Catholic school

“ 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. ”

“ The Church condemns all non- Catholic schools, whether they be heretical and schismatical or secularist, and she declares that as a general rule no Catholic parent can send his young children to such schools for educational purposes without exposing their faith and morals to serious risk, and therefore committing a grave sin. A Catholic child, if educated away from home, should be placed in a Catholic school, under Catholic masters or mistresses. ”

“ 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; [Pg 361] 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. ”

“ From this school they can pass, not before their seventeenth year, to the college at the university, [122] and they will have seven years still remaining in which to finish their education, before they arrive at the canonical age for ordination to the priesthood. It seems to us that the separate college is a sufficient security for the morals, piety, and vocation of any young man above seventeen years of age who is fit to be a priest in this country outside of the walls of a monastery. ”

“ 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 It is, therefore, quite evident that were this tacit approbation of the Catholic clergy withdrawn, were they to erect Catholic schools, the godless schools would soon be emptied and suspended, and there would hardly be other but Catholic schools.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. ”

“ This is probably less than half the number of Catholic children of school age in the United States; still, we are already doing enough to show that Catholic primary education must be recognized as one of the institutions of the country, and that those who have control of it should set to work without delay to give it a thorough organization. It is well to teach our people that the public schools are dangerous to the faith and morals of their children ”

“ Popular education in fact is a purely Catholic idea, almost as old as Christianity itself, and the germ of the modern common-school system was in the bosom of the ancient church. "After the introduction of Christianity," says The American Cyclopaedia, (art. "Common Schools,") "and its accession to power, the duty of the authorities to educate the young was speedily recognized by the bishops and clergy. The object of this education was of course their training in the doctrines of Christianity, but it was the first recognition of the duty of giving instruction to the masses. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Yet it should be evident that how things are taught, even things which have no direct relation with religious teaching, makes all the difference to the effect of an education. The teaching as a whole must be Catholic or non-Catholic. You cannot make a school which shall not be the one or the other, any more than you can make a home which shall not be the one or the other. ”

“ That in the Roman Catholic Church the literary and religious instruction of youth are universally combined, and that no system of education which separates them can be acceptable to the members of her communion; that the religious instruction of youth in Catholic schools is always conveyed by means of catachetical instruction, daily prayer, and the reading of religious books, wherein the Gospel morality is explained and inculcated ”

“ Every hour devoted to a child’s instruction, relatively at least, involves the question of man’s true destiny; for the religious question, which is the question of man’s true destiny, sums up all other questions. As far as Catholics are concerned, they object to each and all such teachers, whether appointed by the warring sects or by the temporal authority. For example, the writer in the Congregational, though evidently an intelligent [Pg 440] and accomplished gentleman, would not be a very safe teacher in a school composed in whole or in part of Catholic children. ”

“ CATHOLICISM AND THE SCHOOLS Just what is the attitude of the Catholic Church to the American public schools? This is an important question, because there are fourteen million Catholics in our country, and they control the education, not merely of two million children in their own schools, but of other millions in public schools where the Catholic vote has elected Catholic officials and school board members, and obtained the appointment of Catholic superintendents and teachers. ”

“ Efforts have always been made by our clergy to establish schools for the common people. The first work of the parish priest after he has built his church is to build a school-house. The free education of the children of the poor has the next place in his care to the service of the altar. There is not a step in the whole system of education, from the alphabet-class to the highest university cursus [Footnote 278] , to which the Catholic Church does not devote the labor of some religious order or congregation, blessed and sanctioned and assisted by the supreme Pontiff. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Is it not a great evil for Catholics to be brought up in ignorance, not only of the doctrines, but also of the history of the Church to which they belong, and of the life and deeds of so many Christian heroes whose virtues illustrated the world?
How far superior is the system of the Christian Brothers, and other Catholic educational institutions! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For it is evident that, if by a Catholic Literature were meant nothing more or less than a religious literature, its writers would be mainly ecclesiastics; just as writers on Law are mainly lawyers, and writers on Medicine are mainly physicians or surgeons. And if this be so, a Catholic Literature is no object special to a University, unless a University is to be considered identical with a Seminary or a Theological School. ”

“ Have they not the same tendency to promote ignorance of, or indifference to, religion? No religious dogmatical teaching, no inculcation of pious practices, no mention of the great and sublime mysteries of Catholicity can be admitted in them, lest some things should be said offensive to any sect that sends children to the school. This suppression of Catholic truth is most detrimental to our poor Catholic children, many of whom never read any books except those which they use in school, and learn nothing except what they meet with in those books, or hear from their master. ”

“ 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 [Pg 360] not compete with the Public Schools; for, generally speaking, Catholic children are more talented than those of Protestants or infidels. ”

“ It is no exaggeration to say that the whole historic conflict in temporal policy between the Catholic Church and non-Catholics comes to a focus in their respective school policies. The Roman Catholic Church, counseled by experience in many ages and many lands and with all sorts and conditions of men, takes what, from the viewpoint of its own progress and the success of its mission, is a wise estimate of the importance of education to religion. It does not leave the individual to pick up religion by chance. ”

“ There is nothing in history better established than the fact that the Catholic Church has been at all times, and under the most trying circumstances, the generous fostering-mother of education. She has labored especially, with untiring care, to educate the poor, who are her favorite children. It was the Catholic Church that founded, and endowed liberally, almost all the great universities of Europe. Protestants and infidels are very apt to overlook the incalculable benefits which the Church has conferred on mankind, and yet without her agency civilization would have been simply impossible. ”

“ That schools whereof the master professes a religion different from that of his pupils, or from which such religious instruction as the Catholic Church prescribes for youth is excluded, or in which books and tracts not sanctioned by it are read or commented on, cannot be resorted to by the children of Roman Catholics; and that threats and rewards have been found equally unavailing as a means of inducing Catholic parents to procure education for their children from such persons or in such schools ”

“ The experience of every day shows more and more plainly what serious evils and great dangers are entailed upon Catholic youth by their frequentation of Public Schools in this country. Such is the nature of the system of teaching therein employed, that it is not possible to prevent young Catholics from incurring, through its influence, danger to their faith and morals ”

“ Mere instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic will never teach a young man to control his passions, and to practise virtue. Such instruction [Pg 333] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The efficiency of the Catholic schools and colleges has long been demonstrated by examinations and practical results, and it is at last generally conceded. The Catholic schools teach everything that is taught in the public schools and, in addition, they teach religion and religious morality. The standards of education in all secular branches are equal and in many instances superior to those of the neighborhood public or private schools. In other words, Catholic children are as well educated in the Catholic schools as in the public schools ”

“ The urgent need that exists for Catholic schools at present, may be judged of from the fact that while the different colleges and boarding-schools under the management of the Jesuits, Franciscans, Christian Brothers, and Vincentians, provide education for about a thousand boys, the Catholic common schools throughout the State contain a number scarcely greater, or less than a tenth of their due proportion. ”

“ 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. ”