NEW FREEDOM

Grey River Argus, 13 December 1940, Page 8

NEW FREEDOM

DANGER TO MORALS Family and School WELLINGTON, December 12. The serious effect which the socalled new freedom in education was likely to have upon the moral fibre of the nation was stressed by the rector of St. Patrick’s College, Silverstream,, (the Very Rev. J. J. Kennedy, S.M.), when speaking at the closing ceremony. He pointed to the importance of the family and the school in the building of the State, and said the great need of to-day was a strength of purpose as revealed by our early colonists. The restlessness, uncertainty, and doubt, which were bred by the war found expression, he said, in lack of mental and moral discipline in the young, who questioned all the values and traditions handed down. He declared, nevertheless, that the battle of life, whether for the individual or the nation, would be” won or lost in the homes and the schools of the country. In calling attention to the alarming increase in disdain for authority, divine and human, and the consequent contempt for self-control arising from the so-called new freedom in education, the rector said this new theory eliminated every kind of restraint upon the self-expression of the child,, and recalled the hopelessness of that older philosophy, just as pagan a nd self-indulgent, “Eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow we die.” He believed with Cardinal Hinsley that “there can be no' peace on this globe till men of good will everywhere strive by moral and religious principles to uphold the right and to triumph over hell on earth.” The fight for Christianity was the work of Christians, and the necessary training grounds for Christian soldiers worthy of the name were the Christian schools, even more so than the camps of the armed forces. The defence of Christian civilisation was the task of trained, self-sacrifiqing, disciplined soldiers of Christ. “Our kith and kin,” he said, “are fighting that the world may have peace and the freedom to fulfil its destiny according to the designs of God. By doing so they teach lessons of valour and self-sacrifice to those on the home front. They face hardship and danger fearlessly and manfully; they deny themselves many things for the cause; duty called and the response was prompt and determined in spite of many difficulties ahead.

“We honour our men of valour by promoting peace and good will among men, that peace - of conscience without which there can be no happiness in this world, that peace among men which demands so many sacrifices on the part of our self-interest, that peace among nations which depends upon the reformation of the individuals of each country.

“The urgent need of the day is strength of purpose, a s revealed by the self-sacrificing spirit of the pioneer colonists of this country; intellectually and moral fibre, combined with physical grit and determination; in a word, the cardinal virtue of fortitude which enables us to overcome all difficulties in fulfilling the duties imposed upon us; a fortitude as free from rashness as'from fear, as ready

toi endure as to act, to defend itself as to assume the offensive. Such a magnificent andi manly quality is the result of constant self-discipline in the despised little, things of life. Character is the combination of an army of well-disciplined virtues, all needed to develop the best that is in us. “We make bold to remind parents of their serious obligation to train the young to a life of self-control, regulated by duty and the higher values of life. Lack of direction and supervision in the use of leisure; the liberty to read anything and everything,' to attend any and every cinema; the licence to follow the urges of Nature regardless of the rules of the Creator-all advocated by atheistic and materialistic writers and educators —will ruin tne faith, family, and fatherland. “Mental discipline must come before moral control. ‘Tell me what you read,’ said a learned English Judge to a juvenile delinquent, ‘and I shall tell you what you will become.’ ”