SECULAR AND DENOMINATIONAL EDUCATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 29, 15 November 1873, Page 6

SECULAR AND DENOMINATIONAL EDUCATION.

The secularists have been combating the movement entered on by the Ohui'c"h of England Synod advocating denominational education. The arguments used by tlie members of the Synod are cogent where they deal with the direct question ; in fact, they give the arguments of the Catholic Church, which may be adopted by anyone wishing for truth. People are made up of soul and body. The body must be nourished — so must the soul. The soul has faculties, and these must be cultivated ; the spirit of justice, and truth, and love must be cherished and nurtured. It is to point out the best way for promoting the soul's powers that educationists are directing their best efforts. Wealth and industry mast be promoted ; ; obedience to law and order have to be successfully inculcated ; and, according to most people, the future happiness of man in a future state is the main object of man's existence. Parents have the duty of reaxing their children in such a manner as to promote tlieir present and future happiness. The goyernmenb of a country lias to look to the peace and well-being of the members composing the community over which it rules. Educatioa is the word that expresses one

and all of these duties and obligations with their consequent attendant instruction of the human being, material + ™ c f aL The secularist says : Make religion secondary • teach the man history, chemistry, astronomy, engineering, all things that help io procure worldly wealth. Religion and . those interested in it will look after themselves. Because people have different creeds and will not agree upon points of religion, shut out religion from our public schools. All without exception have to pay to maintain the public schools, shut out from them all causes of disagreement. Teach the practical branches of science, and then you will do all necessary to be attended to by the State. If you want religion," give instruction in that department on Saturdays and Sundays, or when you please, but not in the public schools. The result will be the production of an independent, iree, and wealthy people. The Protestants wishing for the reading of the Bible require that it, in all cases, should be a necessity in the schools, if people hope to have a community law-abiding and moral — nay, more, some go further and say — as does the Churcli of England Synod — we require to^have religious instruction mixed up with all our school duties ; and therefore we ask for schools of our own under out own control, paid by the State aud paid by results in secular information and instruction. In this way we shall preserve order and morality ; otherwise, we cannot. The Catholic Church holds to her old faith and ardent traditions, and says: God is first— man second; God must be known — man must be trained to know Him. The world to come is first— this worli only a secondary consideration. We must attend to the first, but not forget the second. The faith of her children is her greatest cause of care and solicitude. "With faith her children can hope, and bear up against difficulties. "With faith, charity for God, and man can be cultivated. "Without faith in God's existence there can be no love of Him. And without faith and love of Him, there can be no love of our fellow man, except that arising from the exercise of those natural gifts which are bestowed upon us, though thankless, it may be, for the favor. In training the human being, then, the Catholic Church holds herself to be an infallible guide ou the way to a happy future ; and for 1800 years she has boldly proclaimed to the world that she can have no compromise when faith is concerned — that all is to be risked for that — that wealth, and health, and strength, and fame, and glory, are all to stand iv abeyance when this great gift of faith runs any risk. She looks abroad and sees the secularists working vigorously to establish Government Schools for the education of the rising generations, without religion— making faith and religion, or the worship of God, secondary considerations ; and she proclaims to the people and the world that society cannot last without religion ; that to have the man religious, or a community religious — the man as a rule must be reared under the guiding spirit of religion ; and to have a community religious , its members must have been under similar training. Persons are trained by living instructors, and by the study of books. If the books be bad or vicious in their teaching, the instruction received will be so too. If the instructors be immoral, or infidel, or materialistic, experience shows that the views of those teachers will be warmly and ardently instilled into the minds of those entrusted to their care. Hence the Church asks for good books, free from immoral tendencies ; and even, when purely secular sciences are taught, she demands teachers for these branches free from immorality, not tainted with error in their religious tenets ; knowing well that if the infidel or materialist gets hold of the young mind, he can mould it on his own model. She recognises no teacher in religion outside herself; and she even dreads the influence of others, even in matters not religious, knowing the danger of perversion. Now as to the secularist system, it has produced many ardent men, wild with enthusiasm in advancing their own tenets. It has produced such men as those forming the Commune of Paris — the members of all secret societies — the disturbers of all legitimate governments — the destroyers of religion, morality, peace and order ; though very often they have set themselves up as promoters of liberty, equality, fraternity, And those men boldly come forward and assert that the Church, the promoter of learning and religion, of the arts and sciences, has for its object the destruction of all these. "We do not say that each secularist has these intentions, and that so he has determined. "We know some have no such intention ; but what we assert of secularist teachings and principles is

I quite true, taking the result in every age and country. 1 : Spain, and Italy, and France, and Catholic countries aretalked of as examples of a people down4rod<len by the Church and her priesthood ; but in no countries are there more glorious institutions for instruction and for promoting the advancement of the sciences ; and those who have caused the revolutions in those countries are not the religious, but the G-odless, without faith; branches fed and reared under the patronage of secret societies, guided by turbulent spirits, who would not submit to the yoke of law and order. To save their children from such consequences, the L Catholic people of this colony ask for a fair share of the monies contributed by them for education. Monies demanded by a Government who ought; to deal justly and honorably with all those under its protecting care. We ask for our own. Is it not just; to grant us our own? We would accept it under other conditions if it were possible ; - but it is not possible otherwise to accept ifc, as long as we cling to the grand old faith ! that shall be for ever.