ORATION.
VERY REVEREND AND REVEREND FATHERS,
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
When I yielded to the request and invitation, with
which I was honored by the esteemed President of Notre
Dame University, to deliver a brief address on the occa­
sion of the Annual Commencement, it was not without an
effort on my part to persuade him that his heart or his
judgment were at fault in the selection. Assuredly I
would feel proud and honored were I able to justify
the wisdom and discreetness of his choice by presenting
to you an address that would be worthy of the occasion,
and interesting to the large and distinguished audience as­
sem bled around me. I would indeed be deterred from at­
tempting so responsible a task were I not persuaded in
advance that my poor effort would be received with the
most kindly and generous indulgence.
I am, moreover, encouraged by the reflection that how­
ever imperfectly I may be qualified to assume the roll
and office of teacher or mentor in the halls of this Uni­
versity, I yet may be enabled to draw from the lessons ac­
quired in the broader school of the world and of history,
some reflections which may serve to engage and interest
my audience. An ancient philosopher remarked, and the
observation has since become trite, that education does not
end with the termination of a school or college career.
The great world which now opens its portals to the
many young, eager-bounding hearts and ambitious intellects
who to-day surround me, is only a larger and broader
school than the one whose hospitable roof and generous


2
tutelage they are now about to depart from. I need
hardly say that in this school of the world the tasks will
often be found far more irksome than those allotted in
these academic balls, the task-masters far less indulgent,
and the applause and rewards for their efforts vastly less
generous and certain than those hitherto enjoyed in these
benignant surroundings.
It is not my purpose, however, to philosophize on the
problem of life, nor on the duties and responsibilities which
now devolve upon those who are about to enter into com­
petition for the prize or goal which duty or ambition sets
before those who now vault into tbe arena of the world. I
have mapped out for myself a less comprehensive but
perhaps more congenial task.
The influence and the teaching of a Catholic college '
must of necessity impress itself on the character and future
of its students and graduates. In the class-room and the
lecture-hall they have acquired a knowledge of the arts
and sciences from professors able and accomplished: in the
sacred aisles of yonder church they have been imbueà
with the more valuable lessons of faith and of duty.
I do not fear to be misunderstood. I speak as a Cath­
olic-albeit an unworthy one-to Catholics. I do not seek
to awaken or wound any just religious sensibilities. I
would be unworthy to occupy the honorable position in
which I now stand before you, were I to do so; but facts
should not be ignored, nor is it wise to be silent when
duty demands of us to speak out. There is everywhere a
jealously and widespread distrust of the power and influ­
ence of the Catholic Church. We see her oppressed and
trampled upon in Germany and in Poland, her priests and
religious exiled or imprisoned, her churches closed or
violated, and the sacred offices and functions prohibited.


4
gacity-De Tocqueville-remarks, referring to the future
of this country:
"The time will come when 150 millions of men will be
living in North America, equal in condition, the progeny
of one race, owing their origin to the same cause, and pre­
serving the same civilization, the same language, the same
religion, the same habits, the same manners, and imbued
with the same opinions propagated under the same
forms."
Time and the logic of events have given new force and
significance to his prophecy. The jealousy and distrust of
the power and influence of the Church is not a new or
latter-day suspicion. It is as old as Christianity itself, and
found a notable example in the public teaching of our Di­
vine Saviour; and in every succeeding age, in almost every
country, there have arisen similar fears, conflicts and diver­
gences. That these fears of the po wer and ecclesiastical
authority of the Church, whether entertained in good faith,
or arising from interested motives, are ill-founded and have
no just basis, I think can be clearly shown.
The Catholic Church inculcates the duty and obligation
upon all her children of unreserved loyalty and fealty to tbe
State and the constituted authorities thereof, with only this
qualification that they shall" render to Cœsar the things
that are Cœsar's, and to God the things that are God's."
The Church does indeed enforce the obligation of primary
obedience to a law whch is of necessity higher and more
authoritative than any which may be enacted or enforced
by any merely human authority or government, but com­
mon sense and Christian teaching alike combine to con­
vince and satisfy us that between the legitimate political
domain of the sovereign or the State and the ecclesiastical
or spiritual authority of the Church, there is not and in


5
the nature of things cannot be any just conflíet, Unhap­
pily, these antagonisms have occurred in all ages and prob­
ably will not cease until the end of time.
Among the legacies and promises left to the Church by
her Divine Founder was the assurance that her existence
would be an unceasing conflict, and the final triumph
would come only at the end. I have said that we owe our
first and highest allegiance to God and His laws. We owe
a subsidiary obedience to the State. God gave us existence,
a soul, faculties, and a destiny. The State, which is our
own creation, protects us in our material interests and prop­
erty, and is the agency by which we seek to promote and
protect our temporal wants and aspirations. It can exact
allegiance from us only in affairs of purely temporal con­
cern. It is entitled to demand of us obedience to its laws
and authority, but when it enters the sanctified domain
which is consecrated to God, when it attempts to regulate
and restrain the Christian in the free exercise of those
duties which God and nature impose as primary obliga­
tions, it becomes in fact an usurper and trespasser. The
Church in her theology, by the mouth and pen of her great
doctors, has very clearly defined the doctrine of the obedi­
ence due from the subject or citizen to the sovereign and
State, and no Protestant writer or authority has ventured
to advocate doctrines and principles so broad and liberal in
the interest of human freedom.
The theory now so widely prevalent and enforced of the
unqualified supremacy of the State, makes of the latter an
earthly Deity and requires of us to bow down and worship
it. It demands an acceptance for itself of that dogma which
it so scoffs at when claimed by the Church, namely, Infal­
libility!
History, that philosophy which teaches by example, is a


7
pens so as to bring the Church into dishonor and disre­
pute. De Maistre says "history has been an unvarying
conspiracy against truth," but, despite the adverse combi­
nation of false pens, truth in the long run will inevitably
prevail. It has indeed often seemed, as Macaulay sug­
gested; that the power of the Church's long dominion ap­
proached a close, but ever and anon that supernatural
agency, which has never failed her, appeared to intervene
in her behalf and safely carry her through every peril j
time and again that power and supremacy has seemed to
be beyoud human salvation and rescue, but it has as often
triumphed over all adverse influences. Do I need to ap­
peal to the American writers who have sometimes reluc­
tantly spoken her eulogies? to Bancroft, to Prescott, to
Parkman, and a long chain of others whose prejudices
have given way to their sense of justice. Let us recall, too,
that while mauy sectarian writers have sought to prove
that the Popes attempted to destroy ci vil monarchy by
confiscating it to their profit, it is a great Protestant histo­
rian, Müller, who says that" The Father of the Faithful
was during the barbarous ages a tutor and a guide sent by
God to the European Nations."
Do you need a proof and striking example of the char­
acter and influence of Protestantism as opposed to Catho­
licity? Then mark the successive religious revolutions
which desolated Germany after the subversion of Catholic­
ity: maxims and theories destructive of all society were
propagated; upon the field of battle and upon the scaffold
blood flowed in torrents; towns and cities were desolated
or destroyed. Life was without safety, and property with­
out security. The infidel disorders and revolution of a
later century nearly brought down 'the whole European
superstructure and civilization in total wreck. And the


8
young Catholic intellect of this and of other lands should
never forget the debt of gratitude due to the first of
Frenchmen and the grandest of modern Catholic writers
when he challenged modern infidelity to tbe combat in a
memorable speech in the French bouse of Peers, when he
proudly said: " We are the sons of the Orusaders, and we will
never draw back before the sons of Voltaire." But if you want
a less defiant utterance and exclamation, then I tell you in
the language of Tertu11ian and tbe gentle Fenelon: "You
have nothing to fear from us, but we do not fear you." It
is alleged tbat Catholic teaching favors despotism, and
would maintain the doctrine of the Divine right of kings!
Even the most casual student and writer needs only to
consult the pages of Suarez. of Bellarmine, and of the
Angelic Doctor, Thomas Aquinas, in refutation of this asser­
tion. Never was charge more ill-founded. I repeat again
here, the greatest doctors and most honored theologians
have always spoken and written on the side of the largest
and widest popular liberty.
A great French Bishop has lately answered in a charac­
teristically clever book the charge tbat the Church is inim­
ical to progress, to civilization and to human dignity; let
me ask what existing institution bas done for civilization
wbat the Church has accomplished? What other human
institution or sect has labored without ceasing for the es­
tablishment and maintenance of hospitals for the infirm,
of asylums for the insane and afllicted, of refuges for the
Magdalene and the outcast, and of homes for the poor and
the orphan? Tell me the Church or denomination that
makes similar sacrifices to maintain and support the widest
and most generous system of schools, and that presents to­
day so liberal and munificent a scheme of higher training
in colleges and institutions?


10
society was in con fusion, preserved to us the sem blanco
and the fact of order, in law and in government. When
dynasties gave way, and empires and kingdoms were
wrecked and deposed, the Church stood proudly erect
amidst the general downfall-as she will always stand­
unmoved and undismayed.
Great writers have written magnificent perorations on
the marvellous fer: ility of her resources and the apparent
indestructibility of her power. In the presence of the dis­
tinguished professors and tbe young gentlemen to whom
these studies are so familiar, I need not attempt to repeat,
still less echo in my own poor language, their majestic u t­
terances. But this much I may venture to say, that in the
general wreck and upheaval of empires in Europe, which
the complications of the firnes show us to be inevitable,
there is given to us in this favored land a great and a grand
destiny. Exempt from foreign complications, we can now
pursue unobstructed the great mission for which America
was destined.
And for the Church, no greater arena exists the wide
world over. Let me not be misunderstood or misinter­
preted. The missionaries of the Church seek only to ex­
tend her spiritual dominion by those peaceful agencies
and pursuasive utterances which have invariably charac­
terized her teachings, and in no land more conspicuously
than in this. Now, as ever before, her priests and relig­
ious have in their hearts that beautiful motto which is in­
scribed on the banners of all her devoted children and ser­
vants: "Ad majorem Dei gloriam." It is this spirit and
this holy zeal which has won and redeemed by the labor
of these devoted religious and their predecessors in the
Faith, this once wild tract, until now it blossoms with the
gifts and fruits of the earth, and greater boon still abounds


The attention of the Alumni of the University of Notre
Dame, Ind., and others, is called to the fact that the
NOTRE DAME SCHOLASTIC will in September enter
upon the TENTH year of its existence, greatly improved,
and with a larger circulation than at the commencement
of any former year.
Besides the Local News which will weekly appear, the
readers of the SCHOLASTIC will find in it many Literary
and Scientific articles of general interest.
Ter:r:ns, $1.50 Per Annu:r:n, Postpaid.
Address
Editor Notre Dame Scholastic,
Notre Dame, Ind .
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