higher education, more needed at the present hour than in the West.  Our Catholics there need indeed higher education, for, at this hour particularly, the nation’s business is our business; they cannot remain an isolated factor in presence of the tremendous issues that stare the world and our country in the face.  But if we wish to make our influence as Catholics felt, let our leadership come from “Higher Catholic Education” as from its fountain head.

Higher Catholic Education for Catholics in Western Canada.

There is a decided distinction between higher education for Catholics and higher Catholic education.  This leads us to place before the reader the principles upon which rests the catholic ideal in matters of higher education and to suggest means of its speedy realization in Western Canada.  A friendly exchange of ideas on this most important and very interesting topic will be profitable to all at this juncture, and help, we hope, to clear up hazy notions and cloudy conceptions which some may entertain on the subject.

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In matters of Catholic education, the most weighty argument is that of the authority of the Church.  Her views and practices, particularly on questions of education, should be the views and practices of every good Catholic.  In the New Canon-Law, in the Councils and Letters of the Popes, is to be found the only authoritative direction in this momentous problem.  The Church is most emphatic and most precise in its pronouncements on the matter of higher education.  The Canon 1379, paragraph 2, of the new Canon-Law, is very explicit on the subject.  “If the public universities are not imbued with Catholic doctrine and surrounded with a Catholic atmosphere, it is most desirable to found in that country or region a Catholic University.”  The Plenary Councils of Baltimore and of Quebec (Tit, VI-C, VII) command in the most pressing manner the Catholic youth to frequent only Catholic universities.  When circumstances necessitate attendance at non-Catholic universities, safeguards are exacted to minimize the danger.  These recent dispositions of the Church’s legislation reflect the stand the Church has always taken on this ground of higher education.  Is She not “Mater universitatum?” Modern civilization owes its universities to the Catholic Church, as the very stones of Cambridge and Oxford still proclaim . . . lapides clamabunt!  And in these days of religious indifference, after heroic 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.