Evening star., 1939-11-13
Catholic u.
Continued From First Page.)

interest in the Archdiocese of Balti-
more, which latterly became the
Archdiocese of Baltimore and Wash
ington, within whose bounds the
university is situated. An earlier
Archbishop of Baltimore, James
Roosevelt Bayley, was my fathers
first cousin. Those of you who are
familiar with the succession in the
line of Baltimore prelates know that
Archbishop Bayley, a nephew, by the
way of Mother Seton, was the i'm
mediate predecessor of the venerable
Cardinal Gibbons, whose friendship
was very dear to me and whose
memory is in benediction.
New Opportunities.
institutes and academies of learn
ing are timeless and for all time.
Their aims and purpose are as
boundless as the mind of man can
conceive. AS generation follows
generation new opportunities for
usefulness, new obligations of duty
present themselves in unending con-
tinuity in the service of youth.
AN outstanding churchman, a
master of the art of prose, whose
long life drew to worthy close as
the Catholic University opened its
doors, out of his reasoned wisdom
in higher education, defined a uni
versity as a place where inquiry is
pushed forward and discoveries per-
fected and verified, and rashnesses
rendered innocuous and error ex-
posed by the collision of mind with
mind and knowledge with knowl-
edge
"As I congratulate the university
on the completion of it's first half
century may I also express the hope
that this school. so rich in achieve
ment. so full of promise of future
usefulness, will. through untold gen.
erations, contribute to that perfec-
ton Of the intellect which the great
Newman upheld as the ideal of edu-
cation"
Called Key Agency.
The Right Rev. Joseph M. Cor
rigan. rector of the university, which
was chartered by Pope Leo XIII in
1889, contrasted the chaos of much
modern thinking with the order of
Catholicism.
THE decline of the absolute belief
in science as the royal road to uni
versal truth, and therefore, to uni
versal bliss" he said, has left the
modern mind helplessly floating on
an ocean of confusion"
The Catholic part of the Nation,
he added, "are the chosen keepers
and trustees of the great and in
dispensable idea of order
The Right Rev. John Cooper OF
the faculty, in an address Ito the
hierarchy, our founders said the
university has been a key agency
in the hierarchy's task of uphold
ing and interpreting an unchanging
ideal in a radically changing ano
changed society"
Honorary degrees were conferred
on l3 persons, including six in
absentia. Among them was Ameri-
can Ambassador Joseph P. Ken
nedy, at London.
Keynote of Our Fifty Years" was
sounded by the Right Rev. Peter
Guilday, professor of American
church history at the university
this morning when he quoted from
and emphasized the original defini.
ton of its aim as follows:
THE aim of the Catholic Uni
versity of America is to search out
truth scientifically, to safeguard it
and to apply it to the molding ano
shaping of private and public life
With this aim in view the university
imparts, carefully cultivates and pro.
notes learning and furnishes both
students and teachers with the
means for scientific research ano
study, and so directs them that they
may properly fulfill their duties to-
ward God, church and country"
Degrees Conferred.
The degree of doctor of laws was
conferred on the apostolic delegate
to the United States; the Most Rev
John j. NIFTY, Archbishop of Sar
Francisco; the Most Rev. James c
McGuigan, Archbishop of Toronto
the Most Rev. Manuel Ruiz y Rod.
riguez, Archbishop of Havana; thu
Right Rev. Henry Hyvernat of thu
Catholic University faculty, in per.
son, and these in absentia: The
Most Rev. Filippo Bernardini
papal nuncio to Switzerland, former