The Catholic World, Vol. 15, Nos. 85-90, April 1872-September 1872: A Monthly MagazineVarious
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 15, Nos. 85-90, April 1872-September 1872: A Monthly Magazine
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
The general assembly was content with adopting a few resolutions,
embodying the simple principles which must guide Catholics,
should the state break with the church on the school question,
and, violating the natural and prescriptive rights of Catholics,
introduce a system of non-Catholic schools--principles not
sufficiently recognized by even well-meaning Catholics. These
resolutions are worded thus: “The monopoly of the school system by
the state is an unwarranted restriction of liberty of conscience,
and therefore to be opposed by all Catholics. Very many of the
schools have notoriously been founded by Catholics, and it is only
just that they should continue to accomplish those ends for which
they are established. In these schools, and in all Catholic schools
yet to be established, the Catholic Church must possess perfect and
unrestricted liberty in its capacity as a teacher.” Thus, while
the school question was not the most prominent before the general
assembly, the words spoken at that meeting will not, we hope, be
without beneficial results in the province of Catholic education.
All rights and liberties avail nothing in the end if Catholic
education itself is not what it ought to be. And the great battle
that is waging, that education may not be deprived of its Christian
character, can be won by us only on condition that teachers and
educators themselves, as well as parents and the clergy, understand
precisely the full bearing of the question.
It was, therefore, a happy thought to unite teachers, clergy, and
parents into one grand society, in order to further the great
matter of Christian education--a matter on which our whole future
for weal or woe depends. The association of teachers founded in
Bavaria, approved by the bishops, embracing among its members many
distinguished men, and directed by one evidently called by God to
fill that very position, Ludwig Aner, has sought and is seeking
to carry this thought into practice. The Catholic Congress held
at Düsseldorf had already called attention to the importance of
establishing similar societies elsewhere, only modified in their
character by the different nature of place or other circumstances.
The realization of this thought was a matter for the meeting at
Mayence to consider more closely yet. There was here assembled a
goodly number of educators and friends of youth from every part
of Germany, among them a number of the most widely known teachers
in the country; and they took occasion to most earnestly confer
on this matter each day of the meeting. They gave a general plan,
and threw out some very practical hints for the organization of
Catholic educational associations.
We give them here with the hope that they may prove as fertile
in blessings as did those thrown out on a former occasion, and
which resulted in the Society of St. Boniface, and in the Catholic
Association for Young Men, so often recommended by those meetings
since.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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