CIVIC INTEGRITY 



Address Before the Xavier Alumni Sodality 



THE forces of this age seem to be in a large measure 

 centrifugal. The reverence for former standards, 

 former virtues, the established standards of mankind 

 is being dissipated. This is not merely true of temporary 

 things, the mere expedients of daily government and disci- 

 pline, but of the very principles which lie back of social ties 

 and order. 



In the history of religious movements the term "private 

 judgment" was once understood to mean the right to interpret 

 the meaning of Holy Scripture after the manner that seemed 

 most expedient to the reader, and if the passage or the doc- 

 trine embraced therein did not commend itself then to reject 

 it altogether. But we have gone far beyond that now. It 

 is the fashion of many political, social and personal cults to- 

 day, to say nothing of private individuals, to use their "private 

 judgment" in rejecting, modifying or amending the basic prin- 

 ciples of morality, discipline and government. In other words, 

 many a man is ready to repeal not only the Ten Command- 

 ments, but hundreds of human laws so far as they apply to 

 his own conduct. It is becoming the fashion to deny and 

 abrogate any inconvenient prohibition or commandment what- 

 soever. What is the fashion to-day may be the custom to- 

 morrow, and the standard set for a decade hence. Let us 

 examine how such a phase of life should affect us as Sodalists. 

 You who meet with us to-night to join in our celebration 

 of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Xavier 

 Alumni Sodality, may wonder why we link such a theme with 

 the praises of Our Blessed Lady. It is easily explainable. 

 On this evening of the Feast of her Immaculate Conception 

 we again glorify the Blessed Mother of God, whom the Om- 

 nipotent in His grace made a second Eve, fair and stainless 



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