The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-05-19

"MS1T4cgltRRS%Ta'H
(Written for the Intermountain Catholic.'
Some weeks ago we made mention oil
the fact that Hon. John A Creighton
of Omaha, on whom Pope Leo XIII be-
sowed the title of Roman Count, and
foremost Catholic layman in the Unit
ed States today, had been awarded the
Laetare medal by the University of
Notre Dame. This week we record the
formal inveStiture of the medal on
| Count Creighton. The event took place
at the Creighton University, Omaha,
last week and was marked with inter
esting ceremonies. The ceremony was
the first of its character ever per-
| formed in the diocese of Omaha, as it
is the first time for that distinguished
honor to come west of the Mississippi.
The Laetare medal is a special gift of
| Notre Dame University, presented an
| nually to some noted Catholic layman
| in consideration of valuable services
! rendered in the cause of religion and
| Christian education. and comes this
year with special Specification to a
! generous and prominent member of St
Johns church. which is attached to the
University, and is in charge of the
Jesuit Fathers, who located in Omaha
many years ago at the urgent request
of the Creighton family. The medal
itself is a masterpiece of the artist who
designed it and is made of gold, en-
blazoned on the reverse side with the
motto and coat-of-arms Of Notre
Dame, while the face is inscribed with
the name of the recipient and the felic-
itations of the donor.
John A. Creighton is a man who is
particularly respected, honored and
loved in the west. and this tribute paid
to him by the great educational insti-
tuition of Indiana has in every way
been worthily and honestly won. No
man of our time has left a greater i'm
press upon contemporaneous Catholic
history; no man, to our mind, is more
deserving of distinguished considera-
ton
There were present on this occasion
men distinguished in all walks of life
bishops, priests business men, prcfes-
sional men, writers and SCHOLARSHIP
anxious to pay their respects to this
great, good man.
The presentation was made by Fa-
Their Morrissey on behalf of the Uni
versity, Bishop Scanneu presiding. but
the closing address was delivered by |
Rev. Father NJ. P. Bowling, S. J., pres |
ident of Creighton College. He traced |
the history of the Creighton family, |
showing the noble deeds and splendid |
works performed by its members He
spoke of the Creighton University as
a monument to their name. They Che
Creightons) lighted the lamp of benev-
olence at their own warm hearts and
they never allowed it to become extin-
guished. This, then, is the jubilee of
Christian Charity; it is the celebration
of the marriage feast of BenevoIence
and the honored name of Creighton.
This intensely practical age is prone
to gauge its work and OUTLAWS by pure
~ material standards; to demand tan
gible results, which it can see with its
|
hands, bring before the tribunal of
statistics and subject to the rigid, If
not soulless scrutiny of publicity; pen
Grating even the sanctuary of the af-
'ections in pursuit of safeguards for
is beneficence. Every epoch has its
,oliies. Ours is plunged into an abyss
If humanitarianism, which has all but
foi~ 0f rif II ;ei
10 longer simple virtue; it is a sci
nee, a social mechanism, a system, a /
governmental necessity. All our rep
esentatives of civilization, our philos-
phers, political economists, sages and
exhaust themselves in
Iomilies on the vice or sore of pauper- !
SIN; they lament the hard-heartedness
f wealth and speak touchingly of the 1
rivations of the poor; yet all these T
rophets of progress proclaim the ne
essity of almsgiving in the name of E
urely philanthropic pity. The poor
eing a fragment of humanity, they
uccor them and think that by that
tile they love them.
That is but benefcence of calcula- T
on founded on selfshness and spring.
lg from sense of terror. Such phil
1thropists have calculated the num-
ers of the submerged tenth of our D
Opulation and surveyed the residuum n
society; they have considered the
lances of social revolt; the disastrous 1
of the division and up
eaval which must follow; they have A
amped their feet on the crust which M
'vers the volcano of modern pauper-
m, in order to learn what weight it G,
i'll carry without giving way. I'm
this apostolate of sell IL
jhness only aggravates the evil by
fering no other compensation, in face Al
Unsuitable and corrupting luxury, 81
an the humiliating salary paid to
niger in order to soothe it's anger end TT
II its fury to sleep.
The man who never studied any 4S
Ie-spun theories of philanthropy, but
ent to work with the simple direct 90
IS of a generous heart is before you II
night. He solved many problem
recognizing that there is a limit to
e mighty power of dollar and that
shrinks into insignificance beside the
lrm flesh and blood sympathy of a III
lnly heart, and the moving pathos Lii
human tear
TO praise a man during his life and
oecially in his presence savors of
ulation," said Father Bowling, ''and
hall not be guilty of it; it is particu- :
ly out of place in the case of a per- ba
/ of pronounced democratic tastes IN