GIGANTIC battle is being fought at the moment for the souls of our Catholic children, and we are winning the battle," writes Bishop Murphy of Shrewsbury "A I .E."1""1"1""nirr.'""■ in his Lenten Pastoral letter.
"A
The Bishop, who gives strong reasons for refusing
to allow Catholic children to attend non-Catholic Ambassador: schools in his diocese adds that A child in a nonCatholic school is not merely endangering his own Faith, he is endangering the whole dual system of County and Voluntary schools.
"A few Catholic children in County schools may make all the difference between permission and refusal to build a Catholic school."
One in six of the Catholic children in the Shrewsbury diocese attend non Catholic schools. Many parents have written to the Bishop — " they have given solid reasons. The child is delicate, the journey is long, the roads are treacherous..
" I have refused. They have taken the law into their own 'hands and sent the child to a nonCatholic school.
" Why have I refused ? I appreciate more than you imagine the concern of parents for the physical well-being of their child. I know the agonies they encounter these days, . . . 1 would not add one feather to that burden.
I REFUSE'
" Neither would I add one feather to my own burden. Every extra child in a Catholic school costs another 1380 in the provision (f a new school.
" I refuse." adds Bishop Murphy. " because not only is the salvation of the soul of your child in danger. Your own soul is in danger. I have not laid it down, neither have the Bishops laid it down, but the Infallible Church to which you belong has laid it down . . . parents are bound by a most grave obligation to see to the religious education of their children.
. . many a Catholic parent who has worried about dangerous roads and sent her child to the nearby council school may live to meet many other dangerous roads when her child marries outside the Church, and 'her grandchildren
cannot say the ' Hail Mary ' . .
" We arc called upon in these desperate dayss to shoulder an economic burden which would have appalled our ancestors ; anything up to £100,000.000 worth of school building to reorganise our whole Catholic School system. so as to provide a first-class school for every Catholic child. .
" We look to you not merely to give us the costs of these schools but give us the children. Even if we had the hundred million we would not be allowed to build if we had pot the children in our Catholic schools."
LOURDES AND ,
iiiiii imu iiiiiiiiiiiiiii iii• iiiiiiii ..0
THE MASS
11 would be a mistake to think
that Lourdes speaks to us primarily of Our Lady and that all the fervour and devotion of those who pray there find their ultimate object in the Blessed Virgin," writes Archbishop Godfrey of Westminster in his Pastoral Letter.
The outstanding things of every day at Lourdes, he continues, "are not the many rosaries and the bathings in the pool. but the numerous Masses which are said. the procession of the Blessed Sacrament in the afternoon when the sick await the passing of the Lord . . . and the cleansing waters that flow unceasingly into souls in the sacrament of Penance.
To those who are unable to visit Lourdes this year Archbishop Godfrey suggests a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lads' at Westminster, at Willesden, or at Vvralsingham.
'SWITCH OFF' THE emphasis of the Pastoral A Letter of Archbishop McGrath of Cardiff is upon the overseeing by parents of their children in a world given to materialism.
He reminds parents of " their most grave disobedience when they neglect their duty of sending children to Catholic schools where these are provided."
He refers also to the danger of allowing children to frequent cinemas " which exhibit modern pictures of doubtful nature "; to attend " undesirable lectures." and to see or hear " immodest shows " on radio or television.
Parents are warned to switch off the radio or TV in these circumstances and complain to the parish priest. who will then report to the Archbishop.
DAILY MASS ?
"MY on prayer this Lent will be for religious vocations. Catholic marriages and Catholic
schools," writes Archbishop Heenan of Liverpool.
The Archbishop asks his people not to regard Lent as " art endurance test " and not to " decide too easily that daily Mass is impossible for you. If you try hard you will almost certainly he able to find Mass in some church at a suitable time."
A SUGGESTION
ARCHBISHOP KING, Bishop of ' Portsmouth, offers a suggestion in his Pastoral Letter " that a profitable exercise for most of us would be an honest examination of our consciences in the matter of charitableness.
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