THE EVENING STAR CAUGHT AGAIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 43, 13 February 1885, Page 15

THE EVENING STAR CAUGHT AGAIN.

§N his loader of Tuesday, our contemporary is in a species of ecstacy about Bishop Mohan's Pastoral. And his elation is really very amusing. In this Pastoral the Bishop has said nothing that he and all other bishops and all parish priests have not said often and often. Nothing is more common in the Catholic Church than for bishops and priests to explain to parents their duties towards their children, and Bishop Moran has done nothing more than reiterate the often- repeated instruction with which Catholic parents are familiar, but of which they may be usefully reminded from time to time in a more than ordinarily formal and solemn way. The Star thinks, however, that somehow a point has been gained favourable to godless education by the Bishop's instruction. The argument of the Star appears to be this. Bishop Moran teaches that nothing can excuse parents from the discharge cf the duties which devolve upon them to instruct, guard, and correct their children, and, above all, to lead them npon the right path by their own good example. Therefore, according to the argument of the Star, as we appreapprehend it, the State may tax all to give a godless and free education to some. This is the argument of the Evening Star, and we make its editor a present of it. Caught again, then, is our contemporary. Nor is this all. The editor of this paper said last week he had not been caught, in publishing something highly creditable to a Catholic State. He did so, he would have us believe, with his eyes wide open, and not ignorant in the least that Lucerne was and is almost exclusively Catholic. What he did, he did, he assures us, with the single view of letting the public know whatever conduces to correct information on the subject of education. Very well, a most laudable object, no doubt, this must be admitted to be. But how, then, has it happened that our contemporary has entirely ignored the leading position taken by the Brothers of the Christian Schools at the recent exhibition in London ? It must be through design, and an intolerance of Catholic Bchools. All the Home papers contained accounts of the great superiority of the methods and works of these schools, and we ourselves again and again called attention as well to the laudatory notices in the English papers as to the prizes and medals awarded to the Brothers. And yet the newspaper that pretends to be so anxious to spread information on the subject of education, irrespective of cl»ss or creed, has hitherto been unable to find sp.ico for the least notice of the Brothers and their work. Our contemporary, however, could find space for three or four columns of poorly-translated rhodomontade from the greatest charlatan and most shallow fellow of the age, Victor Hugo, for no other assignable reason than his rabid hatred of Christian education. This is strange conduct fora dispassionate distributor of information in reference to schools 1 We have noticed fo" a long time that our contem- | porary and his companions in the Press claim great merit for the efforts made by secularists for the spread of education. But we have also noticed that neither he nor any other secularist has made any effort for its promotion by self-sacrifice or generosity. Whatever these have done has been done at the public expense, and by exertions that have not involved any expense or labour on their part. The history of the world contains innumerable examples of the sacrifice and generosity of Catholics in the cause of education, but hardly, if ever, one

example of any effort on the part of secularists to do anything except at the expense of others. And yet in their new-born zeal and intense selfishness they never cease abasing Catholics for not having done impossibilities. Education is now, no doubt, wide-spread. And why? Simply because public education is now compulsory, and entirely paid for by the State. But when the State did nothing, when secularists did nothing, Christians and Catholics did an immensity in all ages and in all countries where the liberty of doing good existed. Whilst writing thus it must not be forgotten that the fathers of the men who are now loudest in their denunciation of Catholics made school teaching and school frequenting on the part of Catholics acts of high treason. The same spirit actuates the sons to- lay. The modification in the programmes of the fathers and sons is only slight. The fathers wielded the sword in order to compel Catholics to become ignorant ; the sons have recourse to the purse in order to effect the same end. The object of both is, if possible, to render Catholics ignorant. Catholics are compelled by the sons to pay for un-Catholic and anti-Catholic systems of education in the hope that now the iufl lence of the almighty dollar will be as efficacious as was the sword, confiscation, and social ostracism in the days that elapsed from Henry VIII, till the year 1829. The tactics have been changed, but the spirit and intent never.