instruction of Catholics:

"It is not wonderful that these unhappy efforts (to spread irreligious
and revolutionary principles) should be directed chiefly to corrupt the
training and education of youth; and there is no doubt that the greatest
injury is inflicted on society, when the directing authority and
salutary power of the Church are withdrawn from public and private
education, on which the happiness of the Church and of the Commonwealth
depends so much. For thus society is, little by little, deprived of that
truly Christian spirit which alone can permanently secure the foundation
of peace and public order, and promote and direct the true and useful
progress of civilization, and give man those helps which are necessary
for him in order to attain, after this life, his last end
hereafter--eternal happiness. And in truth a system of teaching, which
not only is limited to the knowledge of natural things, and does not
pass beyond the bounds of our life on earth, but also departs from the
truth revealed by God, must necessarily be guided by the spirit of error
and lies; and education, which, without the aid of the Christian
doctrine and of its salutary moral precepts, instructs the minds and
moulds the tender heart of youth, which is so prone to evil, must
infallibly produce a generation which will have no guide but its own
wicked passions and wild conceits, and which will be a source of the
greatest misfortunes to the Commonwealth and their own families.

"But if this detestable system of education, so far removed from
Catholic faith and ecclesiastical authority, becomes a source of evils,
both to individuals and to society, when it is employed in the higher
teaching, and in schools frequented by the better class, who does not
see that the same system will give rise to still greater evils, if it be
introduced into primary schools? For it is in these schools, above all,
that the children of the people ought to be carefully taught from their
tender years the mysteries and precepts of our holy religion, and to be
trained with diligence to piety, good morals, religion and civilization.
In such schools religious teaching ought to have so leading a place in
all that concerns education and instruction, that whatever else the
children may learn should appear subsidiary to it. The young,
therefore, are exposed to the greatest perils whenever, in the schools,
education is not closely united with religious teaching. Wherefore,
si