Youthful Paganism

New Zealand Tablet, 1 October 1908, Page 9

Youthful Paganism

. A non-Catholic clergyman up North has been entertaining— or rather shocking— an audience by relating ' Wndry instances of the armor-plated ignorance of even the elementary facts of religion that he discovered among children frequenting^ State schools. And, by a curious coincidence, an esteemed clerical -friend has furnished us with an instance in which the State-trained-child of. nominal Catholic parents (recent arrivals in his district) compressed his entire knowledge of Christ into the assertion that He was the discoverer of America. Calverley writes, of schooldays in which he was associated with a boycompanion — ' He was what nurses call a " limb " ; One of those small- misguided creatures, Who, tho' their intellects are dim; Are one too ma.ny for their teachers.' And (adds Calverley) : ' All the theology we knew- _ Was that we mightn't play on Sunday ; And alt the- general truths, that' cakes Were to be bought are four a penny, And that excruciating aches Resulted if we ate too rriaiiy. '' There's a god deal of this sort of practical youthful paganism about. Among Catholic children, it is to be found only among those who are brought up under a system of public instruction which, in effect, ignores the Almighty. The Catholic clergy more than those of any other creed, go" out to seek and instruct the neglected ones in the public schools. But even the best and most zealous effort fails, at times, to produce commensurate results.