UNITED STATES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 4 January 1917, Page 53

UNITED STATES

VALUE OF CATHOLIC TEACHING. The superiority of Catholic schools over the public schools was demonstrated unexpectedly in Pittsburg on October 30. The occasion was the one hundredth anniversary of the city charter, and in honor of the event the Western Pennsylvania Historical Society offered eighteen prizes for the best essays in English on the history of the city, the competition being open' to the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of the elementary schools, and the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades in the junior high schools. Both public schools and Catholic schools competed, and to the amazement of the city authorities, when the prize lists were read out in Carnegie Hall on the evening of Monday, October 30, it was found that eight of the first nine names read were from Catholic schools. Catholic schools captured ten of the eighteen prizes. And this, too, in spite of the fact that the number of Catholic children competing was about one-third the number of public school children. That the victory is no empty one is evident from the fact that lecturers went about from school .to school in the public schools preparing the children for the contest. The board of award was composed almost entirely of non-Catholics, and in every way the achievement of the children in Catholic schools is a notable one, and proves that there is no reason at all for sending children to any other than Catholic schools for their entire education. UNIQUE CEREMONY. A ceremony unique in religious history in the United States, if not in the world, was performed a few weeks ago in the chapel of Nazareth Convent, the mother house of the Sisters of St. Joseph, La! Grange, Illinois. Mrs. Pauline Gosselin, a widowed lady of 74 years, entered the novitiate and received the holy habit of the Order from her daughter, Mother ; M. Alexine, who will now be her Superior. The ceremony of reception was performed by Archbishop Mundelein, to whom the venerable novice owes the privilege of entering the religious life. Mrs. Gosselin is the mother of thirteen children and has a host of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Two of her daughters are nuns, as are also two nieces, two grand-children, and three cousins. Two nephews were ordained priests and two , aunts are nuns.