[G] By "An Act to restore to Roman Catholics in Upper Canada certain rights in respect to Separate Schools," passed May 5, 1863, they provided that "the Roman Catholic separate schools shall be entitled to a share in the fund annually granted by the legislature of the province for the support of common schools, and shall be entitled also to a share in all other public grants, investments, and allotments for common school purposes now made or hereafter to be made by the municipal authorities, according to the average number of pupils attending such school, as compared with the whole average number of pupils attending schools in the same city, town, village or township."—Cap. 5, sec. 20.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE CATHOLIC PRIEST ON THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.
So far I have spoken as an American citizen. I have shown to all my fellow-citizens the tree with its fruits—the Public School system in broad daylight. All who call themselves Christians, or who consider themselves men of common sense, and warm promoters of the happiness of their fellow-citizens, will agree with me in saying that the Public School system is a tree of which we must say what God said to Adam of the tree standing in the middle of paradise: "Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it thou shalt die the death."—(Gen ii. 17.) It is now time for me to speak as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. It is the duty of the Catholic priest to teach the children of the Catholic Church the language of their spiritual Mother—the Church. This language is no other than that of the Supreme Head of the Church—the Pope. Now the language of the Vicar of Christ in regard to godless education is very plain and unmistakable.
Jesus Christ, our Divine Saviour, has said: "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?"—(Matt. xvi. 26.) What will it profit you or your children to gain all knowledge, and to attain the greatest success in this world, if, through your fault, and through your exposing them to the danger of evil education, they suffer the loss of that faith, without which "it is impossible to please God"?—(Heb. xi.)
Teaching of the Syllabus.
Guided by this principle, our Holy Father, Pope Pius IX., has declared that Catholics cannot "approve of a system of educating youth unconnected with the Catholic Faith and the power of the Church, and which regards the knowledge of merely natural things, and only, or at least primarily, the ends of earthly social life."[H] Catholic parents cannot approve of an education which fits their children only for this life, and ignores that life in which the soul is to live forever. As faith is the foundation of all our hopes for eternity, and as faith without good works is dead, we cannot choose for our children an education which would endanger their faith and morals, and consequently imperil their eternal welfare.