THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA ON SECRET SOCIETIES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 69, 22 August 1874, Page 14

THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA ON SECRET SOCIETIES.

We take the following from the Pastoral issued by the late Provincial Council of San Francisco :—

„„•/?• f ° re S oin g y° u ™H «»aily perceive, dearly Moved, the neeessny incumbent upon you of providing for the Christian education ot children, in order to secure to them the possession of that priceless jowel, divine fa, th, whereby they can attain to life everlasting. Of the ESr Ob^ ati^Bmthißrespect we cannot speak too strongly The church has ever regarded the Christian education of youth as among her most important duties. To this end she has spared no labor re* fused no sacrifice. Her words, like those of her Divine Founder have SdoTof God" ''"I* C « l^ tO , COm ° Unt ° ™ c'e ' for o? sue" i,^ kingdom of God. In their tender minds she sows with earnest pohcitude the seeds of Christian faith and morality, knowinrwelUhat >f duly nurtured they will la good season return an abundant harvest *hat shall yield to the owner a hundred fold. And if it be a duty in StT%Y eFe , aU '. or " ear^ *"• Wt™ the true faith, to attend s/du^ fauely to the early instruction of youth, it becomes doubly so hVre T P rT P P m f Co ,T eq f- n u° ° f ,thß, thB * ducafci °™l pursued by fl* «X v^T^iL%itt B r P Lr rality of our chiidren - — * We are aware that the best; and indeed the only efficacious remedy agjjnst such an cvi is the establishment of Catholic Schools Xro ent e r lU n g nl T enta lM° faitl \° r re P*g™" fc <=° Christian moraitj may enter, and where while, secular science is in no way neglected everySSaT bef ? Undtlafc . " iU Be ™ impress on the^inds of the young thesavwg principles of ou* holy religion. To this we are earnestly directing our attention at present, and we hope,wi?h the of parents and guardians who have not the advantage of -such educa SS^ entS *5 T that their cbildren and ™™ are proper?; 7iTit^:'X^ they attend regulariy the *W*c3: • * ar ents should be careful to prohibit from entering their families unmoral, anti-Catholic publications, corrupting novels, and sensaSal jnfangi of every kind. Nothing tends so much to destroy the S of the young and to weaken their faith as production* o7thk nah *l The term of youth is a time of trust ; the mind is then more sWen tiWe of impressions, and consequently the virtues of faith and movaHtv" are more readily imperilled. Independent entirely of thetws of the

Church on this head, which, as you know, are very restricti™ tha Pagan, themselves, from the light of reason alone were fully ISVeo the evils arising from such a source Henoo the account given by Philoss tratus of the burning of the books of Protagoras in th, public aquare of Athens, for having denied the existence of God. Hence, too the destruction of the loose obscene poems of Archilochus by the Laoedomomans, as recounted by Valerius Mocimus, while at Rome As we, loam from one of the classic writers of the time, works hostile to the religion of the State were destroyed by the Pagm "authorities St Gregory JSazurazen, speaking on thi 9 subject, says that heretical oooka should be destroyed like the ejrgs of serpents, because they brin» forth vipers and basilisks. « Wherefore," says the assembled Fathers°of the second Plenary Council of Baltimore, « we most earnestly exhort and beseech pastors to admonish often and earnestly the faithful committed to their cure, and especially heads of families, to prohibit enterir.g their dwellings books by which religion or morality, and to carl fully see that such do not fall into the hands of children or domestic^ Iho sirtfulnoss ami ruin of joining secret societies is another matter to which we feel ourselves necessitated to call yaur attention You are aware, dearly beloved, that such assemblies are most strictly eondemnedby the Church. Several of the Roman Pontiffs-™ ° n . others, Clement XII., Benedict XlV\,Fius VEL, Leo XII R u , VIIT and our present illustrious Pontiff— hnve visited them with the heaviest censures a.id the severest ponalties. We are aware that it is not; always from an evil propensity or through an utter disregard for ecclesiastical authority, (hat persons are led to enter secret societies but rather allured by the apparent temporal advantages and oetensibly iustifiablo nature of the organizations, sometimes it is from national motives— v a desire of serving their native land ; other times from a spirit of philanthropy, benevolence, and not unfreqnently from a prurient desire of learning the hidden, or of attaining social connections, fch.it men are thus led mto opposition to the laws of the Church And they are held, too, in their bondaao by reason of the fact that the leaders are not made known to the many. - To the plea put forward" by the advocates of secrecy, the Ohureh has only one answer to em and she has ever returned the same. « Men loved darkness rather than light, for their works were evil." Beware, then, dearly beloved of entering into any such organizations or of continuing members thereof ; and if, at present, in any society which may hereafter fall under the condemnation of the Church, leS it be your first duty toabandon the same in obedience to tiie voice of sovereign authority bearing in mind the words of your Divine Redeemer" "He that heareth you, heareth Me ;" and "If he will not hear the Church let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican." '