How far superior is the system of the Christian Brothers, and other Catholic educational institutions! Their books make continual reference to the mysteries of religion, they depict the glories of the Church, the majesties of the Apostolic See, and continually inflame the youthful mind to the practice of good works, by proposing to them the lives and virtues of holy men, and by continually reminding them of their religious duties, of the end of man, and of other great motives calculated to induce them to serve God. In regard to this matter, I shall merely add that the common school-books have been generally compiled by Protestants, that scarcely any extract from Catholic authors is admitted in them, that they contain many Methodistical stories, that their language is that of the Protestant Bible, and that they contain many things offensive to our love of religion.

Do you want to see what man without God—without religion—can do? Read the history of the last eighty years in Paris. You have there one simple phenomenon—generation rising after generation, without God in the world. And why? Because, without Christian education. First, an atheistical revolution; next, an empire penetrated through with a masking philosophy and a reckless indifferentism; afterwards came governments changed in name and in form, but not in practice, nor in spirit. The Church, trammelled by protection, her spiritual action faint and paralyzed, could not penetrate the masses of the people, and bring her salutary influence to bear upon them. She labored fervently; her sons fought nobly for Christian freedom; thousands were saved; but for eighty years the mass of men has grown up without God and without Christ in the world. These outbursts of horror, strife, outrage, sacrilege, bloodshed, are the harvest reaped from the rank soil in which such seed was cast. All this is true. But how did souls created to the image of God grow up in such a state? They were robbed: robbed before they were born; robbed of their inheritance, and reared up in an education without Christianity. Let this be a warning to ourselves! We are told that a child may be taught to read, and to write, and to spell, and to sum, without Christianity. Who denies it? But what does this make of them? To what do they grow up? The formation of the will and heart and character, the formation of a man, is education, and not the reading, and the writing, and the spelling, and the summing. Physiology, astronomy, chemistry, anatomy, and all other sciences with sounding names, and of Greek etymology, will not teach our children the respect, love, and obedience due to parents. They will not teach them modesty, which is the brightest ornament of woman, and renders the relation of man with his fellow-man harmonious and pleasant. They will not teach them industry and purity, which insure peace and happiness in the family circle. They will not teach them the fidelity which the espoused owe to each other, nor the obligations contracted by parents towards their children, nor will they teach them to know, love, and serve God in this world, in order to be happy with Him forever in the next.

For fifteen hundred years Christians served God and loved man, before, as yet, they received this cultivation of our age; and we, because we have it so profusely, are forgetting the deeper and diviner lessons. The tradition of Christian education in this country is, as yet, unbroken. It has, however, been greatly undermined. It will be completely broken if we Catholics do not strive, to the best of our power, to preserve it. We Catholics, therefore, believe that it is our most sacred duty to bring up our children in "the discipline and correction of the Lord." We hold that it is our most conscientious obligation to bequeath to our children the most valuable of all legacies—good religious impressions, and a sound religious education. We hold that religious education is the most essential part of instruction.

Now we know that religious education is not, and cannot, be given in our present school system. Our present system of common-school education either ignores religion altogether, or teaches principles which are false and dangerous; and if it gives any religious education, it consists merely in certain vague, unmeaning generalities, and is often worse than no education at all. Instruction without religion, is like a ship without a compass. Ignorance is, indeed, a great evil; but of the two evils, it is even better, in some respects, for our children to remain ignorant, than to acquire mere worldly knowledge without any religious training; for without religion they grow up a burden to themselves, and a pest to society.

Human nature is prone to evil; and the rising passions, especially in youth, need religious influence to check them. There is a vast difference between teaching the child's head and forming his heart. Mere instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic will never teach a young man to control his passions, and to practise virtue. Such instruction may do for Pagans, but it will never do for Catholics.

We can say that, so far as our Catholic children are concerned, the workings of our Public School system have proved, and do prove, highly detrimental to their faith and morals. So strongly has the conviction of this been impressed upon the minds both of the pastors and parents, that most strenuous efforts, and even enormous sacrifices have been made, and continue to be made, in order to establish and support Catholic parochial schools. In many cities of the Union there is, at the present moment, in daily attendance at these schools, an average number of between eighteen and twenty thousand children. The annual expense for the maintenance of these schools does not fall short of one hundred thousand dollars; while the amount expended for the purchase of lots, and the erection of proper school buildings, etc., considerably exceeds a million.

The Catholics of New York subscribed, in 1868, $132,000 for the support of their own school, and, besides, they had contributed a million and a quarter of dollars for the sites and the buildings of Catholic schools.

Nothing but the deepest sense of the many dangers to which the religious and moral principles of the children are exposed, could prompt Catholic parents to make such pecuniary sacrifices, or assume such onerous burdens; for it has to be borne in mind that, while they are thus obliged, through conscientious motives, to support their own schools, they have, at the same time, to bear their share of the taxation imposed for the support of the Public Schools.

All this is true; yet I can scarcely refrain from expressing my surprise at the extremely abnormal lethargy manifested by so many Catholics, both in high and low places, regarding a duty, the chief one incumbent upon them as members of the family, as citizens, as Christians and as Catholics.

Now the cause for the indifference existing among our people on the question of Catholic education, may be attributed to a false process of reasoning. They argue: it will cost money. True; but it is not by State aid, or City aid, that the work of Catholic daily instruction and education in parochial schools is to be carried on. These schools are to be supported, as our churches are, by the alms of the faithful.

The Catholics of other countries have their duties to perform, different, in part, from ours, but demanding great self-sacrifice. We, too, except we be "bastards, and not sons," must make our great sacrifices. The first, the most pressing, is that of supporting a good Catholic education. In neglecting Catholic education, we lose that which money cannot buy. Can we conceive of a parent, a Catholic parent, so cruel, so depraved, and so God-forsaken as to sacrifice his child, both body and soul, and devote him to eternal destruction, through eagerness to spare the paltry pence that a proper education might cost? It seems quite certain that if we wait for just appropriations from the State before we shoulder the burden ourselves, wait for it to compel us to accept of Catholic education, we shall find ourselves in a very unfit condition to appreciate the favor; and from present indications, this generation, at least, is likely to pass away before such interest will be manifested in our behalf.

Now we must be persuaded that if we allow one generation to be brought up in unbelief, and the course of tradition to be once interrupted, the following generations will fall into a darkness and ignorance worse than that of Paganism; living here without a God, and quitting this world without any consoling hope of a blessed immortality.

So it proved, not long ago, with an unhappy wretch, the child of parents that had forgotten the law of their God, and sent her to one of the Public Schools in a town on the North River. She played the harlot, when she grew old enough, and then sought to add to this the crime of a horrible murder—the murder of the child that was of her own flesh and blood. In procuring its murder, she lost her own life. In the den of the monster-abortionist, and finding herself dying, one of the vile attendants now declares that she shrieked and begged for a Catholic priest. The Jew into whose murderous gripe she had put herself, found some means to quiet her cry, and she died without seeing a priest. God will keep His word! He has said, "Because thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will forget thy children!"

I do not say that Catholic parents are obliged, under the pain of mortal sin, to have any secular education given to their children. But I do say that they are forbidden, by the law of the Catholic Church, to send their children to any schools where the Catholic religion is not practised and taught.

If neglect to comply with the law of God and of His Church, neglect to receive the sacraments at certain times, and under certain circumstances, is a mortal sin, is it much less a sin to neglect the proper education of our youth, upon which, to a great extent, their entire future depends? And if the sacraments are refused to persons persisting in sin, should not a sin of this great character be also considered in the conditions requisite for the worthy reception of the sacraments? I hesitate not to pronounce this matter of education a matter of conscience, and it should be treated accordingly by those who have the charge of souls. We see ecclesiastical edifices of great magnitude, splendor, and expense, erected everywhere by Catholics, but for what purpose? To attract non-Catholics? Bosh! A Catholic can hear Mass in caverns, in catacombs, or under hedges, as they have often been obliged to do; but if we lose our children there will be none to hear it anywhere, nor any to offer the Holy Sacrifice, even in our most gorgeous cathedrals. Where will be our Catholics? Scandal and disgrace will be the order of the day.

I do not wish it to be understood here that I entertain any, even the least, doubt of the indefectibility of the Church, or of the faithful fulfilment of the promises of Christ; for the Church will exist in spite of man. But again I say that Catholics are violating a most sacred duty in not providing facilities for Catholic education.

This, O Catholics! is what the money you are making so rapidly ought, in generous part, to be devoted to. So you will think, at a day fast coming, when your bodies will be buried sumptuously, your souls forgotten by the living, and the estates you have hoarded with so much industry shall have become, perhaps, the objects of disgraceful law-suits among your heirs.

Dear Catholics, let us cast off our lethargy; let us be unitedly active in this matter; let us discard the flimsy arguments of "liberal" Catholics who would discourage the enterprise, regarding every such as our most dangerous foe. Let us make our voice heard and our actions felt, and bring up our children in a manner creditable to ourselves, an honor and consolation to their parents, a blessing to society, worthy members of the Church of God, and candidates for the kingdom of heaven.

FOOTNOTES:

[H] "Hant propositionem auctoritate Nostra Apostolica reprobamus, proscribimus atque damnamus eamque ab omnibus Catholicae Ecclesiae filiis veluti reprobatam, proscriptam atque damnatam omnino haberi volumus et mandamus."—Syllabus, Prop. xlviii.



CHAPTER XIV.

ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS.

There are some who assert that "there is no sectarian teaching in the Public Schools, and consequently a Catholic may send his children to them without exposing them to any danger." Now even supposing there really were no sectarian teaching in the common schools, even then a Catholic parent cannot send his children to such a school without exposing them to the greatest danger. Those who approve of the Public Schools because nothing sectarian is taught there, act like a certain husbandman who wished to transplant a fine young tree to a certain part of his garden. On examining the new place, however, he found that the ground was filled with poisonous ingredients, which would greatly endanger the life of the tree. He therefore transplanted the tree to a sandy hill, where there were, indeed, no poisonous ingredients, but where there was also no nourishment for the tree. Now will any one assert that the young tree was not in danger of perishing in this new place? And will any one assert that the faith and soul of a child are not in danger of being ruined in those godless common schools? Even if Protestantism is not taught there, infidelity is taught and practised there, and infidelity is even worse than Protestantism.

But is it really true that Protestantism is not taught in many of our Public Schools? This is unfortunately far from being the case. Napoleon I. introduced the Public School system into France, in order, as he honestly declared, "to possess the means of controlling political and moral opinions." Puritans and Freemasons, in this country, have clearly the same end in view in upholding the present system of Public Schools.

In the early days of New England, and even of several of the other American States, the Puritans always used the Public Schools as a powerful means of spreading their peculiar doctrines. When they were stripped of this power by the liberal founders of American independence, they still struggled for many years to accomplish, by indirect means, the injustice which they dared not maintain openly. We all remember how the poor Catholic boys and girls of the Public Schools were harassed by colporteurs and proselytizers, who carried baskets filled, not with bread for the poor hungry children, no, but with oily tracts, cunningly devised to weaken, or even destroy, the religious faith of those poor little ones. In some schools even, Catholic children were urged and enticed to go to the sectarian Sunday-schools, and pictures, cakes, and sweetmeats were liberally promised, in order to induce them to go. Teachers were selected with special regard to their bitter hatred of the Catholic Church, and their zeal for "evangelical" propagandism. Some years ago, in New Orleans, when the school-board was composed of bigoted sectarians, many of them sectarian preachers, all the Catholic teachers, male and female, were turned out of the schools, merely because they were Catholics.

And even if Catholic children are not always expressly taught doctrines opposed to their religion, nevertheless the school-books which they use are, as I have said, frequently tainted with anti-Catholic prejudices and misrepresentations. Nothing can be more evident than the decidedly anti-Catholic spirit of English literature in all its departments. It has grown up, ever since England's apostasy, in an anti-Catholic soil, in an anti-Catholic atmosphere, and from an anti-Catholic stem. It is essentially anti-Catholic, and tends, wherever it comes in contact with Catholic feelings and principles, to sully, infect, and utterly corrupt them. Sound knowledge, a sound head, strong faith, and great grace—all these combined—may indeed preserve one whom the necessity of his position may lead into un-Catholic schools; but no one will deny that this anti-Catholic literature must exercise a most baneful influence over all those who, without sufficient preparation from nature or grace, plunge into it, in the pursuit of amusement or knowledge. Protestant ideas will not make the Catholic turn Protestant, there is not much danger of that, but they will tend to make him an infidel; they will destroy his principles without putting others in their place; they will relax and deaden the whole spiritual man.

In these schools, Catholic children are taught that the Catholic Church is the nursery of ignorance and vice; they are taught that all the knowledge, civilization, and virtue which the world now possesses, are the offspring of the so-called "Reformation." They learn nothing of the true history of Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Ireland, Austria, and the other Catholic countries of Europe; they learn nothing of the true history of Mexico, and the various Catholic countries of North and South America. They never hear of the vast libraries of Catholic learning, the rich endowments of Catholic education all over the world, for ages; they never hear of the countless universities, colleges, academies, and free schools established by the Catholic Church, and by Catholic governments, throughout Christendom. Where is the common school book whose author has manly honesty enough to acknowledge that even the famous universities of Oxford and Cambridge were founded by Catholics, and plundered from their lawful possessors by an apostate government?

Moreover, Catholic children are often singled out by their school-companions, and sometimes even by their teachers, as objects of ridicule. Now what is the result of all this training? The consequence is, that either the Catholic children become ashamed of their holy religion, and despise their parents, or, if they have the courage to hold out, their tender minds are subject to numberless petty annoyances; they must endure a species of martyrdom. This is no exaggeration; I have it from good authority. Practically speaking, the present common school system is but a gigantic scheme for proselytism and for infidelity.

Now we intend that our children shall be taught to love and revere their holy Church. We wish to teach them that that Church has been, for over eighteen hundred years, the faithful guardian of that very Bible of which Protestants prate so loudly, and which they dishonor so much. We wish our children to learn that the Catholic Church has been, in all ages, the friend and supporter of true liberty; i.e., liberty united to order and justice. We wish them to know that the Catholic Church has ever been the jealous guardian of the sanctity of marriage; that she has always defended it against brutal lust, and heathen divorce courts. We wish our children to know, moreover, that the Catholic Church holds the sword of vengeance uplifted above the heads of the child-murderers, and the perpetrators of unnatural crimes. We wish our children, in fine, to regard the Church as the only hope of society, the only salvation of their country, the only means of preserving intact all the blessings of freedom.

The Public Schools are not only seminaries of infidelity, they are, moreover, in many cases, hot-beds of immorality. In these schools every child is received, no matter how vicious or corrupt he or his parents may be. "One mangy sheep," as the homely proverb says, "infects the whole flock." So one corrupt child in a school is capable of corrupting and ruining all the others. And, in fact, where have our young people learned the shameful habit of self-abuse, and many other foul, unnatural crimes, that are bringing so many thousands to an early grave? Ask those unhappy victims, ask our physicians throughout the country, and they will tell you that, in almost every instance, it was from the evil companions with whom they associated in the common schools. Ah! you will see, only on the Day of Judgment, how many unnatural crimes have been taught and propagated, from generation to generation, in these very hot-beds of iniquity.

"But, Father," some one will say, "what harm can there be in sending children to Public Schools? for many of the teachers are professing Christians, and exert a continual Christian influence."

But many more are non-professors, and exert an anti-Christian influence. Go and visit those schools, and you will soon be able to tell the religious status of the teachers in charge, by the general tone of the exercises. One presided over by a zealous Methodist resembles a Methodist Sunday-school, or conference meeting. Another, under the care of a "smart young man," delighting in love songs, boating songs, etc., has the general tone of a young folks' glee-club. In another, in which one of the professors is an atheist, it is a matter of common remark among the boys that Prof. —— said there was no God. In another, one of the teachers is overheard sneering at a child because she believes in our Lord Jesus Christ, and has a reverence for religious things.

What I have just said is true. I have it from good authority. It is therefore no recommendation at all for the Public School system to say that many of the teachers are professing Christians. Even the very fact that many of the teachers in the Public Schools are good Catholics, is no recommendation whatever for these schools, for it matters nothing, absolutely nothing, whether the teacher be Catholic or not; according to law, no teacher is allowed to explain a single dogma of Catholic faith. Now the dogmas of our holy faith have been revealed, and, in order to be known, they must be taught. Ordinarily speaking, education is necessary to learn and preserve the faith. The Catholics of Ireland, indeed, by the special assistance of God, preserved their holy faith, though they were not permitted, by a bigoted government, to receive the education they needed and desired. But in this country, where there is no such prohibition, where parents are free to send their children to Catholic schools, it is presumption in them, it is a rash defiance to the ordinary laws of God's providence, to neglect the daily systematic training of the minds and hearts of their children, in conformity with Catholic discipline. Julian the Apostate forbade Catholics to be educated in their holy faith, for he knew very well that there is no more certain means of destroying the faith than by not suffering it to be taught.

It is almost certain that wherever there are no Catholic schools, wherever the Catholic religion is not taught and practised in school, there the Catholic religion will practically die out, as soon as immigration from Catholic countries ceases.

Bishop England has asserted that the Catholic Church loses more, in this country, by apostasy, than it gains by conversions. Archbishop Spalding, of Baltimore, asserted one day that, in one body of Methodist ministers, he observed seven or eight who were children of Catholics, and they were the smartest preachers among them.

Neglected children of Catholic parents become the worst enemies of the Catholic Church. The young man who set fire to St. Augustine's Church, in Philadelphia, Pa., was a Catholic, and he gloried in being able to burn his name out of the baptismal record. By a just punishment of God, these neglected Catholic children will become our persecutors.

It is not sufficient to teach the Catechism in church or at home. No! it is not the knowledge of the faith, but the daily practice of it, that produces Catholic life. Nothing but the constant practice of our holy religion can train our youth to withstand the dangers of this age, and this country. It is not necessary to argue this point. Look at the tens of thousands of Catholics who never think of going to Mass on a week-day, and who often neglect it even on Sundays and holy days. Look at all those who never think of visiting our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; who never go to confession more than once or twice a year, and sometimes not even that. Do they not prove, beyond a doubt, that the practical habit of devotion was not taught them in their youth?

Look, on the other hand, at those congregations who, in the tender, susceptible time of youth, were in the habit of going to Mass every day before the opening of the school. See how, when the bell rings, a goodly number of them find time, even on week-days, to assist at the most holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In such congregations there is indeed Catholic life. These pious Catholics carry the blessing of heaven with them wherever they go. Amid all the cares and troubles of life they are gay and cheerful, whilst others grumble and are sad. The religious doctrines and practices learned in youth, can seldom or never be blotted out. The question of Catholic schools is a question of making the country Catholic. If this means be neglected, all other means will avail but little.

There are others, again, who assert "that the discussion of the education question should be put off for the present as yet, under the pretence that our adversaries are as yet too numerous, and that it is well for us to do nothing until their feelings are more in our favor." If we are to wait until it will please them to say that our claims are just, the day will never dawn when our rights shall be admitted; darkness cannot coalesce with light, vice with virtue, or Belial with Christ. Will those who deny the Divine authority of the Church, assail her doctrines, and seek her destruction, ever cordially assist us in obtaining from our rulers a system of public instruction not dangerous or destructive to our faith? If we consent to defer the education question until the torrent of bigotry will be dried up, we shall be laughed at, and compared to the simple peasant who determined to sit on the bank of a great river and not to attempt to pass it until all its waters should have rolled by; or we shall be compared to the careless farmer who allows rank weeds to grow up in his garden, together with the good plants, till at last the good plants are dwarfed and smothered by the noxious weeds. In my opinion, our own policy with those in authority should be to insist on our rights in season and out of season; and even when our claims may have been slighted or rejected, to continue our demands until every grievance shall be removed.

We must make great exertions to obtain the object of our desires, and display great energy in our proceedings. We have numerous and active enemies to contend with—men as enthusiastic in a bad cause as the Pharisees of the Gospel, who compassed earth and sea to make a proselyte, but who cared very little for his moral progress, once they had secured his adherence to their views. However, we are not left alone in our struggle for religious education. With us we have the sympathy of the Catholics of the world, who are fighting the same battle as we ourselves, and cheer us on by their example. We have with us the blessing of the successor of St. Peter, who has repeatedly approved of the justice of our cause, and we have the sanction of Christ Himself for the safety of the lambs of whose folds we are laboring. But omitting all this, I believe that the most influential and distinguished members, lay and clerical, of the Anglican body, are with us, and that the principal liberal and enlightened Protestants of the Union wish us success.

The State does not interfere with the free exercise of our religion, neither should it interfere with our system of education;—two measures of great importance, well calculated gradually to promote the public welfare of the country. If the State seriously wishes to check the growth of revolution, or to stem the growing torrent of communism and infidelity, they ought to discountenance infidel institutions, and give schools to Catholics, in which they may uphold the true principles of authority, human and Divine, in accordance with the traditions of the Catholic Church of America, and thus strengthen the foundations not only of religion, but of society in general.

Again, some will say, "I do not see why people can object so much to Public Schools; I myself went there, and I think I am as good a Catholic as any one of those who were educated at Catholic schools and institutions."

If you really have tried to be a good Catholic, if you have complied faithfully with all your religious duties, you will have to avow that it is all owing to the beneficial Catholic influence under which you were placed during the time of your scholarship, and afterwards. If you escaped the general contagion of unbelief and vice, remember that it is owing to a kind of miracle of Divine Protection. But what I have said in reference to Public Schools shows sufficiently that such a protection is extended to but few children—it is an exception to the ordinary course of Divine Providence, and God is not bound to grant it to any one.

A certain friend of mine—a man of great learning and experience—wrote to me one day, that "he himself had been, in his youth, subjected to college training; that, be it by nature or by grace, or both combined, he resisted and escaped. But," he adds, "from my observation and experience, I would say it did require a miracle for Catholic youth to escape the damnable effects of a non-Catholic school education." I have had opportunities, in this line, that many a priest has never had. I assert that a Catholic boy of tender years, and perhaps careless training, can be preserved from moral contamination, in public and mixed schools, by nothing less than a miracle. I will not chop logic with any one about it. It is a matter of fact. I therefore assert it as of ascertained result, that in most cases—especially in those cases where there are enough of Catholics together to have a school of their own—their frequenting a school without religion will land most of them in utter carelessness of their religion.

Grace does not destroy nature. And it is nature that—

"... as the twig is bent, the tree inclines."

But let me ask you, How can you think that you are as good a Catholic as others; you who object to the teaching of the Church, to the persuasion of all sensible men? Indeed, your language betrays you. Your very language convinces me still more of the necessity of having Catholic schools where our children learn the language and imbibe the spirit of their spiritual mother—the Catholic Church. The Public Schools are none the better for your having frequented them. Let us suppose a father wishes to send his children across the ocean. Now he knows for certain that the vessel which is about to leave for the old country will be wrecked; he also knows that a few of the passengers will be saved, as it were, by a miracle, but he knows not who they are. Will he send his children by that vessel?

Now the Public Schools are like a large vessel. The greater part of those who have embarked in it have suffered shipwreck in their faith and good morals. What father, then, will be mad enough to send his children by this vessel, across the ocean of time, to their heavenly fatherland?

There are others, again, who assert "that we must not attempt to have Catholic schools until we can afford to conduct them so as to compete with the Public Schools."

The point in question is godless schools, which are condemned on account of being infidel in principle. Even with all their faults, our schools are, it must be conceded, not infidel, but Christian schools. We are at liberty, there, to teach our children our holy religion whenever we wish. We can give them good books, and bring them up in a religious atmosphere. If we do for the establishment and organization of Catholic schools what we can, God will not hold us responsible for the loss of those of our children who did not profit by their religious education, while, on the contrary, we remain accountable to God for those who, for want of a Catholic education, suffer shipwreck in their faith and morals, and are lost forever. In the sight of God, the above excuse will avail us nothing.

Some, even most of our schools, may have been more or less defective in the beginning. Well, what was the Church at the time of the Apostles? There were then no gorgeous cathedrals as nowadays. The Christians were instructed and sanctified in the Catacombs, and in poor private dwellings. So, in a country like ours, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a mustard seed. Churches and schools are insignificant in the beginning; but, by degrees, more life and splendor is infused into them, and they grow up to perfection.

We honor and venerate the Apostles as the corner-stones of Christianity. Happy, thrice happy, those pastors who lay solid foundations for future Catholic life by establishing nurseries—Catholic schools—for its maintenance and propagation. Their reward will be like unto that of the Apostles. Our successors will bring our feeble beginnings to perfection. This is the natural course of things. We may not have the happiness to witness a plentiful harvest from the seed that we have sown with so much toil and labor; but we should nevertheless bear in mind that those bishops and priests who have the happiness of laying the foundations of future Catholic life in our country, resemble our Lord Jesus Christ, Who suffered His Apostles to perform even greater miracles than He Himself had wrought.

I know the above objection is more frequently made in the New England States than anywhere else. Now it is a well-known fact that the Yankee race is fast dying out. They have either no children at all, or only one or two. Hence it is that the larger portion of the Public School children are the children of Catholic parents. These States foresee that were the Catholic children to leave their schools, their Public School buildings would soon be empty, and stand there as eloquent monuments to tell on the folly of the States for having erected them. Now in order to keep the Catholic children at their schools, and thus keep up their fine lucrative establishments, they have, in several places, taken in the Catholic priests as members of the School Boards. Truly, "the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light." These priests, by accepting the honor! of membership! of the School Board, give, thereby, at least a tacit approbation of the godless Public Schools. Thus the State, by conferring this privilege! throws dust into the eyes of the people. It is, therefore, quite evident that were this tacit approbation of the Catholic clergy withdrawn, were they to erect Catholic schools, the godless schools would soon be emptied and suspended, and there would hardly be other but Catholic schools. The Catholic teachers of the Public Schools would follow our children, and would be too happy in teaching on Catholic ground, and according to Catholic principles.

Should a sufficient number of children be left for the Public Schools, this would be no reason whatever to fear that our Catholic schools could not compete with the Public Schools; for, generally speaking, Catholic children are more talented than those of Protestants or infidels. The reason of this is easily to be seen: they have been baptized; the veil of sin has been raised from their souls, and the Catholic life which they lead makes their minds brighter, more quick to perceive, and to understand what is difficult. About six months ago the priests of St. James's Church, in New York, exhorted the parents to take their children out of the Public Schools, and send them to Catholic schools. What happened? Three of the Public School teachers came and complained to the priests that the brightest gems of their school had left, and that, on that account, they could not have the exhibition which they intended soon to give. A short time ago, at an exhibition in Boston, it was a Catholic young lady that took the prize medal.

And after all, the principal object for getting up Catholic schools is not to show off their superiority to, or their equality with, infidel schools—this is not even a secondary end—we want Catholic schools to preserve our Catholic religion, our Catholic traditions, our Catholic spirit and morals; we want them to raise in them children for heaven, not for hell; children for God, not for the devil; children for a happy eternity, not for everlasting damnation. That's all. Hence Jesus Christ, on the Day of Judgment, will not ask parents and pastors of souls whether their schools could compete with infidel schools, but whether they did all in their power to secure the eternal welfare of their children by a good Catholic education.

Father John de Starchia, Provincial of the Friars Minor, made regulations more favorable to worldly science than to the spirit of piety and religion, attaching, as he did, more importance to the education of the mind than to that of the heart. St. Francis of Assisium upbraided him for it, but in vain. So the great servant of God cursed the Provincial, and deposed him at the ensuing chapter. The saint was entreated, by some of his brethren in religion, to withdraw this curse from the Provincial, a learned noble man, and to give him his blessing. But neither the learning nor the noble extraction of the Provincial could prevail upon St. Francis to comply with their request. "I cannot," said he, "bless him whom the Lord has cursed"—a dreadful reply, which soon after was verified. This unfortunate man died exclaiming: "I am damned and cursed for all eternity!" Some frightful circumstances which followed after his death, confirmed his awful prediction. (Life of St. Francis of Assisium.) Such a malediction should strike terror into the hearts of all those who attach more importance to the cultivation of the mind than to that of the heart, and on that account prefer godless Public Schools to Catholic schools.

Again, one may object: "The religious development does not necessarily suppose a literary development too. A person may be illiterate, and yet learned in the science of the saints, and a man may be learned in science, and ignorant of his duty towards God and his fellow-creatures. There were, are, and will be members of the Catholic Church, who, ignorant of science, of book-learning, did not become infidels, but exhibited a practical faith throughout life, and died in the odor of sanctity. Divine faith does not require as a companion, in the individual Catholic, a knowledge of profane literature, but humility, compunction, self-denial, and a contempt of the world. Schools are therefore not absolutely necessary for our children."

As far as the little profit is concerned that mere book-learning does towards enabling the masses of mankind to accomplish the great end of their being—the salvation of their souls—I am disposed to go all lengths with him in this. But he and I must both acknowledge that the whole current of Catholic influence and practice has set in favor of book-learning and of schools. The Popes have been constant in this line, and Catholic Bishops have acted in the same direction.

But grant that school learning is of little account. Something even harder is said of riches. There is no woe on those that spend their time on book-learning; there is a "woe to them that are rich"! Nevertheless, Catholics, as others, strive to acquire wealth. So that they do it honestly, the Catholic Church does not condemn it. Book education, like riches, is a means of advancement in the world. The instructed are, on the whole, of greater consideration than the uninstructed. The business of the Catholic Church is to see that this source of power is not turned to the destruction of those that acquire it.

Besides, I fully agree that, as a universal proposition, school-learning, or book-learning, is not necessary to the salvation of souls—which is the great end of human life. So far, the objection is correct in saying that Catholic schools are not, as a universal proposition, necessary for Catholics.

But, in hac providentia; in a condition in which Catholics, like others, are striving that their children may obtain the mastery, book-learning is, like money, a grand element of strength and of consideration. This is what those in care of souls must look to. Book-learning and wealth are neither of them against faith. They are simple elements of power—physical paraphernalia. The great thing is, how they may be used!

Again mark! I do not say that it is of strict obligation for Catholics to send their children to any school. For the comparatively few that have at once the means and the disposition, I hold that there is no education like that received under the parental roof. There is the true home of sturdy independence in men, and of affectionate and chaste devotion in women. Moreover, it is a great good fortune for conscientious parents, with growing childhood around them, to have the charge and responsibility of these children. It is education for parents as well as children. It brings the strong element of parental affection, in aid of all other motives for living a good life, as an example to beloved young ones. We mourn that Catholics, at least, so seldom, when they have the means, make their own houses the schools for their own children. But this can be done by few, comparatively. Nor can select and private schools, with few scholars, and those picked ones, be had. As a matter of fact, the children of most Catholics must receive whatever school instruction they get, in large and general schools.

God may, by a miracle, preserve the faith in a whole nation, as He really did in the Irish, because they were forbidden to use the ordinary means whereby Catholics bring up their offspring in the faith. But, when Irish men and women come to this country, where there is no prohibition of their having Catholic schools, and having their children educated in them, it is, as I have said, a rash defiance of the ordinary laws of God's Providence, to neglect the daily and systematic training of the intellects of their children in conformity with Catholic discipline.

There are some who say "they pay taxes, and they, of course, would like to profit as well as others by their contribution to the school fund." It is nothing but right that they should; but they cannot, and ought not, to do so upon the conditions imposed on them. The Christians of the first centuries paid taxes to the Roman Empire, for they had been taught by their Divine Master to render unto Caesar what belonged to Caesar; but rather than refuse to render to God what belonged to God, rather than give up their faith, or expose themselves to the danger of losing it, they went to the lions.

At a later period, the Irish, so much taunted for their ignorance in reading and writing, paid heavy taxes to the British Government, and, be it said to their honor, they, for a time, deprived themselves of the most useful knowledge, not on account of their opposition to schools, but because when the teachers of their choice were hunted down by government officials, and shot like wild beasts, if caught in the act of teaching, they refused to go to the State schools, which they could not attend without betraying the faith of their ancestors.

We also pay taxes, and will continue to do so in submission to a most unjust law; but, thanks be to God! we are at liberty to seek legal redress, and our exertions should increase until it is obtained by those very means which were used to establish godless schools, viz.: the press, lecturing, preaching, etc., to form, again, public opinion in favor of Christian schools, and electing such men to legislatures as are down upon godless schools, and advocate the establishment of Christian schools for the well-being of our country. In the meantime, in order to preserve the true faith, and save the world from the deadly indifference into which it is falling, Catholic schools must be got up, and kept up, at any cost.

Finally, there are some of the clergy who say, "It is so much trouble to get up schools, and to support them—where to get the teachers, and the money to pay them." True, it is troublesome to establish schools; but we have to live on troubles. Our very troubles become our ladder to heaven, if borne for the sake of Jesus Christ. If we do not wish to undergo troubles and trials of every kind for the sake of Jesus, and for the salvation of those for whom He shed His heart's blood, we should not have become priests. Our right and claim to heaven can be established only by following our Lord, and by carrying our cross after Him.

As to the fear of not getting money for building and supporting schools, let us look at those magnificent school-buildings in every city and town of the country. Where did those priests who built them get the money? It was no angel from heaven that brought it. The parents of the children that are educated in these schools gave it. Let us rest assured that money will not be wanting to a priest if his zeal is great enough to show to parents the absolute necessity of Catholic schools, in order to save their children from becoming scourges for society in this life, and from becoming victims of hell in the next. Let a priest unite great charity and affection for children, and he will at once lay hold on the hearts and money of their parents. Those parents who have no money to offer, will most willingly offer their labor for so noble a work. This has been our experience for years in every place where we took charge of a congregation. Let every child—the poor excepted—pay from thirty to forty cents a month. The money thus collected will cover all the expenses for teachers, and for the books of the poor children. Parents are but too happy to have a priest who takes a lively interest in the temporal and eternal happiness of their children. For the promotion of this happiness, parents will give to the priest the last cent they have got—nay, their own hearts' blood, if necessary. This we have witnessed many times. We have established schools in country places, where the people made very little money; yet they were but too happy to give us money for the building and support of schools. There are hundreds of priests who can say the same of themselves. And should there be refractory characters who do not care about a good Catholic education, let us refuse them absolution, as penitents who are not disposed for the worthy reception of the sacraments. We cannot scruple to do this.

The voice of common sense, the voice of sad experience, the voice of Catholic bishops, and especially the voice of the Holy Father, is raised against, and condemns, the Public School system as a huge humbug, injuring, not promoting, personal virtue and good citizenship, and as being most pernicious to Catholic faith, and life, and all good morals. A pastor, therefore, cannot maintain the contrary opinion without incurring great guilt before God and the Church. He cannot allow parents to send their children to such schools of infidelity and immorality. He cannot give them absolution, and say, "Innocens sum!" For he must know and understand that parents are bound before the Almighty to raise their children good Catholics, to plant in their hearts the seed of godliness and parental obedience; this was their promise at the baptismal font. They are bound in conscience to redeem this promise; but they cannot do this, so long as their children go to the Public Schools; for it must be conceded that children attending these godless Public Schools are in proximate occasion of sin, and this occasion is in esse for them. This being so, parents cannot receive absolution unless they remove from their children this occasion of sin. "I do not see," says the Archbishop of Cincinnati—and many other bishops say the same—"I do not see how parents can be absolved, if they are not disposed to support Catholic schools, and send their children thereto."

"Duty compels us"—says the Bishop of Vincennes, Ind., in his Pastoral Letter of 1872—"duty compels us to instruct the pastors of our churches to refuse absolution to parents who, having the facilities and means of educating their children in a Christian manner, do, from worldly motives, expose them to the danger of losing their faith. This measure, however, being very rigorous, we intend that it shall be recurred to in extreme cases only, and when all means of persuasion have been exhausted."

As for teachers, there are everywhere many young ladies who have received a splendid education, and who would feel but too happy to become teachers for our children, and bring them up in such a manner as to fit them for business in this life, and for heaven hereafter.

But why so many objections? It was in the following manner that two bishops silenced all such objections, and made Catholic schools spring up all over their dioceses in a short time: they told their priests "that, were they not to have schools within a certain limited time, they would dismiss them from their dioceses; and that, should their parishioners not be willing to provide the means for establishing and supporting Catholic schools, they would withdraw from them their priests." This looks like believing in the Catholic Church. From the moment that the priests saw this determination of their bishop—the people were overjoyed at it—Catholic schools, and, with them, Catholic life, sprang up, and diffused itself at once all over the two dioceses.

Let, then, everyone of our clergy take courage, and the Lord will dispose the hearts of the rich and the poor in his favor;—the hearts of the rich to provide him with means, the hearts of the poor to aid him, by their prayers, in the promotion of so noble a work as is the establishment of good Catholic schools.



CHAPTER XV.

ZEAL OF THE PRIEST FOR THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN.

It is a matter of fact that the Protestant movement was chiefly directed against the Papacy, and that it involved a hundred years of so-called religious wars. This movement gave the princes who took the side of the Church an opportunity, of which they were not slow to avail themselves, to extend and consolidate their power over their Catholic subjects, and to establish in their dominions monarchical absolutism, or what we may choose to call modern Caesarism.

Under plea of serving religion, they extended their power over matters which had hitherto either been left free, or subject only to the jurisdiction of the spiritual authority. They were defenders of the faith against armed heretics; and they pretended that this excess of power was necessary, in order to succeed in their undertaking. A habit of depending on them as the external defenders of religion and her altars, of the freedom of conscience, and of the Catholic civilization itself, was generated; the king took the place in the thoughts and affections of the people that was due to the Soverign Pontiff, and by giving the direction to the schools and universities in all things not absolutely of faith, they gradually became the lords of men's minds as well as bodies. In France, Spain, Portugal, and a large part of Italy, all through the seventeenth century, the youth were trained in the maxim—the Prince is the State, and his pleasure is law. Bossuet, in his politics, did only faithfully express the political sentiments and convictions of his age, shared by the great body of Catholics as well as of non-Catholics. Rational liberty had few defenders, and they were excluded, like Fenelon, from the Court. The politics of Philip II. of Spain, of Richelieu, Mazarin, and Louis XIV. in France, which were the politics of Catholic Europe, scarcely opposed by any one, except by the Popes, through the greater part of the sixteenth and the whole of the seventeenth centuries, tended directly to enslave the people, and to restrict the freedom and influence of the Church.

Trained under despotic influences by the skilful hand of despotism, extending to all matters not absolutely of the sanctuary, and sometimes daring, with sacrilegious foot, to invade the sanctuary itself, the people were gradually formed interiorly, as well as exteriorly, to the purposes of the despot. They grew up with the habits and beliefs which Caesarism, when not resisted, is sure to generate.

The clergy, sympathizing, as is the case with every national clergy, with the sentiments of their age and nation in all things not strictly of faith, had little disposition to labor to keep alive the spirit of freedom in the hearts of the people, and would not have been permitted to do it, even if they had been so disposed. Schools were sustained, but, affected by the prevailing despotism, education declined; free thought was prohibited; and it is hard to find a literature tamer, less original and living, than that of Catholic Europe all through the eighteenth century, down almost to our own times.

As the Catholic religion was professedly patronized by the sovereigns, the Church, in superficial minds, seemed to sanction the prevailing Caesarism. The clergy, because they preached peace, and thought to fulfil their mission without disturbing the State, came, for the first time in history, to be regarded as the chief supporters of the despot.

They who retained some reminiscences of the liberties once enjoyed by Catholic Europe, and the noble principles of freedom, asserted in the Middle Ages by the monks in their cells, and the most eminent Doctors of the Church from their chairs, became alienated from Catholicity in proportion as they cherished the spirit of resistance, and, unhappily, imbibed the fatal conviction that to overthrow the despot's throne they must break down the altar. Rightly interpreted, the old French Revolution, although bitterly anti-Catholic and infidel, was not so much hatred of religion, and impatience of her salutary restraints, as the indignant uprising of a misgoverned people against a civil despotism that affected injuriously all orders, ranks and conditions of society. The sovereigns had taken good care that an attack on them should involve an attack on religion, and to have it deeply impressed on their subjects that resistance to them was rebellion against God. The priest, who should have labored publicly to correct the issue made up by the sovereigns in accord with unbelievers, would have promoted sedition, and done more harm than good; besides, he would have been at once reduced to silence, in some one of the many ways despotism has usually at its command.

The horrors of the French Revolution, the universal breaking up of society it involved, the persecution of the Church and of her clergy, and her religious, which it shamelessly introduced in the name of liberty, the ruthless war it waged upon religion, virtue, all that wise and good men hold sacred, not unnaturally, to say the least, tended to create in the minds of the clergy and the people, who remained firm in their faith, and justly regarded religion as the first want of man and society, a deeper distrust of the practicability of liberty, and a deeper horror of all movements attempted in its name. This, again, as naturally tended to alienate the party clamoring for political and social reform still more from Catholicity; which, in its turn, has reacted with new force on the Catholic party, and made them still more determined in their anti-liberal convictions and efforts. These tendencies, on both sides, have been aggravated by the European revolutions and repressions, till now almost everywhere the lines are well defined, and the so-called Liberals are, almost to a man, bitterly anti-Catholic, and the sovereigns seem to have succeeded in forcing the issue: The Church and Caesarism, or Liberty and Infidelity.

Certainly, as religion is of the highest necessity to man and society, infinitely more important than political freedom and social well-being, I am unable to conceive how the Catholic party, under the circumstances, could well have acted differently. Their error was in their want of vigilance and sagacity in the beginning, in suffering the political Caesarism to revive and consolidate itself in the State, or the sovereigns, in the outset, to force upon the Catholic world so false an issue, or to place them in so unnatural and so embarrassing a position. The truth is, the Catholic party, yielding to the sovereigns, lost, to some extent, for the eighteenth century, the control of the mind of the age, and failed to lead its intelligence—they who should always be first and foremost in every department of human thought and activity.

That the struggles in Europe have an influence on the Catholic clergy and laity in this country, cannot be denied. As yet many of our Catholics, whether foreign-born or native-born, seem scarcely to realize the fact that they are freemen, and possess, in this land of freedom, equal rights with their fellow-citizens of every other denomination. They have so long been an oppressed people, that their freedom here seems hardly real. And unhappily even some of the clergy seem to be too timid and backward in defending boldly and publicly those doctrines of our holy faith which are opposed to the popular errors of our infidel age. So far we have, thank God, been enjoying full religious liberty; but it will depend mainly on the Catholic clergy to maintain this liberty, by upholding the religious principles upon which all true liberty is based. In order to maintain these principles they must defend liberty of education to the utmost, and must not cease to remind the State that it is its solemn duty to govern a free Christian people in a Christian manner, and according to the Constitution of the Republic; and that, under no pretence whatever, can it violate this Constitution in so vital a point as is the education of our children; and that it is a constant and crying injustice to tax Catholics for the support of godless schools. We must not yield any of our constitutional rights; if we do, the Church will be implicated, by degrees, in the same kind of struggle which is now becoming so serious in Europe.

Now in order to meet with success, let us take up the press. In our country, unfortunately, an unchristian press is guaranteed the fullest liberty, and the evils that flow from that liberty are widely spread. It is certain that this unrestricted freedom of the press, which every one is ready to abuse, and which allows every one to constitute himself a teacher of the public, can be defended neither on principles of reason nor of faith. It becomes, therefore, not only our privilege, but our solemn duty, to combat the unchristian by a really Christian press—a matter on which the Church, and the Head of the Church, have spoken in an unmistakable manner. If Catholics have not thorough Catholic papers, they will take periodicals which are not Catholic. To have even one good paper, through which we can give expression to our thoughts, is a great blessing and a great gain; but that certainly does not enable us to give our voice that weight in the questions of the day to which it is entitled. A great deal has, of late years, been done for the establishment of Catholic journals, and much good has been accomplished by them. But far more might have been done had the Catholic press received more support both from the clergy and laity. It is so easy for the clergy to give this support by encouraging the Catholics in general, but especially the members of so many excellent Catholic associations, to subscribe to such periodicals. One word from the priest on the usefulness of having a good Catholic paper and magazine in the family, will induce a hundred times more Catholics to become subscribers, than the longest appeal of a newspaper editor. The stronger the Catholic press becomes, the more the attention of the nation is called to it, the more shall we secure their respect for us and our religion. Yes, it is absolutely necessary in a country like ours, where religious tracts from Protestant societies, and pamphlets and periodicals of the most obscene character, are flying over the land like leaves before the autumn wind, that Catholic journals should be called into existence on every hand, and that no sacrifice should be spared to do so, and to encourage those already in existence. If the clergy only take the matter in hand, they will find those willing and able to carry the matter through. Let us use our talents, as God shall grant us grace and ability, that we may, by so powerful a means as is the press, disseminate the principles of truth, in order to contend with error. The light of truth is far more calculated to dispel the darkness of error, than the light of the sun is to disperse the darkness of the night. Why are there so many talents lying idle among us? Why so many pens that move not, when they should be burning with love for God, and for the welfare of their fellow-men? Why so many tongues that are ever silent, when they might, day after day, preach the good tidings of the Gospel of Christ? Let us rest assured God has given to us, to every man his vocation, his sphere of action and holy influence, wherein he can proclaim to those around him that faith which maketh wise unto salvation. Let us not be cowards,—let us show as much determination and courage, let us sacrifice as much for the propagation of truth as its enemies do for the dissemination of error; bearing, however, always in mind that the manner in which we must combat error ought to be charitable; for otherwise it is not calculated to command respect, and make a salutary impression. It is thus that our fellow-citizens of other denominations will come to understand that we appreciate our liberty, and know how to use it for the benefit of the public.

But all rights and liberties avail nothing, in the end, if Catholic education itself is not what it ought to be. And the great battle that is waging, that education may not be deprived of its Christian character, can be won by us only on condition that teachers, and educators themselves, as well as parents and the clergy, understand precisely the full bearing of the question.

To-day, more than ever, we need a thorough Catholic education. The enemies of our religion are now making war upon its dogmas more generally and craftily than at any former period. Their attacks, for being wily and concealed, are all the more pernicious. The impious rage of a Voltaire, or the "solemn sneer" of a Gibbon, would be less dangerous than this insidious warfare. They disguise their designs under the appearance of devotion to progressive ideas, and hatred of superstition and intolerance, all the better to instil the slow but deadly poison. By honeyed words, a studied candor, a dazzle of erudition, they have spread their "gossamer nets of seduction" over the world. The press teems with books and journals in which doctrines subversive of religion and morality are so elegantly set forth, that the unguarded reader is very apt to be deceived by the fascination of false charms, and to mistake a most hideous and dangerous object for the very type of beauty. The serpent stealthily glides under the silken verdure of a polished style. Nothing is omitted. The passions are fed, and the morbid sensibilities pandered to; firmness in the cause of truth or virtue is called obstinacy; and strength of soul, a refractory blindness. The bases of morality are sapped in the name of liberty; the discipline of the Church, when not branded as sheer "mummery," is held up as hostile to personal freedom; and her dogmas, with one or two exceptions, are treated as opinions which may be received or rejected with like indifference.

Nor is this irreligious tendency confined to literary publications; it finds numerous and powerful advocates in men of scientific pursuits, who strive to make the worse appear the better cause. The chemist has never found in his crucible that intangible something which men call spirit; so, in the name of science, he pronounces it a myth. The anatomist has dissected the human frame; but, failing to meet the immaterial substance—the soul—he denies its existence. The physicist has weighed the conflicting theories of his predecessors in the scale of criticism, and finally decides that bodies are nothing more than the accidental assemblage of atoms, and rejects the very idea of a Creator. The geologist, after investigating the secrets of the earth, triumphantly tells us that he has accumulated an overwhelming mass of facts to refute the biblical cosmogony, and thus subvert the authority of the inspired record. The astronomer flatters himself that he has discovered natural and necessary laws, which do away with the necessity of admitting that a Divine Hand once launched the heavenly bodies into space, and still guides them in their courses; the stenographer has studied the peculiarities of the races; he has met with widely-different conformations, and believes himself sufficiently authorized to deny the unity of the human family; in a word, they conclude that nothing exists but matter, that God is a myth, and the soul "the dream of a dream."

Thus do men attack these sacred truths, which cannot be shaken without greatly injuring, and finally destroying, the social edifice.

Now, when we see the snares so cunningly laid to entrap our youth, can we wonder that so many of our Catholic young men, even after they have been educated at Catholic colleges, are caught in them, and fall into infidelity? A short time ago, a gentleman of great learning, and a celebrated convert to our Church, told me that he had the greatest trouble to keep his son from falling into infidelity, though he was naturally inclined to piety. He said that he had him educated at one of the best colleges in the country, and that he felt surprised at the fact that so many of the young men educated there had become infidels. "I cannot," he said, "account for this, otherwise than by presuming that the religious training there is not solid enough; that the heathen world is too much read and studied; that principles somewhat too lax are in vogue; that the truths of our religion are taught too superficially; that the principles which underlie the dogmas are not sufficiently explained, inculcated, and impressed upon the minds of the young men, and that their educators fail in giving them a correct idea of the spirit and essence of our religion, which is based on divine revelation, and invested in a Body divinely commissioned to teach all men, authoritatively and infallibly, all its sacred and immutable truths—truths which we are consequently bound in conscience to receive without hesitation.

"Now what I have said of certain colleges applies also, unhappily, to many of our female academies; they are by no means what they should be, according to the spirit of the Church; they conform too much to the spirit of the world; they have too many human considerations; they make too many allowances for Protestant pupils at the expense of the Catholic spirit and training of our young Catholic ladies; they yield too much to the spirit of the age; in a word, they attend more to the intellectual than to the spiritual culture of their pupils.

"But what is even more surprising than all this is, that some of our Catholic clergy, and among them some even of those who should be first and foremost in fighting for sound religious principles, and seeing that our youth are carefully brought up in them, are too much inclined to yield to the godless spirit of the age—to the so-called liberal views on Catholic education, which have been clearly and solemnly condemned by the Holy See. They tell us poor people in the world, that, if we are careless in bringing up our children as good Catholics, we are worse than heathens, and have denied our faith! that, if our children are lost through our neglect, we also shall be lost. I would like to know whether God will show Himself more merciful to those of our clergy who take so little interest in the religious instruction of our youth; who make little or no exertions to establish Catholic schools, where we could have our children properly educated; who, when they condescend to instruct them, do so in bombastic language, in scholastic terms which the poor children cannot understand, taking no pains to give their instructions in plain words, and in a manner attractive for children.

"As the pastor is, so is the flock. We enjoy full religious liberty in our country. All we need is good, courageous pastors—standard-bearers in the cause of God and the people. We would be only too happy to follow them, and to support and encourage them by every means in our power. What an immense amount of good could thus be achieved in a short time! Our religion never loses anything of its efficacy upon the minds and hearts of men; it can only lose in as far as it is not brought to bear upon them. What is most wanted is not argument, but instruction and explanation.

"I can hardly account for this want of zeal for true Catholic education in so many of our clergy, who are otherwise models of every virtue, than by supposing the fact that their ecclesiastical training must have been deficient in many respects, or that they must have spent their youth in our godless Public Schools, where they were never thoroughly imbued with the true spirit of the Catholic Church—the spirit of God.

"I have quietly, for some time, studied, as far as I was able, the prevailing spirit of our people; noted the remarks and efforts of a few ecclesiastics, laics, and Catholic periodicals (and, alas! how very few) made in behalf of the sacred obligation of education, and endeavored to compare the results with the efforts, and the observation made is sadly disheartening.

"Examine the Catholic almanacs, the census of the various States, or those of the United States, and ascertain, first, the number of Catholics in the country; second, the number of those between the ages of six and twenty-one years; then divide this last number by the number of Catholic schools, including colleges, academies, convents, parochial and private schools, and the quotient will be what? Indifference to Catholic education! In other words, this simple operation in vulgar arithmetic demonstrates that in no country claiming to be enlightened can be found thirteen millions of Catholics with such an inadequate number of schools as we have, or are likely to have, if a policy widely different from that which prevails at present be not early inaugurated and steadily pursued. It is, indeed, true—and I willingly, cheerfully admit the fact—that most of our priests, and nearly all our bishops, are exerting themselves zealously, strenuously, and with marked success, in the cause of education. But not all the priests; not all the bishops are enlisted in the cause; nor are all in positive sympathy with it. All may be, perhaps are, agreed in believing that Catholic education is necessary; but all are not agreed as to the necessity of Catholic schools in which it may be secured. Unanimity exists as to the end, but not as to the means to that end. And this lack or absence of unanimity, especially among those whose peculiar province it is to shape and direct Catholic sentiment, has produced, and continues to produce, the most injurious consequences.

"Many of the clergy are not opposed to the Public Schools, nor do they feel reluctant to publicly make known the "faith which is in them," when an opportunity presents itself. Many are opposed to these schools, but theirs is a negative opposition; that is, they are not in favor of them. They believe that Catholic schools are better and safer, but they do not consider it a duty incumbent on themselves to undertake the labor and trouble inseparable from the establishment and direction of parochial schools. These reverend gentlemen are simply neutrals; that is, if men may, or can, be neutral on such a subject.

"Thought is free, and it may, perhaps, be impossible to have entire unanimity in matters of opinion only; but if one of the ends sought to be attained by the Church be the securing to each child a Catholic education, it is very evident that the establishment of schools should not be left to the discretion or whim of the several pastors. Upon subjects far less important than that of schools, the statutes in many dioceses are clear, explicit, binding. Is there any reason for their silence on the subject of education? Our bishops have not only the power, but the will, to enforce such matters of discipline as they deem necessary. This granted—because too clear to be denied—does it not follow that the establishment of schools maybe made obligatory upon pastors? Let discipline be made uniform, and we will not witness such an anomalous condition of things as exist at present. Duties are never in collision; obligations never clash. There is but one right thing to be done, but one right cause to pursue, all things considered; and whatever is in conflict with this cannot be a duty, whatever may seem to be its claim. In some parts of this country, the sacraments are refused to those who decline to have their children attend Catholic schools where such are convenient; but there is not, so far as I am informed, in those parts, any rule making it obligatory upon pastors to establish such schools. In other sections, to withhold the sacraments for such a cause is unthought of. The consequence is that many Catholics are at a loss to understand why it is that an act which subjects them to such severe punishment in one diocese should in another not call forth even a mild reproof—pass unnoticed. In actions indifferent in themselves, it may be wise, "when in Rome, to do as the Romans do"; but where principle is involved, such an easy adaptability cannot be encouraged.

"In this laxity of discipline, and in this want of uniformity, in this wide difference of opinion among those who give direction to Catholic sentiment, and who speak, as it were, ex cathedra, may be found some of the causes for the indifference existing among our people on the question of Catholic education.

"But it is so convenient to allow things to go on in the old way, and so hard to establish anything new. Yet a thing which, in the great struggle between the Church and antichrist, is one of the most powerful means of victory, is really worth the highest sacrifice. Indeed, the establishment of thorough Catholic schools is the most important step that can be taken by our clergy to solve certain social questions, and which can be solved only on Catholic principles. The greatest social danger of the age, is the dechristianization and demoralization of the rising generation. This dechristianization and demoralization are, to a great extent, the cause of the wretchedness of society, and make that wretchedness almost incurable. What enormous dimensions has this evil assumed under the present godless system of education in the Public Schools! But even the evils resulting from this system might, to a great extent, be healed, if the clergy labor, with the zeal and fire of apostolic times, to have good schools, and imbue our children therein with thorough Christian knowledge, with fervent piety and earnest devotion. Oh! if the children of light were only as wise as the children of the world, we should witness wonders. It is true that evil makes its way in this world better than goodness does, but it is also true that goodness does not prosper, because those who represent it take the matter too lightly, or do not go about it as they should. More is often done for the worst cause than men are willing to do or to sacrifice for the best. A great deal has of late years been done for the establishment and maintenance of Catholic schools. Let us sincerely hope that a great deal more will be done, and more universally; and need requires us not only to pray, but to work with all our strength, with inexhaustible patience and devotion, at the establishment of Catholic schools, and make, for this noblest of objects, sacrifices not less generous than those made by infidels in behalf of godless education."

It was thus that the good old gentleman spoke to me. He uttered great truths. His language is that of all good Catholics in the country. I have often heard it. It is no exaggeration to assert that the salvation of those of our clergy who have charge of congregations depends, in a great measure, on the solicitude with which they promote the thorough Catholic education of those children who are confided to their care.

"Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I Myself come upon the shepherds, I will require My flock at their hand."—(Ezek. xxxiv. 9, 10.)

If our Lord will require His flock at the hands of their pastors, He will undoubtedly require from them a stricter account of that part of his flock for which he has always shown a particular predilection, that is, for children. It was to children that He gave the special honor of being the first to shed their blood for His name's sake. He has given them to us as a model of humility, which we should imitate: "Unless you become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." He wishes that every one should hold them in great honor: "See that you despise not one of these little ones." Why not? "For I say to you, that their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven."—(Matt. xviii. 10.)

He wishes every one to be on his guard, lest he should scandalize a little child: "It were better for him that a mill-stone were put about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones."—(Matt. xviii. 6.)

He says that the love, attention, and respect paid to a child, is paid to Himself. "And Jesus took a child and said to them: Whosoever shall receive this child in My name, receiveth Me."—(Luke ix. 48.)

He rebuked those who tried to prevent little children from being presented to Him, that He might bless them: "And they brought to Him young children, that he might touch them. And the disciples rebuked those who brought them; whom, when Jesus saw, He was much displeased, and saith to them: Suffer the little ones to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it. And embracing them, and laying His hands upon them, He blessed them."—(Mark x. 13-16.)

The motives, then, that should induce every priest to devote himself zealously to the spiritual welfare of youth, are: First, the great interest which Jesus Christ takes in children; and second, the more abundant fruits reaped from the care bestowed upon the young.

The Son of God came into the world to redeem all who were lost. But do children profit by His abundant redemption? Do they draw from the source of graces that are open to all? Will they be marked with the seal of Divine Adoption, and be nourished with His own Flesh in the Sacrament of His love? Will they be counted, in the course of their career, among the number of His faithful disciples, or among the enemies of His law? Will they one day be admitted into His kingdom? Will they be excluded? Is it heaven or hell that will be their lot for all eternity? It is we priests, and almost we only, that are expected to solve these problems. Children are the noblest portion of the flock that is confided to our care. Their fate is in our hands. If our zeal is not active in their salvation, Jesus will lose, in them, the fruit of His sufferings and death. How many are deprived forever of the sight and possession of God, because they have not received a good Catholic education. Who is to blame? Has the pastor sufficiently instructed, warned, and watched over them? How many lose their baptismal innocence almost as soon as they are capable of losing it, grow up in vicious habits, grow old in sin, and die impenitent at last, because they were neglected in early youth, were not subjected to the amiable yoke of virtue! "Bonum est viro, cum portaverit jugum ab adolescentia sua."—(Thren. iii. 27.) If the first years of life are pure, they often sanctify all the after life; but if the roots of the tree are rotten and dead, the branches will not be more healthy. "Adolescentes, cum semel a malitia fuerint occupati, quasi incaptivitatem essent adducti, quoquo diabolus jusserit eunt."—(S. Chrys. Hom. 19 in Gen.) Education is the mould in which a man's moral, intellectual, and religious character is formed. Man will become, in his old age, what education made him in his youth. "Adolescens juxta viam suam, etiam cum senuerit, non recedet ab ea."—(Prov. xxii. 6.) All is a snare and seduction for youth. If the fear of God, the horror of evil, the maxims of religion, are not profoundly engraven in the soul, what is to protect young people from their passions? What can be expected of a young man who has never heard of the happiness of virtue, the hopes of the future life, and the blessings or the woes of eternity? Now who will give the Christian education, if not the pastor? Can we rely on the parents? on Sunday-school teachers? Oh, priests! we are almost the only resource of these poor children. Can we, knowing, as we do, how much Jesus Christ loves them, can we, I say, resign ourselves to leaving them in their misery? "The kings of the earth have their favorites," said St. Augustine. The favorites of Jesus Christ are innocent souls. What is more innocent than the heart of a child whom baptism has purified from original stain, and who has not, as yet, contracted the stain of actual sin? This heart is the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost. Who can tell with what delight He makes of it His abode? Deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum. Look at the mothers who penetrated the crowd that surrounded the Saviour, in order to beg Him to bless their children.... They are at first repulsed; but soon after, what is their joy when they hear the good Master approve their desires, and justify what a zeal, little enlightened, taxed with indiscretion! Ah! let us understand the desires of the Son of God. "Suffer," says He to us, "suffer little children to come to me." What! You banish those who are dearest to Me? They who resemble them belong to the kingdom of heaven. If you love Me, take care of My sheep, but neglect not My lambs. Pasce agnos meos. Despise not one of My little ones. "Videte ne contemnatis unum ex his pusillis."—(Matt. xviii. 10.) I regard as done to Myself, all that is done to them. "Qui susceperit unum parvulum talem, in nomine meo, me suscipit."—(Ibid. 5.) O Saviour of the world! the desire to be beloved by Thee, and to prove my love for Thee, urges me to devote myself to the Catholic education of our children.

How great and consoling are not the fruits of zeal, when it has youth for its object! The good pastor never despairs of the salvation of his sheep, whatever may be their wanderings; he knows the power of grace, and the infinite mercy of the Lord. But what difficulties does he not encounter when he undertakes to bring back to God persons advanced in age! Children, on the contrary, oppose but one obstacle to his zeal—levity. All he needs with them is patience. Their souls are like new earth, which waits only culture to produce a quadruple. They are flexible plants, which take the form and direction given to them. Their hearts, pure from criminal affections, are susceptible of happy impressions and tendencies. They believe in authority. A religious instinct leads them to the priest. They adopt with confidence the faith and the sentiments of those who instruct them. Oh, how easy to soften that age, in speaking of a God Who has made Himself a child, and Who died for us! to awaken the fear of the Lord, compassion for those who suffer, gratitude, divine love, in souls predisposed, by the grace of baptism, to all the Christian virtues! Ask the most zealous pastors, and all will tell you that no part of their ministry is more consoling than that which is exercised for youth, because the fruits are incomparably more abundant. Although all my efforts for the sanctification of an old man, ever unfaithful to his duties, should be crowned with success, they could not help his long life being frightfully void of merits, and a permanent revolt against heaven. But if there be a child in question, my zeal sanctifies his whole life; I deposit in his soul the germ of all the good that he will do, and I shall participate in all the good works with which his career will be filled. All believers have come out of one single Abraham. From one child, well brought up, a whole generation of true Christians can proceed. In this little flock that surrounds me, God sees, perhaps, elect souls on whom His Providence has formed great designs—pious instructors, holy priests, who will carry far the knowledge of His name, and aid Him in saving millions of souls. In what astonishment would the first catechists of a St. Vincent de Paul, of a Francis Xavier, be thrown, had they been told what would become of those children, and what they would one day accomplish! But even supposing that all those confided to me follow the common way, I have in them the surest means of renewing my parish. To-day they receive the movement, in fifteen years they will give it. They will transmit good principles, happy inclinations to their own children, who will transmit them in their turn. Behold, it is thus that holy traditions are established, and a chain of solid virtues perpetuated; ages will reap what I have sown in a few days. It is by these considerations that the greatest saints, and the finest geniuses of Christianity, became so much attached to the education of youth. St. Jerome, St. Gregory Pope, St. Augustine, St. Vincent Ferrier, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Francis de Sales, St. Joseph Calasanctius, Gerson, Bellarmin, Bossuet, Fenelon, M. Olier, etc., believed they could never better employ their time and talents than in consecrating them to the education of the young. "It is considered honorable and useful to educate the son of a monarch, presumptive heir to his crown.... But the child that I form to virtue, is he not the child of God, inheritor of the kingdom of heaven?"—(Gerson.) "Believe me," said St. Francis de Sales, "the angels of little children love those with a particular love who bring them up in the fear of God, and who plant in their tender souls holy devotion." Have we always comprehended all the good that we can do to children by our humble functions?

But if we wish for the end, we must also wish for the means—for Catholic schools. They are the nurseries of the Church, as novitiates are the nurseries of religious orders. The chief pastoral work of the Church is to be done in the school. The school must be the chief solicitude of the priest. He must consider no trouble too great, no sacrifice of time and convenience too much, in order to secure good attendance and efficiency in the school. Neither sick calls, nor any other ecclesiastical duties, should be allowed to interfere with the school. He must be the life and character of the school, and it is principally he who must administer correction. The authority of the priest, his interest in the school, and his relation towards the parents, are far more persuasive and effectual as corrections, than scoldings and penances inflicted by the master and mistress.

It seems to me that we cannot insist too much upon the vital importance of the Catholic school. A priest's time is never better employed than when three or four hours of it are daily spent in school—and that so regularly, that his presence in the school is looked for alike by teachers, children, and parents—and when he then occupies another portion of his day in looking after the defaulters, and in talking with parents over the school duties, and the future prospects of their children. Thus the parents feel that in sending their children to be educated there, they are not turning them over to a number of paid teachers, nor even to Brothers and Sisters, but to the clergy themselves, for their education. This personal interest and solicitude of the priest reacts upon the parents as well as upon the children.

A pastor, then, wishing to secure the salvation of the best part of the flock of Jesus Christ, must do all in his power to establish good Catholic schools, and oblige parents to send their children to them, and not to Public Schools—to the grave of Catholicity. It is then, also, and not till then, that we shall see more young people called to the priesthood, and to such religious orders as devote themselves especially to the education of youth. In Europe, the bishops and priests, together with the laity, fight for the liberty of educating the children according to Catholic principles and customs. In this country, our religious liberty is as great as it possibly can be. Now not to profit by this liberty, is for the shepherds of the flock of Jesus Christ to incur the greatest guilt; it is to be like that ungodly Bishop of Burgos, who, on being told by Las Casas that seven thousand children had perished in three months, said: "Look you, what a queer fool! what is this to me, and what is that to the King?" To which Las Casas replied: "Is it nothing to your Lordship that all these souls should perish? Oh, great and eternal God! And to whom, then, is it of any concern?"—(Life of Las Casas, by Arthur Helps.)

To be destitute of ardent zeal for the spiritual welfare of children, is to see, with indifferent eyes, the Blood of Jesus Christ trodden under foot; it is to see the image and likeness of God lie in the mire, and not care for it; it is to despise the Blessed Trinity; the Father, who created them; the Son, who redeemed them; the Holy Ghost, who sanctified them; it is to belong to that class of shepherds, of whom the Lord commanded Ezekiel to prophesy as follows: "Son of man, prophesy concerning the shepherds of Israel: prophesy and say to the shepherds: Thus saith the Lord God: Wo to the shepherds of Israel.... My flock you did not feed. The weak you have not strengthened; and that which was sick, you have not healed: that which was broken, you have not bound up; and that which was driven away, you have not brought again; neither have you sought that which was lost:... and My sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd: and they became the prey of all the beasts of the field, and were scattered. My sheep have wandered in every mountain, and in every high hill: and there was none, I say, that sought them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Behold, I Myself come upon the shepherds. I will require My flock at their hands."—(Ezek. xxxiv. 2-10.) To be destitute of this zeal for the Catholic education of our children, is to hide the five talents which the Lord has given us, instead of gaining other five talents. Surely the Lord will say: "And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."—(Matt. xxv. 30.)

What a shame for pastors of souls to know that the devil, in alliance with the wicked, is at work, day and night, for the ruin and destruction of youth, and to be so little concerned about their eternal loss; just as if it was not true what the holy Fathers say, that the salvation of one soul is worth more than the whole visible world! Since when is it, then, that the price of the souls of little children has been lessened? Ah, as long as the price of the Blood of Jesus Christ remains of an infinite value, so long the price of souls will remain the same also! Heaven and earth will pass away, but this truth will not. The devil knows and understands it but too well. Oh! how he delights in a priest who is called, by Jesus Christ, "the hireling, because he has no care for the sheep, and who seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth."—(John x. 12.)

On the Day of Judgment, such a priest will be confounded by that poor man of whom we read, in the life of St. Francis de Sales, as follows: One day this holy and zealous pastor, on a visit of his diocese, had reached the top of one of those dreadful mountains, overwhelmed with fatigue and cold, his hands and feet completely benumbed, in order to visit a single parish in that dreary situation; while he was viewing, with astonishment, those immense blocks of ice of an uncommon thickness, the inhabitants, who had approached to meet him, related that some days before a shepherd, running after a strayed sheep, had fallen into one of these tremendous precipices. They added that his fate would never have been known if his companion, who was in search of him, had not discovered his hat on the edge of the precipice. The poor man, therefore, imagined that the shepherd might be still relieved, or, if he should have perished, that he might be honored with a Christian burial.

With this view he descended, by the means of ropes, this icy precipice, whence he was drawn up, pierced through with cold, and holding in his arms his companion, who was dead, and almost frozen into a block of ice. Francis, hearing this account, turned to his attendants, who were disheartened with the extreme fatigues which they had every day to encounter, and availing himself of this circumstance to encourage them, he said: "Some persons imagine that we do too much, and we certainly do far less than these poor people. You have heard in what manner one has lost his life in an attempt to find a strayed animal; and how another has exposed himself to the danger of perishing, in order to procure for his friend a burial, which, under these circumstances, might have been dispensed with. These examples speak to us in forcible language; by this charity we are confounded, we who perform much less for the salvation of souls intrusted to our care, than those poor people do for the security of animals confided to their charge." Then the holy Prelate heaved a deep sigh, saying: "My God, what a beautiful lesson for bishops and pastors! This poor shepherd has sacrificed his life to save a strayed sheep, and I, alas! have so little zeal for the salvation of souls. The least obstacle suffices to deter me, and make me calculate my every step and trouble. Great God, give me true zeal, and the genuine spirit of a good shepherd! Ah, how many shepherds of souls will not this herdsman judge!" Alas! how just and how true is this remark. If we saw our very enemies surrounded by fire, we would think of means to rescue them from the danger; and now we see thousands of little children, redeemed at the price of the blood of Jesus Christ, on the point of losing their faith, and with it their souls; and shall we be less concerned and less active for these images and likenesses of God than for their frames, their bodies?

We hear a little child weeping, and we at once try to console it; we hear a little dog whining at the door, and we open it; a poor beggar asks for a piece of bread, and we give it; and we hear the Mother of our Catholic children—the Catholic Church—cry in lamentable accents: "Let my little ones have the bread of life—a good Christian education"—and we do not heed her voice. We hear Jesus Christ cry, "Suffer the little ones to come unto Me," by means of a Catholic education; we hear him say: "Woe to him who scandalizes a little child"—who makes it lose his innocence—his faith—his soul, by sending it to godless schools; we see Him weep over Jerusalem, over the loss of so many Catholic children, and we hear Him say: "Weep not over me, but for your children"; and neither His voice nor His tears make any impression. We say with the man in the Gospel, "Trouble me not, the door (of our heart) is now shut, I cannot rise and give thee."—(Luke xi.) If an ass, says our Lord, falls into a pit, you will pull him out even on a Sabbath-day; and an innocent soul, nay, thousands of innocent children, fall away from Me and pass over to the army of the apostate angels, and become My and your adversaries, and you do not care. Oh, what great cruelty, what hardness of heart, nay, what great impiety! If we were blind, we should not have sin; but as Jesus Christ has spoken to us on the subject of education through His Vicar on earth, through so many zealous bishops, through sad experience, nay, even through many of those who are outside the Church, we have no excuse for our sin of suffering devilish wolves to devour our youth in our country. "My watchmen," says the Lord, "are all dumb dogs, not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping, and loving dreams."—(Isa. lvi. 10.) Truly the curses and maledictions of all those who led a bad life, and were damned for want of a good Christian education, which we neglected to give them, will come down upon us! What shall we answer? "And he was silent."—Matt. xxii.

Marvellous, indeed, have been God's gracious dealings with this poor land of ours, so very far above what we could have dreamed or hoped for some years ago, that we may say in all truth that the finger of God has touched us. That touch has quickened Catholic life in our land to a wonderful extent; not, indeed, as yet, with the great exuberance of Catholic European countries, but nevertheless with almost exulting gladness; for to-day there are few indeed of our cities and towns in which at least the pulse of Catholic life does not beat strongly.

But why have these great things been done for us? Why has our Catholic life been increased and strengthened so wonderfully, except to win more souls to Christ, to bring more of the American people into closer union with God? If this be so, then we must not leave our Lord to work alone; we must be fellow-workers with Him, by helping forward the growth of holiness, the progress of the spiritual life, the poverty of the Cross, the spreading of His Spirit in opposition to the formal and self-indulgent spirit of the age, and this by every means in our power; and, above all, by multiplying amongst us Catholic schools and institutions. What the future may have in store for the Church in America we cannot tell; whether, when more of God's Spirit has been poured out upon us, our sons and our daughters shall prophesy, and our young men shall see visions, and our old men shall dream dreams, as in the days of old; but of this we may be sure, that in exact proportion as our clergy exert that mighty energy which springs from the living faith that overcomes the world, in order to leaven the mass of the American people, and to build up, throughout the length and breadth of the land, temples and schools to God's holy name, and altars to His honor, will be the manifestation of the kingdom of God with power and majesty in the midst of this American land, and the grasp of God's Church upon the hearts and minds of this American people!