The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-03
FATHER FITZGERALD GIVES HIGH
 IDEAL OF CONDUCT OF GRADUATES
Asserts That Man Seeks Something Higher Than the
 Material-Urges Children To Be Loyal Citizens

who impels him to virtue without re- gard to fame or gain, wGo restraints |
 1t from vice without regard to civil | penalties. who follows him in his | every thought word and deed in | civil penalties who follows him in his | ! every thought. word and deed in dnrkness and in light, in the sanct- | uary of tho conscience and of the l home, as well as in the arena. of public | 1 life. Religion teaches he sacredness | of life, the rights of capital and labor. l | the eternity of Justice, the beauty of l chastity and truthfllness. It is the
 curb of the strong, the defence of the | weak, the comfort of the afflicted. 1 the covenan. of the infinite God with
 mortal man. It is the basis of public ! and private morals, the surest guar l antee rulers caf have of the loyalty 1 of their subjects, or that subjects can l have of the justice of their rulers. There are those who. though firm | ly believing in the necessity of re- 1 ligious instruction, If Christian civ ! nizaticn Is to be preserved and per 1 pe-uatsl. maintain that this instruc- ! tiuu must ba given in tn" home and , in the church. The school should de- vote it's entire time and efforts to in . struction in the secular branches of 1 learning. The schools must be non
 scctarian" "Parochial schools are un-American."
 How far from the truth are those ' who claim that the parochial school idea Ia un-American can be seen read llv by any one who reads the history
 of education in our country. From ! being a novelty in educational theory, the stand of the Catholic citizen for rcliGion in education was the position | hold by the great majority of the
 s AaF fhn 6nry1
 pu1llc school policy was developed.
 It was expediency and not principle
 that led the various Legislatures to
 exclude religion from the State
 schools Confronted by the difficulty that would arise from the effort to teach any one or all forms of religion
 that existed among the various com
 munIties. gradually the easiest solu-
 ton was chosen, namely. the exlusion
 all sectarian religious teaching from
 the schools. But a system of educa-
 ton based on the principle of the ex
 clusion of all religious teaching is In
 reality sectarian, because 1t has it's
 inspiration in the belief that religion
 either is not necessary, or that IL
 should be taught in the church or in the home, not in the school This belief, I maintain, is itself a creed A creed is a statement of a belle
 | iu nothing is a creed. Hence, the creed of the secularist is no less sec
 tartan than that of the most ardent believer in the need of religion in ed
 ucation.
 Furthermore. this attitude is con
 trary to the first principle of all true education which demands the sim
 ultaaeous development of the child's
 moral, mental and physical faculties. We have not to train up a soul nor t : ct 2 body. but a man and we cannot - divide him.
 , The Catholic citizen sees in this |. compromise, convenient though it may
 br to the State, a sacrifice of prin- P -iple that is too great to be overlook ! ed. Believing. as he does, that re- . lision Is an essential part of educa- |, ton. he cannot subscribe to a theory a the natural consequences of which
 are the gradual but certain destruc- !, ton of active religious convictions. [. To shut religion out of the school i, and to limit to the home and the
 { church, is to train up a generation Q that will consider religion good = enough for the church and the home, . but not for the practical business oi - fife. The child's business day is his s school hours. His workshop or office - .s his schoolroom. If you train that r child for six, seven, eight years or
 i more in that workshop of his to feel
 or think that religion is not permit e tod there, not to be talked of, or =. thought of. he will hold that same v attitude towards religion when h: . takes his place in the world. and re- , ligion will play no part in his bust "a ness life. The proof of this state. a ment Is clear in the lives of sixty n millions of Americans who have dror-
 pod the faith of their fathers in the ,s divinity of Jesus Christ because they never acquired any interest in 1t. ,e If we educate the intelligence a .o the expense of the soul, we but in ,r crease mans power to effect evil "A, r. education," says Dr. Schaff, "whicl ,s ignores religion would raise a heart D. less and infidel generation of in .s tel1ectual animals and prove a curs i'd rather than a blessing. Science with ,e out religion in the hands of an un of principled man is more deadly thai tv .lle sword" You may rival a Shakes ss peare or an Edison in intellectual de q velopment, and yet rob bank, de of fraud your ncighbor or betray you ,R country.
 zo History tells us that when the oi 2; Roman Empire was at Its greates ut height of mental culture, 1t wa of sunk in the lowest depths of vice am es corruption. The French Revolution It the most violent outbreak that eve ct convulsed society was ushered in in It blaze of genius that brought desola Is ton and death in its wake, The pres n- ent World cataclysm which threaten at to engulf humanity has been inaug al urated by a nation to whose scientffi
 and literary genius an admiring worl be paid glowing tribtue, but q natio he whose ambition is world power, a na at tion which regards war as the sole ar .t- bitter of disputes. and solemn treatie te but scraps of paper, a nation whic i'll looks upon commercial supremac a. through conquest of the weak as th n- sole criterion of greatness.
 d. Even in our own country, do "
 not stand amazed at the disclosure a. Of st.gnting committees? Dail gs do we see men bought and sold at tt