CHRISTIAN BROTHERS' SCHOOL

Evening Star, Issue 15913, 20 September 1915, Page 2

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS' SCHOOL

THE {NEW BUILDING ■ BLESSED AND OPENED. There was a very large muster at- the opening of the Christian Brothers' new school yesterday afternoon, including representatives of the Otago Education BoaTd, the King Edward Teclmical Col- . lege, and other educational institutions. - The new school has its front in Rattray street. The total cost is £B,OOO, and' Father Coffey, administrator of tho diocese, announced that the money is nearly Subscribed, only £6OO being wanting to open and equip the school free of debt. Archbishop Redwood, who came from Wellington to perform the opening ceremony, was the principal speaker. He said : No ono was more perfectly aware than the Church, after her age and long experience that it was impossible to overrate the influence of the school npon future, manhood and womanhood. The school, indeed, was the nursery where - mind and heart were moulded for a lifetime. The lessons of the school, whether direct or indirect, eventually dominate the child's intellect, and' the impressions there implanted would sink into the fibres of the soul, never to depart with coming years. For five days of the week the school was in supreme , command, and these were the days of, serious application and reflection. " The ' other days yield to the urgent claims of pjay and rest. It was impossible for a school to be effective unless it be authoritative. The child's law was the master's word, the master's rod the child's steering compass. The very silent atmosphere of the school was a strongly formative element in education. It acted on the mind and work like the air they breathed acted on their material body. All the world over the ablest teachers emphatically and unceasingly proclaimed that whatever did not enter one wav or another into the onrriculum of the classroom, would be no part, or only a minimised part of the subsequent career of the pupil. Accordingly it had become a truism that the classroom was the training ground of manhood and womanhood. This being so, came the questions: "Was the secularised school the place for the Catholic child? Could the Catholic Church, with loyalty to" her principles and to requirements of her faith, countenance the secularised school?" The answer to both questions was an emphatic negative. It was easy to show that the secularised school, by its exp.lusions, did violence to secular knowledge itself and hampered its development. Take, for instance, science. Physical science bad for its object the investigation and scrutiny of the universe, to discover its processes and its laws. But the cause of the universe, the guidance of_ its movements, the purpose of its craving aspirations must not be mentioned. To speak of the everlasting God as creator and ruler would be rank sectarianism, offensive to the Atheist and the Agnostic. On the other hand, to apeak of the unlimited potency of selfexisting matter would equally offend the Theist and the Christian, and raise their ery of alarm. Again, take history, that marvellous drama of men and ideas. The providence of an all-knowing God must not be invoked, nor the blind evolutions of matter, for either assertion suggested sectarianism, violated religious neutrality. JHistory passed in review those deathless heroes whose names spelt magic influence, and_ whose hands wrought mighty deeds ; their motives, the sources of their j the result of their labors challenged dispute and examination, but one .there was—the mightiest of all in word and work—who escapes injnrv—"Jesus of Nazareth. Who is He? No one must ask, no one must answer." It would be . sectarianism, whether the reply was . affirmative or negative. Once more, take the literatures of the world. Their pages were potent to feed the mind and fire the heart. But the book of books, the most sublime in beauty, the one which, above all others, had swayed the civilised •world—the Bible—should not be read, nor even seen, because around it controversies raged, and its exclusion from the schoolroom was the price of peace. What else, then was tho secularised school but the woeful mutilation of the field of secular knowledge, within the most influential and vitalising range of its own teachings ? But he was dealing with Catholics, whose oft-declared principle was the Catholic school for Catholic children. Here one found the exclusions of the secularised sohool fatal to religion. Could anyone ade- ; quately realise the glacial, the soul-chil-ling nature of the secularised aohool, from which God and His Christ and His Church were hidden away ? How could any Catholic parent worthy of the name have the hardihood to thrust into the vast • void his tender-minded, tenderhearted child? To have the whole supernatural world forgotten; nay, designedly and professedly ignored, was a sacrilege, a violence to God, a violence to the soul of the child. During school hours—the . very time of serious thought and diligent application.—God, Christ, and religion were not spoken of, the entire span of school time being devoted solely to the earth and the things of earth. The exclusion of religion from tho schoolroom was fatal to religion, to the sense of its importance, to the vigor of its influence, which ought to radiate from it across the whole sphere of man's thoughts and actions. Furthermore, .the memories of youth were lifelong. But what must be the memories of an adult whose formative days were spent in a secularised schoolroom? The memories of a humanity without God, without Christ, because the secularised school was the expulsion of God, and. of Christ from the mind and the heart of the child, with the result of the expulsion of them from the mind and the heart of the adult. There .was no such thing as neutrality in the secularised school. Often text-books mis- , represented and slandered the Catholic 'Church. Teachers, non-Catholic, nonChristian, did not refrain from expressing their own views. Those views, even when not openly uttered, exuded from the very atmosphere which the teacher creates, consciously or unconsciously. He was naturally listened to with respsct and obedience; his opinions and judgments, whether he willed it or not, could not be concealed. Hence for the child, untutored and tender-minded, the neutral school did not exist; it was Catholic .or Protestant, Christian or Hebrew, Theist, or Agnostic, or baldly materialistic. If not taught in the school-. room, where would religion be taught? They should remember that the Catholic faith wos_ a science in itself, lengthy and complex in its propositions, precise and dogmatic in its demands. Any attempt to teach Catholic faith, short of long-time and thorough drilling, was profitless beating of the air. The proper place to teach religion was the schoolroom, where time and circumstances permitted and demanded thought and work, where each theme and study took its proper rank, re- •' ligioxr first and foremost, permeating and inspiring all else, while other themes still were loyally treated to their due share of attention and i espect. , . . It was impossible, therefore, that the Catholic Church should either approve or countenance the secularised school, or by inaction on her part authorise Catholics to confide in it for the education of their children Conseqtantly, she had established her own ' schools is this Dominion and throughout Australia, not to speak of other lands. The enterprise was alike arduous and costly. It demanded great courage and great generosity on the part of the Catholic clergy and people, and unbounded sacrifices in the Catholic teaching staffs of the brotherhoods and sisterhoods of the Catholic body. All honor to them! They had won the battle of education in these fair lands; they had set their schools, primary and secondary, on a par with the best Government schools in secular knowledge tested by examinations, and they had preserved the principle that religion should permeate and vivifv the education of childhood and youth. " He congratulated heartily the Catholics of Dunedin on the erection in their midst and by their means of this noble, up-to-date school, hard to surpass in all Australasia. He congratulated-.the- same Catholics of Dunedin on having so competent and devoted • a staff of teachers as the Christian Bro•tbers, whose fame and. success as educa-

?? r § a ¥ e<J Tho speaker concluded: "I-am happy to be hero to-day to open this splendid school, and I fitly interpret the sentiments of the whole Catholic body in the Dominion by tendering to them and their teacher* and their pupils my heartiest congratulations and D6st wishes. I s-ay with all my heart, and I know you join me: ' Floreat, floreat semper. I also tender my sincerest congratulations and my unstinted praise to the Rev. Father-Coffey, who has been the very. _ soul of this great enterprise—the erection and financing of this splendid and perfectly-appointed school-—and. who has brought it to the state of completion and efficiency which in a few moments you will be admitted to inspect and admire. ' (Loud applause.) Bishop Verdon thanked Archbishop Redwood for visiting Dunedin and officiating. He was satisfied that every Catholic was determined to make every sacrifice to protect and improve tho Catholic system of education. This was a happy * day for them all generally, and for himself iiv particular, to have the opportunity of taking part in this function, which was a demonstration of the progress which had been made m their system of education. It was a happy day for the Christian Brothers, who had labored so earnestly for so many years for the cause they all had at heart. This structure was a great triumph for Catholic education, and they were all indebted to Father Coffey for its consummation. (Loud applause.) It was a magnificent building, where the children would receive an education equal to anything received in New Zealand, Australia, or elsewhere. (Applause.) Mr D. L. Poppelwell (an old bov of tiw Christian Brothers' School) congratulated the principals of the school and all those who had assisted to have it erected upon their wonderful achievement. The Rev Father Coffey recounted what had been done to consummate the establishment of this new school. He made an appeal to those present for subscriptions to enable the school to start free of charge. The amount required was £6OO. The appeal met with a liberal response,. and it is expected that the full amount will be raised within the next few days. The Christian Brothers' choir contributed a number of anthems.