N.Z. CATHOLIC FEDERATION

New Zealand Tablet, 13 March 1919, Page 34

N.Z. CATHOLIC FEDERATION

DOMINION COUNCIL HALF-YEARLY MEETING. ~".. .;- As briefly mentioned in last week's issue of the Tablet, the delegates to the Dominion Council, at the conclusion of Solemn High Mass in St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin, on Wednesday, March 5, assembled in St. Joseph's Hall, Rattray Street, for the half-yearly meeting. The gathering was welcomed by the Very Rev. J. Coffey, diocesan administrator, who wished the meeting success, and outlined the plans made by the Dunedin Diocesan Council for the entertainment of the visitors. ■ - The president (Mr. Poppelwell) also expressed his. pleasure at the representative meeting present. Mr. Poppelwell referred to the severe loss the diocese of Dunedin had sustained in the death of Bishop Verdon, a man of quiet, studious turn of mind, but one ever mindful of the needs of his. Church and people. He spoke also of the many vacant places amongst the clergy and laity since the visit of the influenza. The sympathy of the council would go out to the relatives of those who had suffered, and the admiration of all would be . accorded those noble priests, nuns, laymen, and women who in time of trial gave freely of their services and time in attending the sick. The scheme propounded by the Federation for scholarships, to be available in each diocese, had taken practical shape, and the - first of these scholarships had been awarded this year. It was to be regretted . that a determined effort was being made in certain quarters to deprive Catholic pupils of their right to obtain proficiency certificates, and Government employment: This cry for a monopoly of education by the State was surely a sign of a decadence of the idea of liberty which used to be the proud boast of the citizens of the British Empire. The report of the Dominion Executive, which was discussed in detail, showed satisfactory progress. The work of the field service fund of the Federation, which has raised a very large sum during the war for the benefit of soldiers in the Dominion and abroad, was referred to at length, and considerable satisfaction was expressed at the work performed, which has been highly appreciated by the soldiers, and by the chaplains who have administered the funds. As the work of caring for the soldiers abroad, and in hospital in New Zealand, will continue for some time to come, the question of closing the activities of the Federation in regard to this work was deferred for future consideration. Attention was directed . to the good work done by the hostels for girls in the larger centres, which are partly controlled by the several diocesan councils of the Federation, and this work was commended. The need for the formation of energetic immigration committees to assist the many, persons who will arrive when shipping is available was urged, and the councils were directed to take action. During .the half year a message was received from his Holiness the Pope, imparting to the Dominion Council and members the Apostolic Benediction. Reference was made to arrangements made with the English Vigilance Association to obtain corrections of mis-statements appearing -.in the English press, in connection with matters affecting the Church generally. These corrections were authoritative, and should be of service in the Dominion. The executive placed on record its deep sense of thankfulness to Almighty God that the end of the great war had come. To those who had suffered and to the relatives of the fallen most heartfelt sympathy was extended. The principal discussion centred on the question of the educational policy of the Catholic body. After matter had been gone into it was agreed that the Dominion Executive interview the hierarchy as soon as possible, and take action as is deemed necessary. The matter of uniform scholarship examinations was also considered very carefully, and eventually it was decided to convene a conference of teachers to arrange a uniform scheme. Most satisfactory reports were received of progress in the various dioceses. In most cases the membership has already exceeded that of previous years; despite the difficulties attendant i upon the

Most hearty thanks were , accorded the Very Rev, Father J. Liston for his admirable and; instructive address at the Cathedral during Mass. It was decided that the address be printed and circulated;.

s m ~< MASSED MEETING IN DUNEDIN. I There was a great assemblage in His Majesty's Theatre, Dunedin, on last Thursday evening, on the occasion of a massed meeting, organised by the Dunedin Diocesan Council of the Catholic Federation. Grouped on the stage were the various speakers, the movers' and seconders of resolutions, and delegates who attended the Dominion Council conference on the previous day. : The Very Rev. J. Coffev (diocesan administrator) presided, and in addressing the gathering, said the council' of the Catholic Federation had been meeting in Dunedin during the past two days, and it had been considered that it would be a good opportunity for members to give addresses with a view of pointing out what the Catholic Federation had been called into existence for, which was not for any sinister purpose or secret motive, but merely to voice the opinion of Catholics on social, religious, and educational questions. It had been known for years that the Catholics in the Dominion were suffering under what they considered was a gross injustice in the educational system, and an effort had been made lately to withdraw from them the privileges they had received. It had been thought that the time had come to put before the public the grievances of the Catholics and what was demanded by them. The first of the selected speakers was the Very Rev. Dean Burke, who said: My subject is the necessity of religious and moral education in schools. The education of youth has been at all times held as of the greatest importance. Never was it of more importance than in our days of democratic rule, of government of the people by the people for the people. If the people would govern well they should be fitted to do so by virtue and intelligence. All. then, desire the best education that can be given."' In these countries, three attitudes are taken up in this matter. First, there is that of atheists, agnostics, pantheists, positivists, and so on. Again,, there is a large class of people, adherents of various Christian denominations who agree largely with those consistent secularists. In the third place stand all Catholics and, I should hope, very many Protestants, who have decided views as to the place of religion and morals in the processes of education. The first class, caring nothing for the Christian religion, exclude it from their school system. But admitting the necessity of moral training, they say with Herbart, that "the school discipline and instruction in the common branches are adequate means for developing the moral character." They add that the example of teachers and parents, contact with companions, and the conventions of our civilised society, with the policeman standing behind the crowd and overseeing all, will make a law-abiding, respectable citizen—a man who Will keep out. of gaol!. And what more do you want? The second class agree with the true secularists in shutting out religion from the schools. They do so for one reason or anotherexpediency, convenience, cheapness, avoidance of difficulties. They would leave religion and morals mostly to the home and the Sunday school. They forget how little can be done in an hour in the week by the Sunday school, and how little is done in so many homes through inability, want of ' time, fatigue, and indifference. "Joe Bindle expresses briefly but fairly well the attitude of this large and easy-going class. . "Not as I've anythink to say agin' religion and morals, provided they are kep' for Sundays and Good Friday, an' don't get mixed up wi' the rest of the week The third class hold that religion and morals (with them religion and morals are largely identical) should be pre-eminent at all times in human life—and most particularly during . the time of early education, when character is being formed. Instruction and training should go together. Why this pre-eminence and due co-ordination ? Because the aim of education is to fit t man to reach.his destiny. Where does it lie? "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Justice." "What 4q#> $ profit- fi WW, if hp gam the whole world mi

Buffer the loss of his own soull" See, then,-ourlife's* aim; there is the flashlight from..beyond to guide us. What should be our best education in view of bur. life's aim and scope It is astonishing how 1 many talk and write learnedly on the details and methods of education. They explain those details biologically, psycologically, hygienically, all most profoundly; and all the time they forget the great end and scope of all education and the means to attain that end—the kind of life that leads to it. St. Paul is more to the point in the matter than the biologists, psychologists, and eugenists: "The grace of God our Saviour hath appeared to all men, instructing us, that denying ungodliness and worldly . desires we should live soberly and justly and piously in this world looking for the blessed hope and the coming . of the glory of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ." Here we see our destiny; here we see the kind of life that leads to it. What are the agencies, that contribute to making our life here what it should be; in other words, that contribute to true education ? They are home, church, and- school. If the child is to be educated fully and efficiently it is clear that these three agencies must act together. There must be a consensus of forces. If the home does not help the church and the school, the work of clergy and teachers is frustratedoften nullified. If the school does not help home and church again loss ensues. But if there be discord among those agencies you can expect confusion and ineffectiveness. If the home be Christian and religious, why exclude its ideals from the school, why divide the child into parcels and send him into different shops for development not in harmony ; perhaps in disagreement? To be effective, all the processes of education should be in agreement —one continuing and completing the other. Further, the Catholic Church desires that not only the principal but also the collateral agencies should act harmoniously upon the child. This holds for home and church. It holds also for the school. The example and influence of the teachers outside formal instruction and habituation, the child's companions, the tone of the school, the ideals maintained, the practical standards of conduct prevailing, the religious exercises and devotions employed to keep the consciences of the children sensitive and pure. All these factors acting together- obviously tend so very* much to reach the grand results desired. They constitude that psychological climate or school "atmosphere" to which the Church attaches so much value. Again, there must be due co-ordination in the development of all the faculties of the child. He is a very complex being. You have to consider his reason, his will, moral conscience, passions, bodily appurtenances, aesthetic emotions, high spiritual aspirationsall contributors to conduct,life, and the working out of human destiny—all immediately influenced by the general and collateral agencies of education. Now all those powers must be harmoniously trained and "developed, else you may expect an ill-balanced, dangerous character. An error prominent in speeches oh popular education, made by politicians, 40 or 50 years ago, was, that knowledge of the three R.'s was going to revolutionise society. Spread the light, teach the three R.'s, and men will come to know their duties and to do them Nonsense! We now know better than that. The knowledge of the three R.'s may only make the rogue all the bigger and all the cleverer. A good deal more than that must be put into the many-sided soul of the child. ..-.'.' Yes, reason, experience, the practice of almost all peoples from earliest times down to our own insist on the combination of religion, morals, and secular instruction in all the processes of education. Beside the synagogues in days of old the Jews built schools in which the Bible was the chief class-book. Hence those buildings were called "The Houses of the Book." Besides the cathedrals, parish churches, chantries, guildhalls, burgh-houses, Christian schools were set up all down the Christian centuries. A break in this grand tradition- this grand result of time and thoughtfirst occurred during the French Revolution, when Conrdorcet, inspired. by the theories of Rousseau, proposed,

in the National- Assembly, to abolish the 'Christian schools and substitute ; godless schools. During the course of the nineteenth century Condorcet's new and tentative proposal took hold of the minds of politicians in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, and they would remove religion and Christian moral training from the schools. But the Catholic people would have nothing to do with the new experiment, and they established their own schools— parish schools of todaythe successors of the Christian schools of the Ages. ;: :i .•■-■..■■ •-.. -~ _ ,r • How highly they appreciate and how deeply they love those schools is shown by the great sacrifices they make to maintain them. In the United States last year there were 1,700,000 children in the Catholic schools and £10,000,000 were expended in their maintenance ! A huge free-will contribution to a great ideal Assuredly Bishop Spalding was right when.he said that the vast Catholic school system of the United States was the great outstanding religious fact in that great country. In the archdiocese of Melbourne last year there were 35,500 children in the Catholic schools. On their Christian education £213,000 were voluntarily expended. £93,600, said the inspector in his report, had been expended for the past five years on school buildings. Here, said he, is evidence of the earnest conviction of our Catholic people of the necessity of Catholic schools for Catholic children. Assuredly sufficient evidence is there. The same in proportion to our numbers holds true of us in New Zealand. Here there is no truckling with mammon, no sharp inquiry into what is cheapest or what will pay best. Here is the firm grasp of principles and determination to abide by them; here is evidence to the Christian conscience, the noblest power of our race; here is. a firm grasp of the right and determination to do it at all costs; here is what sheds dignity upon our nature and show something divine in us. The example of our Lord Jesus Christ sanctifies obedience to the dictates of conscience. The early Christian martyr, refusing to cast a pinch of incense on the brazier burning before the altar of the Olympian divinities showed his determination not to swerve in the least from the convictions of conscience. In obedience to her conscience the Armenian Christian maid often refused to enter the Turkish hareem as a queen, and went out to tortures and death. In obedience to conscience and in this very matter of education our own fathers, when richly endowed schools—the Charter —were open to them, fled across the seas amid great hardships for the education they approved, or, " Still crouching 'neath the shelt'ring hedge, or stretched on mountain fern, The teacher and his pupils met feloniously to learn." Asked by a member of a Royal Commission on Education in Ireland, in 1825, how and where he had received his early education, Dr. McHale, one of the late Archbishops of Tuam, answered:—"The school in which I was brought up had been planned by the Creator and furnished by Nature. Its halls were majestic; its dimensions grand. The blue vault of heaven was its canopy, and the desks and seats were the lap of Mother Earth! The teacher was our hedgeschoolmaster with a penalty on his head ! Brave old teacher and worthy pupil, McHale, one of the ablest defenders of Christian schools in the nineteenth. century. Those millions of money annually spent on our Catholic schools in the States, and in Australasia are the echoes of the ideas and the spirit of those noble men. Reason and revelation, experience and history, all tell us > that home and church and school must be thorough, whole-hearted - co-operant factors in that ay stem of education which makes a man best in family and city and State, and prepares him most securely for his eternal destiny, the "one thing necessary." Hence this meeting will have no hesitation in passing a resolution expressing our appreciation of our Christian school system, our admiration for the sacrifices made by parents and teachers in maintaining and conducting them and our determination to contribute our share to uphold this magnificent work.