The two great questions of marriage and education present themselves in a discussion of the relations which the Catholic sustains toward civil society, as elements of prime and indispensable importance. There can be no permanent Christian society, no civilized and enduring government, which are not perpetuated by Catholic marriage, elevated, instructed, and disciplined by Catholic education. The great civilizations which have arisen and flourished independently, vitalized by the tradition of primitive revelation, are wanting or have forfeited the characteristics of true civilization. Many have perished; others have reached their term, and the hour of their destruction is at hand. The ancient and most remarkable social, civil, and religious polity of India is withering under the remorseless touch of English rule, and China is destined to succumb to steam, machinery, railroads, and sewing-machines.
Nothing but the pure gold of Catholicity can withstand the material flame which burns brightest and hottest in the nineteenth century, and it may only survive stripped of every earthly and human quality, attribute, and advantage.
It is not in our power at this time to follow the line of reflection suggested by the great unchristian and anti-christian civilizations, the Indian, the Persian, the Chinese, and the Mohammedan; but we must confine ourselves to the proposition which their history, brilliant, startling, and splendid though it be, and, to superficial human views, does not in any degree invalidate, that true civilization rests for its foundation upon Catholic marriage and Catholic education.
In contradistinction from suffrage, which is an acquired privilege, marriage is a natural right. Its regulation and control belong exclusively to the church, and are particularly her care and prerogative under the supernatural order.
Marriage is the sacrament of nature, as well as one of grace, and the church insists upon her rightful control, because she depends upon this sacrament not only for perpetuity on earth, but for her eternal representation. She regulates the conditions of marriage and witnesses the contract in whose fulfilment she has such a vital interest, and she becomes the arbiter between the contracting parties in the subsequent stages of their career. She claims its offspring at their birth, and immediately impresses upon them the seal of her proprietorship in baptism; she accompanies them throughout their lives, and dismisses them with unction and benediction; she follows them into the unseen world, and does not relax her grasp till they attain their fruition and become in turn protectors and benefactors of the mother who has given them both natural and supernatural birth. Marriage is the crystal fountain on earth whence flows the perennial living stream which fertilizes and makes glad the plains of heaven.
The Catholic view, or Christian idea of marriage, implies by necessity the Catholic view of all the relations and obligations growing out of it: the education of the young, the custody of foundlings and orphans, and all measures of correction and reformation applicable to youthful offenders and disturbers of the peace of society.
The same view would consign to her care the permanent infants of society, the idiotic, those defective in important organs or senses, the insane, the criminal, the sick poor, and the helpless and wretched of every class. The church is capable, through her orders and congregations of men and women, of undertaking these trusts. There is in this work occupation for all who have not definite vocations, and for the aid and assistance of those who have. It is a species of labor which has never been efficiently and completely performed, and can only be accomplished by those who undertake it under the direction of religion from the motive of heroic and supernatural charity. No compensation, no hope of human reward or praise, can procure such service, tenderness, and succor as that which the unpaid and nameless religious bestows upon the poor and nameless cast-away, for the sake of the humanity of Christ.
The function of education is most closely connected with the authority claimed and exercised over marriage. The custodian of the tree has certainly the right to the fruit of the tree, and to protect it from wayfarers and robbers.
The control and prevention of poverty is an example of the profound science of political economy which is manifested by the church. No state can flourish where hopeless poverty becomes an institution.
A godless system of education, or, what is the same thing, an uncatholic system, is the more refined and elegant but not less certain method of modern times of offering our children to Moloch, and causing our sons to pass through the fire. The right which the church exerts over education does not in any manner impair or contravene the legitimate authority of parents; but, on the contrary, strengthens and supports it, since it is an assertion of the principle of authority and the final obligations toward God due from both parents and children. It asserts the rights of parents and the right which children have to Christian education. Every human creature born into the world has the inalienable right of knowing and obeying the truth, and seeking to attain its own eternal happiness.