SPECTATA
FIDES
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
To
Our Venerable Brethren, Henry Edward,
Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church,
of the Title of SS. Andrew and Gregory on the Coelian Hill,
Archbishop of Westminster, and the other Bishops of England.
Venerable
Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction.
Your
proved fidelity and singular devotion to this Apostolic See are admirably
shown in the Letter which We have lately received from you. Our pleasure
in receiving it is indeed increased by the further knowledge which it
gives Us of your great vigilance and anxiety, in a matter where no care
can be too great: We mean the Christian education of your children, upon
which you have lately taken counsel together, and have reported to us
the decisions to which you came.
2.
In this work of so great moment, Venerable Brethren, We rejoice much to
see that you do not work alone; for We know how much is due to the whole
body of your clergy. With the greatest charity, and with unconquered efforts,
they have provided schools for their children; and, with wonderful diligence
and assiduity, they endeavour by their teaching to form them to a Christian
life, and to instruct them in the elements
of knowledge. Wherefore, with all the encouragement and praise that Our
voice can give, We bid your clergy to go on in their meritorious work,
and to be assured of Our special commendation and good will, looking forward
to a far greater reward from our Lord God for Whose sake they are labouring.
3.
Not less worthy of commendation is the generosity of Catholics in this
matter. We know how readily they supply what is needed for the maintenance
of schools; not only those who are wealthy, but those also who are of
slender means, and poor; and it is beautiful to see how, often from the
earnings of their poverty, they willingly contribute to the education
of children.
4.
In these days, and in the present condition of the world, when the tender
age of childhood is threatened on every side by so many and such various
dangers, hardly anything can be imagined more fitting than the union with
literary instruction of sound teaching in faith and morals. For this reason
We have more than once said that We strongly approve of the Voluntary
schools, which, by the work and liberality of private individuals, have
been established in France, in Belgium, in America, and in the colonies
of the British Empire. We desire their increase, as much as
possible, and that they may flourish in the number of their scholars.
We Ourselves also, seeing the condition of things in this city, continue,
with the greatest effort and at great cost, to provide an abundance of
such schools for the children of Rome. For it is in and by these schools
that the Catholic faith, our greatest and best inheritance, is preserved
whole and entire. In these schools the liberty of parents is respected;
and, what is most needed, especially in the prevailing license of opinion
and of action, it is by these schools that good citizens are brought up
for the State; for there is no better citizen than the man who has believed
and practiced the Christian faith from his childhood. The beginning and,
as it were, the seed of that human perfection which Jesus Christ gave
to mankind, are to be found in the Christian education of the young; for
the future condition of the State depends upon the early training of its
children. The wisdom of our forefathers, and the very foundations of the
State, are ruined by the destructive error of those who would have children
brought up without religious education. You see, therefore Venerable Brethren,
with what earnest forethought parents must beware of intrusting their
children to schools in which they cannot receive religious teaching.
5. In your country of Great Britain We know that, besides yourselves,
very many of your nation are not a little anxious about religious education.
They do not in all things agree with Us; nevertheless they see how important,
for the sake both of society and of men individually, is the preservation
of that Christian wisdom which your forefathers received through St. Augustine,
from Our Predecessor, Gregory the Great: which
wisdom the violent tempests that came afterwards have not entirely scattered.
There are, as We know, at this day, many of an excellent disposition of
mind, who are diligently striving to retain what they can of the ancient
faith, and who bring forth many and great fruits of charity. As often
as We think of this, so often are we deeply moved, for We love with a
paternal charity that island which was not undeservedly called the Mother
of Saints; and We see, in the disposition of mind of which We have spoken,
the greatest hope and, as it were, a pledge of the welfare and prosperity
of the British people.
6. Go on, therefore, Venerable Brethren, in making the young your chief
care; press onward in every way your episcopal work; and cultivate with
alacrity and hopefulness whatever good seeds you find: for God, Who is
rich in mercy will give the increase.
7.
As a pledge of gifts from above, and in witness of Our good will, We lovingly
grant in the Lord to you, and to the clergy and people committed to each
one of you, the Apostolic Benediction.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the 27th day of November, in the
year 1885, the eighth year of Our Pontificate.
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