efforts and great sacrifices, in spite of the allurement of our wealthy
state and independent institutions, the Church counts in every country
seats of higher learning, where her children may receive the benefit of
university training without danger for their conscience or their faith.

This stand of the Church in primary, secondary and higher education is
the logical conclusion of her doctrine. "The theory of life," said
Father Little, S.J., "and the theory of education go hand in hand." As
the Church has a definite teaching on life, its value and its purpose,
She has necessarily fundamental principles upon which education must rest
if it wishes to be in harmony with Christian life and Catholic belief.
In her eyes education, in all its degrees, must be primarily and
profoundly religious. "If indeed, the Catholic Faith which makes such
tremendous and such confident statements about God and His ways with men,
is true, then obviously it takes the central place in human knowledge,
and all other knowledge groups itself round and is coloured by Faith."
Therefore, the principle, "every Catholic boy and girl in a Catholic
college or university" should be to us as sacred as is "every Catholic
child in a Catholic school." One is the consequence of the other; both
are the practical conclusions of our faith. This close connection
between theories of education and the attitude towards problem of life is
evident in history.

The Pope, Benedict XV, in his recent letter to the American Hierarchy
(March, 1919), writes: "The future of the Church and State absolutely
depends on the condition and organization of the schools; there will be
no other Christians than those whom you will have formed by instruction
and education. . . . We have followed with joy," he adds, "_the
marvellous progress of the Catholic University at Washington, progress so
closely united to the highest hopes of your churches_. We have no doubt
that henceforth you will continue even more actively, to support an
institution of such great usefulness and promise as is the University."

The Most Reverend Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, in 1904, vindicated
for the Irish people not the privilege, but the right to a Catholic
University. "For us Catholics," he wrote, "the Gospel as taught by our
Holy Church, is our philosophy of life and we hold that any attempt to
educate a youth in what we call secularism is a retrogression to a lower
level than that of pre-Christ