The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-12-28
A CALL TO ARMS.
University Professors in Sad Need Of
Information on History.

University Professors in Sad Need o
Information on History.
Courage is the badge of a true Cath
olic We need it today as never be
fore. The apostolate of the Catholic
layman has flung its banner out; it.
mission is before us. This is called al
enlightened age-it is enlightened il
everything but Catholic truth. 1t j:
not so much prejudice as Ignorance
that must be overcome ere the light OF
Catholicity pierce the educational tent.
OF the dwellers in the valleys of oul
country. The great centers of intellec.
lual life whence is supposed to radiate
the sun of truth-the great secular uni
Nersities-are today up-to-date but not
up to Catholic truth.
The professor Of Harvard, Cornell
Johns Hopkins and Chicago universi-
ties goes abroad to teach the truth OF
SCIENCE, the truth Of history, the truth
OF art and seeks il everywhere but In
the Catholic Church. So the most en-
Iightened Of them still keep on tap
some of the old slanders. They advance
IN everything except Catholic knowl-
edge. They would be ashamed to be
found mapping in an elementary prin-
ctple of science, but they unbushingly
stumble over the most elementary
teaching OF the Catholic Church. His
torX. which has been, as a grea
French critic said, a conspiracy for 500
years against truth, still needs the IL
eliminating ray OF Catholic truth. 1t
is however, piercing the thick clouds
o. prejudice slowly.
But the state or secular uDiyersit V
must ever remain irreparably weak in
this; 1t has no standard Of truth. II
does not, in its teaching. separate
truth from error. 1t has no true or
liked basis for its judgments.
Let me instance this. A few days
ago was drawn into controversy with
d graduate student Of Chicago uuiver-
sity ana our discussion turned upon
truth He said to me, There is no
such things as truth" My reply was
naturally, Then what are you at the
university for? II the torch of truth
is not here, you must be wandering in
tue dark. And l added, Why, 1
though this Observation-Disclosures
lnstitution--on-a- -a-departmental store
plan possessed enough of light to IL
Illuminate the north pole" One of the
professors of history, few DAYS ago.
was dealing with Constantine, and he
said that the great emperor founder of
Constantinople, in. his later years, had
btcone an Srlan- Another professor
said one day, that the origin of saint
alteration, or as the Catholic calls it,
b. added saint worship (mark the
Distinction was to be traced to the
minor deities or local dieties worshfped
in the different provinces. of the old
Roman empire. Ye gods-including the
Penates-is this not scholarship with a
vengeance?
Again, there is a lack of poise and
balance in the critical judgment of
many of these professors. They are
not sane-they are not normal
A call to arms! A call to arms, Let
our Catholic laymen--our scholarly
Catholic historical specialists, remove
This condition of things. 1t is easily
done But we must have courage. We
must attack the citadel of error on
every side. And, remember. let not the
shadow of a name overwhelm us. I'm
der the cap and gown of a professor.
in some of our great secular or state
universities. there sometimes resides
an ignorance more gross than can be
found in the mind of the unlettered.
il is not the so-called dark ages that
require illuminating. 1t is the dark
and prejudiced minds of those who fail
to summon 10 their aid who fail to in
woke in their study and research the
great light Of Catholic truth. These.
indeed, require illumination.
Thomas O'Hagan. in the Catholic TeIe-
graph.