PAPAL DIRECTIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18026, 22 May 1930, Page 11

PAPAL DIRECTIONS.

CHURCH AND EDUCATION. WATCH OVER CHILDREN. ' J “It is the inalienable right as well as the indispensable duty of the Church, to watch over the . entire education, of her children in all institutions, or private, not merely in regard to the religious instruction there given, but in regard to every other branch of learning and every regulation in so far as religion and morality are concerned,” states the encyclical on education by Pope Pius XI just published, in the Catholic journals in New Zealand. The encyclical is very comprehensive, and it deals with education systems and their relationship to the family, the State, and the Church. One of the papal pronouncements is: “The mere fact that a school gives some religious instruction (often extremely stinted)’, does not bring It Into accord with the rights of the Church and of the Christian family, or make it a fit place for Catholic students. To be this, it is necessary that all the teaching and the whole organisation of the school, and its teachers, syllabus, and text-books in every branch, be regulated by the Christian spirit, under the direction and maternal supervision of the Church; so that religion may be in very truth the foundation and crown of the youth’s entire training; and this in every grade of school, not only the elementary, but the intermediate and the higher institutions of learning as well. Duty of the State.

“And let no one say that in a nation where there are different religious beliefs, it is impossible to provide for public instruction otherwise than by neutral or mixed schools. In such a case it becomes the duty of the State, indeed it is the easier and more reasonable method of procedure, to leave free scope to the initiative of the Church and the family, while giving them such assistance as justice demands. That this can be done to the full satisfaction of families, and to the advantage of education and of public peace and tranquillity, is dear from the actual experience of some countries comprising different religious denominations. .There the school legislation respects the rights of the family, and Catholics are free to follow their own system of teaching in schools that are entirely Catholic. Nor is distributive justice lost sight of, as is evidenced by the financial aid granted by the State to the several schools demanded by the families. $ “False also and harmful to Christian education is the so-called method of ‘co-education.’ This, too, by many of its supporters, is founded upon naturalism and the denial of original sin; but by all, upon a deplorable confusion of ideas that mistakes a levelling promiscuity and equality, for the legitimate association of the sexes. The Creator has ordained and disposed perfect union of the sexes only in matrimony, and, with varying degrees of contact, in the family and in society. Besides there is not in nature Itself, which fashions the two quite different in organism, in temperament, in abilities, anything to suggest that there can be or ought to be promiscuity, and much less equality, in the training of the two sexes."