Two letters suggested by the present educational crisis: I. Religion is indispensable as the foundation of all instruction. II. Moral and religious education, to be really useful and efficacious to a nation, must be received in the Schools. Addressed to The Honourable Ramiro Barbaro

Abstract

I have read with a great deal of interest, in your influential paper, several recent articles having for their object the reform of our public education on the basis of the Catholic religion. The Honourable Cachia Zammit proposed in his Educational Bill to render religious instruction obligatory, both in the Elementary Schools and Lyceum ; and you very justly complain that no religious basis exists in the education which is imparted in the University and Lyceum, since the lectures given once a week in the Oratory of the Gesu - limited to a small number of boys - are not calculated to exercise any influence in the formation of the hearts and minds of the youth during the course of their studies. Time has been wasted for years in the council and in the journals, promising new schemes and systems, which, as far as one can understand, are only of secondary importance, and have to the present day produced nothing but disputes and discussions; whilst the most vital question has been left till now unnoticed. I could not, therefore, describe the pleasure which the reading of the articles in your journal has afforded me; as it appears evident you intend to give that importance to the basis of all instruction in our schools which it deserves. Archbishop Manning lately said, 'A Catholic nation has all right, human and divine, to a Catholic education.' The people of Malta have been Catholic since the times of the Apostles. Education must, therefore, be essentially Catholic. It is by this means that we can uphold unchanged the character of our population and the traditions of our faith transmitted to us by the Apostle St. Paul... [Excerpt]