Catholic Problems in Western Canada
G >> George Thomas Daly >> Catholic Problems in Western CanadaThis stand of the Church in primary, secondary and higher education is
the logical conclusion of her doctrine. "The theory of life," said
Father Little, S.J., "and the theory of education go hand in hand." As
the Church has a definite teaching on life, its value and its purpose,
She has necessarily fundamental principles upon which education must rest
if it wishes to be in harmony with Christian life and Catholic belief.
In her eyes education, in all its degrees, must be primarily and
profoundly religious. "If indeed, the Catholic Faith which makes such
tremendous and such confident statements about God and His ways with men,
is true, then obviously it takes the central place in human knowledge,
and all other knowledge groups itself round and is coloured by Faith."
Therefore, the principle, "every Catholic boy and girl in a Catholic
college or university" should be to us as sacred as is "every Catholic
child in a Catholic school." One is the consequence of the other; both
are the practical conclusions of our faith. This close connection
between theories of education and the attitude towards problem of life is
evident in history.
The Pope, Benedict XV, in his recent letter to the American Hierarchy
(March, 1919), writes: "The future of the Church and State absolutely
depends on the condition and organization of the schools; there will be
no other Christians than those whom you will have formed by instruction
and education. . . . We have followed with joy," he adds, "_the
marvellous progress of the Catholic University at Washington, progress so
closely united to the highest hopes of your churches_. We have no doubt
that henceforth you will continue even more actively, to support an
institution of such great usefulness and promise as is the University."
The Most Reverend Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, in 1904, vindicated
for the Irish people not the privilege, but the right to a Catholic
University. "For us Catholics," he wrote, "the Gospel as taught by our
Holy Church, is our philosophy of life and we hold that any attempt to
educate a youth in what we call secularism is a retrogression to a lower
level than that of pre-Christian culture. For this reason we have
withstood every attempt to force _secularism_ on this country and we
shall resist it to the last. We have equally withstood _mixed
education_, which, false as it is in itself and pernicious, is in this
country a specious pretext for Protestant educational ascendancy."
(University education in Ireland.)
If such is the case with Catholic Ireland, what should we not conclude as
regards our Western Provinces? Here, more than anywhere else in Canada,
does the Church need staunch, genuine, Catholic leadership. In it the
future of Catholicity beyond the Great Lakes is involved. Reason and
experience prove that the training which makes for genuine Catholic
influence is plainly out of question unless it be received in a college
and university whose atmosphere, teachings, aspirations and ideals are
thoroughly Catholic. The recent foundations of a Catholic University in
Milan and in Nimeguen, Holland, justify this claim.
* * * * * *
Conditions existing in our modern neutral universities vindicate our
stand and strengthen our position. The tendency in these universities
is, without doubt, towards infidelity or to say the least, towards
diluted Christianity.--"The transformation from the old denominational
education to the new undenominational education was in point of
fact due to an antitheological--and even in some of its
manifestations--anti-religious movement. If it included a sense of the
justice of equal treatment for all creeds and a sense of the liberty
necessary for science, it also included some of the anti-Christian spirit
of Continental liberalism. The undenominational movement was the
practical expression of the liberal and scientific movement." (Life of
Newman--L 306.)
A few years ago there appeared in the "Cosmopolitan Review," under the
glaring title "Blasting at the Rock of Ages," an article which startled
the intellectual world. It was a crude and biting exposure of the
intellectual license and unhealthy moral atmosphere of the great American
universities. To follow the author of this powerful indictment in the
proof of his facts and statements would be beyond the scope of this
paper. Only we would advise some of our near-sighted Catholics who
through that snobbishness which money often gives them, have a sort of
worship for non-Catholic universities, to read this indictment. In
giving them a glance of the "inside of the cup" it may change their
opinion.
Dr. James Henry Leuba, professor of psychology at the Bryn Mawr College,
Pennsylvania, gave out to the public the answers he received from
sociologists, biologists, psychologists and teachers of universities and
other institutions in the United States, as regards their belief in the
existence of God. More than fifty per cent. admitted that they had no
belief whatever in the existence of God; forty per cent. denied the
immortality of the soul. The great majority, said Dr. Leuba, were
university teachers and none could compare with them in influence over
the rising generation. (Cfr. Archeological Report 1917--published by
Ontario Government.)
When subversive theories based on an absolute materialistic conception of
life, and from which God, Divine Providence, Christ, Christianity are
systematically excluded and ridiculed as myths of by-gone days; when, we
say, such theories are rampant in the halls of our modern universities,
should we be astonished to see outright infidelity, political socialism,
religious anarchy, stalk the length and breadth of the land? "Impurity,
obscenity, moral corruption in many forms, with the ever consequent
cynicism and pessimism, forerunners of moral decadence, destruction of
the original, creative, shaping, joyous, confident energies of society,
come daily more boldly to the front of the stage and defy criticism or
mock at the archaic sanctions of yesterday. One does not need to peruse
the great modern historians of Roman morals to foresee the results of
such an educational debauch, when allowed time enough and the working of
its own, unholy but intimate and inexorable logic." (Mgr. Shahan--at the
Catholic Educational Convention, U.S., 1919.) Sow the wind, you will
reap the whirlwind.
Should not such atmosphere of infidelity or diluted Christianity in
non-Catholic universities be for Catholic students a source of danger to
the vigour and even to the integrity of their faith, to their constancy,
in the full and faithful observance of their practical religious duties?
Familiarity with error, at the age of youth principally, breeds contempt
of truth and jeopardizes faith. The suppression of truth in its various
forms, the concealment of religious profession and observance,
necessarily lead to religious indifference. How many sad examples could
we not give to back this statement? This danger which Catholic youth
meets with in the very atmosphere of our neutral universities is still
greater when we consider the method of teaching now in honour in these
schools of higher learning. The tutorial method, still in vogue at
Oxford, has given place to the _professorial_. The systematic lecture
has replaced the exposition of texts. The professor, with his frame of
mind, his views on facts and ideas, is the living book from which our
youth read their daily lesson. His personality dominates the mind of the
pupil. We all know what fascination the science, reputation and
eloquence of a professor have on the unarmed and impressionable minds of
youth. The "_Magister dixit_" is very often the supreme law, the last
criterion of truth. President Garfield's ideal of a college, "Mark
Hopkins on the other end of the log," recognizes the educative value of
the contact with a master-mind.
Authority and reason militate in favor of higher Catholic education for
Catholics in Western Canada, this is the logical conclusion of our
statements.
* * * * * *
Yes, nice theories, some may say; but we are facing facts. How are we to
contend with these well equipped, richly endowed, neutral institutions of
higher education? Where shall we find the resources to pay efficient
teachers, to establish the various faculties that go to form a university
worthy of its name? Have we not a state-university marvellously well
equipped and for which our Provinces are yearly spending fabulous sums?
Why not take advantage of our own money that goes in taxes for the
support of these institutions?
To argue along these lines is to concede to our enemies our position on
the Separate School question. All these objections have been met with in
other countries and other provinces, and the answer to them was the
creation of Catholic colleges and universities.
The great fallacy of the age, and particularly in this part of the
country, is State Monopoly in educational matters. This is looked upon
as the great triumph of modern democracy and the palladium of liberty.
The monopoly over the human mind by this monopoly of education is the
most dangerous of all state-monopolies. It is the resurrection of the
pagan ideal, the magnification of the state to the detriment and
absorption of the individual and the family. Germany has given us an
example of where "the standardization of thought and outlook" by the
State education leads to. The Prussian ideal, in its last analysis, is
nothing else but the pagan ideal.
But no country in the British Empire has pushed the policy of
monopolisation of education so far as our Western Provinces. Under the
specious plea of efficiency and absurd reason of uniformity, they will
not even grant charters to independent institutions of higher learning.
This policy surely does not reflect true statesmanship and makes British
liberty a misnomer on the lips of many of our ultra-loyal Westerners. We
would ask our Western Governments to take lessons in this matter from
England. When some few years ago the question of converting the
university colleges into Universities was before the English public there
was much talk of the danger of Lilliputian universities and of low
standards of teaching and examination. But this question was brought to
trial by the State before a high tribunal and a firm decision was given
in favour of the principle. A special committee of the Privy Council
conducted a semi-judicial enquiry and gave sentence on Febr., 1903. The
result of this decision was that the colleges of Liverpool, Manchester,
Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol, Durham, blossomed out into
teaching universities. This is the real British way of doing things.
The United States[4] have granted university charters to the various
Catholic institutions of higher learning which dot that land of Liberty
from coast to coast. And let us not forget,--facts and figures will bear
us out,--the independent universities in the United States, in England
and in Belgium, only to mention some, have been in many Faculties more
efficient and more successful than the state institutions. The
remarkable record of St. Louis University, a Jesuit institution, is
illustrative of this point. A comparison of the respective medical and
dental records of this institution with perhaps two of the greatest
professional schools of the United States, John Hopkins and Harvard,
gives proof of higher efficiency to St. Louis University. The official
bulletins of the Medical Dental Associations give the statistics.
The right of Catholics to their own schools--primary, secondary,
university, is a birthright we must always fight for. It is the
elementary right of a civilized people to educate her sons as she sees
fit. In the battle for this right the best strategy is to offer the
accomplished fact of a college and a university which by their
efficiency, their intellectual and moral value, impose themselves upon
the community and win their way to acceptance. Let us blaze the trail
and to-morrow, it will be the great highway of Catholic education for the
coming generation in Western Canada.
But instead of this policy of "_isolation_" which in school matters is
the ordinary policy of the Church, some Catholics, in view of
circumstances, rather advocate that of "_permeation_." The presence of
Catholics in State Universities will, they claim, create a better
atmosphere, abate or soften prejudice, beget a better feeling among the
future leaders of the community. In England, it is true, Catholics are
allowed to attend Oxford and Cambridge; in Germany, they attend State
Universities. The Catholics of Australia have since 1916 also a College
in conjunction with the Melbourne State University. Student societies
have been formed, Catholic halls opened, courses of apologetics are given
to help the Catholic youth in the "steady daily pressure working against
them in a non-Catholic university," and to influence religious thought in
those centres of higher learning.
Has this "_modus vivendi_" brought about by various circumstances which
it would be too long to analyze here, produced the desired results? In
Germany it has not created a Catholic atmosphere in one single
university. Have not, on the contrary, the German universities been the
hot-beds of Modernism and many a young cleric has come from their halls
inoculated with this virus.
As for Oxford and Cambridge, we all know the controversy which divided
the Catholics for so many years. As Catholics have been allowed to
follow the courses there for only a few decades, we are not yet, we
believe, in a position to judge of the influence of these universities on
the Catholic body of England as a whole. Time only will tell. But one
thing is certain, no comparison can be established between our state
universities and these colleges. Although in the halls of Oxford,
Christianity "is often attuned to the outlook and temper of the age" as
the book "Foundations" (a statement of Christian belief in terms of
modern thought, by seven Oxford men) sadly reveals it, nevertheless,
there is not to be found in the English Colleges that atmosphere which
the absence of religion has created in our state universities. The
presence of various denominational colleges on the grounds of our
Provincial Universities only gives them a tint of Christianity. The
teaching of history and philosophy will tell the tale. "It must be
remembered that an Oxford scheme was never Newman's ideal. It was a
concession to necessities of the hour. His ideal scheme, alike for
education of the young and for the necessary intellectual defence of
Christianity, had consistently been the erection of a large Catholic
University like Louvain. This he had tried to set up in Ireland. In
such an institution, _research and discussion of the questions of the day
would be combined_ as in the middle ages with a Catholic atmosphere, the
personal ascendancy of able _Christian professors_ and directly
_religious influence_ for the young men." (Life of Newman)--by Ward.
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
analyzed 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 compass when his ship
has taken to the high sea. This is the principal 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 passing 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 asset 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, biassed 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 latitudinarianism in our Catholic life? Material
prosperity, success in business or in farming, associations 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 passed 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 institutions. 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.