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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
13
and obviate the possible danger of being molded or
guided in the way of one man s mind. You will not
find Catholics who object to the Smith-Towner bill
objecting to this proposal of the Democratic party.
Now, as to the public school. While it must be
plain from the foregoing that the attitude of the Cath
olic Church toward our public school system is not in
volved in the attitude of those Catholics who oppose
the Smith-Towner bill, you appear to have written
with that idea, and this seems to call for a clear state
ment on that score. At any rate, you will not, I
trust, deem it an intrusion of our views, or misunder
stand the motive that prompts me, to say just how
our Catholic people esteem the public school, and
why. You will kindly indulge my quoting a few
paragraphs:
“Education! Yes, plenty of it; more of it. Ignor
ance is a sin before God, and a crime against hu
manity. But Right education. There is where we must
put the emphasis. Let us be sure to state it in those
terms, and we can not fail to reach the conclusion
that religious education is of supreme importance.
“Secularism is a failure. It has had its day, being
weighed in the balance and found wanting.
God never spoke more urgently to the Israelites than
He is speaking to us today to go forward in the mat
ter .of denominational education.
“It is a shame to let our children grow up and
come out of educational institutions without a con
science. . • • The education that fits only for
this world must die, and bring ruin upon the world
itself in the end.”
“Do I want my boy to go out into the world noth
ing but an educated fool, a blatant unbeliever, a fool
ish agnostic? Or with the simple Christian faith he
learned in the home, rounded out and developed into
stalwart Christian integrity? When will we ask the
question on bended knees before God, and see that
the positive, inevitable answer is, we must do more
than we have ever done for our denominational
schools ?
“The moral or spiritual sense neglected or per
verted, is no longer a reflection of the divine mind;
and the education guilty of this sin is the wickedest
functioning agency in the world.”
“The heathen never contemplated education apart
from religion. . * . and the most startling trend
of religious and political liberty in modern times, is
to break from God in education and hiss religion out
of this great department of life.”
“In all education, whether in the home or school,
the religious element ought to predominate.
The obligation to educate religiously is upon us. To
do this denominational schools have to be planted.”
1 invite your very close attention to the views
thus stated, including the expressions about “an edu
cated fool,” “heathen,” “blatant unbeliever,” and
“foolish agnostic,” about the failure of secular edu
cation, characterized “the wickedest functioning
agency in the world,” which will “bring ruin upon
the world itself in the end.” And then the program
at the end: “In all education . . . The relig
ious element must predominate . . . denomina
tional schools have to be planted.” You will find
this last paragraph in an editorial article in the Bap
tist paper, “News and Truth,” published January 26,
1916. You will find all tLe other paragraphs quoted
above in the December 23, 1915, issue of another
Baptist paper, The Western Recorder. They are con
tained in as many articles by different persons writ
ing for that issue (a special “Educational Number”)
and who are among the leading teachers and theo
logians of the Baptists in the South.
Similar expressions from thoughtful, earnest and
broad-visioned persons of other Protestant denomi
nations could be quoted to the point.
The Interchurch Movement, in which, as you know,
some thirty Protestant denominations were repre
sented, in the course of its two-volumed report re
cently made, said: “Unless a program of religious
education can be created there is great danger that
our system of public schools will become naturalistic
and materialistic in theory and practice. . . . The
weakest spot in the Protestant Church is the army of
twenty-seven million children and youth in our land
who are growing up in spiritual illiteracy, and sixteen
million other American Protestant children whose
religious instruction is limited to a brief hour once a
week.”
In short, education divorced from religion, is no
longer defended by leaders of Christian thought of
any denomination. There is general agreement among
them that the situation is bad, that some remedy
must be found and quickly found, to check the growth
of “spiritual illiteracy.” Quoting again from the
Inter-church Report, there is this remedy: “First,
teaching religion in the public schools.” We all know
this is impossible of anything like satisfactory appli
cation. Then, there is this remedy: “Second, with
drawing our children from the public schools and
establishing parochial schools where secular subjects
may be taught under the auspices of the church.”
The public schools would remain for those who do
not believe it earnes tly enough to teach it to their
children.
This second remedy suggested by the Inter-church
Movement, is the remedy long ago adopted by the
Catholic Church, and which at large expense and
great sacrifice on the part of her members, notwith
standing hard criticism, suspicion and calumny, she
has consistently maintained. She has never tried to
have the faith of her children taught in the public
school; she has never condemned or opposed the
public school for those over whom she has no care.
The Catholic attitude is clearly and fully set forth
in the following adopted by the National Convention
of Knights of Columbus in 1916, which was pub
lished broadcast in the Catholic and secular press
and never by any person challenged, and, therefore,
after four years, should be taken as in every par
ticular correct:
’There has never been, there is not now, nor is
the re warrant for thinking there will ever be any at
tempt on the part of Catholics, to interfere in any
manner with the advancement of common school edu
cation in the United States. We do not desire to
control the public schools nor to hinder education,
nor to force Catholicity upon unwilling minds. We
desire universal education; would have it free where
possible, and would make it compulsory where nec
essary. While we have no fault to find with those
outside our faith who wish their children to attend
the public schools, for ourselves we prefer a school