REV. FATHER LOCKINGTON'S LECTU E

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2960, 26 December 1916, Page 7

REV. FATHER LOCKINGTON'S LECTU E

A CR'ITICISM. Sir, The Rev. Father Lockington. I havQ no doubt, thinks lie has a worthy cause in championing the claims of tho Komari Catholic Church for denominational grants to its schools. I venture to say that tho present time is not a timo for' sectarian strife. When the iiimpire is engaged in a life and death struggle every kind of civil war should cease m tho land. The Bible-in-Schools league as an organisation remains intacty and all over the land, but it has suspended its propagauda so that its members may give their money and their -eflorts to- the call of the present world crisis, The present crisis calls for a truce of God with rogard to such educational agitations as tho R.C. Federation stands for, and it is to be deplored thjit it has not seen its way to follow the examplo of tho Bible-in-Schools League. The war itself is solving some problems in our national life. It has slain the atheistic conception of tho State. The State in this war is not neutral ill religion. It realises that ouK soldiers are not merely highly organised brutes, but beings with spiritual needs, and it has provided chaplains for our soldiers, and by a common understanding those chaplains minister lo other than their own religious kith and | kin. Then our statosmen are sending Lout.. calls.'.to prayer. I have just received the call to prayer for 8 o'clook | on Christmas morning issued by our

Minister of Defence. The war has thus shattered fox over the notion that tho State has nothing to do with religion, and with this victory won, the 11. U. Federation might well suspend for a time its political strifo on eduoation and allow the Government, without needless worry, to beud its energies to winning the war. Tho federation is unintentionally setting a bad example to other political agitators in tho land j who are not inspired by the worthy motives of the federation.

I submit, therefore, . that Father Lookington's agitation is very illtimed, and I regret that some of the weapons of his agitation are not worthy of the cause he has at heart. Why should he bring into bad odour the good object of education, in which God and religion have their place, by the historical inaccuracies which stain the report of his lecture in your issue of this morning. The story of historic' Christianity is that of a mixture' of good and evil, and Father Lockington, in his eagerness to show tho Papacy as the source of all our national blessings sets forth only part. Take, • for example, his reference to "Magna Charta" and our liberty as citizens. He. makes out, that this was specially and peculiarly a blessing bestowed ;by the Catholic Church! Now, what are tho facts of the case as set forth in the article "Magna Charta" in . the last edition of' the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." John, England's tyrant King, haad no sooner signed the charter when ho appealed to the Pope. Tho Poi ie came to tho rescuo of .the tyrant. On August 24, 1215, when the Charter was only threo months old, Pope Innocent 111 declared it null and void in an official bull,'in which he said that it had been wrenohed from tho King by force, and tho English nobles who had fought for freedom were excommunicated! ("Ency. Brit.," 11th edition, Vol. 17, p. 315.) I regret to. say that Father Lockington's j references to modern history 'aro just as fallacious. In a special paragraph in your issue, he says: "It would have been a great thing for the world if Germany had had denominational education ... in preparing for this war which was deluging the world with, blood:" As a matter of fact, Germany has to-day, and has had for many years, denominational education. In 18$3 the New Zealand Government sent ..Dr. Laishley to Germany and other couiiI tries to report as to their systems of | education, and in his report to i our Parliament in 1886 he stated that the State Sohools of Germany were denominational schools, that is to say, the prevailing religion of the district settled the question of tho Teligious instruction to be given in that school. In the article "Education" in the "Ecyclopaedia Britannica" we learn that denominationalism is a feature in German State education, and the article says that as late as 1906 the system has been strengthened and extended, I have thus reluctantly pointed out that Father Lockington's weapons of controversy are as unsatisfactory as liis agitation is ill-timed! I: hold that" an education in religion is the heritage of every child in this land, but I am satisfied that this heritage will come to the child by an improvement in our; national system of education, and not by an anti-national secularism, nor by ail ante-national sectarianism.I—l1 —I am, etc., A MINISTER OF RELIGION. Wellington, December 19, 1916.