on divorce and chfld-murder | In this dread hour America may well thank God for the school and fol the church that has instilled into tn. | minds and hearts of their childre1
 that in love for our common countr! there can be no distinction of race o, creed; that in patriotism there is n,
 Catholic or Protestant, no Jew oi
 Gentile as there Is no North, nt
 South, no East, no West. This is
 united country and all the powers o
 the world cannot divide it. We ar, one people, with the same hopes, tn
 same interests, the same aspirations one country and one flag to be cher
 ished by all our hearts and to be sus
 tained by all our heands. In ou : Catholic schools the truth has beer proclaimed that with our non-Cath olic fellow citizens we have marchet and fought from Lexington to San ? tago. With them we have sailed an . fought on every sea, and no nor '. than they did we haul down tn glorious ensign that floated at ou masthead. Today, when the bugl
 call is again sounded, with them w
 rally round the standard ready to fol :, low it to the utmost parts of land an
 sea, ready to pour out for it the las
 full measure of our devotion.
 Antagonism in Public Schools.
 Our preference for our own school cannot be urged against us as indi o eating interference with the publi V school system. The charge so ofte made by those whose words preced
 their thought that the parochia
 | = enmity and antagonism towards tn n public school has no foundation 1 II fact. We wage war against 1 = We would not see the public school - of this country destroyed. They ar e acceptable to large number of ou . fellow citizens who believe in the a - sufficiency of a purely secular edu II cation. They are doing splendi - work. The men and women who dc
 vote their lives to training in tn
 branches taught it these schools ar Il men and women of the highest ideals
 men and women who would suppl q religious instrHction did the syste, st permit. The public schools are ac IS ceptable to us as far as they go. bt d they do not so far enough. We ar I, not opposed to the results obtaine, 1T or to the methods employed in teacf a ing the secular branches. We a1 l. opposed. as every true educator mus B. be opposed. to the principle that rt IS ligion is a thing apart from education ,- Our Catholic conscience well as or