BISHOP MORAN ON EDUCATION, AT ST JOSEPH'S.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 11, 12 July 1873, Page 11

BISHOP MORAN ON EDUCATION, AT ST JOSEPH'S.

Ix this Church on Sunday last, at the 11 o'clock Mass, the Rev. J. Lenihan preached an excellent sermon on the terrible evil of drunkenness. In the evening, after Vespers, the Bishop prenohed on the Gospel ot the day ; but previous to reading the Epistle and Gospel of the day, hit Lordship remarked lie had spoken so often on the subject of education lately that he would not occupy the time of the congregation with it that evening. He might, however, say a word on one point : — It will be necessary for us to support our schools ourselves. The burden, he observed, is a very heavy one, and the tax is very great, but the duty of supporting our schools is one which cannot be avoided. We are bouna by every principle as Catholics and Christians to give our children a Christian and Catholic education, and and save them from the loss of their faith and from a Godless training. " He that neglects his own, especially those of his own household," as the Apostle tells us, "has lost the faith, and is worse than the infidel." All those in charge of children, such as parents, guardians, aucl priests, and one in his own pobition in the first place, will have to render an account to God at the Judgment Day for the manner in which they have performed this duty. The neglect of duty on their part will bring upon them chastisement for ever. We can make no compro- j rnise in this matter of education, because our faith is the most important consideration to us ; for this faith we must be prepared to sacrifice ever; thing else, because if faith be lost, all is lost. If faith be lost, it will be absolutely impossible for us to do any one thing that will be pleasing to God. This is the teaching of the Apostle Paul, who sayß that " without faith it is impossible to please God ; and he that helieveth not shall be condemned." Therefore the loss of faith was the greatest calamity that could befall us ; and the next greatest one was that of exposing our faith to the danger of loss. There is only a shade of difference between the two, because as we read in the Holy Scriptures, "he that loves the danger will perish in it." We are, therefore, not only obliged to make sacrifice* to preserve our i faith, but we are strictly bound to avoid the danger of. incurring the loss of our faith or that of others confided to our charge. Now, if our children are peimitted to attend these Protestant and Godless schools, there is no doubt their faith will be endangered j and he might say, consistent with the probability of the case, that as a rule their faith will be lost. Faith is a precious and a tender gift, and must not be exposed to rude treatment and danger. We have experience to corroborate this, for we know that in the United States of America, for example, under the Godless system hundreds and thousands, and he believed some millions, of child) en belonging to our (to the Irish) race have lost that faith for which their fathers died, through Godless schools — an irreparable loss for which nothing in this world can compensate. We should be warned by this and make sacrifices — very great sacrifices—that we may have schools of our own. The Catholic body, comparatively poor and few though it is in this diocese, has already done a great deal. Notwithstanding aIL we have been called upon to do, we have schools in Dunedin attended by 250 children ; in Lawrence, by from 80 to 100 ; in Invercargill, by 111 ; in Milton, by 42 At Lawrence, we have a schoolhouse which has cost £900. We have schools at Arrowtown, Naseby, and St Bathans, and preparations are being made for opening two additional Catholic schools shortly. Now, is not this a great deal ?~ and it is all at the expense of the Catholic body alone — unassisted by the funds which they themselves contribute lor the educatioH of the country. Without any pnde or ostentation, we may legitimately contrast what we do in the matter with what other denominations do. We do not find the other denominations making any effort ; they throw the cost and the duty upon the country ; and whilst they do this, they absolutely refuse to aid us to the extent of one penny out of tho money which we contribute ourselves. He had no hesitation whatever in designating this conduct here as a monstrous injustice and a tyranny. He did not ask them to present any petitions on this matter of education during the present sitting of the Council; and his reason was because it would be simply useless for them to do so. He had not asked them to petition, because, in the first place, he was not quite sure that one single member of the Council would undertake to present their petition. When he had petitions prepared before, some of the members refused to present them ; they denied to us the right of free men that of having our petitions presented to the Legislature of our country. That is the state of the case, and it is one that cannot be censured too severely. Now, he would not dare, under the circumstanceß, to ask a single member to present our petitions. He thought it likely there were some gentlemen in the Council who would present their petitions— he thought it was probable they would do so — but he had no doubt if they did they would do so with very great reluctance, either because they are opposed to us or because they are in dread of their constituents. He did not wish to place them in a position of antagonism to their constituents. He felt our petitions would be ignored in the Council, and he did not mean to subject the body to which he belonged— after the humiliating treatment to which it had already been subjected — to any further humiliation. For these reasons he had given up all hope of obtaining the least assistance in the matter of education from the Council of this Province. He should for the present, and for some time to come, abstain from asking them for anything ; and he should devote all his ability and energies to developing our own resources as regarded the support and establishment of

Catholic schools throughout the diocese. For this he was prepared to make every sacrifice in his power! -He could not do much, but he would gladly do all he could, and he would call upon the people to come forward in the cause of 'education, and to make sacrifices in that oausß as their fathers did. '.He trusted that his appeal would not be la vaia — he felt quite certain that it would not. The cause is a good one. The appeal will be made to charitable and faithfal heart's, and we may confidently expect the blessing of God upon an effort such as this. His Lordship then read the Epistle and Gospel, and explained the latter at considerable length.- We were greatly pleased to find that the gas light was everything that could be desired — a Tast improvement on the light of tho previous Sunday evening.