Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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