Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1903 — OF INTEREST TO YOU. [ARTICLE]

OF INTEREST TO YOU.

Something About the Maxim “The End Justifies the' Means.” It may interest the fair-minded readers of this paper to relate an occurrence anent the maxim that “the end justifies the means,” which happened two weeks ago. In the University of Syracuse a professor believing as yet in an old malign imputation, which has often been refuted, namely, that the Jesuits taught the doctrine “the end justifies the means,” wrote this maxim on the blackboard and said that he intended to refute the same. A goodly number of the fair-minded scholars present were startled at the bold assertion that such a doctrine was taught by a religious society in the Catholic church. They discussed this topic repeatedly. As their feeling of fairness was not as yet biased by fixed ideas of bigotry they asked some of their Catholic friends whether the Jesuits teach that “the end justifies the means.” Bishop A. Ludden, D. D., of Syracuse, became cognizant of the query and gave the following statement for publication: “A learned professor of onr Syracuse University is reported to have written on the blackboad to be refuted by the students: ‘Refute the Jesuit principle, the end justifies the means.’ Of course the learned professor had no doubt whatever that this is a Jesuit maxim. He did not concoct it or originate it. He can quote foi its authority such sr satisfies the credulous and gullible who are prepared to accept any false witness against their neighbors, especially against their neighbors they don’t love. He accepted it as a postulate in common use and of unquestioned trnth. “It is found in dictionaries and enclopedias, in anli-Catholic tracts, * * * * to hold up the Jesuits to popular execration. But a learned professor of a great university ought to be more cautious and critical than to accept on such authority accusations so opprobrious to a noted and learned body of men who differ from him in religion. “Religious tracts are always open to suspicion, and enclopedia articles have no higher sanction than that of the knowlege, accuracy and truthfulness of the writer. A cyclopedia is useful as a reference, but no scholar will depend on it as final arbiter on disputed matters.

“Had not the gifted Robert Louis Stevenson flayed the Rev. Hyde of Honolulu, his calumnies of Father Damien wonld have passed into cyclopedias and anti-Catholic tracts and been scattered broadcast to propagate religious slander and religions hate. “The burden of prophecy seems to be on the Jesuits. They seem to inherit from the Master, whose name they bear, a legacy of hate and false witness. No body of men is more loved and hated. Hated by those who do not know them, loved by those who know their great learning, their selfdenial and exemplary lives. “Now I know that the esteemed and learned faculty of the Syracuse University will feel grateful to me for calling attention to what they cull the Jesuit principles, and I hereby solemnly assert that no Jesuit ever held such a principle and would not be tolerated to hold, much less to teach, such a principle. ?

“And to emphasize the more my assertion I hereby state that I shall pay to any student of the University the expenses of his board and tuition during the remaining years of his studies there if he can find in any of the writings and teachings of the Jesuits, or from any authentic work whatsoever that they ever taught the doctrine that the end justifies the means, and I freely permit that in the research he may invite the assistance of the learned faculty, and if he and they do not succeed I ask further for the honor and candof and honesty of the University, that whenever again shall appear on that blackboard that thesis, it will be qualified by stating that it is nowhere to be found in the teachings of the Jesuits, but is falsely and calumniously imputed to them.” May the readers of this paper learn from this to abstain from judging rashly about their Catholic fellowmen and be on their guard against those who hurl their diabolical slanders against the Institution of Christ, stigmatizing that church as fraught with heatbernish customs and idolatry. Be fair to every one,even to the Catholic. Father Y. H. Krull, C. P. B.