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| Ideas & Identity: Catholic students in the National University of Singapore, 1951-85 (Part I) by Nick Chui Yongtai (Cont’d) |
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These efforts at making the Catholic voice heard in the public realm culminated in a conference of university students from all over Asia held in Singapore from August 11-17, 1956. The Catholic Students’ Society was affiliated to Pax Romana, an international movement of Catholic students and graduates which sought to “impregnate the university milieu with Christian thought and principles” and to represent at international levels “Catholic thought in international life”.27 Delegates from Asia and Australia28 met to discuss their role in the university and how to apply the Church’s teachings to concrete situations in their countries. Indeed, the Catholic presence in Malaya at large was praised by no less than Gerald Templar who, as High Commissioner during the Malayan Emergency, expressed his gratitude at the welfare work and efforts put in to combat the Communist threat in the New Villages and elsewhere.29
Warnings to Catholic slackers However, as Yeo observed, student activists tended to be the minority; most were apathetic, careful to guard the rare privilege of studying in the university and seeing a degree as an opportunity to attain the comforts of middle class life.30 It was not surprising, then, that the Aquinas lamented the apathy of its peers and their “tragic unconsciousness and terrible selfishness at choosing to be unaware of the troubles confronting their country and their Church.”31 A Jesuit priest also wrote in the Aquinas32 that it would be too late should the Communists take over Malaya, and considered it a “tragedy that few Catholics know or are interested in the Church’s social doctrine”.33 The battle could be won only if Catholic professionals were willing to take an active part in solving the problems of society, especially volunteering in the New Villages where doctors and teachers were most needed34 and so dispel “the mystique of Marxism”.35 In pursuit of culture Another important part of Catholic student thinking was expressed in the Aquinas through a substantial output of poems, stories of cultural significance and thoughts on prayer. Indeed, Yeo commented that a great many Medicine undergraduates, considered the cream of the Malayan English school system, “possessed a wide and liberal outlook and believed that they must not only be well-grounded in medical knowledge but also in literature and philosophy.”36 Familiarity with the great European Catholic thinkers seemed to be the hallmark of what was considered Catholic high culture. Books introduced to Catholic students include works by Catholic authors such as Etienne Gilson, Christopher Dawson, Martin Cyril d’Arcy, Jacques Maritain, G.K Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene and Francois Mauriac.37 These authors were part of what was termed “the Catholic Intellectual Renaissance, an outpouring of philosophy, theology, history, and literature which combined fidelity to the ancient teachings of the Church with considerable sophistication of mind and spirit.”38 Yet there also seemed to be a certain consciousness that literary appreciation of Asian works had been neglected. Attempts were made at introducing Chinese culture into the pages of the Aquinas with an excerpt of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms,39 a Chinese classic translated into English, the sayings of Lao Tzu 40 and Chinese paintings41. John C.H Wu and Dom Celestin Tou were promoted as Chinese who had reconciled the best of Chinese culture with the Catholic faith with their learned works on Confucius and Christ and Chinese philosophy.42 |
Page from the Past: The Pax Romana conference covered in the pages of Aquinas. 
Above: Delegates of the Pax Romana conference came from all over the Asia-Pacific region. 
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Next  The good, the bad, and some poetry
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27 Aquinas Pax Romana Leadership Training Course 1956, p.6 28 Among the countries represented were Malaya, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Ceylon, India, Burma, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Korea. 29 “Templar praises Catholic Welfare” Malayan Catholic News 5th July 1953, p.2. 30 Yeo “Student Politics” p.348 31 Patrick Yeoh, “Some Thoughts on Some Problems”, Aquinas 1960/61, p.24 32 James F. Kearney S.J, “The Reds Use Psychology”, Aquinas 1952/53, p.15 33 Ibid., p.17 34 Editorial, Aquinas 1952/53 p.3 35 Elizabeth Comber, “Faith and the New Villages”, Aquinas 1952/53, p.28 36 Yeo, “Student Politics”, p.349 37 Leong Hon Koon, “Our Society’s Room”, Aquinas 1951, p.86 38 Gregory Wolfe, “Ever Ancient, Ever New: The Catholic Writer in the Modern World”, in The Catholic Writer: The Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute 2 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press 1989), p.13 39 “Romance of the Three Kingdoms - an extract”, Aquinas 1954, p.25 40 “Chinese Wisdom”, Aquinas 1951, p.52 41 “Chinese Painting”, Aquinas 1956, p.22 42 Leong, “Society”, p.86 |