with
respect, is accustomed to act, will easily persuade himself that there
is no necessity of going to confession, or fasting, or making the sign
of the cross, or performing works of mortification? Indeed, the
probability is that Catholics educated in such circumstances, if they do
not abandon their religion altogether, will be only lukewarm,
indifferent, or dangerous members of the Church.

And here let me direct your attention to another dangerous tendency of
godless education. In this system all religions, true or false, are
treated with equal respect; not only Anglicans and Presbyterians, but
Wesleyans and Plymouth Brothers, and the followers of every other small
and miserable sect that has started into existence in modern times, are
put on a footing of equality with the true Catholic Church, which traces
its origin back to its Divine Founder, has existed in every age, defied
the fury of persecution and the ravages of time, and numbers under its
sceptre two hundred millions of faithful children spread over the world.
And is not this to proclaim that there is no difference between light
and darkness, no preference to be given to Christ over Belial, to truth
over heresy, and error and infidelity? In a word, is not this to teach
indifference to religion, or, what is equivalent, that no religion is
necessary? What shall I now say of books so compiled as to meet the
exigencies of godless education? Have they not the same tendency to
promote ignorance of, or indifference to, religion? No religious
dogmatical teaching, no inculcation of pious practices, no mention of
the great and sublime mysteries of Catholicity can be admitted in them,
lest some things should be said offensive to any sect that sends
children to the school. This suppression of Catholic truth is most
detrimental to our poor Catholic children, many of whom never read any
books except those which they use in school, and learn nothing except
what they meet with in those books, or hear from their master. Is not
this a serious loss? Is it not a great evil for Catholics to be brought
up in ignorance, not only of the doctrines, but also of the history of
the Church to which they belong, and of the life and deeds of so many
Christian heroes whose virtues illustrated the world?

How far superior is the system of the Christian Brothers, and other
Catholic educational institutions! Their books make continual reference
to the mysteries of religion, they depict the