The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-08-08
CONVERSATION x-continued.

y
educated young men. and especially of
aiding their professional young men in
the commencement OF their career.
can conceive nothing more dishearten-
ing than the position of a young Cath
Ole lawyer or physician, for instance
He has been educated we will suppose,
in a Catholic college, and has formed
| few Protestant acquaintances and
acquired no status out of the Catholic
community; he studies his profession
and opens his office; but Protestants
will not employ him because they DO
not know him and have formed no re-
| lations with him, because he has not
yet acquired a reputation, and because
ne is a Catholic, and they have no in
| terest in pushing him forward; and
! Catholics do not come to his aid, often
| simply because he is d Catholic and
| therefore, in their judgment, cannot
| serve them as well as q non-Catholic.
! Let him succeed and prove that he is
| able to live without them, then they viii
! be proud of him and give him their
business. But still then he can't be
much, for he is a Catholic and Catho-
| lies for this world are, of course, in
ferior to non-Catholics. 1 know very
few instances in which young Catho
lie professional man has succeeded
without compromising his religion, and
living, whatever his faith, very much
like a non Catholic. Hence it is we lose
so many of our young men, who with
a little consideration in the outset,
little patronage of Catholics, which
would cost them nothing, might have
grown up pillars and ornaments of our
Catholic society. The Catholic COM
munity shows, in this respect, great
lack of prudent foresight and just re-
gard for Catholic interests. Neverthe-
less, ask for no change as to the per-
sonnet of our colleges, and do not OBJ
ject, nor does F. G. object to the pro-
fessors being priests or monks, and as
a Jesuit | certainly am not likely to
propose the exclusion of my own or
der from the business of education, in
which they have won so much glory
and which is one of the principal ends
of their institute
But even to renoer your colleges
secular, in the sense Father John con-
tends would not meet the wants of
Catholic secular society" remarked
Diefenbach. Their separation from
the petit-seminarie would not elevate
their character or render them more eff
fective to their end, if the government |
and faculty remained unchanged. The |
great fault to be found with them is |
that the education they give is too SUI
perficiaI and too confined. They do not |
turn out their young men brave sol |
diers. well disciplined, and fully armed |
and equipped for the battle of life, |
qualified to be the lay chiefs and lead
ers of your Catholic lay society,". me !
non Catholic colleges cannot compare
with similar institutions in Europe and /
they hardly prepare their graduates to
enter an English or German univer- |
sity. Your Catholic colleges do not rise
in secular education to the common
average of non-Gatholic colleges OF the !
country You have no colleges that
can. compare with Harvard Yale, Dart
mouth, Columbia and several others
MINT mention. Yet the wants and IN
terests of the Catholic body in the union
require you to give to your young men
not only a religious but also a secular
education, superior to any given in'non-
Catholic colleges, YOU have your own
body to elevate, and the country to
conquer. and you can effect either only
by proving yourselves at every point
in learning, literature, science and in
telligence. the real chiefs of the coun-
try, who have the real moral and in
tellectual superiority that entities them
to the leadership.
"Your Catholic population" continued
niefenbach, ARE chiefly from coun-
lries where Catholics have been in an
inferior position and crushed down to
the dust by the superintendent might
of successful heresy. They have been
bound with chains of iron which have
eaten into their flesh, even into their
souls, and the scars remain. and in
some cases the wounds are as yet un-
healed. They have q sense of inferi-
GRITTY and hardly persuade themselves
that they are relieved of the chains
worn for so many years and that they
are in very deed. freemen and stand on
footing of equality in society with their
whilom oppreSSorS They are afraid 1t
is all an Illusion and that they with
the next breath will see it dissolve. The
is that you take too low
views of your position and means and
fail even to aim at the influence with
IN your reach. only let us live in peace
and quiet you say, without having
our goods confiscated or our Threats ,
cut and we shall be grateful You
forget that you belong to a living re-
fgion which has the right to be agrees
sive, that its divine Founder said he
,alne to send not peace, but the sword +
,ather, that you must be propagandists,
)r not be true to the spirit of your
church. Which aims to bring the whole
world within her pale and to induce {
hem in spirit and in truth to worship
her Lord. 1t seems to me that both =
your people and even your collegiate
faculties pitch your standard too low X
md do not venture even to aim at the
superiority which you should use all
Useful means to acquire. You should
eel that your freedom is reality and
Use it. and as men who must account
q God for their stewardship"
Nothing can satisfy Herr Diefen- !
,ach.n remarked O'Flanagan. He de- {
,loirns against all that Catholics think, S
10 or say. and now he gets off a dla- =
ribe against the whole Catholic popu- i
alton of this country. Wonder if he :
yer heard of that charity which tRink- I
.th no ill, or of that wisdom which -
neck. gentle and not pulled up? Nor a
me word of sympathy has he for those c
Who have maintained their faith amid
very trial and the sacrifice of every G
hing else, nor one word of encourage f
nent for those who are doing all in Il
heir power for the Catholic cause"
Mr. O'Flanagan is quite mistaken,
eplied Diefenbach. and suspects
ault- finding where none is intended OF
an be justly inferred. / state fact, \
nd it's cause-a fact from Wnicn q
catholics suffer; yet l blame not them !,
blame only those who have oppressed =
nd prosecuted them. Owing to the
abits generated by the position i'll
lhich they have for generations been V
ED by triumphant and intolerant her c
sy. they have lost their free spirit ~
nd manly courage, and can even here ! v
ardly feel that their freedom is not
n illusion. They are afraid to ACT s
18th the high hopes and courage of Il
len who have never been in bondage. Il