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14 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