CHRISTIAN
711
CHRISTIAN
to counteract these insidious influences the Holy
Father called the Irish brothers to his side. The re-
sult amply justified his confidence. A foundation
was made in New York, the first in the United States,
in 1906.
The schools of the Irish Christian Brothers are of many types, representing divers phases of educational work, primary, secondary and industrial, with orphan- apes and schools for the deaf and dumb. These vari- ous institutions arc nearly all equipped with laborato- ries for the practical teaching of physical and chemical science, and in many eases with workshops for manual training. Their secondary schools and colleges crown the educational edifices, affording to clever boys, irres- pective of their position in life, an opportunity of pursuing a course of higher studies which would be otherwise entirely denied them. In foreign countries provinces of the order are established with the sanc- tion of the Holy See, but as prescribed by the Brief, the whole institute is governed by the superior gen- eral, who, with his assistants, resides at St. Mary's, Marino, Dublin.
J. L. Slatteky.
Christian Charity, Sisters of, also called Daugh- ters of the Immaculate Conception, an in- stitute for teaching poor schools and for the care of the blind, founded at Paderborn, Germany, on 21 August, 1849, by Pauline von Mallinckrodt (b. 3 June, 1817, at Minden, Westphalia; d. 30 April, 1881), sister to the famous Hermann von Mallinck- rodt. The institute, which was confirmed 7 Feb., 1888, by Leo XIII, had attained great success throughout Germany when, in 1873, its members were forced into exile by the persecution of the Kullur- knmpj. Some went to South America, where there are now many flourishing communities. Others emigrated to New Orleans, U. S. A., where, in April, 1873, they founded a house and took charge of a parochial school. Mother Pauline followed shortly after and established a new provincial mother-house, at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Since then these sisters have opened houses in the Archdioceses of Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Phila- delphia, St. Louis, and St. Paul, and in the Dioceses nf Albany, Belleville, Brooklyn, Detroit, Harrisburg, Newark, Sioux City, and Syracuse. They have in these establishments 668 sisters, 46 novices, 25 postulants, conducting 2 academies, 54 parochial schools, 2 orphan asylums, and 1 industrial school. In 1887 the sisters were allowed to return to Ger- many. lie mother-house at Paderborn was re- I and the activities of the religious extended with their former success throughout Germany. They have houses in Belgium and Bohemia.
It' kff.r, Pauline ton Mallinckrodt (Minister, 18921; Beis- BBL in Kirchenla., VII, 2001; Heimbvcher, Orden und Kon- grcnationen (Paderborn, 1897); Catholic Directory (Milwaukee,
I9 * F. M. Rudge.
Christian Doctrine, Confraternity of, an asso-
- i established at Rome in 1562 for the purpose
o! giving religious instruction. Till about the thir- teenth century, the Apostles' Creed ami Paternoster formed the general basis of religious instruction; all the faithful had to know them by heart, and parish priest-, were commanded to explain them on Sundays and festivals. Thru the range of instruction was widened to include the Command nts and sacra- ments, the virtues and vices. The Synod of Lambeth under Archbishop Peckham, in 1281, was content to order priests t" explain the truths of faith four times a year, but the Provincial Council of Lavour, in 1368, unded parish priests to give instruction on all Sundays and feast days. This council also published is a textbook for the clergy in giving instructions in Christian doctrine, which was followed in all the dioceses of Languedoc and Gas-
cony. Similar manuals were published elsewhere.
The Council of Trent, seeing how multitudes had fal-
len from the Faith through ignorance of their religion,
and recognizing the truth proclaimed by Gerson more
than a century before, that church reform must begin
with the religious instruction of the young, issued the
"Catechismus ad Parochos", and decreed that
throughout the Church instructions in Christian doc-
trine should be given on Sundays and festivals.
But the work of organizing religious instruction had already begun. In 1536 the Abbate Castellino da Castello had inaugurated a system of Sunday-schools in Milan. About 1560, a wealthy Milanese nobleman, Marco de Sadis-Cusani, having established himself in Rome, was joined by a number of zealous associates, priests and laymen, pledged to instruct both children and adults in Christian doctrine. Pope Pius IV in 1562 made the church of Sant' Apollinare their cen- tral institution; but they also gave instructions in schools, in the streets and lanes, and even in private houses. The association growing, it divided into two sections: the priests formed themselves into a relig- ious congregation, "The Fathers of Christian Doc- trine", while the laymen remained in the world as " The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine". Encour- agement from the Holy See was quickly forthcoming. In 1571, Pope St. Pius V, in the Brief "Ex debito pas- t oralis officii ", bore witness to the good already accom- plished, and recommended bishops to establish it in every parish. Pope Paul V, by the Brief "Ex credito nobis", in 1607, erected it into an archconfraternity, with St. Peter's, Rome, as its head centre. A re- script of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, in 1686, urged its establishment wherever possible. From Rome it spread rapidly over Italy, France, and Ger- many. It found advocates in Cardinal Bellarmine, St. Francis of Sales, and St. Charles Borromeo, who drew up a code of rules and established it in every parish of his diocese.
The First Provincial Council of Westminster urged that its members should be utilized in both Sunday- and day-schools; but while Sunday-schools are plenti- ful, the confraternity is only sparsely established in England. Lastly, in 1905, Pope Pius X strictly or- dained that "in each and every parish the society commonly called the Confraternity of Christian Doc- trine shall be canonically erected". If the central confraternity in a diocese is affiliated to the Archcon- fraternity of Santa Maria del Pianto in Rome, all others participate in all the confraternity Indulgences.
Similar in scope and character to the above are the Pieuses Unions de la Doctrine Chretienne, founded by the Dames de V Adoration Perpiiuelle at Brussels in 1851, for giving religious instruction to boys ami girls. In Brussels they are found in about thirty parishes. In 1894 Leo XIII erected it into an archconfraternity for Belgium.
The Archconfraternity of Voluntary Cate- chists {(Euvre des Catcchumes) was founded to help parish priests in giving religious instructions to child- ren attending the primary schools in Paris and other parts of France, after these had been laicized. In 1893 Leo XIII gave it the rank of an archconfrater- nity with power to affiliate all similar confraternities in France. The Indulgences granted to all these con- fraternities are very numerous.
Berinoer, La Indtigei Pari 1905); La Voia de Dim:
un JubUt Eucharittimu (Tournai, 1898); Vauohan, Manual
<>! the Confraternity m Christian Doctrine: Hanqbnot in Diet.
eath.,s.x.Catc f chismc (Paris, 190:i); OiiBL in Kirch-
enlex.t 8. v. Christenlehre.
M. C. Glancey.
Christian Instruction, Brothers of, a congre-
gation founded in 1817 at Saint-Brieuc, Cotes-du-
Nord, France, by Jean-Marie Robert de la Mennais
(b. 1 780; d. I860), for the instruction of youth. The
institute was founded primarily to supply the de-
