Communications
534 THE COMMONWEAL October 7, 1925 COMMUNICATIONS DEFENDING THE CATHOLIC COLLEGE New Rochelle, N. Y. TO the Editor:—"Graduates of Catholic colleges are glad to learn of the investigation...
...more especially since, as far as I have been able to ascertain, he has never set foot upon the campus and is wholly unacquainted with the faculty...
...I hope Mr...
...In conclusion, let me assure Mr...
...The problem of the inferior student in women's Catholic ¦colleges is acute—just as acute as it is in any educational institution...
...I wonder if Mr...
...Secondly, those women who have founded colleges have done so upon the request of the archbishops, who are wide-awake to the demand for higher education and to the appalling need of preserving the Faith...
...MOLANPHY Convent Station, N. J. TO the Editor:—In the aftermath of calm which Mr...
...Molanphy's letter, which I have failed to touch upon, but to which I may return later...
...Molanphy, therefore, kindly visit our college, and, in friendly-wise, discuss the perennially absorbing subject of development and progress with the faculty —with those who are still young and enthusiastic, with the conservative old, and with the poor "middle-aged mediocrities...
...Molanphy must remember that the American Catholic college—though still in its youth, and certainly on a par with the vast number of nonsectarian institutions—has what these have not, which the European universities have had, and which have made them what they are—namely, the culture, the scholarship, the infinite heritage of faith...
...and that, finally, the department of education in the college prepares the student to teach not in the grades, but in the high school...
...A Graduate of the College of New Rochelle...
...Newman Clubs at non-sectarian colleges should indeed be strengthened...
...No one can gainsay the fact that all are suffering from lack of funds...
...There is a pagan scholarship, and a pagan culture, and a pagan self-development...
...As a graduate of a Catholic college," the author of these statements should be ashamed to sign his name to them...
...In either case it is valueless...
...They are also very much surprised that one claiming to be a product of the Catholic college should attack its standards so unreasonably and unjustly as Mr...
...On Mr...
...The training for any license, for the most part, is undertaken outside of the regular work for the degree...
...Surely, Mr...
...It would bring this discussion from the realm of romance and begin to found it somewhat on fact...
...but the courses in philosophy and moral theology which they may offer would be a drop of bichloride in a bucket of contaminated water...
...Out of a class of ninety-eight graduating from this institution last June, less than 10 percent took the examination for License number...
...And is not grade-teaching— particularly in New York City—a high and noble social service ? May I add that, in imputing to Catholic colleges for women both "an inferiority complex," and "a complacency in the production of mediocrity," Mr...
...He evidences naught but ignorance and prejudice in his criticism of the whole question...
...Evidently the glamor of worldliness and the dust of materialism has blinded him to the work of the Catholic college so that he cannot see aright...
...Will not Mr...
...Malvern is an institution to be watched with interest...
...One's first impression is of a prosperous country club in which the members, making their own rules, see to it that they are carried out...
...Again, the writer forgets that the Catholic women's college movement, an entirely American idea, is comparatively recent...
...Forward, forward let us range...
...Molanphy's remarks, there are two assumptions which are gratuitous...
...Incompetents and "deadweights" may, unfortunately, pass the entrance requirements for college...
...One only partially familiar with the literature of this subject, which of late years has been accumulating from the pens of those most interested in the success of the non-sectarian institutions, would see the rashness involved in the assumption that scholarship, culture, and self-development are the resultant to any appreciable number of the multitude of students at the nonsectarian colleges and universities...
...SCHOLARSHIP AND CULTURE New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—The discussion of the Catholic college, inaugurated in the columns of your paper, will not only be unproductive of good, but fraught with much danger unless it is approached with a firm grasp on logic and a freedom from all unproved assumptions...
...There is, no doubt, more to be gained in material aspects of life, but Catholic students in these colleges are apt to lose that most precious and cultured asset—their Catholic faith...
...As for suffering from the worn-out inferiority complex, Mr...
...Molanphy may be interested to learn, however, that the faculty of the College of Saint Elizabeth, contrary to his strongly asserted opinion, encourages, eulogizes, glorifies the idea of careers in social service...
...Already these fields, and the other fields of music, literature, banking, journalism, the theatre, and business have their representatives in the alumnae of the College of New Rochelle...
...and Lowell, Massachusetts...
...Most young graduates, desirous to teach, have sought positions in high schools...
...At present, the consolidation of Catholic colleges does not seem advisable...
...also why he restricts the scope of the Catholic college to the affording of ideal opportunities for the pursuit of culture...
...Molanphy can reasonably prove his first ungranted assumption that a reasonable proportion of the multitude of students at the non-sectarian institutions carry away with their college diplomas culture, scholarship and self-development, he has yet another assumption to establish, unless his arraignment of the Catholic colleges is to be discovered as fatuous...
...Yet with that, the struggle for upkeep and maintenance is tremendous, and the Catholic college, like every other, must have endowments if it is to keep pace with the larger non-sectarian institution...
...Molanphy that "divine discontent," very cousin to his own, quite saturates the atmosphere at Convent Station...
...The only solution lies in the proper valuation and appreciation of Catholic colleges by Catholics themselves...
...There are not too many Catholic colleges...
...that two more are pursuing graduate courses at Teachers' College...
...That the average Catholic college student has, •on the whole, better scholarship and a more intelligent understanding of current movements in the field of art, letters, or music, can be gleaned by conversation with students who have discussed these things with students of the other colleges at the holiday reunions in home towns...
...Since when has not the Catholic college been the repository and producer of the best...
...Saint Joseph's, at Malvern, is without qualification a laymen's institution...
...Molanphy October 7, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 535 had better know whereof he speaks and use a bit of psychoanalysis on his own complex...
...Probably the financial problem of the Catholic educational system, high or low, will always be difficult to face...
...The assertion that "a Catholic college has no reason for existence if it is not in a position to afford ideal opportunities for the pursuit of culture," is, on more than one ground, obviously debatable—granting that the debaters can agree upon a definition of the words "culture" and "ideal...
...the first, Saint Elizabeth's, having been established in 1899...
...Molanphy to prove...
...that, though during the war years, secretarial courses were introduced for the accommodation of patriotic young women who anticipated the call to business life because of the protracted absence of their soldier brothers, such courses have, since the Armistice, been gradually eliminated...
...The italics are not Mr...
...and that several hold positions in the high schools respectively of Hoboken, Jersey City and Morristown, in New Jersey...
...Suffice it to say that one must be quite unacquainted with the traditional attitude of the Church towards Catholic education, to speak so glibly about the scope of the Catholic college, and to talk about extending the activity of Newman Clubs to the giving of full and consistent courses in Catholic philosophy and moral theology to students, often deliberately and without sufficient reason, living in a pagan atmosphere 536 THE COMMONWEAL October 7, 1925 and listening to lectures and reading text-books which fall within the scope of the general laws of the Index...
...Hence, within twenty-two years, that the Catholic women's college ranks equally with the non-sectarian college is a matter of no small consideration...
...In a question so important as this, nothing can excuse from a clear-cut definition of terms...
...Refutation of the over-statements in that drastic paragraph on Catholic colleges for women is superfluous, for over-statement refutes itself...
...The letter of Mr...
...Behind all Mr...
...Their work is not to be depreciated...
...Of the two classes of Catholics in a position to make endowments, the first (those "unable to appreciate the cultural values and opposed to higher education") is now fast dying out...
...May I meekly inquire, also, whether Catholic colleges for women in this country—and the oldest of them, the College of Saint Elizabeth, has only recently completed its twenty-fifth year—¦ can reasonably be expected, thus early in their functioning, to have attained "the 'place in intellectual life held by the European universities for so many centuries...
...That is an assumption I do not grant, and challenge Mr...
...College of Saint Elizabeth...
...This is not the first time I have been in controversy with regard to the Catholic college...
...Unless Mr...
...William Franklin Sands...
...that another is engaged in work for her master's degree in the department of chemistry at Columbia University...
...According to this restricted scope, there can be no reason for the Catholic technical or agricultural school...
...Molanphy knows of the number of deadweights annually dropped by the men's and women's colleges...
...TO the Editor:—There is an institution not many miles from Philadelphia which is unique, and is well worthy of observation—the retreat house at Malvern...
...In general, retreat houses are based upon some religious order or society, or upon a particular priest like Father Sheeley...
...Malvern is, however, in spite of that origin, unique of its kind, as far as I know...
...I shan't speak of the Catholic women's colleges because the question brings up absurdities...
...Molanphy can make good his two implied assumptions, it will be clear that his arraigment must either include the non-sectarian educational institutions, or be discovered as founded' on prejudice...
...Instances of this are shown in the large number of students who are compelled to withdraw after the first or second year...
...Ignatius Wiley Cox, S.J...
...THE RETREAT HOUSE AT MALVERN Wawa, Pa...
...The so-called best of these later days is but a re-hash of the brilliant thought of men who have lived centuries ago...
...One wonders whence our American cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests would have come, if the only Catholic pabulum given them in their college days was a volunteer offering by an extra-curricular activity...
...Rev...
...Molanphy...
...A perfectly equipped Catholic university would indeed be ideal, but it is not necessary to the maintenance of a "reputation for scholarship and public achievement...
...Rather is a golden opportunity theirs of sowing wheat where others, in the precious seed-time of the little ones' lives, are, consciously or unconsciously, sowing tares...
...The exactness and efficiency which flow from this arrangement, throw into prominence the strength which flows from autonomy...
...1, in New York City...
...that the New York City school system, presenting, as it does, to the imaginative vision of youth, an octopus-like character, makes in the main, a rather negligible appeal to our graduates...
...That the highest objective of the young Catholic college woman has been to fit herself to secure a "license to teach in the grade schools," is utterly false...
...If the writer had given a little time to visiting these six colleges, or even investigated the standard of work done by their graduates in the larger universities, he would, at least, be judging the Catholic women's college on a reasonable basis...
...but when one stops to consider that Catholics bear a double burden of education—the support of parochial schools in addition to the state school tax (and I do not say this with any complacency) it is remarkable what has been accomplished...
...Molanphy does in his criticism...
...Such a result, far from being inconceivable on the part of the respective faculties of the several colleges, has been foreseen by the founders, and prepared for by the much maligned and aforesaid faculties...
...First, not every religious community for women wishes to establish a Catholic college...
...AN INVITATION TO MR...
...It would be illuminating to know just what meaning he attaches to these terms...
...Witness the overcrowded conditions prevailing today in some of the very institutions mentioned by Mr...
...Molanphy has clearly defined the meaning he attaches to these terms, he will show how these can be attained better at the non-sectarian institutions than at the Catholic ones...
...The writer again shows his complete ignorance of the splendid work done by any and all of the six Catholic women's colleges mentioned, or by their graduates...
...There is likewise a Catholic scholarship, and a Catholic culture, and a Catholic self-development...
...Molanphy speaks of scholarship, culture and self-development...
...In a sense, it is an off-shoot of the great Father Sheeley's Mt...
...It would have this additional advantage—that we might be able to arrive at precisely what meaning the critic of the Catholic colleges attaches to the terms scholarship, culture and self-development...
...As for lights in the worlds of literature, music, and science, one can mention Dante, Copernicus, Bacon, Palestrina, Bach, Haydn—all Catholics...
...Molanphy has delightfully illustrated for his readers the use of incompatible terms...
...Molanphy indicts the Catholic college for not producing leaders in the field of intellectual activity, although 50 percent of the educated Catholics are coming from the colleges which he praises...
...Why should there be eight Catholic men's colleges in this district...
...As I write, I have not, regrettably, all the data relative to the present activities of the graduates of June, 1925, but I know that at least one of them is a student in the National Catholic Social Service School in Washington...
...Complacency in mediocrity," is a poor phrase to fling at those alive to every educational advance...
...A second important source of strength and vigor lies in the fact that the retreat master, being an eminent member of the faculty of the Archdiocesan Seminary (with whom the rector of the seminary alternates not infrequently) the retreat house and the retreat movement in general are intimately associated with the new generation of young priests graduating annually from Overbrook...
...There are too few...
...As the years advance, and the graduates of the eight "within a radius of 150 miles" realize that the only complete education is secured in the Catholic college, this class will dwindle, too...
...The more recent colleges have been started in centres of population where the young man or girl has the happy combination of home life with the cultural advantages of a Catholic day college...
...Sister Mary Vincent...
...If any are teaching in the grades—even in New York City—I congratulate them...
...It has not always been so apparent to many good people who are more parochially minded than Catholic in their experience...
...and the others, New Rochelle and Mount Saint Vincent, following in quick succession...
...Furthermore, that these young women should study law or medicine, or look for a career in social service is "no strange thing...
...The writer infers that other Catholic colleges (not mentioned) do not come into notice because their athletes make few records...
...Holy Cross, Fordham, Boston, and Manhattan graduates to the fore...
...Molanphy's...
...In case Mr...
...Colchester, Connecticut...
...I should like to see such a list drawn up...
...At the present time, many of last year's graduates are teaching in the high schools of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York State, to say nothing of those who have yet to report on their new work...
...But to improve anything, one must know it...
...The writer certainly did not review the issues of any women's or men's college publications as far as I may judge, else no such statements reflecting to the discredit of Catholic college women writers could have been made...
...The utility of lay retreat houses is a matter of course to the orders...
...that one is a student dietitian in Eastern Maine General Hospital, Bangor, Maine...
...According to the current press and the opinion of thinking men, it were better if less stress were laid on athletics and more on scholarship...
...The officers of the association function not unlike the board and house committees of a well run club...
...There are some other things latent in Mr...
...Molanphy's assumption, the proportion of Catholics, conspicuous for their scholarship, culture, and self-development, who are the products of the non-sectarian universities and colleges, ought to be much larger than the proportion of such Catholics who are the output of the Catholic university and college...
...When the time comes for the setting up of chairs of Catholic philosophy in non-sectarian universities, it will be for the pastors of the flock in each locality to decide upon the departure...
...Catholic colleges need improvement in one way, as nonsectarian colleges need it in another...
...Until that agreement is reached, it were worse than futile to advance to the fray...
...Mr...
...What is wrong with the American college," and "do the colleges educate," have been familiar questions with us for some time...
...Opportunities, perhaps, in time may be ideal, but Mr...
...I can point to the alumnae of the other Catholic colleges and name young women whose success in the field of letters and art is already achieved...
...When Mr...
...It is my experience that many of the well-meaning critics of the Catholic college assume fancy as fact, and are surprised when their fundamental assumptions are not granted...
...Molanphy, if a Catholic, is ignorant of the first reason for the Catholic college—which is to train Catholic leaders, to make them live their lives according to sound principles of morality and to serve God and country aright...
...The Catholic college is endowed, in practically every instance, by the selfsacrificing and noble lives of the teaching staff—a fact which even Catholics frequently overlook...
...Manresa, on Staten Island, for it is a direct result of the retreats he conducted at Saint Charles Seminary, Overbrook...
...But, alas, the other, "which sees greater financial and social prestige to be obtained from giving support to nonsectarian institutions," still thrives...
...That the education furnished in our Catholic colleges has been subjected to a conspiracy of silence on the part of any Catholics, cultured or otherwise, is due to the fact that they are somewhat slow in recognizing the true value of the work done—both by the faculties and students...
...The latest statistics seem to show that there are as many, if not more, Catholics at non-sectarian educational institutions than at Catholic ones...
...Molanphy will ponder well on the meaning he attaches to the terms scholarship, culture and self-development...
...Syracuse and Chittenango in New York State...
...I shall leave the discussion of that point to the hundreds of prominent New Yorkers who owe their success in life to the training of their respective alma maters...
...of the struggling efforts of these incompetents to skin through year after year at summer sessions...
...The little more, and how much it is...
...It seems strange that non-Catholics are so alive to their advantages as to send their sons and daughters to them, while often the vain and ignorant Catholic thinks that more is to be gained in the nonsectarian institutions...
...Molanphy must now be enjoying as a result of his recent letter to The Commonweal, he will undoubtedly be generous enough to admit that, though his well-intentioned exhibit of the short-coming of Catholic colleges was, in a few respects, justifiable, his casual fling at the College of Saint Elizabeth, among other institutions, was slightly gratuitous, not to say urbane...
...However, / shall...
...perhaps it is a Miss or Mrs...
...Again, the Catholic college is doing its utmost, and does provide opportunities for scholarship, culture, and self-development...
...Molanphy is not only not reassuring on these two points, but betrays a mental attitude which I deplore, but which I will not discuss in this letter...
...The only solution of the problem of the Catholic college certainly does not seem to lie in restriction and consolidation...
...Neither all men nor women are fit to be college trained...
...534 THE COMMONWEAL October 7, 1925 COMMUNICATIONS DEFENDING THE CATHOLIC COLLEGE New Rochelle, N. Y. TO the Editor:—"Graduates of Catholic colleges are glad to learn of the investigation which has been started," to quote from the letter of C. Molanphy in The Commonweal of September 23...
...The writer of the article has forgotten that not a single non-sectarian college or university would be in existence today if it had not been for the Catholic universities of the middleages...
...The first is that the non-sectarian educational institutions are, in proportion to the numbers of their students, producing satisfactory results in turning out students who are scholars, cultured, and self-developed...
...On the other hand, for the past three years, the Catholic college magazine is far superior in content and literary standard to any of the undergraduate publications of the other colleges...
Vol. 2 • October 1925 • No. 22
