Circular letter from Fr. Bernard Clery

Page 1

St. Joseph's Rectory Roseburg, Oregon October 3, 1924 My Dear Parishioner: The Parochial school, as a Parochial school, is closed. Whether it opens or not next year depends upon you. It shall open and be in charge of some well known and recognized teaching Sisterhood in this State, if every earner in the parish will pledge some financial aid, monthly, for the material support of the Sisters. If this letter fails in winning your active support in this matter, then be it known to you that all of the property with the exception of the lot or lots on which the Church stands will be taxed, amounting to $200.00 or $250.00 a year, because it was the school and the playground when used as such that exempted this property from taxation. If the taxes cannot be met then the property will certainly be sold. Let us first face these facts, then we may begin to do business and get somewhere. If you fail to realize the necessity for the existence of flourishing private or parochial schools in this age of mental and moral wrecks, you certainly are not in touch with the current religious thought. If you deny that the training of all the faculties of the child must go hand in hand with the developing of the intellect, to fashion men and women possessing the highest ideals and the noblest instincts of manhood and womanhood, you are blind to the everyday experience of the average man and woman. You are in opposition to Catholic sentiment and Catholic teaching. You are running counter to the centuries-old experience of that Church to which you have the high honor to belong, for She has at all times and in all places expressly demanded that the secular education of her children be not divorced from their religious education. It is only in private or parochial schools that you find this system of education. Therefore, a parochial school is necessary. The Necessity of Supporting It: I have very little time and less inclination to discuss at length the various objections or excuses urged against general support of the Parochial School, for all of them are of the flimsiest nature, hardly worth the passing thought of a well balanced mind. However, the following paragraphs will disclose the selfish hollowness of any and every excuse advanced to escape the obligation of school support, penury alone excepted. The Catholic children in America today will be the Catholic men and women of America tomorrow. As the Catholic children are today, so will the Church in America be tomorrow, humanly speaking. Where will Catholic children learn respect, love and loyalty for all things Catholic, if not in the Parochial School? Is it too much to request you to help in a financial way to resuscitate the Parochial school and place it upon a solid and permanent foundation? It can be done at small cost to you if everyone will help. Has posterity no claims upon you? Is the future of Catholicity in Roseburg no concern of yours? No man can say with any show of reason that responsibility for Catholi…