Holy Cross College, Mosgiel SILVER JUBILEE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 14, 15 April 1925, Page 17

Holy Cross College, Mosgiel SILVER JUBILEE.

(By C.J.M. for the N.Z. Tablet.)

Twenty-five Years' Record of Notable Achievement

Never do we so fully grasp the meaning of that beautiful word, "Seminary," as when we hear again that striking sentence spoken on Christ to His Apostles: "I w dosen .ou and appointed you, that you should brmg forth fruit, and your fruit should remam. Seed-time and harvest: these are std7in P \ tholl f tS " l the D ™ Mind heed-time it is when He chose and appointed hose privileged souls; harvest-time" Tfe hen they should bring forth fruit, fruit that should remain. The Divine Savour went and the seed fell unci god so" foHf other thn,? +1 the first &em ' ni "'y, was none men heart§ ° f those P oor men the Apostles, ,vhom from all eternity He , had chasen and appointed, whose fruit e. 5 re oT 1 His divine e teaching and " ««- "P i« the ." SV Ui * till +i,~ +• armtn or craoe the seed that i. Hi au !""' m ' mg autumn 4-1 • ° gather in every u^tr a y^r\.?r di - Mi;: ns t,me ,s th ™ l ■»«• *«. The Apostolic Seminary. In Christ Himself .then, was the first and best Seminary, and therein on the Apostie,' heart* He scattered His seed by H s words and example, His life and His death He was the College of the first priests in Him and with Him and from Him the firs bishops and priests gained all their pries training, after they had answered the if vine invitation, "Come, follow Me which was the first vocation to the priesthood. Him Himthl 2*J Priest ' He gathered about Him the first students, who were to be -other Chnsts, .other priests, to do the self-same work as was His to do. By His life and words, and chiefly by His example, He every day taught His simple pupils, gently moulding their hearts till they were .fashioned unto His own. At last the training was complete, and the Eternal Priest and Mediator could prepare to leave His ambassadors to carry on His priesthood and "ministry of revelation." then it was He "ordained" them giving them wondrous powers to ileal and to consecrate, and so He sent them forth from the first and greatest of seminaries to sow and to

reap in every nation. As He was sent, so He sent them; “As the Father hath sent Me I also send you.” His own mission and powers He gave to them. Armed with these 4lod-given powers and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, those first priests and ambassadors of Christ went forth at His bidding “to preach the Gospel to every creature.” And as St. Paul expresses it, they “preached

ing of His first priests, the early Popes and bishops gave every paternal care and loving regard to the choice and training of the priests. St. Paul warned Timothy not to impose hands lightly on any man, and this warning is always in the heart of our Holy Mother the Church. It is most significant that, though of many early Pontiffs of the Church we know but little, we in-

university. Some of these medieval universities gained great fame, and the reputation of their professors and excellent teaching drew students from all parts of Europe. Faculties of Philosophy and Theology were in the highest honor, and attracted many young aspirants to the priesthood, but such university life was not calculated to mould the priestly character and foster the priestly

Christ and Him crucified." They taught no deep philosophy, but told men, as their successors still tell men, what we must do and believe to save our souls. They stood between man and God, as He, the Mediator, had done, and pleaded for mercy and forgiveness even as the Priest and Victim of Calvary. The Apostles' Teaching. But His was a work for every age and every land; and so His priesthood must not end with those first priests. He would abide with us all days, even to the end of the world, not only under the veils of the Blessed Sacrament, but in His priestly powers and offices. Therefore, in commissioning those first priests, He gave them the I divine paternal power to adopt sons into this , ministry of Christ and His reconciliation. These divine episcopal powers the Apostles £■- used and handed down to their successors, and so began the venerable line of bishops and priests of the Catholic Church. Ever mindful of the tender solicitude and tireless zeal Christ had shown in His train-

variably have recorded the number of deacons, priests, and bishops whom they ordained. Still, we have no records whatever of any organised system of training for the clergy, and it is clear that for the first few centuries the training of candidates for the priesthood was purely personal and practical. Young men were "apprenticed," as it were, to bishops and priests, and were guided and directed by them in their studies and in the practical duties of the priesthood. Modern System of Training. The first step towards the modern system of training, of the clergy was taken by the great St. Augustine. In his Monastery of Clerics we find the nucleus of the present highly organised ecclesiastical seminary. With the rise and development of cathedral schools during the succeeding centuries, and the expansion of the early monasteries, there was gradually evolved a more scientific system of training, to which we owe many Popes and bishops till the thirteenth century. In that, the greatest of centuries, we see the rise and development of the modern

virtues, ; -Institutions were sorely needed wherein jyoung men might be not only thoroughly grounded in the learning of the age, but — was infinitely more important — also fashioned in heart and will unto the likeness of the Eternal Priest, Christ Himself. | A New Phase of Clerical Training. After the Reformation the need was pressing in its urgency, and very soon- the Church, realising the need of truly apostolic priests, took measures to make the training of the young. Levite worthy of his high office and dignity. With the Council of Trent we enter upon a new phase in the history of clerical training, and it was this Council that laid down, strongly .and securely, the foundations of the well-known seminary of to-day. How deeply the Fathers of the Council realised the importance of this matter of the priest's training is evident from the fact that they discussed the subject for a whole month. The result is well known : the famous decree on the establishment of Ecclesiastical Seminaries, — decree that even to-

as hard and yet receive not a farthing more out of the national fund. The birth control movement was just as if twenty pieces out v.jof as many jig-saw puzzles had been collected and they had endeavored to fit them together, because their arguments contradicted one another. The Doctor then went on to trace the movement from the darkest days of industrialism, and showed that it was no more than a mere restatement of the Whig policy of those days. He appealed to his hearers to have nothing to do with it, concluding with the statement that the whole history of the TVlalthusian movement showed it to be against the workers and against democracy. Catholic President for Switzerland The news that the Swiss Republic has elected an active and practical Catholic as its President gives a special interest to the history of the Church in Switzerland, and provides additional reasons for the belief that the hatred' of man will never succeed in wrecking an institution established and guaranteed by God. On the 9th of February, 1529, followers of the Reformation attacked the town of Bale, in Switzerland and broke into the Catholic churches, tearing down the holy pictures in order to burn them. It was an absolute reign of terror. Then followed a period of persecution for the Catholics. For two centuries Mass was not permitted to be celebrated in Bale. It was only towards the end of the eighteenth century that a.member of the House of Austria obtained leave to open a private chapel. In 1792, by a marvellous act of tolerance from such a bigoted Government, Catholics V- N obtained permission to assist at Mass in the Church of St. Martin, which was reserved for the military camping in that locality. In 1778 persecution was renewed, but five brave Swiss men, whose names deserve to be remembered, united and swore they would not rest until they would have a priest and a church in their midst. They were Jean Lacher, Jean Buchler, Joseph Baur, Michael Breyer, and Augustine Bolder. These men worked well. Towards the year 1800 they had not only a priest and a church, but they had also a school. Henceforth Catholicism was marked by a constant and rapid progress. Catholics in Bale have increased in a wonderful way. In 1870 they were but 12,307; in 1880, 18,000; in 1924 there were 40,000 Catholics in the town, with four churches and the fifth in course of construction. The seed has indeed brought forth good fruit. The words of the Gospel have been realised to the letter. The highest office in the State is now filled by a Catholic. M. Musy, the new President, was the former representative of the Canton of Fribourg in the National Committee. He returned to Fribourg immediately after his election as President, and received an en- / thusiastic welcome from his townsmen. Ac- ',, companied by Mgr. Besson, Bishop of Laui sanne and Geneva, and followed by (the * v Mayor of the city, the councillors of the canton and many friends, M. Musy proceeded to the college church, where he knelt on the prie-dieu reserved for him, while the bishop intoned the Te Deum, which was taken up by all present.

The Social Problem There will never be any remedy for the social troubles that vex the world to-day as long as the matter is left in the hands of politicians who are unable to see where the root of all the trouble lies. We know what a mess Europe's greatest (?) statesmen made of the reconstruction after tho war and what a catastrophe their schemes brought on the world. The real roots of the trouble are in the moral order. Men who have no right moral sense cannot remedy the evil. Men who are avaracious and ambitious and vicious can never make whole the diseased world. What must be first reformed are the evils of impurity, of birth-control, of divorce, which are corrupting individuals, homes, and society. With these go hand in hand inordinate craving for pleasure, shirking of duty, widespread extravagance and excess, and a desire for gain at all costs. These evils flow naturally from the rejection of religion, which controls the lust and the avarice and the pride of human nature. Hence, the evils are found rooted in our godless schools, and the real causes of the social disorder are tbe governments which maintain the secular systems which have driven God and His laws from the hearts and minds of the people. These people, too, for their own selfish ends have encouraged the deification of the State. They are the enemies of true human liberty and they make the laws of political tricksters override the law of Nature and the law of God. From the godless schools follow logically State autocracy, State bureaucracy, State paternalism, and such other schemes as are designed for the protection of the governments which batten on the plunder of the masses. There can be no reform until the root of the evil is killed. The purity of family life must be restored, and parents must bravely do their duties towards their children and towards society. Individuals must be taught that personal purity is more than riches. Girls and women must learn that vice and dissipation lower them to the level of beasts in the eyes of all decent people. The State must be taught that it is .for the people and that the people are not its victims and its pawns. Mankind must recognise that the safeguarding of Christian principles is essential for true welfare and true civilisation. The unchristian press, the unchristian politicians must be driven out of existence, and their baleful influences for ever destroyed. And the secular schools, upon which all the vice and all the corruption are based, must be replaced by schools that teach children that their end is not to make money and that self-restraint and selfrespect and purity are under the sanction of the Ten Commandments and not of the policeman. When schools again teach that morality is more than hygiene, and that being pure is more important than not being found out, there will be bone for real reform, but until a beginning is made there reform will never come. It is idle to talk of education when the only education that means anything is persecuted by modern governments. It is idle to talk about democracy when the people are taught to ignore the true foundations of democracy, which must be based on the belief in the brotherhood of man and on the fundamental doctrine of the

Fatherhood of God. As long as we will not come back to these fundamental things we are only beating the air, and we will no more succeed than did the godless schemers who completed the ruin of the world by their plottings at Versailles.

The Church and the Arts Mr. T. J. Jones, one of the best known publicists and journalists in South Wales, a Home exchange tells us, had some very trenchant things to say about the decay of the arts and crafts in Wales coincident with the decay of Catholicism. Mr. Jones was addressing the Welsh Society at the University College, Cardiff, and he said that Wales had few buildings that could be regarded as beautiful, and the castles, abbeys, and churches which could have been regarded as works of art had been allowed to go to ruin. Yet the Welsh used to be looked upon as a nation of craftsmen. Whatever people had to say about the Catholic Church they had to admit the arts and crafts were highly developed within her. When Wales was Catholic the arts of sculpture and painting were very evident, especially in stone figures and paintings of the Virgin Mary, the Crucifixion, the saints, etc. But Protestantism put an end to all this. Protestants misunderstood the commandment about the c'graven images," and pictures and images, however beautiful they might be, were made the subject of satire and bitter attack. The Welsh in Catholic times were pious people. They respected their religion, churches, and priests, and the literature of the period reflected this devotion. But they did not pull long faces in the name of holiness. They loved laughter, they loved to sing, to play the harp and violin, to dance, to play games, and they wore beautiful clothes. Gerald the Welshman says that in the twelfth century the Welsh were better musicians than the Irish. But compare developments in Ireland and Wales. In Ireland the harp and the violin were common in all homes up to the eighteenth century, but in Wales they were rarities. And the reason? In Ireland the old religion persisted unbroken, but in Wales Puritanism had come to freeze the fountains of imagination. As 'he old lines go: "The Puritan through life's sweet garden goes, He plucks the thorn and casts away th« rose, And thinks to please by this peculiar whim Tho God who fashioned it and gave it him." Nonconformity, went on Mr. Jones, later went even further in these matters than the Reformed Churches had gone. The result of all this was that in the nineteenth century life in Wales had become extremely dull. During the war Belgian refugees came to Wales, and it was seen then that the arts and crafts were highly developed with them. A Belgian made the bardic chair for the Welsh National Eisteddfod in Birkenhead, and it was the most artistic chair ever offered. And Belgium, it must be remembered, is Catholic.