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Show lUbat tu gburcft of the Poor J Ra$ Done for education ; The Pilot has been favored with the advance sheets of a striking chapter from the report of the commissioner of education for 1003: "The Catholic Catho-lic Parochial Schools of the United States," prepared pre-pared by the Bev. Morgan M. Sheedy of Altoona, Pa., and issued from the government printing office, of-fice, by the United States bureau of education. Father Sheedy accounts the Catholic free school system the most 'impressive religious fact in the United States today. Certainly, the materialism and self-seeking of ihe age must be somewhat abashed to see the members of a single religious denomination, mentioned often jis Ihe "Church of the Poor," educating a round million of children at their own expense, thus saving to non-Catholic taxpayers from $20,000,000 to oU.OC'O.O 0 annually, while paying also tlieir share of the public school tax. The nature of the service thus rendered to the state by the Catholics is brought into a strong light, now and ihen, as when, in a great city like Xcw York, it is found at ihe opening of the school year that over 87,000 would-be pupils must be content con-tent with half time. Suppose that, in addition to thisarmy of children, the board of education had also to provide for the 7.3,000 children of Greater Xew York who are under Catholic care, over 57,-000 57,-000 of these being in the parochial schools! Fa I her Sheedy traces the parochial school idea back to the earliest days of the Church's freedom, whether as cathedral schools, or burg schools, or schools attached to the five hospitals, or. rural schools, or the elementary schools which were, part and parcel of the numerous monastic foundations from the sixth -century onward. He quotes non- j Catholic authorities on this subject, as James Grant, who. in his "History of the Burgh and Parish Par-ish Schools of Scotland," declares that in the fifteenth fif-teenth century that countiy was adequately supplied, sup-plied, widi schools'. Fa ther Sheedy has set forth the Church's idea j of education tin? formation of the whole man; j and her conviction that a Christian nation can f spring only from Christian schools. He gives the history of parochial schools in ihe United States, and outlines- the legislation in their interest, at ihe Third Plenary council of Baltimore. He shows j the Church's favor to a liberal popular education j in secular studies; but also her firm stand against the exclusion of religion from such education. I The American Episcopate would not be con-j con-j tent with inferior Catholic' schools, but has offi-I offi-I cially demanded that the Church schools be made! equal in their instruction to the best of the sec-! sec-! ular schools. . . Father Sheedy's inquiry into the present numerical numer-ical slrength of Catholic schools, from the official religious and national reports, supplemented by private inquiries, revealed as the Catholic school enrollment for 1!)03: Elementary, 907,518; secondary sec-ondary boys (high schools, academies and preparatory pre-paratory departments of colleges) 14,127; secondary second-ary girls (high schools and academies). 20,874; higher education (colleges and universities,, not including seminaries), 4.010; total, 1,000,529. ' Parenthetically, we may note that the Catholic directory for 1904 shows an increase in all these grades of education the elementary school attendance attend-ance having grown by nearly 20,000. He also gives the diocesan statistics of parochial paro-chial schools, which shov Chicago leading with 07.321; Xew York in the second place, wiMi 57,-545: 57,-545: Boston and Philadelphia nearly on a line with 44,538 and 44,430, respectively lie notes the marvelous mar-velous development of the Catholic school system within recent years, especially in the Xew England stales: "Within, the last thirty years in the dioceses of Xew England Catholic educational institutions have multiplied threefold. Today there arc 352 such institutions as against 100 a quarter of a. century cen-tury ago, and .112,000 Catholic pupils in attendance attend-ance at these schools as against 20,000 in 1875. In the archdiocese of Boston the Catholic schools almost equal in number those which were flourishing flourish-ing in the entire province (80 as against 100)V while the number of children in the parochial schools, colleges and academies of the archdiocese far surpasses sur-passes the. total attendance of the Catholic schools of the Xew England of thirty years ago 10,000 as against 20,000." A'e have quoted from his tabic figures only of the four most populous archdioeses; but sonic of the dioceses, as Brooklyn, Cleveland, Hartford and Xewark, make in proportion to their population at least as good a showing; the last-named having 37,000 parochial school children (present figures 39,244 to ,a : population 'it 310,000. Xewark,.siiw the' Winning of tle, wok of that.great apdstle.f Catholic" popular edu'eij ion, Bishop MeQucin of Kochester, X. Yv whose own diocese shows 10,59 . parochial school children to a Catholic population ; of 110,000. . Father Sheedy describes the typical parochial School as healthful and attractive a place as the most exacting could desire, and built at a cost of from $10,000 to $200,000;-the school management; the system of marking, and the course of studies, lie sets forth the work of the diocesan supervisors; the teaching orders in whose charge are 97 per cent of the schools; their normal schools, whicli he would enrich in every case with a practice school; the Catholic tenchers' institutes, and the- educational educa-tional results. Very impressive is his message of Protestant and .secular progress toward the Cath-olic Cath-olic convictibn bh the indisponsability of religion in popular schools, culminating in the establishment establish-ment of the Keligious Education association, two years ago, in Chicago, and which, by. the. way. is soon to "meet in" Boston. We should like to see this chapter XXI contributed by Father Sheedy to the official statement of the United States bureau of education, plentifully distributed at this assemblage. assem-blage. Boston. Pilot. : '. |
