crude naturalism obtains everywhere, and affects deeply all the great sources of popular education, the school and the college, the university, the press and the theatre, literature and the arts, even the social and moral movements of reform. In a word, throughout all modern society the average philosophy of life, the current views of the origin and nature of man, of the social and moral world, of good and evil, right and wrong, the just and the unjust, approximate daily more to genuine paganism than to the principles and the spirit of the Christian order.

It is only through the Catholic Church that great social aggregates yet retain in their fullness, and as living forces, belief in a personal God, knowable, approachable, loving at once and just, concerned with His own creation; that men yet believe He has made known His will to us and that it is the highest and most binding law; that He so loved our human nature as to become man and sojourn on this earth, and dying for us to leave after Him an undying representative in the Catholic Church. It is only in the Catholic Church that great popular masses still believe in sin and its sanctions, free will, human responsibility, prayer, the order of grace; that there exists yet a sacramental life, a sense of social duty to the Almighty Creator of all things, a solemn and perfect recognition of Him from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. It is only in the Catholic Church that God is still looked upon as the supreme source of civil authority, the fountain-head of law and order, its final sanction and guarantee. In one way or another all that is good and durable in our modern civilization has come from these noble and beautiful concepts, to which the social, moral and political order, the arts and literature owe much more than is usually believed. But even among us, given the widespread social apostasy and popular paganism, these precious elements of Christian faith would soon be overlaid by the elementa mundi, i. e., the all-embracing naturalism, the secular temper and interests, and the multitudinous forces of evil that find in naturalism and secularism their proper atmosphere. The Church and the home are, indeed, the natural and original sources of reaction against the all-pervading influences of evil in its countless forms, but for reasons too well

known to all of us they need to be actively and universally supplemented by the school, and that all along the line, since nowhere do the enemies of our Catholic faith relax their vigilance, nowhere do they despair of victory, nowhere do they cease to make fresh recruits and gain new allies, or fail to profit by our own apathy or blindness, our timidity or our narrowness of view and action.

Amid these conditions the Catholic teacher becomes the closest ally of those who are charged with the preservation and the spread of the Catholic faith. The interests of Catholic teaching become the highest interests, and whatever tends to strengthen and perfect it deserves and receives the sympathy and help of the ecclesiastical authority in all its degrees.

The program of topics offered by the Association at this meeting yields to no other year in variety, importance and timeliness. And when we consider the standing, ability and services of those who have given their time to the preparation of this rich program we are doubly encouraged, for it is then seen that the Association has drawn to its ranks and interested in its purpose and plans the flower of our Catholic educational forces. Year by year it is mapping out and formulating an entire system of education based on the rights and services of religion, and interpenetrated with a sense of the divine and the heavenly as opposed to the gross and ruinous materialism of the present order. Its output of valuable educational literature is this year notably increased, and for this we rejoice doubly, first, because it tends to raise along all lines the efficiency of our schools of every degree, and second, because we thereby correspond with the advice of our Holy Father Pius X. in his letter of last year to the Association, wherein he urged us to make all possible use of the press for the dissemination. and illustration of our Catholic principles of education.

The eighth annual meeting of the Catholic Educational Association is now declared open.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as printed in the report of the Detroit convention.

The following letter from His Excellency, Most Rev. D. Falconio, D. D., Apostolic Delegate, was read and greeted with applause :

To the Officers and Members of the Catholic Educational Association:

I have learned with great pleasure of this the eighth annual convention of your Association. The progress already attained by its work and the impetus given by these general meetings form a bright promise of future advances to be secured by the same methods. It is certain that after the specific teaching work of the Church itself, nothing is nearer to the heart of the Holy Father than that of Christian education in all of its many branches, and I am sure that his interest always remains such as was shown so fully in his letter of the past year. In his name, therefore, I send the most heartfelt good wishes for the complete success of the present meeting.

On my own part, I need not say that the objects sought to be advanced by these meetings cannot but meet with my most earnest interest and approval. No work could be more laudable than that of Catholic education in this country, and I feel truly grateful that its all-important needs receive the intelligent and devoted care of those who form this influential body of practical educators.

Sending a special blessing for all the officers and members, I remain,

Very sincerely yours in Christ,

†D. FALCONIO, Apostolic Delegate.

The Secretary General, Rev. Francis W. Howard, LL. D., and the Treasurer General, Rev. Francis T. Moran, D. D., presented summaries of their respective reports to the Executive Board.

The Secretary General stated that the Executive Board recommended to the Association that the President General be authorized to appoint a Committee on Resolutions of the Association, and a Committee on Nominations for the general officers to be elected by the Association.

The Committee appointed by the Executive Board to consider the subject of secondary education presented its report through the Chairman, Very Rev. James A. Burns, C. S. C., and this report served as the basis of an extended discussion.

It was moved and seconded that the President General be authorized to appoint a Committee on Nominations and a Committee on Resolutions. The motion was carried, and the following members of the Committees were named:

Committee on Nominations: Very Rev. M. A. Hehir, C. S. Sp.; Very Rev. E. J. Walsh, C. M.; Rev. Joseph F. Smith.

Committee on Resolutions: Rev. James J. Dean, O. S. A.; Rev. E. A. Pace, Ph. D., D. D.; Rev. T. Brosnahan, S. J.; Very Rev. James A. Burns, C. S. C.; Brother John Waldron, S. M.

It was announced that a message, on behalf of the Association, had been sent to the Holy Father.

Archbishop Quigley made a few remarks which were received with deep interest, and after prayer, the meeting adjourned.

SECOND GENERAL SESSION

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 8 P. M.

A general meeting of the Association was held at the College Theatre at 8 p. m. Very Rev. James A. Burns, C. S. C., Vice President General, called the meeting to order and said prayer. Very Rev. E. J. Walsh, C. M., of the Committee on Nominations, presented the following names for the officers of the Association: Honorary President, His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons; President General, Rt. Rev. Msgr. T. J. Shahan, D. D.; Vice Presidents General, Very Rev. James A. Burns, C. S. C., Rev. Walter J. Shanley, LL. D., Very Rev. H. T. Drumgoole, LL. D.; Treasurer General, Rev. Francis T. Moran, D. D.

Rev. F. W. Howard was called to the chair. Other nominations were called for. On motion, duly seconded, the nominations were closed. By unanimous vote the Secretary was instructed to cast the ballot of the Association for the nominees of the Committee, and they were declared the officers of the Association for the ensuing year.

Rev. James J. Dean, O. S. A., of the Committee on Resolutions, presented the following resolutions of thanks:

RESOLUTIONS OF THANKS

Deeply impressed by the cordiality of the reception tendered to us by the clergy and people of Chicago, we the Catholic Educational Association-wish to express our appreciation of the same and to thank all those who in any way helped to make this, our eighth annual convention, such a pronounced success.

We desire to thank, in the first place, His Grace, Most Reverend James Edward Quigley, D. D., Archbishop of Chicago, for his cordial reception to our delegates and for his deep personal interest in our proceedings.

We extend our thanks, likewise, to the Apostolic Delegate, and to all the members of the hierarchy who have honored us by their presence at our exercises, as well as to those who have encouraged our efforts by their approbation.

We wish to thank in an especial manner the various local committees which have labored so zealously for our entertainment and our comfort.

We tender our thanks also to the Vincentian Fathers in charge of De Paul University, for their generosity and their hospitality in devoting to our uses their magnificent halls.

We are deeply grateful to the press of the city and country, both Catholic and secular, for their kindly notices and their splendid reports of our proceedings.

The resolutions were, on motion, unanimously adopted.

Rt. Rev. Msgr. T. J. Shahan, President General, then took the chair.

Members of the Executive Board and of the Association:

I have to thank you very sincerely for the honor you have conferred upon me in renominating me for the position of President General of the Association for the year to come, and for the confidence that you thereby express. It is very gratifying to be assured that the work which we have accomplished in the past year has been appreciated. I feel certain that with God's help we shall continue, during the year to come, on the same lines which we have been following in the past year.