United College Men
November 4, x925 THE COMMONWEAL 635 Religion, too, has felt the impact of this new idea UNITED COLLEGE MEN and apart from the fact that unity is God's will for His followers, men are beginning...
...Whatever the cause, one no longer finds sectarianism extolled as an ideal and the spirit of union is in the air...
...Not a little of this spirit on the part of the sects is due to a break- down in the dogmatism of earlier generations artd the substitution of live-and-let-live for a lively faith...
...The Catholic college man has been lonely in a very special way...
...After his canonization, which followed in due course, his feast was ordered celebrated on Novem-ber I4...
...Such a one was Saint Josaphat Kuncevyc, archbishop of Polotsk in the seventeenth century...
...Among Anglicans there is a party which openly acknowledges that "the glorious Reformation" was a good deal of a failure and they would fain unite with the parent stem once more...
...From among every schismatic body there has been a faithful remnant united to Rome and those who have espoused her cause have been valiant in defense of their principles...
...It will, above all else, perhaps, deepen the conviction that colleges in which religion has a home are among the best sources of supply for that moral integrity of which the nation stands so much in need...
...We join the officers of the federation in hoping that as many men as possible will attend the gatherings...
...and he has often been forced to concede the indifference of his own brethren to the especial stamp of cultural training which is his heritage from university life...
...More of it is probably due also to the fact that Protestant- ism has been gradually losing its hold upon the mass of our people, and many denominations are strongly inclined to abandon older prejudices in favor of some sort of union...
...November 4, x925 THE COMMONWEAL 635 Religion, too, has felt the impact of this new idea UNITED COLLEGE MEN and apart from the fact that unity is God's will for His followers, men are beginning to feel that some measure of corperation among those who profess Christianity is the only possible method...
...Its work has been commended by the Holy Father, and many members of the American hier-archy have added their commendation...
...It will lay bare certain of the problems which the Catholic educational system is attempting to settle...
...Honored by the presence and patronage of His Eminence, Cardinal Hayes, and afforded excel- lent opportunities for better mutual acquaintance under the leadership of important members of the clergy and laity, the delegates ought to leave knowing the greatness of the task to which their organization is pledged...
...This notion is still unpopular outside her fold, but sentiment in its favor is growing...
...Besides which, it is a good thing for education and the social well-being that college men come together and attempt to concentrate upon what they hold in common...
...Saint Josaphat is the great martyr of unity and has been designated by Pope Plus XI as the patron of the Catholic Union, a society for the reunion with Rome of the separated Christians of Russia and the Near East...
...Pride and prejudice prevent them from making full admission of the impossibility of their present position, but more and more they are coming to the realization that Rome does supply something which they sadly lack...
...T HE National Catholic Alumni Federation means to be considerably more than a respectable title for something dead...
...Its job is not a matter for an easy half-holiday...
...His aid is daily invoked by all members of the union...
...The Orthodox churches of the East, confronted as they are with the d~b~cle of Russian Christianity and the utter failure of a too great dependence upon state support, are beginning to entertain a considerable degree of reunion sentiment...
...it can also enable her to look forward towards years of widening service, when sacrifice shall bring richer fruit...
...We do not know how much the newly formed fed- eration can accomplish...
...We believe that its plan holds out the promise of excellent achievement...
...Edward Dore at their head, will stage, beginning with November 6, a brilliant three-day program at the Hotel Commodore, New York City...
...There has been a great deal of loose talk about "leadership" and the duties of the educated citizen---loose because it has never taken into account the isolation which graduates soon tumble into when their degrees have been framed, and which reduces their intellectual in- terests to a wabbly minimum...
...This holy man labored earnestly during his short life (he was only about forty at the time of his death) to bring back the Ruthenian people to the Faith...
...Our colleges will always be handicapped by inadequate re- sources and prestige if graduation at the end of four years means goodbye forever...
...It boldly declares that the Church is essentially one--makes unity a mark by which the true Church is distinguished, and further de- clares that such unity can be had only by communion with the see of Rome...
...But the spirit in which the labor of organization has been undertaken lends optimism to the wish that Catholic alumni may find their rightful place in American activities, aided and fortified by those in authority...
...The Catholic Church has always, of course, held firmly to the ideal of unity...
...Indeed, such was his zeal and his success that he was set upon by fanatical schismatics, who, with axe and bullet, cruelly put him to death on November I2, I623...
...and we feel that it rightly regards the educated life as a form of that chivalry which, as Burke said, "without confounding ranks has produced a noble equality, and handed it down through all the gradations of social life...
...Its first convention, arranged by energetic officials with Mr...
...The federation can foster the remembrance of alma mater...
...He has found, to begin with, that a cleft by no means imag- inary separates him from those who have been edu- cated outside the Church...
...The ideal of unity has never been entirely lost in the East...
...This convention will weld the federation into a unit...
...For a great deal of work remains to be done...
Vol. 2 • November 1925 • No. 26
