The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-15

day in the presence of one of the most distinguished assemblages of Catholic clergy and laymen ever gath cred in this country. The three American cardinals, eight archbish- ops thirty bishops, thirty. monslg- nori, eight heads of religious orders, sixty representatives of colleges ana universities, over three hundred cler- gy and hundreds of distinguished lay men and women from all over the United States were present 4
 The ceremonies began this morn ing with solemn pontifical mass at St. Patrick's church, at which Car dina1 Farley of New York was cele- brant and Cardinal Gibbons delivered the sermon; followed by luncheon and later academic exercises at which a letter from Pope Benedict xV.. was read, and addresses were delivered by Cardinal OaConnen of Boston, Presi- dent G, Stanley Hall of the American Association of Universities, pr. J ohm Cavahaugh. president of Notre Dame University, and Bishop Shahan, rec tor of the Catholic University of America.
 Cardinal Gibbons in the course of his sermon at the pontif1cal mass said:
 For the growth of the University we are indebted above all to the God wisdom was begun To the great Pontiffs Leo XIII and Plus x and to their successor Pope Benedict KY we make public aclxnowledg cement of our grat- itude To the Catholics of the Unit ed States, we return our thanks for their generous support The experi- ence of those twenty-five years em- phasizes the needs which the Uni versity aims to supply: the need of divine truth to complete our human Knowledge of divine justice as the highest sanction of law, of the spirit of Christ in our administrations of mercy and love. There is no real liberty without law, and there is no meaning or validity to law unless it be observed.
 ''The growth of democracy does not imply that each man shall become a law unto himself, but that he shall feel in himself the obligation to obey. If the enacting power has been trans ferred from the will of the ruler. to the will of the people, the binding. coercive power has been laid with greater stress of responsibility than ever before upon the individual con science. Unless men be taught that obedience is right and honorable and necessary alike for private interest and public veal. legislation will avail but little, the law making power will become a mockery and the people themselves will complain that 1eg1sla- ton has been carried to excess.
 'But conscience has need of a high CT sanction than any merely human sense of justice. To meet the re- quirements of our religious. social and political situation is a. duty atthat we owe to the Church and to our coun- try. To fulfill it we must combine our efforts, and I rejoice that in the (NrAIn All TTr~Tw- l thought and action has been provid- ed"
 Cardinal O'Connell's address at the academic exercises on tHrhe office and responsibilities of the university in American life. was in part as fol | lows;
 we stand today at the beginning | of new era. in the history of higher Cath oiic education in America. We rejoice in the goodly heritage of those | twenty-five years, but we also look with much solemn thought to the fu- ture. The University is. first of all a home of culture. It trains men o1 learning, of noble ideals and high standards: and through them it de- termines the culture of the nation
 but it also trains the leaders, explain ing the functions of the state, the rights and duties of citizenship; the vital problems of society. it's iIlsI and the remedies.
 ."The growth of every university is measured by the c1oseness of it's con 1 tact with the body polite and by the success with which it meets the na- tion's needs, it must be conservative revering and transmitting the heritage of the past; but it also must be pro- l gressive, dealing prudentIy with new needs and problems. We Catholics are
 deeply interested in university educa- | ton because. as loyal American citi- | zens, we have at heart whatever is of 1 vital concern to the church and the
 nation.
 .sThe existence of this Catholic | University is an evidence quite as
 much of our interest in our country as our interest in our church. Both 1 Catholic and American, the Universi- l ty will gain force through it's service l to the country, while its Cathof1city will keep it in constant and unerring l touch with that tremendous spiritual 1 wor1d-power which has maintained the | whole truth among nations, in all
 ages-the Chair of Blessed Peter l President Hall of the American As sociation of Universities, in his address l at the academic exercises said in part: eeThe medieval universities were moi l fiat institutions, created by church 1 state or miIlionaires, but they. grew i inevitably out of the inmost; needs o1 1 the time. and bulls and edits usually 1 confirmed a status already attained l Their close relations to the church 1 gave to learning a consecration that I it never had in antiquity, and whicf 1 it may never have again. The sub ject matter has, of course, changed
 much with the times, but nearly every
 feature of student life. method O
 teaching and learning. items of or
 ganizations academic custom anC even custom, was already, developed
 in the ffty-fve universities establish
 ed in Europe a. century before tn 1 discovery of America. They ant
 their work and it's results constitute
 perhaps, the greatest achievement. O l the middle ages and their effects up
 on the progress of Europe and tn
 world has been without precedent O