Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/100

 SOCIETY

78

SOCIETY

The evolutionist, who has left the twisted turn of all his theories in much of the common language of the day, even after the theories themselves have died to all serious scientific acceptance, wished to make ethics a department of materialistic biology, and have the ag- gregate of human entities assemble by the same physi- cal laws that mass cells into a li\Tng being. Plan's native tendency to persist, pure egoism, made him shrink from the danger of destruction or injury at the hands of other indi\'iduals, and this timidity became a moving force driving him to compound with his peers into a unit source of strength without which he could not persist. From common hfe in this unit man's ego- ism began to take on a bit of altruism, and men ac- quired at the last a sense of the common good, which replaced their original timidity as the spring of merg- ing activity. Later mutual sympathy put forth its tendrils, a sense of unity sprang up, and man had a civil society. Herein was latent the capacity for ex- pressing the general will, which when developed be- came civil authority. This evolutionary process is still in motion toward the last stand foreseen by the theorist, a universal democracy clad in a federation of the world. All this has been seriously and solemnly presented to our consideration with a naive absence of all sense of humour, with no suspicion that the human mind naturally refuses to confound the unchanging action of material attraction and repulsion with hu- man choice; or to mistake the fruit of intellectual planning and execution for the fortuitous results of bUnd force. We are not cowards all, and have not fled to society from the sole promptings of fear, but from the natural desire we have of human develop- ment. Authority for mankind is not viewed as the necessary resultant of the necessary influx of all men's wills to one goal, but is recognized to be a power to loose and to bind in a moral sense the wills of in- numerable freemen.

The neo-pagan theory, renewing the error of Plato and in a measure of Aristotle also, has made the in- dividual and the family mere creatures and chattels of the State, and, pushing the error further, wishes to orientate all moral good and evil, all right and duty from the authority of the State, whose good as a na- tional unit is paramount. This theorj' sets up the State as an idol for human worship and eventually, if the theorj' were acted upon, though its authors dream it not, for human destruction.

The historical school, mistaking what men have done for what men should do and, while often missing the full induction of the past, scornfully rejecting as empty apriorism deductive reasoning from the nature of man, presents a materiaUstic, evolutionary, and positivistic view of human society, which in no way appeals to sane reason. No more" does the theory of Kant, as applied to society in the Hegelian develop- ment of it; though, owing to its intellectual character and appearance of ultimate analysis, it has found favour with those who seek philosophic principles from sources of so-called pure metaphysics. It would be idle to present here with Kant an analysis of the as- sumption of the development of all human right from the conditions of the use of liberty consistent with the general law of universal liberty, and the creation of civil government as an embodiment of universal liberty in the unified will of all the constituents of the State.

Sdabez, Dc Opcre Sex Dierum, V, vii; Iuem, D.fensio Fidei III, ii, iii; Idem, Dc LcBi6us, III, ii, iii. i\ ( - .,i v-Ki .^i rri Phil- osopAia A/orads (Innsbruck. 1886): DE II, '■ ' < •-■ itiondcia

Science PalUitpic; Tapakelu, DriUo \ I; me, 1S55)-

Mever. lustitiUiones Juris Naluralis (liii u • l-'um IIobbes' ter>a<*an (Cambridge Univcreit.v Press); Rousskal-, Du Contntt ?.?J!?,' (P^f's. 1S9C). The Social Contract, tr. Tozer (London, 1909); Spencer, The Stmly of Sociology (London); Comte. Les Prtncipe.1 Ju Positiiisme: ScnAFFi.E, Structure et La Vie du Corps Sooai; Bluntsciiu. The Theory of the State ((1\iotA translation, rJSr,?'"'S? ''■*'"'• """>; Sterhett, The Ethics of Hegel (Boston, 1893); WOODIIOW WiLSO.N, The State (Boston, lUOU).

Charles Macksey.

Society, The Catholic Church Extension. — In the United States. — The first active agitation for a church extension or home mission society for the Catholic Church in North America was begun in 1904 by an article of the present writer, published in the "American Ecclesiastical Review" (Philadelphia). This article was followed by a discussion in the same review, participated in by several priests, and then by a second article of the writer's. On 18 October, 1905, the discussion which these articles aroused took form, and, under the leadership of the iNIost Reverend James Edward Quigley, Archbishop of Chicago, a new so- ciety, called The Catholic Church Extension Society of the United States of America, was organized at a meeting held in the archbishop's residence at Chicago. The following were present at that meeting and be- came the first board of governors of the society: The Archbishops of Chicago and Santa Fe, the Bishop of Wichita, the present Bishop of Rockford, Reverends Francis C. Kelley, G. P. Jennings, E. P. Graham, E. A. Kelly, J. T. Roche, B. X. O'Reilly, F. J. Van Ant- werp, F'. a. O'Brien; Messrs. M. A. Fanning,".\nthony A. Hirst, Wilham P. Breen, C. A. Plamondon, J. A. Roe, and 8. A. Baldus. All these are still (1911) con- nected with the church extension movement, except Archbishop Bourgade of Santa Fe, who has since died, Reverends E. P. Graham and F. A.' O'Brien, and Mr. C. .\. Plamondon, who for one reason or another have found it impossible to continue in the work. The .Archbishop of Chicago was made chairman of the board, the present wi-iter was elected president, and Mr. William P. Breen, LI..D., of Fort Wa>-ne, Indi- ana, treasurer. Temporary headquarters were estab- hshed at Lapeer, Michigan. The second meeting was held in December of the same year, when the consti- tution was adopted and the work formally launched. A charter was granted on 2.5 December, 1905, by the State of Michigan to the new society, whose objects were set forth as follows: "To develop the mission- ary spirit in the clergv' and people of the Catholic Church in the United States. To assist in the erec- tion of parish buildings for poor and needy places. To support priests for neglected or provcrty-stricken districts. To send the comfort of religion to pioneer locahties. In a word, to preserve the faith of Jesus Christ to thousands of scattered Catholics in every portion of our own land, especially in the country dis- tricts and among immigrants." In January, 1907, the headquarters of the society were moved to Chi- cago, and the president was transferred to that arch- cUoeesc. In April, 1906, the society began the publi- cation of a quarterly bulletin called "Extension". In May, 1907, this quarterly was enlarged and changed into a monthly; its circulation has steadily increased, and at the present time (1911) it has over one hundred thousand paid subscribers. On 7 June, 1907, the society received its first papal approval by an Apostohc Letter of Pius X addressed to the Arch- bishop of Chicago. In this letter His Holiness gave unquaUfied praise to the young organization and be- stowed on its supporters and members many spiritual favours. On 9 June, 1910, the pope issued a special Brief by which the society was raised to the dignity of a canonical institution, directly under his own guidance and protection. By the terms of this Brief, the Archbishop of Chicago is always to be chancellor of the Society. The president must be appointed by the Holy Father himself. His term of office is not more than five yeiirs. The board of governors has the right to ju-opose three n;un(^s to the Holy See for this oHice, and to elect, according to their laws, all other officers of the society. The Brief also provided for a cardinal protector, living in Rome. His Holiness named Cartiinal Sebastian Martiuelli for this office, and later on appointed the present writer the first president under the new regulations. The Brief limits the society's activities to the United States