of all, to Christ her God and to His holy religion. In the midst of a sensual and cynical age she honors as supernatural virtues what modern public opinion derides as superstitions, and, even if, through human weakness, the popular practice should fail, the popular feeling never swerves from the correct estimate of what is good. And in this is manifest the strength of Irish Faith; for, as St. Augustine concludes, "Few do these things; fewer still do them "well and wisely; but the people approve them, the people "listen for them, the people cherish them—nay, the people “love them; and with hearts uplifted to God, and glowing with the sparks of virtue, they bewail their own weakness "that hinders them from achieving so much." 1 From this lively Faith it comes that in Ireland such multitudes habitually flock to the Sacrament of Penance and of the Eucharist, and that in almost every parish, in the pious confraternities of the Holy Family, of the Sacred Heart, of the Blessed Virgin, or of St. Vincent de Paul, thousands are walking in the path of perfection. To this we owe the magnificent churches that are everywhere springing up throughout the land; the colleges and schools in which religion is united to learning; the convents, within which as in a closed garden, the consecrated virgins of Christ live but for their Heavenly spouse, for His little ones, and for His poor; the hospitals and asylums, in which the victims of every form of human suffering find loving and skilful hands to heal and to refresh them. This spirit of Faith in Irish hearts has become under Providence the foundation-stone of new and flourishing churches beyond the seas, in America and Australia, in Africa and India; and as in the early ages of our Church's history glorious bands of apostles went forth to evangelize the various countries of Europe, so now, obedient to the generous 1 St. Augustine, lib. de "Utilitate Credendi," c. 16, 17. impulses of the same spirit of Faith, the Irish missionary goes forth to gather together in the land of their exile the children of St. Patrick, to make of each new congregation a fresh centre for the propagation of Catholic truth. Blessed,1 then, for ever, be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. Would that this victory of our Faith were made complete by the return to Catholic unity of so many of our Protestant fellow-countrymen whom we now daily behold wandering as sheep without a shepherd. The disestablishment of the Protestant Church has removed one great obstacle that hindered their approach to the one fold; and it is our earnest desire that now, at length united with us, they would follow the one Bishop and Pastor of our souls. We would address them with the same affection, and in the same language as St. Augustine2 addressed the Donatists of his day, "Come, brothers! come, that you may be engrafted on the "true vine. You yourselves cannot but perceive what the "Catholic Church is, and what it is to be cut off from the "stem." See how beautiful our Catholic unity in doctrine, by which the Faith is preached without shadow of change, and with authority, in each cathedral and church; its creeds reverenced by the faithful; its teaching set high in our academies above the assaults of infidelity and the contradictory wranglings of so-called scientific theories. See how striking our Catholic unity in government, by which spiritual jurisdiction, issuing from Christ, flows in fair subordination through bishop and priest, so that each pastor knows his own flock, while his flock knows him and hears his voice. What a contrast between this blessed vision of peace within the Church and the scene of disorder and tumult that oppresses you outside! There, each pulpit is the centre of a different 1 Eph. i. 3. 2 St. Aug. Psal. Cont. partem Donati, Coll. 5. teaching, which, delivered without authority, is heard without submission; there, the deepest foundations of Christianity are uptorn, to be defaced or shaped anew, according to the capricious vote of an excited assembly, whose only claim to obedience is its own hostility to authority; there the flock strays at will from the shepherd to follow after strange masters whose own the sheep are not. "If then,” continues the Holy Doctor, "if there be among you any who "have care of themselves, let them arise, and come and draw "vigour from the Root. Let them come before it be too "late; before they lose the little Catholic sap that yet "remains to them, and become dry wood fit only for the fire. "Come, then, brothers, and be engrafted on the vine. It "grieves us to see you lying withered as you are, lopped from "off the tree of life. Reckon one by one the Pontiffs who "have sat in the chair of Peter. See how in due, unbroken "order these Fathers of the Catholic Church have followed "one after another; and there, not elsewhere, shall you find the rock which the proud gates of hell overcome not.”1 But, dearly beloved brethren, this inestimable treasure of your Faith is at present beset by grave dangers, against which it is our duty to warn you. Of these dangers the mixed system of Education-Higher, Intermediate, and Primary—which, with such obstinate persistence, it is sought to force on an unwilling country, is, unhappily, a fruitful source. Already, before the Synod of Thurles, our Holy Father Pope Pius IX. had given solemn warning. 66 1" Scitis Catholica quid sit, et quid sit praecisum a vite. Antequam nimis arescant, jam liberentur ab igne. Dolor est cum vos videmus ita jacere. Numerate Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa Petri sede. Et in ordine illo patrum quis cui successit videte. Ipsa est petra, quam non vincunt superbae inferorum portae.' 66 to the entire Church of peril approaching from this quarter. "You well know," he said, "that the modern enemies of religion and human society, with a most diabolical spirit, "direct all their artifices to pervert the minds and hearts of youth from their earliest years. Wherefore they leave "nothing untried; they shrink from no attempt to withdraw "schools and every institution destined for the education of "youth from the authority of the Church, and the vigilance "of her holy pastors." Within the twelve months that immediately preceded that Synod, the danger thus foretold was brought home to Ireland by the establishment of the Queen's Colleges. Such was the constitution of these Colleges, that the Holy See declared them to contain grave and intrinsic dangers to faith and morals; and that as such they were to be rejected and avoided by all faithful Catholics. More recently still, the constitution of Trinity College, Dublin, has undergone a fundamental change of such a nature that it, too, has become a great centre of Godless Education. Moreover, the dangers which thus beset Higher Education, exist also in the kindred institutions created to serve the purposes of Intermediate Education, and especially in the National Model and Training Schools. Nor are the Primary Schools exempt from them. The radical defects inherent in the mixed system to which these schools belong, have not grown less by time, nor has the practical working of them been such as to remove the feeling of distrust which they originally inspired. The Fathers of the Synod of Thurles, notwithstanding their avowed objections to the system of Irish National Education in itself, and their strong preference of Denominational Education, were not unwilling to continue the experiment already allowed in case of the Primary National 1 Encyclical Letter of Pius IX., 8th December, 1849. Schools, on condition that every fitting precaution should be employed to render them as little dangerous as possible. In carrying out these measures of precaution, we regret to say, Catholic managers have been frequently thwarted. The Board of Commissioners, with the constitution of which this Catholic nation has never had reason to be fully satisfied, has too often refused to take into account the repeated expression of the desires of Catholic parents, and the declarations of those whom these Catholic parents recognise as their spiritual guides. The control of the State over the education of the country has been enlarged in a degree perilous to liberty, while the circle within which the rights of parents or of conscience should have sway has been proportionately narrowed. Within the last twenty-five years much has been successfully done to guard against the dangers of these educational institutions, but much more remains to be done. In obedience to the decrees of the Sovereign Pontiff declaring the system of education, of which the Queen's Colleges were part, to be fraught with grievous and intrinsic perils, the Fathers of the Synod of Thurles warned you against these institutions with all the energy of their zeal and all the weight of their authority. Hardly had they communicated their decision to their flocks when, as a body, these Catholic people of Ireland turned away from the Godless places of education, peremptorily rejecting the proffered boon because it carried with it injury to religion. And although from time to time, a few Catholics have judged it to be their interest to grasp at the rich prizes held forth to entice students to enter these Colleges, yet, the official records show that these institutions have failed to attract any considerable number of Irish Catholics, for whose benefit they were ostensibly erected. Never before was so vast an expenditure of money and of powerful |