Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-17
Services Yesterday at Do
minican House of Studies.
LARGE CROWD PRESENT
MISSION OF CHURCH ORDERS.
Their Differences Noted as Manifesto
ton Of Church Unity..The
Prelates Present

Inc corner stone OF the dominican HOUSE
of Studies. on Bunker Hill road, in Brook
land. D. c.. was laid with very impressive
services yesterday afternoon, there being
over 3, 900 persons in attendance. The stone
was blessed by the Most Rev. Diomede
Falconio, apostolic delegate. and Right
Rev. William H. OConnell, DID, bishop Of
Portland, Me-. former rector of the Amer
lean College at Rome, preached an eloquent
sermon on the mission of the numerous
Catholic orders.
The home of the Dominicans in this coun-
try has been in Somerset, Ohio, since 1872.
where it was founded eight years after the
order was established in this country. With
the building Of the new structure 1t will be
transferred to the District Of Columbia, in
association with the Catholic University.
but at the same time it will be distinct
from the university. training its students
for Its own order and granting its own de-
grees. The building will cost several thou
sand dollars, and adjoins property recently
purchased by ST. Mary's Seminary of Bal
timore, in a desirable location fronting the
main entrance to the university grounds.
Members of the order from many parts
of the country were attracted to the serv-
Ice yesterday. Before O'clock which was
the hour set, large number of persons
had assembled in the field in which the
foundation is bein laid. Near the south
west corner of the masonry a large stand
had been erected for the use of the priests,
and the procession. which had been form
ed at Mcmahon Hall, marched thither 1t
was headed by the Society of the Holy
Name and the Order of Hibernians, the
Franciscan monks and members of the
Dominican order followed.
The Visiting Prelates. .. ..-.
Following these came the Right Rev.
Mgr. F. x. Sprecht of the Columbus do
cese; Rev. A. ": Higgins. s. T. M, ex-
provincial of the Dominican Order of the
United States. In the next carriage the
Rev. L. F. Kearney, s. T. M, provincial Of
the Dominican Order of the United States
of GAINESVILLE, Ohio, and Mgr. Falconio.
The procession divided at the foundation
to permit Mgr Falconio to go to the vest
ment table.
The march Of the acolytes and the Fran
ciscan and Dominican monks to the large
white cross. which stood at the eastern end
of the foundation. directly over the spot
where the altar is to be erected marked
the beginning of the services. At the
cross prayers were said, Mgr. Falconio re-
turned to the corner stone and blessed 1t by
making the sign of the cross on each of it's
six sides. 1t was put in place after the
iitany of the saints had been sung.
In the box placed in the stone were copies
of the Washington daily newspapers of
Sunday. coins of the United States and a
Dominican Order; the officers of the church
and the orders and the name of the Pres-
dent of the United States. The paper was
signed by Mgr. Falconio and the Very Rev.
L. F. Kearney. After Mgr. Falconio had
blessed the four walls of the edf1ce chants
were sung by the Franciscan friars and
the members of the College OF the Holy
Ghost.
Bishop O'Connell's Address.
At the conclusion of the singing Bishop
O'Connell delivered his address. AS an in
PRODUCTION he said:
Here in this western world is being
evolved mighty nation, in whose arteries
courses the blood Of every race, whose civil
ization is an amalgum of many lands, in
whose sturdy soil Is growing up new and
distinct type of men of noble impulse and
all-conquering energy. In this land every
thing is new, courage and stimulus are in
the air. Men here feel that no hope is too
high for realization and no problem too
hard for solution. With the great develop
ment of the commonwealth have arisen
problems of the most serious import, in
volving the future and stability of the ma
ton, and the very energy and determine
ton of this people expose them to exagger-
ating the novelty of conditions and to
imagining that they are without precedent;
that not only are new applications needed,
but that new principles must be evolved.
But the problems of this land, strange
though they are, are far from being wholly
new and 1t were unwiSe to attempt their
solution without reference to the past and
the experience of other lands. No new gov
eminent can attempt to follow out a line
problem, scorn precedent and history, and
succeed. What this country has in abound
ing measure is confidence and energy; what
most it lacks is the wisdom and experience
that come of age. 1t were mere temerity
therefore, for those in authority to attempt
the regulation of new and perplexing ma
tional questions according to some precon-
ceived theory without facts and tradition to
give it poise and without regard to the ex-
ample of older lands that have in their day
faced these same momentous problems"
He continued by saying that the church
gives a needed lesson to the nation. that
with admirable wisdom. 1t adapts the old
learning and the tried methods to the
things that are new" He said 1t was vast
ly to the, credit of the church in this land
and especially to this school that it has
gathered here various congregations and
orders. whose very differences are a mani
festation Of the unity and catholicity Of the
church.
The Church Orders.
In speaking Of the Dominican Order and
the other orders of the Catholic Church
he said
"Heretics. who abhor with, a deadly
hatred the religious state, have been loud
in condemnation of the multitude and va
riety of religious orders. They have main
tanned that for some religious to say that
they are of the Order of ST. Francis and for
others to say that they of the Order of
st. Dominic is the same as to say: I am of
Paul, and l of Apollos.' They argue that
this is to introduce schism and divisions
into the church. to the prejudice of the
unity of faith and charity. 1t is, neverthe-
less, a Catholic truth that the variety of
religious orders belongs to the adornment
and welfare of the church and to the great
er glory of God"
He then showed how these orders taught
the church system and served we'll de
fined purpose that could not be rightly
overlooked. He concluded by saying:
The religious life is so rich and illimita-
BILE in its perfection and variety that no
mortal man could properly appreciate it all
or formulate a rule which would embrace
all it's eXcellences. Each holy founder a
man of certain local antecedents, OF certain
natural dispositions. with an Unborn leaning
and particular affection for certain char
acteristics of the religious life or certain
works of apostolic charity, has, while build
ing on the solid basis of the counsels, ex-
allied and accumulated those which he par
ticularly loved and observed, and in the
practice of this love and observance he
drew men of the same character and zeal
after him. and so founded what is called
a religious order"
Those Present.
Among the prominent persons present at
the services were the following: