The San Francisco call., 1910-02-06

! NEW YORK. Feb. Each month
Plus X recommends some special object
/ to the prayers Of the faithful through
the League of the Sacred Heart or
Apostleship OF Prayer. now numbering
more than s0OO0o0O Catholics through
out the entire world. The special in
tention for last month was catholic
universities
These words he rightly links toseth-
er History has joined them; necessity
] keeps them joined Looking over the
world we fiud that the Catholic church
was tire founder Of the great universi-
ties Of history for instance, Padua, Bo-
logna. Paris, salamanca, oxford, cam
bridge. Copenhagen, Manila. Balreuth
and. last but not least. Washington.
Catholic universities are the fruit OF
the fully developed church. Wherever
she has grown freely and unchecked
her ripest fruit has been a university
! Wherever she has had control OF the
school. the college and the university
she has produced a Christian people
Witness the Filipinos the only Chris
! tian people OF the orient. Hence the
words united by necessity
Wherever they are divorced there
soon follow chaos and confusion con-
cerning the fundamental principles of
morality and ethics. Witness the re-
! cent revelations concerning our own
! American universities and the teach
ings Of the Zueblins. Porters. Spitzkas
and other professional sappers and
miners that have startled and alarmed
al right thinking minds Even the
teaching of the elementary arts OF
reading. riting and 'rithmetic, without
religion To guide and control their use,
may be likened TO distributing razors'
reyolvers and dynamite in a kindergar-
ten without teaching the pupils the
proper use of such dangerous weapons.
The annual collection just taken up
for the Catholic university OF Washing
ton. founded and supported by the vol
untary contributions Of the faithful
, throughout the United States, illus
trates how deeply American Catholics
are imbued with this conviction.
It is now 10 years since Waldec<-
Rousseau appealed to the cupidity of
the French populace by telling them in
\ speech at Toulouse, that the French
congregations owned property worth a
milliaTd of francs. which should be de-
voted 10 fund for the aged poor.
John Jacob Astor and Rockefeller
I each owns four or five times that
amount. while the. property of the re
/ ligious orders in France was owned
collectively by tens of thousands of
( Frenchmen, who used il to maintain
/ hundreds of schools, hospitals, or
/ phanages and asylums of every de-
scription Yet we learn from the pub
( lication Rome that up TO last year 329
/ congregations had been 'liquidees."
! which. in plain English. means robbed,
! plundered, skinned alive.
SO far. the costs have eaten up so
/ per cent of the proceeds, and the pro-
/ the estimated sum. At the same rate,
! the entire liquidation of the prop
/ erty Of the religious orders will net
! just ! per cent of the milliard prom
/ ised by Waldeck- Rousseau.
! But that is not all; for the people
are now taxed for the support of the
! schools, hospitals and other philan-
thropic institutions which the reli-
! gious orders maintained; and the cost
under government administration, is
twice what it was under the men and
women who worked. not for personal
profit, but for the glory of God.
! Can il be possible that divine venge-
! ance is visible in the frightful catas-
trophe that has befallen unhappy
( France? miracle is not needed.
/ Providence has only TO let loose the
( forces of nature. which he, and not
men. controls and any city. nation or
people viii crumble before them.
Seattle lost one of its earliest and
/ greatest benefactors and the Catholic
/ church one of its most devoted and
energetic sons in the recent death of
/ Admiral ". J. Thomson. retired, thus
ending a fight for life which has been
prolonged for years and which. by his
cruel sufferings and wonderful pa
/ tience, partook Of the dignity and merit
/ OF martyrdom.
Admiral Thomson served the first
/ two years Of the civil war as a soldier
/ in the union army passing thence to
! the navy in the paymasters depart
ment where he served under Admiral
I Porter till the end of the war. He
participated in many notable expedi-
/ tions
4 After a cruise in the interest of the
I Smithsonian Institution among the
/ south sea islands. he qualified as an
expert lingust aud ethnolOgist. This
! led TO his assignment on naval eXpe-
dition of three years dura tion among
/ the savage tribes of the then unknown
and darkest Africa. in which he earned
I the warmest appreciation of the gov
/ ernment for his tact and daring. On
/ the old Kearsarge he assisted in the
suppression of the Chinese pirates. He
rendered distinguished service during
the recent war, retiring from the navy
some FIVE years ago
J l.
entertained the highest esteem for his
! administrative ability, and had about
! completed arrangements to make him
! financial head Of the imperial navy
when the dowager empress suppressed
the plan.
After his second marriage, his wife
began to receive instructions in the
/ Catholic faith. The admiral assisted
her in her studies, and himself became
convinced of the authority Of the one
true church. He was promptly baptized
I'm the late nineties. He was power
among the Catholics of Seattle.
Every Catholic enterprise turned in
stinctively to him for guidance, support
and announcement. and never in vaSn.
I lie was eager TO be of service The
knights of Columbus. the various char
tta abIe enterprises of the sisterhoods,
the new cathedral and every possible
manifestation of the convert making
/ missionary movement are lastingly in
I debted to him.
He engineered and took on himself
the entire burden of notable reform,
which compelled the court to commit
Catholic children to the care of Catholic
institutions. This stopped an immense
and most deplorable leakage. Until
illness made it impossible, he served
as court officer of probation for all
Catholics.