The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-03-25
R. c. UNIVERSITY
Ten Years Of Obstacles and
Difficulty Crowned With
Triumphant Success.
MGR. O'GORMANS ADDRESS
Corner Stone of Holy Cross
College Laid-Among
the Churches.

ULl0 OuuICLlCS
Catholic University weather is a term
which is acquiring considerable fame.
We have seldom seen such a day as that
on which the corner stone of Divinity
Hall was laid, says the special correspon-
dent of the ''Freeman's Journal Sum
day last, the date selected for a similar
ceremony in regard to Holy Cross Col
lege, was also a record breaker. With the
wind blowing nearly fifty miles an hour,
Right Rev. Thomas O'Gorman, Bishop of
Sioux Falls, in the presence of the presl-
dents of the affiliated colleges of the
Catholic University, the professors and
students of all the departments, per-
formed the ceremony of laying the corner
stone of the new Holy Cross College.
The situation of Holy Cross College is
ideal; and from all indications it will be
dents of the affiliated colleges of the
stately buildings which cluster around the
university property. 1t occupies the
highest ground in this section, being at
least one hundred feet above Mcmahon
Hail. The College of the Holy Trinity,
to be conducted by the Sisters of Notre
Dame, will be nearly ON a direct line with
Holy Cross College, on a prominence
southwest of the university grounds.
Holy Cross College is the first contribu-
ton of the great middle west to the foun-
dation which the Holy Father intended
should have a national significance.
DR.. Zahm intends to make the conse-
Grafton of the building the great event IN
it's history. If all things go well, this
will occur at the annual meet
ing of the board of directors of the Catho-
lie University and of the Archbishops of
the United States in October. Cardinal
Gibbons and Mgr. Martinelli will be pres
ent, and Bishop Spalding will deliver the
grafton.
The brief Grafton of Bishop O'Gorman
on Sunday was a very beautiful one and
well worth reproduction. He said
.sUnheralded and informal as may be
the laying of this cornerstone, yet 1t
marks an important stage in the growth
of the Catholic University of America.
The first decade of its existence is com
ing to a close, but what a decade OF
sarugle for life and of progress through
difficulties and of triumphs over Obstacles.
We do nat repine, we do not regret, we
do not complaint: for does not growth
mean, in institutions as in men and
everything, else that lives and grows, re-
| sistance to and victory over resisting
forces? And if growth means a ia
vorable environment, has not this uni
versity been favored with the warm sun
shine and fertilizing waters of papal pro-
lection and love, with the fostering care
of hierarchy and clergy, with the warm
and generous sympathy of laity, eager for
the blessings of the highest and best ed
ucation? The force of circumstances, or,
| rather. to speak the language of a Chris
tian, the ruling of Providence, has made
| this youthful institution, during the first
ten years of its existence, the centre,
| storm as well as sunshine centre, of the
Catholic Church in the United States; so
that the history of our Church in the de-
| cade just closing is contained in the
! history of the Catholic University within
| the same period. Struggle shows life, en-
vironment accounts for growth.
81 have named some factors of the en-
| vironment in which the university has
prospered: the draws attention
| to a factor of the greatest power and inn
| portance. From this hill where we stand,
behold the imposing halls of the univer-
sity itself, and see clustering around them
| the houses of studies established by the
Paulists, the Marists, the Franciscans.
.This building, the cornerstone of which
| is blessed this afternoon, will be the home
of the students of the Congregation of the
Holy Cross. The dimensions, the solidity,
the architectural beauty of this college,
prove thst its founders have confidence
IN the future of the university as an I'M
| doubted centre of high education for the
Catholics of the United States. In the
Middle Ages the great universities became
sooner or later the rallying points of nu-
merous colleges erected by different ma
| lions, or province or monastic and relig-
| ious bodies Thus grew Oxford and
Cambridge. Paris and Salamanca. Thus,
in our own days, grows Louvain, where
Dominicans ard Jesuits and Redemption
lists and others have grouped their re-
/ spective houses of studies around the
university.
sHistory is repeating itself in our time,
on our soil, in this capital of the nation.
AS in the administration so in the edu-
| cational sphere the District of Columbia
is to be the theatre of a growing CEN
| tralization. Here converge around the
| dome of the Capitol the departments of
the nations political existence. Here are
converging and will converge more and
more with time, around Caldwell and Nc
| aMhon halls, the houses of studies of our
religious orders, men and women. The
| days of doubt and hesitation are over;
the future is secure, we anil the
augury of a second decade more
successful, even if less stormy, than even
| the first decade of the university
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CATHOLIC CLUB NOTES.