The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-07-28
AIM OF EDUCATION.

Speaking at college commence
ment, Rev. DR.. Pace, of the Catholic
University, said:
What is your ideal and the purpose
of your Christian education? What
has been the spirit that has quickened
your teachers and you, the inner
force which has wrought
upon your very soul, with power to
tighten and to quicken? What higher
aims has animated them, and brought
you inspiration? What deeper prirl-
ciple has shaped your course, direct
ing you upon the safer path and or
dering the conduct of your thought in
search of useful knowledge?
You know full we'll the answer, it
is written plainly in the lives of them
who teach you; and by them it is
upon your hearts and
minds. If this seminary exists today,
if you have spent your student years
you take from it your title to distinc-
ton, it is because we believe and for
a certainty maintain that training in
the way of upright living is part of
education-yea more, it's very essence.
1t is because we claim that knowledge
of itself will not avail, except it be
employed to high and holy ends, that
intelligence alone, unless the will be
disciplined, can not establish us as
citizens, either in the city that is
h,,; Of in, hn fu Of l.
mighty God 1t is because we insist,
and ever shall insist, that there is no
genuine education without morality,
no adequate equipment for life with
out the knowledge and the practice of
virtue, no mental formation, no
growth, no development, no realiza-
ton of self nor fulfilment of any pur-
pose that deserves fulfilling without
such training as will make us ready
and efficient for the service of our
fellowmen.
That is the basic idea of our Chris
tan education-an idea that is famil
lar enough to every one here, that is
embodied in the Catholic school and
that must find entrance sooner OF
later into every school that seeks to
develop true citizenship, to produce
men and women and not merely think
ing machines.
Whether we speak or keep silent;
whether we forget the past or hope
fully turn to the future, we can not
close our eyes to the present, nor stoI
our unwilling ears against fact, and its
eloquent lessons. Constantly, in
evitably, with ever increasing force
the education given in our Catholic
schools is the only education tina
qualities a human being to thinl
wisely and do nobly in this crisis. l
is the only instruction that can hell
intelligence to estimate Alright thu
issues of the conflict, the only train
ing that can fortify the will and Civ
| it courage to endure all trials for thu
sake of righteousness. 1t alone pro
vides the mind with principles tina
! justify our country's action, and Civ
| a reason for the vast expenditure o
treasure and blood that war demands
Blot out from human thought th
knowledge which our Catholic school
specifically impart-and our warfar
is no better than the butchery 0
1 savage tribes. Eliminate the mora
teachings with which our children ar
| imbued-and our flag is lowered i
/ the mire, besmirched with wors
iniquity than the world has eve
known. Nay more; but for the prir
ciples which we proclaim, we Wer
4 betrayers of our nations life an
traitors to that very cause which w
pretend to serve-the cause of Go
and of mankind.
We have drawn the sword an
pledged our honor in behalf OF I'm
versal right-the right of each and a
to life and happiness, the right c
every nation, weak or strong, to shap
i it's destiny in perfect freedom. An
/ thereby we declare that right
something sacred, an endowmer
from our Maker and not from an
human source, a title to eXistenc
Il
j that is craven in the soul, beyond tn
i power of man to alter or to canoe
/. Only base and sordid aims can max
4 it fade from consciousness; onl
selfishness can blind us to the rigE
i that other men possess; only throug
forgetfulness of God, the Author of a
1 right, can we forget or disregard tn
sanctity of right-in all our fellow
men no less than in ourselves.
right must be inyiolate, if injustic
must be hindered and lawless amb
i ton rebuked,9 the consciousness {
/ right must be awakened in the chill
and kept alive and strengthened a
the mind unfolds through youth
! full maturity.
There is no true understanding {
fright and no appreciation of it's S;
i credness except upon the moral basi
Upon the fundamental truth that tn
/ origin of right, it's sanction and it
obligating power, is Gods creativ
i act. And this truth is taught to chi
i dren in all our Catholic schools.
We have joined our forces with tn
hosts of other nations, and have ser