OSTERLEY : It Saves

the Late Vocation
It costs £3,500 a year to train Osterley's " late vocations," young men, who, humanly speaking, might never have become priests had not the late Fr. Edmund Lester, S.J., founded the world-famous Campion House. Four hundred and thirty priests owe the preservation of their vocation, at an age in life when communities and bishops do not usually accept candidates, to this unique establishment.
Ever since 1919, when the first Osterley student was ordained, an ever-increasing !lumber of " late vocations " have reached the goal of their ambitions. In 1940 they totalled twenty-six.
Osterley-trained priests are to be found in the ranks of the secular clergy in practically every diocese at home, and as far away as Cape Town, Oklahoma, Vancouver and Gibraltar. Religious Orders, including the most known, such as the Benedictines, Jesuits, Franciscans, the White Fathers and the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, all have their quota of Osterley men.
Fairy Godmother
But young men accepted for Osterley, those who after a number of years in the world feel a call to enter the ranks of the priesthood as diocesan clergy or as religious, are not required to pay their own fees during the two years (soon to be increased to three), which they spend at Osterley, studying Latin and otter subjects which will be needed later on for their higher studies in primary or monastery. The " Fairy Godmother " pays for them, and is thankful for their prayers in return.
The " Fairy Godmother," another of Fr. Lester's institutions, a the benefactor who undertakes to subscribe a candidates cost of education and maintenance, £110 for two years, and the " Godchild " is the young man who undertakes to pray now and later on at the altar or the " Godmother," who thus makes possible his advance to the priesthood.
Fortunately, as Fr. Cleitent Tigar, S.J., the Superior, explained to me, there has been no falling off in subscriptions despite the war. On the contrary, gifts of rnoteeY and jewels to help Osterley trait' its " late vocations " are often received just after a big air-raid. " Aces of thanksgiving," Fr. Tigar told me. " They are often sent, as I know, in a feeling of cletachmont from the things of this world, and in a spirit of resignation to whatever may be God's Will."
52 After the War Vocations
The effect war is having on Osterley may be seen when we remember that men being trained there are those whose ages make them liable for military service. True, students who were there on September 1, 1439, are exempt as being in the category of "men engaged in a theological career," but very few candidates in their late 'teens or early twenties are now expected to come to Osterley till the war is over. Nevertheless, Campion House has fifty-two prospective students, now in reserved occupations or in the Services, who have expressed a desire to enter the House on cessation of hostilities.
Consequently, though the average number of students is sixty yearly, Osterley is receiving twenty-six new candidates this autumn, most of whom are well below conscription age. Meanwhile, five Osterley boys are now in the Services, three more being on the point of going, too. One other, who was in the R.A.F., has been killed in action.
A reorganisation of curriculum et Osterley, which is to be made soon, will, said Fr. Tigar, discard the London Matriculation Examination as the standard to be aimed at by students in their studies, and will stress, on the other hand, classical and Church Latin, the study of the Fathers of the Church and the history of English literature, as well as ancient literature.
Useful Subjects
Though this is a deviation from the practice at most junior seminaries, where the curriculum aims at MatricUlation as a first step towards a p'ossible course of higher University studies, it is felt that Osterley men, just because their vocations are late, are pot likely to go on to a University. Thus insistence is to he made on those subjects which will be useful, and even indispensable, in their divinity course, which comprises two years of philosophy and four of theology.
As Osterley normally trains men between the ages of 18 and 25, the mode of life is adapted to suit their needs and temperament, Realising that candidates have been a number of years in the world, those who shape the policy of Campion House endeavour to create an atmosphere of " transition," as Fr. Tigar described to me, that is, " something between the freedom of home life and the discipline of the seminary." Thus smoking is allowed, and liberty of movement is not so restricted,
50 per cent. become Priests
As many as 50 per cent. of Osterley students eventually become priests, and half their number become members of one or other of the religious communities. The Jesuits have taken most (35), the Benedictines following in close proximiey.
Osterley students have thrown themselves with enthusiasm into war work. Some arc A.R.P. wardens, others Home Guards, while two of the thirteen acres the estate comprises have been put by them under cultivation. " Agricultural work," Fr. Tigar told me, " is regarded by us as a religious duty, and is carried out with considerable efficiency. During this month of August the students are doing full-time agricultural work, some at Osterley, and others at Prinknash Abbey and Newton St. Boswell's with the White Fathers."
Osterley, as every reader knows, also means Stella Maris, the popular monthly now under the editorship of Fr. Tigar, and " Stella Maris " means the K.B.S., H.B.S. and the Pages of the Blessed Sacrament, a, subject that deserves an article all to itself. I will conclude by saying, however, that the Brother Secretary of the K.B.S., whom I saw at Osterley, is still actively engaged in propagating this world-wide apostolate of Chivalry, which now includes three million members, and which has been able to accomplish so much in furthering the practice of frequent reception of Holy Communion,