RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12767, 8 February 1910, Page 3

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS.

THE NEW SOUTH WALES SYSTEM CARDINAL MORAN'S ATTACK. REPLY FROM THE MINISTER. [Press Association— Copyright.] Sydney, Feb 7. Mr Hogue, Minister for Education, made tho following statement m reply to Cardinal Moran's strictures upon him and the system of religious instruction in schools :-— "Tha Cardinal . has broken out again once more breathing denunciation of myself. After a fortnight or so of muffins and meditation lie lias come forth* spiritually refreshed from his beatified retreat, and as a result of his communings he has invited mo. to tread on the tail of his episcopal coat. He keeps on damning our educational system with all the renewed strength cloister' training can givo him. Our system of non-sectarian education is condemned with the sterotyped brand of infidelity and agnosticism. We have heard nonsense of this kind before, and it has been sufficiently and convincingly answered. It is enough to say that the system of education is based on tho deliberately expressed will of the people." Mr Hogue-continued to say that the Cardinal had charged him with deliberate falsehood. - He had scarcely .expected such language from one who had oome clothed in the special sanctity of spiritual retreat, and supposed that if he were: to tell the Cardinal that such language was anti-Christian the latter would reply that it was a matter he knew nothing about. He doubted whether the people would iccept Cardinal Moran as an authority on the qualifications of an Education Minister. The Cardinal would wait many weary das's and take many more prayerful retreats before he saw <n Australian Legislature so fast in the grip of his or any other church as to hand over tho work of education from the State to religious denominations. The Cardinal had found faults with tho -books used. It might be very, agreeable all round if, say, the history of Europe were treated without reference, to the Reformation, or Martin Luther, the Hugenot massacres, the sales of indulgences, the. Armada, the Inquisition, and such things. But it would not be history. It might be agreeable if it wero solemnly taught that the Reformation was unnecessary; that Luther was a crank, a sort of discontented strike agitator; that the sales of indulgences were myths ; that the Catholic priesthood ci the 16th century were as pure and spotless as those who go into retreat in the 20th; that the Spanish Armada was a defensive act; that the Church had nothing to do with the massacre of St Bartholomew; and that the Pope never ordered the striking of a medal to commemorate that butchery. Cardinal Moran declared that, he had no fear of Catholic children being proselytised* If his accusations against the schools were true, would Roman Catholic pa-cents allow then* children to attend? Assuredly not. They knew that the fulminations against the schools were not justified. Such attacks did no service to Christianity, and no harm to our schools.