Public School Education

by Michael Müller

And after all, the principal object for getting up Catholic schools is not to show off their superiority to, or their equality with, infidel schools—this is not even a secondary end—we want Catholic schools to preserve our Catholic religion, our Catholic traditions, our Catholic spirit and morals; we want them to raise in them children for heaven, not for hell; children for God, not for the devil; children for a happy eternity, not for everlasting damnation. That's all. Hence Jesus Christ, on the Day of Judgment, will not ask parents and pastors of souls whether their schools could compete with infidel schools, but whether they did all in their power to secure the eternal welfare of their children by a good Catholic education.

Father John de Starchia, Provincial of the Friars Minor, made regulations more favorable to worldly science than to the spirit of piety and religion, attaching, as he did, more importance to the education of the mind than to that of the heart. St. Francis of Assisium upbraided him for it, but in vain. So the great servant of God cursed the Provincial, and deposed him at the ensuing chapter. The saint was entreated, by some of his brethren in religion, to withdraw this curse from the Provincial, a learned noble man, and to give him his blessing. But neither the learning nor the noble extraction of the Provincial could prevail upon St. Francis to comply with their request. "I cannot," said he, "bless him whom the Lord has cursed"—a dreadful reply, which soon after was verified. This unfortunate man died exclaiming: "I am damned and cursed for all eternity!" Some frightful circumstances which followed after his death, confirmed his awful prediction. (Life of St. Francis of Assisium.) Such a malediction should strike terror into the hearts of all those who attach more importance to the cultivation of the mind than to that of the heart, and on that account prefer godless Public Schools to Catholic schools.

Again, one may object: "The religious development does not necessarily suppose a literary development too. A person may be illiterate, and yet learned in the science of the saints, and a man may be learned in science, and ignorant of his duty towards God and his fellow-creatures. There were, are, and will be members of the Catholic Church, who, ignorant of science, of book-learning, did not become infidels, but exhibited a practical faith throughout life, and died in the odor of sanctity. Divine faith does not require as a companion, in the individual Catholic, a knowledge of profane literature, but humility, compunction, self-denial, and a contempt of the world. Schools are therefore not absolutely necessary for our children."

As far as the little profit is concerned that mere book-learning does towards enabling the masses of mankind to accomplish the great end of their being—the salvation of their souls—I am disposed to go all lengths with him in this. But he and I must both acknowledge that the whole current of Catholic influence and practice has set in favor of book-learning and of schools. The Popes have been constant in this line, and Catholic Bishops have acted in the same direction.

But grant that school learning is of little account. Something even harder is said of riches. There is no woe on those that spend their time on book-learning; there is a "woe to them that are rich"! Nevertheless, Catholics, as others, strive to acquire wealth. So that they do it honestly, the Catholic Church does not condemn it. Book education, like riches, is a means of advancement in the world. The instructed are, on the whole, of greater consideration than the uninstructed. The business of the Catholic Church is to see that this source of power is not turned to the destruction of those that acquire it.

Besides, I fully agree that, as a universal proposition, school-learning, or book-learning, is not necessary to the salvation of souls—which is the great end of human life. So far, the objection is correct in saying that Catholic schools are not, as a universal proposition, necessary for Catholics.

But, in hac providentia; in a condition in which Catholics, like others, are striving that their children may obtain the mastery, book-learning is, like money, a grand element of strength and of consideration. This is what those in care of souls must look to. Book-learning and wealth are neither of them against faith. They are simple elements of power—physical paraphernalia. The great thing is, how they may be used!

Again mark! I do not say that it is of strict obligation for Catholics to send their children to any school. For the comparatively few that have at once the means and the disposition, I hold that there is no education like that received under the parental roof. There is the true home of sturdy independence in men, and of affectionate and chaste devotion in women. Moreover, it is a great good fortune for conscientious parents, with growing childhood around them, to have the charge and responsibility of these children. It is education for parents as well as children. It brings the strong element of parental affection, in aid of all other motives for living a good life, as an example to beloved young ones. We mourn that Catholics, at least, so seldom, when they have the means, make their own houses the schools for their own children. But this can be done by few, comparatively. Nor can select and private schools, with few scholars, and those picked ones, be had. As a matter of fact, the children of most Catholics must receive whatever school instruction they get, in large and general schools.

God may, by a miracle, preserve the faith in a whole nation, as He really did in the Irish, because they were forbidden to use the ordinary means whereby Catholics bring up their offspring in the faith. But, when Irish men and women come to this country, where there is no prohibition of their having Catholic schools, and having their children educated in them, it is, as I have said, a rash defiance of the ordinary laws of God's Providence, to neglect the daily and systematic training of the intellects of their children in conformity with Catholic discipline.

There are some who say "they pay taxes, and they, of course, would like to profit as well as others by their contribution to the school fund." It is nothing but right that they should; but they cannot, and ought not, to do so upon the conditions imposed on them. The Christians of the first centuries paid taxes to the Roman Empire, for they had been taught by their Divine Master to render unto Cæsar what belonged to Cæsar; but rather than refuse to render to God what belonged to God, rather than give up their faith, or expose themselves to the danger of losing it, they went to the lions.