Bible in Schools.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 110, 13 May 1904, Page 3

Bible in Schools.

SPEECH BY BISHOP GRIMES. CHRISTCHTJRCH, May 9. Speaking at a religious (unction on Sunday, Dr. Grimes (the Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch), referring to the Bible-in-Schools controversy, said many people asked why the Catholics opposed the intro- , duction of the Bible in schools. They did not oppose the Bible. They loved it because it was the Word of God, but it was for this very reason that they could not have it profaned by the interpretation of men not authorised by God to Interpret its works. The Bible was a religious book, it could not he treated as an ordinary secular book. He asked, did not those who were connected with schools know what Intelligent inquiry came from the children ? The schools ■ were made up by children from all sects. A cohscienco clause would not allow a teacher to say that the words he was reading were the words of God. There could be no such thing as an unsectaria-n or undogmatic teaching of the Word of God. It was merely a pandering to a form of religion called unsectarianism, equally obnoxious as paganism. What the Catholic Church wanted was to bring up the children in a Christian atmosphere. They were not always thrusting religion down the children's throats, but the Christian atmosphere surrounded them. If the Catholics gave something more than the ordinary curriculum, were they to be blamed when this something was a knowledge of God ?