LENTEN PASTORAL FOR 1887.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIV, Issue 44, 25 February 1887, Page 2

LENTEN PASTORAL FOR 1887.

FRANCIS BY THE GRACE OF GOD AND FAVOUR OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE, BISHOP OF "WELLINGTON. TO THE CLER&Y AND FAITHFUL OF THtf SAID DIOCESE HEALTH and Benediction in the Lord. dearly beloved brethren and dear children in jesus Chkist,— Wfi cannot conceiveanything more closely connected with the destinies of a nation, more worthy of the anxious care of Governments and citizens, more calculated to prevent or prepare the ruin of future generations, than the subject of popular education. Revelation, Reason, and History combine to prove that the good or bad education of children and youth is one of the main causes of the prosperity or downfall of nations. It affects all persons and classes of society from the throne to the coitage. And this holds good in all lands, but particularly in a young country like our own, free from the many tiammels of older communities, with a splendid start in the career of prosperity, and such bright prospects of future national greatness. It permits, therefore, the indifference of non., while it imperatively claims the keenest attention of all. Accordingly, for the purpose of stimulating the vigilance of parents, the zeal of teachers, and the consideration of all the members of our flock clerical and lay, we shnll make it the subject of this Lenten Pastoral ; and we shall show that the true and steiliDg prosperity of New Zealand depends mainly on the good education of our children and that education, to be good, must be religious. It is not our purpose to set before you the various systems of edu« cation prevailing in different parts of the globe, Dor to discuss the main methods of iustruction more or less in vogue ; our considerations shall be purely moral and religious, and consequently such as are strangers to no system of education, but should be ever present to the minds of parents and teachers. The real prosp. nty of New Zealand depends on the good education of its children. All colonists do or ought to desire the welfare of this beautiful ami highly-favouied laud, their adopted country or their birthplace ; al! would be suny for its misfortune ; nay, eveo the preachers of doctrines destiuctive of its happiness, are careful to clothe them in fair names, so as to delude either themselves or others. But let us take the true standpoint of public felicity. Is it agriculture carried to the highest pitch of perfection aud efficiency? Is it trade widespread and flourishing, increasing wealth a hundred fold, and making all nations tributary to our w*nts and luxuries ? Is it the rapid increase of population, and well disciplined troops, inspiring the awe aud respect of any foreign foe ? Is it the perfection of arts and sciences, and all the wondrous appliances of modern civiliaation — railways, steamships telegraphs, telephones, factories, and a hundred ot'ier things too long for enumeration ? Is it the equable balance of political combinations, excluding tyranny on the one side, and securing liberty on the other ? Is it all "the boasted progress of political economy ? All these things are udeed highly valuable, all claim the sol'citude of governments, all have attracted and ever will attract the attention of sages and lawgivers throughout the course of ages. We know perfectly well that when we see a people wealthy, enlightened, and powerful, we are tempted to believe that, in this alone, they have attained the height ot prosperity, and we hardly conceive their possible decadence. The words of the lioyal Prophet rise to our minds, who, speaking of the Philistines, says : " Their sons are as new plants in their youth ; their daughters decked out, adorned round about after the similitude of a temple ; their storehouses full and overflowing ; their sheep fruitful in young ; their oxen fat. There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor crying out in their streets. Tliey lia re called the people happy, that hath tJiesc things," ( Ps. CXLlli . 12 and 13). As the world spoke three thousand years ago, so speaks it now. But we must not be dazzled by outside brilliancy ; we must look into the pith and marrow ot the question. We stop not at the shining f walla of the fabric, but examine the solidity of its foundations and structure. Now, all that guaiantees, in families, the authority of parents, the dutifulness and affection of children, the union of husband and wife, the faithfulness of servants, and every domestic virtue ; all that preserves, in civil society, the stability of institutions, respect for law and order, submission to auihority ; all that ensures, in the manifold ranks of society, honesty, good faith, industry, and peace — such, in the eyes of every reasonable man and sincere Christian, constitutes the genuine prospenty of nations. But toe creative and conservative principle of order and justice, that spirit of social life which animates the body-politic, preserves it from decay, or accelerates its permanent cure, is owin^ cbielly to the good education of youth. We must beware ot exaggerating the qualities and capabilities of human nature. It requires much caie and as&iduous cultivation to render it fruitful. True it is that man, issuing from the band of his Creator, has faculties and yearnings analogous ro his future denttßf-

which ought to make him a reasonable and moral being fit for domestic and civil society ; but, who does not see that these dispositions need to be regulated withjwisdjm, some to be perfected, others to be suppressed, and all t<> be kept from a wrong direction 1 Thus, man is made for woik— yet idleness has its bewitching charms Ui« weakness and requirements would naturally tend to his dependem-e ou his surroundings, to obedience and the calls of duty — yet his secret pride rebels against the yoke. Man, as an intelligent creature, is made for truth — yet he often turns away from truth because it chides, and clings to falsehood because it flatters. An inborn sentiment of benevolence inclines him to his fellow-men — yet his self-love often degenerates into repulsive egoti-m. Such is man in the eyes of all who study him closely. Hence that incessant struggle between good and evil, which begins in the cradle and ends with the graye — a straggle in which a good education i 8 of incalculable importance for the victory of virtue over vice. " Hast thou children," says the Wise Man, " instruct them and bow down their neck from their childhood. A horse not broken becometh stubborn, and a child left to himself will become headstrong." — (Eccl. vii. 25, xxx. 8.) To exhibit still more forcibly how the destiny of a people is bound up with the education of childhood, let us suppose for a moment that all the the children of this Colony, in country and town, are being taught by wise and pure teachers, worthy to tiain their minds and hearts. What glorious hopes for the nation such schools naturally raise. There the rising generation are taught to know God and His Law ; there they learn " whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever of good report" (Phil. iv. 7) ; there they are soundly instructed in secular knowledge, while they learn to be solidly virtuous ; there they have the winning authority of example far more efficacious than any lessons. How deeply the youne vigorous saplings will strike root, and what rich fruits are promised for after life — respect for parental authority, union in families, probity in business, love of order and justice, public spirit, strict adhesion to duty I What happy, orderly, and truly prosperous generations would grow up under such tuition ! Variety there might be in the methods of imparting knowledge, but the groundwork of instruction, the religious and moral impressions would be the Rame throughout the land. The same tone would prevail in all families and fuse them into one ; all New Zealand would be, as it were, but one man. Their education would be truly national, in a manner worthy of the name, instead of being, as it now is, a source of division, an injustice, and a mockery. All the pupils of such a system would not, of course, be faultless — there would be some weak, indocile, depraved characters, some victims of passion, and votaries of pleasure. But they would be the exception : the generality, being virtuous citizens, men aud women of honour and probity. Even the wayward would have adequate reason and motives for repentance and amendment. But if, on the contrary, education becomes entirely vicious ; if wicked doctrines pervert reason, and bad examples corrupt morals ; if the pupils learn contempt for what is honourable, and honour for what is contemptible, then what fearful havoc in ideas, affections, and conduct I What disastrous consequences in families and society 1 What prolific germs of insubordination,revolt,anddiscord,sown broadcast in souls I What an awful harvest of crime ! A few may escape the widespread contagion, but the body-politic will be plague-stricken to the core, and fall into rapid dissolution. Such, then, are the results of good or bad education, that, through the former, man may grow wicked only by inconsistency, whereas, under the latter, he can be good only by chance. But, to come to our second point, what education is to be deemed good ? Only that which is religious. History is at hand to prove our proposition. Towards the end of last century, a determined attempt was made to utterly divorce education from every religious element. Men, whose impiety was on a par with their cruelty and conceit, loudly proclaimed that for twenty centuries the human race, had been debased in error ; that religious beliefs, which had stunted the amds of men, should no longer chain down reason and hinder its sublime flight in the realms of progress ; that the vain fear of another world had held back mankind from making the best of this. These sophists were not devoid of wit or learning, but they were crazed by impiety. Hence, in their works and speeches what a hideous mixture of learning and madness, wit and extravagance 1 In the midst of proscriptions and scaffolds they displayed the grand words of National Education,, and while they murdered the priest, they pretended to teach the child. They promised light, and spread the darkness of atheism ; and the more temples they erected to reason the more they expelled common sense from laws and institutions. Gross materialism pervaded their newfangled systems of education, all directed against what they called prejudice and superstition, that is to say, against the noblest traditions of past ages, the ripe fruits of accumulated experience, and the undying glories of Christianity. Their plans were doomed to the most dismal failure ; their impractibihty equalled their irreligion. For Atheism is pregnant with death, and Religion alone can impart durable life. Apart from the Divinity there is nothing stable ; God must rule the family, society, and education, not less than the whole frame of the world. Without Him the family, the State, and education droop and fall, just as the universe would relapse into chaos unless His prevailing Omnipotence upheld its laws and harmony. We are aware that the advocates of a godless and irreligious system of education are loud in their denial of its baneful effects. They even pretend to send out their pupils as paragons of morality, but of the kind they call independent, that is, destitute of Christian principles and motives. Human honour — they tell vs — enlightened selfishness, sympathy, and other nostrums are to replace the Ten Commandments and obedience to a revealed code. And here is the cardinal error of modern times, we mean, the separation of morality from Religion. Rules of conduct are laid down having no connection with pious belief which would lend them strength and authority. The yoke of duty is imposed on man, while that is rejected which makes it bearable, How much better has Christianity understood th« nature of man with its weakness and manifold needs, as well as the inviolable rights of our Creator, when it res,t.s its precepts on the

will of God, the Supremo Lawgiver, who alone has the inherent right to command man ! Mere human morality is cold and dry, showing the way but giving: not the courage to pursue it. Religi jn descends into the heart penetrates it with the thought of Ood, renders ie capable of generous efforts and all the sacrifices required fur virtue, by forcibly stining up its hopes and fears for the future. How does it act in the matter of public education, when it has its own way 1 It puts teachers and pupils alike under the ever-present eye of God ; in His names it commands the former to be watchful, zealous, careful to set good example, and the latter to be obedient and industrious ; and thus it becomes the surest warrant of their morality, application and success. Religion watches where the teacher's eye cannot go ; it is a lamp ever shining and lighting up the most hidden recesses, thereby hindering numbers of abuses and secret disorders winch enervate diccipline and work its ruin. By its threats and promises it softens tempers, corrects faults, represses nascent vices, encourages weakness, and establishes the reign of prosperity, order, and peace. Then the authority of masters grows more paternal and the happy mean is attained between license and servitude — true Christian freedom. Then follow the youth out of school into the world, that is, the great school of life. A new education beginß in the corrupt atmosphere of society, amid all the allurements and dangers of our material and sensuous civilisation, How perilous the first taste of liberty on the verge of manhood, the easy and perverse maxims of companions already the victims of the contagion I The young man is his own master, free to say and do what he likes, far from the eye of parent or master. Will a few precepts of merely humam ethics sa ve him in the conflict ? As a rule they will not. You might as well hope to cleave granite rocks with rasors, or moor ships to the shore with slender threads of silk, as to expect to tame fierce young passions with the flimsy maxims of independent morality. Of course Religion is not an insurmountable barrier to the onslaught of passion, but, at all events it is the strongest barrier of all. When it sways the h^art of a yonng man, he will struggle against his perverse inclinations before he surrenders to vice, and even when the voice of religion seams hushed forever in his breast, it will have its poignant moments of keen rebuke, and, later on, virtue will resume her sweet empire in the converted conscience. But introduce a whole generation ot boys and girls to a world so seductive and overpowering without the .safeguards of religion, and you liken them to a help ess ship drifting to sea without rudder or compass. " I once thought," said Jean-Jacques Kousseau with commendable candour, " that people could be virtuous without religion, but I see too well how egregiously I was mistaken." We often hear people speaking with exaggerated praise of what they call " our grand national Bystem of education," of the spread of enlightenment through the masses, of the elevation of the inferior strata of society, and we are told with far too hopeful enthusiasm that shortly all over New Zealand youth will know how to read and write and cypher. We rejoice as much as any one at the diffusion of knowledge and the defeat of ignorance, but we contend that the more instruction spreads abroad among the people, the more it requires to be profoundly religious. Else the people will become more vain, restless, discontented with their lot, more eager for novelties, more evious of their superiors, more shrinking from all painful labour, more censorious and indocile, in short, more hapless victims of half-knowledge, a more deadly bane than ignorance. Knowledge without Religion is a twoedged sword which may and does and will prove a dreadful weapon of corruption and vice. Education without Religion is only half-educa-tion with the better half left out. Such are the lamentable results which we must expect from the godless and irreligious system of public instruction in the Colony. They are already felt and will be felt more keenly as time goes on and the lingering influence of Christianity gradually dies out. We need only look to the United States— a country as regards education so much like our own — to form a sound judgement of the melancholy fruits of the public school system. There it has realised largely the aims of infidels ;and ntteily disappointed the hopes of multitudinous nonCatholic denominations. It has greatly swelled the ranks of unbelievers, it has not been an efficient instrument for Protestantising Catholic children. It was expected that Catholic children would extensively adopt the Protestant idea of private jndgment, and recruit the membership of Protestant " churches." This expectation has utterly failed. The public schools do tend to pervert the Catholic children who continue to attend them. Their influence does undoubtedly weaken the faith and the bpu it of obedience to ecclesiastical authority and the precepts of the Catholic Church. But the process does not recruit Protestant sects. De-Catholicised pupils become indifferentists, practical rationalists, infidels — but not, Protestants. Nor has the public school system satisfied Protestants as regards its effects on Protestant children. It has been no help to their various sects, it has not trained up their children to be active members of those sects, as many Protesiants had hoped, but it tendß to weaken the respect of those children for the religious opinions aud practices of their parents, and to innoculatc them with rationalistic and materialistic ideas. The same result is already conspicuous m New Zealand, as many discerning, thoughtful, and honest Protestants are not slow to acknowledge. Our non-Catholic brethren will allow us, therefore, to ask them in all candour and fairness, whether it is not a shame and a disgrace on their part that, professing as they do to be firm believers in Christianity and ardent supporters of " a pure Gospel," which they desire to propagate over all the earth, they jet sustain and defend a system of education which undermines, in the hearts of their children, their own declared belief. As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, her policy is clear and unmistakable. Her conviction of the unfairness, defectiveness, and pernicious influences of the public godlesa system is daily growing deeper and stronger. She has committed herself to providing her own schools wherever they are possible, she has established a general and complete system of parochial school education throughout the whole Colony. Between the Catholics of this Colony and the advocates of secularism the issue has been definitely made, argued, and decided. Catholics intelligently and consistently declare, with the Church at large, that mere secular education is godless education, and that Catholic children shall not be subjected to its demoralising

nfluence. The battle has been fought and won. We do not deny that the victory bears heavily upon us in a pecuniary point of view. We have counted the cost and pay it. It is unjust that we should be doubly taxed and burdened, topupport our own Echools and schools to which we conscientiously and consistently object. Yet we submit to the injustice— galling as it is — rather than endanger the faith and morality of our children. But the injustice inflicted on the Catholic community is all the more wanton and oppressive, because is requires no extraordinary wisdom or sagacity on the part of any Government to devise a system which would do justice to all and injure none. Several countries have adopted a plan which substantially produces these happy results. Belgium has adopted it, so has the Austro- Hungarian Empire, so has the Dominion of Canada, bo has England though with undue favour to secularism. In these various nations there are indeed differences of administrative de'ail, regarding public school funds, but they do not affect the general principle, which is one of impartiality and non-interference on the part of the State and its officials with the religious preferences and rights of parents ; and the appropriation from the State funds to schools of every denomination, and to purely secular schools for such as prefer them, is made on a fair and equable basis. The plan alluded to is this : From a common public school fund into which all public school taxes are paid, equal pro rata allocations are made to all public schools, according to their respective number of pupils, and certain standards of proficiency attained by them in their respective grades. The allotments are made irrespective of creed, whether the schools be Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, or entirely undenominational and purely secular. Official examiners and inspectors are appointed to examine the candidates for teachership in those schools, without regard to their religious tenets. The examinations refer to purely secular branches of knowledge, and certificates of competency are given or withheld, according to the results of examination. Under this system, impartially carried out, justice is done to the rights and preferences of parents of various religions beliefs, and to those who have no religious belief. Catholics can send their children to Catholic schools, Protestants to the several sectarian schools, and thoroughgoing secularists to purely secular schools. The system has worked well in the different countries which have tried it, and gives general satisfaction. In Belgium, Catholic and Protestant and purely secular schools are aided or supported by appropriations from the public funds, though, strictly speaking, the number of Protestants in Belgium is small, almost the entire people being Catholics or Secularists. In the Austro- Hungarian Empire, where the vast majority of the people are Catholics the preferences of Protestants are carefully reßpected, and Protestant schools are supported by the State in which Protestant religious instruction is imparted, as well as schools in which the Catholic religion is taught along with secular knowledge. Similarly in Canada, Catholic and Protestant schools and purely secular ones are aided or supported by public school funds irrespectively of their religious or non-religious status In all these countries the internal management of the schools is entirely free from the interference of Government officials. Such inspectors visit the schools periodically, examine the pupils, or are present at their examination, and note the results. Thus the comparative efficiency of the different schools is accurately known, the Government standard iB effectively kept up, a hearty rivalry is established, the freedom of parents is respected, and education all round ie the happy gainer for the good of the nation. The only real obstacle to the adoption of this plan is sheer unreasoning prejudice ; and, under the influence of such prejudice, non-Catholics are tamely handing over their children to the promotion of nationalism, and mere Secularism, that is, irreligion. Fearful are the social disasters which they are thus preparing in the near future. The system is alleged to be unpractical. The conclusive answer to that is the fact of its existence and decided success in several vast and powerful nations which it wonld be wisdom for New Zealand to imitate. A gain it is assailed on account of its pretended expensiveness. To that we answer by emphatically denying that the proposed plan would be more expensive than the present oppressive one, which is an intolerable incubus on the Colony, and which avows expensiveness to be its weakness and the threat of its destruction. Sensible men — when the present secular craze has had its run and ignominiously failed — will marvel at the equal absurdity and impolicy of compelling all, without exception, rich and poor, married and single, people who have no children, Catholics, Protestants, and others, to pay for the free and godless education of the children of well-to-do people. The fact is that the system already prevailing in many countries and acknowledged to be a fair and satisfactory solution of the education difficulty, is by far the cheaper one. This has been proved again and again in this Colony and other places, so that we need not dwell on it here. But, conceding for mere argument's sake, that it might be a trifle more expensive, would it not be, in a hundred other ways, an inestimable boon to the Colony, solve the vexed education question, promote the union of all members of the community, save our children from the canker of infidelity, and the plague of dishonesty and immorality 1 If the public school system fails to train up better, not " smarter " citizens, children | more virtuous as well as more intelligent — and such is the only valid plea for its existence at all — if it fails in this, and we contend that, where it has been best tried, in the United States, it has notoriously and confessedly failed, then the thousands annually expended with reckless lavishness throughout this burdened Colony in maintaining a one-sided, godless system of public schools, are worse than wasted. Nay, we boldly aver that the present State education is simply a machine, most effective and well-devised, for practically deChristianising our children and rearing a generation of intellectually smart, keen, law-evading, and law-breaking citizens. Surely any system, however expensive, would be preferable to that. Wherefore, my dear brethren, hearken once more to the unerring voice of the Holy Church exhorting you.with burning «eal and motherly tenderness, to support your schools. Found them everywhere, and generously maintain them ; grudge not the moneys which injustice

wrings from you, while yoa look at the glorious end to be attained, the rescue of your children from the contamination of godlesßnen. We again remind you that Catholics cannot avail themselves of the Government schools, except in cases of very great necessity, and when — such necessity being supposed —every possible precaution is taken to remove all approximate dangers to faith and morals. We exhort, therefore, most earnestly our priests and people to strain every nerve to establish and maintain efficient Catholic schools, wherever it it possible to do so ; and we call upon our clergy to exhibit still greater zeal in this great cause than they have hitherto evinced. We must also keep on urging our just claims, and bringing under the notice of our legislators the self-evident injustice with which we are afflicted, and the impolicy of their present suicidal course. Come what may, we will strive against an injustice by every lawful means ; and, by the courageous erection of schools of our own, we will preserve our children from the contagion of secular schools, confident that such a manly course must in the long run command the sympathy and support of every honest man, and finally win us the redreßS of a crying grievance. But be not content with good public education far your children in Catholic schools ; remember that home training is of still more vital importance. The effects of the beet school are often marred by a bad or indifferent home. Mothers and fathers, recognise your high duty, your holy vocation, your sublime mission. No teachers, however excellent, can exempt you from your own grave and direct obligations. You may be aided in the tuition of your offspring, bat never supplanted. The child's education begins in the mother's arms and at the parent's knee ; the impressions of a holy home are deep and lifelong. Parents, and particularly mothers, ought to watch with jealous eye the first opening of the infant mind, to deposit therein the seed of heavenly knowledge, the germs of the purest virtue. Plant the seed of Ood's word in the virgin soil, and, later on, a more experienced and sa?erd hand, that of the minister of God, will develop its growth. We exhort parents, in the name of their country, which expects them to rear up, not scourges of society, but honourable, lawabiding citizens ; in the name of God who has entrusted them with the care of the tenderest portion of the flock of Christ ; in the name of their own and t heir children's salvation, to provide for them at Iwme a healthy, moral, and religious education. "If anyone bave not care of bis own, and especially of those of his house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (Tim. v. 8.) Then they will be consoled in their declining years, and will leave to their posterity, not their name only, but their faith and virtue. We also exhort you to be generous in your contributions to Peter's Pence, and to the Seminary Fund. Lastly, pray for the conversion of sinners and unbelievers, that all may come to the knowledge of the truth and attain to salvation. Pray also for onr Holy Fai her the Pope and for the liberty and independence of the Church." The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of tlie Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen."— (Gal.xiii. 13). f Francis Redwood. Given at Wellington, February 8, 1887.

The following are the regulations for Lent, which we make in virtue of bpecial faculties received from the Holy See :—: — 1 st. We grant permission for the use of Flesh Meat at dinner only, on all Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursday, and a'so on all Saturdays except one, that is the second Saturday, during Lent. 2nd. Lard and dripping may be used after the manner of butter, at dinner on all days of fact and abstinence during Lent, and also throughout the year, with the exception of the first and last Wednesdays of Lent, and Good Friday. 3rd. White meats— such as bwtter, milk, cheese, and eggs, are allowed on all day at dinner and collation, with the exception of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. A little milk is always allowed in tea, coffee, or other beverage. 4th. For those who, though not bound to fast, are bound to abstain : The kinds of food which are allowed at their chief meal to those who are bound to fast, are allowed at all times to those who are not so bound. sth, Fish and flesh are not allowed at the same meal during Lent. There is neither fast nor abstinence on Sundays in Lent. All who have completed their 2lst year are bound to fast and abstain — unless excused by the state of their health or the nature of their employments — according to the regulations stated above ; and all who have arrived at the use of reason, though not bou»d to fast before the completion of their 2lßt year, are nevertheless bound to abstain from the use of flesh meat on the days appointed — unless exempted for a legitimate cause, of which the respective pastors are to be the judges. All who have arrived at the years of discretion are bound to go to Communion within Easter time, which, in this Diocese, commences on Ash Wednesday and ends on the octave of the Feaßt of St. Peter and St. Paul. The collection for our Holy Father will take place on Good Friday, or on any Sunday shortly afterwards which the pastor may deem more convenient. The collection for the Seminary Fund will be held on Witsunday, or on the Sunday or Sundays following, when there are two or more churches in the district. The clergy are requested to read this Pastoral from the several altars as soon as possible, and to cause a copy of it to be placed , during Lent, in a conspicuous place in their respective churches and chapels. f FbANCIS REDWOOD.

"Rough on Itch." — "Bough on Itch" cures skin humorseruptions, ringworm, tetter, salt rheum, frosted feet, chilblains, itch ivy poison, barber's itch,