geegc-^ ( - j. & • I — Chri&hav* ed\ Aj>\fOZ>88 I mmmmmimmmmmmmmmmmmmmm HRISTIAN EDUCATION CHRISTIAN EDUCATION by Rev. James A. Reeves, M. A., S. T. D., LL. D. President of Seton Hill College. Three addresses delivered in the Catholic Hour, produced by the National Council of Catholic Men, through the courtesy of the National Broadcasting Company and its Associated Stations. On Sundays from Sept. 1 to Sept. 15, 1935 I. Catholic Education : The Reason For It. II. Catholic Education : A Project of Popu- lar Confidence. III. Social Philosophy In Catholic Education. National Council of Catholic Men Producer of the Catholic Hour, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D. C. Imprimatur: * JOHN FRANCIS NOLL, D. D., Bishop of Fort Wayne Deactdifieti FOREWORD The addresses offered here relat to Christian educa- tion as a work of the Church. This concern of the Church is presented first as a duty that in the end gives to life a symmetry; it is then reviewed as a duty discharged through many years of effort in our country. The final address points to the value of Catholic social philosophy as a pattern that will aid sincere thinkers in a period when unsanctified social philosophy largely prevails. The writer hopes this effort may be privileged to merge with those larger efforts of the National Council of Catholic Men. DEDICATED To a wise counsellor and a master in public life DANIEL RICHARD SULLIVAN Priest, Teacher, Friend. CATHOLIC EDUCATION: THE REASON FOR IT Address delivered on September 1, 1935. Man is not an accident in the universe. With- out God he might indeed be self-contained and self- reliant, but he fails to be what he might become — an individual assured that there is something finer, nobler than self, and that ahead stretches another life, changed though one with this, where the soul acheves its destiny, safe in the love and affection of God. For that reason, more than one hundred years ago the leaders of the Catholic Church in America issued a statement that inaugurated the parish school system. It was an official statement. Con- vened in the First Provincial Council of Baltimore (1829) those early Bishops declared that the Catho- lic people should set about founding schools. The teaching in those schools, the Bishops declared, should acquaint the students widely with the finest thought and experience of the past. They further declared that the principles and ideals of Catholic fath and practice should serve as a background to that human knowledge as presented in the class- room. This quality of instruction, the first American bishops were convinced, would impart to young people an enlarged outlook and a clearer perspective. It would allow the Catholic citizens of the young Republic an adequate view of the world about them and a clearer perception of that holier world to which mankind is called. Thus, the Catholic view of life and of the world, the Bishops implied, would vitalize the expanding mind of the child and give to it a balance and a steadfastness, perhapr a depth, which religious 6 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION knowledge does impart and which often releases “the impulse towards a perfection, that is higher. . . and implanted in. . . rational nature by the Creator Himself.” (Pius XI, Ency. on Christian Education.) Human knowledge in this wise activated by faith, and faith supporting the search for truth, those deep sources of power and happiness human nature en- shrouds might issue in a blessed humility, meekness, mercy, purity of heart, peace, and in a hunger and thirst for justice. Our early leaders pointed to the significance for America of the scholar and the saint. Years passed. The first beginnings of the parish school system enlarged in scope and in operation. Those were years of rapid growth. Again our lead- ers saw fit to reaffirm the point of view of their predecessors in the episcopal office. And lately in our day the Bishops of the Administrative Commit- tee of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, speaking to the church in America, have empha- sized the aim, the purpose, the meaning, and the spirit of the Catholic School System in our Republic. “Our schools,” said the committee, “built by the sac- rifices of our poor people, maintained by the even greater sacrifices of our religious Sisterhoods and fostered by the untiring labors of our clergy and the watchful care of our Bishops, have the obvious duty to keep ever before them the unchangeable elements of education and its real purpose—to fit men for life in eternity as well as in time ; to teach men to think rightly and to live rightly; to instil sound principles in our youth, principles not only of civic righteousness, but of Catholic faith and morality; to educate groups, ac- cording to their capacity, so as to make them the CHRISTIAN EDUCATION best men and the best women of our country—and all this with a thorough training in the secular branches of knowledge.” (A Statement on the Pre- sent Crisis, 1933, pp. 11-12.) This utterance outlines the Catholic position in education. With a just sense of its importance, we can now weigh the wisdom and the soundness of our leaders' thought. Years of experience with that philosophy and its workings yield the conviction that without God as the leading influence in life no man can reach that outlook which brings true happiness, peace, and satisfaction to his soul. Once the mind has grasped the duty and the mis- sion of the church to realize among men the king- dom of God, the parish school appears indeed as an effective aid for that purpose. It enables men first by way of sense and then by way of faith to draw close to that heavenly life the Saviour planned for them. As an instrument the schools en- large another agency, the home. The family and the home are primal in nature; the Church and re- ligion primal in the spiritual world. Through faith and baptism man enters into a communion of spirit- ual living. When merged, nature and grace operate to realize in each soul the Christ-life with its ideals of sacrifice, self-surrender, duty, and love; the one a gift of God to man, the other an offering from man to God. The Church then by every agency it commands seeks to preserve that union of the soul with its Maker and with its Conserver, Christ. Anything tending to weaken that union, its depth, or its inten- sity, the Church would have us shun. The sacra- ments sustain that union through the indwelling 8 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Holy Spirit, while the whole of Christian teaching as derived from Christ, His apostles, and their suc- cessors, aims to keep safe that blessed relation and to bring it to its flowering in the world to come as a deeper, more mature, and abiding union in Heaven. This is the essence of the Gospel. It is the motive of Christian education. Time and history have not changed it; time and history can not change it. Christ who first delivered that truth charged His followers : “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going, therefore, teach ye all nations ; bap- tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to ob- serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days, even to the con- summation of the world/’ (Mt. XXVIII. 18, 19, 20.) Hence Catholic education viewed as a set of prin- ciples and ideals respecting man, his origin, mean- ing, and destiny, derives from Christ who once came to earth and taught the way to salvation. The Church is then consistent when in its mission it places to the fore the destiny of the soul of man and the value of his personality. With the Church these doctrines are basic. No amount of human knowl- edge and skill, no discovery or achievement, no cul- tural asset, can substitute in the life of man for the faith and conviction that he was made to know, love, and serve God on earth and to be happy with him in heaven. Riches, honor, power, a man may indeed acquire, but a man may not without sad consequence set them in the place of his revealed destiny. Not without outraging his destiny, and not without vio- lence to his personality, can he exchange the world CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 9 for Christ, time for eternity, the temporal for the spiritual, the creature for his Creator. To bring that teaching effectively to its children, to offer them a wider opportunity for understanding it, to afford them an environment wherein practice supports faith, the Church from the start founded schools and continues to maintain them. But the Church is not shaping men to live in a vacuum. In the Encyclical on Christian Education, while stres- sing the duty of parents to give their children a re- ligious and moral education, Pius XI apprises them of the need of physical and social training. He indi- cates that parents must, as far as possible, fit their children for a place in the world’s work to insure their temporal "welfare. In his statement the Holy Father sketched the main objectives of Christian education—to develop “the supernatural man who thinks, judges, and acts constantly and consistently in accordance with right reason illumined by the supernatural light of the example and teaching of Christ ; in other words, to use a current term,” says the Pontiff, “the true and finished man of char- acter.” When confronted then by the little as well as by the big problems of life, the ideal citizen be- haves as a man of religious and ethical inwardness. We must note that the “finished man of charac- ter” should qualify for social responsibility. So far as they can, his parents are obliged to help him meet it (C. I. c. 1113). While giving him a knowledge of the common branches, the Catholic school introduces him to the study of government, community life, hygiene, the elements of fine art, and to those other subjects proper to the school curriculum in America. Further, in order to qualify for social duty he must 10 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION command such skill as will fit him for a place in modern life and provide his living. He has a duty to work and upon that work a blessing is conferred. Only in this way can he attain to personal happiness and contribute to that of his fellows. Obviously then, Catholic education does not con- fine its efforts to one set of human capacities. It seeks to develop the whole man, body and soul. All his capacities are important. Spiritual growth must keep pace with physical development and in the end go far beyond. This system fits one to be a useful member of society and a future citizen in the king- dom of heaven. This citizen the Church would give to America. He has learned to reverence his fellows and his country. He is acquainted with his government. He knows its history. To remain a consistent child of the Church, he must observe his country’s laws, and encourage others to keep them. Not without sin can he fail that observance. In brief, all the influences with which Catholic education surrounds him tend to yield a refined self-confidence and an intelligent social dependence. Those influences do not veer in the direction of extremes. For that reason, so far as we may give it a name, Catholic education is the system of perfect symmetry. It seeks to realize in the individual a symmetry both human and divine. This symmetry leads from God to man in the form of grace and sacraments, and from man up to God in the form of the Holy Sacrifice and of duty dis- charged in the spirit of love—faith. In man him- self this symmetry sustains a balance between that over-assertive, dominating, selfish side, so often the source of conflict, and that kindlier, gentle, serious self, the source of power—hope. Throughout the CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 11 sphere of his social relationships, the rule of symmetry equates one man with another, revealing all as brothers redeemed by the Blood of Christ — love. Faith, hope, and love, Christ bequeathed to the world. They are the finest virtues for mankind. Catholic education helps keep those virtues bright. 12 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION CATHOLIC EDUCATION: A PROJECT OF POPULAR CONFIDENCE Address delivered on September 8, 1935. “Thou art so near the sum of blessedness.” said Beatrice , “that behooves thy sight be clear and keen” It is, of course, Dante whom Beatrice thus ad- dresses, but we may take her words as especially applicable to the child. For, coming from God he is so close to the ultima salute, his sight as yet unsul- lied by “the contagion of the world’s slow stain”, that every effort should be expended to keep it “clear and keen” for the fulfillment of his destiny — a destiny temporal, to be sure, but only in a measure temporal, as ultimately he has no destiny save the redemption of his immortal soul. And the Church’s teaching views that destiny in focused perspective. With bold strokes it sketches for parents the varieties of character toward which they may incline the child. It does not think of him as a dream item in a world of sur-realism to be in- terpreted as fancy chooses; but with contrasting shading, it reveals the scene, both human and divine, within which the child becomes saint or sinner, victor or victim, assertion or apology, as the exi- gencies of his life may mold him. One great mean- ing attaches to the presence of the child among us, a meaning of high reality: he has been summoned to supernatural life, to live which, his life on earth must prepare him. From this point of view his destiny is not debatable. Hence his elders have a duty to aid his growing consciousness. He must not be left alone “to express himself”, as Rousseau be- CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 13 leved, as if he were a sainted victim in a world of error. Nor is he altogether to be cowed, as if he were a devil born—according to Renaissance impli- cation. He is primarily a being of possibilities. He can be guided. He must be guided. He can take a lead, or he can follow one. His choice is as much the responsibility of his day as of the generations which have gone before him. Hence, the Church views the child in the light of racial history, a history that rests upon the doc- trines of original sin and of restoration to a super- natural state. In great measure it charges parents with results. They can enable the child to ascend from earth to heaven ; to discern the ways of God as different from the ways of men ; to see this world in terms of the next. They can not develop to its sum his human personality and neglect the supernatural life of his soul; because that life is the child’s sub- limest hope. This view of the child as a human being and this emphasis upon his spiritual and supernatural life impart to Catholic education a distinctive quality. While viewing man much the same as the Greeks did, Catholic education, however, goes further. To highmindedness it adds Christian supernaturalism —which turns Stoic apathy into Christian warmth, and quickens pagan gloom to Christian gladness. The pride of Spartan command it esteems far less than the humility of Nazareth’s example. To be sure, an educated man must have a sense of honor and of justice; he can not escape those virtues. But proportion will shape his estimate of riches and power, pleasure and worldly achievement. He will have reserve. He will not lack inspiration. He will 14 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION be assertive, though calm. He will forgive without being weak. He will aid but not think of reward. And surrounded by the forces of original sin, the darkness and confusion of the human mind and the waverings of the human will, brave he will stand and stalwart, the light of faith heartening him and giving him strength—illumining his way by assur- ance given that he can transcend evil and sin, for in God lies security and power. These are high ideals. Perhaps they are realized only in the saint. But the Church functions to keep them high, to guard against any attempt to lower them. For they fashion the structure erected by Catholic education and used in training the young in its schools and in training the mature in its uni- versities. In other respects, however, the objectives of Catholic education are not unlike the objectives of our other American schools. Only the outlook and temper are different. Catholic education cannot be limited to developing useful citizens, who are good because they are useful. Its aim is to mold good citizens who are useful because they are good. This ideal was the original foundation. Upon it rests a far-flung system of schools, from the pri- mary to the graduate. To our leaders and to our people the results are adequate—though by no means commensurate with what they hoped. Presumably when man’s will, torn by conflicting desires, condi- tions them, results fall short of expectations; be- sides, as you and I know, results commensurate with ideals are a matter of heavenly gift rather than of mere human acquisition. Conscious, however, of increasing achievement and of the growing effectiveness of its schools, at CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 15 no time more than the present has Catholic educa- tion had more fully the confidence of its guardians, its trustees, and the general public. It began as a project of popular confidence within the Church. Today it is a project with almost the complete con- fidence of America behind it. When bulding, our leaders never intended to oppose the larger Ameri- can system. They saw Catholic education as a free and public agency giving to the country young men and women responsive to American ideals and insti- tutions. They believed that their young people should stand shoulder to shoulder with others in the interests of God and their country. And their suc- cessors cling to that same belief. For a time diversity of language among Catholic people gave rise to issues that cut straight across the purposes of our earlier leaders. Less vigorous men would have become discouraged. They knew the value of ancient memories. They also knew that those memories should not hamper later generations in taking their places in a newer setting of happier estate. The language issue, however, heightened misunderstanding respecting the aims of Catholic education. With the passing of this difficulty, which even the state-supported schools had confronted in an earlier day, confidence has displaced misappre- hension. In matters of secular concern the Catholic school authorities from the beginning have looked to the state for direction. Our leaders welcomed help and every measure that definitely improved their schools. Indeed, that direction was taken for granted. The work of education was regarded as a co-operative enterprise. And their successors continue to look 16 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION to the state, a fact which as soon as it was recog- nized became an added source of confidence. Those laboring within the system and for it, as well as those who approached it from without, had both practical and professional understanding. They faced the problems of administration and those of curriculum design and management with social in- sight and with a spirit of mutual aid and support. The results have been happy. Amid various difficul- ties the cooperation of the leading governing boards within the states affords an exchange of views not without practical outcome. Such cooperation war- rants the confidence Catholics have placed in our schools, which, they feel, can not be second-rate; indeed, must not be second-rate. But in addition that cooperation allows no place for misgiving in the public mind ; the conviction has developed that Cath- olic education seeks to train each student to do his part as best fitting the life of all about him, in terms of his own interest and abilities. In certain crises, it is true, Catholic authorities have had to speak out. When they discovered some- thing wrong either in theory or in practice it was their patriotic duty to speak out, and that they did so was indicative of their trust. Clear thinking and frank statement may not alone solve the problems which confront one ; they may not even remove mis- understanding. They do, however, suggest intellect- ual honesty and a regard for the truth. For ex- ample, when our Bishops protested the belief that the state has a monopoly of education and that “pu- pils educated in tax-paid schools become better citi- zens. . . while those in Catholic or private schools are merely tolerated” in our society, when they pro- tested this view, our leaders discharged the public CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 17 trust which their high office and the Catholic people have reposed in them (cf. Statement on the Present Crisis, p. 11). This and many other instances illus- trate the position of the Church as anything but ambiguous. The frankness with which that position is stated and upheld may in the end usher in a more vigorous demand for productive truth and justice in support of those for whom the protest was made. There are always crises to be met. Just now there is current a delusion which has only to be ex- amined to be dispelled. It concerns the mistaken idea that the Catholic school makes for a separate- ness on the part of its students from American life in general, a separateness which, it is said, is un- known in tax-supported schools. Not a few Catho- lics even are victims of this delusion. The charge includes the idea that the Catholic school isolates its students and so makes them seem as foreigners in American life. Those thus deluded seem unable to understand that the hours spent in the classroom or on a campus are relatively few when compared with the time spent outside of school. And to some extent the delusion has to do with the kind of teach- ing we champion. With that last, however, we need have but small concern ; there is no royal road, as we all well know—our road is best for us. The whole matter grows out of a failure to grasp the spirit of the Catholic school. That spirit makes for open and common action as well as for open minds. Almost everywhere young people have a community life that takes them into the circle of their fellows. The Catholic school encourages them to join such circles. You will find no lack of Catholic members in the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Community opera and theater Movements, Women's Clubs, Garden 18 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Clubs, College and University Clubs, or in the Na- tional Guard, the Town Council, and what not co- operative and civic enterprise. One need not point to the record of Catholics in such matters. They par- ticipate where they like, just as the graduates of other schools participate—but in response to the training they have, not in spite of it. The Catholic school has nothing to do with the separateness to which I have adverted. It prevails throughout American society. Dominating economic influences give rise to it. Those influences derive to- day from our ideas concerning property. With us the emphasis of distinction is laid upon having rath- er than being, upon wealth as an end rather than a means. With wealth sufficient, what might one not become! From property to religion is a short step. From religion to race is even shorter, as Europe’s experience is showing us today. When prejudice becomes the spinal fluid of a people, democracy be- comes mirage. The delusion of separateness as it concerns the Catholic school discloses only the ill- secured logician, or a man as yet philosphically on the make. In short, Catholic education has the confidence of our people, a fact indicative of its remarkable vitality. The drive behind it is the outgrowth of con- viction and of sacrifice. And these qualities account for its triumph over economic disadvantage, a burd- en which rests upon Catholic shoulders in the form of double taxation. Our people can only hope that so great a burden may be taken from them. Mean- while they suffer, as the Bishops have declared, for conscience’s sake. Particularly of late has the burden been heavy. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 19 Six years of reduced income have inevitably affected our progress. We cannot yet tell to what extent the effect has developed. We do know, however, that the continued operation of the Catholic school system throughout the years of the depression is a tribute to those who have guided it, to those who have labored in it and for it. And we know further that our avoid- ance of conditions even more critical than those we have experienced is in large part due to the counsel and prudence of our leaders. Their planful efforts and advice are guiding our schools through a dis- turbed and distracted world. They have aimed to con- serve the system and to heighten its effectiveness even when operating costs have meant personal sac- rifice to both bishop and pastor. To the wisdom and sustaining efforts of the leaders, moreover, we must add the singular generosity of the teaching person- nel. Through more than sixty years of Catholic school history teachers have never before been called upon for so much self-surrender. As a blessed con- tagion the sacrifice of the teaching Sisters has spread to the laity. At a time when support means sacrifice of a high order the laity has consistently contributed to school funds. Deep conviction re- specting the objectives of Catholic education ac- counts for the support given during a period of ob- vious need and anguish. Whether, therefore, one labors at the center of the system or supports it from the periphery, the world owes him honor, rev- erence, and all possible sympathy. It would seem, with all this, that Catholic educa- tion thrives in an economy of pain. And yet what might it not become were it to enter an economy of pleasure, especially where its institutions of higher learning are concerned. These do their work with 20 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION surpassing effectiveness. But their ideal accomplish- ment lies far ahead. And for their shortcomings two obvious causes are apparent. First, the Catho- lic college is a late comer upon the American scene. As evidence, consult the dates of their foundation. Furthermore, Catholics themselves were late comers, and as such we did not possess the land. We had not the wealth to do what a start of a hundred and fifty years had done for others. As newcomers recently escaped from persecution, Catholics were only part- ly aware of any acquisition in the past and almost unaware of any heritage of art. As strangers, and the children of strangers, and even as the early Pil- grims, with a history of distress, their first efforts were designed to relieve the poor, the orphan, the blind, the lame, the deaf, and the erring. These, for the most part, they did not consign to the state. They viewed them in terms of the Gospel, not in terms of the survival of the strong. Their attention, therefore, was given to suffering and their aid went to the afflicted and the unfortu- nate. As a result, Catholic higher education remain- ed too long a provincial project, being thought of more or less as a luxury. For that reason it has not had the support of those who might have provided for it and so made possible a greater degree of pro- ductive scholarship. Such scholarship can not flour- ish in an economy of pain. But it goes on—our Catholic education. It will continue. Little by little, as our people come into their own and the light penetrates farther and farther into the outer darkness, in the fulness of time, it, too, will come into its own—for nothing can hinder it save the loss of God’s countenance and the closed mind. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 21 SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY IN CATHOLIC EDUCATION Address delivered on September 15, 1935. “Whatsoever things are true”, says St. Paul to the Philippians in Ch. IV, 8, “whatsoever modest , whatsoever just , whatsoever holy, whatsoever love- ly, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue if any praise of discipline, think on these things We live in a disturbed and disjointed world. You will probably agree with that statement. It is very unlike the world of two or three decades ago. In years past, life unfolded broader material oppor- tunity. At least we now so believe. Before the war there were many and critical issues. The question of the referendum and the recall, that of the Federal Reserve System, the im- provement of the livelihood of the workers, the question of the closed shop, the regulation of inter- state commerce, were topics of interest and discus- sion. The foreign policy of this country then re- flected a southerly imperialism. The press pointed to the threatening nature of the Triple Entente and the Central Alliance. The armed forces of the nation were deemed adequate for every emergency. Ame- rica’s view of life suggested a self-contained, self- satisfied, and self-supporting, morally and intellect- ually independent people who remembered the Maine and knew that each young man had the chance to be president. This view rested upon a forthright philosophy long influential n the republic. As philosophy it urged men to explore life and to draw their own conclu- sions. Man could wrestle, it said, with all issues and 22 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION no matter how hard the battle, would find a solution for every political, economic, social, and nation- al problem. This philosophy energized our think- ing ; it reenforced our feeling. It had little place for religion. The Church, it believed, had no duty be- yond the individual conscience. America had faith in intelligence, but America soon learned that it had not a disciplined will. By 1918 all the political and national maladjust- ments of nineteenth century Europe had fulminated. America was pulled into the Great War. Its avowed mission was to save the civilization of West Europe and to immunize other people to the infection of autocracy. At the close of the war, a victorious as well as a sorrowing people expected a new world order. They hoped for it. Their leaders predicted it. However, the War treaties failed to construct either a new world or a new Europe. Economic and commercial imperialism, the passion for world markets, higher tariff walls, the increase in armaments, the practice of secret diplomacy, remained. They continue to plague international existence, and the big bill for the last war remains unpaid. Besides this social and political impasse, we are going through an economic upset. The past six years have brought about changes in the industrial, finan- cial, and commercial worlds that force us to take thought, perhaps stock of our power and institu- tions. The failure to control certain processes in our economic system and our mistakes in dealing with them now tax the abilities of the nation’s leaders to control distribution in the interest of the many. Since the war our international relations, our politics, and our economics, have given us a jolt. So CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 23 great is that jolt that the confidence of people in gov- ernment as we have known it, and in the traditional forms of industry and credit, has waned. Our insti- tutions are questioned. Life apparently is at odds with what man desires and even with what man needs. The danger lies not in criticism but in fanaticism, mass illusion, and mass impulse. Should we wonder, then, when we survey current opinion respecting the future of our society, that two extreme attitudes tend to engross the public mind? The one believes our world has collapsed; that the forces behind our institutions are spent. We are told that it is impossible to deal with our accumulated ex- perience or to reorganize that experience. Man’s older institutions, it is said, are exhausted. The way to survival lies in scrapping our in- herited political, social, and economic structures. We are invited to cut away from traditional moorings, surrender our liberties, submit to com- pulsions, pay no heed to humanity’s past. We are exhorted to begin again, rear a society that needs no memories of humanity’s efforts, its belief in God, its need of the family, and of property. On the other hand there is the attitude which invites us to fasten our gaze exclusively upon the past. The future, we are told, should reinstate the past with only so much change as chance may decree. This position looks upon our mistakes as in a measure blessings. The opportunities of earlier days are still at hand, we are assured, at least for the intelligent. The frontier may no longer be a physical one; today it is mental. The alert man creates his own opportunities. The high point in this attitude declares that government must not control in any measure the economic life of the na- 24 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION tion. Adventurousness opens the way to survival. Individualism, the right to do as one pleases regard- less of the common welfare, will bring back good times. Here then are the extremes in our social think- ing. Many will continue to debate whether these positions offer an opportunity for self-realization, personal happiness, and social achievement. But in the light of our history as a free people we cannot without violence accept the compulsions of a totali- tarian state. The thinking employed to justify that state fails to interpret aright man’s history and destiny. It disregards his achievements in society while emphasizing his failures. The temper of a compulson system belongs to a period that outlawed individuality and liberty and held the masses as slaves. The simplified and disastrous logic of a com- munal system scarcely warranted the overthrow of institutions, the outcome of the finest thought and effort through centuries of struggle. Since man’s behavior and achievements never fully embody his ideals, no communal system can guarantee that its institutions will do so. This much is sure, we can strive to refashion ours, and to adapt them to our needs. We would do well to conserve by correcting rather than to set about experimenting anew, sub- jecting future generations to a reign of force. Again, the passive position is vicious. What does it offer to people compelled to a life of economic dis- advantage and insecurity? Man will hardly grow en- thusiastic over the blessings of the mental frontier. Such a frontier will emancipate the jobless man, pro- vided he takes chances with starvation. Because he is aware that the resources of his country are vast CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 25 enough to afford him a decent living if operated justly, the jobless man is tempted to follow any lead in the hope of relief. Millions have experienced the results of the individualism that concentrated wealth among the few and spread destitution among the masses. Now this reasoning would appear, at least in outline, and as criticism, to reflect the social philoso- phy of the Church as unfolded in our schools. How- ever our thinkers may differ about details, Catholic education, we believe, offers at least a specific social teaching respecting the plight of modern man and his social salvation. One of its persistent purposes is to afford all within its influence a proper attitude for regarding man and his society. Too often the sys- tem has been charged with over-developing a spiritual outlook and the other-world destiny of man, to the neglect of man’s status here and now. This charge derives from lack of acquaintance. There is a whole body of thought resting upon a fine tradition from Christ, through the Fathers of the Church, down to the teaching of the later Popes and contemporary scholars, which we regard as basic to Catholic social philosophy and social science. This body of ethical-social principles supports our attempts at human betterment. But, obviously, to apply those principles we depend upon experience and ex- periment. The technical devices and instruments, which the application of those principles entails, only the experimental method can yield. The Catholic laboratory differs from no other in the matter of experiment. It must get the facts; it must study them ; but application should lie with- in the limits of premises we know to be true. Chief 26 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION among those premises is that society can not sur- vive, much less advance, without a spiritual alle- giance. Beginning in the nineteenth century a school of thinkers believed that it could ignore that premise. Centering its interest exclusively upon invention and discovery, capital and machinery, it essayed to attack physical nature. The attack gave victory without conquest, for in our newer status as a nation with comfort, wealth, and power, we knew not how to govern ourselves. The error went deeper. It im- plied that man is God himself, or unto himself a god. It worshipped a supreme state. There was nothing higher. There was no superior source for duty and for obligation. Man was a law to self. Now if America is to survive it must build on a newer citizenship which avoids the evil of both com- munism and individualism. That citizenship will avoid the extremes of the compulsion systems and those of the laissez faire system. Fundamentally it must have roots in man’s intelligence, in his will, and in his liberty. These endow man with the right to personal development and the pursuit of happi- ness. As a result intelligence and reason must pre- vail over feeling in everything that pertains to hu- man welfare. The rule of intelligence displaces pre- judice. It begets justice. Bcause he has an intelligent personality, man may not be classed as a creature of the state ; the state is his instrument to achieve a des- tiny. If this pattern shapes the thinking of our people, if it really has inner life and force, then the society of our day is not headed for destruction. Our institutions will survive and rational liberty and CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 27 disciplined effort will vitalize our attempts at social betterment. A refined internationalism will displace the jealousies of modern governments. It will use ra- tional methods for settling disputes. A spirit of honesty will bring about, as Leo XIII and Pius XI assert, a recognition of the rights of labor and give to labor the prerogatives it deserves. As a matter of religious and civic duty, the newer citizenship would make honest use of the ballot. Citizens would take into public office the rigors of the domestic code. Such leaders would bring about reform in law and in the spirit of law, as Leo XIII indicates, (cf. Statement on the Present Crisis, pp. 18, 19, 20 passim). In fine, this newer citizenship sees that society’s distress does not derive from lack of insight. So- ciety’s distress derives not from intelligence but from a perverse quality of the human will. That quality parades through history as avarice, pride, and selfishness ; it tends to destroy, not to conserve, society’s achievements. But there are other qualities in the human will. These are the conserving spirit- ual forces. With these forces Catholic education is emphatically concerned. If activated by a faith in Christ, our Encyclicals assert, these forces can lift man beyond himself and regenerate him. In fact, they can create what is not—a society of justice, happiness, satisfaction, progress, and brotherly love. CARDINAL HAYES STATES AIMS OF THE CATHOLIC HOUR (Extract from his address at the inaugural program in the studio of the National Broadcasting Company, New York City, March 2, 1930.) Our congratulations and our gratitude are extended to the National Council of Catholic Men and its officials, and to all who, by their financial support, have made it possible to use this offer of the National Broadcasting Company. The heavy expense of managing and financing a weekly program, its musical numbers, its speakers, the subsequent answering of inquiries, must be met. . . . This radio hour is for all the people of the United States. To our fellow-citizens, in this word of dedication, we wish to express a cordial greeting and, indeed, congratulations. For this radio hour is one of service to America, which certainly will listen in interestedly, and even sympathetically, I am sure, to the voice of the ancient Church with its historic background of all the centuries of the Christian era, and with its own notable contribution to the discovery, explora- tion, foundation and growth of our glorious country. . . . Thus to voice before a vast public the Catholic Church is no light task. Our prayers will be with those who have that task in hand. We feel certain that it will have both the good will and the good wishes of the great majority of our countrymen. Surely, there is no true lover of our Country who does not eagerly hope for a less worldly, a less material, and a more spiritual standard among our people. With good will, with kindness and with Christ-like sympa- thy for all, this work is inaugurated. So may it continue. So may it be fulfilled. This word of dedication voices, there- fore, the hope that this radio hour may serve to make known, to explain with the charity of Christ, our faith, which we love even as we love Christ Himself. May it serve to make better understood that faith as it really is—a light revealing the pathway to heaven: a strength, and a power divine through Christ; pardoning our sins, elevating, consecrating our common every-day duties and joys, bringing not only justice but gladness and peace to our searching and ques- tioning hearts. CATHOLIC HOUR RADIO ADDRESSES IN PAMPHLET FORM OUR SUNDAY VISITOR is the authorized publisher of all CATHOLIC HOUR addresses in pamphlet form. The addresses published to date, all of which are available, are listed below. Others will be published as they are delivered. Quantity Prices Do Not Include Carriage Charge “The Divine Romance," by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 80 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $8.01 per 100. “The Moral Order" and “Mary, the Mother of Jesus," by Rev. Dr. Geo. Johnson, 64 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.00 per 100. “A Triology on Prayer,” by Rev. Thomas- F. Burke, C’.S.P., 32 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $5.00 per 100. “The Story of the Bible,” by Rev. Dr. Francis L. Keenan. 64 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities-, $6.00 per 100. “Four Religious Founders,” by Rev. Dr. Francis J. Connell, C. SS. R., R-ev. Benedict Bradley, O.S.B., Rev. Thomas M. Schwertner, O.P., Rev. Sigmund Cratz, O.M. Cap., and Rev. M. J. Ahern, S. J., 56 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $6.00 per 100. “The Philosophy of Catholic Education,” by Rev. Dr. Charles L. O’Don- nell, C.S.C., 32 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c? postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. 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Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $5.00- per 100. “Divine Helps for Man," by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C.M., 104 pages and cover. Single copy, 25c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $11.00 per 100. “The Parables," by Rev. John A. McClorey, S.J., 128 pages and cover. Single copy, 30c postpaid; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $12.00 per 100 . “Christianity’s Contribution to Civilization,” by Rev. James- M. Gillis, C.S.P., 96 pages and cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid ; 5 or more, 15c each. In quantities, $10.00 per 100. “Manifestations of Christ," by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 123 pages and cover. Single copy, 30c postpaid ; 5 or more, 20c each. In quantities, $12.00 per 100. “The Way of the Cross,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 32 pages and cover (prayer book size). Single copy, 10c postpaid; 5 or more, 5c each. In quantities, $3.00 per 100 “Christ Today," by Very Rev. Dr. Ignatius Smith, O.P., 48 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities, $5.50 per 10(k “The Christian Family,” by Rev. Dr. Edward Lodge Curran, 68 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $7.00 per 100. “The Dublin Eucharistic Congress,” by His Eminence William Car- dinal O’Connell. An address rebroadcast from Dublin, 12 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 5c each. In quantities, $3.75 per 1.00. “Rural Catholic Action,” by R’ev. Dr. Edgar Schmiedeler, O.S.B., 24 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 5c each. In quan- tities, $3.50 per 100. “Religion and Human Nature.” by Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Daly, 40 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid ; 5 or more, 8c each. In quantities. $5.50 per 100. “The Church and Some Outstanding Problems of the Day,” by Rev. Jones I. Corrigan, S.J.. 72 pages and cover. Single Copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10c each. In quantities, $8.00 per 1001 . “Conflicting Standards,” by Rev. 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In quantities, $5.00 per 100. “The Happiness of Faith,” by Rev. Daniel A. Lord, S.J., 80 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid ; 5 or more, 10