The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-01-20

traditions of faith and my unsWerVlnG
 obedience to him whom Christ has con- stituted as his vicar on earth. the H.
 lustrlous and sainted Leo XIII.
 Called as l have been from the busy life of parochial duties, dare not pre-
 sume to speak for the great university over which the supreme pontiff has deigned to appoint me to preside. l have yet to learn my duties and my responsibilities. I have no plans nor thought of plans.
 l desire first of all to study the genius and purposes of so vast an in stitutlon and then strive to guide 1t in the lines of its aims and objects un-
 der the direction of our hierarchy and
 in the spirit of the pontiff, whose heart breathes forth such love for the higher education, and for its already tran
 scendent results in this country which
 has always claimed his admiration and deep interest.
 My iilustrious predecessor, the be- loved, scholarly Bishop Keane, has
 given to the world marked evidences
 of marvellous enthusiasm and unstint-
 ed disinterestedness, by means of which llS iietS bGCll clldDlGu u PldSC tlllo biii- versity upon a plane of usefulness which Is the wonder and admiration of l all lovers of education.
 Italy was the center of light, the sov- ereign of thought, the capital of civi- l lization. Guizot asserted that the Ben edictines educated Europe, and Gibbon declares that one convent of that order | has probably rendered more service to | literature than the two universities of | Oxford and Cambridge.
 | The duty of the university is to place | the Catholic church before the lovers of science as the handmaid of knowl- edge, the mother or research the guar l dian of truth. bringing to man all the blessings of invention and discovery, | reconciling truth with all the research | es of science and proving to all men that the Catholic church has the only | complete answer to the cravings of the human intellect and heart. Every l Catholic should be proud of such uni versity, where truth as it was delivered 1 by Christ to the world is delivered to
 man, where error will findno friendship and wrong no palliation. It appeals to
 the Catholics who seek culture and as sures them of the culture which truth | brings. It appeals to Catholics of wealth and bids them aid in it's main 1 tenance and development as the great
 est object of our purest and truest pride. It bids them emulate the noble deeds of the noble men who have placed | their treasures at the feet of truth to | aid it in the evangelizing of the world of science and knowledge. It appeals
 to our colleges and universities as an | incentive to their best work, and as 8 ton to be the best in the attainment of 1 all knowledge. "Deus lux mae" is it's l noblest motto, and under that inspira- tion the university must and will suc- 1 ceed May God ever be it's light, il- | lumining it in it's paths of study, en- | Tightening it's professors, guiding it's | students May the successes of the days of old in the universities of the | church come to our university, and may unity and true Christian charity | guide 1t in it's divine mission, as the l intellectual leader of our age, to bring all lovers of truth within it's influence, l to make men love the church which brings such gifts to men. Our Catholic | American university, may 1t prosper, and add laurel on laurel to it's wreath | of glory and renown, that it may real | ize the ideals of the great Leo and the fondest hopes of our episcopate our clergy and our people, and be the | pride of our glorious republic.