Catholic Problems in Western Canada Part 10

Were there question only of postgraduate work, of some special course in agriculture, domestic science, there would be no difficulty, we believe, to see Catholic students take advantage of the marvellous facilities our state universities offer. The matter, the short term of these courses or the advanced age of the pupil would be in themselves sufficient guarantee. But what we strongly object to is the Arts Course, and particularly undergraduate work, even were the contentious subjects, such as philosophy and history, be given by Catholic teachers to Catholic students separately. The Arts Course, we must remember, is the real dominating factor in higher education. For we maintain with Cardinal Newman that a University is a place of teaching universal knowledge and that its object is primarily intellectual. It has in view the diffusion and extension of knowledge, rather than its advancement, which is reserved to Academies. It is the Arts Course of a University, particularly its Philosophy, that gives this general knowledge and enlargement of the mind. Its influence is most telling in the various Faculties where students specialize for their future career. For Philosophy plays such a large part in human life, the movement of opinions and the direction of minds. The Catholic student in those most plastic years, in that critical period of receptivity, wherein ideas are a.n.a.lyzed and synthesized for life time, cannot help but imbibe ideas and doctrines opposed to his belief. The elite alone, we believe, can resist in the long run the influence of that indefinable quality called atmosphere, and maintain among so many cross-currents, the right course. The ordinary and inexperienced mind will be, if not contaminated, at least weakened and this alone is disastrous in a leader. Many changes, many transformations, we know, take place in the mind of youth as it emerges "from collegiate visions into the rough path of real life." As Morley wrote, "We know after the event, the tremendous changes of thought ... of conception of life, that coming years and new historic forces were waiting to unfold before the undergraduate when he had once floated out beyond the college bar." Yet, the solid teachings of Catholic Philosophy will remain to him as the charter and compa.s.s when his ship has taken to the high sea. This is the princ.i.p.al reason why we vindicate the right to our own higher education. To push the argument further, we would ask why should we be obliged to pay taxes to have doctrines opposed to our conscience propounded from the professorial chairs of our State University? The granting of a Charter by the State is but the minimum of our rights.

Dream or Reality?

A Catholic University for Western Canada! Is this but the dream of a far off future or can it be a reality within a few years?-There is the problem which now faces the Catholic Church of our Western Provinces and upon which, in our estimation, rests the influence the Church is to have in the formation of the new and most promising part of our Dominion beyond the Great Lakes. A high conception of the duty of the present hour and the whole-hearted co-operation of every Catholic unit in the West, will without doubt bring its happy solution and make our dream a reality. To act on ideal principles with little or no attempt to forecast accurately what is practicable would be to court failure. We are gradually pa.s.sing the mile-stone of pioneer life in the West, and the Church is slowly but surely being organized and entering into full possession of her normal life. The duties which Catholic solidarity imposes upon us as regards the Church and the community at large are growing apace with the status of the Church in these new Provinces. Among these duties none, we believe, are more important than that we owe to the cause of Catholic education. Naturally, the burden of the responsibility falls here upon parents whose bounden duty it is to see that the school, college, university, be, as much as possible but the extension of their Catholic home. The rising generation in the West has a right to the benefits of a higher education; to this right corresponds in the community a duty imposed upon its members by Catholic solidarity. For in the growing youth we see the Country and the Church, with whose future welfare it is necessarily united. A true Catholic must have his vision of what the Church ought to be in his Country and must work to make that vision come true.

Through a Catholic University, and through it only, will the Church give its full contribution to the national life of Western Canada by creating as we said, Catholic leadership. We have as Catholics, ideas to give to the nation, to its up-building, and to its prosperity. The sun of Canadian liberty is shining for our doctrines as it does for other ideals. And, strange to say, the most subversive theories seem to take the greatest and most frequent advantage of this freedom. We have no apology to make for our ideas. They stand on their own merit and have been vindicated by the acid-test of time. To bring our message to the country, to spread its beneficial influence is the mission of our Catholic leaders. Only a large number of truly educated Catholic men are able to make their influence felt on the life and thought of a country.

This identification of a Catholic university with our Western Provinces will be an a.s.set to our public life and beneficial to the people at large, notwithstanding their aloofness and unreasoned opposition to our principles and methods. The evils of the times are the direct result of the secularization of education. Catholic higher education is the only antidote and remedy to this evil. Its principles are a vigorous protest against materialistic philosophy. We believe in the mastery of ideas and in the final victory of truth.

The Church also for her own benefit needs true Catholic leaders. Leaders in a Catholic Community, who are not thoroughly Catholic in their training, who have false notions, warped views, bia.s.sed conceptions of vital questions, are most detrimental to the cause of Catholicity. Distorted and confused ideas, in religious matters particularly, always lead to a compromise. After school days they fail to find their Catholic faith correlated with the problems and experiences which never troubled them before, and which now, lack of higher education will not allow them to solve and to face. Have we not indeed in Western Canada to guard ourselves against lat.i.tudinarianism in our Catholic life? Material prosperity, success in business or in farming, a.s.sociations with men and women who have practically no belief whatever, erroneous conceptions of broadmindedness in religious matters, absence of traditions, lack of Catholic education, all these causes and many others have created especially in our cities, where such a large floating population is to be found, and in our country places where there is no resident priest, a compromising Catholicism, apologetic Catholics. How many Catholics in the West are always ready to cringe in presence of those who are not of our belief and to apologize for their faith. To react against this abiding danger we need all through the country well instructed and thoroughly educated Catholic leaders who will be in our world of agnosticism and irreligion, the protagonists and apologists of Catholicism. The fearless proclamation of the truth combined with a good moral public life is in itself a tremendous power. Indeed, we need in all the avenues of life men whose university training will give them influence in public life. But let it never be forgotten those captains of industry, those brilliant and successful professional men, those progressive farmers-valuable as they all may be-must count more as leaders of Catholic thought than as money-makers. If not, they will be found wanting when the Church needs them the most. We emphasize this point, for in the plea for higher education very often our attention seems to be more on the successful business man than on the Catholic thinker.

Love of Church and country will therefore inspire us with a high sense of duty in relation to the establishment of a seat of higher education in this promising part of our great Dominion. And this duty, let us not forget it, is urgent. Every decade means a new generation that should have pa.s.sed from the halls of our university to the commanding heights of the country's leadership. Our hesitancy means a further postponement of the triumph of the Catholic Cause.

This high conception of an urgent duty gives the vision. From the clearness, breadth and depth of that vision will spring the conquering spirit of co-operation. Co-operation to be efficient and persevering demands a united plan of action and an authoritative leadership.

The Catholic population of Western Canada is yet very limited. We cannot afford to scatter our forces and multiply our inst.i.tutions. One university for all Western Canada would be sufficient to meet the present requirements. The multiplication of inefficient universities is a calamity for genuine higher education. This has been the contention of "Catholic" in a recent series of brilliant articles in the "Casket." The policy would therefore be for all to agree on one college as the non-Catholics have done in the different Western Provinces. This naturally requires the sacrifice of parochialism and provincialism. But if the Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists have each agreed on the establishment of one educational centre for their students, surely the Catholics can also sacrifice local interests to the welfare of the cause. How many efforts our bigoted provincialism has neutralized in the past!

Authoritative leadership only can unite our efforts on this unity of plan of action. Nothing in this matter can be done without the direction and support of the Hierarchy of the West. The division among Bishops was, according to Newman, one of the main causes that made the Dublin Catholic University scheme a failure. Naturally this problem of higher education is one that overflows diocesan boundaries and remains common to all. "Boundaries of jurisdiction, as wrote so advisedly, Archbishop McNeil, of Toronto, are conveniences and means to an end." Beyond the responsibilities of each separate diocese there are other responsibilities which affect the Church of Canada as a whole. Let one man with vision, judgment, energy, and action, make the creation of the Catholic University in the West the work and ambition of his life, let him have the sincere approbation and efficient co-operation of all the Hierarchy ... that man, we claim, will rally the Catholic forces around him and will give to the West and its rising generation the blessing so much needed of Catholic university training. Newman was fond of repeating that it is only individuals who do great things.

And what will, this Catholic university mean to Catholic life in Western Canada? Well established upon the highest academic level by its success in the compet.i.tive field of learning, it will stand out as the embodiment of Catholic intellectual life and the centre of Catholic activities. It will be the counter-ideal to the ideal of agnosticism and materialism so fostered and so prevalent in our neutral universities. Just as the cathedrals are the expression of the Catholic faith in Christ's abiding presence in the Sacrament of His love, so is a Catholic university the embodiment and accomplishment of the Church's ideal in education. By its extension work, summer courses, circulating libraries, correspondence courses, lectures, etc., the university would unite our activities, eliminate waste of energy and direct our combined efforts. Cardinal Newman believed that a Catholic university was essential for thorough health and efficiency in the Catholic body at large. To realize all that a Catholic university would mean one has only to know what Washington stands for in the life of the Church in the United States. In his beautiful letter to the American Hierarchy, Benedict XV said of it: "The University, we trust, will be the attractive centre about which will gather all who love the teachings of Catholicism."

What is the Conclusion?

We may summarize our argumentation in favour of our contention in the following statements:

1.-THE INTERESTS OF CHURCH AND COUNTRY, PARTICULARLY IN THE WEST, DEMAND CATHOLIC LEADERSHIP;

2.-NO GENUINE LEADERSHIP WITHOUT UNIVERSITY TRAINING;

3.-FOR CATHOLICS HIGHER EDUCATION MEANS HIGHER CATHOLIC EDUCATION.

Now, Patient reader, allow us to conclude these already too lengthy pages, by this pointed question: "Is a Catholic university for Western Canada within the possibilities of the near future?"

Our answer will be simple, direct, conclusive, and, we hope, convincing. If all Catholics in the Western Provinces, under the direction and with the continued support of the Hierarchy, unite in one sublime and persistent effort, we have the utmost confidence in its immediate realization. Some Catholics, we know, will distrust its expediency, despair of its success or even feel an obligation to oppose it. Difficulties, most undoubtedly, we will have numerous and great. With time, patience, perseverance and self-sacrifice we will overcome them. Nothing succeeds like success. The establishment of a work of that kind is the work of years and even of centuries. There must be some day a start, a foundation to build on. The policy of nihilism leads nowhere. The frequentation of our State universities would indefinitely postpone all efforts for the Catholic ideal, and be a surrender of the whole situation. But let us not be carried away with the modern fallacy of materialistic grandeur. s.p.a.cious and beautiful buildings, nice grounds and attractive surroundings are not to be despised when the finances are good. But all these things are secondary; they do not give the intrinsic value to a university, they are not "the pulse of the machine." The great business of a university is to teach; the highest academic level should be its worthy ambition. The teachers are the real makers of a seat of higher learning, they pitch high or low the standard of learning.

This great work will demand from every Catholic a continued effort of loyal and generous support. The Canon-law, the Councils, the exhortations of the Pope insists on this support of Catholic universities. Particularly those who are blessed with the goods of this world and to whom Providence has been generous, should remember that "their wealth has a fiduciary character; a character that entails duties towards the Catholic community at large, none less obligatory because they are rooted in the virtue of charity, instead of the virtue of justice."

But experience tells us that our Catholic inst.i.tutions are founded and supported more by the "widow's mite" than by the millionaires' donations. The support will come from the Catholic communities of Western Canada; it will indeed come with most gratifying results if the appeal is lofty in its motive and proposal, concerted and systematic in its action.

We are not to go to the Catholics of the West with an appeal in one hand and an apology in the other. A straightforward, self-respecting presentation of our cause will bring a no less straightforward and self-respecting response. To make this appeal an unqualified success there must be also concerted action. Intensive efforts alone bring results. This means the canva.s.s of the West for this single purpose, at a stated time. But any canva.s.s of this kind, to be effective, must be prepared by an educational campaign. Give the Catholics, we maintain, the vision of their duty, sound the call ... and they will respond. For indifference, profound and widespread,-fruit of ignorance more than of ill-will,-would be the greatest obstacle to overcome. Arousing interest will be the initial task. In Australia, Archbishop Mannix organized a campaign, in co-operation with his suffragan bishops, for the purpose of the Catholic College of Melbourne and from June to December, 1916, half a million of dollars was collected. The Catholics of Western Canada are just as ready, we claim, to furnish such annual payment as would be wanted: if only they are properly called upon. But this proper calling involves first a systematic and periodical recommendation of its claims by the clergy and influential laymen.

System will avoid a conflict of claims for other great causes equally worthy of our generous support. The war has in this matter taught us at home a great lesson. There were appeals for the Patriotic Fund, the Red Cross, the Belgium Relief, the French Aid, etc., etc. They all came to us in rotation. No apology was made, every one felt in duty and honor bound, and the money was always there with an extraordinary readiness. Organization is the first element of success.

Who will be the promoters of this great work? Naturally the Hierarchy of the West will be its inspiring and moving spirit. But, should not the Knights of Columbus, that body-guard of Catholic laity, be called to the honour of "seeing it through." This great undertaking would be a most appropriate background for all the activities of our valiant Knights in Western Canada.

A society, Catholic in principle and membership, must, to last, and be an a.s.set to the Church, have a definite programme of action in harmony with its aim and const.i.tution. If it keeps its energies pent up behind the walls of the council-chambers and only finds them an outlet in social functions and friendly gatherings, it will soon go to seed or die of dry rot. When on the contrary an organization, such as the Knights of Columbus, throws the full weight of its energies in the forwarding of a great cause, the possibilities of its influence are limitless. The war activities of the Knights and their splendid results for the Church and the nation are a tangible proof of it.

Could there be a work more in harmony with the aims of the great Catholic organization than that of higher education. At the national convention of 1912, held at Colorado Springs, the committee on Catholic Higher Education ends its report by saying: "In the newer impetus that will come to Catholic education as the result of better understanding (its necessity and value), the Knights of Columbus must make themselves an important factor. We owe it to ourselves and to that special loyalty to both Church and State which we pride to claim as the special note of the order. It is often asked what are the Knights of Columbus doing that they should be so proud of their organization, and the best possible answer would be for all of us to be able to point to benefits that were conferred by Knights individually and in bodies upon our Catholic education. There can be no mistake about the benefit to be conferred on Church and State by progress in Catholic education."

The active and persevering co-operation of the Knights in the forwarding of the great cause of a Catholic University for Western Canada, would be their contribution to the great period of reconstruction which the world is now facing.

On one of those beautiful mellow autumn evenings, of which the Prairie alone has the secret, the traveller, as his train steams into one of our Western Cities, will behold a stately cupola tipped with a golden cross.-"What is that new building, yonder on the outskirts of the city?" will he inquire. The answer will be: "That is the Catholic University of Western Canada."

[1] This chapter appeared as a series of articles, in the North West Review of Winnipeg,-under the signature of "Miles Christi."

[2] "Less than one per cent. of American men are college graduates Yet this one per cent. of college graduates has furnished: 55% of our Presidents, 36% of our Members of Congress, 47% of the Speakers of the House, 54% of our Vice-Presidents, 62% of our Secretaries of State, 50% of the Secretaries of the Treasury, 67% of the Attorney Generals, 69% of the Justices of the Supreme Court."-Dr. Jones, of the University of Missouri.

[3] Lord Haldane addressing the Co-operative Educational a.s.sociation (May, 1920) made this statement: "The universities of England must be made able, as national inst.i.tutions, with a larger range of activity than at present, to undertake extra-mural work on a scale so great that it will be of general application throughout the land, and they must be put in a position to be fitted to bring this about."

[4] Speaking of Publicly and privately supported inst.i.tutions of learning in the U.S., Dr. Cappen, a.s.sistant commissioner of the United States Bureau of Education stated that there are 93 of the former in the U.S. and 477 of the latter. About 62 per cent. of the college students in the country attend voluntarily supported colleges, and the private schools have about 68 per cent. of the educational funds of the country at their disposal. This includes of course such very wealthy endowed inst.i.tutions as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell and Stanford.

PART III

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

"The political and economic struggles of society are in the last a.n.a.lysis religious struggles; their sole solution, the teaching of Jesus Christ."-(John Stuart Mill.)

CHAPTER XII.

BEYOND BERLIN[1]

After-War Problems from a Catholic View-Point-Reconstruction, the Duty of the Hour.

The heavy clouds of war and the b.l.o.o.d.y mist of battles are lifting; once more the sun of peace bursts forth triumphant over a sad and weary world. The storm has wasted its fury. The landscape is washed clear and bright, the atmosphere is glowing and transparent; destruction and ruins everywhere stand out in sharp and ghastly relief. On the distant horizon, beyond the Rhine, the dark clouds drag their tattered shreds; the angry lightning still flashes and thunder yet rumbles yonder-on German and Russian soil.

The war is over. The muddy trench, the deadly shrapnel, the perfidious gas, the roaring cannon, the forced marches on the slimy roads of Flanders, the heroic dashes and agonizing retreats of struggling armies, the lurking submarines, the treacherous, owlish zeppelins, the long-protracted vigil on the deep-all these grim realities of four, long, endless years have melted away in the blaze of a glorious victory. Now the German Armada rides at anchor, prisoner, in British waters, the armies of the Allies bivouac on the banks of the Rhine, and our Canadian boys, flushed with victory, come marching home.

The day of the German surrender, Clemenceau, Premier of France, made this significant statement: "Great have been the problems of the war, but greater will be the problems of peace." Nations, indeed, now face one of the most momentous periods of history. The world has struck its tents and is once more on the march. Never, we believe, have such tremendous responsibilities weighed upon a pa.s.sing generation. The future will be greatly imperilled if at this critical juncture great questions are fought out between ignorant desire for change and ignorant opposition to change. The handwriting is on the wall, and our economic and social life, foreign to Christian morality, has been found wanting. Will a new and better social order rise from the ashes of this world-conflagration? There is the searching problem which presses itself upon the mind of every thinking man. "On every side," writes Father Plater, S.J., "there is talk of reconstruction, economic, political, social, educational. Government departments are hard at work gathering information, elaborating schemes. Numerous organized bodies, such as the Labor party, are putting forward their programmes. Conferences and lectures on reconstruction are multiplied and literature on the subject pours from the press."

"Great ideas," said Wilson, "at last have captured the hearts of the common people and directed into positive channels and constructive programmes the very energies which otherwise may have spent themselves in the acts of retributive destruction." Reconstruction! This is now the world's watch-word. It sums up the various problems with which nations will have to grapple in every realm of human activity. It speaks of conditions that are no more and suggests new outlines of the social order. Our present and pressing duty then is to weigh the anchor, to swing out into the middle stream and take our course on the permanent principles of Catholic Truth. These principles stand on the sh.o.r.es of History as the great revolving lights that sweep the high seas in the darkness of night.

Canada, after having bravely and generously solved the problems of war, is now also facing "the greater problems of peace." This period of reconstruction, more than that of the war, will test our national fibre. The strain will be greater for the conflict is being lifted to a higher plane, that of ideas. But nowhere in Canada will this vast work of readjustment be more tangible than in our Great West. The youth of that part of the country, and the dominating factors of the national problem will, we believe, make the West the cla.s.sical land of reconstruction. A gradual evolution will bring our Eastern Provinces to readjust themselves to the changing conditions of political and economic life. The West, on the contrary, has in such matters the beautiful qualities, the unlimited resources of youth, but also its dangerous shortcomings. Daring, venturous, over-confident in democracy, the Western mind is frequently most hasty and radical in its conclusions. It has not been matured by time, that great teacher of patience and moderation; experience has not, as yet, tempered that feverish and progressive youthfulness, so p.r.o.ne to speedy and often drastic legislation. The heat of fever is often mistaken for the glow of health. And as legislation is in the minds of the Western people the panacea of all evils in society, will not the common tendency be to carry on the work of reconstruction by parliament bills and orders-in-council? Is there not here a great danger? "The danger of premature commitment is much greater than that of more cautious policy, proving a stumbling block in the way of future progress."

Moreover, the most vital factors of reconstruction in Canada will affect more particularly the Prairie Provinces. The back-to-the-land movement, demobilization, settlement of returned soldiers on the farm, intensive immigration policy, extensive agricultural production are indeed Western problems.

The choice of the Hon. J. A. Calder of Saskatchewan, as chairman of the Reconstruction Committee in the Federal Cabinet; the prominent part given to him and to the Hon. Mr. Meighen of Manitoba, in the formation and discussion of plans at the recent meeting of the Premiers of the Provinces; these are in themselves striking ill.u.s.trations of our contention in the matter.

Although the West will, in the period of reconstruction command the attention of the country at large, there are, nevertheless, problems, particularly those affecting our social and economic life, which will weigh heavily on our Eastern Provinces. So reconstruction will be a nation-wide work.

The Duty of Catholics

What is, therefore, the duty of Catholics, at the present hour? Are we to fold our arms and let others rebuild the very framework of society according to plans which our faith, reason, and history disapprove of, and very often condemn? Our ideas in the matter may not prevail, but how would we be justified in deploring the consequences of a legislation which we did not even try, by our influence, to suppress or modify? To abstain as Catholics from this great work of reconstruction is profoundly un-Catholic. It is the act of a traitor to the Church and country. As Burke so gloriously said: he was aware that the age is not all we wish, but he was sure that the only means to check its degeneracy was heartily to concur in whatever is best in our time.

The Church depends upon her children to spread the beneficial influence of her social doctrines. "The great work of the Catholics, after the war, will be," said Father McNabb, O.P., "to bring the vision of the Bride of Christ, the Catholic Church, before the millions of our countrymen." "These countrymen of ours are blind and often bigoted," adds Henry Somerville.