The Irish Boundary
THE SCHOOLS OF ST. FRANCIS approaching centenary which will turn all hearts towards Assisi ought not to find us indifferent to the Franciscan effort in this country. Cowl and cord have their...
...And so the seventh annual report of the Franciscan Educational Conference comes as a welcome account of what the Friars Minor are doing, and planning to do, for our American religious scholarship...
...It certainly deserves reprinting and wide distribution...
...but we are sure that this is only a step removed from the almost just as necessary upbuilding of the layman's knowledge...
...A country like America will not readily concede to all this work its real value...
...There is far too general a tendency to pooh-pooh matters in which there may be the germ of serious doubt, or to refer the inquirer to labyrinthine and inaccessible books which, frequently enough, the advisor himself has never read...
...The report under consideration also lists the impressive series of contributions made by friars to literature of various kinds during the past year...
...and sometime, perhaps, the otherwise obtuse will discover that Francis of Assisi could not have been altogether naive if his chief work was to create a congregation of the wise...
...Cowl and cord have their share in the national story—in the pioneer conquest of wildernesses, and in the contemporary effort to leaven a vast population with in* tellectual culture...
...In the first place, enlightened custody of the Sacred Scripture has been one of the beloved duties of their community...
...Addresses and comments were devoted to those various aspects of biblical study which are so acutely interesting at the present moment...
...Here is neither arid scholarship nor mere traditionalistic indifference to questions which worry the modern mind, but firm faith which does not shirk the hard labor of missionary instruction...
...The conference, of course, very sensibly concerned itself primarily with the education of the clergy...
...FRANCIS approaching centenary which will turn all hearts towards Assisi ought not to find us indifferent to the Franciscan effort in this country...
...They are conscious of a great tradition, bright with names like those of Duns Scotus and Cardinal Ximenes, but they are also aware of the special needs of American life: of the hunger for theological certainty and religious faith which is now everywhere so keen, and of the need for society's regeneration through the concept of love...
...But apart from the excellence of this and other papers read at the session, it is invigorating to note the enthusiasm and reverence with which these disciples of Francis approach the task of deepening popular interest in the books of Revelation...
...But the laws of quantity and quality have finally asserted themselves even in larger worlds than this...
...In the second place, they possess, in the Third Order, an association of laymen who can absorb and continue the teaching which is now so likely to heal and help...
...We believe that Father Bernard Cuneo's paper on Biblical Scholars in the Franciscan Order will come as a surprise to many who have never been fortunate enough to see so large a topic presented in such adequate historical perspective...
...It was therefore fitting that the subject proposed for discussion at this year's conference was Sacred Scripture...
...Too many people still believe —or profess to believe—that all cultivated thinking dates from Boston, and that religious literature began with The Pilgrim's Progress...
...The layman can say honestly that in their resolution to serve the cause of Scripture, the friars have taken up a work of exceptional importance to the average person where Bible criticism is concerned...
...Franciscans are exceptionally well equipped to deal with this situation...
...Their interest in religious studies, in philosophy, and in difficult educational problems is accordingly testified to, in a practical fashion, by sound and intelligent writings...
Vol. 3 • December 1925 • No. 6
