CATHOLICS AND EDUCATION

SIR,—Catholics already owe a great debt to Mr. Scales for his masterly exposition of the relations between Church and State; now we must be further indebted to him for his clear statement of the educational position.
It is indeed good to he reminded that there are responsible Catholic leaders among the Hierarchy who refrain from the far too common move of decrying any educational suggestions from fear that privilege (and, shall we say,' perquisite) ale threatened. Government control, which the Scottish Bishops find satisfactory. and which the Bishops of Pella and Salford would he content to see, is surely not the dreadful thing which some have tried to make it seem. Let us have it by all means ; let us have the Board of Education building and running our schools, appointing our staffs for us—subject to the very necessary proviso that the teaching and practice of our Faith be safeguarded in full. We can save our fulminations until we find the Government is trying to do us down. And we can bear in mind that although critics of the Church do say that we have been doing the Government down, we have as yet had no recriminations from that side. Indeed we have been politely requested to state our terms for falling into line in order to safeguard educational advance.
The trouble is that there appears to be no Catholic Education Authority. We hear the name " Catholic Education Council "; hut although this name seems to promise an oiganisation such as we hope for, it remains but a name for many of those Catholics who are keenly interested in education and devoted to their Faith. Could we hear more, please? Can we have a national body comprising the Bishops, the teaching orders, lay teachers and parents? Can we further be assured that our religious leaders really are as interested in having fully-equipped and wellinformed Catholics as they must obviously be. in the full observance of the practices of Faith, We want a Catholic educational system which will give us Catholics of the Commando type as well as the dim and unworldly studies of the theological schools. We must have our smug and satisfactory Church-going pietistic majority turned into a live body comprising stormtroops, shock-troops, and a first-rate Home Guard for Catholicism. When we arc as keen on Catholicism as the Nazis on their beliefs, when we strive like the Communists to do something to set the world thoroughly at rights in accordance with our beliefs, then we shall be getting somewhere. If we don't buck up. Catholicism as a living force will be done for in our time. And then, God help the world ! There will be some who will tell me all about the Gates of Hell never prevailing ; but they cannot tell me that complacency now won't put Catholicism down (or up) to the level of a catacomb conspiracy. To get out of complacency we need to act together, starting with a confession of our sins both of commission and omission. Let's have a fully representative and plenipotentiary national Catholic Education Council right now to get going with negotiations.
Mr. Reales would be content to have the State appoint Catholic teachers (as in the Scottish system) from a short list of candidates approved of by the " religious bodies." So should I, but only if I were sure that the religious bodies were something more responsible than many of the present boards of school governors. Live Catholics are at present often turned down for being strongly interested in social conditions. or even frowned upori for taking too much interest in the Papal Encyclicals on that subject. t could quote one case of a man being asked not to say much about the Worker's Charter, and not to repeat in undiluted form the Pope's words about educational opportunity for all. Nay, I have known those very words subjected to a concerted barrage of class-conscious criticism from responsible Catholic educationists! Can we then be content with the prospect of these persons drawing up our short list of candidates for educational appointment? We must have a far more widely representative body—a properly constituted Education Council centrally controlled and deputing authority to select candidates locally when the need arises.
There are examinations in Catholic doctrine for teachers. I have taught in Catholic schools, but I have never once been asked to show my certificate of proficiency in matters of the Faith. More use should be made of these examinations to make sure that in the theory of our religion at any rate Catholic teachers are satisfactory. Moreover, as regards the true practice of our Faith, we want someone to select us who doesn't shy at the mention of Labour or Socialism, and who isn't content to see meek droves of the flock merely attending Church services and (for all we know) going to sleep there.
E. J. KING.
31, London Road, Ewell, Surrey.