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GIFT OF 
 Rev. Ralph Hunt 
 
Teaching of Religion 
 
 By REV. P. C. YORKE, D. D. 
 
 AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL 
 CONVENTION OF THE CATHOLIC EDUCA- 
 TIONAL ASSOCIATION, AT SAN FRANCISCO, 
 CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1918. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO: 
 
 THE TEXT BOOK PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 675 Stevenson Street 
 
 1918 
 
Teaching of Religion 
 
 By REV. P. C. YORKE, D. D. 
 
 /I 
 
 AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL 
 CONVENTION OF THE CATHOLIC EDUCA- 
 TIONAL ASSOCIATION, AT SAN FRANCISCO, 
 CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1918. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO: 
 
 THE TEXT BOOK PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 675 Stevenson Street 
 
 1918 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress 
 
 In the year 1918 
 
 By P. C. YORKE 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 57 
 
Imprimatur 
 
 * ED. J. HANNA, D. D. 
 
 Metrop., S. F., Cal. 
 
Teaching of Religion 
 
 By REV. P. C. YORKE, D. D. 
 
 AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL 
 CONVENTION OF THE CATHOLIC EDUCA- 
 TIONAL ASSOCIATION, AT SAN FRANCISCO, 
 CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1918. 
 
 IN our Church legislation concerning 
 Catholic schools the chief reason given 
 for their necessity is our duty to safe- 
 guard the faith and morals of the children. 
 In this country and in our day there is an- 
 other and a positive reason for the establish- 
 ment of Catholic schools, namely, that with- 
 out such schools we cannot teach religion at 
 all. Hence, putting aside the intrinsic value 
 of religion as the greatest thing in the world, 
 and looking on the matter from the purely 
 scholastic standpoint, the teaching of reli- 
 gion is the most important function of the 
 Catholic school. Any Catholic school that 
 does not give to the teaching of religion at 
 least the same care, the same skill and the 
 
 797980 
 

 Importance of Religious Teaching. 
 
 same efficiency that it gives to other subjects, 
 is like the fig tree the Lord cursed, not only 
 because it bears no fruit, but because its 
 very verdure is a snare to the parents that 
 trust it, and a fraud on the Church that 
 maintains it. 
 
 Therefore, in taking up the subject of the 
 "Teaching of Religion," I am deeply con- 
 scious of its importance on the one side, and 
 on the other I realize my personal limita- 
 tions in giving it adequate treatment. Many 
 large books have been written on the sub- 
 ject, and more and larger books might well 
 be written. I do not pretend to the peda- 
 gogical equipment necessary to produce 
 such works, and, besides, on an occasion like 
 this, a paper is limited both by the patience 
 of the audience and the time at our dis- 
 posal. For those reasons and others, I will 
 confine myself to a plain, untechnical con- 
 sideration of the problem as viewed by one 
 who has no theories to propound and no par- 
 ticular methods to advocate, but is chiefly 
 interested in the aim that the children under 
 his care are taught religion, and are taught 
 it as well as it should be taught 
 6 
 
Teaching of Religion in Higher Schools. 
 
 I do not intend to discuss here the teach- 
 ing of religion in High Schools and Uni- 
 versities. High School methods and Uni- 
 versity methods are entirely different from 
 primary methods. The New Code of 
 Church Discipline says in Canon 1373: 
 "Juventus quae medias vel superlores 
 scholas frequentat, pleniore religlonis doc- 
 trina excolatur, et locorum Ordinarli cureni 
 ut id fiat per sac er dotes zelo et doctrina 
 praestantes.' f That is to say, "The young 
 people who attend High Schools and Uni- 
 versities shall receive fuller religious in- 
 struction, and the local Bishops shall see to 
 it that such instruction is imparted by priests 
 who are distinguished by their zeal and 
 learning." The question of teaching reli- 
 gion, therefore, in High Schools and Uni- 
 versities is beyond the scope of this paper, 
 and may be safely left to the departments of 
 Pedagogy, which, in accordance with the 
 decrees of the Third Plenary Council of 
 Baltimore, are established in our ecclesiasti- 
 cal seminaries. 
 
 Neither will I inject myself into the con- 
 troversy about the place and function of the 
 7 
 
The Scope of the Paper. 
 
 Seventh and Eighth Grades in our Ameri- 
 can schools. Your own experience shows 
 you that the vast majority of our children 
 are content with six grades schooling, even 
 if they go as far. The children who 
 remain for the Seventh and Eighth Grades 
 usually have the intention of passing into a 
 High School of some sort. Therefore, the 
 character of the instruction to be given them 
 in religion, as in other subjects, should be 
 conformed to the changing capabilities of 
 the adolescent mind. Hence, it will make 
 for clearness if I circumscribe the object of 
 this paper still more closely and confine it 
 to the teaching of religion in the elementary 
 grades, or, as we used to say in old times, 
 to the preparation of the children for the 
 Sacraments. 
 
 With this purpose in view, let us now con- 
 sider briefly: 
 
 I. What must we teach the children? 
 
 II. How should we teach it to them? 
 
 III. What are the chief aids or instru- 
 ments at our disposal in teaching? 
 
What Must We Teach the Children? 
 
 I. 
 
 In the first place, it is not very difficult 
 to discover how much religious instruc- 
 tion the Church wishes us to impart to the 
 children at this stage of their education.The 
 theologians give us the minimum require- 
 ments when they explain the material object 
 of faith and enumerate the truths we are 
 bound to know and believe. Then the eccle- 
 siastical authorities have put forth certain 
 manuals commonly called Catechisms, and 
 require a knowledge of the Christian Doc- 
 trine contained therein. These Catechisms, 
 therefore, contain what we may call the 
 average amount the average child should 
 be supposed to know. 
 
 The great Jesuit theologian, Lehmkuhl, 
 in his "Moral Theology," numbers 276 to 
 284, treats of the necessity of faith as far as 
 concerns the objects to be believed. I will 
 make a summary of his teaching, so that we 
 may have before our eyes the very skeleton, 
 as it were, of Christian instruction. He is, 
 of course, writing not a school program, but 
 is laying down practical rules for the guid- 
 9 
 
The Material Object of Faith. 
 
 ance of confessors who must be satisfied in 
 dealing with uneducated penitents if they 
 can get the irreducible minimum. 
 
 He first calls attention to the fact that 
 there are certain truths which we must know 
 and believe if we are to have any faith at 
 all, such as, for instance, the existence of 
 God. These truths, and how far they ex- 
 tend, do not concern us, because they are 
 covered by the second class of truths which 
 we must know and believe, because we are 
 so commanded by Christ and His Church. 
 These truths are grouped round the vener- 
 able ecclesiastical formulae known as the 
 Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten 
 Commandments and the Seven Sacraments. 
 He says that there is a grave obligation, that 
 is to say, an obligation binding under pen- 
 alty of mortal sin, to know the substance of 
 the things contained in the Apostles' Creed, 
 the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Command- 
 ments. He doubts if there is a grave obli- 
 gation to know the Our Father by heart. 
 He asserts that to know the Creed by heart 
 binds under pain of venial sin. The same 
 holds of the Ten Commandments, but with 
 
 10 
 
The Apostles' Creed. 
 
 even a lighter sanction. As to the Sacra- 
 ments, we are strictly bound to know those 
 whose reception is necessary, such as Pen- 
 ance, Holy Eucharist, and, in certain cases, 
 Baptism. As to the others, we should learn 
 about them when we come to receive them. 
 Lehmkuhl then develops those statements 
 in more detail, taking up the Apostles' 
 Creed article by article. 
 
 FIRST ARTICLE. I believe in God. We 
 must believe explicitly that there is one 
 God, and that in this God there are three 
 persons, each of whom is God. That there 
 are not three gods, but only one God. That 
 the three persons are called the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The Father Almighty, Creator of heaven 
 and earth. We must explicitly believe in 
 the creation of all things, and consequently 
 in the omnipotence of God. 
 
 SECOND ARTICLE. And in Jesus Christ, 
 His only Son, our Lord. We must believe 
 explicitly that Jesus Christ is both God and 
 Man. As God He is equal to His Father 
 in all things. He is only one person, but 
 ii 
 
The Apostles' Creed. 
 
 belief in this point is sufficiently assured as 
 long as the Nestorian heresy is not held. 
 
 THIRD ARTICLE. Who was conceived by 
 the Holy Ghost. The miraculous concep- 
 tion is certainly to be held explicitly, but 
 whether under pain of mortal sin is doubt- 
 ful. 
 
 Born of the Virgin Mary. The perpet- 
 ual virginity of the B. V. Mary is also to 
 be believed explicitly, but the gravity of the 
 obligation is doubtful. 
 
 FOURTH ARTICLE. Suffered under Pon- 
 tius Pilate, crucified dead and buried. 
 We must know, under penalty of mortal 
 sin, both the fact of our Saviour's death 
 and the manner in which it happened, 
 namely, by crucifixion. As to Pontius 
 Pilate, there is no reason to trouble the 
 consciences of uneducated persons if they 
 are not acquainted with this circumstance. 
 To know the fact of the burial does not 
 bind sub gravi; as they say, that is under 
 pain of mortal sin. 
 
 FIFTH ARTICLE. He descended into hell. 
 The same may be said of this circumstance 
 as of the burial. 
 
 12 
 
The Apostles' Creed. 
 
 The third day He rose again from the 
 dead. We must explicitly believe in the 
 resurrection under penalty of mortal sin, 
 but the circumstance of time, namely, that 
 He rose the third day is not of the same 
 gravity. 
 
 SIXTH ARTICLE. He ascended into 
 heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the 
 Father Almighty. It is sufficient for the 
 uneducated to believe that Christ reigns in 
 heaven with a glory proper to Him as the 
 God-Man. 
 
 SEVENTH ARTICLE. From thence he 
 
 shall come to judge the living and the dead. 
 There is a grave obligation to know that 
 Christ will hold the general judgment. 
 What is understood by "the living and the 
 dead" is harder to define explicitly. 
 
 EIGHTH ARTICLE. / believe in the Holy 
 Ghost. This dogma is covered by the First 
 Article. 
 
 NINTH ARTICLE. The Holy Catholic 
 Church. We are strictly bound to know the 
 necessity of remaining in the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 13 
 
The Ten Commandments. 
 
 The Communion of Saints. We should 
 know in a general way that the faithful 
 form one body. There is a venial obliga- 
 tion to know that we can be helped by the 
 saints in heaven, and that we can help the 
 souls in Purgatory. 
 
 TENTH ARTICLE. The forgiveness of 
 sins. There is a grave obligation to know 
 how we can obtain forgiveness of sins in the 
 Church through Baptism or Penance re- 
 ceived either actually or by desire. 
 
 ELEVENTH ARTICLE. The resurrection 
 of the body. We must explicitly believe 
 sub gravi that the dead rise again. 
 
 TWELFTH ARTICLE. And the life ever- 
 lasting. We must believe explicitly, under 
 penalty of mortal sin, that there is an ever- 
 lasting reward for the good in supernatural 
 blessedness, and that there is an endless 
 punishment for the wicked. 
 
 In the same manner we should know 
 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and believe 
 in them, so that, if asked, we should be 
 able to tell what things are commanded 
 and forbidden by them. This does not hold 
 14 
 
The Lord's Prayer and the Sacraments. 
 
 as to the more remote conclusions to be 
 drawn from the Decalogue, but only of 
 those precepts that are formally mentioned 
 therein or may be easily deduced therefrom. 
 We are also bound to know the common 
 PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 As to the LORD'S PRAYER, writers com- 
 monly acknowledge that there is some 
 kind of an obligation to know it by heart. 
 The faithful also should be able to elicit 
 acts of faith, hope, charity and contrition, 
 though there is no strict obligation to have a 
 set form of words .It is also becoming to 
 add the Hail Mary to the Our Father, 
 though it is not certain that it is a venial sin 
 not to have it committed to memory, unless 
 indeed such want of knowledge arises from 
 criminal carelessness. 
 
 With regard to THE SACRAMENTS: we 
 should know the Sacrament of Penance, 
 both as a matter of precept and as a means 
 for restoring grace. 
 
 We should know about the real presence 
 of our Lord in the Eucharist, and that it is 
 also a sacrifice by assisting at which we ful- 
 fill the divine and ecclesiastical law. 
 15 
 
The Old Classic Catechisms. 
 
 This is, as I have said before, the very 
 skeleton and anatomy of Christian Doc- 
 trine, and if we wish to find what Church 
 authority requires of the average child we 
 must go to the Catechisms. 
 
 The old classic Catechisms written in the 
 English language fall into two families. 
 One family opens with the question, "Who 
 made you?" the other opens with the ques- 
 tion, "Who made the world?" The chief 
 representatives of the first family are the 
 Catechism, said to have been prepared by 
 order of the First Plenary Council of Bal- 
 timore, and the Catechism in use in Great 
 Britain. The chief representatives of the 
 second class are Butler's Catechism, the 
 Maynooth Catechism and the so-called Bal- 
 timore Catechism. The Catechisms of the 
 first type contain about 370 questions, while 
 the Catechisms of the second type contain 
 over 420. Many of these questions, how- 
 ever are merely rhetorical, introducing or 
 closing a subject, while others are just liga- 
 ture or liaison questions used in passing 
 from one subject to another. 
 
 The chief characteristic of the first type is 
 16 
 
Fall Into Two Categories. 
 
 that the doctrine is pinned on, so to speak, 
 to the formulae. We have first Faith 
 treated under the twelve articles of the 
 Apostles' Creed. Then we have Hope 
 heading an explanation of the Our Father 
 and Hail Mary. The third part is sched- 
 uled under Charity, and deals with the 
 Commandments and Precepts. Then fol- 
 lows the doctrine on the Sacraments, and 
 the Catechism closes with a summary of the 
 Virtues and Vices, the Christian's Daily 
 Exercise and a Rule of Life. 
 
 In the second class of Catechisms the 
 teaching follows much the same line, but 
 it is divorced from the Articles of the 
 Apostles' Creed. This divorce is most evi- 
 dent in the Baltimore Catechism, which 
 also inserts the doctrine on the Sacraments 
 before the Ten Commandments and entirely 
 eliminates the exposition of the Our Father. 
 
 To sum up, therefore, the answer to our 
 first question, What must we teach the chil- 
 dren? we may use the words of the Encyli- 
 cal of Pius X on the teaching of Christian 
 Doctrine : "As the things divinely revealed 
 are so many and so various that it is no easy 
 17 
 
The Summary of Pope Pius X. 
 
 task either to acquire a knowledge of them, 
 or to retain them in memory, our prede- 
 cessors have very wisely reduced the pith 
 and marrow of this saving doctrine to 
 four distinct heads: The Apostles' Creed, 
 the Sacraments, the Ten Commandments 
 and the Lord's Prayer. In the doctrine of 
 the Creed are contained all things which 
 are to be held according to the discipline of 
 the Christian Faith, whether they regard 
 the knowledge of God, or the creation and 
 government of the world, or the redemp- 
 tion of the human race, or the rewards of 
 the good and the punishments of the wicked. 
 The doctrine of the Seven Sacraments com- 
 prehends the signs, and, as it were, the in- 
 struments for obtaining divine grace. In 
 the Decalogue is laid down whatever has 
 reference to the Law the end whereof is 
 charity. Finally, in the Lord's Prayer is 
 contained whatever can be desired, hoped or 
 salutarily prayed for by men. It follows 
 that these four commonplaces, as it were, 
 of Sacred Scripture being explained, there 
 can scarcely be wanting anything to be 
 learned by a Christian man." 
 18 
 
How Should We Teach the Children? 
 
 II. 
 
 Having thus gained from the moral theo- 
 logians, the Catechisms and the Pope a 
 general idea of the amount of Christian 
 Doctrine the average child is supposed to 
 learn, let us now pass to the second question 
 and consider how that knowledge is to be 
 imparted. 
 
 Here it will be useful to call to our minds 
 the reason why we are instructing the chil- 
 dren in Christian Doctrine. Certainly all 
 will agree that it is not merely to give them 
 an acquaintance with a set of speculative 
 truths. Our end is to fit them to live real 
 Christian lives and save their souls. Even 
 religious knowledge alone will not save 
 them, nor yet faith alone. The Apostle 
 says: "The devils believe and tremble." 
 Religion is not only a truth, but it is a way 
 and a life. From the very beginning of 
 their school days, we must take care that 
 the children are living their religion. 
 
 According to the best pedagogical prac- 
 tice, the children learn by doing. Good con- 
 duct must be established, the Sacraments 
 must be frequented, Mass must be attended, 
 19 
 
Importance of Good Example. 
 
 prayers must be said regularly, and, accord- 
 ing to their age, all those habits or practices 
 must be inculcated that in after years will 
 be the mainstay of an upright life. Above 
 all, we must remember that the fear of the 
 Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that, 
 while there are many dangers in trying to 
 make children devout, there is no danger 
 especially amongst us in trying to make 
 them reverent. 
 
 In his letter to the convention of this As- 
 sociation held at Detroit, Pope Piux X said: 
 "To one principal and supreme point we 
 would call your attention as you meet in 
 your annual convention to discuss the per- 
 fecting of Christian training. Each of you 
 should be persuaded that he renders to this 
 enterprise a real service only in so far as he 
 imitates Christ, who, when about to deliver 
 to the world His heavenly doctrine, 'began 
 to do and to teach.' Hence it is by personal 
 example, no less than by other social agen- 
 cies, that each one of you should further the 
 cause of Catholic education. Example, in- 
 deed, is mighty to persuade, nor is there any 
 better means of moving mankind to the 
 
 20 
 
The System of the Catechesis. 
 
 practice of virtue. Quite particularly is 
 this true in the education of children who 
 are all the readier to imitate what they be- 
 hold in proportion as their judgment is 
 weak." 
 
 It is a pleasant thing to be able to boast 
 that in the matter of these recommendations 
 of Pius X our American tradition is excel- 
 lent. No matter how we may have been 
 criticised for other things, every one admits 
 the splendid example of our religious teach- 
 ers, and even outsiders recognize in the very 
 manners of our school children the refining 
 influence exercised, especially by the Sisters 
 on the pupils they are instructing unto jus- 
 tice. 
 
 Coming now to the task of informing 
 the child's intellect with the necessary 
 truths, we find that in this matter, as in so 
 many others, the Church has her own 
 method. It would indeed be strange if an 
 organization sent out by divine authority to 
 make disciples of all the nations had not 
 developed a system of teaching in her long 
 history. That system is known as the Cate- 
 chesis. Like so many other things, it was 
 
 21 
 
The Catechesis in St. Luke. 
 
 taken over from the synagogue and brought 
 to a high pitch of efficiency in the Cate- 
 chumenate. It survived all the disasters of 
 the downfall of civilization, and, though 
 since the invention of printing, it has suf- 
 fered a comparative decline, the ecclesiasti- 
 cal authorities have never ceased urging it 
 as the proper method of instruction in 
 Christian Doctrine, not only for children, 
 but also for adults, and the New Code of 
 Canon Law declares that it is the peculiar 
 and most weighty office of the pastors of 
 souls to provide for the catechetical instruc- 
 tion of the Christian people (No. 1329). 
 
 The word Catechesis comes from the 
 Greek, and meant originally to teach orally 
 or by word of mouth. Essentially it con- 
 sists of three elements oral instruction, 
 questions put by the teacher, questions put 
 by the pupil. There is a perfect example 
 of Catechesis in the finding of our Lord in 
 the temple. St. Luke tells us that He was 
 sitting in the midst of the teachers hearing 
 them and asking them questions, and that 
 all were astonished at His wisdom and His 
 answers. Here you have the three elements 
 
 22 
 
How It Differs from the Socratic Method. 
 
 first, the exposition by the teachers; sec- 
 ond, the answer by the pupil, and, third, the 
 pupil's questions put to the teachers. 
 
 I should like here to guard you against 
 confounding the Catechesis with what is 
 known as the Socratic method. In the Cate- 
 chesis the emphasis is laid on the instruc- 
 tion; in the Socratic method the emphasis 
 is laid on the question. The object of Socra- 
 tes was so to order his interrogations that 
 facts and principles already in the mind of 
 his disciple should lead of themselves to the 
 conclusion he wished to draw forth. But 
 in revealed religion all the Socratic ques- 
 tions in the world could not extract from 
 the human intellect the doctrine of the Trin- 
 ity, for instance, or the fact of the Incarna- 
 tion. Such truths must be taught to the 
 hearer and taught with authority. There 
 are, it is true, doctrines written on the 
 fleshly tablets of our hearts that may in a 
 way be reached by the Socratic method, but 
 even in the case of such doctrines we need 
 the authority of revelation to establish them 
 so that they may be known adequately, de- 
 cisively and without the aberrations that 
 23 
 
Catechesis the Method of Authority. 
 
 seem to pursue the unaided attempts of 
 human reason at setting up a satisfactory 
 moral code. 
 
 The method of the Catechesis, then, is 
 the method of authority. This is especially 
 true in the case of the young children with 
 whom we are dealing. They have in them 
 a natural disposition to believe. They will 
 take your word without thought of ques- 
 tioning it. There is no need of seeking rea- 
 sons from biology or analogies from zoology 
 to prove to them that God is good or that 
 Providence takes care of them. It is simply 
 a waste of time to torture them with Socratic 
 questions to demonstrate that they should 
 not lie when the mere proposition of the 
 commandment is sufficient to make them 
 accept the obligation. These truths, of 
 course, require amplification and illustra- 
 tion, but they do not need argument. In 
 fact, children in these grades are incapable 
 of ratiocination in such subjects. The time 
 will come when their reason will function, 
 and function acutely, and then the method 
 of the Catechesis must change, but at this 
 stage of our children's education, our model 
 24 
 
The Memory and the Imagination. 
 
 is our Lord, who spake not as scribe and 
 Pharisee, but as one having authority. 
 
 What, after all, are the chief mental assets 
 the little ones have in coming to us at this 
 period of their lives. They are, as you 
 know, the memory and the imagination. 
 Therefore, our main object must be to use 
 the memory and to inform the imagination. 
 Part passu with this will go a development 
 of the intellect and of the will, but the im- 
 mediate means at our hand are the power 
 of recollection and the power of exercising 
 the fancy. 
 
 Now, the ideal of the Catechesis at this 
 time is to bring the faculties of the child 
 and the faculties of the teacher into perfect 
 tune. Therefore, the teacher must learn to 
 become again a little child to attain the end 
 of bringing the children into the kingdom 
 of heaven. This is by no means an easy 
 thing to do, nor is it to be attained in a day 
 or a year. It demands serious discipline in 
 the novitiate, and it demands serious prepa- 
 ration for every class. The year's work 
 must be carefully organized, the day's work 
 must be carefully put together. There are 
 25 
 
The Chief Aids to Teaching. 
 
 various systems or methods of Catechesis 
 which you will find described in books. I 
 am not an advocate of strict or hidebound 
 systems or methods, and I believe every 
 good teacher will put her own personality 
 into whatever system is adopted. More- 
 over, I believe very strongly that the various 
 teaching orders should be loyal to the tradi- 
 tions of their communities, for it will be 
 usually found that those who shaped those 
 communities had a special genius for teach- 
 ing and handed on to their children precepts 
 and practices of real pedagogical value. 
 
 III. 
 
 Let us now come to the third question and 
 speak of the chief aids or instruments at our 
 disposal in the teaching of religion. These 
 aids or instruments are many, but in prac- 
 tice the most important is the Catechism. 
 
 i. (a) The Catechism is a book contain- 
 ing a certain number of stereotyped ques- 
 tions and answers. The pupil is given so 
 many answers to get off by heart, and when 
 the teacher puts the question he gives back 
 26 
 
The Catechism. 
 
 the answer in the exact words of the book. 
 This style of presenting knowledge was 
 very popular in the middle of the last cen- 
 tury, and we had catechisms on all kinds of 
 subjects history, botany, chemistry, civics 
 and so on. The fashion has passed away 
 almost completely as far as secular subjects 
 are concerned, but it is still jealously re- 
 tained in the teaching of religion. 
 
 Of the former class of Catechisms, J. G. 
 Fitch writes very severely: 
 
 "To print a book of questions and answers 
 is to assume that there is to be no real con- 
 tact of thought between scholar and master, 
 that all the questions which are to be asked 
 are to take one particular form, and they 
 all admit of but one answer. There is no 
 room for inquisitiveness on the part of the 
 learner, nor for digression on the part of 
 the teacher, no room for the play of the in- 
 telligence of either around the subject in 
 hand; the whole exercise has been devised 
 to convert a study which ought to awaken 
 intelligence, into a miserable mechanical 
 performance; and two people who ought to 
 be in intimate intellectual relations with 
 27 
 
The Catechism a Necessity. 
 
 each other, into a brace of impostors the 
 one teaching nothing, the other learning 
 nothing, but both acting a part and reciting 
 somebody else's words out of a book."- 
 Lectures on Teaching, p. 141. 
 
 It is true there may be schools where these 
 words describe what happens in religious 
 instruction. Even so, that would not be 
 sufficient reason to advocate the abolition of 
 the religious Catechism. Wherever you 
 find in a great organization like the Church 
 a practice common to various countries and 
 ages you usually discover that it represents 
 the practical meeting of some real need or 
 the solution of some problem. In the old 
 times there were no Catechisms such as we 
 have now, but from the very beginning we 
 find formulae and stereotyped questions and 
 answers. Our Lord Himself gave us a form 
 of prayer. In spite of the learned men I 
 am convinced that the Apostles made the 
 Apostles' Creed. The question and answer 
 are imbedded in the ritual of Baptism and 
 considering the origin of the Christian 
 Church it would be strange if it were not 
 so, seeing how it is imbedded in that most 
 28 
 
The Form of Sound Words. 
 
 ancient ceremony, the Passover supper of 
 the Jews. 
 
 Then from the very beginning there was 
 tampering with the Christian doctrine. To 
 meet this tampering the Church was most 
 particular as to the terms in which she 
 clothed her "sound doctrine." St. Paul 
 admonishes Timothy to avoid profane nov- 
 elties of words and to "hold the form of 
 sound words which thou hast heard of 
 me." As the great heresies swept through 
 Christendom the Councils of the Church 
 defined with more and more exactness what 
 Christians should believe. Highly techni- 
 cal expressions came into use and at one 
 time the whole world was split in two over 
 the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet. 
 
 It was to furnish the faithful with the 
 form of sound words that after the inven- 
 tion of printing, and especially after the 
 rise of Protestantism, Catechisms were is- 
 sued by competent authority. Those cate- 
 chisms not only contained the doctrines that 
 had been defined, but also furnished on their 
 own responsibility accurate explanations of 
 other teachings which form, as is were, the 
 29 
 
The Catechism Only a Guide. 
 
 pomoerium fidei, an outer defense for 
 dogma. 
 
 The Catholic respect, therefore, for the 
 form of sound words and the Catholic dis- 
 trust for heretical inaccuracy, not mental 
 sluggishness nor fear of progress, is the rea- 
 son why we have retained the Catechism in 
 religious instruction when it has been aban- 
 doned in secular subjects. We must also 
 remember that the duty of teaching Cate- 
 chism devolves on others besides priests and 
 teachers. Parents and guardians, and all in 
 charge of children, are bound to teach it 
 either personally or by others, and an 
 authoritative elementary manual contain- 
 ing the things to be taught and cast in the 
 form of question and answer will always 
 be of use and necessity. 
 
 But at the same time we must remember 
 that in the Catechesis the Catechism is only 
 a tool and a guide, and that the real work 
 is done by the oral instruction. The ideal 
 of the Catechesis is that the minds of the 
 teacher and of the pupil must be in perfect 
 tune. The teacher not only propounds the 
 doctrine, but illustrates it, analyses it, puts 
 30 
 
V/hat Catechism to Be Used. 
 
 it one way now, another way again, and 
 uses in fact every device of the teaching art, 
 even as our Lord Himself instructed His 
 disciples. Then by means of frequent ques- 
 tions the catechist holds their attention, 
 clears their misapprehensions, systematizes 
 their thoughts, insists on the form of sound 
 words, and, finally, as all teaching consists 
 in getting the pupil's mind to work for itself, 
 encouraging the use of questions from the 
 pupil's side to meet his difficulties and 
 round out his knowledge. 
 
 (b) The question now arises, What Cate- 
 chism should we use? In this matter we 
 have no choice. The Bishop is the teach- 
 ing authority in his diocese, and it is his 
 privilege to prescribe the Catechism or 
 other books to be used by his flock. Canon 
 1336 of the new code says: "Ordinarii loci 
 est omnia in sua diocesi edicere quae ad 
 populum in Christina doctrina instituen- 
 dum spectent; et etiam religiosi exempli 
 quoties non exemptos docent eadem servare 
 tenentur." It belongs to the local Ordinary 
 to regulate for his diocese all things that 
 concern the instruction of the people in 
 31 
 
Text Books and Teachers. 
 
 Christian doctrine; and even exempt reli- 
 gious are bound to observe those regula- 
 tions when they are teaching persons not 
 exempt. 
 
 In reply to those teachers who may chafe 
 at this restriction of their liberty to use a 
 text book that they are more familiar with 
 or that they may consider more effective 
 than the local Catechism I might say that 
 here in America we are inclined to lay too 
 much stress on the text book. This is pre- 
 eminently the land of text books. We have 
 employed our best talent in compiling them 
 and have spent millions of money in produc- 
 ing them. Great corporations strive for the 
 patronage of the schools, public and private, 
 and the battle of the book agents rages all 
 over the country, so that in some States the 
 government has been compelled to step in 
 and manufacture a series of its own. 
 
 Yet, of the three things in a school the 
 teacher, the child and the text book the 
 least important is the text book. I will not 
 elaborate this idea here, but will refer you 
 to the Report of Superintendent of Schools 
 of the Archdiocese of San Francisco for 
 32 
 
Difficulty of Making Catechisms. 
 
 1916-1917, page 33, where the Rev. Ralph 
 Hunt ably discusses the qualifications of the 
 teacher. You will see from the nature of 
 the Catechesis itself that this is especially 
 true of religious instruction. Yet there has 
 been no text book which has been so sav- 
 agely criticised as the Catechism. Bishop 
 Bellord went so far as to speak of our fail- 
 ure in religious instruction, and ascribed it 
 to the imperfect manner in which our Cate- 
 chisms in common use are constructed. He 
 might have got away with it, as they say, if 
 Satan had not tempted him to write a Cate- 
 chism of his own, and Job's wish was grati- 
 fied, "Oh, that mine enemy would write a 
 book." In my humble opinion Bellord's 
 Catechism is about as bad as a Catechism 
 could be. 
 
 The drawback they must meet who try to 
 write a Catechism is that they have to satisfy 
 two classes of critics, the theologians on the 
 one side and the teachers on the other. The 
 theologians demand scientific accuracy and 
 completeness, while the teachers are looking 
 for brevity and simplicity. But we must 
 remember that we are teaching religion, not 
 33 
 
The Ideal Catechism. 
 
 theology, and that we are dealing with chil- 
 dren, not with professional students of uni- 
 versity grade. On the other hand, we must 
 guard the form of sound words and realize 
 the depth of the riches of the wisdom and 
 of the knowledge of God. My idea of a 
 good Catechism is one that contains the tra- 
 ditional amount of information, in which 
 the definitions are accurately expressed as 
 far as they go, and in which the language is 
 not only correct but rhythmic and elevated. 
 However, we have to face facts, and even if 
 the Catechism is not the best attainable, as 
 long as it is prescribed by authority the 
 teacher must use it. This compulsion, too, 
 need not interfere with the efficiency of the 
 instruction. It has been well said that a 
 poor text book becomes a challenge to a 
 good teacher to make up for its deficiencies 
 by personal work. An unsatisfactory Cate- 
 chism may stimulate the conscientious in- 
 structor to that oral teaching which is the 
 very soul of the Catechesis. 
 
 (c) There is another question connected 
 with the Catechism which you may well ask 
 me Should we require the children to 
 34 
 
Memorizing Answers and Formulae. 
 
 memorize the answers word for word? 
 Here, as you know, there is a difference of 
 opinion as to the theory and a difference in 
 practice. It is not necessary to go into the 
 reasons for and against, because, as a matter 
 of fact, the wise superior will find out what 
 the pastor wants and will govern her con- 
 duct accordingly. This much, however, I 
 would advise that where there are several 
 priests teaching or examining the children 
 they should be asked to have one system. 
 If the word for word test is required all 
 should require it; if it is not required, then 
 no individual should insist on it. 
 
 In this connection I would impress upon 
 you the necessity of accuracy in memoriz- 
 ing the prayers, the various formulae and 
 the dogmatic definitions. It would be 
 ludicrous if it were not so sad to listen to 
 the perversions the most sacred words suffer 
 in the mouths of children who are badly 
 taught. They are reciting those forms every 
 day, apparently the teacher is listening to 
 them, and yet to judge by what they do ar- 
 ticulate they have as much meaning to them 
 as "eena, meena, mina, mo." 
 35 
 
The Need of Accuracy. 
 
 There are two remedies for this state of 
 affairs. First, to teach the form correctly 
 in the beginning and of this I will speak 
 later on when I come to the question of read- 
 ing. Second, frequently to test the accuracy 
 of the children's memory by means of writ- 
 ing. I would recommend this exercise to 
 you: The first days of school the teacher 
 usually has to find some "busy work" for 
 the pupils while she reorganizes her class. 
 Without any warning to the children, give 
 them the task of writing out from memory 
 the common prayers like the Our Father. 
 Then take the results into some quiet place 
 alone and read them. If you have a due 
 sense of the dignity of religion you will 
 most likely go down on your knees, strike 
 your breast and cry mea culpa, mea maxima 
 culpa. 
 
 At the end of the year, again without 
 warning, give the same task to the children, 
 compare the two sets of papers, and you will 
 have before you the most searching criti- 
 cism possible of your work during the past 
 year. 
 
 2. Practical teachers will admit that one 
 36 
 
Grading Religious Teaching. 
 
 of the most efficacious aids in imparting in- 
 struction is the careful grading of the sub- 
 ject matter. This is as true of religion as 
 it is of other branches of knowledge. St. 
 Paul himself speaks of milk for babes and 
 strong meat for men. The old North 
 Italian Catechism, a revision of which was 
 adopted by Pius X as the official Catechism 
 of the Province of. Rome, consists of three 
 stages or grades. The first contains "ele- 
 mentary truths for children of a tender 
 age," the second is the Catechism for pupils 
 preparing for the Sacraments and the third 
 is destined for the so-called continuation 
 classes, corresponding in amount of matter 
 to the large Deharbe. In ungraded Cate- 
 chisms like Butler's and the Baltimore, a 
 common practice in some school programs 
 is to apportion for the first grade a certain 
 number of chapters beginning with Chapter 
 I and continuing through the various grades 
 to the end of the book. Thus, for instance, 
 in Grade I the children are taught Chap- 
 ters I to IV; in Grade II, Chapters V to 
 XII, and so on. This is the method in al- 
 most universal use in Sunday Schools. The 
 37 
 
Arguments in Favor of Grading. 
 
 children begin the Catechism five or six 
 times and tunnel their way to light and free- 
 dom only just before they receive the Sacra- 
 ments. 
 
 Now, as against this practice there are 
 two arguments that are conclusive. First, 
 there are truths at the end of the Catechism 
 that children even in the First Grade should 
 know. Take the question of good conduct 
 alone, without which all our teaching is 
 dead and profitless. In our Baltimore 
 Catechism the Commandments of God and 
 the Church form the last part of the book; 
 and while, no doubt, the child learns the 
 substance of them indirectly in the very 
 first years of his schooling, yet their formal 
 inculcation is postponed to what for so many 
 children is the end of their religious edu- 
 cation; second, the late legislation on the 
 communion of children has worked a revo- 
 lution in the matter to be presented even to 
 the youngest child. From the very begin- 
 ning the Eucharist and penance enter into 
 their program. It is true the requirements 
 for the early grades are few and simple, but 
 the subjects are there and must be treated. 
 38 
 
A Five Years' Program. 
 
 When we add to these thoughts the fur- 
 ther consideration that there are answers in 
 the early chapters of the Catechism that 
 are, I will not say beyond the comprehen- 
 sion of Second Grade pupils, but beyond 
 even their powers of articulation, we will 
 readily see how helpful it would be to pick 
 out the questions concerning the necessary 
 truths first and then add to them year by 
 year until the whole Catechism is mastered. 
 Inasmuch as in most States we have com- 
 pulsory education, at least as far as the nor- 
 mal Sixth Grade, there is no reason why we 
 should not provide a graded five-year course 
 in Christian Doctrine, as is done in the well- 
 known Salford Catechisms. The whole 
 Baltimore Catechism could be covered in 
 these five years by assigning two new ques- 
 tions a week, thus giving plenty of oppor- 
 tunity for an extended Catechesis even in 
 crowded class rooms, and above all provid- 
 ing for that steady repetition of old and 
 fundamental matter which is the very es- 
 sence of successful teaching in this, as in 
 all other subjects. 
 
 3. From the very beginning of her his- 
 39 
 
Art in Christian Teaching. 
 
 tory the Church has used the art of painting 
 in teaching religion. The art of sculpture 
 came later, but both were employed for the 
 same purpose to convey to the believer the 
 great truths of the faith. Hence we would 
 naturally expect to find the picture or the 
 image rated high as an aid to teaching. Up 
 to not so many years ago good pictures were 
 scarce, dear and hard to obtain, but now-a- 
 days, in consequence of the progress made 
 in the various reproduction processes, a 
 teacher has at hand a veritable store of beau- 
 tiful copies of the masterpieces of art, both 
 plain and in colors and at a moderate cost. 
 
 Here let me digress for a moment and 
 insist on the great advantage it will be to a 
 teacher to begin from the very first years 
 of her career to collect her own teaching 
 apparatus and to keep a note book. 
 
 By her teaching apparatus I do not mean 
 the furniture proper to every school room, 
 but a more personal and intimate collec- 
 tion of objects which she has found useful 
 and stimulating in working out the method 
 of teaching she has colored with her own 
 qualities. Pictures, old Christmas cards, 
 40 
 
Teacher's Personal Equipment. 
 
 advertising specimens, clippings from cata- 
 logues, magazines and newspapers, dolls 
 dressed to show the vestments, postals, cray- 
 ons and a score of other things, if kept to- 
 gether in a special box will be found most 
 useful to illustrate the instruction, to serve 
 as stimuli for expression work, to stir up 
 interest in the class and to be given as prizes 
 to provoke emulation. 
 
 The teacher will find her note book a most 
 precious record of her mental develop- 
 ment and a most helpful adjunct in prepar- 
 ing for her daily task. I know, of course, 
 there are those who will smile at the idea 
 of preparation in connection with the Cate- 
 chism lesson, but they are not of the seed 
 through which salvation is wrought in 
 Israel. There is no lesson that requires 
 such careful, nay meticulous, preparation 
 as the daily instruction in religion. For 
 myself, being unprepared, I should sooner 
 undertake to address a class of theologians 
 on the Syncatabasis than take half an hour's 
 catechism in the baby grade. Now, we 
 know by experience that we do not always 
 come to the preparation of our lessons with 
 41 
 
Preparing the Picture Lesson. 
 
 the same minds. At times we are bright 
 and alert, the ideas sparkle spontaneously, 
 the words flow, the subject stands out in 
 sharp detail ; at other times we are dull and 
 stupid and tired, our thoughts are wander- 
 ing and our studies are a weariness to body 
 and soul. If in the latter case, however, 
 you have in your note book a record of the 
 preparation of the lesson the year before 
 when you were fine and fit, especially if 
 you make it a practice after school to set 
 down the thoughts and illustrations that 
 come to you out of the white heat of teach- 
 ing, you will have the very best aid possible 
 to overcome the deadness that besets you and 
 the most stimulating of all motives to equal 
 your past performance. 
 
 Let us return to the picture lesson. It is 
 in the preparation of the picture lesson that 
 one sees most clearly the advantages of the 
 note book. Here again the wise men may 
 elevate their eyebrows and sneer at the fool- 
 ishness of preparing a picture lesson. Is it 
 not the business of a picture to speak for 
 itself? No attitude could be more super- 
 ficial. We see in a picture only what we 
 42 
 
Our Lord and the Children. 
 
 bring to it, and it is the task of the teachers 
 so to furnish the minds of the children that 
 they may recognize according to their 
 capacity the vision the artist saw and 
 bodied forth by cunning brush from glow- 
 ing palette for the delight and instruction 
 of men. 
 
 For example, let us take the subject so 
 favored by painters and so loved by little 
 ones Christ and the children. The teacher 
 in preparing this lesson will naturally have 
 two ends in view to see the scene as it 
 actually happened and to make the children 
 see it for themselves. First, then, the 
 teacher turns to the Gospels and finds in St. 
 Matthew his account of the incident. At 
 the foot of the page she will notice that the 
 same incident is recorded in St. Mark and 
 St. Luke. Let her now make three parallel 
 columns in her note book and write in them 
 the three accounts under their respective 
 authors' names. A study of what she has 
 written will show her that while the back- 
 bone of the story is identical in the three 
 accounts, each of the evangelists gives some 
 trait or circumstance that the others omit. 
 43 
 
The Matter of the Morning Meditation. 
 
 Now let the teacher go to the Commun- 
 ity library and take down that most excel- 
 lent Life of Christ by Father Maas, S. J. 
 It is what they call a Diatessaron, that is 
 to say, the four Gospels are woven into one 
 continuous narrative. Moreover, it is fur- 
 nished with a sufficiency of reliable and 
 learned notes. Let the teacher copy into 
 her note book at the foot of the parallel 
 columns the account of the incident as he 
 blends it from the synoptics. Let her also 
 study his notes carefully and enter a few 
 key words to remind her of the time, the 
 place, the occasion of the incident and of 
 the manners and customs of the people. 
 Finally, let her get one or more of what I 
 might call the literary lives of Christ, such 
 as Fouard's or Elliot's and write into her 
 note book their description of the scene in- 
 corporating, as they do, not only the facts, 
 but also the geography, the scenery, the ar- 
 chitecture, the popular ways, the historical 
 and personal allusions to make a concrete 
 picture. Then having done all this, let the 
 teacher make it the matter of her morning 
 44 
 
The Compositio Loci. 
 
 meditation for the next week. Little by 
 little the scene will begin to live for her. 
 As when we are trying for the proper focus 
 in projecting a picture the blurred and in- 
 distinct image trembles at first and then 
 begins to take shape and form and at last 
 stands out in clear and sharp definition, so 
 the confused outlines of the story will begin 
 to co-ordinate themselves and we shall see 
 the Judean village and the flat-roofed 
 houses glaring white under the brilliant sky. 
 We shall see the narrow street and the 
 loungers in the shade stirred from their 
 lethargy by the approach of the Prophet of 
 Nazareth and His little band. We shall see 
 how our Lord retires into one of the houses 
 and mark the constant stream of visit- 
 ors coming and going and listen to the 
 murmur of the high arguments that have 
 made memorable that humble abode. At 
 last, as the burden of the day is broken 
 and the tempered heats render tolerable 
 the next stage of their journey, our Lord 
 and His Apostles appear in the village 
 street and make ready to depart. The 
 strain of the day is evident in His lined 
 45 
 
The Living Picture. 
 
 face and drooping shoulders and the jour- 
 ney before them is long. The Apostles 
 gather about Him in loving sympathy and 
 cast in their minds how to lighten His way. 
 At this very moment the Mothers of the 
 village, hearing that the great Rabbi is 
 about to leave them, snatch up their chil- 
 dren and run to demand what is their right 
 by immemorial custom, the blessing of the 
 Holy Man for their little ones. We can see 
 the thunder frown on the brows of James 
 and John, we can hear the flying word from 
 the impetuous lips of Peter, we can mark 
 the astonished mothers hurt and indignant 
 at this more than Galilean rudeness. Then 
 we fix our gaze upon our Lord. He turns 
 his eyes flaming with anger upon His 
 Apostles, with bitterness He rebukes His 
 own. He bids them stand aside and make 
 way for the children. He seats Himself. 
 The children run to Him. They cluster 
 round His knees. They climb into His lap. 
 They hang over His shoulders. He lays His 
 hands upon them and blesses them and, like 
 the sound of music dropping from the stars, 
 we hear His words: "Suffer the little chil- 
 46 
 
The Value of Reading. 
 
 dren to come unto Me and forbid them not, 
 for of such is the Kingdom of God." 
 
 4. Especially in our day when everybody 
 is able to read, the art of reading as an aid 
 to religious instruction has a very great ex- 
 tension. It comprehends everything from 
 the unchangeable word of God in the Holy 
 Scriptures to the ephemeral product of the 
 periodical press. It would take a treatise 
 to do full justice to the subject and there- 
 fore here I can only touch on a few points 
 more intimately connected with school dis- 
 cipline. Even in this restricted sphere I 
 would refer you to my paper, read at the 
 Milwaukee meeting of this Association, on 
 the Educational Value of Christian Doc- 
 trine, for a more extended explanation of 
 the place of reading in religious instruction. 
 I leave aside also the vexed question of the 
 so-called Catholic Readers and will confine 
 myself to a few practical points more inti- 
 mately connected with the Catechism. 
 
 (a) As you will gather from the Mil- 
 waukee paper, we all have two vocabularies 
 the vocabulary of daily life and the 
 vocabulary of books or literature. We may 
 47 
 
Classifying the Religious Vocabulary. 
 
 divide the latter vocabulary into secular 
 and religious. The child in the first grade 
 who knows the common prayers and has 
 been told the stories of the Infancy and 
 Passion of Our Lord is using a vocabulary 
 of at least 800 words, of which a large num- 
 ber are peculiar to religion. 
 
 Now, in acquiring the power of secular 
 reading, that is, of recognizing and repro- 
 ducing secular words, we employ certain 
 systems of teaching. Some use a sight sys- 
 tem, some a phonic system and some a com- 
 bination of the two. But whatever system 
 is used, the words are classified on a plan 
 and so organized that the pupil passes from 
 the known to the unknown, from the easy to 
 the difficult combinations. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, in our published 
 books we have no such classification or or- 
 ganization of the religious vocabulary. 
 From secular readers, of course, religion is 
 barred and I know no series of Catholic 
 readers that has even attempted the task. In 
 fact, a great many so-called Catholic read- 
 ers are merely the secular readers orna- 
 mented with a few "holy pictures." 
 48 
 
Writing Guarantees Accuracy. 
 
 Hence, if the teacher wishes to get as 
 good reading results from the religious 
 vocabulary as from the secular vocabulary 
 it will be necessary for her to make her own 
 classification. It does not matter on what 
 system she bases it, as the religious vocabu- 
 lary also is English and subject to the same 
 rules as the secular vocabulary. 
 
 (b) In teaching the pupils how to read 
 the Catechism or any other religious text 
 you may have at your disposal, always keep 
 before your mind that you are teaching 
 reading, not religion. Hence, the task 
 should be undertaken in the reading period 
 of the school day, not in the religion period. 
 Whatever religious instruction the child 
 will absorb in this exercise will come to it 
 indirectly. Above all, if you have a doc- 
 trinal explanation text, beware of asking 
 the children to memorise it. Such texts are 
 intended first and foremost as reading les- 
 sons, not as tasks in Catechism. 
 
 (c) As I have mentioned above, reading 
 and its fellow art, writing, are the great 
 guarantees of accuracy. There are certain 
 persons even writers of Catechisms who 
 
 49 
 
The Use of the Blackboard. 
 
 believe that Christian Doctrine should be 
 conveyed in words of one syllable and laugh 
 to scorn the idea of proposing to children 
 such polysyllables as Infallibility and Inde- 
 fectibility. I notice, however, that the 
 same gentlemen never blink an eye when 
 the same children are required to know in 
 arithmetic what is a multiplicand or a sub- 
 trahend or are punished if in geography 
 they do not master such blessed words as 
 Mesopotamia or Madagascar. After all, 
 what is the child going to school for? Is it 
 not precisely to be taught such things and 
 why should we take for granted the neces- 
 sity of instruction in the technical terms of 
 profane learning and draw the line at in- 
 struction in the technical terms of religion? 
 In teaching Catechism the blackboard is 
 as necessary and as useful as it is in teaching 
 arithmetic. The children should not be 
 permitted to face the new words in their 
 Catechism or reader until the teacher has 
 pronounced them, written them down and 
 explained their meaning. Do not imagine 
 that children find difficulty in long words 
 only. In fact, polysyllables are not ! the 
 50 
 
Teaching Bible History. 
 
 hardest words in English. I have usually 
 found more trouble in domesticating the 
 monosyllabic "heir" that I have in harness- 
 ing "transubstantiation." 
 
 5. To treat adequately the place of Holy 
 Scripture in religious instruction even in 
 the early grades would require another 
 treatise. Here again, in order to keep 
 within due limits I would refer you to my 
 Milwaukee paper for a fuller expression 
 of what is in my mind. There are three 
 practical points, however, to which I would 
 call your attention. 
 
 (a) Bible history in the grades with 
 which we are concerned cannot, of course, 
 be taught as formal history. We must use 
 it for two purposes first to get the facts 
 to hear the story of the dealings of God with 
 man. We begin with the Infancy of Our 
 Lord, then we take up His Passion, Death, 
 Resurrection and Ascension; afterwards we 
 learn the chief events of His Public Min- 
 istry. In like manner we make a study of 
 the main topics of the Old Testament, tell- 
 ing them as stories with only the slightest 
 reference to chronology. 
 51 
 
The Catholic Versions. 
 
 Our second purpose is to use the Bible 
 History for the illustration of Christian 
 Doctrine. Those of you who read the di- 
 vine office will remember with what detail 
 and with what ingenuity the Responds and 
 the Lessons of the first nocturn from the 
 Old Testament are made to typify and illus- 
 trate the teachings of the Church and even 
 the events of Christian history. Again, in 
 order to husband space I will refer you to 
 Canon Glancey's introduction to Knecht's 
 Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture, 
 a book that should be in every school library 
 and that no teacher can peruse without 
 pleasure and profit. 
 
 (b) In telling the stories of the Bible to 
 the children I would advise you to adopt 
 the practice of using the Bible language. 
 Of course,! know a great deal of fuss is 
 made about our various translations into 
 English, but bear in mind that there is no 
 general authorized English version of the 
 Scriptures for Catholics and that any trans- 
 lation that has the imprimatur of the Or- 
 dinary may be lawfully used. Moreover, 
 the differences in the literary value of the 
 52 
 
Pronunciation of Proper Names. 
 
 versions have been greatly over empha- 
 sized. There is a style common to them all, 
 inasmuch as they all come from the one 
 original and it is that common style we 
 wish to impress upon the children by giving 
 them the Bible stories as far as possible in 
 the Bible language. 
 
 (c) A third point I would recommend to 
 teachers is to adopt a uniform system of 
 pronouncing the proper names. In the Prot- 
 estant version, known as the King James, 
 these names were as a rule crudely trans- 
 literated from the Hebrew, with the result 
 that after three centuries they have even to 
 those familiar with the version a harsh and 
 uncouth look. In the Catholic version they 
 were worn down and polished by passing 
 through the Greek Septuagint and the Latin 
 Vulgate. Thus Hezekiah became Ezechias 
 and Joshua, Jesus, while some of them suf- 
 fered an English adaptation and we have 
 Judah, Judas and Jude. Indeed, the King 
 James revisers themselves did not dare to 
 carry their system to its full conclusion and 
 were instructed to leave the names in com- 
 mon use undisturbed, so that we have Moses 
 53 
 
The Use of Hymns. 
 
 not Mosheh in the Anglican Authorized 
 Version. 
 
 For this reason we cannot use the English 
 tradition of pronouncing the Biblical 
 Proper Names and among ourselves there 
 is no uniform practice. Even in reading the 
 Sunday Epistle and Gospel one is likely to 
 find three different pronunciations from the 
 same pulpit on the same day. This diversity 
 arises from sheer carelessness and is unjus- 
 tifiable because there is a fairly standardized 
 pronunciation for the names in the Anglo- 
 Catholic versions. 
 
 6. Just as from the beginning the Church 
 employed the art of painting in the teach- 
 ing of religion, so also she employed the art 
 of poetry. She took over from the syna- 
 gogue the Songs of David and made them 
 the nucleus of her official prayer book. As 
 early as the Epistles of St. Paul we find 
 fragments of hymns inspired by her own pe- 
 culiar spirit and the Psalmi idiotici, such as 
 the Gloria in Excelsis, the Te Deum, the 
 Breastplate of St. Patrick and others showed 
 how the songs the Apostles bade the Chris- 
 tians to sing in their hearts found expression 
 54 
 
Uniformity in Music. 
 
 on fire touched lips. At the freedom of the 
 Church there came a great outburst of 
 rhymed and stressed melody associated with 
 the name of St. Ambrose and culminating 
 in magnificent sequences like the Dies Irae, 
 the Stabat Mater and the Lauda Sion, 
 which are to the literature of the Middle 
 Age what the glorious Gothic Cathedrals 
 are to the architecture of the same period. 
 
 Hymns fall into two classes, doctrinal 
 hymns and devotional hymns. Of the latter 
 I will merely say that their choice is a mat- 
 ter of taste and about tastes there is to be no 
 disputing. As to doctrinal hymns, they 
 have been always used even by heretics 
 for popular teaching. Arius, anticipating 
 the Salvation Army, embodied his heresies 
 in songs adopted to the pot-house airs of 
 Alexandria. In the Middle Age the whole 
 Catechism was done into verse and you can 
 find even today among Irish speakers stave 
 after stave containing the full round of 
 Christian Doctrine. 
 
 As to the singing of the hymns, an official 
 tune book for the country is greatly to be 
 desired, but there are two points that are 
 55 
 
The Use of the Liturgy. 
 
 even now easily attainable. First, in the 
 same school have a common exact musical 
 text and, second, the teaching of the hymns 
 as music belongs to the music period. 
 
 7. As my time is coming to a close I will 
 refer you to my paper read at the Buffalo 
 meeting for the value of the Liturgy as an 
 instrument of teaching. As far as regards 
 religious exercises and devotions, school 
 Mass and school prayers, sodalities and the 
 frequentation of the sacraments, I should 
 prefer to leave these things to your Catho- 
 lic instinct and the customs of your various 
 localities. After all it is the Christian life 
 that counts. Amid the hard realities of the 
 world many of the sweet lessons our little 
 pupils are learning shall dry up like the 
 morning dew, but if the Mass remains and 
 the Sacraments and the habit of prayer and 
 the Commandments and the Charity that is 
 the fulfilment of the law, then our teaching 
 shall not have been in vain and the loyal 
 children of Holy Church, their children 
 and their children's children shall rise up 
 and call us blessed. 
 
Appendices. 
 
 For the convenience of teachers the extracts referred to 
 in the body of the paper are printed hereinafter. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 A Manual of Instructions in Christian Doctrine, With an 
 Introduction on Religious Instruction. Edited by the late 
 Provost Wenham. Seventeenth edition. London : St. An- 
 selm's Society. 1903. Pages ix, x, xi. : 
 
 Making the Importance of the Subject Apparent. But 
 while complete and accurate knowledge and skillful meth- 
 ods are necessary for success in teaching any subject, there 
 are two points especially in which religious instruction 
 requires treatment in a manner peculiar to itself. It 
 has been shown how pre-eminently important it is. But 
 it is not enough that the teacher should see this. Those 
 who are taught must be made to see it. It must be made 
 to appear in the manner of teaching it. The children must 
 see that it is treated as the most important. With this 
 object some give a longer time to religious instruction than 
 to other matters. But this is dangerous, as, unless the in- 
 struction is very skillfully given, the additional call on the 
 children's attention is apt to engender tedium. Nor is any 
 great impression made by giving up to religious instruction 
 the first hour of school, while there are not infrequently 
 great inconveniences in this arrangement. But the im- 
 portance of the subject will be impressed on the children's 
 minds by their observing that this lesson is given with 
 greater care than others, that more is made of proficiency 
 in this than in other things in distributing praise and 
 rewards, that dull, backward children are paid particular 
 attention to in this subject; and, above all, that it is treated 
 with reverence, not as one that must be "got up" in prep- 
 aration for an examination or an inspection, but as one 
 that is taught punctually and carefully at all times for its 
 own sake. 
 
 Reverence. Having spoken of reverence, it may be well 
 to insist a little longer on the extreme importance of this 
 beyond everything else. One would speak with diffidence ; 
 but it would seem that teachers often make a mistake in 
 aiming at devotion in the children rather than reverence. 
 For to make people devout is not in our power ; and to aim 
 
 57 
 
Appendices. 
 
 at it is dangerous, as leading, in some cases, to a sort of 
 reaction against religion altogether, and in others to a sort 
 of excitement which is taken for devotion, but which has 
 has no solid foundation. But it is a proverb that "with- 
 out reverence there is no religion," and there are no dan- 
 gers attending the inculcation of this. On the contrary, it 
 is the atmosphere which will still continue to support faith, 
 even when morality is weakened. It will influence the wild 
 and headstrong when nothing else can turn them, and is a 
 good soil for the development of devotion. 
 
 Just let us observe how strictly this lesson of reverence 
 was taught to men in old times by God himself : how Moses 
 is warned to treat the very ground he stood on as holy, 
 because of God's presence. When God would speak to 
 His people, they were to sanctify themselves for three days, 
 and Mount Sinai was hedged round to prevent their too 
 near approach. He who blasphemed was to be stoned 
 without mercy. None but the priests were allowed to 
 enter into the Holy place of the Temple ; none but the 
 high priest into the Holy of Holies. The earth swallowed 
 up those who would intrude into the priestly office. Oza 
 was struck dead for only putting his hand to lay hold of 
 the ark. Forty-two children were devoured by bears be- 
 cause they did not reverence the prophet of God; and for 
 using the sacred vessels out of the Temple, King Baltasser 
 was dethroned and slain, and his kingdom brought to an 
 end. These and other examples show the value of a 
 spirit of reverence in the sight of God. And as it had to 
 be taught to the world of old before they could receive 
 the teaching of our Lord, so it is the very soil in which 
 alone faith lives and thrives. "The fear of the Lord is 
 the beginning of wisdom." It should, then, be ceaselessly 
 enforced by the teacher, both in word and example. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Archdiocese of San Francisco, California. Second An- 
 nual Report of Superintendent of Schools. 1916-1917. 
 Rev. Ralph Hunt: 
 
 The Teacher 
 
 It may be a trite saying that "the teacher is the school," 
 but it is not so sure that the significance of this obvious 
 educational maxim is always recognized. At any rate, it is 
 
 58 
 
Appendices. 
 
 the fashion with educational systems nowadays to impose 
 unnecessary restrictions on the teacher, and in general 
 to subordinate his interests to the exigencies of the system. 
 This is an inversion of the true order. The system exists 
 for the teacher, not the teacher for the system. Text 
 books, methods, curricula and all the paraphernalia used in 
 teaching are simply the instruments in the teacher's hands, 
 and, however well adapted to their purpose, will be only as 
 effective as the teacher makes them. Every appliance 
 depends for its success upon the intelligence with which it 
 is used, and, just as the bungling mechanic, with the 
 choicest tools, will botch his work, so too will the unskill- 
 ful teacher fail even with the best of methods. Indeed, it will 
 be admitted that the very perfection of the instrument, or 
 the method, will in all such cases only enhance the failure. 
 Hence, under whatever system or with whatever methods, 
 the paramount factor in education will always be the 
 teacher. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Catholic Educational Association. Bulletin, Vol. IV, No. i. 
 Report of the Proceedings and Addresses of the Fourth 
 Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, Wis., July 8-n, 1907. Pages 
 239-243 : 
 
 In the elementary school the first of all the studies is 
 language. The child is taught to read and write and to 
 analyze more or less closely the words and sentences he is 
 using. The tools employed are readers, writing books, 
 spellers and grammars. The pedagogical value of these 
 studies consists in the fact that by them we come in direct 
 contact with all human learning and that they furnish the 
 mind with the most natural and effective means for de- 
 veloping the powers of observation and reasoning. For 
 the first three or four years the child is engaged in the 
 mechanical processes of learning to read and write. When 
 he can master the printed and the written word he is put 
 to the acquisition of ideas through the literary selections 
 he finds in his readers. 
 
 Now, what pedagogical value have religious studies in 
 this phase of the student's development? I take it that 
 the religious studies in the lowest grades are of the sim- 
 plest description. They consist mainly in memorizing 
 
 59 
 
Appendices. 
 
 the prayers and in the acquisition of the formulae which 
 contain the essential truths of religion. 
 
 Of course, if your school is divided into water-tight 
 compartments and religion is kept in one, this instruction 
 has no influence either on reading or writing and has no 
 pedagogical value beyond the exercise of the memory and 
 whatever influence may be exerted on the will. But 
 if the compartments are not water-tight, this religious 
 instruction may, in the very lowest grades, supply the 
 teacher with a most efficient instrument in developing the 
 child's mind. 
 
 What is reading? It is the power of recognizing the 
 word behind the symbol. This is the essence of reading, 
 whether it is the power of reading Chinese or English. 
 But we must read understandingly and the child is first put 
 to recognizing the symbol for the common words of the 
 language, the baby words, the words with which he is 
 familiar. 
 
 The child's spoken vocabulary is therefore the first 
 instrument for teaching reading. 
 
 But we all have two languages. There is the language 
 of conversation and the language of literature. The one 
 is the common vocabulary, the other is the elevated style. 
 The object of reading is to introduce the child to the 
 elevated style and to furnish him with the literary vocabu- 
 lary. The difference after all between the educated man 
 and the uneducated is chiefly made evident in the manner 
 of speaking. 
 
 Now, here the religious teacher has from the very start 
 an immense pedagogical advantage over the secular teacher. 
 The latter is confined to the "cat and dog" and "bat and 
 ball" vocabulary and the little things of child life, the 
 former has already opened the child's ears to the myste- 
 rious voices of the tabernacle and taught him to answer, 
 "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." Prayer is an 
 elevation of the heart and it expresses itself in an ele- 
 vated vocabulary. Side by side with the vocabulary of the 
 common life which the Catholic child is acquiring with his 
 secular brother, he is also learning a literary vocabulary by 
 memorizing the prayers. The religious teacher, therefore, 
 has two vocabularies to draw from in teaching reading 
 and can the earlier furnish the child with examples of the 
 elevated style. 
 
 But it is as the pupil advances in the elementary grades 
 
 60 
 
Appendices. 
 
 that religious instruction becomes of unique pedagogical 
 value in the teaching of language. From the earliest ages 
 experience has shown that the most perfect instrument of 
 literary education is the classic, the work in which the 
 highest thoughts are expressed in a master's style. For 
 that reason we teach the children from the lowest grades to 
 read, to understand and often to commit to memory selec- 
 tions from the classic authors. By its terms the secular 
 school is shut off from religion, and in all art religion is 
 the inspiration of the best we have. But the domain of 
 religion is open to the teacher of the religious school. Nay, 
 more, if the religious school is to live up to its name, 
 religion should be used for pedagogical purposes wherever 
 and whenever it is possible to use it. Of course, if you 
 mean by religious teaching a half hour's instruction in the 
 catechism, while the rest of the day's program is just a 
 reproduction of the public school curriculum, I will admit 
 that you can do very little educational work with religion, 
 either in the line of literature or in any other line. But if 
 religious studies are barred from no hour of the school 
 program, and if they are wisely used, they can be made of 
 the highest utility, especially in the teaching of English 
 literature. 
 
 The historical reason for that statement is that English 
 literature, more than any other literature, is affected by one 
 book and that a religious book, the Bible. The Bible was 
 done into English at a time the language was forming 
 and it has left an indelible impress upon the English speech. 
 This is true of the Bible whether in the Douay or the 
 Protestant version. The Douay, although the older in 
 point of time, is younger in the point of language. It has 
 been the fashion to criticize the Douay version because of 
 its bad English, but where that criticism has not arisen 
 from purely polemical motives it has come from a false 
 notion of what good English really is, or from certain 
 canons of taste about which there can be no disputing. 
 Considering the Bible from the literary side, the differences 
 between the Douay and the King James version are mostly 
 superficial, and the former can be made as effectively 
 as the latter an instrument for the formation of style. 
 
 But the Bible is an intensely religious book. So re- 
 ligious is it that the law has justly banished it from the 
 secular school. Catholics rightly make a firm stand when- 
 ever the Bible is introduced into the public schools, even 
 
 61 
 
Appendices. 
 
 under the guise of a mere literary class book. If the Bible 
 is to be used at all for any purpose it must first and fore- 
 most be used as a religious book. 
 
 Of course, when I speak of using the Bible in the school, 
 I am not thinking of the old-fashioned Protestant idea 
 that the whole Bible without note or comment should be 
 put indiscriminately into children's hands. I am thinking 
 of the use of selections from the Bible suitable to the age 
 and mental development of the pupils. 
 
 To make my meaning clear I will take an imaginary 
 school with an eight years' course. The children in the 
 various grades have been taught and can recite selections 
 from Longfellow and Scott, from Irving or Webster, or 
 even from the writings of American or foreign Catholics. 
 Yet, when I come to examine the children in this imag- 
 inary school, I find they have only the vaguest idea of that 
 first and grandest of Christian poems, the Magnificat of 
 the Mother of God, while they have no idea at all of 
 Zachary's Benedictus, the swan song of the Ancient Dis- 
 pensation. They know by heart what Mrs. Hemans wrote 
 about the boy on the burning deck, but not a word have 
 they of David's lament for Saul and Jonathan, or "The 
 Lord is my Shepherd," or the heart-broken verses of the 
 Miserere. Tennyson's sweet numbers are familiar to their 
 ear, but the soul-haunting sayings of the Sermon on the 
 Mount : "Behold the lilies of the field how they grow," the 
 splendid simplicity of the parables by the Lake of Gallilec, 
 the majestic march of the tragedy of the Passion these 
 things they know only as in a glass darkly, hearing them 
 from the altar during the Sunday Mass or translated into 
 the base language to which the writers of Bible histories 
 seem to be condemned. 
 
 What a tremendous waste of opportunity in this imag- 
 inary religious school. Here is the school existing for the 
 purpose of teaching religion. There is at hand religious 
 instruction of the highest quality couched in language that 
 at times makes it difficult for us to believe those who say 
 that the very words were not dictated by the Holy Ghost. 
 The instruction itself is eminently suited for children 
 and is put in such a way that it captures their imagination 
 and fires their wills while enlightening their understanding. 
 They instinctively take to it as if their ears were still 
 used to the voice of God walking in the garden of inno- 
 cence. Now this religious instruction is also of the highest 
 
 62 
 
Appendices. 
 
 value in forming literary style and cultivating literary 
 taste. Its pedagogical use is two-fold, religious and secu- 
 lar, and these uses are not antagonistic, but reinforce one 
 another. Yet our imaginary religious school leaves this 
 magnificent instrument to rust and proceeds to perform its 
 task with second-hand tools and worked-over materials. 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Catholic Educational Association Bulletin, Vol. IV, No. I. 
 Report of the Proceedings and Addresses of the Fourth 
 Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, Wis., July 8-n, 1907. Pages 
 243-244 : 
 
 The value of history as an instrument of education, even 
 of elementary education, is denied by none. But what is 
 the educational value of history? Does it consist in know- 
 ing strings of dates or lists of kings or the results of 
 sieges, battles, elections and the like? I am sure there is 
 little if any educational value in these things. The peda- 
 gogical value of history consists in this, that it broadens 
 the mind as one's horizon is broaded who stands upon a 
 mountain top and sees woods, fields, lakes, rivers, towns 
 lying between the everlasting ocean and the eternal hills. 
 But this view of the past is merely an unfixed photograph 
 unless we are taught to see the one increasing purpose 
 that runs through all the ages and how that men's thoughts 
 are widened with the process of the suns. History is 
 really the record of God's deeds through men. Res gestae 
 Dei per homines. It is from history taught in this manner 
 that we obtain the true solution of the records of the past ; 
 it offers the only hope of reading the riddle of the future. 
 
 Yet what history can begin to compare with the Bible 
 history and Church history for qualities such as these? 
 Bible history itself was written under divine inspiration 
 precisely for the purpose of recording the manner by which 
 God's merciful design for the redemption of man was ac- 
 complished, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn 
 in the ear. 
 
 As in elementary schools we cannot begin with formal 
 history until the final years ; we are compelled to introduce 
 the study of history by stories, wonder tales, biographies 
 and the like. There is no history that lends itself to this 
 treatment like Bible history. The stories of the infancy 
 
 63 
 
Appendices. 
 
 of our Lord have a wonderful attraction for children. 
 They will listen to them forever and reproduce them with 
 delight. At a very early age they learn to love the history 
 of the sacred Passion and to walk with our Savior from 
 Gethsemani to Calvary. The Old Testament is packed with 
 material. The Garden of Paradise, Cain and Abel, the 
 Deluge, the Patriarchs, the story of Joseph, Moses, the 
 Judges, the Kings, Elias and Eliseus, the prophets of Juda, 
 the Exile, the Machabees, Peter, and Stephen, and Paul, 
 this is the history by which the world was molded into 
 the form of Christian civilization and beside it there is no 
 finer or better tempered pedagogical instrument to hand. 
 
 There is just one remark I would make about the teach- 
 ing of Bible history in the elementary schools, and that is 
 that it should be as far as possible in the words of the 
 Bible. I do not believe, as I have already said, that the 
 Bible should be used as a text-book, but whatever text- 
 book is used should be couched in the ipsissima verba of 
 the sacred volume. Moreover, such chronology as is intro- 
 duced should be of the most general description, and 
 especial care should be taken to keep from the minds of the 
 children the idea that the Church or the truth of God's 
 revelation is bound up with any of the numerous systems 
 of Biblical chronology that learned men have devised. 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture, by Fred- 
 erick Justus Knecht, D. D. Herder, St. Louis. Preface 
 to English translation, by Rev. Michael F. Glancey. Pages 
 xiv, xv, xvi, xvii, xviii, xix : 
 
 Leaving the domain of general Catechetics, we now come 
 to that branch which is the subject-matter of the present 
 volume, viz. Bible History. And, first of all, it may be 
 asked : What place does Bible History hold in a course of 
 religious instruction? Bible History is not the foundation 
 on which religious instruction rests, nor the centre round 
 which it revolves, nor the goal towards which it tends. Our 
 religion centres in pur faith, which is not a condensed ex- 
 tract from Bible History, but conies from the Church. Not 
 Bible History, then, but the teaching of the Church, must, 
 on Catholic principles, be at once the beginning, middle 
 and end of religious instruction. Hence Bible History, to 
 
 64 
 
Appendices. 
 
 claim a place in religious instruction, must do so only 
 inasmuch as it bears on the doctrines of faith. If this 
 principle be kept steadily in view, Bible History may be 
 made to render most valuable service in religious instruc- 
 tion. The illustrative light it throws on doctrinal truths 
 makes them more easily intelligible. They become invested 
 with a concrete form, are clothed with flesh and blood, 
 breathe the breath of life, and move like living truths 
 before our eyes. In the Cathechism, they appear as cold 
 abstracts and mere outlines. Thus Bible History becomes 
 an object-lesson in faith, a veritable pictorial Cathechism. 
 How powerfully, for instance, is the truth of an all-ruling 
 Providence illustrated by the histories of Joseph and Abra- 
 ham ! What, again, is better calculated to teach the power 
 of prayer than the stories of Moses praying while the 
 Israelites fought, and of the Church praying for the im- 
 prisoned Peter? On the other hand, the fate of Judas and 
 the rejection of Juda show forth, in all their hideous 
 deformity, the terrible consequences of resistance to grace ; 
 while the history of the fall of Eve and of Peter brings 
 out the necessity of avoiding dangerous occasions. In this 
 way, Bible History at once proves and illustrates doctrinal 
 truth. And it likewise develops and expands such truth. 
 The Catechism tells us, indeed, how and why Christ suf- 
 fered, but Bible History gives a full and detailed account 
 of His sufferings, and so enables us better to realize the 
 infinite love of God and the enormity of sin. The texts 
 of Scripture that in the Catechism stand isolated and shorn 
 of their context, are now seen in the light of their sur- 
 roundings and speak to us with a new force and meaning. 
 Moreover, Bible History serves to complete the Catechism. 
 The Catechism, for example, is silent about miracles, about 
 God's mercy and forbearance, His patience and long- 
 suffering. Of humility, and indeed of many other virtues, 
 it is also silent, except that it arranges them over against 
 the opposing vices. But would we learn their nature and 
 properties, and how pleasing they are to God, it is to Bible 
 History that we must turn. The Catechism is monosyllabic 
 in stating the duties that children owe to their parents, 
 masters to their servants, and vice versa; whereas the 
 history of the centurion's servant, of Heli's sons, and of 
 Tobias surrounds these duties with a halo of interpreting 
 light. Again, Bible History exhibits religious truth in its 
 bearing and action on the most varied states and condi- 
 
 65 
 
Appendices. 
 
 tions. Virtue and vice stand before us, with life-blood 
 coursing through their veins, in attractive beauty or re- 
 pellent ugliness. The Good Samaritan invites to mercy; 
 Job, in his resignation to God's will, is a beacon-light to 
 the sorrowing ; the Apostles going forth from the scourges, 
 and rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer 
 for Christ, invest with a startling reality the beatitude: 
 Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake. 
 
 From all this it is clear that Bible History is not to be 
 read, as too often it is, merely as a story-book; that it is 
 to be studied,, not on its own account, but because it im- 
 parts life and vigour, picturesqueness and comprehensive- 
 ness to religious instruction; because it elucidates, proves, 
 enforces and illustrates the truths that go to make up 
 religious instruction. But, as Dr. Knecht insists, in order 
 that Bible History may be in a position to render these 
 services, it must be "taught in the closest connexion with 
 the Catechism". "Catechism and Bible History must mu- 
 tually interpenetrate ^ ["In inniger gegenseitiger Durch- 
 dringung"], for only in this way is a systematic course of 
 religious instruction possible" (p. 9). Catechism and Bible 
 History must go hand in hand, but Catechism must be in 
 the van. Catechism is the guiding principle, and Bible 
 History its handmaid. 
 
 These are the principles, weighty though elementary, on 
 which Dr. Knecht and all writers on Catechetics are gen- 
 erally agreed. And how does practice harmonize with 
 principles? Is practice attuned to principle? Or are the 
 two in hopeless discord? To begin with, how many teach- 
 ers have mastered the reason why Bible History has a place 
 in religious instruction? How many, or how few, realize 
 the fact that Bible History and Catechism should be 
 "taught in the closest connexion"? And what percentage 
 of those who have grasped this truth put it in practice? 
 There is no denying the patent fact that, as a rule, the 
 two are not taught concurrently, and are not made to run 
 on parallel lines. Ten to one, the Bible History set down 
 for a class in a given year has no connexion whatever with 
 the doctrinal instruction of that year. Thus, while children 
 are being instructed in the Holy Eucharist, their Scripture 
 History turns on that singularly uninspiring period em- 
 braced by the reigns of the kings of Israel and Juda ! All 
 this comes from being enslaved to the chronological sys- 
 tem. This is the root of the evil to which the axe must 
 
 66 
 
Appendices. 
 
 be laid. Forgetting the plain principle that should underlie 
 the teaching of all Bible History, and utterly ignoring 
 the profit or loss to the children, we have stumbled over 
 the crooked idea that Bible History must be taught chron- 
 ologically even in our poor schools. I am far from deny- 
 ing, nay, I affirm that a systematic course of Bible History 
 should be given when time and facilities are not wanting, 
 as in our upper schools and colleges. But in our poor 
 schools, where the time barely suffices to give the neces- 
 sary instruction and to drive it home with religious effect, 
 a slavish adhesion to chronology is to sacrifice realities to 
 figures. To talk of a systematic course in this sense, under 
 such circumstances, is nothing short of preposterous. In 
 the chronological system, Bible History cannot, except 
 by a happy accident, enforce and illustrate the religious 
 instruction. Far from being a help, it is a drawback. In- 
 stead of elucidating, it obscures. No longer the hand- 
 maid, it seeks to be on an equality with the mistress. For 
 religious instruction to succeed in its great purpose, it 
 must, as Dr. Knecht rightly says, be conducted on a 
 "unitive" plan. The unit is the doctrinal instruction, with 
 which the Bible History must be brought into line, unless 
 we are to fly in the teeth of all our principles. Let me 
 now briefly illustrate what I mean by this unification or 
 concentration of subject that I am advocating, lest per- 
 haps I be twitted with pulling down without attempting 
 to build up. Instead, therefore, of teaching children who 
 are being instructed in the Blessed Eucharist about the 
 kings of Israel and Juda, I would teach them the Scrip- 
 ture History of the Blessed Eucharist, as in the following 
 plan [From Scripture History for Schools (No. 3). Ap- 
 proved for use in the Diocese of Birmingham] : 
 
 THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 
 I. Types of the Holy Eucharist : 
 
 1. The Sacrifice of Melchisedech. 
 
 2. The Paschal Lamb. 
 
 3. The Manna. 
 
 4. The Food of Elias. 
 
 5. The Jewish Sacrifices. 
 II. The Prophecy of Malachias. 
 
 III. Christ promises a new Sacrifice: 
 
 1. At Jacob's Well, 
 
 2. After the multiplication of the loaves. 
 
 6 7 
 
Appendices. 
 
 IV. The Last Supper. Institution of the Blessed 
 
 Eucharist. 
 
 V. The two disciples going to Emmaus. 
 VI. Miracles illustrative of the Blessed Eucharist : 
 
 1. Water made wine at Cana. 
 
 2. Multiplication of loaves. 
 
 3. Christ walking on the waters. 
 
 4. The Transfiguration. 
 
 The important subject of the Church may be treated 
 somewhat similarly. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 Part L The Old Testament. 
 I. Introductory. 
 II. The Church a Family. 
 
 1. Noe. The Ark. 
 
 2. Call of Abraham. The promises to Abra- 
 
 ham, Isaac and Jacob. 
 
 III. The Church a People. 
 
 1. Moses. 
 
 2. Giving of the Law. 
 
 3. The Tabernacle. 
 
 4. Entrance into Promised Land. 
 
 IV. The Church a Kingdom. 
 
 1. David. 
 
 2. Solomon. Building of the Temple. 
 
 3. The kingdom broken up. 
 
 V. God promises to set up a New Kingdom. 
 
 Part II. The Gospels. 
 VI. Introductory. 
 
 VII. Christ the King. The Kingdom of God. 
 VIII. Parables on the kingdom of God. 
 
 1. The Hidden Treasure. 
 
 2. The Pearl of Great Price. 
 
 3. The Wheat and the Cockle. 
 
 4. The Drag-net. 
 
 5. The Leaven. 
 
 6. The Mustard Seed. 
 
 7. The Good Shepherd. 
 IX. Jesus calls Disciples. 
 
 68 
 
Appendices. 
 
 X. The first Miraculous Draught of Fishes. 
 XL Peter's Confession of Faith. The Foundation 
 
 of the Church of Christ. 
 XII. Christ promises that Peter's faith shall not fail. 
 
 XIII. The second Miraculous Draught of Fishes. 
 
 Christ makes Peter Chief Shepherd. 
 
 XIV. The Mission of the Apostles. 
 
 Part III. History of the Church After Our Lord's 
 
 Ascension. 
 
 XV. The Opening of the Church. 
 XVI. Peter Cures the Lame Man. 
 XVII. The First Christians. 
 XVIII. The Apostles work miracles; are imprisoned, 
 
 etc. 
 
 XIX. Conversion of St. Paul. 
 XX. Peter visits the Churches. 
 XXI. Peter's vision. Cornelius. 
 XXII. Peter imprisoned and set free by angel. 
 
 XXIII. The Council of Jerusalem. 
 
 XXIV. Primacy of St. Peter. Summary. 
 
 In a word, the Scripture History should be grouped 
 round the central doctrines of our faith. 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 Tracts, Theological and Ecclesiastical. By John Henry 
 Cardinal Newman. Longmans: 1899. The Rheims and 
 Douay Versions of Holy Scripture, page 410. 
 
 Such is the history of the Rheims and Douay Bible, of 
 which there have been two editions of the Old Testament, 
 1609-10 and 1635, and eight (including the New York 
 Protestant reprint) of the New 1582, 1600, 1621, 1633, 
 1738, 1788, 1816-1818, and 1834. This version comes to 
 us on the authority of certain divines of the Cathedral 
 and College of Rheims and of the University of Douay, 
 confirmed by the subsequent indirect recognition of Eng- 
 lish, Scotch and Irish Bishops, and by its general reception 
 by the faithful. It never has had any episcopal impri- 
 matur, much less has it received any formal approbation 
 from the Holy See. 
 
 69 
 
Appendices. 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 
 "Teaching of Liturgy." Paper by Father Yorke at the 
 Catholic Educational Conference at Buffalo, 1917. Ex- 
 tract : 
 
 These suggestions are not mere theories. I have been 
 working on them for over twenty years, and, while I have 
 not always or everywhere attained my ideal, still the results 
 have met with approval from priests, teachers and parents 
 interested in such matters. Indeed, the most serious criti- 
 cism I have heard was from a Bishop after Confirmation 
 that it was too perfect. 
 
 Therefore, I will not set them forth as the abstract 
 proposals of a course of studies, but will simply tell in 
 narrative form what I do, giving my reasons why, where 
 they may not be self-apparent. 
 
 My apparatus consists of a little pamphlet of 46 pages, 
 bound in paper and selling for a few cents. It is published 
 in this cheap form because by Christmas it has usually 
 shared the fate of the penny Catechism, and the boys 
 especially have twisted, turned and tortured it into all 
 kinds of shapes, and have developed an almost diabolic 
 ingenuity in secreting it in the most unexpected and inac- 
 cessible parts of their garments. In order that you may 
 be better able to follow me, I have sent a few dozen 
 copies to be distributed among you. The children know it 
 as the Mass Book. 
 
 Half the book, from page 10 to 34, is taken up with the Or- 
 der of the Mass. I notice that even the new English Missals 
 stick to the "Ordinary of the Mass," which is not Roman. 
 Our Missal has Ordo Missae, not Ordinarium Missae. I 
 put the Order of the Mass not at the beginning of the 
 book, _ but in the middle first, because that is the place it 
 occupies in the authorized Missal, reminding us that Sun- 
 day is the weekly observance of the Resurrection, and be- 
 cause, to reach the Proper, you have to turn only half the 
 number of pages, and, last, but not least, because it is 
 easier on the binding. In that Order of the Mass there is 
 only what is in the Missal with the rubrics, of course, 
 practically excised. 
 
 As in the Roman Missal, the book begins with the Proper 
 of the Masses of the season first, Advent, then Christmas, 
 then Epiphany, followed by Septuagesima and Lent. After 
 the Order of the Mass, we have, on page 35, Easter, then 
 
 70 
 
Appendices. 
 
 Ascesion and Pentecost, with Masses for Trinity, Corpus 
 Christi, Blessed Virgin, Confirmation and First Com- 
 munion; the last two are, of course, extra-Liturgical, but 
 very useful. 
 
 If you examine these Masses you will see that they are 
 all built on a uniform system. First, a seasonable hymn 
 called the Introit, a second hymn or anthem called the 
 Gradual, a third hymn called the Offertory, and a fourth 
 hymn called the Communion. These hymns are not, of 
 course, the Liturgical Introits and Graduals, but they are 
 sung at the Introit or Gradual of the Mass, and the title 
 makes the children familiar with the proper names of 
 these parts of the Mass. I would call your attention to 
 the fact that I have made the Communion an anthem of 
 the Blessed Virgin, and that there is always one Latin 
 hymn either in the proper or in the common. 
 
 You know that in the Mass there are three lines 01 
 prayers first, the Sacrificial Prayers proper to the priest 
 as sacrificer, such as the Preface and the Canon ; secondly, 
 Personal Devotional Prayers proper to the priest as an 
 individual, such as the Forty-second Psalm and the Con- 
 fession ; thirdly, the Prayers belonging to the people or the 
 choir, such as the Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, and the 
 rest. Now, my object is to have the children sing or recite 
 in English what a college choir in a Gregorian Mass would 
 chant in Latin, remembering always that in the Proper 
 we have adapted hymns not the Liturgical Introits, Grad- 
 uals, etc. 
 
 If you will begin at page 10, we will run briefly through 
 the Mass. The children assemble in church at the hour for 
 their Mass, and, kneeling down, they make their prepara- 
 tion, which consists of what the priest recites at the foot of 
 the altar. Sometimes a priest may act as reader, sometimes 
 a teacher, sometimes a parishioner. All that is necessary 
 is that he read slowly and clearly, and keep his wits about 
 him. He should have nothing to do with the discipline 
 of the children, as his office of reader will need his whole 
 attention. 
 
 Having finished the Preparation, the organ gives the tune 
 for the Introit, and at that signal the celebrant enters 
 the sanctuary; the children stand and immediately begin 
 the Introit hymn. When the celebrant has arranged the 
 chalice, and has come to the foot of the altar (which 
 should be done in the interval between the first and second 
 
 71 
 
Appendices. 
 
 verses), the children kneel and continue the hymn. By 
 the time the celebrant has read the Introit, the children 
 have finished, and immediately the reader begins, "Lord, 
 have mercy," which is continued alternately by the boys 
 and the girls. In like manner, the Gloria is said, the cele- 
 brant timing himself not to go ahead of the children a 
 difficult task in the beginning, especially for nervous per- 
 sons. 
 
 After the Gloria the reader recites the Collect from his 
 Missal, and then follows with the Epistle for the day. By 
 this time the celebrant has finished the Gradual, and while 
 the book is changed, the children rise and sing their Grad- 
 ual verse. After the Gospel the celebrant turns to the 
 children, reads the Gospel in English, makes the announce- 
 ments, and gives the instruction. 
 
 The reader begins with the celebrant, "I believe in one 
 God," which the boys and girls continue alternately. Here 
 it will be especially necessary for the celebrant to time 
 himself so that he may not genuflect at the Incarnatus 
 before the children have come to it. During the Offertory 
 the children sing their hymn, and the reader begins the 
 Preface with the celebrant. The children recite the "Sanc- 
 tus," and there is silence until after the Elevation, when 
 they sing a hymn to the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 The "Our Father" is recited in chorus, and the "Agnus 
 Dei" by the boys and girls alternately. At the "Domine 
 Non Sum Dignus" they may sing three times the little 
 hymn, "O Lord, I am not worthy." Then they sing the 
 anthem set for the Communion; the reader recites the 
 Post Communion, and there is silence to the end of the 
 Mass, when they sing a hymn of thanksgiving. 
 
 You see at once that the children are kept going all the 
 time, and all the time they are following with the priest. 
 You see, too, it requires almost perfect drill, because if 
 this way of attending Mass is not done with precision it 
 degenerates rapidly into a riot. Corruptio optimi pessima. 
 
 I begin with the school year, which is the season after. 
 Pentecost. This is the longest of all the seasons, and 
 gives us a good chance to ground ourselves in the work 
 without having the frequent changes in the hymns proper 
 to the other seasons. You will note, too, on page 38, that 
 the hymns prescribed are easy and familiar, so that even 
 at the very first year we can get good results. Then I 
 divide the prayers amongst the grades. The First Grade 
 
 72 
 
Appendices. 
 
 learns to read the "Our Father," the "Kyrie," the short 
 responses and the "Agnus Dei," together with the hymns, 
 "Angel of God," "O Lord, I am not worthy," etc. In 
 the Second Grade, in addition, they learn the "Sanctus," 
 their part of the "Gloria," and the answers to Psalm 42. 
 In the hymns they can take nearly all the Intriots. In the 
 Third Grade they learn to read the Nicene Creed and the 
 Gospel of St. John, and a select number of hymns. In the 
 Fourth Grade they read and get a general explanation of 
 the Offertory Prayers and the Canon, and they should now 
 know by heart all their own part of the Mass. All this 
 can be done by giving steady and systematic instruction 
 for five minutes every day in the school. Of course, I take 
 it for granted that the teaching of the hymns is taken up 
 in the regular singing period, and that wherever there may 
 be reading, parsing, analysis, etc., they come in the lan- 
 guage period. 
 
 Then, on Friday afternoon, I bring the children into the 
 church and put them through the Mass. Continual care 
 has to be given to prevent them from drawling the hymns 
 and galloping through the prayers. After three or four 
 weeks, the drill is pretty well understood, and I take up 
 parts of the Mass, such as the Gloria or Credo, and give a 
 special practice on reading them reverently and intelligently. 
 Later on, as the seasons change, I explain their significance 
 and the meaning of the hymns. Through it I intersperse 
 now on one day, now on another, short instruction on the 
 Church, the altar, the vestments, and the like. Before Com- 
 munion and Confirmation I have found it valuable and 
 interesting to the children to take them into the sacristy 
 and sanctuary, and show them at close range the altar and 
 its ornaments. Some people object to this, as leading to 
 irreverence, but I have never found it so if the matter is 
 properly handled. 
 
 73 
 

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