CATHOLIC HIGHER EDUCATION".

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 134, 26 November 1875, Page 12

CATHOLIC HIGHER EDUCATION".

The University Bill which has passed the Chambers of France throug-lx the ability and tact of the Bishop of Orleans and his fellow-laborers opens tlie doors of institutions of higher education for the entrance of religion. For a century they have excluded all teaching of Christianity, and the madness, the iniquity of this pagan policy is written in the almost unbroken series of misfortunes that have darkened through that period the history of France. It drew upon that' Catholic land the storm of the first French Revolution, and it bowed its pride and glory to the dust in the capitulation of Sedan. The eliminating of religion from education was the largest factor in all intervening disasters. The wiser portion of the statesmen of France have been taught by the reverses which the nation has encountered, by the social evils which have eaten away the energies of its former life, and brought it more than once to the point of death since infidelity began to rule its higher schools, that education, to \>p fruitful of good to individuals and society,, must be based on religion ; animated by it, perfected by it. Sad experience has given, them a full appreciation, not merely of the spiritual and supernatural benefits of Christian education, but of the intellectual and educational advantages to those who are destined, by an extensive training of the mind and a long course of study, to be the leaders and teachers of the people. It was an old Roman maxim, " That the republic should always protect itself against injury," and France is merely applying to itself this salutary maxim when it prohibits the exclusion of religious instruction as a distinct science in the curriculum of collegiate studies. It is about to realise in some degree Dr. Newman's idea of a university, embracing in its intellectual circle every department of knowledge. This great educator, at whose feet the ablest politicians of Europe might learn wisdom, says the Catholic youths who are prepared in a university for the general duties of a secular life should not leave it without some knowledge of their religion. He maintains most logically that as the mind is enlarged and cultivated generally, it is capable, and has need, if it is to exercise a healthy influence upon society, of a fuller religious information; from which he draws the conclusion that the knowledge which is sufficient for entrance at a university will not suffice for the youthful intellect when it "becomes more sharpened and refined. It should be constantly fed with divine truth as it gains an appetite for human knowledge. University education, if words are to convey their true meaning, must regard religion in the light in which the Catholic members of the French Assembly have viewed it — as a distinct, as well as an important branch of knowledge. If the university student, says the ablest of Catholic churchmen, is bound to have a knowledge of history generally, he is bound to have inclusively a knowledge of sacred history as well as prof ane ; if he ought to be well instructed in ancient literature, Biblical literature comes under that general description, as well as classical ; if he knows the philosophy of men, he will not be extravagating from his general subject if he cultivate also the philosophy of God. The history of the Catholic religion, its dogmas and the heresies that have opposed them, its labors for the temporal and spiritual welfare of society in all ages, should not be to him who is to hold the place and rank of a Catholic gentleman an unknown letter, a sealed book, as strange and unfamiliar to him as the records of another world. Ho should know, says this Catholic Gamaliel, who the Fathers of the Church were, when they lived, what they wrote ; who were the leading heresiarchs, and -what doctrines they promulgated ; he should know something about the Benedictines, the Dominicans, Franciscans, and other renowned religious Orders that have, from age to age, issued from the bosom of God's Church to render invaluable services to mankind. The religious knowledge which a university should impart to Catholic students — and what we say of it is applicable not only to institutions bearing that title in another country, but to colleges in our own — should be shaped to suit the times in which wo live ; it should enable the student to meet the difficulties, to answer the- perplexing religious questions of the age. He must have his mind enriched with so much knowledge of religion that he will be able to hold his own against the sophistries of infidelity or Protestantism, against the falsehoods of history or modern science ; he should be able not only to defend his faith, but to advance the interest of Catholic truth. He should be able at a distance, at least, to imitate the lay apologists of former times, siuh men as Justin, Laclantius, Athenagoras, Hermi is, Do Maistre, 0/on.un, Chute xubriand, Montalembert, Dono&o Cortes, and a host of others, who havo served the Church by their theological learning, and benefited thousands by their theological writings. Never was the want of such men more deeply i'elt than in our "own day. The intellectual activity of laymen whose minds have been accurately trained and stored with religious knowledge would save thousands of souls that aro ready to perish in the waves of infidelity in this hour when all Protestantism is going to pieces, and when they imagine that there is no safo refuge from the spiritual death that surrounds them. The University Bill of France provides for the creation of this class of Catholic athletes, who will not only be proud, like Montalembert, of being sons of the Crusaders, but save Lho standard-bearers of the Cross from di ho tor in the fierce intellectual battles of these days that spring irom religious errors. — ' Catholic Telegraph.'