A Warning Lesson

New Zealand Tablet, 22 November 1906, Page 9

A Warning Lesson

For good ot-'-evil, one of the shortest cuts to the soul of a nation, goes through' the school. The Revolution knew^this when,- it. introduced the fad of hard secularism into the schools., 'We have already tbe school without God 1 , said' a Fr&ncli educational journals 'at length we shall have the 1 Rep-üblic without God. And this (according to M. * de Lanessan, wjao was. Minister- of Marino in the late Waldeck-Rousseau Administration) is what is actually coming to pass in - lodge^ridden ' France. In a recent article in the London ' Times ' (which had previously appeared in- the Paris •' Siecle ') he said: 'The young people who have received their education iai our secular schools during- the last twenty-five years Jiave completely- given up religion.' ' This,' says the *' Catholic Times ' of October 10, ' is an admission the force of which aught not to be neglected by members of Christian denominations during the present crisis. Here we have an avowal from a French Minister that one of tfie results~of secular education is the destruction of the faith of the rising generation. This time M. Lavino, the, implacable enemy of the j* Catholic •^Church, who represents the " Times " in Paris, deserves the. thanks of : the Christian Churches. He has rendered the good cause -a useful service, and so has M. de Lanessan, who, by the way, is the gentleman that at Toulon kicked a crucifix out of the door of the hospital, * the chapel of which he had converted into a music ball.'