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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA DANTE—THE POET AND THE CATHOLIC BY THE EDITOR “The vanguard of the far-flung forces crusading for a literary and cultural revival. . . The heralds of the twentieth century Renaissance.” So the Boston Tran script terms the pilgrimage of reverence the world is sending to Ravenna this year to the tomb of one of the Church’s most brilliant sons, Dante Alighieri, dead these six hundred years. Dante was born in Florence in 1265. As a young man he saw military service, and entered politics at a time when politics was an exciting calling, and which ended for him in his exile from his native city, to which he never returned. He married before he reached the age of thirty-two. His life, after his ex ile, was spent in wandering about the north of Italy, in Verona, Bologna, Pisa, Lucca and finally Ravenna. During the early part of the century in which Dante was born, the literary language of Tuscany was Latin, and Dante himself used Latin in some of his works. One of his greatest services was the establishing of Italian as a medium for lasting literature. It was on the fourteenth of September, 1321, that Dante was summoned from the world after leaving a mark on the minds of men it has been given to few to leave since the dawn of history. And now, six centuries after, the peoples of all the nations of the world, millions in lands of which Dante never heard, and of religious beliefs born since his day, forget for the moment their ordinary avocations and their dif ferences, and do him honor. It is but nautral that Italy should thus honor her renowned son, for in Italy the name of Dante has rep resented to the average citizen, lettered or unlettered, a living force, a flaming reality. It is more remarkable that sister nations of Europe are scarcely less interested in the sixth centenary of Dante s death. The Spanish committee appointed for the occasion has announced a competition for the best book written in the Castilian language on the sub ject: “The Divine Comedy as a Constructive Force in the Progress of Humanity.” And the chairman of the German Committee tells this to the world: “Germany cannot let the sixth century of the death of the divine poet pass in silence, his work being not national but universal.” Dante in America Being universal, the Dante movement has crossed the broad expanse of the Atlantic to America, and not the least of the sixth centenary honors to Dante will come from the United States. There is no country in the world, unless it be his native land, in which Dante is held in as high regard as in America. Nearly 2,000 books about him and his works have been written in America and printed on American presses. He has had for his exponents some of the stars of the firmament of American liter ature, Longfellow, Lowell, Charles Elliot Norton and Richard Henry Wilde among them, men varied in type and of different generations and interests. In the “Divine Comedy,” the agony of his soul, Dante summarizes in a unique way the philosophy, the literature, the science and the religion of the middle ages. It is an encyclopedia; it reveals not only how much Dante knew about theology, astronomy and other branches of learning, but the interest and as sistance of the Church in them as well. It is a song in praise of women, indicating the high place she held at that early date in spite of the absence of the nine teenth amendment and twentieth century ideas. It is popular these days in certain educational circles to represent the Catholic Church as the oppon ent of learning and progress. And to further their thesis, its defenders assert that Dante was the fore runner of the Reformation, the first Protestant and hence not a staunch Catholic. If Dante were a Protestant, he was careful not to let it be revealed through his immortal poem and his other works. He is a defender of dogma. He teach es through his Divine Comedy the Unity of God; the Trinity; the Redemption; the position of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Heaven; the supreme glory of the saints, the angels and the redeemed; and the existence of heaven, hell and purgatroy. He accepts the decisions of the Councils, holds in esteem the Doc tors of the Church, and his respect for the Pope may be fathomed by his statement: “You have the Old and New Testament, and the Pastor of the Church who guides you; let this be enough for your salvation.” And again, in his De Monarchia, he states that he proposes to defend his own opinion “with that obse- qiousness that must be used by a son pious towards his own father, pious towards the mother, pious to wards Christ, pious towards the Church, pious to wards the Pastor, pious towards all who profess the Christian religion, for the protection of truth.” Dante and the Vatican He felt the evils of the Church at that time, as any man, so devoted to it as Dante was, necessarily would, and he sometimes differed with the Supreme Pontiff in political matters; but in the matters of faith and mor als, he was always the loyal, obedient son of the Church. Dante is called by American scholars the founder of modern literature. He is credited with being the best exponent of medieval thought. He is a poet of such power and technical pioficiency that the great Shelley said he filled him with despair. His fame and influence in America, with such a noble foundation, should grow generation by generation, the New York Evening Post suggests. This great reverence for Dante, the foundation of the modern Renaissance, is very significant. The world, outside the Church, has been wandering for these many years in search of truth and rest. The materialism of the age distresses the truth seekers. Their parched souls reach the well of Dante’s wisdom and they drink with glowing satisfaction. They think they have found what they seek in the poetry of Dante, not realizing that it is the gems of revealed truth with which he seasoned it that saitsfies their souls and sends them away refreshed. The Dante Memorial Exercises in America will be held in Washington October 3, under the direction of a National Committee headed by President Harding, honorary chairman. SenaLor Vitorio Rolandi Ricci, the Italian Ambassador to the United States, and Charles Evans Hughes, Secretary of State, are hon orary vice-chairmen. Included in the membeiship of the committee are many churchmen, Cardinals O’Con nell, and Dougherty, Archbishop Hanna, Bishop Sha- han, and Bishop Alfred Harding of the Episcopal Church and Bishops William F. McDowell and John W. Hamilton of the Methodist Church.