Public School Education Part 13

Look, on the other hand, at those congregations who, in the tender, susceptible time of youth, were in the habit of going to Ma.s.s 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 a.s.sist at the most holy Sacrifice of the Ma.s.s. 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 a.s.sert "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, a.s.sail her doctrines, and seek her destruction, ever cordially a.s.sist 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 pa.s.s 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 compa.s.sed 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 princ.i.p.al 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 inst.i.tutions."

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 G.o.d 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 d.a.m.nable effects of a non-Catholic school education." I have had opportunities, in this line, that many a priest has never had. I a.s.sert 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 a.s.sert 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 pa.s.sengers 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 a.s.sert "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 G.o.dless 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, G.o.d 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 G.o.d for those who, for want of a Catholic education, suffer shipwreck in their faith and morals, and are lost forever. In the sight of G.o.d, 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 G.o.dless 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 G.o.dless 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 princ.i.p.al 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 h.e.l.l; children for G.o.d, not for the devil; children for a happy eternity, not for everlasting d.a.m.nation. 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 a.s.sisium upbraided him for it, but in vain. So the great servant of G.o.d 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 n.o.ble man, and to give him his blessing.

But neither the learning nor the n.o.ble 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 d.a.m.ned and cursed for all eternity!" Some frightful circ.u.mstances which followed after his death, confirmed his awful prediction. (Life of St.

Francis of a.s.sisium.) 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 G.o.dless 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 G.o.d 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 sanct.i.ty. 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 ma.s.ses 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 st.u.r.dy 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.

G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d what belonged to G.o.d, 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 G.o.d! 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 G.o.dless 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 G.o.dless 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 a.s.sured 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 h.e.l.l 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 n.o.ble 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.dliness 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 G.o.dless 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 n.o.ble 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.