Evening star., 1900-12-10
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.
PatrOnaI Feast Day Observed at the
Catholic Unfversity.

Saturday, December 8. was the Feast of
the Immaculate Conception. one Of the
great holidays Of the Catholic Church. 1t
is also the patronal feast of the Catholic
University, and as such was celebrated with
great ponp and dignity. Solemn high mass
wae sung at $50 o'clock, at which the right
reverend rector. Mgr. Conaty, Very Rev.
DR.. Garrigan, vice rector and all the pro-
fessors, in their academic costume, also
all the ecclesiastical and lay students, were
present Very Rev. l.. F. M. Dumont S.
s., DID, president of Divinity College, was
ceebrant: Rev. John A. Ryan Of st. Paul,
deacon, and Rev. John T. Stinson Of Bos-
ton, subdeacon. and Rev. James p. Sheri-
dan of New York, master of ceremonies.
The choir under the direction of the or
ganist DR.. ]. ]. Dunn. sang Guonod's Ro-
man Convent Mass. The vocal and instru
mental music was very well rendered, the
organ being accompanied by several violns
AT the end Of the first Gospel Rev. John D.
Mcguire, professor of Latin, delivered the
sermon on the occasion. 1t was in part as
follows:
THE attitude of modern thought toward
supernatural religion is one Of Indifference
This Indifference is not the product of the
age, however; it is a necessary consequence
of the development given to religious spec
ula ton in the sixteenth century; for the In
difference Of today and the principles an
nounced then are linked together in a cas-
worked out in age are not final, for
those destructive principles are still at
work, and IN their final utterance will un-
doubtedly eliminate all positive supernatu-
| raj religion. The denial of religion is not
| confined to belief merely; it is extended to
| the truths which have to do with conduct
| as well. And this is especially true Of the
morality OF the Gospels.
Besides the denial of religious truth there
| is also in evidence a refusal to believe in
| any suspension Of natural law, or in any
| intervention m natural phenomena. Hence,
| the persistent efforts on the part Of men to
| account on natural grounds for even those
| phenomena which transcend matter. Men
are absorbed in the observation of natural
phenomena. Their efforts in searching out
| and formulating natures laws have been
most successful. They have all but
| triumphed in the domain of matter, and
| their victories have made them perhaps
| over-confident. They have seen their gen
eralizations grow larger as their expe-
| rience widened, and they have dreamed of
| an ultimate single synthess. In their eag-
| erness to make the last summing up they
have overstepped the line. They have in
| vaded the supernatural with arguments
| drawn from the natural.
| Now, 1t becomes pertinent on the feast
| day of the Immaculate Conception to see
| in that dogma Of religion an assertion of
| the supernatural in nature. So the uni
| versity can point to her as the strongest
| appeal after Christ for the genesis Of the
| supernatural in the consciousness Of men -
blessed sacrament was given, and at 1880
| o'clock pm. the rector's annual reception
| to the professors and students Of the uni
| versity was held, under the auspices of the
University Club, at the club rooms in No
| Aahon Hall.