Catholic Problems in Western CanadaDaly, George Thomas
Religion
Catholic Problems in Western Canada
Daly, George Thomas
Catholic Church -- Canada
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?_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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