a Catholic university was essential for thorough health and efficiency in the Catholic body at large.  To realize all that a Catholic university would mean one has only to know what Washington stands for in the life of the Church in the United States.  In his beautiful letter to the American Hierarchy, Benedict XV said of it:  “The University, we trust, will be the attractive centre about which will gather all who love the teachings of Catholicism.”

What is the Conclusion?

We may summarize our argumentation in favour of our contention in the following statements: 

1.—­THE INTERESTS OF CHURCH AND COUNTRY, PARTICULARLY IN THE WEST, DEMAND CATHOLIC LEADERSHIP;

2.—­NO GENUINE LEADERSHIP WITHOUT UNIVERSITY TRAINING;

3.—­FOR CATHOLICS HIGHER EDUCATION MEANS HIGHER CATHOLIC EDUCATION.

Now, Patient reader, allow us to conclude these already too lengthy pages, by this pointed question:  “Is a Catholic university for Western Canada within the possibilities of the near future?”

Our answer will be simple, direct, conclusive, and, we hope, convincing.  If all Catholics in the Western Provinces, under the direction and with the continued support of the Hierarchy, unite in one sublime and persistent effort, we have the utmost confidence in its immediate realization.  Some Catholics, we know, will distrust its expediency, despair of its success or even feel an obligation to oppose it.  Difficulties, most undoubtedly, we will have numerous and great.  With time, patience, perseverance and self-sacrifice we will overcome them.  Nothing succeeds like success.  The establishment of a work of that kind is the work of years and even of centuries.  There must be some day a start, a foundation to build on.  The policy of nihilism leads nowhere.  The frequentation of our State universities would indefinitely postpone all efforts for the Catholic ideal, and be a surrender of the whole situation.  But let us not be carried away with the modern fallacy of materialistic grandeur.  Spacious and beautiful buildings, nice grounds and attractive surroundings are not to be despised when the finances are good.  But all these things are secondary; they do not give the intrinsic value to a university, they are not “the pulse of the machine.”  The great business of a university is to teach; the highest academic level should be its worthy ambition.  The teachers are the real makers of a seat of higher learning, they pitch high or low the standard of learning.

This great work will demand from every Catholic a continued effort of loyal and generous support.  The Canon-law, the Councils, the exhortations of the Pope insists on this support of Catholic universities.  Particularly those who are blessed with the goods of this world and to whom Providence has been generous, should remember that “their wealth has a fiduciary character; a character that entails duties towards the Catholic community at large, none less obligatory because they are rooted in the virtue of charity, instead of the virtue of justice.”