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Show HARVARD'S CATHOLIC SOCIETY. The presence of children of her faith at the secular universities is something that the Catholic church is said to view with more than ordinary concern. Catholic students at Harvard for years have recognized the reasons for this concern, but it was not until 1802 that thev organized under the name of the St. Paul's Catholic club (?f Harvard univci sity. At Oxford, England, the Jesuits have their own separate "hall," known as Pope's hall, and the Benedictines Bene-dictines have theirs, each of which is considered an integral part of the great university, and work done therein is accepted as such. Conditions on this side of the Atlantic are different, dif-ferent, however, and an attempt to found a hall at Columbia the past year similar to those at Oxford was unsuccessful, so that today St. Paul's Catholic v club of Harvard is accepted as the ideal for American Amer-ican colleges. THE AMERICAN IDEAL. The Rev. John J. Farrell, who is the director of St. Paul's club at Harvard, outlined the aims and purposes of the society to a Sunday Post representative. represen-tative. "You must excuse me," Father Farrell began, "from saying anvthiner on the question of the advisability ad-visability of Catholic students attending secular colleges. That is not for me to say. The fact is that a condition exists and that is all I am concerned con-cerned with. Ecclesiastical authorities placed me; at the head o'f the St. Paul's Catholic club to help its members deal with an existing condition. "As you know, it was in 1892 that the club wras formed. Robert Emmett of New York, the great-grandson great-grandson of the Irish patriot of that name, was its first president. "At that time the organization f had few members, mem-bers, and had no spiritual head. Its origin was altogether al-together spontaneous on the part of the Catholic students. The society went along, for some six years with varying success, when I was appointed its spiritual director, and in co-operation with the young men endeavored to put the club on so firm a basis that its growth and success would be assured. as-sured. "The St. Paul Catholic club was the first of its kind, and has been instrumental in organizing similar sim-ilar bodies of Catholic young men at the University Univer-sity of California, at Columbia, the University of Michigan, Wisconsin-, Ann Arbor and Georgia. OTHER CATHOLIC SOCIETIES. . "Through the efforts of the officers of the Harvard Har-vard Catholic club, Yale, Dartmouth. Boston university, uni-versity, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts now have their Catholic societies. "President Eliot is thoroughly in favor of the St. Paul's Catholic club at Harvard, and has helped the organization in every way. Last Thursday evening, together with other prominent gentlemen, he addressed the club at the opening meeting of the scholastic year in a heart to heart talk, which was enthusiastically received by the young men present. "This year's series of conferences and smokers, which will be announced next week, promises to be fully as interesting and vital to the members of the club as those of previous years." Father Farrell courteously declined to give his views on the possibility of a hall at Harvard like those at Oxford and the one still hoped for at Columbia, Co-lumbia, saying: "I carfnot discuss the question." |