Public School Education Part 12

Now the Christian school is the place and the provision made for the training of those who are baptized into the Christian faith. They have been made children of G.o.d, and as such they have a right to four things belonging to them by a right of inheritance, to which all other rights are secondary. They have a right to the knowledge of their faith; to the training of their conscience by the knowledge of G.o.d's commandments; to the Sacraments of grace; and to a moral formation, founded on the precepts and example of our Divine Saviour. These four things belong, by a Divine right, to the child of the poorest working man; by a right more sacred than that which guards the inheritance of lands and t.i.tles to the child of the rich. A child of G.o.d, and an heir to the kingdom of heaven, holds these four things by a higher t.i.tle; and his claim is under the jurisdiction of a Divine Judge. But the school is the place and the provision for the insuring of these four vital parts of his right to the Christian child. They cannot be taught or learned elsewhere; there is no other place of systematic and sufficient formation. And if so, then the school becomes the depository of the rights of parents, and of the inheritance of their children. The school is strictly a court of the Temple, a porch outside the Sanctuary. It cannot be separated from the Church. It was created by the Church, and the Church created it for its own mission to its children. As the Church cannot surrender to any power on earth the formation of its own children, so it cannot surrender to any the direction of its own schools.

It was the Church, as I have shown in the second chapter, that gave life and being to Christian education; and education must remain under the guardians.h.i.+p of the Church, if it will not cease to be Christian.

History shows us that it is the Church that has civilized the nations, and it is the Church that keeps them from falling back into their former degradation. Learning was not diffused among mankind until the Church removed the veil of sin and ignorance, made man really free, and widened the narrow limits of human thought by showing to man the infinite, the eternal destiny that awaited him. This supernatural light--this "freedom of the children of G.o.d"--is the very foundation, the very lifespring of civilization. The Catholic Church, then, far from being opposed to education, is its great and most zealous promoter. But she cannot help being opposed to the Pagan system of education adopted in the Public Schools of this country.

It is clear that this plan takes away the right of parents, whom G.o.d has charged with the care of their children, and it must necessarily interfere with the proper management of families. In the second place, it ignores the rights of the Church, to whom Christ gave the commission to teach all nations. In the third place, since governments, as const.i.tuted at present, have no religion, the teaching they give must tend to infidelity. In the fourth place, if governments take into their hands the management of things which do not appertain to them, the probability is that they will neglect, or carry on badly, the great temporal affairs which it is their duty to attend to. In the last place, experience shows that education carried on by the State is most expensive, and that it opens the way to intrigues and frauds. To confirm all these observations, it is sufficient to refer to France, where State influence has been supreme for the last seventy years in university education, and where the Government has exercised an exorbitant control over every branch of public instruction. What has been the result?

Literature has fallen away, the number of schools has decreased, the French language has decayed, whilst moral corruption has penetrated the heart of the country, and infidelity of the worst kind has been patronized and encouraged among the teachers of youth, and the highest honors have been decreed to Littres and Renans, and other decided enemies of Jesus Christ. May we not read the condemnation of all such proceedings in the lurid flames of the burning Capital of modern civilization? Now, is it not clear that the primary object of education must be frustrated in the mixed system which proposes to unite children of all religions in the same school, and to treat of nothing in the cla.s.s hours that could offend any of these discordant elements? If there be a Jew in the school, you cannot speak of the Gospel; if there be a Mahometan, nothing could be said against polygamy, and other degrading doctrines of the Koran; due respect must also be paid to the teaching of Arians and Socinians, who deny the Trinity of persons in G.o.d, and the Divinity of Christ; and to the opinions of Calvinists and Lutherans, of Methodists and other sectaries, who a.s.sail almost every point of revealed religion. In this case, how can the atmosphere of the school be religious; and must not children living in it grow up in ignorance both of the dogmas and practices of religion?

This result may not be unacceptable to those who are outside the Catholic Church, because, not acknowledging any Divine authority to guide or rule them, they have no certainty in doctrinal matters, and they do not attach any importance to external discipline. But how different is the case with Catholics! We have many distinctive doctrines, such as the Real Presence in the Blessed Eucharist, the power of remitting sin, the Divine origin of the Church, and the primacy and infallibity of the Pope, all which it is our duty to learn and to believe. We are also bound to observe many precepts, to hear Ma.s.s, to pray and make the sign of the Cross, to go to confession, to fast and abstain, and to obey other commandments of the Church. If these doctrines, so sublime, and so far above the intelligence of man, be not continually inculcated on the mind of a child, how can he know them, or believe them as he ought? And if the practices referred to be not frequently urged on his attention, will he not ignore or neglect them because they are hard to flesh and blood? And what will be the case where the Protestant pupils in a school are in a considerable majority, and the teacher of the same religion? Will not the Protestant children turn the doctrines and practices of the Catholics into ridicule? And will not the example, and the words, and the gestures of the heterodox master, especially if he be kind and friendly, produce impressions dangerous to belief on the youthful Catholic mind? Is it not probable that a Catholic boy, observing how his master, to whom he looks up with respect, is accustomed to act, will easily persuade himself that there is no necessity of going to confession, or fasting, or making the sign of the cross, or performing works of mortification? Indeed, the probability is that Catholics educated in such circ.u.mstances, if they do not abandon their religion altogether, will be only lukewarm, indifferent, or dangerous members of the Church.

And here let me direct your attention to another dangerous tendency of G.o.dless education. In this system all religions, true or false, are treated with equal respect; not only Anglicans and Presbyterians, but Wesleyans and Plymouth Brothers, and the followers of every other small and miserable sect that has started into existence in modern times, are put on a footing of equality with the true Catholic Church, which traces its origin back to its Divine Founder, has existed in every age, defied the fury of persecution and the ravages of time, and numbers under its sceptre two hundred millions of faithful children spread over the world.

And is not this to proclaim that there is no difference between light and darkness, no preference to be given to Christ over Belial, to truth over heresy, and error and infidelity? In a word, is not this to teach indifference to religion, or, what is equivalent, that no religion is necessary? What shall I now say of books so compiled as to meet the exigencies of G.o.dless education? Have they not the same tendency to promote ignorance of, or indifference to, religion? No religious dogmatical teaching, no inculcation of pious practices, no mention of the great and sublime mysteries of Catholicity can be admitted in them, lest some things should be said offensive to any sect that sends children to the school. This suppression of Catholic truth is most detrimental to our poor Catholic children, many of whom never read any books except those which they use in school, and learn nothing except what they meet with in those books, or hear from their master. Is not this a serious loss? Is it not a great evil for Catholics to be brought up in ignorance, not only of the doctrines, but also of the history of the Church to which they belong, and of the life and deeds of so many Christian heroes whose virtues ill.u.s.trated the world?

How far superior is the system of the Christian Brothers, and other Catholic educational inst.i.tutions! Their books make continual reference to the mysteries of religion, they depict the glories of the Church, the majesties of the Apostolic See, and continually inflame the youthful mind to the practice of good works, by proposing to them the lives and virtues of holy men, and by continually reminding them of their religious duties, of the end of man, and of other great motives calculated to induce them to serve G.o.d. In regard to this matter, I shall merely add that the common school-books have been generally compiled by Protestants, that scarcely any extract from Catholic authors is admitted in them, that they contain many Methodistical stories, that their language is that of the Protestant Bible, and that they contain many things offensive to our love of religion.

Do you want to see what man without G.o.d--without religion--can do? Read the history of the last eighty years in Paris. You have there one simple phenomenon--generation rising after generation, without G.o.d in the world. And why? Because, without Christian education. First, an atheistical revolution; next, an empire penetrated through with a masking philosophy and a reckless indifferentism; afterwards came governments changed in name and in form, but not in practice, nor in spirit. The Church, trammelled by protection, her spiritual action faint and paralyzed, could not penetrate the ma.s.ses of the people, and bring her salutary influence to bear upon them. She labored fervently; her sons fought n.o.bly for Christian freedom; thousands were saved; but for eighty years the ma.s.s of men has grown up without G.o.d and without Christ in the world. These outbursts of horror, strife, outrage, sacrilege, bloodshed, are the harvest reaped from the rank soil in which such seed was cast. All this is true. But how did souls created to the image of G.o.d grow up in such a state? They were robbed: robbed before they were born; robbed of their inheritance, and reared up in an education without Christianity. Let this be a warning to ourselves! We are told that a child may be taught to read, and to write, and to spell, and to sum, without Christianity. Who denies it? But what does this make of them? To what do they grow up? The formation of the will and heart and character, the formation of a man, is education, and not the reading, and the writing, and the spelling, and the summing. Physiology, astronomy, chemistry, anatomy, and all other sciences with sounding names, and of Greek etymology, will not teach our children the respect, love, and obedience due to parents. They will not teach them modesty, which is the brightest ornament of woman, and renders the relation of man with his fellow-man harmonious and pleasant. They will not teach them industry and purity, which insure peace and happiness in the family circle. They will not teach them the fidelity which the espoused owe to each other, nor the obligations contracted by parents towards their children, nor will they teach them to know, love, and serve G.o.d in this world, in order to be happy with Him forever in the next.

For fifteen hundred years Christians served G.o.d and loved man, before, as yet, they received this cultivation of our age; and we, because we have it so profusely, are forgetting the deeper and diviner lessons. The tradition of Christian education in this country is, as yet, unbroken.

It has, however, been greatly undermined. It will be completely broken if we Catholics do not strive, to the best of our power, to preserve it.

We Catholics, therefore, believe that it is our most sacred duty to bring up our children in "the discipline and correction of the Lord." We hold that it is our most conscientious obligation to bequeath to our children the most valuable of all legacies--good religious impressions, and a sound religious education. We hold that religious education is the most essential part of instruction.

Now we know that religious education _is not_, and cannot, be given in our present school system. Our present system of common-school education either ignores religion altogether, or teaches principles which are false and dangerous; and if it gives any religious education, it consists merely in certain vague, unmeaning generalities, and is often worse than no education at all. Instruction without religion, is like a s.h.i.+p without a compa.s.s. Ignorance is, indeed, a great evil; but of the two evils, it is even better, in some respects, for our children to remain ignorant, than to acquire mere worldly knowledge without any religious training; for without religion they grow up a burden to themselves, and a pest to society.

Human nature is p.r.o.ne to evil; and the rising pa.s.sions, especially in youth, need religious influence to check them. There is a vast difference between teaching the child's _head_ and forming his _heart_.

Mere instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic will never teach a young man to control his pa.s.sions, and to practise virtue. Such instruction may do for Pagans, but it will never do for Catholics.

We can say that, so far as our Catholic children are concerned, the workings of our Public School system have proved, and do prove, highly detrimental to their faith and morals. So strongly has the conviction of this been impressed upon the minds both of the pastors and parents, that most strenuous efforts, and even enormous sacrifices have been made, and continue to be made, in order to establish and support Catholic parochial schools. In many cities of the Union there is, at the present moment, in daily attendance at these schools, an average number of between eighteen and twenty thousand children. The annual expense for the maintenance of these schools does not fall short of one hundred thousand dollars; while the amount expended for the purchase of lots, and the erection of proper school buildings, etc., considerably exceeds a million.

The Catholics of New York subscribed, in 1868, $132,000 for the support of their own school, and, besides, they had contributed a million and a quarter of dollars for the sites and the buildings of Catholic schools.

Nothing but the deepest sense of the many dangers to which the religious and moral principles of the children are exposed, could prompt Catholic parents to make such pecuniary sacrifices, or a.s.sume such onerous burdens; for it has to be borne in mind that, while they are thus obliged, through conscientious motives, to support their own schools, they have, at the same time, to bear their share of the taxation imposed for the support of the Public Schools.

All this is true; yet I can scarcely refrain from expressing my surprise at the extremely abnormal lethargy manifested by so many Catholics, both in high and low places, regarding a duty, the chief one inc.u.mbent upon them as members of the family, as citizens, as Christians and as Catholics.

Now the cause for the indifference existing among our people on the question of Catholic education, may be attributed to a false process of reasoning. They argue: it will cost money. True; but it is not by _State_ aid, or _City_ aid, that the work of Catholic daily instruction and education in parochial schools is to be carried on. These schools are to be supported, as our _churches_ are, by the alms of the faithful.

The Catholics of other countries have their duties to perform, different, in part, from ours, but demanding great self-sacrifice. We, too, except we be "b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, and not sons," must make our great sacrifices. The first, the most pressing, is that of supporting a good Catholic education. In neglecting Catholic education, we lose that which money cannot buy. Can we conceive of a parent, a Catholic parent, so cruel, so depraved, and so G.o.d-forsaken as to sacrifice his child, both body and soul, and devote him to eternal destruction, through eagerness to spare the paltry pence that a proper education might cost? It seems quite certain that if we wait for just appropriations from the State before we shoulder the burden ourselves, wait for it to compel us to accept of Catholic education, we shall find ourselves in a very unfit condition to appreciate the favor; and from present indications, this generation, at least, is likely to pa.s.s away before such interest will be manifested in our behalf.

Now we must be persuaded that if we allow one generation to be brought up in unbelief, and the course of tradition to be once interrupted, the following generations will fall into a darkness and ignorance worse than that of Paganism; living here without a G.o.d, and quitting this world without any consoling hope of a blessed immortality.

So it proved, not long ago, with an unhappy wretch, the child of parents that had forgotten the law of their G.o.d, and sent her to one of the Public Schools in a town on the North River. She played the harlot, when she grew old enough, and then sought to add to this the crime of a horrible _murder_--the murder of the child that was of her own flesh and blood. In procuring its murder, she lost her own life. In the den of the monster-abortionist, and finding herself dying, one of the vile attendants now declares that she shrieked and begged for a Catholic priest. The Jew into whose murderous gripe she had put herself, found some means to quiet her cry, and she died without seeing a priest. G.o.d will keep His word! He has said, "Because _thou_ hast forgotten the law of thy G.o.d, I will _forget thy children_!"

I do not say that Catholic parents are obliged, under the pain of mortal sin, to have _any_ secular education given to their children. But I do say that they _are forbidden_, by the law of the Catholic Church, to send their children to _any_ schools where the Catholic religion is not _practised and taught_.

If neglect to comply with the law of G.o.d and of His Church, neglect to receive the sacraments at certain times, and under certain circ.u.mstances, is a mortal sin, is it much less a sin to neglect the proper education of our youth, upon which, to a great extent, their entire future depends? And if the sacraments are refused to persons persisting in sin, should not a sin of this great character be also considered in the conditions requisite for the worthy reception of the sacraments? I hesitate not to p.r.o.nounce this matter of education a matter of conscience, and it should be treated accordingly by those who have the charge of souls. We see ecclesiastical edifices of great magnitude, splendor, and expense, erected everywhere by Catholics, but for what purpose? To attract non-Catholics? Bos.h.!.+ A Catholic can hear Ma.s.s in caverns, in catacombs, or under hedges, as they have often been obliged to do; but if we lose our children there will be none to hear it anywhere, nor any to offer the Holy Sacrifice, even in our most gorgeous cathedrals. Where will be our Catholics? Scandal and disgrace will be the order of the day.

I do not wish it to be understood here that I entertain any, even the least, doubt of the indefectibility of the Church, or of the faithful fulfilment of the promises of Christ; for the Church will exist in spite of man. But again I say that Catholics are violating a most sacred duty in not providing facilities for Catholic education.

This, O Catholics! is what the money you are making so rapidly ought, in generous part, to be devoted to. So _you_ will think, at a day fast coming, when your bodies will be buried sumptuously, your souls forgotten by the living, and the estates you have h.o.a.rded with so much industry shall have become, perhaps, the objects of disgraceful law-suits among your heirs.

Dear Catholics, let us cast off our lethargy; let us be unitedly active in this matter; let us discard the flimsy arguments of "_liberal_"

Catholics who would discourage the enterprise, regarding every such as our most dangerous foe. Let us make our voice heard and our actions felt, and bring up our children in a manner creditable to ourselves, an honor and consolation to their parents, a blessing to society, worthy members of the Church of G.o.d, and candidates for the kingdom of heaven.

FOOTNOTES:

[H] "Hant propositionem auctoritate Nostra Apostolica reprobamus, proscribimus atque d.a.m.namus eamque ab omnibus Catholicae Ecclesiae filiis veluti reprobatam, proscriptam atque d.a.m.natam omnino haberi volumus et mandamus."--Syllabus, Prop. xlviii.

CHAPTER XIV.

ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS.

There are some who a.s.sert that "there is no sectarian teaching in the Public Schools, and consequently a Catholic may send his children to them without exposing them to any danger." Now even supposing there really were no sectarian teaching in the common schools, even then a Catholic parent cannot send his children to such a school without exposing them to the greatest danger. Those who approve of the Public Schools because nothing sectarian is taught there, act like a certain husbandman who wished to transplant a fine young tree to a certain part of his garden. On examining the new place, however, he found that the ground was filled with poisonous ingredients, which would greatly endanger the life of the tree. He therefore transplanted the tree to a sandy hill, where there were, indeed, no poisonous ingredients, but where there was also no nourishment for the tree. Now will any one a.s.sert that the young tree was not in danger of peris.h.i.+ng in this new place? And will any one a.s.sert that the faith and soul of a child are not in danger of being ruined in those G.o.dless common schools? Even if Protestantism is not taught there, infidelity is taught and practised there, and infidelity is even worse than Protestantism.

But is it really true that Protestantism is not taught in many of our Public Schools? This is unfortunately far from being the case. Napoleon I. introduced the Public School system into France, in order, as he honestly declared, "to possess the means of controlling political and moral opinions." Puritans and Freemasons, in this country, have clearly the same end in view in upholding the present system of Public Schools.

In the early days of New England, and even of several of the other American States, the Puritans always used the Public Schools as a powerful means of spreading their peculiar doctrines. When they were stripped of this power by the liberal founders of American independence, they still struggled for many years to accomplish, by indirect means, the injustice which they dared not _maintain_ openly. We all remember how the poor Catholic boys and girls of the Public Schools were hara.s.sed by colporteurs and proselytizers, who carried baskets filled, not with bread for the poor hungry children, no, but with oily tracts, cunningly devised to weaken, or even destroy, the religious faith of those poor little ones. In some schools even, Catholic children were urged and enticed to go to the sectarian Sunday-schools, and pictures, cakes, and sweetmeats were liberally promised, in order to induce them to go. Teachers were selected with special regard to their bitter hatred of the Catholic Church, and their zeal for "evangelical"

propagandism. Some years ago, in New Orleans, when the school-board was composed of bigoted sectarians, many of them sectarian preachers, all the Catholic teachers, male and female, were turned out of the schools, merely because they were Catholics.

And even if Catholic children are not always expressly taught doctrines opposed to their religion, nevertheless the school-books which they use are, as I have said, frequently tainted with anti-Catholic prejudices and misrepresentations. Nothing can be more evident than the decidedly anti-Catholic spirit of English literature in all its departments. It has grown up, ever since England's apostasy, in an anti-Catholic soil, in an anti-Catholic atmosphere, and from an anti-Catholic stem. It is essentially anti-Catholic, and tends, wherever it comes in contact with Catholic feelings and principles, to sully, infect, and utterly corrupt them. _Sound knowledge_, a _sound head_, _strong faith_, and _great grace_--all these combined--may indeed preserve one whom the necessity of his position may lead into un-Catholic schools; but no one will deny that this anti-Catholic literature must exercise a most baneful influence over all those who, without sufficient preparation from nature or grace, plunge into it, in the pursuit of amus.e.m.e.nt or knowledge.

Protestant ideas will not make the Catholic turn Protestant, there is not much danger of that, but they will tend to make him an infidel; they will destroy his principles without putting others in their place; they will relax and deaden the whole spiritual man.

In these schools, Catholic children are taught that the Catholic Church is the nursery of ignorance and vice; they are taught that all the knowledge, civilization, and virtue which the world now possesses, are the offspring of the so-called "Reformation." They learn nothing of the true history of Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Ireland, Austria, and the other Catholic countries of Europe; they learn nothing of the true history of Mexico, and the various Catholic countries of North and South America. They never hear of the vast libraries of Catholic learning, the rich endowments of Catholic education all over the world, for ages; they never hear of the countless universities, colleges, academies, and free schools established by the Catholic Church, and by Catholic governments, throughout Christendom. Where is the common school book whose author has manly honesty enough to acknowledge that even the famous universities of Oxford and Cambridge were founded by Catholics, and plundered from their lawful possessors by an apostate government?

Moreover, Catholic children are often singled out by their school-companions, and sometimes even by their teachers, as objects of ridicule. Now what is the result of all this training? The consequence is, that either the Catholic children become ashamed of their holy religion, and despise their parents, or, if they have the courage to hold out, their tender minds are subject to numberless petty annoyances; they must endure a species of martyrdom. This is no exaggeration; I have it from good authority. Practically speaking, the present common school system is but a gigantic scheme for proselytism and for infidelity.

Now we intend that our children shall be taught to love and revere their holy Church. We wish to teach them that that Church has been, for over eighteen hundred years, the faithful guardian of that very Bible of which Protestants prate so loudly, and which they dishonor so much. We wish our children to learn that the Catholic Church has been, in all ages, the friend and supporter of true liberty; _i.e._, liberty united to order and justice. We wish them to know that the Catholic Church has ever been the jealous guardian of the sanct.i.ty of marriage; that she has always defended it against brutal l.u.s.t, and heathen divorce courts. We wish our children to know, moreover, that the Catholic Church holds the sword of vengeance uplifted above the heads of the child-murderers, and the perpetrators of unnatural crimes. We wish our children, in fine, to regard the Church as the only hope of society, the only salvation of their country, the only means of preserving intact all the blessings of freedom.

The Public Schools are not only seminaries of infidelity, they are, moreover, in many cases, hot-beds of immorality. In these schools every child is received, no matter how vicious or corrupt he or his parents may be. "One mangy sheep," as the homely proverb says, "infects the whole flock." So one corrupt child in a school is capable of corrupting and ruining all the others. And, in fact, where have our young people learned the shameful habit of self-abuse, and many other foul, unnatural crimes, that are bringing so many thousands to an early grave? Ask those unhappy victims, ask our physicians throughout the country, and they will tell you that, in almost every instance, it was from the evil companions with whom they a.s.sociated in the common schools. Ah! you will see, only on the Day of Judgment, how many unnatural crimes have been taught and propagated, from generation to generation, in these very hot-beds of iniquity.

"But, Father," some one will say, "what harm can there be in sending children to Public Schools? for many of the teachers are professing Christians, and exert a continual Christian influence."

But many more are non-professors, and exert an anti-Christian influence.

Go and visit those schools, and you will soon be able to tell the religious _status_ of the teachers in charge, by the general tone of the exercises. One presided over by a zealous Methodist resembles a Methodist Sunday-school, or conference meeting. Another, under the care of a "smart young man," delighting in love songs, boating songs, etc., has the general tone of a young folks' glee-club. In another, in which one of the professors is an atheist, it is a matter of common remark among the boys that Prof. ---- said there was no G.o.d. In another, one of the teachers is overheard sneering at a child because she believes in our Lord Jesus Christ, and has a reverence for religious things.

What I have just said is true. I have it from good authority. It is therefore no recommendation at all for the Public School system to say that many of the teachers are professing Christians. Even the very fact that many of the teachers in the Public Schools are good Catholics, is no recommendation whatever for these schools, for it matters nothing, absolutely nothing, whether the teacher be Catholic or not; according to _law_, no teacher is allowed to explain a single dogma of Catholic faith. Now the dogmas of our holy faith have been _revealed_, and, in order to be known, _they must be taught_. Ordinarily speaking, education is necessary to learn and preserve the faith. The Catholics of Ireland, indeed, by the special a.s.sistance of G.o.d, preserved their holy faith, though they were not permitted, by a bigoted government, to receive the education they needed and desired. But in this country, where there is no such prohibition, where parents are free to send their children to Catholic schools, it is presumption in them, it is a rash defiance to the ordinary laws of G.o.d's providence, to neglect the daily systematic training of the minds and hearts of their children, in conformity with Catholic discipline. Julian the Apostate forbade Catholics to be educated in their holy faith, for he knew very well that there is no more certain means of destroying the faith than by not suffering it to be taught.

It is almost certain that wherever there are no Catholic schools, wherever the Catholic religion is not taught and practised in school, there the Catholic religion will practically die out, as soon as immigration from Catholic countries ceases.

Bishop England has a.s.serted that the Catholic Church loses more, in this country, by apostasy, than it gains by conversions. Archbishop Spalding, of Baltimore, a.s.serted one day that, in one body of Methodist ministers, he observed seven or eight who were children of Catholics, and they were the smartest preachers among them.

Neglected children of Catholic parents become the worst enemies of the Catholic Church. The young man who set fire to St. Augustine's Church, in Philadelphia, Pa., was a Catholic, and he gloried in being able to burn his name out of the baptismal record. By a just punishment of G.o.d, these neglected Catholic children will become our persecutors.

It is not sufficient to teach the Catechism in church or at home. No!

it is not the _knowledge_ of the faith, but the _daily practice_ of it, that produces Catholic life. Nothing but the constant practice of our holy religion can train our youth to withstand the dangers of this age, and this country. It is not necessary to argue this point. Look at the tens of thousands of Catholics who never think of going to Ma.s.s on a week-day, and who often neglect it even on Sundays and holy days. Look at all those who never think of visiting our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; who never go to confession more than once or twice a year, and sometimes not even that. Do they not prove, beyond a doubt, that the practical _habit_ of devotion was not taught them in their youth?