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Show i . j The Hierarchy j of New Zealand ; . I . j Issues a Pastoral Letter Which Shows the Evils of Defec- tive Education Religious Training Necessary for ; Society and to Perpetuate Government. I; ' Venerable am F.eloved Brethren of the II i I' lK.v. Beloved Children of the I in "iir Pastoral on the occasion of the ; First Provincial Council of Wellington. ! three years asro. we set before yoa a f number of weighty matters for your ' rd;!i' i i'Hi. guidance and practice, and - a ng them stood out with, peculiar f prominence our solicitude for the edu- cation of the laity. Today we deem it I uir duty to recall your attention to .-mo point? on which we then dwelt, 5 jui'I to supplement them with other momentous considerations. "In all ; aces." we told you in that Pastoral, "a I rliiff object of the church's care has i been popular education; and the history I of her work is the history of civiliza- E I tion and education. In consonance with t '. this spirit, we clearly perceive abd em- piiaiicany amrm me iaci mat an men ? need education, but we steadfastly hold fi ibe principle that a system of in-Mni'-tion which fails to recognize hat religion is essential, both to right think- j jug and right living, is necessarily dc- ftMivr. and may, in a given set of ' circumstances, be a curse rather than ; a blessing. We have sought to organize and perfect our parochial schools, so i that, while we assiduously train the it heart and the conscience and the char- E" ji. ter. we afford ample opoprtunity for the requirement of secular instruction . on a jar with that which prevails in the best primary schools of the colony, ' I as tested by public inspection and ex- ; amiuation. We have also insisted, and i dn insist, that it is the urgent duty of . priests and people to provide Catholic I vhools for Caiholic children; because ; s Catholic vongregation without a Cath- ofic school Is like a family without a I mother. Formal service there may Iw. but where is the deep heart of love and wisdom? Where the power to shape, r I and mold character? The parish J church, the material building, may j stand, but beware lest in time- t Ik1 f fhowy temple become a monumetal mackery in the midsl of an unbelieving I generation. J Man is a religious bt'ing. made, such ? hy his Creator, and any system of in- struction which excludes the teaching I of rclie-ious truth and morality rests 5 ui'n unsound principles, and must I prove hurtful to the strength and per- 1 ninnency of free government, particu- larly in an advanced democracy. The ? originators of the public school system I f this colony had. we would fain be- I lie, no irreligious intention. But this j coes njt affect the necessary tendency ' rf such instruction to produce religious ' indifference, and. consequently, to 6c- stroy the jower and influence of re- j. ligion: and. hence, be the intention or jf purpose of the upholders of this system I whatever you please, they are in point s of fact the most effective allies of the 1 propagators of unbelief. These Jatter I are logical in their opposition to re- I licious education: and since they reject h11 positive religious doctrines as super- Istiti'ius and absurd, they are at least consistent in seeking to exclude them from the school. room. The fathers of i this provincial council be it well known are not opposed to universal erluf-ation. nor to taxation for the support sup-port of schools, nor to methods and j contrivances oi whatever kind ror tne diffusion of knowledge and enlighten- ment through the masses of the peo- f pie; hut they are opposed necessarily and unalterably opposed to any and all systems of education which either icnove or exclude religious knowledge, siip-e they believe and hold this knowl-f knowl-f ice to bo the prime and most essenr ti;ii element of true human culture: Hi!, consc'iuently, that it should form 'li" basis of instruction and discipline lr. t;i- school, as in the family and in t'if (hurh. The development and m.iing of human character is difficult ft :ch. even when these three centers r' influence are in harmony and co-op-' a !on; but to throw them into an-" an-" --nism is to undermine the work of r " !i : and in a society where this state 1 r things exists the church will ose its I s;: -redness, the family its authority, '-! the school, acting upon the intel-'ual intel-'ual faculties alone, will but serve to again, as in heathendom of old. p'--c little and helpless man is when his ' 'r- !. not breathed upon by love and fc'Vr and faith in higher things. 'wart from other arguments, a glance st 'nieniporary history gives ample " riant for our reiterated assertion 'h.,t rr-ligion is an essential factor in piiniary education, because it is abso-ivreiy abso-ivreiy necessary for the welfare and l r -f nation of society. For many cen-t'r cen-t'r i' s lCurope has been in the van of iiizatjon, and to what is she inOehied ' r that civiHzation? To Christianity. T'' move the ca'use, and you eventually !v" ove the effect; and as Christianity r ails, so will true civilization. A ''r!c,arkable proof or this contention is r'tf.i-,jof hy the great republic ot the T": ted States of America, whieh looms ' p to the advocates of democracy as t'.e model to be admired and imiUtcd. !! many signs indicate that Chris-.ia n-ity n-ity is fust fading away from that highly high-ly favored land. No doubt it yet gives niany tokens of its Christianity. Kut. f" the other hand, a dark, ominous "Iiadow shrouds its future, and ':i? appalling ap-palling fact is calculated to al.irm and s;iddeu its best friends and rvst n-"I'lHas.tie n-"I'lHas.tie admirers: out of 7j.000.0tf0 People only 25.000,000 profess to belong anv Christian denomination. Ca:h-oii.-s included. Further, the startling and ever-increasing emptiness of American churches fthe Cathoiic church excepted), coupled with the: andalous revolt of so many ministers "f religion against the authority of the IH)le, and the rejection by so many of Ninn of the doctrine of the divinity of lsus Christ, whom they accept niereT !- as a religious teacher, forcer upon "s the dreadful conviction that what 'hristlanitv there is in that country is fast disappearing. This means that its tiittencc aE a nation is menaced. I or, what right has any one to expect any I other result than that which has hap-I hap-I pened elsewhere under similar circiim-! circiim-! stances? As that great man, Washington, Wash-ington, said with prophetic warning: "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles." prin-ciples." And where national morality is not. THERK IS 'NATIONAL RUIN. Nor are the facts wanting to support this unfavorable outlook. Not to mention men-tion two very potent causes of national nation-al decay, a corrupt literature and an immoral stage, we have three reliable indicators of the falling influence of Christianity, namely, godless education, divorce and the increase' of crime. (1.) "Godless education," causing the majority ma-jority of the school children never to j hear a word of Christianity during the whole school week, and never to enter a place of worship on Sunday. What will be the Christianity of these future men and women? Nay, what is it now? Yet in their hands are the destinies of the Tnited States. (2.) "Divorce," a wholesale apostacy from the spirit ani law of Christianity something shameful shame-ful and appalling. "The United States, with seven times less population than Europe, have 100,000 more divorces. CSeo Mulhalls Dictionary of Statistics.) That was fifteen years ago: and since then the descent into the abyss is im-i measurably deeper. Remember that the world-wide empire of Rome, the most stupendous structure ever reared by human genius and endurance, dated its destruction from the multiplication of its divorces. (3.) "Increase of Crime." jn JR90 alone 3.46" murders. The Chicago Tribune, quoted by Mul-hall. Mul-hall. says that iri the six years between 1SS4 and 1890 there were no less than 14.770 murders. and .97T lynchings which4 of cnurse.' are murders in an aggravated aggra-vated and atrocious form, with the gviilCof blood on all the" abettors. And in these murderers the home element largely predominated over the foreign. Out of 4.425 white homicidal criminals in 1Ioi. 3,157 were born Americans, and 1.213 foreign-born; while, of course, the 2.720 negro murderers were natives to i in? son. IF THE NEGROES HAD BEEN CATOLICIZED they would not now be regarded as little lit-tle better than wild beasts. How is the danger ahead t be averted? Not by the churches, which are becoming empty. "Let men think, and their reason rea-son will, guide them aright. Each man is "a law unto himself, quite competent to formulate his religious views and frame his code of morals." That is the prerent national religion, if there is any. This assumption decidedly flatters flat-ters self-conceit, but it flatly contradicts contra-dicts reason and experience. Each man thinks out his own religion. Can the weary, grimy, toil-septn laborer, stumbling stum-bling home to a wretched tenement and a swarm of .squalling children to snatch a few hours' rest for tomorrow's toil, do any independent thinking on the ! abstruse matters of morality or religion? re-ligion? Can the mechanic, the clerk, the merchant, or even the lawyer or nhvsician. absorbed bv so manv anxie ties, "Pit down and ponder the deep mysteries mys-teries of the spiritual world? Take men as they are. led by passion, engrossed en-grossed in business, apathetic from constitutional sluggishness, and averse to anything outside the domain of sense, though they may acquire some religious information, there are a thousand thou-sand chances to one that they will not bestir themselves at all. while there are more chances that If they do they will blunder in the most elementary truth. But. above all, there are mysteries unfathomable un-fathomable to man, for which instruction instruc-tion is absolutely indispensable. Do we not need a policeman to guide us in a great, strange city? Does not the meanest handicraft, as well as the most learned profession, require an instructor? in-structor? Surely, then, the acquisition of the sublime truths of religion demands de-mands similar instruction. This is in the very nature of things. We cannot j evolve knowledge out of helpless ignorance. ig-norance. The plant and flower in th'i eo!d earth need the sunshine from above: so the darkness of man's- mind must have the sunlight of the knowledge knowl-edge of his fellowman, and of preceding preced-ing generations: and in many things God himself must illumine. WHO. THEN. WILL TEACH RE- I 'T.lfilON. AND WHERE? The church, the home, or the school? Not the church for the churches are fast becoming empty:, and the Sunday school is woefully deficient, especially when the home is indifferent or irreligious. irre-ligious. The home w ill not, and cannot, for want of zeal, time and ability. There remains only the school. But. they say, we must not teach religion in the public schools, because that would be tampering with the Palladium of our democratic liberty. Why, there can be no true liberty without religion, and godless schools are a descent into paganism, with its horrible and necessary neces-sary tyranny of soul and body. Instead of the Palladium of liberty, irreligion and irreligious schools become the fatal engine.' the "wooden horse," which will destroy the city. Some people are wildly enthusiastic about the public schools on the groundless ground-less assumption of their superiority. This is a delusion. For it is conceded by the best Judges of the popular education edu-cation in the United States, where the publ -cischools have had a long and most favored trial, that their "popular education is superficial," and does not develop mind and character. On the public school system the average American Amer-ican is strangely superstitious might we not say the same of the colonial? Yet what is the fast? Catholic schools,, as a rule, evxery where, are not below grade. Catholics all over this colony, though unfairly burdened by school j J taxes for other men s children, have , been conscientiously compelled to bur-I bur-I den themselves besides with heavy out-j out-j Jays of their own. Aided by large num. bers of religious men and women who have without pecuniary compensation 1 consecrated themselves to the work, I they have built and they support ef-, ef-, ficient schools on a par with those of , the states, and, while they form honest j and enlightened citizens, and guarantee j their good citizenship-by-all the light ; and aid of religion, they save the state and taxpayer large sums of money an-. an-. nually. In doing so. Catholicity, far j from conflicting with the patriotic spirit, fosters and protects it. Is an Irishman less Irish because he is a Catholic? An Englishman less Eng- j lish a Spaniard less Spanish, a French- i man less French, because he is a Cath- I olic? On the contrary, their national- ity is intensified because of their faith; for Catholicity inculcates patriotism, not as a mere sentiment, but as a duty; and if a New Zealander is a Catholic, or rather because he is one. he not only does not yield to any in his love of his native land, but. impelled : I- iue ivacning oi me cnurcii. will be more loyal and more self-sacrificing in time of peace or stress of war than others who are not of this faith. The Catholic church we wish this to be clearly and emphatically understood under-stood by all classes has no design on the public schools. She is satisfied to leave them as they are "for all who wish them": but she does not want, and she will not have for her children, in the period of their defenseless childhood, an education which she knows will ultimately make them a curse to their country by robbing them of those principles of morality which are indispensable for their formation jiilo nonoraoie ana pure men and women. wo-men. She has lost too many men by contact with irreligion: she has lived too long in the world not to be .aware that religion is necessary to prevent the ruin of a nation, and she has too many horrible examples in crimes ot the apostate governments of the day to allow her to sit idly by without a strenuous attempt to prevent similar disaster here. She wjll not be satisfied with the odious hour after school which in the child's mind makes religion penal, pen-al, but she wants the atmosphere of her school to be such that religion will enter as a motive and a guide of what is to be done or avoided. She wants the child to begin to be what it ought to be in after life, honest, pure, faithful in its duty to God and men. as-the light -of religion directs and as her sacramental helps assist the child to become. She does not want the child to fancy that religion is an affair of Sunday, and has nothing to do with the rest of the week. FAITH IS NOT TRUTH ALONE, BUT - LIFE. . . . ' But we arc told in positive and aggressive ag-gressive tones: "Separate schools are absolutely out of the question. What we want is homogeneity of education to blend the diverse nationalities of the land into one common New' Zealand-Ism' Zealand-Ism' We reply: The homogeneity of education is absurd; it is undemocratic; undemocrat-ic; it is un-Christian and irrelieious. As well try to make the forest trees have the same sized leaves; or to make all men belong to the same political party, pursue the same occupation, live in the same kind of homes, wear the same style of dress, think-the same thoughts, and. reach the same conclusions conclu-sions with the same methods. Is not your great social danger the production of dead levels? Besides, who assures you that your type of the homogeneous is correct? And lastly, why are you I continually proclaiming that your aim is to develop individuality, while in the same breath you demand homogeneity? The two qualities are contradictory. You are blowing hot and cold at the same time. Again, the scheme is "undemocratic" j violently so. If you must have homogeneity, homo-geneity, close all expensive private' schools, which are so many sacred and inviolable preserves, intended as they are for the children of the rich; or dismiss dis-miss your private tutor or governess, or be eady to let the public official Knock at your door and. inquire if what he or she teaches corresponds in time and matter with the programme of the state. If your rich man does not send his children to the public school lest they should sit side by side with the children of his servants, or of the mechanic, me-chanic, or the laborer, why should not we Catholics be allowed to withdraw our children for greater than social or sanitary reasons? Or does the scheme propose that only the children of the poor should be thus homogeneously huddled together? If so, it is class legislation; IT IS UNDEMOCRATIC AND UNJUST. UN-JUST. Let us state the unvarnished truth. The homogeneity brought about by these godless schools is a homogeneity, a sameness of irreligion. a practical negation ne-gation of all Christian beliefs during five consecutive days of every week of the child's life.' with nothing adequate to counteract it on Sunday: for these children, like their parents, are not church-goers. It is the canceling of Christianity from the life of the nation. Again, we Catholics teach our children chil-dren the same things that are taught in the public schools, and oftentimes teach them better, and. add over and above of our own volition, and at our own expense, an element which not only improves their characters as men and women, but which is absoiutaly necessary to the country's salvation: we base their patriotism on a more solid foundation: while you are compelled com-pelled to accept any teacher that may be foisted on, you by 'political or other influence, whether he be a Christian or a scoffer, and about wbose manner of life we have only your guarantee, which we possibly may not value, we can select those of whose abilities and exalted character we are almost absolutely abso-lutely sure: you are guided in your choice by men whose whole time is mostly taken up in commercial pursuits or political schemes,- while we are enjoying en-joying the privilege of the learning and experience of those whose whole life is not only devoted but consecrated to the work: with all that we. are perfectly per-fectly willing to admit government inspection in-spection either of the structure of our schools or as regards the requirements of hygiene, or also of the studies (barring, (bar-ring, of course, religion, with which the state has nothing to do). -Why, then, we ask, when. -we are conferring such inestimable advantages on the state, which even 'those who are not friendly to us acknowledge, why-should we not get the benefit of the school tax. which we pay to the state? That we are Catholics. is none of your business, busi-ness, but that -we are New Zea landers j ought to secure us , our rights. Thej United States separated from England because they were taxed without representation. rep-resentation. We Catholics, in regard to the education funds, are left without the power of determining how the taxes levied on us shall be applied: nay, our money is given to somebody else. Yet we are not criminals b,ut, as a rule, honest, hard-working men and women, I for whom every shilling counts, who have the true, interest of our country at heart, who never can get away from it like our rich friends, who have never stopped at any sacrifice to bring up our children well; and if we have spent thousands and thousands of pounds fo; the education which the wisest men in this and every other land. Catholics and non-Catholics, admit to be not merely the best, but the ouly safeguard of our country, because it inculcates religion, why should we not be fairly and squarely dealt with, and got the benefit of what is levied on us for education? edu-cation? Such a fair distribution to us is quite feasible. England, Germany,-Protestant Germany,-Protestant nations, have denominational denomina-tional schools supported by the public purse. With them education without religion is inconceivable. . Jn. the sev eral hundred neutral or mixed; schools in Germany religion is part of the curriculum. cur-riculum. The same holds good for colleges col-leges or gymnasia,-where-religious cd ucation is obligators'-RELIGION obligators'-RELIGION IS INDISPENSIBLE FOR THE SALVATION of the nation. Now it is not taught to. the vast majority of the people by the chcurches. It can be taught only in the schools. And the religion'-whieh -must be taught is not a comniQn medley of all religion, or a neutral religion, which the most competent authorities pronounce pro-nounce to be "fatuous," and, after being tried, a miserable failure. Lastly, it is beyond all question that the establishment es-tablishment of sebarate " . religious schools is feasible: for the most Intensely In-tensely Protestant nations in the. world insist upon them; have no difficulty in adjusting themselves 'to the diversity of creeds, and "mve. found by experience that instead of dividing the country 'hey weld it together, by , permitting . men to have their dogmatic' differences, and thus inciting these very divergences diverg-ences to send from every direction their multitudinous streams that pour down from a thousand different sources, and swell each in its own way the great common current oC morality, xhich thus reaches everyjboriditipn of society. socie-ty. Something id "enormously wrong in our public educational system, and must eventually be righted. . Public, opinion in this country is not yet prepared to redress this -?reat grievance, and seems callous to our efforts ef-forts to bring it to a sense of the glaring glar-ing .injustice wh.iclv the present public schcool system-inflicts upon one-seventh of the colony's, best" and law-abiding citizens. ' But we need not despair: de-spair: taught, by sad experience, society so-ciety in many places is becoming alive to the evils brought upon itby the non-religious non-religious character of the school and. a change -willl some day certainly come. As far as our schools are concerned, con-cerned, we have often indicated an easy course for the government to sat isfy us. It would be to acknowledge our schools as public schools, paying them, under government inspection and examination, for their results in purelly secular instruction: leaving their relir gibus teaching entirely to ourselves. By this proposal we claim ''an equal, wage for equal work:" we-claim that public moneys contributed by all classes of the community, from w hatr ever source they come, shall be paid equally to all schools which fulfil the standard educational .requirements; we claim that no one should be compelled to pay taxes in support of schools of which he cannot conscientiously make use; that no one should be fined by reason of his religious opinion; that schools doing the common work of the nation must be placed, as far a's.seruV liar instruction is concerned, on. the same basis, arid not be fined because they give instruction in one extra subjectreligion. sub-jectreligion. Meanwhile, we enjoin our Catholics to be registered, and to be ready to take an intelligent interest in ail public pub-lic matters; we enjoin them to exercise most faithfully and conscientiously their rights and discharge their duties as good citizens. Any candidate of our faith who by word or act opposes our just claims in educational matters is wholly undeserving unde-serving of our support, and should be treated as an enemy. As for non-Catholic candidates, my earnest-inmded men recognize the injustice done to the Catholic body, and are willing to redress re-dress this injustice without interfering with the present public system of instruction: in-struction: we exhort all Catholic voters to give their support to such honorable and fair-minded men. Not a few of our non-Catholic friends, who looked some years ago j with folded arms at the introduction I and progress of secular education, are today making an effort to remove from themselves the reproach which they had deservedly incurred. They are striving for the introduction of Scrip- j ture lessons or Bible reading into the I state schools. This we deem A DECIDEDLY INEFFECTUAL REMEDY for the absence of religious education: we also consider it as dangerous to Catholic children, because if any state school happened to have a teacher of another denomination strongly attached at-tached to the tenets of his own church, there is every reason to believe (human (hu-man nature being what it is) that he would not unconsciously use the opportunity op-portunity of inculcating the special religious re-ligious principles which he himself liked, and which he believed were con- (n tha Cii-I rstit m lutntlC fa t h olic children, as well as others, would come under such teaching, and therefore there-fore would rightly object to the introduction intro-duction of such lessons within school Jiours. If such lessons were given out-eide out-eide school hours, we should not think of opposing them, provided that Catholic Cath-olic children were not affected. On the contrary, we should rejoice that non-Catholic non-Catholic parents were thus enabled to adjust the course of instruction to thetr requirements. Our great and supreme aiin is to keep the faith of our children chil-dren Intact and stainless. A conscience clause would be no effectual protection protec-tion to our children, because, as we know by experience in the schools of the. north of Ireland, where there are people of mixed religions, the people might openly defy the rule respecting the conscience clause, stating (as they did in the above locality) that they could not conscientiously request any child not to attend whilst the Scripture lessons were being read, i In conclusion. ' we again remind all Catholics. &t this colony, that they are bound to manfully follow their conscience con-science and do their duty by sending; all their children to-schools where religion re-ligion can have Its rightful place and influence. No parish is complete till it has schools adequate to. the needs of its children, and the pastor and people of a parish should feel that they have n tt o eertmnKcHorl tVieli rMi-e rtiittr un til the want is supplied. But Ave must continue to perfect our schools: and, with its able and devoted teachers, no Catholic school need be inferior to any other school. ' We must not relax our efforts till our schools have reached the" , highest educational excellence. With these cheerful hopes, and with hearts full of charity towards you and wholly devoted to your service, we fervently pray that the blessing of the Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost; may descend upon you and abide in you forever. . Given at Wellington, on this 19th day of March, in the year of Our Lord 1902. FRANCIS REDMOND. S.M., Archbishop of Wellington and Metropolitan. JOHN JOSEPH GRIMES. S.M., Bishop of Christchurch. MICHAEL VERDON. Bishop of Dunedin. GEORGE M. LENIHAN. Bishop of Auckland. |
