d. Our Canadian representatives signed this document. We
were granting then to the new Republic a sacred right which we still
refuse to our own at home, in the Province of Manitoba!

_VII.--A Religious Reason_

The creation of the state-school, necessarily undenominational in
character, has made the "separate school" an absolute necessity. If
religion has any meaning in life this reason of our separation should
be most convincing.

In education one cannot separate the utilitarian side,--the fitting of
the child for the struggle of life,--from its main purpose,--the
development of moral character. The moral aspect alone gives to human
life its true character, its real value. As there is no morality
without religion, the system of education that would debar this
essential feature falls short of its full meaning. With this principle
in view any fair-minded man will understand how true Christian parents
demand a school where their children will receive religious education.
They are in conscience bound to exact for their offspring such
education, and, where the State refuses them their own money to support
their "separate schools" they willingly penalize themselves to give
them this benefit. The child's eternal welfare is not to be sacrificed
to a school system that has not even accomplished the purpose for which
it was established. For, as we shall see, a neutral school is a
practical impossibility.

Those who fail to understand the pressing force of this viewpoint have
in our opinion lost the sense and sacredness of religion. They are
astonished at the bitterness that characterizes at times the conflict.
Are not religious and racial issues so intimately united with the very
conception of life that they hold to the most intimate fibres of the
human heart? For a Catholic, Religion is life itself in its most
sacred aspect.

But, our opponents will argue, in a country like Canada, where
"organized" religion--to speak their language--is so denominational,
religion in school is an impossibility. Is it because other
denominations cannot agree as to their religious tenets that we, who
count over one-third of the total population and who stand united in
our faith, are to surrender what we consider most essential in
education and--lest we forget it--most protective to the best interests
of our Country?

What does the State give us to replace the "separate school"? A
neutral, undenominational, irreligious school