The third annual congress of the University Catholic Society, New Zealand, was held at Raumati South over Anniversary Weekend to discuss the theme "The Catholic Contribution to Culture." Over sixty students from all colleges of the University of New Zealand were in residence for the Congress, as guests of the host society, Victoria.

"Western Culture has degenerated, due to the decline of religion, and the world is living on the spiritual and moral capital of the past,' said His Grace Archbishop McKeefry, opening the congress on the Friday afternoon (January 19th). "Catholics should look at the problem through the eyes of God, and in doing this they would find the Christian life, the only cure for the degeneration."

Mr. C. G. Harker, M.P., addressing the students, said that New Zealand was open to great moral and physical dangers because of its remoteness from the world. This remoteness had led to a false feeling of complacency against which Catholic students should be ever on guard.

The Catholic Philosopher

In the first lecture, Rev. Fr. F. Durning, S.M., M.A., Rector of St. Patrick's College, Silverstream, addressed the congress on "The Contribution of the Catholic Philosopher to Culture."

"The Church has helped maintain the atmosphere necessary for the study and growth of philosophy. Every man is a philosopher, and the Church has always given its members knowledge of the philosophical reasons for their existence." said Fr. Durning.

"It has always championed reality, and its ideas have acted as a correcting influence on other philosophies because its ideas are based on reason.

"In philosophy, the main contribution of the Church is that it maintains the conditions favourable to philosophy, defends reality and reason against the prevalent scepticism and acts as a corrective to the fads which undermine the blasts of philsophical thought.

"Today, for example, when the disease and mental suicide of scepticism is widespread, the Catholic philosopher is still accepting as true that which is evident and certain to his senses. He is the champion of freedom and the natural law, his main weapon being the common sense of the plain man."

The Catholic Historian

"As in philosophy, the object of Catholic History is the search for truth," said Rev. B. J. O'Brien, S.M., M.A., B.Ss., Dip. Ed., who gave the second lecture. He dismissed the false tradition of the Whig interpretation of history Which, since the Reformation, has sought to create the appearances of legality for the methods of the new aristocracy, and which was destroyed only by two world wars and by investigation of its sources.

"The Catholic scholar is well equipped to see steadily, with his freedom from scepticism, his faith in reason and his passion to find the truth."

The Catholic Scientist

These accusations were dealt with by Mr. Miles O'Connor, M.Sc., in his lecture on "The Contribution of the Catholic Scientist to Culture."

Mr. O'Connor examined the various cases usually put forward as evidence that the Church was opposed to the discoveries of science, and held that the Church's record over nearly twenty centuries compares more than favourably with that of the most scientifically minded countries in this, the twentieth century.

Mr. O'Connor submitted that the number of Catholics who had made significant contributions to science, Nicholaus Copernicus, Nicholaus Steensen, Theodor Schwann, Johann Muller, Jean Baptiste Lamarck, Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur, to name a few, was sufficient to refute the second charge.

The charge, that Catholics as a whole take very little interest in Science, was, however, not so easy to refute. "The time has arrived when we should carefully examine the position with a view to finding the reasons for the poor representation of Catholics among those who have achieved eminence in science.

"There is no such thing as the Catholic Scientist as distinct from any other kind of scientist. All scientists are concerned with the discovery of truth about the external world."

The Catholic Novelist

"The source of great Catholic writing." said Mr. J. C. Reid, M.A., 'lies in the conflict which faces the novelist between his religion and his artistic vision, for there is no great literary work conceived without some conflict." He discussed the development of the new realism by Catholic writers, observed in their fidelity to the spirit and the heart of man, and seen most clearly in the greatest of them, Francois Mauriac.

The Catholic and the Fine Arts

The Integrity of the Catholic scholar was again discussed, by Mr. Michael Bowles in the final lecture when he said that the Catholic artist has the advantage of having behind him a philosophy of life, "Today, in our grey society, the fine arts, which bring an enrichment of personality, are more important than ever. There is no such thing as single and intensive cultural effort—we can only develop ourselves individually to the best of our capacity.

"Culture is a cultivation, a two-way process in which the individual gives something to society, and society gives back to the individual."

Open Forum

Each of the lectures was followed by discussions, and on the last day of the congress, a full morning was set aside for an open forum on student affairs. Those present [unclear: today] full advantage of this opportunity. Under the chairmanship of Mr. K. F. O'Connor (Massey College) they discussed the part they, as Catholics, should play in the life of the University, and how in their own particular spheres they could preserve the fundamentals of true knowledge.