EDUCATIONAL.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 366, 10 March 1876, Page 3

EDUCATIONAL.

(Bislitfp Moren'* L«snten FaStoial for 1876;) On previous occasions we calledydnf; attention to the all-important question of .education, and urged on you. the necessity of providing Catholic schools for Catholic children. ,Wo can'only lid\v repeat- the words offormer Pastorals ; nothing is ehshged'ih reference to this- subject.- Itis.how-* ever; consoling aiid eneoUrasing'tb be able to bear witness to the docility and zeal with which you" hale responded to this call. Although comparatively few and poor, you h..ve established and maintained uiaiiy excellent school* for* both sexes, and, "in most places; at your" own sole expense. But though much has been done, thjp worlf, it may with truth be said, has only commenced. Nothing like adequate provision for 1 even the most elementary education of oar children has yet been made. .Renewed exertions, therefore, will b£ demanded of all; and the faithful of this diocese frill have to prepare themselves for great sacrifices, in order to hand down to their children the faith once delivered to the Haiuta, and without which " it is impossible to please God.'*—Heb xi. v. 6, You- must tfust in God and your owu exertions alone; from the Governments—Provincial and General—you can expect nothing. Everywhere the system of education .supported by the* State throughout this Colony is anti-Catholic. So far an we are concerned, ail Government schools in this diocese are". godless and hostile to the Catholic Church.' Catholics cannot frequent them without exposing themselves to grievous dangers to their faith and morals, Of these schools, therefore, Catholics cannot avail them--, selves except-in cases of veiy great necessity, and when—such necessity being supposed —every possible precaution in taken ward; off all dangers to faith and morals. Parents and guardians should bear in mind that they are responsible for the children under their charge, and often reflect on these words of the Apostle s "He that neglects.bis own; particularly those of his own household; has lost the faith, and is,become worse than an infidel ;" and again on these words of our Divine Master i "What will it avail a man to gain the whole world if he lose his own soul, or what will a man give in exchange for his soul ?" We, therefore, most earnestly exhort all to exert themselves to establish and maintain efficient Catholic: schools wherever it is possible to do so ; and we call upon the clergy —who, indeed, have not been wanting in this matter—to exert themselves with the greatest zeal and perseverance in the great cause of Catholic education.Nothing but such an education can save the rising generation from the baneful influence of the infidel systems of. education so characteristic of this century, and bo fashionable in thia Colony.