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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
PASTORAL LETTER OF THE BISHOP
OF SAVANNAH
(Continued from Page 2)
ence and loyal submission. We owe to our fellow-
men strict justice and charity in all our dealings
with them. To our country we owe loyal support,
respect for her authority, prompt and due obedience
to her laws, and in all circumstances a firm, un
wavering support of law and order. The Catholic
Church, which has a mission from Christ to teach
all men, carefully instructs her Children on their
duties to God, their country and their fellows. She
tells them that God must be known, loved and served,
and she shows how they must serve Him, and why
they should love Him. As regards their fellow-men
she insists they must be loved for God’s sake and all
our dealings with them must be marked by strict jus
tice as well as charity, that we are bound to help
them in their spiritual and temporal needs. She
teaches that as all power comes from God, we are
disobeying Him when we disobey the laws of state or
country, and that we must always support authority
and sustain law and order.
The Church lays special stress on the training
and care of children, for in this are involved alike
duties to God and our country. They must be care
fully brought up that they may fulfill their obliga
tions to God, and be good citizens of the Republic.
On the general subject of education and its importance, it as
suredly seems unnecessary to speak here, for the people show
in an extremely practical way their views, since every year,
hundreds of millions are spent here for education. The first
training is given at home, and in fact, during the time that the
child is being taught in the school considerably more than three-
fourths of his time is spent under the parental roof, and under
home influence. It is a matter of great regret if the child be
a pupil of the public school, it is impossible for him to receive
there instruction in the most important of all his obligations--his
duties to God. Love of country may be roused when he hears
how America’s timely aid saved the day in the great war, and
saved all Europe from German rule, but he may not be told a
word of the Divine Victim of Calvary, who saved all men from
sin and its dreadful consequence. In the home he is taught
respect for parental authority, and obedience is required of him.
It is true that the special obligations which will bind him in
after years in his relations to his country may not be mentioned
specifically to the child, but after all, are not the home virtues
the sure foundation on which good citzenship is built? At the
home habits of frugality, thrift and honesty are formed, and
speaking the truth is insisted on, and prompt obedience is re
quired. Are not these virtues essential in a good citzer*?
An Enemy of Home—Divorce.
Does it not seem, then, that the republic should by every
means in its power protect, defend and shield home and its in
fluence? And yet, strange and inexplicable as is the statement,
the state does nothing of the sort, but on the contrary does
everything to destroy the Home. This is presumably a Chris
tian country, but the state in direct, flagrant and positive oppo
sition to the teaching of Christ, permits divorce. Christ has said
that if man or woman put away wife or husband and marry
again they are guilty of adultery, and any one marrying those
put away is guilty of adultery, and they who are so put away
are also adulterers if they remarry. The state says that God
is wrong. God says you shall not; the state says I will, and so
it has come to pass in this so-called Christian country, that the
Courts grant divorces, and frequently for the most trivial
causes.
Let us see how this evil affects the home. A boy and girl
return to their respective homes for vacation and find that dur
ing their absence at school there has been an appeal to the
Divorce Court. The boy’s parents are divorced and he finds the
girl’s mother installed in his mother’s place, while his own
mother is now the wife of the girl’s father. Christ has abso
lutely declared that the four are guilty of adultery. Christ has
commanded respect and love for parents, but when one’s parents
are adulterers, one can hardly be expected to have either re
spect or love for them. Some of the states boast that only for
one cause is Divorce granted, which is only another way of say
ing that these states say to discontented couples: Go and com
mit adultery and I will give you a Divorce. But what becomes
of the Home? By God and the law, the children are the care
of both parents but the “Court” steps in and disposes of the
children, granting them perhaps to the less guilty, but the home
so far as the children are concerned is destroyed.
Let me give a few official statistics on the subject. During
the past twenty years, in the United States, three million, three
hundred and sixty-seven thousand persons were divorced. Owing
to divorce, one million, eight hundred and eighty-three thousand
homes were destroyed. One million, one hundred, and thirty-
eight thousand children were involved. Statistics show that
forty per cent of children in reformatories and other public in
stitutions in one state, California, are the off-spring of divorced
parents, and in one state the proportion of divorces to mar
riages is 1 to 1.54.
Another Enemy Society.
A noth e r enemy to the Christian Home is Society. I fear I
would find it difficult to give a clear definition of Society. Some
persons^ are m Society, and some persons are making desperate
efforts to break into the magic circle of Society; others know
they can never get into Society, while a large number do not
care a snap of their fingers for Society. There is, I am hapoy
to believe, a very large number who are in, but very decidedly
not ol Society. Society is a great Institution, with laws, cus
toms, and a code of morality.) Its moral code is shorter than
Cod s code by eight precepts, for it has but two. You must not
do what society people do not do. You must never offend against
Society s conception of good taste and proper form. Society
approves gross indecencies in dress, and as warmly applauds the
immoralities of the stage and moving pictures, having no word
ot censure for a shameless actress, because Society says she is an
Artist, which is like Charity to Christian, because it covers a
multitude of sins. Society is profoundly reticent when Society
people are guilty of conduct which in the unfortunate who are
not in Society would be called gross immorality, and shameless
disregard of common decency.
The shameful excesses of Society people are discreetly whis-
pered about, and never reach the ear of the public. Of course,
the daily papers for well known, and sound financial reasons,
never publish these things. Society girls may frequent clubs
and drink sometimes to excess, but being in Society they are
not subject to criticism. Society young men may do far worse
which I cannot speak. But Society shrugs its shoul
ders and actually has been heard to make the excessively caus
tic comment: Isn’t it too bad?
Society looks with scorn on a woman who has more than two
children, and young society matrons calmly discuss birth con
trol and other nasty things with zest. Some Society women
go to a fashionable church on Sunday, but in the rules and regu
lations of Society there is no mention of God. It is not good
lorm to speak of God, and Society does not believe in the Devil.
I put down as another enemy to the Home, Feminism. I
have no desire to obtrude my personal views on this question,
but speaking as a Catholic Bishop, I say without hesitation that
any woman who for politics or any other matter neglect her
duties to her home and her children is guilty of sin that may
amount to mortal sin. I have been brought up at a time and
under conditions where I heard little of woman’s rights, and
witnessed attention to women’s duties. On this subject I will
make but two remarks. If women are impressed with the idea
that their participation in political life will of necessity bring a
great purification in politicians or politics, I think they will be
‘ + u And my i sec ? nd observation is that the
women of the Old South seemed to have not the slightest doubt
+ } Wld . and fbi]lity of husbands, fathers and brothers to pro-
tect them in all their rights, no matter of what nature they
might be. Evidently the women of our day do not seem pos
sessed of such confidence.
May I be permitted to hazard my conviction that in a truly
iiv ia j Home \ where there are children, a woman who does
all her duty to husband, children and home will not find much
time to devote to political activity.
Mixed Marriages and the Home.
Another obstacle to home happiness is Mixed-Marriage. To
those who know me well, it is hardly necessary to state that
among my nearest friends are many Protestants, and yet after
an experience of nearly fifty years in the holy priesthood I am
daily more convinced of the great wisdom of Mother Church in
opposing such marriages.
Can there be a doubt that in the close union of this sacred
relation, there is much more hope for happiness when husband
and wife have like taste, and are interested in the same things?
To a Catholic, the holiest things in the world are the Mass the
Sacraments, Devotion to our Blessed Lady and the Saints * and
the many beautiful practices blessed and approved by Mother
Church. To the Protestant, they mean nothing. To the Catho-
hc Mother no duty is of such pressing importance as the
Catholic training of her children, and children are more im
pressed by example than by precept. A Protestant husband,
out of love and respect may say nothing to his children against
the Church but the child soon sees that this father does not
make the sign of the cross, does not bow the head at the name
of Jesus, does not go to Mass, and eats meat on Friday After
awhile the Protestant father will say that he does not see the
necessity of certain things which their mother commands The
Catholic woman believes that marriage can be broken by death
only, the Protestant believes that the court can dissolve the
bonds.
When the children are young, they are always under the
Mother s care, and she is lovingly anxious to instill into their
pure hearts a love of God, and a love for Mary, and a devotion
to the Blessed Sacrament, the Mass and Church practices.
Soon to her amaze, they have left the things of childhood, and
now the boys pay more attention to their Father’s sayings and
actions. And then come anxious days for Catholic Mothers,
i have said that example is a great teacher, and the boys have
the example of a Protestant Father. He may be a good man,
but he knows nothing of the importance of Religion as under
stood by Catholics. The Catholic Mother then needs the strong
moral support which a Catholic Father gives to his wife and
the Mother of his children in their Catholic education
A Catholic father who sees his first-born son in his Mother’s
arms, thinks ot his childhood s days when his own dear Mother,
as she pressed him to her heart whispered prayers to our Lord
for her child. The sight brings back the memory of the days
when his Mother taught him to invoke Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
and made him clasp his hands as he knelt at her knees and lisped
the Hail Mary. His eyes are filled with tears. But suddenly
he starts as he remembers that his child will never hear from
Mothers lips the names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, nor ever be
taught by her the Hail Mary,” for his wife is a Protestant