The following is an extract of the talk given by Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan at the National Newman Club Convention in Lafayette, La., last week.

“American Catholics are many, as are world Catholics, and our oneness exists, absolutely one in one Lord, one faith, one baptism. After an evening, for example, with Catholic segregationists and integrationists, it occurs to the observer that what we all need here is an ecumenical movement among Catholics: Our charge on the secular campus is a vast body of young Catholics; some eager, some cynical; some complacent; some disgruntled; some bright, some dull. When weighed in the scales of human reason and Christian faith, there is abundant evidence that some have Catholic minds and hearts, and a great many simply couldn’t care less.

“The Index of Forbidden Books was designed to preserve faith. But in our day,, it does not touch the university library on an intellectual plane. In fact, it does not touch anything at all on that level. It appears to most Catholics and everyone else, as a moral issue far removed from the content of any volume; has any institution that right to prohibit the reading of a book? The list of named authors and named books is largely unknown to today’s students, only the French novelists, certain English philosophers and a few other authors ever appearing on any college reading list. Even the proscription by categories does not concern the student as he looks over the highly pornographic content of the average paperback bookrack. Whatever its relevance to the past, the Index has little relation to the student mind today. It may be changed, updated, modified or abolished altogether. Whatever its outcome, it is to be earnestly hoped that the prevailing reason will be the magnificent paragraph of Pope John’s opening address to the Council:

‘The truth of the lord will remain forever. We see, in fact, as one age succeeds another, that the opinions of men follow one another and exclude one another. And often errors vanish as quickly as they arise, like fog before the sun.

‘The Church has always opposed these errors. Frequently, she has condemned them with the greatest severity. Nowadays, however, the spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations...’

“Whether the Index is changed or not, the errors will continue to appear, in doctrine and the guidance of morale conduct. Whether it was effective or not, the Index was entirely negative. It did not increase the faith of any Christian, nor attract others to the treasurers of the faith, nor penetrate the shadows of the world with the light of truth. It if disappears tomorrow, our proper positive task will still remain: to teach, in season and out of season; to teach the truth that is within our competence, religious truth; and to foster and encourage the teaching of those truths beyond our competence, the bursting regions of the natural sciences, mathematics, history, literature, the arts, and so on. We must honor the scholar who honestly seeks truth in his field, whether he is on our side or not, whether we like him or not, whether he likes us or not. Anything else is intellectual dishonesty. Our students must imbibe this respect for scholarship from us. The Church did not suffer when St. Paul walked among the intellectuals at Athens, when Augustine urged his pupils to love intelligence, and love it very much; when Aquinas investigated the philosophy of the Arabians, or when Father Montini read the works of Thomas Mann and Bergson with his students. This is the vast burden that is ours, the task of consecrating the intellect to God. It is difficult today because although there are more educated minds than a century ago, they are not educated in the things that pertain to God. The good man of salvation has not had a good press. It would be a mistake to assume that all Catholic students have Catholic minds. In Frank Sheed’s phrase, many have secular minds with Catholic patches. Yet it is our job to awaken in all these minds, the guadium et veritate, the joy of finding truth. This will be a far more effective tool than the Index, because the Index did not touch sins against the mind which is God’s own created instrument for truth. There is a simony of the intellect as well as a simony of goods. We are at a point in history where this simony is the temptation of the educated man. To sell one’s mind for sordid gain, or for popularity, or for the coin of mediocre achievement or the perversion of other mind, this is perhaps near the ultimate simony for reparation is almost impossible to make.”