But instead of this policy of “isolation” which in school matters is the ordinary policy of the Church, some Catholics, in view of circumstances, rather advocate that of “permeation.”  The presence of Catholics in State Universities will, they claim, create a better atmosphere, abate or soften prejudice, beget a better feeling among the future leaders of the community.  In England, it is true, Catholics are allowed to attend Oxford and Cambridge; in Germany, they attend State Universities.  The Catholics of Australia have since 1916 also a College in conjunction with the Melbourne State University.  Student societies have been formed, Catholic halls opened, courses of apologetics are given to help the Catholic youth in the “steady daily pressure working against them in a non-Catholic university,” and to influence religious thought in those centres of higher learning.

Has this “modus vivendi” brought about by various circumstances which it would be too long to analyze here, produced the desired results?  In Germany it has not created a Catholic atmosphere in one single university.  Have not, on the contrary, the German universities been the hot-beds of Modernism and many a young cleric has come from their halls inoculated with this virus.

As for Oxford and Cambridge, we all know the controversy which divided the Catholics for so many years.  As Catholics have been allowed to follow the courses there for only a few decades, we are not yet, we believe, in a position to judge of the influence of these universities on the Catholic body of England as a whole.  Time only will tell.  But one thing is certain, no comparison can be established between our state universities and these colleges.  Although in the halls of Oxford, Christianity “is often attuned to the outlook and temper of the age” as the book “Foundations” (a statement of Christian belief in terms of modern thought, by seven Oxford men) sadly reveals it, nevertheless, there is not to be found in the English Colleges that atmosphere which the absence of religion has created in our state universities.  The presence of various denominational colleges on the grounds of our Provincial Universities only gives them a tint of Christianity.  The teaching of history and philosophy will tell the tale.  “It must be remembered that an Oxford scheme was never Newman’s ideal.  It was a concession to necessities of the hour.  His ideal scheme, alike for education of the young and for the necessary intellectual defence of Christianity, had consistently been the erection of a large Catholic University like Louvain.  This he had tried to set up in Ireland.  In such an institution, research and discussion of the questions of the day would be combined as in the middle ages with a Catholic atmosphere, the personal ascendancy of able Christian professors and directly religious influence for the young men.” (Life of Newman)—­by Ward.