The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-09-02
Duluth, Minnesota,

authority OF parents is SteadllV
diminishing. Fathers and mothers no
longer regard themselves as the Of
ficials of a divine institution. The
home is not considered the unit of
society, nor is it viewed as having the
sanction of God, which human power
and finite authority cannot at will at
tack. The divorce courts are eating
away the very heart of America by
undermining the home. Influenced by
pagan teachings, parents have ceased
to regard children as the blessings of
marriage. What God has determined
and what Christ has confirmed about
the holy state Of matrimony receives
no consideration in modern un-Chris-
tian society. 1t is assumed that the
individuals of the marriage contract
need acknowledge no superior-neither
State nor Church nor God-in COM
plying with the obligations of married
life. The many reactions that have
followed the World War have tended
to strengthen evil tendencies rather
than to curb them. Those charged
with the responsibility of souls are
weighed down by the evils of the
present hour Their anXieties regard
ing the future are many and serious.
Recreation Means.
The Church has always encouraged
legitimate recreation and pleasure
when enjoyed in due season and in
proper proportion. Recreation should
be a means, not an end. Relaxation
should come as something merited for
sustained labors and as preparation
for the resumption of duties. The
world, however, has gone mad about
pleasure. The home is not proving a
corrective for this. Parents not only
fail to realize the danger themselves,
but rather in many cases are a bad
example to their children. The
theater, the motion picture, the dance
hall, the automobile, absence, from
home, freedom from responsibility,
nervous condition which makes it i'm
possible to entertain serious thought
and to discharge pressing duties-al
these are alternating parents and chill
uI6u lIOul JlS dLA 11filSo
them of it's genuine happiness. Parents
are, in a large measure, responsible
for encouraging their children to in
dulge in too much pleasure in their
younger years. Boys and young girls,
in consequence, are fast losing the
simplicity of childhood. They seek as
sociations and recreations which be-
long to maturer years. Young men
and young women seem to have no re-
gard for the relaxation which does not
include a modern dance that is sug-
gestive, sensuous, and highly danger
Gus. Schools too freqently encourage
recreation and sport to the extent that
they become not incidents, but rather
the substance of school life.
On Sex Hygiene.
Many teachers without having Civ
en- morality or religion serious thought
and study, and without having the
guidance of the traditions of the
Church, which have enabled her to
know and direct human nature for
twenty centuries, advocate that public
instruction in the matter Of sex
hygiene be given to our boys and
girls. These self-constituted leaders
fail to realize that the sex problem
must be dealt with as an individual
one; they fail to realize that the
Church holds the only key to it's solu-
tion-the Sacrament of Penance, by
which the boy and the girl, the young
man and young woman, enter the
sacred tribunal and there make con-
fidant of their confessor, who, reading
their thoughts and their very souls,
can direct them as can no one else
These same self-constituted leaders
would hasten boys and girls to years
of puberty. They would provid"
pleasures and recreations out of all
due proportion as the means of hold
ing the youth of our day. They fail
entirely to put proper valuation on
the lessons of self-restraint, self-dis.
cipline and self-government even from
the earliest years. They sow the wind
and the whirlwind is afterwards
reaped. We are reaping the whirl
wind in Duluth today.
l
| Coming to Cities.
Nearly two years ago we deemed il
| advisable to care for the girls and
| young women who were coming to Du
| luth in great numbers and who woult
not have here the protection of the
home and the guidance of parents
There are very many of these yount
women in Duluth today 1t is sad t.
realize that many of them do not wan
the home atmosphere, that they d.
not want, and will not submit to tn
minimum of restriction without whicl
they cannot be properly safeguarded
We deem it our duty to declare put
licly that in the City of Duluth cor
ditions exist which expose our youn
women to grave perils. We implor
parents in all the smaller communitie
of the Diocese not to allow thei
daughters to come to Duluth unles
they have the assurance that they wi
enjoy the same protection here, wit
relatives or trusted friends, that the
would have in, their own homes.
!, is deplorable that many young wome
: come to the city simply because the
:, wish to get away from the restriction
,, of home and to be relieved of parent
[solicitude and guidance. All Catholi
parents who have their daughters
= rooming-houses in the CITY of Dulut