Excerpt from Catholic Citizens and Public Education: A Brief Statement Giving Report of Attendance and Expenses of Parish Schools in the City of New York When we consider the history of Catholic education during the fifty years that have just elapsed, and note the many seri ous obstacles which our Catholic schools have had to contend with, and at the same time go over the roll-call of prominent Catholics who have had their early training in these schools archbishops, bishops, and priests, and religious men and women whose vocation has been fostered in them; eminent laymen now filling positions of trust and honor, whose consciences were there formed, and who had there learned to be proud of their faith and to practise its teachings to the best of their ability we are compelled to regard these schools, even in their least efficient forms, with great respect. In no sense are they fail ures. In no sense are they to be abandoned or neglected; rather, in the very words of Leo XIII. Concerning these schools, every effort should be made to multiply Catholic schools and to bring them to perfect equipment. There are great difficulties to be overcome in maintaining and promoting the parish school. The fact is not for a moment to be lost sight of that our parish schools, as at present managed, are a great burden upon the people and a great source of solicitude for the clergy. On account of their limited resources they are restricted in the sphere of their usefulness. The brotherhoods and sisterhoods that are teaching orders are with great difficulty and much economizing scarcely enabled to make ends meet, out of the pittance that they receive as salary. Inquire into the extent of that salary; think of the plain, bare mode of life that these religious lead; figure out their many privations - not physical or mental privations. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.