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PERTH, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, MI
SIXTY-METH YEAR.
Annual (Diocesan Teachers' Conference Problems of the Catholic School Examined of the answers is a proof of the
fact
that not all of us are satisfied. This The Development of Parish Spirit through conference of teachers justified only is
Catholic Action in the School The Conference commenced with Mass in St. Mary's Cathedral, celebrated by His Grace the Archbishop, assisted by Rev. Father McGillicuddy. Rev. Fathers Perrott, S.J., and Collins were present in the Sanctuary. Alter Mass the clergy and teachers assembled in the hall of the Teachers' Training College, where His Grace formally opened the Conference.
Outstanding features of the three-day discussions were the inaugural address by the Diocesan Director of Education, Very Rev. J. T. McMahon, M.A., D.Pb, H.Dip.Ed.; the annual report by the Diocesan Inspector of Schools, Rev. Father J. Murphy, B.A., L.Ph.; and the dramatisations by Primary School children of the Mass, preparation for first Holy Communion, Bible History stories, and the Last Supper. The final session devoted two hours to an open forum on the difficult but vital problem of Catholic Action within the school years. The subject was discussed from many angles and several practical recommendations suggested and resolutions carried. Rev. Dr. McMahon opened the proceedings by an address in which he outlined the relations of Catholic Action in the schools to the development of a healthy parish spirit. Dr. McMahon
said:-
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PARISH SPIRIT. England Questions Her Education. The value of the education Great Britain has been giving her children is the subject of keen and widespread discussions since the war began. The old confidence in the State secular school has been badly shaken. In spite of the enormous expenditure of money on educational work, thoughtful people admit that they have not been travelling on the road to efficiency and character formation. The "Times," in its editorial on February 17, 1940, gave voice to the uneasy stirring of the public mind that the fundamentals of popular education demand reconsideration. Recognising the lack of moral discipline and the absence of personal responsibilityamong the young people in training for war, the editorial pleaded for a recasting of the State scheme of education to make room for religion within the daily curriculum. On this point the editorial is bluntly outspoken: "The highest of all knowledge must be given frankly the highest of all places in the training of young citizens.
It will be little use to fight, as we are fighting to -day, for the preservation of Christian principles if Christianity itself is to have no future, or at immense cost to safeguard religion against attack from without if we allow it to be starved by neglect from within." One important result of that leader has been the conference of both Houses of Parliament, who have submitted to the Prime Minister a five -point programme for the Christianising of education in Britain. Seventy-two Peers and 152 members of the House of Lords signed the proposal. In it the Government is asked to make it possible for every school to have teachers able and willing to give religious instruction and to sunervise religious exercises while maintaining freedom of conscience for teachers, parents and children. Religious Doctrine is to be an optional subject in training colleges. A religious service is to be held in every school each day. Text books on religion are to be set, and State inspectors will have power to inspect religious education in the schools. Are Our Youth Prepared for Camp Life? I mention this important admission of the need of religion within the school, because I want all of us, priests and religious teachers, to ask ourselves: "Are we satisfied with our own schools?" Far more in proportion to our resources than the general community, have we spent ourselves and been spent in the cause of religious education. Our young men, some fresh from College, others not many years away, have entered the camps in training for war. Our young women have, with equal devotion, joined the various organisations. How has the training of our schools met the challenge of camp life up to the present? Are we satisfied with the results? Are we getting an adequate return for our sacrifices?
I know that there are many answers to these questions. The very variety
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by the belief that improvements are possible, and may be made actual, by suggestion and discussion. In a country where all classes of citizens are thrown into such close contact as in Australia, there is no movement of thought that affects one class that does not also affect all other classes. Consequently our discussion of those questions during this conference is a work of national importance, deserving our undivided atention. The Goal of Our Efforts. Parents and teachers have differed, and will continue to differ on many educational principles, but all, with one accord, proclaim character formation as the ideal product of the schools. Unfortunately, all parents and teachers do not recognise and obey another principle of vital importance, namely, that character is built from within. As teachers we stand by, watching and guiding, as a wise old gardener nurses his shrubs to bloom and blossom. External pressure avails as little with the growing child as it does with the growing plant. Both child and plant submit externally, but their insides revolt. The temple of mind and character can be built only by the inward dweller. How can we assist? I have endeavoured to answer that question with two books. The first asks of all religious teachers that they think to teach if they would help youth to build from within the temple of mind. The book is appropriately called "Teaching to Think in Religion." The second is an attempt to translate into classroom practice the principles of the school of asceticism, insisting that the foundation of character is set in the difficult cement of self-discipline and self-denial. Above all it aims at the development of the quality of inwardness. The second book is called: "Building Character From Within." Is the Parochial Spirit Desirable? In this year's conference we are asking the teachers to face the problem of developing a parish consciousness among the children, particularly among those who go out of their parish to College or Convent High School. The word "parish" is simply the Greek for neighbourhood, and it means a defined piece of territory around the parish church and school. Unfortunately the name smacks somewhat of inferiority. A "parochial spirit," for instance, is not considered a desirable state of mind. The taint of the word
passes into the thing. We have seen societies of the Catholic laity begun with great promise, but gradually fading away, poisoned from within through hyper -criticism. Such societies persuade themselves that one of the reasons of their existence is to correct the evils of parochialism. They view with polite condescension both pastor and parish as necessary nuisances, to be tolerated only because the wisdom of Holy Church has not found a way to improve them out of existence. I am human enough, however, to enjoy the spectacle of those same societies, when the tinsel has tarnished, and the enthusiasm has paled, edging up to some parish in the hope of checking their pernicious anaemia by the transfusion of healthy, if parochial, blood. Why is the Parish so Important? 1. Because it is the family unit of the Church, bearing the same relation to the diocese that the diocese bears to the Universal Church. 2. Because within the parish church all social barriers cease, and all parishioners are equal before God as they kneel at the altar rails. Class distiitions and their evil fruit of snobbery avail little here below, and nothing hereafter. The parish is the common ground where the pupils of College and High School meet the pupils of the parish schools as equals. 3. Because Catholic Action, if it is to attain anything, must mean action within the parish. 4. Because the parish is to the Catholic College and High School what the front line is to the army camp. In action the training is tested, and whatever weaknesses are uncovered by the stark realities of the battle ground, these must be corrected and strengthened. Not to bring the lesson of experience, won so hard in actual warfare, to bear upon the future training of soldiers in camp would be foolishness unthinkable. Similarly in the parish life, whose church and school may be humble buildings, and whose pastor and flock may be simple and prosaic, the College and High School are tested and tried. Their highest ambition must ever he that their product may win the title of good parishioners. You religious, men and women, called to the high vocation of Catholic teaching, watch well the parish, and listen patiently to the comments of the pastors, and you will learn much that you can apply to the children now under your charge. The Parish is the Ultimate Unit. Within the parish the pastor is the teacher of the Catholic Faith. This duty he fulfills by preaching by word of mouth from the pulpit, by the recurring round of feast and season, by (Continued on Back Cover.)
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