ducation. This personal interest and solicitude
of the priest reacts upon the parents as well as upon the children.

A pastor, then, wishing to secure the salvation of the best part of the
flock of Jesus Christ, must do all in his power to establish good
Catholic schools, and oblige parents to send their children to them, and
not to Public Schools--to the grave of Catholicity. It is _then_, also,
and not till then, that we shall see more young people called to the
priesthood, and to such religious orders as devote themselves especially
to the education of youth. In Europe, the bishops and priests, together
with the laity, fight for the liberty of educating the children
according to Catholic principles and customs. In this country, our
religious liberty is as great as it possibly can be. Now not to profit
by this liberty, is for the shepherds of the flock of Jesus Christ to
incur the greatest guilt; it is to be like that ungodly Bishop of
Burgos, who, on being told by Las Casas that seven thousand children had
perished in three months, said: "Look you, what a queer fool! what is
this to me, and what is that to the King?" To which Las Casas replied:
"Is it nothing to your Lordship that all these souls should perish? Oh,
great and eternal God! And to whom, then, is it of any concern?"--(Life
of Las Casas, by Arthur Helps.)

To be destitute of ardent zeal for the spiritual welfare of children, is
to see, with indifferent eyes, the Blood of Jesus Christ trodden under
foot; it is to see the image and likeness of God lie in the mire, and
not care for it; it is to despise the Blessed Trinity; the Father, who
created them; the Son, who redeemed them; the Holy Ghost, who sanctified
them; it is to belong to that class of shepherds, of whom the Lord
commanded Ezekiel to prophesy as follows: "Son of man, prophesy
concerning the shepherds of Israel: prophesy and say to the shepherds:
Thus saith the Lord God: Wo to the shepherds of Israel.... My flock you
did not feed. The weak you have not strengthened; and that which was
sick, you have not healed: that which was broken, you have not bound up;
and that which was driven away, you have not brought again; neither have
you sought that which was lost:... and My sheep were scattered, because
there was no shepherd: and they became the prey of all the beasts of the
field, and were scattered. My sheep have wandered in every mountain,
and in every high hill: and there was none, I say, that sou