Saint Marys College - Blue Mantle Yearbook (Notre Dame, IN)

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Baccalaureate Address By the M {Bishop of Modra a It is a platitude, but none the less true, that at few times in the history of our country are the graduates of American colleges and universities being sent out into a world more torn by dissension, with so many unsolved problems to face, with the public mind so divided as at this hour. Instead of meeting an economic system, whose fundamentals are quite generally accepted, you will encounter, in some quarters, near-chaos and, in others, ven- tures approaching the revolutionary. In the political field, large and significant changes impend or are in process of exe- cution. Finance wavers, foreign relations are topsy-turvy. International obligations are i gnored, dictatorships are flour- ishing, wars threaten. Science is being overturned, religion is on the ebb; moral- ity, both public and private, presents an almost hopeless picture, where good is called evil and evil, good. Some extreme thinkers see in this almost universal wav- ering of thought and action a real boon for mankind; they are revolutionists who wish to destroy the past and all it con- notes in order to build upon its ruins what they call a new and more logical civiliza- tion. So convinced are they that the past, and particularly the last quarter of a cen- tury, has been wholly bad that nothing but a complete bouleversement of all its beliefs, principles, and acceptances will suffice to bring peace and salvation. Revolutionists, of course, increase and grow powerful in such times as these. They make a natural appeal to the type of mind which insists upon quick results and is impatient of the slower but surer formulations which follow on a thorough analysis and a correct evaluation of all the sides of a problem. At the other ex- treme are the standpatters, the intransi- )ST Rev. James H. Ryan, S.T.D. d Rector of The Catholic Utiivcrsitij of America) geants who wish no change, who condemn all change, are satisfied with things as they are, and obstruct every move, even though sound, which would make for the betterment of present conditions. No soundly thinking person can be con- tent with either of these extreme posi- tions; particularly no person who has been trained in a Catholic college can see with equanimity, much less follow blindly, either the way worked out by the revolutionist or that of the standpatter. If his education has been of the type it should have been, young though he is, he has had presented to him, and has accept- ed as norms for his living, certain funda- mental principles of whose correctness he can be sure and of whose practical sound- ness century after century of application has proved beyond the peradventure of a doubt. I can well understand that the grad- uate of an American college may not know where to turn, at times, may be in as great an intellectual and moral quan- dary as the mass of the people about him. I understand this because his training has been based on principles which recog- nize no stability. But I cannot under- stand the graduate of a Catholic college going out into the world without firmly established intellectual and moral princi- ples ; I cannot understand his succumbing to the wayward thinking of political, eco- nomic, or social theorists; I cannot imag- ine his living his life as if he were only an animal, as if outside of and above na- ture there exists nothing. Should he do so, it will be because he has failed to learn the lessons of certitude which have been taught him, because he has not made his own the teachings of a Faith which, through nineteen centuries, has withstood both the assaults as well as the idiosyn- June, 1935 123

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REBELLION CLASS POEM JOSEPHINE ROACH ' 35 shall sing my own song, Dream my own dream. Never feariiig Ever nearing One great highroad Oiie great skyroad Until I stumble over stars! If I shoidd waken To he shaken By disaster Coming after My descent to earth again . . . Shoidd the real and the earth-hou7id Keep me chained he7 e on retiuming, Travel on the highroad Journey on the skyroad. From a scarred world To a starred world. Taught me how to Then and now, to Sing my own song. Dream my own dream.

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CHIMES crasies of the luiinaii mind determined upon its destrnction. The o-radnate of a Catholic college has accepted certain codes and made them his own. In the first place, he has an intel- lectual code, the primary principle of which is that truth, and truth only, is to be pursued and accepted. So engrained in his mental make-up is this reverence for truth that nothing, no matter how specious, how high sounding, how attrac- tive, is likely to divert him from its claims u])on his acceptance. For him, too, truth is not multiple ; it is one for it is the truth of God, it is God. expressing Himself in the myriad aspects of nature and known to us through investigation, through science and philosophy. It is inevitable that the human mind, in its j ursuit of truth, should err ; it is not necessary, how- ever, to remain in error and particularly when it is a question of religious truth, every mind, even the most uninstructed, has sure guidance in the infallible teach- ing authority of the Church of Christ. The security of oiu ' Faith, however, is no security for our science; it should, however, become a great incentive, as it is a certain protection, in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. May I urge the graduates of oin- colleges to take up, in ever-increasing numbers, the work of scientific research. The possibilities in science are immense; despite the tremen- dous progress already made, worlds re- maii] to be conquered. You can make no greater contribution to the welfare of the world and to the prestige of Catholic thought than by devoting yourself, heart and soul, to the advance of scientific thought. You need have no fear for your Faith as a scientist; you need fear no cur- tailment of your intellectual or scientific freedom in the pursuit of a deeper knowl- edge of nature. The Sons of God are free, and with the freedom of Christ Him- self. You are free because you have sure and accepted starting jjoints. You are free because you do not have to be for- ever retracing your steps by reason of positions Avhich have been destroyed by some new and unexjjected discovery; you are free because your religious faith will give you a mental security, as it has done to many of the world ' s greatest scientists, which will withstand the vagaries of pass- ing theorists as it will serve as a firm foundation upon which to build the most fruitful speculation. The graduate of a Catholic college has a moral code. If there is confusion in the world about us, and there is, in no field is there such confusion as in that of morals. And moral confusion is the most disastrous of all confusions, both for so- ciety and for the individual. You know the Christian moral code — need I point out that it must be lived up to if you are to remain loyal to the sound and beauti- ful ethical traditions you have learned here. You go out into a world where ethical anarchy reigns, where selfishness is a ffod, where morality is but a word, and often one to be despised. I do not ask a passive attitude toward all this confusion. You are not merely to live your own lives on a high moral plane and to disregard completely the immoral or amoral lives of those who surround you. If you have accepted and are convinced of the truth of Christian morality, you cannot look with equanimit} on a world rushing head- long into moral barbarism. You, in a crusading spirit, must do all you can to bring society back to its senses, you must by word, by example, and by leadership attempt, at least, to change a situation which is fast becoming intolerable. Those who go into business and politi- cal life must bring to it the high standards of Christian morality. The scandals of the last few years can be repeated only to the infinite loss of our American life, pub- lic and private. If you go into one of the professions, you must do all you can to (Continued on page 151) 124 June, 1935