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