The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-01-29
DIOCESE OF ST. CLOUD

st. Joseph: Inc students or st
Benedict's College and Academy last
week completed three days Retreat
conducted by the Reverend William
Agnew, S. j., editor of the Queens
| Work" Thanks to the untiring en-
! thusiasm of the Reverend Father Ag-
new and to the good will of the stu
dents the Retreat of 1921 will remain
forever imprinted upon their minds. /.
A very fitting and appropriate clos
ing to the Students Retreat was given
by Right Reverend Bishop Busch, in
the informal talk that he gave the af.
ternoon of January Is. He took the
students in spirit back with him to
Rome. He tried to fill their hearts
with the same feelings of intense de-
votion and living faith that his own
heart experienced when he stood over
the tomb of st. Peter, when he visited
the holy successor of st. Peter-Pope
Benedict XIV, when he said Mass in the
Chapel of the first popes in the cata-
churches of ST. Paul, St. Cecilia and
St. Clement.
From Rome, whose atmosphere is
filled with the spirit of the early Chris
tians, the Bishop took his audience to
Lourdes, the home of Bernadette, to
show what the faith and devotion of
modern Christianity has accomplish
ed.
Reverend William H. Agnew, S. j.,
editor of the Queens Work and lee
turer for the Social Action Department
of the National Catholic Welfare Coun-
Gil, spoke before the faculty and stu
dents of ST. Benedict's College and
academy, Monday afternoon, January
II. Father Agnew said in part: with
out any doubt at all, Catholics, precise
lily because they are Catholics, ought
to be conspicuously in the forefront of
all enlightened and well-directed So
cial endeavors, because the Church
Iprovides them by examples, and by
precept and by encouragement with
the highest social wisdom, the most
compelling social commands, and the
most inspiring social traditions.
"a Social Agency is that which op-
crates to the betterment of man as a
member of an organized community;
| that which contributes toward the Sc
curer and fuller attainment by the
average man of the purposes of his
life among his fellow men, that which
tends to make the human family, or
the society of humankind, symmetri-
cally as perfect thing as it can rea'
sonably be desired to be.
"The Church is a Social Agency by
reason of her Christ appointed destiny
to perpetuate His divine mission
among men. And just as Christ by the
appointment OF God was divine SO
cial agency for the adequate all-time
reconstruction of human society, sc
the Church, as constituted by the same
Christ to carry His message and in
fiuence down the ages, is a divine so
cial agency operating even as did hel
Founder according to the wisdom ano
love and omnipotence of God for the
betterment of mankind"
Father Agnew closed with Wig
orous appeal to his hearers to make
themselves fit instrumentalities to co
operate with the Church in her en-
deavor to bring social and economic
peace to society. YOU he said
like her, must recognize Christ thu
Son of God in every fellow citizen
In every victim of misfortune or un
fairness whether he be rich man o
pauper, you must see the distress o
Christ and lend your aid for their bet
terment, be that aid given by aims, o
good example, or wise counsel, or b,
the proper use of political power, o
, through rightly organized social en-
. deavor."