(ROMAN) CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17572, 16 May 1919, Page 2

(ROMAN) CATHOLIC EDUCATION

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In his address at the Convent yesterday Archbishop Redwood said somethings of peculiar interest to Prolostants. May I draw the attention of your readeis to these? He snys, "The school is all in all in the matter of religion and morals. -Day by day the child niUst have lessons of divine truthshould breathe the atmosphere that wiil Wing into its religious life's blood vitality and strength. The Roman Catholic teachers," says the Archbishop, "an* trained to ieach religion by instruction an dexample." Thus we see that in Roman Catholic schools the first thought is thd propagation of Roman Catholicism and with this end in view religion is ta-^rlit, by example and preempt, all the uay and every day, that a "religious" atmosphere is created in whirh the child breathes all day. Surely the good Archbishop has over-reached himself this time, for so often have we heen told that in the Romanist schools Protestant children were in no way | brought tmder religious influence but j now \V3 know—on tht? evidence of an j Archbishop—that Protestant children ; are under reJigjous influence all the time they are in such schools. In the pist Protestants have sent their children to Romanist schools believing that no effort would be made to influence their religion, but now this error cannot longer be made, and Protestai\t parents who send their children to Catholic schools will do so with a, full knowledge that they are sending them to be proselytized and they will have no cause for surprise in future when their children express a desii'e. to repeat Romanist prayers instead of their own evening devotions, and when in the course of tifne they express a desire to "take the y.fril.'1 Surely the Archbishon speaks with ft double to'mure when he condemns our State schools and states that "no greater distister could befall it (the child) than to bo brought up in n school from which God and Christ are blocked out.-' We do not by any means admit that God and Christ are blocked out of our State schools; but if the charge is cor- ! rect, who is to blame? At whose instij gation was the Bible excluded from State schools? At the instigation of the Church of Rome, whose special delight is now to enlarge on her own handiwork and refer to the State system as " Godless." When it was proposed to replace the Bible in our schools, did not Bishop Cleary and"'other Romanists use the public platform to combat the proposal, and now, foisooth, these people who had the Bible removed from our schools and prevented its return with characteristic duplicity complain that the State education system is Godless and urge patents to send their children to Romish schools. After all, is thei-e anything to | commend Rome's sectarian system ? • Have we proof that her system produces n better class of manhood, or is the reverse thd case ? The New Zealand year "book contains crimes statistics year after year which show that Rome, -with her sectarian system, provides more than twice her proportion of crime—and this surely disproves the claims made on behalf of her religious schools, while a perusal of the Education records show that "Home's" percentages of passes is far below that of the State schools, thereby showing that as an educational system Rome's system is not up to that of the State. TTras wo see that from no point of view is it wise for Protestant parents to send their children to Rome's schoolfs and for further evidence' on this point our thanks are due to the good Archbishop.—l am, etc., RIX.