The 'Neutral' School

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 10, 7 March 1907, Page 9

The ' Neutral ' School

Here is,- a notable passage from a brilliant Lenten Pastoral Instruction to the Catholics of the Hobart Archdiocese :—: —

' The preservation of the gift" of Divine faith must constitute the chief concern of the Catholic. This explains why it is that Catholics in every land stand out prominently in one respect, in the energy they display and the frequent ' sacrifices they face, for no other reason than to safeguard the faith. At the present day it is felt, for example, that the school must become an agency either in support of religious training*, or also that its eftect will be to endanger the faith of Catholic children: The school cannot be merely neutral. Either the teacher and the rest of the children have the same attitude towards the, Catholic ' religion in all its foear--ings as the Catholic parents of "the child, or they have not. If they have, then the child, in passing from the home to the school naturally experiences no obstacle .to the explication of its rudimentary', but all important, concepts regarding the objects of faith ; whereas if the teacher's notions of religion are quite different, and if those of the other children are different, it is obvious that with 'the best goodwill' on their part, the immature mind of the Catholic child is exposed to .obstacles which, like the pebble* on the streamlet's bank 'that " turns the course of many a river ", will preju'dioially determine the trend of that child's character- with regard to the great subject of Catholic faith. Such a course of reflection will -doubtless appear far-fetched and unpractical to the average man outside the pale of Catholic faith ; but it is vital in the estimation of Catholics,' and they show that it is so by the constant and unswerving attitude they maintain in reference to .it throughout the world, and above all in the sacrifice of means which they incur for this and this only." 1