m 'Bs CHRISTIAN FEMINISM BY DOCTOR F. V. CORCORAN, C. M. OF KENRICK SEMINARY PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND PSYCHOLOGY AT LORETTO COLLEGE 3H1 40 ^ 9 Baccalaureate Address, delivered by Doctor F. V. Corcoran, C. M. at Loretto College Webster Groves, Missouri June 4, 1919 Your Grace! My dear Friends! Permit mel to call you aU such to-day', rather than ad- dress you by| any other term for it is because we are friends of Loretto that we are assembled now, because we wish it well; and this benevolent love and: friendship for Loretto is a pledge we are all animated with one) sentiment, one mind land one heart,, that we e site em it a privilejge to meet within these College walls' and to share in the gladness and triumph that they hold captive on this memorable occa- sion. Truly),, theni,, our friendship lor Loretto makes us all flriends 1 , and to me has been given the honor of ex- pressing in your namei and my own towards the College and its first i*roud graduates!, the words that may in some measure pojrtray the sentiments of our hearts and the Significance) of the occasion that brings us herei To you, Loretto/s honored graduates^ this is an auspi- cious, a thrice memorable occasion; for to-*day you occupy the Ifront rank in the lacademic function that we have be- gun, you are the reteojpaents of the first collegiate degrees conferred by this Institution!, you have the enviable honor of (shading in this first triumph of youir College, you have the uroud position of standing in the forefront of a large hostj, we hope, of future graduates who will go forth from these halls to reelect glory on your and their Alma Mater and to advance the cause of true Christian womanhood throughout the length and breadth of our Ibeloved America. Shall I iask if you are happy to-day? Is there not ample evidence that no other feeling has a right to dom- inate? Does not; nature herself, in all) the charm that she so generously showers on beauteous Webster, give particular evidencel (this afternoon of her desirte to pro- mote the general rejoicing? Does not your College Chap- el wear a more than wonted garb of loveliness? Doe^ not this eager gathering of interested spectators reflect In eye and bearing, the joy and gratitude that claim your hearts for their own? Your friends are here in goodly array; the dear ones of home surround you in unfeigned dellight; your companions atteind you with loving joy, from the tiniest aspirant after collegiate honors to the more intimate associates of your college life; your devoted tejachers, the Sisters of Loretto are particularly here, glad, yet loathe to see you depart f from the halls in which their influence has been so tenderly and constantly ex- ercised; the clergy of our great Archdiocese are here be- 3 cause of theyr particular and individual interest in you and in your College; and lastly; His Graces our Most Rev- erend Archbishop* has comie to give you the merited trophy of youjr scholastic labors), the diploma that declares you worthy of! the Baccalaureate of Arts. As the head of the Archdiocese, His Grace could not well be spared on such an occasion, one that marks an event of no pass- ing importance in the educational development of the Church of St. Louis. He has, in addition^ another title that makes his presence desirable and appropriate, for the Archbishop is a teacher too, the official teacher of the djiocese, 'receiving his commission not from man nor the. institutions o?. man, but from the divine Teacher, the Master Himself, Jesus Christ, and His Church. In the public exercise of that office he teaches the people the eternal txuths and the ways of lijfe from his Cathedral desk, he exercises it by fostering and encouraging the labors of his aids in the schools, by gaining the good-will and cooperation o* 1 the people for the promotion /and suc- cess of our educational establishments; and to-day he will exercise it by imparting to you graduates your first post-graduate lesson. Happily,, then, it is not.formeto assume that possition now habitual though it be, and I may turn the mone prof- CONGRATIJLATIONS TO LORETTO COL- LEGE AND ITS FIRST GRADUATES iitably to my inumediaite purpose of picturing the mean- ing of this event and of congratulating those who have awaited! its, who now welcome Ats coming and who will long cherish the happy memory of it. First of' all/, permit me in the name of all present,, to tender a word of felicitation to the Collejge and its Faculty. For Loretto this is the brightest, gladdest day/ in its young history, it witnesses the first evidence of the success of itls work!,, it is gather- ing its precious first fruits, sending f(orth with full ap- proval its fijrst graduates, its finished product, — a Chris- tian young womanV ready to face and cope with lifefs re- alities buoyed by the Mgh hope that a painstaking, intel- ligent training and preparation can inspire and sustain. To-day, Sisters, you may justly look back with satisfac- tion over the trying task of organizing so grfeat an un- dertaking,, ofi attempting pioneer work in a field that called for heroic courage and unflagging enthusiasm. Your plan has been submitted to the test of experience and it works, your efforts have achieved their first meas- ure of success; amd if* in the words of the Psalmist, you *The Most Rev. John J. Glennon, Di, ©.. ArchbishOD of StU Louis. Went north wel with the tear8 of sacrifice. tO "cast. I he BeedS," to-day you "'come with joy Fulness carrying .\oiir Bhefanres.* Gladly, therefore, do we congratulate Loretto to-day and hid i»I wia.le upon its iccord in golden letters the history of this event. To you, our Graduates, congratulations are partic- ularly due .or it is prima riily on yourl account, that this Inspiring sceine is being enacted, you are the central fig- ures in this polemn celebration, For you it means the gaining of the crown, a weill-meriled crown, that heaven* born Wisdom places upon your brow as a token of your toyal a|nd undivided devotion,, of a. race well run, of a vic- iory won. To-day you see your hopes fulfilled, your as- pirations realized), your immediate goal reached; and the symbolic laurel wreath is yours to wear|, that all the world may know that you have "'loved the light of wisdom" that you have preferred her before alty. and have found innumerable richness in her hands, for she is the "bright- ness of eternal! light ,the unspotted mirror of -God's maj- esjty and the image of His goodness.'* The degree of the Baccalaurate which is conferred upon you to-day stands specifically (for the succejssf'ul completion of your College Course flor four years of un- remitting wo/rk in the pursuit of the Arts), in Ihe study of language, mathematics, physical science, history and phftlosophyl, Ja the last four years of conflict and upheaval too clearly demonstrate. Hais not the social fabric been torn asunder, the social edifice shaken to its very foundations, are not men and nations to-day struggling with (the too heavy task off social recon- struction? And in the face of all thisi, can any sane man iseriouslfy say that the social problem does not exist thp^t the part of it that concerns woman is already set- tled? Noi, my friends, and as long as there is still room for advancement in society at large, so long will the question of woman's place, and of 1 man's place in society await its final answer. The present development of the woman question owes its rise to lanj economic crisis, it was at the! beginning a ORIGIN AND PRESENT DEVELOPMENT OF WOMAN QUESTION. question of) food,, (of securing a material livelihood. The general introduction of machinery into every department oif industrial and commercial life during the past century so modifiiied and disturbed the conditions of life as to demand a radical readjustment. Woman had been forced to pro vide for herseltf^ or to help provide fort the maintenance o? the family. Home life became dis- turbed, (marriage more difficult and less attractive; and by degrees women have realized their capa- bility of Securing a measure of economiic independence never before dreamed of. What was at first a hard and cruel necessity has been gradually changefd into an ideal, to-day theory supplants condition; amd we* have the conscious desire and purpose of .securing moral, and po- litical independenjce as well. Truly the issue has gone far beyond! its original starting point and now it is nec- essary to deal wtith it not as it was(* but as it is. Still, it is well to know the origin of a movement as im- portant as this)* especially when there is an inclination to attribute it to some other principle or idea thai in the h&nds of certain advocates is endeavoring to gain control o' She movement and to take to itself whatever credit may result from its advancement. Unfortunately, it must V> admitted that the religious or Christian! idea is given kittle prominence in the program of those who are mak- ing the loudest claim to public notice in the feminist «5&use to-day, ftartieulafrly in the realm of political activ- ity. The demand for Suffrage finds not tiits most ardent supporters and workers among those whose lives are per- meated with the influences of religion: This statement is one merely of fact, nor is it in condemnation of suffrage ncfr of the attitude of those who in harmony with their inner selves remain aloof from the discussion. Still, the situation demands the positive concurrence and infusion of Christian ideas if it is no! to loud to ruinous conse- quences Ooa society, for religion and for woman herseU. ThaA theire te an Irreligious, anti-Christian current in the contemporary feminist movement can scarcely be THE ANTI-CHRISTIAN CURRENT IN PRESENT-DAT FEMINISM. gadn&aiti, but thai circumstance does not justify con- demnation of the cause. That there have been mistakes, excesses, even absurdities in the activities of its ad- vocates; that some of them have seemingly unsexed them- selves, becoming neither men nor women, but ungender- ed militants,, is not astonishing'. In every display of enthusiasm something similar may be no£ed; to launch out inlo the free spaces of the ;air is no easy matter, — there may be no obstacle to impede unrestrained action, but there are no parapets, no rails on which to lean for support, no safeguards against the danger of losing for the time our sense of direction and equilibriium. It is quite easy to slay: "Everything is alii right," which is hot true; and ;it (is easy to say: "Everything is all wrong" — which is bdth false and foolish. The difficulty is in de- termining the golden mean in judgment and conduct, and it is never found in hasty judgment, — even about femin- ism. The^e is what is styled Revolutionary Feminism, and it is easy to put it in opposition to Christian Femin- ismji, but there is a Christian Feminilsm: and this is it that we must heflp to prevail, not by an unsympathetic antagonism to the whole idea in theory and practice but by a sane and enlightened enthusiasm;, by making the truth more attractive and persuiasive than eruor,, by set- ting up a genuine ideal instead of a counterfeit, by keep- ing in close touch with the realities of facts and follow- ing the clear light of dispassionate reason. Even among the leaders who are not consciously inspired by dis- tinctively Christian ideas there is much generosity and di/sinterestednefis, and woman in the aggregate is less gross*, less material than man. Where good faith abides. (idiotic derision and illogical sophistry ill become the male of the species in his relation to the sex to whom he owes his life, and no Christian would dare to make his own the flippant statement of Schopenhauer about the long haiir and the short brain of womian; or that off Proud - hon, tha/t woman is but a diminutiive of man], "a sort of middlie term between him and the rest of the animal kingdom." While recognizing the good in feminism and the need of patience in dealing with it's excesses we can not pass 9 WOMAN OUTSIDE OF CHRISTIANITY over the charge that comes froni the anti-Religious element that Ch{risti?aniity is in the way of woman's progress, rights and perfection. On the contrary, we maintain vigorously that before Christianity and outside of it there is nothing to which woman can point as an auxiliary;, thai whatever emancipation there has been., whatever exaltation, h'ais resulted from the force and play of Christian ideas and no others. In pre-Christian time si, woman did not possess the rank or a human per- son. Custom; philosophy and religion all were leagued against her, and with rare exception she was treated as a thing,, or at best, as an institution; but never as a per- son, as a being endowed with a destiny^ inalienable rights amd responsibilities. Even when, for instance, she occupied a position in the religious organization as a Sibyl or a Pythian oracle}, it was a question not of per- sonal conscience but of nerves. The Spartan equality of the sexes was the shameless animalism of the gymna- \iumi, with not a thought of womanhood for its own sake. All paganism!, even at Athens /and Rome in their palmiest days, presents the same disgusting picture, and if that is the ideal of any group to-day, let us have none of it. The ancient world has no lessons to teach us except in :a negative wayV for even among the most advanced of them the husband could treat his wife merely as a piece of< property that he was free to siellj, to bestow upon another, to bequeath in his will. In China, woman was not admitted to have a soul, she might noli enter into the temples to adore; she might and must adore — her husband, who could put her away for most trivial faults. Hindu women were buried alive with their husbands, a tragic symbol of married unity. As to pagan philosophy, the same sad story ijs repeated lin ^tisi pages. In the tables of Pythagoras, woman was placed in the second column ,'ailong with darkness, chaos and evil; in the Platonic metempsychosis^ the m'an who sinned was) reborn a wom- an, the woman who sinned was reborn a beast. And the great moralist Epietetus counselled husbands to look up- on thejir wives as pretty shells}, a fair fliower picked by chance along the river bank, but not as anything to which his heart should cling: in a word the verdict of ancient thought is simpily this--man has a personal destiny, wom- an has no destiny but through man; man exists, woman coexists;, woman belongs to man as truly as the animal that he tames and the slave that he commands. Christianity*,, and it ;alonef, rid the world of this sen- timent; no| utterly, indeed, but it has condemned it, WOMAN IN PAST CHBISTIAN AGES. decree/ft its death and awaits but the evolution of social moraMty to carry out the decree. What a contrast is Christ's own altitude towards woman to that of paganism! 10 U ho makes any disf inct ioir-, it. Beema to be in her favor, to give her a larger share in the divinity thai See| Him at Jacob's well explaining the very essence oi IPs sublime docttrlne to the Sanuarltan woman; Bee Him conversing with Magdalenj witness his attitude (toward the sinner whom he encourages not bv the acarnful pity of the sagos but by a confident appeafl to her moral con- science. See Him in his inch'ablc love and honor her whom he chose as Lhe vanry select in-v rumeni to co- operate in the mystery of the Incarnation. Even His appar- ent severity to woman is a tribute to heir as a sharer id .the immortality that He came to restore to our race. "Women are associated w r ith Him throughout his public ministry so far as the custom of the time permitted; a group of them attend him and enable H'm by -their ser- vice to deliver the message of eternity without encum- brance. They follow Him to Calvary, listen to His last words land on the morrow o: the Resurrection will be the chosen heralds of His triumph. In Christ's kingdom. He tells us 1 , there is neither male nor female, but both are as the angels of heaven, and St. Paul proclaimed the principle of Christian emancipation in unmistakable terms: "'In Christ there is no distinction of Jew or Greek of Gentile and Barbarian, bond or free, male or ■ flemale-, for w T e are all one in Christ Jesus.'' No won- der women took to Christianity, and turned to the warm sun of the rising Gospel as a deliverance from the heart- less atmosphere o^ paganism. Henseforth woman shall be a slave no longer, her personal dignity is guaranteed, and the history of Christianity during the days of its gi- gantic growth is paralleled by the histoiry of woman's rise in the scale of civilization. During the middle ages, as a counterpoise to feudal despotism and the survival of the law of might among the recently converted nations, chivalry makes its appearance 1 . It was not the ideal state that some imagine, but it was an approach to it, it was a palliative,, relatively very good 1 , a feminist tri- umph as well as a (relig-ous triumph, an offshoot of the sincere devotion of strong men to the "Lady Mary," heaven's queen, the vlaliant knight's celestial champion, whose sweeft influence secured for her earthly sisters the respect and worship and flavor of hearts that hitherto were strangers to tenderness. This mystic love curbed brutality!, and if it did not secure for woman all heir rights, at least it opened the door to justice and gave promise of better days to come. If that promise was not more speedily land fully real- ized, whose is the responsibility? The canonical legisla- tion of the days of fervent faith sought the moral eleva- tion of woman,, securing her rights in marriage and her lawful place in the home; it acknowledges the moral equality of the sexes and promotes their social equality. 11 Even the famous right to vote was granteld by the Church to women who lived in religion and elected their own superiors; and it has happened;, as in the days of StS. Brigit, that men we're placed undelr a woman's rule. On the other hand, every subsequent departure from authentic Christian truth, either by the gate of heresy, THE RENAISSANCE, EARLY REFORMA- TION AND MODERN INFIDELITY or unbeliiefl or by that of neo-paganism has meant a low- ering of woman'/s dignity and istatusi. Go back to the Ren- aissance!, and in the sensual, flattery of) ilts recorfds, in its Dialogues and Decameron^, you will readily find con- tempt and scorn for women writtem on every page. These flatterers held the whip of isatiire in one hand and the incense of adulation in the ojthe'r,, toi scourge the soul and worship the flesh of the idol they inwiardly despised. Go back to the Reformation!, and (read 'the fifty Protestant theses upheld in one year at Wittemberg to disprove the personal dignity of woman. Ask Luther himselif what he thought of her,, He answe/red that we must bring back to Christian civilization the hardness of heart of the Mo- saic days, that religion demanded womanfs subjection, that she should honor man. fear him,, listen to him,, be subject to him and obey him without question or com- 'plaint. He destroys the marriage bond), sets up the principle of polygiaimy,, refuses young girlis the advan- tage of instruction!, and calls dangerous and chimerical the demand of his contemporafry the Catholic humanist, Vivos, that both sexes should have an equ;afl chance at education. Go back again to the degradation of the in- fidel 18th century, and you will witness a