MISCELLANEOUS.

Letter of His Eminence the Chancellor.

CARDINAL'S RESIDENCE,

408 NORTH CHARLES STREET.

BALTIMORE, MD., November 3, 1912.

Reverend dear Sir:

On the approach of the First Sunday in Advent, the day set aside for the annual collection in favor of the Catholic University of America, it becomes my pleasing duty to appeal with great earnestness to our hierarchy, clergy, and people for a continuance of the support they have so generously given us in the past, and the splendid results of which are now manifesting themselves in large and unexpected benefits to the Catholic Church in our beloved nation.

The growth of the lay departments of the University in the last three years has been truly phenomenal. From a modest figure the number of students in all departments receiving instruction from its professors has reached one thousand, and the indications are that in the next decade this figure will be doubled or trebled, so that even in point of numbers the Catholic University will, in our own generation, rank among the most successful schools of the nation.

Two large and useful edifices have been added to the noble group of buildings that ornament the grounds; a central plant for power, heat and light, and the beautiful Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Hall, now completed, and accommodating one hundred and thirty young men from all parts of the Union.

The library has increased to 80,000 volumes and will soon be one of our country's most important collections of up-to-date books. The laboratories of Chemistry, Physics and Biology have notably increased their equipment, and in general solid growth and varied activity characterize the daily life of this great central school of the Catholic Church.

Especially gratfying is the increase in the body of lay students; their rapid growth is at once a cause for rejoicing and a source of much concern as to the capacity of our residence halls, now filled to overflowing.

The professors have increased in numbers from twenty-eight to fifty-six and, not only by their teaching but by their writings and their public discourses, they illustrate honorably our Catholic life and compel an increasing admiration for Catholic learning and culture. While the Schools of Law and the Sciences show in particular a gratifying increase, the Schools of Philosophy and Letters are also developing rapidly. The University Summer School for our Teaching Sisters welcomed over three hundred of them from twenty-six religious orders and most of the States, while the recently established Sisters College has already, in its infancy, fifty students. In this way the benefits of the University are soon brought home to the remotest parish in our country, and not only the sons of our Catholic people but their consecrated daughters can drink at the fountain of knowledge which the popular generosity has opened and sustains.

Such a large growth, however, creates an urgent demand for more professors and immediate equipment, particularly for new buildings. Besides a new residence hall and an ample dining hall for at least six hundred students, the University needs a new chemical laboratory, a gymnasium, a library, and other edifices, if it is to conduct its work with the dignity and efficiency befitting an institution that represents the attitude of the Catholic Church towards learning.

It is the duty, and should be the pleasure, of all our Catholics to uphold and develop a religious work of this magnitude and promise. Already the Catholic University illustrates in several ways our immemorial devotion to human progress along its highest lines, and contributes abundantly to the defence and spread of our holy faith. Even now all visitors to the National Capital are filled with admiration at the size and number and character of its buildings, though yet in its infancy. It is becoming the recognized center for all our larger religious interests, both educational and charitable, and cannot fail to render incalculable service to the generations that follow, and for whose welfare we ought now to plan.

Every diocese has a living interest in the great work, for it is

now drawing students from the remotest quarters whose enlightened faith and noble zeal will in years to come justify all our sacrifices. I am well aware that the local works of religion make heavy demands upon our people, but we ought not to forget the larger and more general interests of our holy religion, and foremost among these is the Catholic University, if only for the high quality of scholarly leadership that it is destined to create and to keep up in the eventful period on which we are now entering. Were it only as a public and efficient protest against the highly secularized teaching of non-Catholic universities our own would be necessary, and would call for our most earnest support.

Our wealthier Catholic people who are often generous in the support of religion, ought to consider more seriously their duty towards this great central school of the Church and by endowments, scholarships, and special gifts encourage and develop it in each. generation, until this new Oxford shall be filled with the honored names and the grateful memories of countless benefactors, whose services to Catholic education will perhaps be all that men will one day recall of their careers on earth.

Our Holy Father Pius X is most deeply concerned for the growth of the University, and last winter heard with delight the excellent report which the Rector of the University was able to present him. He gave him the noble pontifical letter that all know in favor of the University, and with it his paternal blessing on all who would in any way help the bishops of our country in their great task of upbuilding a central school of the higher studies that should be worthy of the name and an honor to religion. Let us all cooperate earnestly in developing this holy work that is making such rapid progress, is already our consolation and our pride, and will be eventually not only the intellectual fortress of our holy faith, but also a glorious site of all the arts, a home of letters, and an inspirational center for all that the Catholic religion can accomplish in the cause of humanity.

Yours faithfully in Christ,

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS,

Chancellor of the Catholic University.

UNIVERSITY CHRONICLE.

Opening of the Academic Year. The academic year 19121913 was solemnly opened on Sunday, October 6. Solemn High Mass was celebrated in the Assembly Room of MacMahon Hall, after which the Right Reverend Rector addressed the students.

Public Lectures.

The Fall Course of Public Lectures at the University began on Thursday, October 17. The following are the dates and subjects:

October 17.-"The Political Economy of Alcohol," Dr. Frank O'Hara. October 24." Justinian and Charlemagne," the Very Rev. Dr. Patrick J. Healy.

October 31.-" Catholic Charities," the Rev. Dr. William J. Kerby. November 7.-" Archbishop Ketteler: a Great Catholic Social Reformer," the Rev. Dr. James J. Fox.

November 14.-" Saint Francis of Assisi," the Rt. Rev. Monsignor Shahan.

November 21.-" Juan Luis Vives, Educator (1540)," the Rev. Dr. Patrick J. McCormick.

December 5.-" Literature and Politics," Dr. Charles H. McCarthy. December 12.-"Medieval Welsh Romances: the Mabinogion,” Dr. Joseph Dunn.

Typical Christian Hymns. The attention of Mr. Maurice Francis Egan, our Minister to Denmark, has been drawn by Mr. Angul Hammerich, of Copenhagen, to some unpublished and hitherto unknown sequences by Scandinavian monks of the Middle Ages in the Northern countries. In order to examine these, to complete his lectures on "Typical Christian Hymns," he has asked permission of President Lowell of Harvard University to postpone his eight lectures at that University until the winter of 1914. President Lowell has

very kindly granted this request.

Meeting of the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees held its semi-annual meeting, Wednesday, November 20th,

1912.

Matters of routine were first taken up and disposed of. The Trustees expressed themselves as very much pleased with the large growth in the student body of the University and measures were taken to provide in due time the buildings that the increase of the University has made absolutely necessary.

The Trustees agreed to take over the publication of the great Paris collection of the Oriental Christian writers (Corpus Scriptorum Orientalium), of which seventy-five volumes have already appeared. This large enterprise will be henceforth conducted in coöperation with the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Eventually it will contain all the Christian writers in Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic and Arabic. Distinguished scholars from many universities of Europe will coöperate in this work and several volumes will be published annually.

The Trustees visited Gibbons Memorial Hall and congratulated the venerable Cardinal and Chancellor of the University on the splendid edifice that will henceforth perpetuate his memory at the University, and of which he has been from the beginning the principal support and benefactor.

Dr. Thomas C. Carrigan, Associate Professor of Law and Acting-Dean of the Law School, was elected James Whiteford Professor of Law and Dean of the Law School. Peter J. McLaughlin was appointed Associate Professor of Law and Vice-Dean of the Law School.