The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-10-09
Archbishop Ireland
Educational Fund
LETTER OF MOST REVEREND ARCHBISHOP

| to the American Bishops in his letter
of April, 1919: 'The welfare of Church
| and State depends entirely on the
good condition of the schools and the
Christians of the future will be those
and those only whom you have train
ed and taught"
No SchooIs-No Church.
Much more you might allege to
show that the work of education with
us has passed out of the experimental
stage and is a settled policy; that
Catholics, in proportion as they are
| loyal to the Faith of our Fathers, are
loyal to our schools; that our regret
is not that we have so many schools
which cost great deal of money but
that we have not more schools, what
ever they may cost, for our efforts
must be to provide schools for all
our children since without our schools
there will be no church.
That statement may seem extreme
and it will be readily pointed out that
in the public schools of the land, very
many of our adult Catholics received
their education. They did not lose
Faith in these schools-why should
their children do so? 1t is fair ques-
tion which deserves a reasonable an
swer The Catholic Church in this
country, let us remember, up to this,
has been made up of groups of ma
tionalities in which the national sense
has been peculiarly alive. Faith has
been traditional and attachment to
the Church an evidence of ones soli-
darity with his kith and kin, In the
exclusions which the community u.s.
ually showed to the foreigner, the
Church was one thing whose defense
aroused his fighting spirit.
But this condition is changing rap
idly and there is nobody particularly
interested in prolonging it. Yet we
must recognize the fact that with
the disappearance of the foreigner"
with all his reactions, the burden of
the Church increases. 1.-THE country
is a melting pot OF the nations,"s . we
are told. Very true. But what is it's
mould?
That may be difficult to answer, but
one thing we know,-it is not Cath
olic mould we may be sure into which
the Americanized foreigner will be
poured.
1t is possible that it will be So
cialist mould; it might very we'll be
| in many cases a Protestant mould, it
frequently is materialistic, anti-cler-
ical mould; but apart from what we
| ourselves do at this dangerous period
of transition for the children of 1.-The
| foreigner" in our schools, nothing will
| be done to retain his attachment to
| the faith of his fathers or to save his
| soul.
| The school then assumes an inn
| portance with us scarcely paralleled
in any other country. Old countries
have traditions and customs whose
roots are in the faith of other ages.
Patriotism is memory and the mem
ory is of Catholic past. Govern
ments may hamper and constrain and
even persecute the Church but it goes
on in suffering, it may be, but still in
vigor. But with us, the process of
| Americanization is the deletion of the
past, the extinction of tradition, the
cutting of all roots. Our public opin-
ion is barely tolerant of Catholic
thought 1t is derived from the all
pervasive English tradition of the
original thirteen colonies which was
sincerely anti-Catholic, it speaks the
phrases of literature which at the
moment of it's classical development
became the mouthpiece of Protestant
ism, it is controlled by the material
istic, socialistic, hedonistic thought of
the day. Our secular education of
the higher sort, with it's overstressing
of the natural sciences, and with its
strong temptation to regard morality
, as department of biology, is clearly
. subversive of faith in God.
The Influence Of the School.
i The influence of the public school
in stemming the tide of immortality
of bad faith among men and of nc
faith in God, is scarcely noticeable
1t is perhaps the greatest public agen
cy in the country devoted to the so
. cial service in which morals plays sc
large a part and perforce 1t must be
. silent on that which gives morality
! it's meaning and it's sanction. Those
! who understand it best and are its
!. best interpreters would very likely
! disown any responsibility for the
! morals, however they might affect tt
: control the manners of the day, fol
: they would claim the schools worl
dealt primarily with the mind ant
only very remotely with the heart o
:, the child.
But Catholics, nevertheless, regars
this unfortunate division of that Whicl
may not be divided as defect whicl
e makes the public school permanent,
i unacceptable to them and justifies th
4 expense and the sacrifice entailed il
q providing their own schools whereve
1 they have numbers enough and res
g olution enough to attempt them An
r our Catholics are not alone in 'thi
s. view Of the situation. Not to spea
y of the schools conducted by othe
st Christian bodies, many Of the mos
e prominent educators in this countr
g Continued on page So