esent 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.

* * * * * *

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