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CA THOLICS AND EDUCA TION
]?rom a Pamphlet Prepared and Pubulished by the Catho
lic Laymen’s Association of Georgia.
It is said: “Catholics do not al
low Protestants to teach in Cath-
lic schools are not Protestant
should not allow Catholics to teach
in public schools—as it is the same
thing turned around.”
On the contrary, it is a different
thing. Catholic schools are for
Catholics only, while public schools
are for the whole public, which in-
® eludes Catholics no less than Prot-,
estants. Protestants need not al
low Catholics to teach in Protest
ant schols, we admit; but the pub
lic schols areo not Protestant
schools. No intelligent Protestant
imagines that his people have any
special privileges in respect to the
, public schools. No fair person
would think of denying to Catholics
the right to teach in the public
schols, which Catholics are taxed to
build and support in the same man
ner and to the same extent as are
other citizens. Should Catholics at
tempt to teach Catholicism in the
public schools, Protestants or any
other citizens would have reason to
complain; hut that is not done.
Protestants do not, of course, ex
pect public school teachers to teach
any Protestant belief. If Protest-
|| ants want their religion taught to
their children, they should make
the sacrifice necessary to have
schools of their own, as Catholics
have done. Instead of criticizing
them for it, we would approve and
admire them. They would be crit
icized by the near-pagans only,
those who now direct their criticism
against Catholics, but who will as
readily turn on Protestants when
Protestants stand in the way of
their aims to de-Christianize the
land.
it is said: “Catholics seek to
gain control of the public schools
in order to make America Cathol
ic.”
On the contrary, Catholics have
no desire to control the public
schools for any purpose. No move
ment in that direction has ever been
made by Catholics anywhere. No
word to that effect has ever been
uttered by them on any occasion.
Moreover, it would not help to
make America Catholic if we did
control the public schools. A card
inal tenet of our belief inhibits
Catholics from imposing their teach
ing on unwilling minds. It is plain
common sense that faith is not a
thing to be forced on anybody.
We have our own schools. All know
' they are Catholic. Who wants to
, take advantage of their teaching is
welcome. There is no concealment,
*, no camouflage. We have gumption
enough to know, even if it were not
morally wrong, that people cannot
be tricked or coerced into being
Catholics. If they come to us, we
welcome them, presuming they are
intelligent and willing, for unless
they are, they are just so much
dead timber.
No, Catholics do not wish to con
trol any schools but their own. The
following is a fair statement of the
Catholic position toward public
schools, as expressed in resolutions
adopted by the 1915 National con
vention of the Knights of Colum
bus:
“That, considering a cause of
prejudice to the mistaken opinion
which many non-Catholics hold
that Catholics aim-to secure control
of the public schools, we point to
the fact that, many Catholics are
prominently identified with our pub
lic school system, being chairmen
of, and at times constituting a ma
jority upon, boards of education, be
ing also superintendents and prin
cipals and teachers by the thou
sand in public schools of every
grade—and yet there has never
flbeen, there is not now, nor is there
warrant for thinking there ever will
be, any attempt on their part to
interfere in any manner with the
advancement of common school
education in any part of the United
States.
“We should strive to illuminate
the public mind with the truth and
get the people to understand our
true educational ideas—namely,
that we do not desire to control the
Public schools, or to hinder educa
tion, or to force Catholocity upon
unwilling minds, but that we de
sire universal education, would have
it free where possible and would
make it compulsory where necessary.
And while we have no fault to find
[ with those outside our faith who
! wish their children to attend the
public schools, for ourselves, we pre
fer a school where religion is taught
and only regret that all cannot sec
how important it is that the youth
of the country be taught the truths
of religion during years when the
mind is being opened and the char
acter is being formed.”
It is said: “Catholics oppose
teaching the Bible in the public
schools, and yet condemn the pub
lic schools for not teaching religion,
which is inconsistent.”
On the contrary, it is they who
propose to teach the Bible in the
public schools that are inconsistent;
and for two reasons: (a) be
cause they do not claim any author
ity to teach the Bible in the public
schools or elsewhere (b) because
many children whose parents do not
believe in the Bible must attend the
public schools. To compel such
children to listen to the teaching of
the Bible is unfair.
Catholics have too much respect
for the Bible, and for the mind of a
child, to favor the Book being taught
to children to one who abjures
authority to teach it. We believe
that every child ought to be in
structed in the truths of religion,
but not by one who disclaims au
thority and insists on the right of
private judgment over the Word of
God.
The public schols, by excluding
the truths of religion, educate the
child in a lopsided way, but to in
clude religious teaching, to be giv
en by persons who disclaim all au
thority to teach religion, would not
be sensible or sane.
Catholics are, therefore, quite
consistent in disapproving of indis
criminate Bible teaching at the
same time they disapprove of edu
cation without religion.
It is said: “Catholics are taught
that the Catholic church alone has
the right to teach and the state has
no right to teach,- which is un-
American doctrine.”
On the contrary, Catholics are
taught that the first right over re
ligion belongs to their parents who
are their natural guardians and
have the God-given right, and du
ty, of feeding, clothing, educating
and otherwise caring for them from
their infancy until they are grown.
To teach is, indeed, the proper
office of the Church. It is her mis
sion. “Go, teach all nations,” are
the words of her original charter
from Jesus Christ. But she respects
the natural right of parents to pro
tect and care for their own children.
That right, she insists, is no less
God-given than her own mission,
and she may not, will not, teach a
child against the wishes of its pa
rents.
No more may the State interfere
with that natural right of parents.
The family was before the State.
Its natural rights are prior to the
State, which was formed to protect
and safeguard and not to destroy
families. Nothing could be more un-
American, or more uncivilized, than
to deprive parents of the right to
educate their children according to
the dictates of their own conscience.
Of course, where parents are ne
glectful or indifferent in the matter,
the State should assume the educa
tion of their children. The follow
ing statement in the Pastoral Letter
issued by the Catholic Bishops of
the United States in 1920, epitomizes
Catholic teaching and philosophy on
this point:
“The State has-a-right to insist
that its citizens shall be educated.
It should encourage among the peo
ple such a love of learning that they
will take the initiative, and, without
constraint, provide for the education
of their children. Should they,
through negligence or lack of means,
fail to do so, the State has the right
to establish schools and take other
legitimate means to safeguard its
vital interests against the dangers
that result from ignorance. In par
ticular, it has both the right and the
duty to exclude the teaching of doc
trines which aim at the subversion
of law and order and, therefore, at
the destruction of the State itself.”
Among the offerings of the Mac
millan Company this month will be
a re-issue of Padraic Colum's first
hook of verses Wild Earth. One of
the poems included in this volume
is entitled “A Cradle Song” and is
as follows:
O, Men from the fields!
Come gently within.
Tread s^>|yy, softly,
O! men coming in,
Mavourpeen is going
From me and from you,
Where Mary will fold him
With mantle of blue!
From reek of the smoke
And cold of the floor
And the peering of things
Across the half-door.
O, men from the fields!
Softly, softly come thru!
Mary put round him
Her mantle of blue.
Several other poems included in
the volume have ben made popular
by Mr. Colum in the readings from
his works which he has given in a
number of the principal cities.
THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
In Letter to Editor of Tampa, Fla,, Times, Non-Catholic
Lauds Work of Organization and Pays His
Respects To Its Anti-Catholic Critics
CATHOLIC CUSTOMS
AND SYMBOLS
By Rt. Rev. H. T. Henry, Litt. D
ROGATION DAYS.
It is said: “Catholics object to the
State exercising control over their
schools, teachers, or books, which
means setting their schools above
the State, which is un-American.”
On the contrary, it is un-American
for the State to attempt to exercise
control over schools, teachers, or
books that parents, whether Catho
lic or non-Catholic, choose as the
means of educating their own chil
dren. That choice is the natural
right of parents and to violate a
natural right is un-American.
The word “rogation” is familiar to
us only in the expression Rogation
Days, although we recognize it in
its compounds “interrogation”, “sup
ererogation” and the like. In Latin
it is rogatio (from rogare, to ask)
and means the same thing as ‘litany’
(from the Greek litaneia, a prayer
or supplication).
The Rogation Days, then, are days
specially set apart for supplication
to God for mercy on our transgres
sions and for all kinds of spiritual
and temporal blessings, as illustrat
ed in the Litany of the Saints, which
is then recited during a procession,
while a special Mass for these days
contains touching eulogies of the
power of prayer. Of old, they were
days of fasting as well as of prayer.
There are four such days, and all
of them occur during Eastertide. The
first is April 25. This is also St.
Mark’s feast, but there is no con
nection between them save an ac
cidental one; so that, should St.
Mark’s feast he transferred, the pro
cession and it any remain fixed.
In the rare case when Easter falls on
April 25 (in 188G, and not again until
1943, the. procession and litany are
to the following Tuesday.
The other Rogation Days are the
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
immediately, ^ proceeding Ascension
Thursday. The procession, litany
and Mass are the same for these as
for April 25.
Solemn and public processions
were not infrequent in the Church
after she had emerged from the
darkness of the Catacombs. She
selected for them By preference the
days dedicated by pagan Rome to
the honor of the false gods, and thus
gently corrected the traditions of
the false worship without sacrificing
the establishment pliysicial habits
of the people. April 25 had been a
Pagan processional day of supplica
tion for good harvest, styled the
Robigalia. In next became'a day of
processional Christian prayer. Sub
sequently, Pope St. Gregory the
Great (d. 604) regularized the
celebration.
The other Rogation Days were ap
parently instituted by St. Mamertus,
Bishop of Vienne, in 447, on the oc
casion of an earthquake, to suppli
cate the mercy of God. • The ob
servance quickly spread throughout
franklin Gaul, England, Germany.
In 799, Pope Leo III, placed them in
the Roman Calendar.
It is interesting to note that the
three days were observed in Eng
land even after the Reformation,
down to the year 1571. The proces
sion was then replaced by a “Per
ambulation,” which still persists
in parts of England, of the clergy
around the parish boundaries in
order to keep these well fixed in
the memory. The Anglican “Book
of Common Prayer” still marks the
days, in somewhat vague terms, as
days of fasting.
April 25 is styled the Major Roga
tion or Litany. The other three days
are the Minor Rogation or Litanies.
Major and Minor here do not imply
any variation in the procession or
litany or Mass. It has been conjec
tured that Major refers to the sup
posed institution by Pope St. Gre
gory; and Minor, to the lesser
eminence of the Bishop of Vienne.
The procession of April 25, however,
antedated St. Gregory.
Editor Tampa Daily Times:
The annual report of the Knights
of Columbus shows some interesting
figures which are a source of pride
to all patriotic Americans, whether
Catholic or Protestant- The Knights
of Columbus spent 82,748,206.49 dur
ing 1921-22 in welfare work for
American ex-service men. Free
technical evening schools attended
by 78,000 veterans at a cost of $954,-
891, and other schools for veterans
operated by councils througlitout
the country at a cost of 808,578 of
th$ efund devoted to educational
purposes. College courses valued at
$178,336.29 in addition to numerous
Catholic university scholarships
granted veterans by the Knights
during the year.
More than 350 hospitals where
veterans are still being treated for
war wounds and illness were pro
vided with recreational facilities and
comforts for men confined to bed.
On this branch of the work $904 -
000 was expended.
It was expected that the careful
administration of K. of C. funds will
permit the continuance of this work
for three or four years.
The most interesting part of this
report is that the overhead expense
of this large sum did not exceed 1
Per cent, that is that large salaries
did not consume the principal.
Ten thousand free correspondence
scholarships are offered by the
Knights of Columbus to war veter
ans. No expense for enrollment, reg
istration, study or material. These
courses are open and free for ex-
service men of all denominations,
bookkeeping, accountants, business
English, mathematical drawing, civ
il service, steam engineering, lan
guages, mathematics are included.
This is a record not equalled or
approached by any organization, and
fully answers the statement of pro-
Germans, profiteers, grafters and re
ligious jokes, that Catholics were
not loyal during the war. Had such
been the case what a magnificent
opportunity Catholics had during
the war to wreck the allied army
and navy. Of the three marshals
of France during the war two were
Catholics. Of the twelve major gen
erals of France, nine were Catholics,
of the 48 brigadier generals, 29 were
Catholics, and every corps com
mander. The supreme commander,
Marshal Foch, the “gray man of
Christ,” an humble son of the
mother church, and a Knight of Co
lumbus, what a simple matter it
would have been to wreck the whole
allied army.
Today France, Catholic France, is
devoting all her energies in re-»
building her devastated areas—In
protecting her people, in collecting
the just debt due from the Hun.
France finds time to pay tribute to
her heroic dead and to ours, while
across the channel sits Protestant
England smiling, smug and content,
hand in hand with the Hun, her
million dead in France forgotten, led
on by the greatest misfit in history;
Lloyd George. I care nothing for
Catholic theology, in no sense am I
a Catholic, but 1 do respect and love
the Knights of Columbus for their
heroic, noble, Christian conduct dur
ing the war, when they ministered
to my boys and to your boys, and
to all the heroic noble hosts who
made the world safe and sure—i
honor, patriotism and safe for God.
R. E. TOUNSLEY.
Miscellany
George Barnard, who used to mon
opolize this column, and who admits
in a half-hearted way that he still
reads it with a certain faint and
friendly interest, has shown me a
very interesting letter from the
priest who received G. K. Chester
ton into the Church. Father John
O’Connor, the priest in question, is
the original of “Father Brown,” the
hero of two books of detective sto
ries with which G. K. C. varied his
already diversified literary output.
Neither “Father Brown” nor his im-
mortalizer has said much about the
conversion of Chesterton, and the
personal incident related below has
all the more cliftrm because of its
isolation.
On the morning of G. K. C.’s great
step he thought of the Catholics of
America and of their kindness to
him. “Father Brown” writes: “It
is sure to interest my beloved
Yanks to know that when we were
setting out for the mission chapel
on July 30th, G. K. G., selected with
much more care than usual the beau
tiful snakewood stick which was
given to him by the Knights of Co
lumbus on his recent visit to the
States. So fortified he walked even
unto the City on the Hill.” To get
the full significance of this inci
dent you must remember the Eng
lishman’s devotion to his canes. A
cane is his companion, treasured
for its association with him on im
portant and pleasing occasions. “So
fortified he walked even unto the
City on the Hill.”
Let me commend the action of the
newspaper editor who announced
the other day that there would be
no paper pending the passing of
an editorial toothache. That is not
the practical way of conducting a
newspaper; but when (as in the
case of very small papers) the en
tire business of a vehicle of pub
lic opinion hinges upon one man
with a toothache, il is the course
of sanity to shut down until the
return of mental normalcy. Half
the bitterness and futile controver
sies of the world are started by
toothaches and liver—chiefly liver.
The world is not governed entirely
by brain. To a great extent it is
governed by liver. There is much
liverish legislation in the world of
which, I am sure, its authors are
not proud during their occasional
relapses into health. Moral: Be
fore saying anything bitter, make
allowances for your liver and change
your mind.
Chnrch Extension Society from the
point of view of “the modern Co
lumbus.” It is centuring out into
the places which had never been
charted from the spiritual point of
view, and it is putting them oij
the Catholic map of America. CoS
lumbus, on the other hand, was at
the head of an “extension society’*
which added America to Christen*
dom. A good way to honor Co
lumbus is to continue the work ot
evangelization which he began.
It may not be good literary styld
to write a sentence containing flv'd
conjunction in succession. But it
is at least a literary possibility, and
that you may have doubted, 'i saW
a printer’s proof the other day An
which an amateur proof-reader had
been experimenting. In an adver
tisement of a church goods firM
the printer had set “Albs and Sur
plices” too closely together, thus:
AlbsAndSurpllccs.
Whereupon the man who under
took to correct it wrote in the mat-
gin : “Leave more space between
Albs and and and and and Sur
plices.” It may take you a fety
second to grasp this. But you
may take it from me that it reads
all right.
Christopher Columbus was the
first to come across. Which reminds
me that if you were thinking of
“coming across” for charitable pur
poses this week, it might not be a
bad idea to consider The Catholic
, After which you might try this
one on a friend. Ask if he (or, for
that matter, she) can understand
this sentence, which you proceed to
repeat: “Pharaoh’s daughter had a
lion. Therefore he was the Daugh
ter of Pharaoh’s son,” You will
be considered insane for at least
five minutes whilst you insist upon
the literal accuracy of the sen
tence. But when truth is at stake
you should not be deterred by a
little inconvenience of that sort.
lwo sets of bishops were fore
gathered during the past few weeks.
One set met at Washington and dis
cussed, in calm and harmony, the
best means of grappling with cur=-
rent problem by devising organiza
tions to meet them. The other set
met at Portland, Oregon, and spent
considerable time in trying to de
termine what they, for the most
part, believed. In these two meet
ings you get two pictures which tell
their own story. One is that of a
universal church, with its mind
made • up centuries ago, facing ex
ternal problems with quiet confi
dence in its ability to deal with
them. The other picture is of ft
partially-national church wrestling
with its own internal doubts. One
presents the impression of an old-
established business with a reputa
tion for service; the other that of A
store which hopes to serve you well
when the interior furnishings
decorations have been completed,