p. 30The Schooling of the Children—(Continued)

Your obligation to send your children to none but good Catholic schools becomes still more evident if you call to mind the sad fact that, outside of the Catholic Church, the spirit of unbelief is making great headway, and is accompanied by its natural fruits—vice and corruption. It is an unquestionable truth that “without religion there can be no effective moral restraint, and without adequate moral restraint morality is impossible.”

What is it that makes an act good or evil in itself? What is it that constitutes the essential difference between right and wrong, lawful and unlawful, virtue and vice? An act is good when it is in accordance with the divine law; if contrary to it, it is evil. Obedience to the divine law constitutes what is right, lawful, and virtuous, whilst disobedience to it constitutes what is wrong, unlawful, and vicious. He who ignores or rejects God and His law ignores or rejects all essential difference between good and evil, between right and wrong, between lawful and unlawful, between virtue and vice. If he admits any difference at all between them, it is only an arbitrary and variable difference, depending on his own whims and caprice! He who ignores God’s authority and power necessarily denies all lawful authority and power, because, as St. Paul says, “there is no power but from God.” He who discards religion, if he be consistent, acknowledges no other authority, no other law, no other obligation, than himself, his own feelings, his own interest. Why, then, should he perform what people call right, and refrain from what they call wrong, if his own interest, his own feelings, his own animal passions, prompt him to defraud his neighbor or his country’s government, to murder an enemy, to violate a woman’s chastity, or to commit what other men look upon as heinous crimes? Only godless people are guilty of such crimes, because they have no effectual restraint on their evil passions.

The fear of God and respect for His law are the only effectual restraints on man’s evil inclinations. No moral restraint can be effectual p. 31unless it reaches man’s thoughts and desires, for these, as Our Lord declares, are the source and primary cause of evil-doing. The thought always precedes the deed. But our thoughts and desires are wholly interior, and are therefore beyond the sphere and sanction of human laws. The only possible and effective restraint on evil thoughts and desires is the fear of God, who sees and knows all things, who is the supreme and most just Judge of man’s thoughts, words, and actions, and will forever reward or punish man according to his works. “The fear of the Lord,” says the Royal Prophet, “is the beginning of wisdom.” This wholesome fear, as experience testifies, is the only universal and effectual restraint against all evil-doing.

The fear of the Lord, however, cannot be instilled into the heart of man except by a good religious training. But in the present public-school system, from which religious instruction is carefully banished, a religious training is an impossibility. It is therefore evident that such a system is unable to impart sound moral principles, or to furnish an effective moral restraint on one’s evil inclinations and animal passions. Such a system is, then, in itself erroneous, and, if alone followed, highly dangerous to the real welfare of the individual, of the family, and of society.

“No man,” says Christ, “can serve two masters.” No one can serve God and the devil. If you are not on God’s side, you are siding with the devil, for you cannot remain neutral. “He who is not with Me,” says our divine Redeemer, “is against Me.” That system of education, then, from which religion and religious instruction are excluded is not with God,—the Author of religion,—but is godless, anti-religious, and destructive of the basis of morality, and the education it imparts is injurious to salvation, for “a bad tree,” says Christ, “cannot produce good fruit.” Just as our bodies may be killed not merely by poison, but quite as surely by want of nourishment, so also our souls may be spiritually killed, not only by heretical doctrines, but even more surely and insidiously by the want of religion, that is, by infidelity.

There is now a general conviction that wickedness and the lack of moral principles are to be found among all classes of society, from the highest to the lowest. We need not be astonished at this, for a large proportion of the present generation, brought up in schools from which all religious instruction is excluded, have received no religious training even at home, and, consequently, have not had the wholesome fear of the Lord instilled into their hearts from their infancy. Being destitute of this salutary fear, they have but little fear of man or respect for human authority and law, because the instructions they have received have made them, not good and virtuous, but smart and godless, capable of devising a thousand ways of escaping or defeating human justice. One instance among many will suffice to illustrate our position. p. 32Statistics show that, in late years, ten thousand persons are murdered annually in the United States, and hardly one murderer in twenty is punished. The general lack of conscience, the dishonesty and immorality of the present generation, are mainly attributable to the want of religious education and to godless training. The only safeguard for your dear little ones against this torrent of corruption is the god-fearing spirit acquired by a thorough religious education in a good Catholic school.

You ought to bear in mind that it is not a matter of choice with you; that you are not at liberty to send your children to any school you like. Wherever there are good Catholic schools it is your sacred duty to send your children to them, and to no other schools, unless you have serious reasons approved by the bishop of the diocese. Such is the decision given by our Holy Father the Pope to the bishops of the United States. And when Rome has spoken the case is finally settled and is no longer appealable, as St. Augustine declared fifteen centuries ago. This is likewise the decision of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, which prescribes, wherever feasible, the erection of Catholic schools in every parish, and requires Catholic parents to send their children to Catholic schools.

The enemies of the Catholic Church are everywhere doing all in their power to wrest the control of education from her, and it behooves every true Catholic to stand by the Church in this momentous question, on which depends the preservation of future generations in the true faith. In this vital question every man must choose his side; no one can remain neutral. You cannot serve two masters. Under which banner will you fight? Will it be under that of Christ and His Church? If so, you must send your children to none but good Catholic schools, and do all in your power to contribute to the erection and maintenance of such schools. But if, without reasons approved by your bishop, you send your children to non-Catholic schools, you are actually fighting under the banner of the devil, and you are helping Satan and his imps to destroy the Church, your mother!

“If any man,” says St. Paul, “hath not care of his own, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.” To take proper care of your children, it behooves you to send them to none but good Catholic schools. Send them regularly, for otherwise they will not be able to learn much. Do this at least for the sake of your little ones, who ought to be so dear to you. In these times our young people, in order to earn a living, are obliged to mingle with a corrupt and unbelieving society. They ought to be well acquainted with their religion, not only to defend their faith, but also to secure themselves from the danger of losing it altogether. To resist the seductions and allurements of the world, and to withstand faithfully the fierce assaults of their own fiery passions, they should from p. 33their very infancy have grown so accustomed to the faithful discharge of their religious duties as to find these indispensable for their happiness. You cannot bring about this desirable result in your dear children, unless you send them to schools where they will get a good religious training.

Some parents object to sending their children to Catholic schools under the erroneous pretext that their children will learn more in the public schools and be better fitted to earn a living. This is not true; and, even if it were, is it not better for your children to be good and virtuous, than to have learning without virtue or religious principles? But what does experience testify? It testifies that the secular education given in Catholic institutions is not only equal, but even superior, to that imparted in the public schools. Whenever a competitive examination takes place between pupils of various schools, the palm is usually carried off by the pupils of Catholic schools!

Another very powerful means of promoting the religious education of your children is to adorn every apartment of your house with a crucifix or some pious pictures, and to procure for your own use and that of your children some good Catholic books and papers. Every family ought to subscribe and pay for at least one Catholic paper—the paper having the approval of the bishop of the diocese.