OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2577, 22 May 1871, Page 2

OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

DR MORAN' AT ST. JOSKI’II’S CHURCH The Right Cov. Dr Moran addressed the congregation of St, Joseph's Chinch, on the subject of Education, last evening. The Church was densely crowded, many persona being unable to obtain standing-room. The llight Dev. gentleman said: It has been announced to you to day that I would speak on educa ion. I am anxious once and for all to bring my views on this subject clearly before yon. I find there has been a considerable amount of misunderstanding upon tills subject in reference to what i said, and as to what my intentions are. The language I used was sulfieiently clear, and I think I was very distinct in expressing my intentions ; but there are always a number of people in this world who will not do without a trihuting lo people motives which they do not entertain, so that my lot in this respret is not singular. It hj ss been said for example by one party, that my object is to make the schoo's secular. I had no such object ; and I never said such a thing. 1 am decidedly opposed to such a thing, and 1 never gave any one gronndfor attributing: u eh a design to me. In the next place, it has been said that I wish topreventotherdenominat'o is from having such education as they desire, or having religions education in their own way. 1 have said nothing of the sort; and I should be sorry to see education anything but religious, lam an advocate for religious education ; I hold that all education should be based on religion, am thoroughly opposed to mixed education, and there is nothing I deprecate more than secuhir educa'ion. I never said anything, in pu > ic or in private, to induce any man lo say that I was a favorer of one or other of these systems ; therefore the charge made against mo is utterly groundless and gratuitous. 1 intend to occupy your time a little longer than usual this evening, in order, I trust, that I may set you and the public at large right as to my views upon this important subject; and have thereto e detertermiued at considerable trouble to be explicit; and I have tiie.l in preparing my d sconrse, to so arrange it as to make it impossible for any man to misunderstand it-- impossible for any right-mimic I ’per-oa to attribute to me designs or o inions, which I do not entertain or hold. Now what I have to say up m this subject may he placed nadir three heads In the first place 1 shall p'ace b'fore you my views, which are those of the Church, on the subject of religious education ; secondly, in reference to what is called the mixed system of education ; and lastly, 1 shall consider the subject of the Government scho ds. Now in what 1 am going to say, I do not pretend to any originality whatever. Of course my views upon this subject are nothing knew, and do not emanate from myself. They are the views of the Church, ami those views I am bound to hold, and b mud to teach. I hj ive little else to do, therefore, than to act the part of a relatet ; to tell you what the Church 'holds mi the subject, and what the highest authmity in the Church directs. In the first place the Church tells us that nothing is more important for a peop’e, individually and collectively, than religious education ; and I thi .k that every man who holds the Christian religion or who calls himself a Christian will not disagree with ns upon this point. Is not religion the most important of all things ? Is not the salvation of the soul the most important of all considerations ? Has not our Divine Redeemer himself said, “ What will it avail a man if he gain the whole world, and lose hisown souland again, “ What exchange shall a mm give for lus soul.” —Matt. xvi. 26, Therefore, according to that teaching, nothing is of more irapo. tamo to mt au the knowing the end of our own being, and the means by which we may at’aiu to that end. And we find further illustrations of its importance, inasmuch as that the Div no Redeemer himself became man and die 1 on the cross for the express purpose of teaching us the importance of that end, and tp procure for us the means to attain it. Now from these principles follow the absolute necessity for a

religious education. First, we must know what to believe, because faith is so accessary that without it we cannot please God. In the next place we must know what to do, because works are also necessary ; for as the Apostle James tea.hcs, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without work? is dead also.” Again, my hr thrca, the necessity for religious education arises from the fall of the human race. Children arc born utterly helpless, without any knowlego wliatsover. They continue for many years in that helpless and ignorant state, and if they are not instructed, and taught the end of their creation, and the means to attain that end, 1 hey must remain for ever in ignorance. Again, we arc born with our p ..s-------aious and evil inclinations. How are we to overcome these? how subdue our passions? how resist successfully our inclinations 'i We cannot succeed against them unless we a’c early trained according to the precepts of our holy religion. And this religion, what does it teach? what does it place before us? what does it demand ? It teaches us the most sublime mysteries, such as the existence and eternity of God, the incarnation of our Saviour, the Sacraments, and the sacrifice of the Mass ? These are sublime and exalted truths not to be learned in an hour or in a day, and if they be not carefully and frequently inculcated, is there not strong reason for believing that these things will be forgotten or neglected ? Thus great preparation is required for the reception, through proper channels, of Divine grace. Children have to be trained—drilled as it were—i i order that they might know how properly to acquire Christian and moral habits. As I have said, this is not the work of an hour or of a week, it is the work of years, almost of a life, and must necessarily follow from the necessity for religious education. And this is particularly necessary in the age in which we live, which in a certain sense is a material age. This materialistic tendency is spreading abroad, and can only he met by a thorough religious education, There is so much immorality and irrdigion, and immoral prints are circulated by the million, that the rising generation can only be guarded against their evil influences by a religious education This is the teaching of the Church ; and I hold that religious education is absolutely necessary and indispensable not only for the salvation of the indiv dual, but for society, and for the good of the commonwealth. If youth be allowed to grow up immorally, they will bo a pest to themselves and their families, and a curse to society. Upon this point the Church on the one hand, and the greatest philosophers, statesmen, orators, and poets are perfectly agreed. “The great work of education,” says Milton, “is to repair the ruin of our first parents by learning to know God aright; to love him, to desire to imitate him as "best we may, possessing our souls in true virtue, which being united to true science, makes up the highest attainable perfection.” Locke declares that a literary without a virtuous education is rather an evil thau a benefit. Washington says, “ Of all dispositions and habits which lead to public prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable suppuls. A volume could not trace ad their connection with private and public s jciety. Let it be simply asked—Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments in courts of justice? And let us, with caution, indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.” Portalia, Minister of Public Instruction under Napoleon I, addressed the Legislative Assembly thus —“There is no instruction without education ; no proper education without morality and dogma. We must take religion as the basis of education ; and if we compare what the instruction of the present day is with what it ought to be, we cannot help deploring the lot which awaits and threatens the present and future generations.” That was prophetic; we now see the result of the education which had been previously given in France. For the last twenty years—since 1850—the system which he there condemns, did not prevail in France, The education imparted in the common sehcols has been good in the main, but it has not been able to overcome the pernicious effects of the system in vogue sixty years ago. Guizot, who was Minister of Public Instruction under Louis Philippe, writes iu Ms Memoires (c. 3, p. 69, Paris, I860)—' In order to make popular education truly goo I and socially useful, it must be fundamentally religious. I do not simply mean by this that religious instruction should hold its place in pop dar education, and that the practices of religion should enter into it; for a nation is not religiously educated by such petty mechanical devices. It is necessary that national education should be given and received in the midst of a religious atmosphere, and that religious impressions and religious observances should penetrate into all its parts.” “ Religion is not a study, or an exercise to ho res trie tc 1 tq a certain placo and a certain hour ; it is a faith and a law, ■a Inch ought to be felt everywhere, and which, .after this manner alone, can exercise all its beneficial influence upon our minds and ourselves.” I have not yet road the opinions of any Catholic authorities on this subject; but I now came to a very, beautiful passage iu a speech by Dupauloup, the eloquent Bishop of Orleans, who says:—“ Yes; the presence of God, His active presence, I might almost say His personal presence, must be often recallel during the course of each day, and in the midst of the inevitable difficulties and different phases of education, God an I His holy name, the thought of His power and His goodness must be frequently and lovingly brought iu; otherwise, religious and moral education will be either null or worthless. The child must bo inspired with the love and fear of God ; with the love of God, that noble and pure feeling, so natural and so lively iu a young heart, and so fitted to urge it to great things. The love of God, and besides the fear of God, not a hateful and servile fear, but that filial fear, respectful yet tender, of which Bossuet, the tutor of the gnat Dauphin, wrote ‘ Let him by all means learn all the ; ciencos suitable to his position ; and even all those that can in any way perfect the culture of his mind, adorn his life, and recommend him to the learned; but. above all, from his tenderest youth, from his very cradle, let him first.learn the fear of God, which is the best support if human life.” The Church the: More dots not stand alone iu inculcating the abs lute necessity of religious education; sho is supported in her teaching by the greatest philosophers and statesmen. They hold that religious education is not only necessary for the in dividual, but is necessary for the well-being of society ; and they bold more than that, viz., that all education should bo founded on religion— which should Juot he relegated to a

certain time or hour, Invt earned m o all the relations of life ; and that Without such education the result would he not to maxc \ittnons citizens, but on tire coni rary make them dangerous to human society. Ihe ir-xt question I come to is that <. f mixed education ; and it is very well that you should have a correct idea of what is meant by this. By mixed education is meant the slate of education which pro rails in the common schools of the United State 0 , in Delano, and in Holland. It docs not exist in any other countries in the world —at least to far as I ana aware. It is a system tu.u gives a liberal literary and scientific educate n to children of all denominations, without interfering wi.lithe religion 01 an.*. The authorised version of the Bible, winch we do not rccogu'se, is read., and religious instruction given by the masters or mistres sea, but not to thorn enildivn whose patents object. Before proceeding further, it is well for me to tell you that the Chur hj condemns such a system' as this. You must not undt rstand for a moment that 1 entertain anything new upon this suhje.t; or that I am extreme in my views ; or that I am opposing what any other Catholic bishop is free to adopt in reference to this subject. The Church has spoken ; it has condemned it, and will not give any sanction to it. If in any other country in the world, Catholic Bishops have been quiescent, it is merely because they are placed in such lamentable circumstances, which oblige them to tolerate it. There silence is not to be taken as approbation. You are not to under -stand that I mean it to be understood that they arc quiescent under such a system. Without a single exception, the Bishops in Ireland have risen against it again and again. The present Pope having been consulted on this subject, addressed a letter, in 18(34, totlio A rob bishop of Friburg, in Germany, from y.’hich I take the following extract “But if this detestable system of education, so far removcu from - atbo'ic faith and ecclesiastical authority, becomes a source of evils Loth to individuals and society, when it is employed in the higher teaching and in schools frequented by the better class, who does not sec that the. same system will give rise to still greater evils if it be introduced into primary school ? For it is in these schools, above all, that the children of the people ought to he carefully taught from their tender years the mysteries and precepts of our holy religion, and to be trained with diligence to piety, good morals, religion, and civilisation. But in these same schools religious teaching ought to have such a leading place in all that concerns education and instruction, and whatever else the children may learn should appear to be subsidiary to it. The youim, therefore, are exnoscd to the greatest per Is whenever, in their schools, education is not most closely united wi'.h religious teaching. Wherefore, since primary schools are catah'ished chictiy to give the people a religious education, and to lend them to piety "and Clnistian mnra’ity, they have justly attracted to themselves, in a greater degree th~n other cductional institutions, all the care, sol citmlc, and vigilance of the Church. The design of withdrawing primary schools from the control of the Church and the exertions made to carry this design into effect arc, therefore, iu-pired by a spirit of hostility to her, and by the d sire of extingu shine among the people the divine light of our holv f.d'h. 'lhe Church which has founded these schools has ever regarded them with the g eatest care anl interest, and looked upon them as the chief object of her eccbawstical authority and government, and wha soever removed them from her indicted serious injury both on her .and on the schools. Those who pretend that tire Church ought to abdicate or suspend her control and her salntuiy action upon the primary schools, in reality ask her to disobey toe commands of her Divine author, and to be false to the charge she lias received from God of guiding all men to salvation; and in whatever country this pernicious design of i\ moving the schools from ecclesiastical authority should he entertained and carried into execution-, and the young thereby exposed to the danger of bring llnir fai hj, there the Church would he hound not only to use her best efforts, and to employ every means to seerro for them the necessary Christian education and instruction ; but, moreover, woukl feel herself obliged to warn a’l the fadhful, ami to declare that no one can in conscience frequent such schools as being adverse to the Catholic Churon. So that In what I hive done I have simply done my duty, and obeyed the head of our Church. The same Pontiff his condemned th. } following proposition —that “ Cathodes can approve of a system of enuealion w'lnch is outside the Catholic faith and the authority of the Church, and which aims, or at least chictiy aims, at imparting a knowledge of th'ngs merely secular.” 1 have said that this system of mixed education do.s exist only in Roll aid, Ireland, and the Unite I States ; it doer not in Austria or Prussia : lam absolutely ccitain of that. Ti.is is a piatter of soma importance, because we are constantly told that it is to the system of mixed education that prevails in I inss.a that she owes her rise to one of the lirst nations of Europe. This is a mistake; it is no such thing. Upon this subject I will road you the letter of the Archbishop of Posen to tha Cardinal Archbishop of Dublin, which is printed in the report of the Education Commission of 1868. He says;—“ The mixed system lias never been applied in Prussia to elementary schools ; there have been and are at the present day, purely denominational. The revolutionary party, as well outside as insole Parliament, lias bet-n at woik for many years, seeking to introduce the mixed system into these schools, but so far it lias meet with a determined opposition from It is Majesty’s government.” “ Prom what I have said you will understand that our elementary schools, if Catholic, have Catholic hooks and Catholic teachers ; it Protestant, their books and teachers are Protestant, (To be conlin icd.)