Bulletin of Catholic University of Peking

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF PEKING

TI Co

of lectures is offered on various topics, of which the most frequently chosen is religion. The lectures are free to all. The Christian students are required by their parents to attend. The others are merely invited. Thus perfect liberty is permitted, and only those nonCatholics interested in the doctrine will attend. Whatever plan is adopted, it is enough for us to state that the requirements for registration can be met without sacrifice of principle.

On the other hand there.are peculiar circumstances that make registration highly desirable at the present time. In the first place, if all Catholic institutions are registered, the Church will have an official place on the Chinese scheme of education and her graduate students will be eligible equally with those of other schools for positions of responsibility in the government. A failure to apply for registration is interpreted to be an acknowledgment that the institution is unable to conform to, or rather to attain to, the standards required. It also de-

bars students who graduate from the

unregistered schools from attending registered universities, should they wish to continue their studies. Another consideration is that by showing a spirit of co-operation now, Catholic educators can do much to bring about such changes that perfect religious liberty will be allowed in the government program. As a matter of fact, whatever restrictions do exist, have been in a large measure due to abuses in the past on the part of missionaries. Ina spirit of misguided zeal, some of them have practically made the adoption of their particular form of religious belief the price of an education.

The Chinese government naturally

looks upon this method of making converts as an infringement of the rights of the parents and the students’ liberty of conscience. [tis undeniable that many Chinese have come to identify mission schools with proselytism. There is no question here of bad faith or deceitful measures. It is simply true that in a large number of cases the impression exists. The Catholic schools, by conforming to the government requirements and yet looking after their own children and those who wish to learn about our doctrines, can illustrate the spirit behind the Church’s Canon Law (which insists on perfect liberty in this matter) and thus bring about a wholesome change of attitude.

Since, therefore, theoretically there is no reason for not having Catholic schools, we may state that the outstanding problems which confront Catholic education in China are those in reference to the curriculum, textbooks, and teachers. Dom Francis Clougherty pointed out the efforts made by the Chinese government to devise a curriculum suited to the needs of China as well as to the ideals of education. The same problem exists for the Catholic schools to a certain extent. They must be in a position to offer a curriculum which will satisfy the requirements of the government, and which will lead to that broad culture which should mark Catholic education. To quote again the same American educator: ‘‘Culture implies a certain breadth of view, a wide range of knowledge, infact, making a man many-sided, and it demands that this knowledge be held in the mind, not in a series of discrete entities but as one living correlated whole. This many-sidedness must not mean mere information or