culture, general and special. Your knowledge of dogmas, in so far as it is permitted to illustrate them by reason, your knowledge of morals, of worship, and of the interior of Catholic life--must they not perhaps be raised to a level proportionate to your scientific knowledge in law, history, letters, or biology?

"And would it not be a formidable danger for you at the very outset in this maturing of your judg ment, critical acumen and personal thought, if you should be content in matters of faith to remain, as it were, children, with only the ideas and proofs which you were taught in the course of your elementary studies? Faith through habit lasts only up to the day when, in the face of more serious difficulties, doubt arises; and in the struggle of a mind ac customed to the problems imposed by superior culture the child in matters of faith has at hand only arms of inferior value--reasons and explanations insufficient to respond to and to defeat the assaults of temptation and to tranquilize the intellect. You must imitate the great Apostle Paul, who said of hir self that when he was a child, he spoke as a child, he had the tastes of a child, he thought as a child. But when he became a man he put away the things of a child.

"Already you may have given up or forgotten the catechism, the supreme code of Christian faith and morals; but for your mission as a mature man in Catholic Action, religious culture more thorough and more personal becomes indispensable. In profane uni versity circles your Catholic convictions will receive a hearing only if you make yourselves competen to present them and defend them frankly on the same grounds on which the thought of your interlocutors usually moves.

"Do not consent, university students and Catholic graduates, to be inferior to others in the palestra of scientific competency, of extent of knowledge, and of ability in the exercise of your

profession.

For the honor of Catholic Action, to which you belong--force yourselves--in whatever direction your talent and ardor impel you, to make yourselves the best--the best students, the best professors, the best jurists, men of letters, doctors, engineers, naturalists, physiologists, and the best investigators of the matter and spirit of real individual and social welfare. This is required for the glory of the Master Whom you serve, God Omniscient, so that you may be worthy of Him in all things. This is required by the love that you must bring to your vocation, to your profession, to those who are your companions in the way which divine Providence has marked out for you.

It is obvious that no serious attempt to convince anyone of the truth of our religion can be made by you unless you are fully aware of the manner in which our religion can be so presented to an outsider and unless you are fully conscious of the fact that your faith is your most precious possession. You must be prepared to give a scientific answer to the question "Why should I be a Catholic?" To answer this question is the aim of scientific Christian apologetics.

The question "Why should I be a Catholic?" involves two others which are also fundamental. They are "Why should I profess any religion at all?" and "Why should I be a Catholic rather than an adherent of the Jewish religion, or one of the numerous Protestant sects, or even of one of the oriental religions?" By answering these questions this course easily and naturally falls into three great divisions: (1) the study of religion in general and the grounds of theistic belief; (2) the study of revealed religion and the grounds of Christian belief; (3) the study of the true Church of Christ and the grounds of Catholic belief.

Christian apologetics is a science which has for its purpose the explanation and defense of the Christian religion. It is a science because it is a

body of known facts organized in a systematic and logically complete manner. It presents reasons which show these facts to be true and certain.

reason.

Christian apologetics is a human science. It draws its facts from human sources, history and philosophy, and develops its proofs by unaided human It does not call upon Divine Revelation for its fundamental proofs. It regards the recorded facts of Revelation as historical documents until they have been proved by reason to be the teachings of God. Briefly, Christian apologetics shows that the Catholic religion, in its essentials and in such individual doctrines as may be investigated by the mind of man, is reasonable, right and true; and that the arguments used against the claims of the Catholic religion are unwarrantable, unreasonable and fallacious. It shows that our religion, if it is to be accepted at all, is only to be received as the object of a testimony that is divine. The science of Christian apologetics gives unmistakable evidence that the Catholic faith was actually revealed by God Himself.

The motive of faith, the reason why we believe all the truths taught by the Catholic Church is not and can never be evidence, even the evidence of inference. Our beliefs rest on the word of God. We must believe many things which we cannot grasp nor demonstrate with our finite minds. The mysteries of religion, while above human reason and understanding, are not contrary to it. Faith and intellect are gifts of the one God and between them there is a perfect harmony. Hence, while it is possible for one to have many difficulties in understanding some of the truths of faith, we must not doubt, even provisionally, a single one of them, since they have God for their author.

This course, then, is not meant to convince you of the truths of your religion but to prepare you for the task of convincing others. It is not meant to rationalize your faith, for faith is a divine gift

far surpassing mere intellectual conviction. It is not concerned with proving isolated statements of doctrine. It is concerned with the credibility of Catholic doctrine as a whole.