HIS GRACE ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD

New Zealand Tablet, 27 May 1915, Page 24

HIS GRACE ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD

EXPECTS TO ARRIVE IN NEW ZEALAND NEXT MONTH. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA. The following interesting letter, addressed to the editor of this paper by his Grace Archbishop Redwood; has just come to hand: —- Marist College, Washington, D.C., April 16, 1915. ' To avoid the dangerous war zone, I came to New York, some days ago, direct from Genoa, via Naples, on board the fine Italian liner, Duca d' Aosta. I am on my way, by easy stages, to San Francisco, where I intend to embark on the Willochra for New Zealand on the 26th of May, and I shall arrive, please God, at Wellington on the 17th of June. I reached Washington the day before yesterday, and had the good fortune to drop into what interested me exceedingly—the solemn celebration of the 25th year after the foundation of the Catholic University of America. I feel sure that an early and brief account of the whole proceedings will interest your readers and all friends of Catholic education. With the active participation of three American Cardinals, of Baltimore, New York, and Boston, and the large attendance of Catholic hierarchy, distinguished by a long, cordial letter from Pope Benedict XV., and encouraged by representatives of sixty of the leading universities and colleges of the United States, the Catholic University of America observed, on Thursday, 15th of April, the twenty-fifth anniversary of its opening. Twelve laymen, who have rendered distinguished services for the advancement of society and the benefaction of their fellow men in various callings, received honorary degrees as follows:—The degree of Doctor of Laws was granted to nine gentlemen, and the doctorate in Letters to three others. The principal events of the day were Solemn Pontifical Mass of thanksgiving, in St. Patrick's Church at 10 a.m. ; luncheon to invited guests at 1 p.m. in the New Willard Hotel, academic exercises at 3 p.m. in the New National Theatre, and the alumnis' banquet at night in the New Willard. The master of ceremonies for the entire celebration was Dr. Thomas Carrigan, of Worcester, Mass., dean of the University Law School. Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, Cardinal Farley of New York, and Cardinal O'Connell of Boston, Most Rev. John Bonzano (the Papal Delegate) nine Archbishops, thirty Bishops, thirty-one Monsignors, eight heads of religious Orders, more than 300 priests, and hundreds of distinguished Catholic laymen and women from all over the United States, assisted at the service in St. Patrick's. The .academic procession marched from Carroll Hall around the corner into St. Patrick's Church, marshalled by Very Rev. George A. Dougherty, vice-rector of the University, and Professor James A. Connor, of Northampton, Mass., instructor in mathematics. The sanctuary was tastefully and lavishly decorated, with the Papal colors and those of the University. Cardinal Farley was celebrant. The singing of the choir was appropriate and excellent. After the Gospel Cardinal Gibbons spoke from the pulpit in part as follows: ' For the growth of the University we are indebted above all to the God of Wisdom for Whose glory the work was begun. To the great Pontiffs, Leo XIII. and Pius X., and to their successor, Pope Benedict XV., we make public acknowledgment of our gratitude. To the Catholics of the United States we return our thanks for their generous support. ' The experience of these twenty-five years emphasises the needs which the University aims to supply —the need of Divine truth to complete our human knowledge, of Divine justice as the highest sanction of law, of the spirit of Christ in our ministrations of mercy and love. There is no real liberty without law, and there is no meaning of validity of law unless it be

observed. The . growth of democracy ; does not implythat' each man shall become a law unto himself," but that he shall feel in himself the obligation to obey. If the enacting power has been transferred: from the \ will of the ruler to the will of the people the binding coercive power ha-s been laid with greater stress of responsibility than ever before upon the individual conscience. _ Unless men be taught that obedience is right and honorable and necessary alike for private interest and public weal, legislation will avail but little, the lawmaking power will become a mockery and the people themselves will complain that legislation has been carried to excess. But conscience has need of a higher sanction than any merely human sense of justice. To meet the requirements of our religious, social, and political situation is a duty that we owe to the Church and to our country. To fulfil it, we must combine our efforts, and I rejoice that in the Catholic University a centre of thought and action has been provided.' Following the luncheon, at which 641 guests were seated, the academic procession proceeded to the New National Theatre. The invocation or prayer was pronounced by Cardinal Gibbons, and Bishop Shahan, Rector of the Catholic University, made introductory remarks. A letter of benediction from Pope Benedict XV. was read. Then Cardinal O'Connell spoke on the office and responsibility of the University in American life, saying in part: ' We stand to-day at the beginning of a new era in the history of higher Catholic education in America. We rejoice in the goodly heritage of these twenty-five years ; but we also look with much solemn thought to the future. ' The University is, first of all, a home of culture. ( It trains men of learning, of noble ideals and high standards, and through them it determines the culture of the nation. But it also trains the leaders, explaining the functions of the State, the rights and duties of citizenship; the vital problems of society, its ills and their remedies. In the school of pedagogy it provides the future educators with ideals, with the principles and the methods to be applied to the nation's schools. In the classes of philosophy it imparts fundamental notions regarding the nature and the destiny of man and the relation of human institutions to both. The University must be practical. The worth of every •university is measured by the closeness of its contact with the body politic and" by the success with which it meets the nation's needs. It must be conservative, revering and transmitting the heritage of the past; but it must also be progressive, dealing prudently with new needs and problems. We Catholics are deeply interested in university education because, as loyal American citizens, we have at heart whatever is of vital concern to the Church and the nation. The existence of this Catholic University is an evidence quite as much of our interest in our country as of our interest in our Church. Both Catholic and American, the University will gain force through its service to the country, while its Cath- , olicity will keep it in constant and unerring touch with that tremendous spiritual world power which has maintained the whole truth in all ages—the Chair of Blessed Peter.' Mr. Stanley Hall, President of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., in speaking as representative of the Association of American Universities, gave high praise to the Catholic Church as being the faithful mother of universities. lie said in part: —■ ' The medieval universities were not. fiat institutions, created by Church, State,, or millionaires, but they grew inevitably out of the inmost needs of the time, and the bulls and edicts usually confirmed a status already attained. Their close relations to the Church gave to learning a consecration that it never had in antiquity, and which it may never have again.. The subject matter has, of course, changed much with the times, but nearly every feature of student life, method of teaching and learning, item of organisation, academic custom, and even costume, was already developed in the thirty-five universities established in Europe before the discovery of America. They and their work and itr

results constitute perhaps the greatest achievement of the Middle Ages, and their effects upon the progress of Europe and the world has been without precedent or parallel. They made Roman law the instrument by which Europe w,as reorganised after the successive waves of barbarian invasion. Canon law evolved from and established the policy of the Church at the acme of. its power. Philosophy unified not only the old and the new culture, but the human mind itself. Medicine represented not only the healing art, but made Salerno and Montpellier' the cradle of science, and not only the second but the first renaissance was largely their work. The institutions and the very idea of curriculum, of examinations, of degrees, and of all the organisations of learning 'into one institution—these four were unknown in antiquity, and were the foundation of their achievements. The spectacle of large bodies of young men, that had assembled from all parts of Europe, fired with the love of learning, appealed profoundly to the world and attracted the first benefactions. These came first in the form of halls in which students could live, and be slowly subjected to. wholesome control in an ago not without lawlessness, and then in the form of stipends and scholarships, under various names, the proceeds of which were devoted to the individual students under special conditions. Of these there are now thousands in Europe, some of them going back to the twelfth century. Popes, princes, and towns lavished privileges and immunities of many kinds upon universities, which sometimes seceded. At Bologna students, mostly of law, who wore older and richer than elsewhere for a long time, governed and elected the professors annually, paid them, determined their duties, and mulcted them for a long list of shortcomings. The Church stood for freedom, not only of teaching, and learning, but for university autonomy, and it often did so against its own local authorities.' In conclusion, the si)eaker urged that in no ways had universities rendered such measureless services to the community and to the world, or been in closer touch with all vital interests about them than the typical institutions of these days, and urged that the study of their development should always be made not ■only a part of culture history, but of the study of education, and that the main features of their work should be included in the modern studies of theology, law, and medicine. Very Rev. John Cavanagh, President of Notre Dame University, 'End., represented the Catholic Colleges and Universities. Speaking on the ' Mission of the University,' he said in part: ' This is the mission of the Catholic University of America: To restore and perpetuate the ancient friendship between science and religion and their Heavenly Father. It is the mission, in greater or less measure,

according to means and opportunity, of every Catholic school. To-day, by none commissioned and wearing no authority, I venture to lay at the feet of this noble school, a tribute of admiration from all Catholic teachers of America. The Catholic University, like every other great spiritual enterprise, has passed through vicissitudes, but it has never lacked a marvellous 'loyalty and devotion— the illustrious Cardinal of Baltimore, from the Hierarchy of America, from officers and faculty and students, sometimes the service has been heroic; always it has been an inspiring example to us who' watched it from afar. In a spirit of loftiest conservation her professors have wrought unsparingly to fulfil her mission, with results that make the .world her debtor. Twenty-five years is a brief space in the life of a university when one thinks of the centurial schools of the old world, but these twenty-five years have been rich in achievement, and they have left the University immeasurably richer in promise. That God may abundantly reward the achievement and bless and fructify the promise is the prayer which, out of our heart of hearts, we send up for you to-day.’ V The response for recipients of the honorary degrees was ably and eloquently made by Walter Georg© Smith, in which he said, infer cilia —‘ To all who have received the gift of faith it must be a cause of rejoicing that the Catholic University has come into being, and after twenty-five years of trial has established herself on foundations so broad and deep that a mighty superstructure may be predicted in the not distant future. To her, as to a pure fountain 6f truth, the millions of the Church in America will look with confident hope. To those who realise the mighty experiment in democratic government to America, even though they are separated from the communion of the Church, her existence must be a satisfaction, for it is the pledge that self-govern-ment and constant pursuit of ever-increasing moral excellence are the guiding principles* she impresses on her students. Here, at the capital of the nation, where the lessons of patriotism may be taught in plain view of the inner working of our marvellous political constitution, the just relations of the government to the governed are readily impressed upon the receptive minds of youth. The many and flourishing institutions already in existence when the University was called into being will not find their usefulness impeded or their work duplicated, but the higher education for which their own facilities were not intended, a fid for which they are inadequate, will be the cap-stone of a system that will meet the ideal in a perfect curriculum. The American people have a just pride in their capital city, and gather inspiration from its growing beauty. With a broad wisdom that is yearly fulfilling the designs of the illustrious Washington, whose name it bears, the

City of Washington has been conceived on a scale of magnificence that will make it the wonder and admiration of generations. But it is not its material grandeur, its noble monuments, its ornate buildings, its "stately avenues, or the wealth of art, that give it its true distinction in the minds of those who can best estimate the value of human achievement. It is rather the spirit that it typifies, which, while responding to the sentiment of the masses of the people, recognises an obligation so to mould its expression that no harm may come to the common weal from hasty judgments or inconsiderate action.. This was the teaching of the Father ■of his Country, this was'the spirit embodied in our fundamental political law, and, making allowances for the inevitable limitations of human character, this the spirit .which has directed our government from the beginning.' The academic exercises closed with the Benediction by Cardinal Farley, and thus, for the American Catholic body at large closed a great and memorable day. Yours faithfully, ❖ Francis Redwood, S.M., Archbishop of Wellington.