From a friend to a friend I I I '~''~ Y\Vy I , 'ICovAA Jm'v(T^c( - - L.^ /MX C£W'V FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND ON THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR SUNDAY VISITOR Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/fromfriendtofrieOOnoll Tokn Fgahcis. J FROM A FRIEND to a FRIEND . < Published In U. S. A. By OUR SUNDAY VISITOR PRESS Huntington, Indiana Nihil Obstat: REV. T. E. DILLON Censor Librorum Imprimatur: 4- JOHN FRANCIS NOLL Bishop of Fort Wayne FROM A FRIEND to a FRIEND DEAR FRIEND: Since fully one-half of all pastors of Catholic churches in the United States have been consistent subscribers for a bundle of Our Sunday Visitor over a period of thirty years; and since thousands of others subscribe to the Aco- lyte published by this firm, circulate in their parish The Parish Monthly, and patronize Our Sunday Visitor for pamphlets, collection envelopes, etc., we regard them all as FRIENDS. This Souvenir contains not only a brief account of the origin, purpose and accomplishments of Our Sunday Visi- tor, but an inspiring call to action by Bishop Noll, founder and still editor-in-chief of the most popular and widely cir- culated Catholic paper in the world. Then it contains twenty brief meditations for the priest, prepared by Bishop Noll, helps and hints for sermons, for up-to- date presentation of Catholic truth, for the instruction of con- verts, etc. Our Sunday Visitor, as you probably are well aware, exists solely for the cause of Christ, and for the pro- motion of that cause in the country we love. Its editor has never drawn one dollar of salary for his work through these thirty years. The Mission fields, both Home and Foreign, have always been its beneficiaries, and in more recent years the Motherhouse and Novitiate of the Society of Missionary Catechists have been supported by profits resulting from its operations. Whatever patronage you give to Our Sun- day Visitor, therefore, helps to assist important works of God. But on this, our anniversary, we are not soliciting pat- ronage so much as taking occasion to thank you for the con- fidence you have always reposed in us. Most sincerely in Christ, Associate Editor of Our Sunday Visitor. TABLE OF CONTENTS From A Friend To A Friend 5 A Providential Paper 9 Spiritual Mission Of The Catholic Press 14 It’s Not Merely Circulation But ‘Reader Interest’ That Counts 22 What Is Wrong With Our Schools—And Our Homes? 37 Some Questions Which Await A Correct Answer 54 Brief Meditations For The Priest 57 The Best Approach To Non-Catholics 87 The Nature Of The Church And The Dignity Of The Christian 96 How Orthodox Is Protestantism? 105 Every Christian Must Crusade For Christ 110 How To Make Your People Apostolic 137 Are We A Christian Nation? 140 The Number Of Catholics In The United States 143 Some Of Our Church’s Enemies 144 Divorces 146 The National Organization For Decent Literature N. 0. D. L. 148 No Conflict Between Our Sunday Visitor And Other Catholic Papers 150 Bishop Noll’s Books 152 The Acolyte 154 Church Collection Envelopes 156 O. S. V. Greatest Pamphlet Publisher 157 Parish Monthly 158 A Providential Paper Only the older ones among the Catholic clergy recall the day and the occasion of O.S.V.’s birth—but they recall it with great distinctness. Most of them, then young pastors or assistants, regarded its appearance as a providential bless- ing to the Catholic Church in the United States. The words with which you are so familiar: “Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat Joannes,” were commonly ap- plied in that day to its founder, because priests and their people were looking for someone to do something about two bitterly anti-Catholic weekly papers, each with a circula- tion of more than 1,000,000, together with nearly fifty others with lesser circulation, which were both openly and clandes- tinely distributed in every community. Encouraged by the prejudices these sheets aroused, new anti-Catholic organizations sprang into being, and under their auspices more than one hundred men and women proclaiming themselves “ex-priests,” “ex-nuns,” and “ex-Catholics,” were out denouncing Rome for the silver collection they were able to obtain night after night in some Protestant church or public auditorium, especially in places where Catholics were few. Because non-Catholic Americans became confused, because they did not know whether to believe what they read in the Appeal to Reason, the Menace, the Peril, the Yellow Jacket, the Melting Pot, the People's Press, the Guardian of Liberty, Watson's Magazine, and other similar papers; or what they heard from the hundred traveling mountebanks, the Catholic clergy clamored for the founding of a paper which could be distributed in every locality, like the anti-Catholic sheets, and 10 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND oppose their slanders; also for an exposure of the character on anti-Catholic lecturers. The Rev. John F. Noll, then pastor of St. Mary’s parish, Huntington, Indiana, who had, for several years, followed the Church’s calumniators, met them face to face in public halls, theatres and even under tents, and exposed them through the press, answered this call of United States Catholics, by founding Our Sunday Visitor, sub-headed “The Harmonizer,” which at once became exceedingly popular. In every issue Catholic teaching and practice were ex- plained in popular style; slanders against the Church, her clergy, her religious, her institutions, were refuted; the in- famous lives of real and fake ex-priests and ex-nuns were exposed to light; the unsavory records of men who published the anti-Catholic sheets were revealed. Over a period of several years Father Noll kept the fol- lowing challenge before the readers of his paper, and per- mitted Catholic organizations to insert it in secular papers throughout the nation: $1000 REWARD ! FOR PROOF OF ANY OF THESE CHARGES 1. Catholics cannot be loyal to the United States government, for they owe temporal allegiance to the Pope : 2. The Pope interferes with American politics; 3. The Catholic Hierarchy controls a political machine; 4. Catholics are forbidden to read the Bible; 5. Catholics worship images and statues; 6. Immorality is common in monasteries or convents; 7. The Jesuits teach “The end justifies the means”; 8. The Knights of Columbus take the so-called “Alleged K. of C. Oath”; A PROVIDENTIAL PAPER 119. The Jesuits take the “Jesuit Oath” circulated by their enemies ; 10. Girls are forced into the Sisterhoods or retained in them against their will; 11. Catholics s'eek to destroy the public schools; 12. The Catholic Church refuses to acknowledge as valid the marriages of Protestants; 13. Catholics are given undue government patronage; 14. Our country would be benefited by closing the parochial schools ; 15. The assassins of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley were Cath- olics ; 16. Lincoln’s “Dark Cloud” utterance is genuine; 17. Catholics believe that the Pope should rule in a temporal way over the world. O.S.V.’s Rapid Growth Such was the hunger of the clergy for a national Cath- olic paper designed to inform and instruct both Catholics and non-Catholics, that the first issue of Our Sunday Visitor had a circulation of 35,000, and it grew at an average of 8,000 per week for a whole year. What “America” Noted On August 23, 1913 “A circulation of 160,000 copies per week, has been attained by OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, a paper issued by the Catholic Publishing Company, of Huntington, Indiana. It is not much more than a year since Father Noll, of Huntington, conceived the notion of bringing out a weekly four-page paper, of general appeal, to counteract the widely-circulated Menace, and other papers of that ilk. Father Noll had already been conducting for some time, the Catholic Monthly, with special editions for 12 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND some two hundred parishes, and the issue of this Monthly was some sixty thousand per month. “His new venture, which he called OUR SUNDAY VISI- TOR, was even more successful. Its first issues ran up to forty or fifty thousand copies, and the number steadily rose, until within one year of the paper’s beginning, it reached a hundred and fifty thousand. “OUR SUNDAY VISITOR has, of course, especial features which help to account for so rapid a rise in circulation. It eschews sectional or local news, so as not to interfere with the diocesan papers; it prints much apologetic and instructive matter, of a sort that the ordinary Catholic wishes and needs to read. Then too, its price, a cent a copy, with reductions for quantities, makes it possible for pastors to supply it to their parishioners, and for friends to give it to friends. Yet, even when one takes into account the special circumstances which have helped OUR SUNDAY VISITOR to its Bwift prosperity, its wide circulation is a standing proof of the possibilities of Catholic journalism in the United States. A circulation of a hundred and sixty thousand copies per week, gained within a year from its commencement, by a paper which specializes in apologetics and religious instruction and explanation—this is an encouraging sign of the times.” “Ex-Priests” And “Ex-Num” Exposed Father Noll urged priests of towns, where anti-Catholic lecturers were to appear, to send to the meeting two or three prudent men, who would frankly ask the man who claimed to be an ex-priest, the questions, “Where, when and by whom were you ordained?” If the “ex-priest” was real he felt obligated to give the information or his audience would be suspicious of him. A letter directed to the Chancery of hi$ A PROVIDENTIAL PAPER 13 diocese anywhere in the world, brought back his record. In case he was a “fraud” the suddenness of the queries usually took him off his guard, and his hesitancy to give the answers branded him before his audience as an imposter. Similar questions were asked of the one who was advertised as an “ex-nun.” Should the speaker have been heralded “an edu- cated ex-Catholic,” he was asked some difficult Catechism questions, and his answers were always evasive or positively wrong. The questioners had the right answers and gave them to the victimized audience. Exposes In a short time Father Noll had the records of scores of these “patriots,” and published them in a volume named Defamers of The Church , which nearly every priest, and a number of laymen in communities scattered throughout the country had for ready reference. Just as Father Noll unmasked men and women who were abroad as professional anti-Catholic lecturers, so he exposed the character of the owners and editors of the Appeal to Reason, the Menace, and many kindred sheets. The result was the destruction of their influence among non-Catholics. It will probably interest the present day clergy to learn that the Menace (a professedly anti-Catholic weekly) was started at Aurora, Missouri, by the editors of the Appeal to Reason (a professedly Socialist paper) published at Girard, Kansas. It will also interest them to know that the firm which is probably doing most harm to religion and morality in the United States today is located at Girard, Kansas. We refer to the Haldeman-Julius Company, publishers of the “Little Blue Books.” Spiritual Mission Of The Catholic Press For one-half the children of the United States and fot. their parents the Catholic paper must largely substitute for the Catholic school, and for all other Catholics it must render service supplementary to the school and pulpit. If the pulpit and the parochial school are expected not only to instruct the mind, but also to guide the heart, then the Catholic paper must lend itself to the furtherance of the same purposes. Frequent criticism is leveled against the pulpit because it does not produce both these fruits; and there is criticism, just as frequent and justifiable, of the parochial school because its graduates go out into the world lukewarm and even cold, after they will have majored for eight or twelve years in a course of “religion.” Too long has the notion prevailed that a course in religion means a course in doctrinal instruction only, despite the fact that Holy Scripture sounds a frequent warning to the effect that faith bereft of spirituality is entitled to neither reward nor commendation. One would suppose that every Catholic, by his very pro- fession as a follower of Christ and more so as a soldier enrolled in His army, would regard his religion as a cause, which he is bound to promote ; yet the average Catholic is committed to the heresy that his religion is something intended entirely for pri- vate practice, that the obligation to defend it, or to fight for it, or to spread it among others rests solely on the clergy. There are several good Reviews published in the United States designed not only to keep Catholics informed concerning current events and the best manner of dealing with modern problems, but to stimulate them to action. However, the Cath- SPIRITUAL MISSION OF THE CATHOLIC PRESS 15 olic press, as a whole, is given to the promulgation of news as it emanates from Catholic sources or as it affects Catholics. There is no question about the benefit of this service, but it cannot begin to compare in importance with that “copy,” which has for its object the instruction of the common people who do not patronize scholarly reviews, and the stimulation of both these and the better informed to more faithful and militant spiritual action. The Holy Father and those who interpret his mind insist that antecedently to intelligent participation in a Catholic Action program the individual must, first of all, begin to spiritualize himself, for only then can he become truly fired with zeal for the furtherance of the cause of Christ; and then he must become well versed in his faith, because only then will he be competent to exercise an intelligent apostolate based on sound religious, moral and social principles. The identification of religious education with religious knowledge is as erroneous as the identification of Catholic journalism with the dissemination of Catholic news. The Church persecutor in Germany, Goebbels, was well instructed in his religion, but he never made personal application of it for his spiritual improvement. Zeal for the cause of God and souls should be the fruit of a trained Catholic mind and heart, just as zeal in opposition to God and His Church is the fruit of a mind and heart perverted. The Communist possesses zeal which puts the average Catholic to shame, because he does not regard Communism as a private concern, but rather as a cause to be promoted. Religious education, therefore, should be directed to the will as well as to the mind, and even more to the heart, so that it may incite not only personal religious practice but activity ad extra, prompted by love for God and for His cause. 16 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND Could you conceive of a person joining the Communist Party merely for his own satisfaction, or that he might be better enabled to practice its tenets in his own private life? He embraces it because he visualizes it as a cause for whose pro- motion he would like to spend himself; he embraces it usually after listening to its advocates, after reading its literature, after attending night classes, and through all of these agencies an anti-religious fervor is engendered in a heart taught to hate. Why does our Catholic school system, the greatest glory and the costliest enterprise of the Catholic Church in the United States, produce so few spiritual men and women? Why is the Catholic Church, by far the largest religious body in our country, so little known to our 110,000,000 non-Catholic fellow- citizens? Why is our Catholic laity so indifferent towards, and so incompetent to engage in, the Apostolate to which the Holy Father invites them? In my judgment the answer is to be found in a serious weakness both in the Catholic school and in the Catholic press, whose appeal is primarily to the intellect, a cold faculty of the soul, so well characterized by St. Paul when he said “if I had all faith and all knowledge . . . and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” The Catechism in our elementary and high schools is the only textbook which is not also used in the public school curri- culum. If it be for the intellectual study of this book alone that we build and maintain our schools at such tremendous cost, there is little wonder that results are so disappointing. The Catholic weekly press of the United States, save for that small portion of it which carries special articles dealing with current problems, and editorials interpreting current events, specializes in news. The News Service, supplied by the Department of Press and Publicity of the National Catholic SPIRITUAL MISSION OF THE CATHOLIC PRESS 17 Welfare Conference to diocesan weeklies throughout the land, cannot be too highly estimated, yet because it is principally a news service, it must fail to meet that urgent need of the hour, which might be called by the name “Religious-mindedness,” whose fruits would be zealous religious practice. The Catholic paper, as a newspaper, cannot substitute for the Catholic school in the hundreds of towns and rural districts, where the latter does not exist; it cannot continue the work started in the parochial school ; it cannot supplement the work of the pulpit; it can be of little help to the non-Catholics in thousands of mixed marriages. These services—and are they not all important—can be rendered only by those supplemen- tary papers, which are expositors and defenders of the faith, which carry articles designed to instruct, to stimulate zeal and to promote spiritual activity. Who is there who needs to be told that religious instruc- tion imparted during school days to Catholic youth will not suffice for a life time? Outside the field of religion it is taken for granted that the bits of information received at school or even at college are far from adequate for the rest of one’s life. Everyone continues to read and study the things which relate to his temporal betterment. He reads the daily papers not only for the news, but for the instruction, however faulty it may be, contained in the observations of columnists and editors ; and he looks for stimulation and inspiration to these political, so- cial or economic propagandists, to whom the average metropoli- tan newspaper grants generous space. The more than 600 secular magazines published for the benefit of 80,000,000 adult Americans contain no news; they are devoted to a variety of instruction, to the promulgation of experts’ viewpoints in the fields of education, religion, so- ciology, politics, economics, government, sex, women’s interests, 18 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND etc. Since the information imparted in these periodicals often conflicts with Catholic teaching, is it not the duty of the Cath- olic press to do considerable to offset their pernicious in- fluence? If the Catholic viewpoint on most of these subjects cannot well be presented from the pulpit, must it not be presented through the Catholic press ? But with few exceptions, only our heavy Catholic organs, not intended for the popular mind, give primary consideration to the presentation of the Catholic view- point. There are published in the United States more than 2000 daily newspapers with a circulation of about 50,000,000. That means that a secular paper is published each day for every two and one-half persons in this country ; in other words, there is a daily paper for each home. In addition to these, there are liter- ally thousands of weekly newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines, some of them commanding undeserved attention from millions of people. Those which are not distinctly reli- gious are nearly all either directly or indirectly harmful to culture, and injurious to the religious and moral life of those who read them. There are men who write not merely for one, but for hun- dreds of daily papers, and are known as “columnists.” Those who wield the greatest influence and whose comments are most widely read, are the ones who are the most “liberal” in their attitude towards religion and morality, and even towards those economic and social movements which are un-Democratic and un-American. Since the entire education of most publishers and writers, beginning in the home and ending in the University, was com- pletely separated from religious and moral principles, and since on that account their concept of religion is most vague SPIRITUAL MISSION OF THE CATHOLIC PRESS 19 and hazy, they seldom deal with the subject of religion except to misinterpret it or belittle it. Never having given serious thought, much less having devoted their talents, to the study of matters religious; never having read books devoted to its exposition and to its defense, but, on the contrary, having read everything written by other “liberals,” they are controlled by a complex that religion is a sort of superstition, that the intellec- tuals of our age must needs be committed against it. Therefore they cannot write about it except as scoffers. Of course, they suppress their scoffing out of regard for their many readers who might be resentful, but the average person, even reading between the lines, must note that they are unfriendly to reli- gion. Formerly people feared “the man of one book.” They assumed that the priest, because a specialist in things pertain- ing to faith and morals, could speak with authority on his sub- ject. Today they admire the man who poses as universally versatile, and respect his views on matters religious and moral, even though he never gave five minutes of his lifetime to im- partial study of such matters. Hence the mission of the popular Catholic press, as I con- ceive it, is to instruct and to arouse people to spiritual action as well as to acquaint them with world news of a religious character. For the homes of one-half of our people, who lacked the opportunity to attend a Catholic school, it should be the principal means of instruction. The publication of Catholic news and the reporting of Catholic activities is helpful, but cannot be compared to the service in print which keeps faith alive and which stresses the great interests of God in this world. The Popes surely had this service principally in mind when they expressed themselves as they have done in relation to the Catholic press. I know it was this service which induced 20 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND the three last Popes to commend so warmly the little paper with which I am associated. It was endorsed principally as a “missionary in the family.” I know that you will not construe my observations as criticisms of the Catholic Press for the things it does serve the people, but rather for the things which it does not serve them. It may be wise that the Catholic newspaper should confine itself principally to the news field; but if it be, then the need for supplementary papers of an instructive and spiritual character is apparent, and they are needed most in the homes which are unreached by any Catholic paper. An analysis of the circulation of Catholic papers and magazines would disclose the fact that the best Catholic people, whose religious faith and practice would be quite as good as it is if no Catholic paper entered their home, are subscribers not only to one, but to several Catholic papers and periodicals, and that the people who are in very sore need of instruction and spirituality are the very ones who refuse to patronize the Catholic Press altogether. These people who, for the most part, were deprived of a religious education in their youth, are least influenced by the pulpit, and every effort should be made to bring Catholic literature to their homes. I am not aware, and I doubt whether you are, that there is any other way of inten- sifying their faith or even preserving it. The Catholic paper is needed in their homes to offset the influence of the secular papers and magazines to which they devote much of their time and attention day after day. It is needed in these homes to stimulate prayer and Catholic activity. It is needed for the pur- pose of keeping before them the bigness of the Church of which they are a part, of the fight in which numerous other Catholics are engaged against enemies of God and religion. The Catholic paper, therefore, fulfills an important mission SPIRITUAL MISSION OF THE CATHOLIC PRESS 21 of an informative, zeal-arousing and spiritual character. It must aim at these three purposes and it must be the bounden duty of ecclesiastical leaders and of Catholic societies to widen its influence by bringing it into contact with more people. It's Not Merely Circulation But "Reader Interest" That Counts During the past year the editorial and advertising staffs of Our Sunday Visitor have completed a number of surveys, the results of which will prove of interest to the Pastors who contribute in such a large measure to the success of our paper. These surveys have proved that OUR SUNDAY VISITOR ENJOYS NOT ONLY THE DISTINCTION OF BEING THE MOST WIDELY CIRCULATED CATHOLIC WEEKLY IN THE WORLD, BUT THAT IT IS ALSO THE “BEST READ.” The surveys also proved that Our Sunday Visitor is better read than most of the secular magazines and newspapers of equal or greater circulation. Now what do we mean by the expression “best read”? Simply this : That the subscribers to our paper do not merely buy it because of a cause it serves, because they are in some way induced or forced to do so, but because they like it. And after buying it, they read it. Space doesn’t permit us to detail in full the surveys which were made. We shall, therefore, cite only a few of many re- sults. First from an editorial viewpoint: Interest in the entire paper has increased materially since we added the eight page Youth Section. That section makes our paper a truly family periodical. There is every week some- thing of interest to every member of the family. And repre- sentatives of all age brackets of the family write to us. Our mail averages more than 200 letters per day, letters not of a business nature but of comment on the contents of the paper. And our readers write not to us alone but to our contribu- tors. One priest author who has been a frequent contributor during the past two years visited our office recently and IT’S ‘READER INTEREST’ THAT COUNTS 23 brought with him more than 800 letters which he had received from our readers. These letters were only those which he had answered. They were from readers, principally young men and women, who sought advice and guidance. Another contributor, a busy Pastor, asked us not to pub- lish his address because each article brought him dozens of letters which he was simply unable to answer. These letters were sent to our office and cared for there. We could go on and on. But let us cite concrete instances which prove our paper is read. Last February we received from Mr. Charles Bittighofer of Atlantic City, New Jersey, an appeal to publish a letter for him in our Readers Speak to Readers department. Mr. Bittig- hofer had recently obtained a favor for which he had prayed for a long time. In thanksgiving, he wanted to distribute as widely as possible a Prayer to the Holy Family for Our Boys in the Service. The prayer bore a proper imprimatur, and was composed as a result of an article by Miss Mary McGill, editor of O.S.V/s Womanrs Page. As a general policy, we do not pub- lish such appeals. But we investigated Mr. Bittighofer, found him a man of high character and deep religious fervor, and de- cided to accommodate him. Mr. Bittighofer’s letter offered to send his prayer to all readers who would request it, sending a stamped and self-ad- dressed envelope. On March 8, Mr. Bittighofer wrote us in part: “In the February 22nd edition of Our Sunday Visi- tor you published a copy of a new prayer that I composed on Mary E. McGill’s very educational, interesting and timely page Catholic Woman's Interests entitled Prayer To The Holy Family For Our Boys In The Service with a little note inviting readers to write to me for free copies. “It will interest you to know that within two weeks from date of publication I have already received over seven 24 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND thousand (7,000) letters from your readers, emanating from practically every important city and town in the United States and Canada. “It is indeed amazing what a very extensive FAR AND WIDE circulation your splendid, worthwhile Cath- lic weekly publication enjoys. It is an acknowledged fact that no other publication contains so many outstanding and very interesting Catholic features so very eloquently and timely expressed for so very little money as Our Sunday Visitor. That’s one reason why no Catholic home can afford to miss a single issue of your very interesting and priceless publication.” Since March 8, Mr. Bittighofer has received more than a thousand additional requests for his prayer, bringing the total to more than 8,400 answers to a letter of not more than 150 words. This response proved that Our Sunday Visitor is read and also kept. Remember, more than a thousand requests for the prayer were received a month or more after his letter was published. About the same time that we received the letter mentioned above, there came from the Diocesan Director of the Confra- ternity of Christian Doctrine in Tuscon, Arizona, an appeal that we help him obtain holy pictures, Christmas cards, and various other kinds of religious articles. These the Director wanted for use in his instruction classes. The appeal was published and the response thereto was astounding. More than 3,000 packages were received within two weeks. Many others came later. The Director, the Rev. Theodore Radtke, wrote us in part: “I cannot find adequate words to express my appre- ciation of your readers’ kindness in responding to our appeal. The results amazed me. For weeks the Tuscon Postal truck made two trips daily to our CCD headquar- ters. The reading room, which was the only place avail- able to put their donations, is stacked four feet high with IT’S ‘READER INTEREST’ THAT COUNTS 25 big and small, fat and lean packages. They came from every State in the Union and from Canada, and include religious articles of all kinds, as well as dolls, candy and games. “The Confraternity is deeply grateful to the thousands of Our Sunday Visitor readers who spent no less than $1,500 in postage alone to help the work of the Tuscon Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.” Father Radtke sent us a photograph of the packages, stacked about two feet above his head, and extending over what appears to be a 30 or 40 foot space. We could multiply such instances of reader interest and reader response hundreds of times. But for sheer human interest, the following is hard to beat. We offer complete evidence, without comment. A Soldier's Letter . . . And What Came Of It Thousands Respond To His Appeal For Religious Articles UNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS, Inc. USO Member Agency The National Catholic Community Service Belleville, Illinois July 31, 1942 Editor, Our Sunday Visitor Huntington, Indiana Dear Sir: Ever since you published a soldier’s letter on July 5 we have been in a deluge of unparalleled generosity. In his short, well-meaning letter this private asked for Catholic literature and religious articles such as rosaries and praybooks, which seemed to be lacking among his bud- dies. But this lack was not due to lack of material at the 26 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND proper centers of distribution, but more to a lack of in- formation as to where these centers were ; soldiers, you see, very seldom read all the announcements that crowd many bulletin boards in camp. At the time this letter was published there were thou- sands of Catholic men at Scott Field who were dependent upon the two Catholic chaplains. One of these chaplains was on sick leave, so it seemed to many that there was a lack of something or other. And at present the other chaplain has reported for overseas service, making the situation very deserted appearing, although resident priests from nearby communities have taken over part of the demands of the service men. Eight Soxks Of Mail Arrive First Day The situation was quite a problem at the time the re- sponses to the soldier’s appeal began to arrive. The first »» »» — mi HU un in. >» »« »» m ««—«« «« »» »*§• HERE’S LETTER THAT STARTED THE AVALANCHE 369 Tech. Sch. Sqd. St., Scott Field, 111. - Dear Editor: I am writing this letter hoping that among your many readers there will be an organization or group that will help us. Here at Scott Field we have a decided lack of Catho- lic literature. Our one chapel serves all faiths and in the rear of the chapel is a collection of non-Catholic prayer- books and literature but none Catholic. I have started a Rosary League here at Camp Scott; the small group meets each morning at the chapel for ; rosary and litany. Our main trouble is the lack of rosar- ! ies, prayerbooks, medals, New Testaments, etc. Perhaps among your readers there will be some one who can help us. Believe me any help will be gratefully received. Pvt. Earl R. Schutzius. .1.—.4. IT'S ‘READER INTEREST’ THAT COUNTS 27 day brought eight mail sacks full of packages. Imagine the private’s surprise upon being called to the squadron mail room where, stacked in a corner were the sacks of mail. But, better still, imagine the belligerent look and stance of the sergeant who, already overtaxed for space and time, had to suffer this flood. And, as if this was not enough, the private became the goat of the squadron, being ribbed from morning to night, and called everything from a fanatic to a dumb bunny. But he took it. He ex- plained to his officers that his letter was unofficial and, not anticipating such a storm of approval from Our Sunday Visitor readers and such a storm of disapproval from his superiors, he confessed it was probably a mistake. This one “mistake” led to another. He could not stack the parcels in his barracks ; nor could he leave them in the mail room. He had no time to acknowledge their arrival. So he transported the eight sacks of packages to the office of the one chaplain, who was already overtaxed with trying to care for the thousands of men. It did not take this chaplain long to suggest a different reception center, one that had always assisted him in spiritual enterprises and had constantly proved a source of supply for Catholic literature and articles. That is why the private hopefully phoned to the USO club that is being operated by the National Catholic Community Service and located in the nearby town of Belleville. Would the USO take over the situation? Would we accept the responsibility of future shipments? Would we come get the packages? Would we open them, assorting the contents and keep them where the boys could get them? Would we do all this without the help of the private in question. Our answer was brief—yes, we would gladly do all. As a consequence—and a marvel to behold—we have hauled over thirty sacks full of packages to our USO club. Out of the heaps of boxes of all sizes we have taken hun- dreds and hundreds of fine rosaries, prayerbooks, pamph- 28 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND lets, pictures, medals, crucifixes, scapulars, papers, maga- zines, et cetera, et cetera. Interesting Letters From His Helpers Many letters were attached to these packages. One was from an old lady who said, “I am sixty and sick, but I am glad to send this rosary to a man defending the things I have always enjoyed in life.” Another was from a lad of twelve who was glad to help “soldiers to be better.” Many letters were from lonely young hearts eager to have this chance to do something for the men in the ser- vice. Their letters usually stated: “We have no close friends or relatives in the army, so it makes us happy to be able to do something.” Then from a mother comes the stirring message that “I am the mother of 13 children. I am old but young in spirit, especially in grave times like this. Though I pray for my 36 grandchildren I find time to pray for you sol- diers.” One of the best came from a young man who wrote “I’m twenty years old and 1-A in the army. Sometime in August I expect to be inducted but in the meantime if your needs are not met don’t feel shy in writing to me. I’m going to stop keeping a budget anyway.” How many brought promises of prayers and hopes of safe returns! One postscript caught our attention: It read “Hope you get Hitler !” There you have a proof of Catholic Action. And here we have a proof of it too, for on our bulletin board is a notice that reads: “Hundreds of free religious items — prayerbooks, rosaries, pamphlets, medals, kits, etc. . . . Your chaplain says ‘Get them here.’ ” Says ‘Thank You’ To Everyone Of course it would be fine to be able to acknowledge every gift no matter how small or large, but neither the soldier could do it thoroughly nor we at the USO. So we are relying upon Our Sunday Visitor to publish this article as a “Thank You Everyone, and May God Bless You For the Grand Spirit You Have Shown.” ITS ‘READER INTEREST THAT COUNTS 29 We at the USO operated by the NCCS are glad to be a part of this wondrous display of Catholicity. And, for the soldier and for ourselves, may we suggest that no further donations be made, for our stock will last a long time. However, if publishers wish to use our facilities for dis- tribution of their papers or magazines among the boys, we will be glad to add their new publications to our “Help Yourself” rack on which we keep free pamphlets, papers, etc. But none should be sent to the private at the field, for his time is taken up by studies, and he is liable to be moved to other fields or across at any time. Again, thank you very much. Sincerely yours, Louis J. DesPres Director. In view of the popularity which Our Sunday Visitor achieved at its very birth, it doesn’t seem remarkable to note that during the past 10 years its circulation has increased by more than 100,000 copies per week. But when one considers that during those 10 years more than 30 new Catholic weekly papers were established, such a gain takes on added importance and one is prompted to seek the reasons for it. And the reasons aren’t hard to find. The articles pub- lished in O.S.V. appeal to the average Catholic and they are of lasting interest. They serve—as hundreds of Pastors have told us—to make their people “pray and pay better.” Let us cite a few short paragraphs written by the Pastor of the Cathe- dral in a mid-west diocese: “I want to bring Our Sunday Visitor back to the Cathedral parish. It was distributed here at one time, but in recent years was discontinued. Now that I am in charge of the Cathedral I want to have Our Sunday Vis- itor as I have had it in all of my five previous parishes. No parish is complete without it . . . “So send me immediately 700 copies of the next issue, April 19. I want the same edition of O.S.V. that I have 30 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND been getting at my former parish . . . two cents a copy in bundle lots. This includes the regular O.S.V. Section, the Youth Section and the NEWS Section. I want to speak at all the Masses next Sunday and boast O.S.V., for I know our people need it and will profit from a reg- ular reading of it . . We have had hundreds of such letters. Pastors tell us that they need only to introduce the paper, to encourage the reading of it from the pulpit, and the people within a short time take eagerly to it. Boys In Camps Wafit 0. S. V. The same reception is accorded our paper in the training camps of the Army, Navy and Marines. Approximately 10,000 copies—most of them free—are now being sent to the camps directly from our office each week. Other thousands of copies are remailed after the first purchasers have read them. As a result, we receive each week dozens of letters from the Chaplains and from the Boys. More than a dozen conver- sions and reclamations of “fallen-aways” have already been reported to us as a result of a reading of Our Sunday Visitor. It is almost impossible to keep up with the demand. But let Chaplain Robert H. Doane tell it: “Your paper is the most popular of all that come into this camp, and we could use many more copies each week . . . Send as many as you can spare. I know none will be wasted, but all will be read, passed along and read again. Yours is the one paper that we are always short of . . And In The Classroom The classroom is another “natural” field for Our Sunday Visitor and its Youth Section. Its use in the grade schools and the high schools is growing rapidly, and wherever it is intro- duced teachers tell us that interest runs high. As, for exam- IT’S ‘READER INTEREST’ THAT COUNTS 31 pie, this letter from Sister M. Dolora of Immaculate Concep- tion High School, Lansing, Iowa. “For the past year we have used Our Sunday Visitor as almost a text for our Social Ethics Class and also in Guidance classes. Every student loves it and eagerly awaits his weekly copy. Many of them want to continue taking it during the summer. “Recently I had the class write a commentary on Our Sunday Visitor. To quote one student’s comment, ‘Words are inadequate to express my appreciation of 0. S. V. and how much it has done for me this year.’ Another wrote, ‘I do enjoy reading the Youth Section, especially Father Gartland’s article. All of the articles are written in an understandable language which, however, is not sprinkled over with slang in an effort of the author to be kiddish. We hear enough of that language without having our elders use it to tell us what we ought to know.’ “To summarize her commentary on 0. S. V. one girl wrote, ‘There is an article for everyone who reads 0. S. V. If anyone reading it doesn’t find something that would ‘hit home’ then there is something the matter with the reader.’ “I wish time and space would permit to give you more of their sincerely appreciative remarks. The general opinion is ‘We like it, give us more.’ We read every article and it is difficult to say which author has influenced these young people most. Personally, I can say it is a God-send to me in helping me prepare material for such a class. May God bless all those who are responsible for such a fine instrument of Catholic Action. . . The last issue of O. S. V. for each month is called our Special Month-End Crusade for God Number. Articles pub- lished therein are intended to be of especial interest to non- Catholics, about 20,000 of whom are on our subscription list for this issue only. Each month-end edition contains at least one conversion story, and usually the writer thereof tells of the 32 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND part which 0. S. V. played, aided of course by God’s grace, in bringing him or her to the true Faith. We beg to quote just one short letter as an example of many received. (We have more than 800 in our files at the present time.) This convert writes : “I have lived in New York City all my life, but because I was born of Jewish parents, who were, and are, as devout in their religion as I am in my newly found belief, I knew nothing about the Catholic Church. My first contact with Catholicity came quite by accident. I was caught in a sudden storm and sought shelter in a church which was nearby. Upon entering the building I knew only that it was a church, and not that it was a Catholic church. “I stood in the vestibule for several minutes and then, because I noticed others entering, went inside. It was early evening. I was going home from work as were thousands of others. Hundreds of worshippers, it seemed to me, entered that church, not merely to get out of the rain, but to pray. They came, stayed a few minutes, then departed. But while there they evidenced real devotion. Many lighted candles ; others simply knelt down and prayed. Some entered a little box which I learned later was a confessional. “From my brief visit in that Catholic church and the impression made upon me by the devotion of the Catholics who entered while I was there, grew a longing to know more about Catholicity. I returned several times, and on one occasion noticed a Catholic paper in the rear of the church. I picked it up and took it home with me. It was Our Sunday Visitor. The next Sunday and for weeks after, I returned to the church to get the current issue of this paper. Later I subscribed for it. For five years I read it attentively, and also the Catholic pamphlets and books which I saw advertised therein. Then I approached the parish priest at the church nearest my home, took in- structions, and was baptized. My visit to that church to get out of the rain was an IT’S ‘READER INTEREST’ THAT COUNTS 33 accident. It might well have been a Protestant church in which I sought shelter. If it had been I would still be a Jew in religion as well as in nationality and would have missed a happiness of which I had previously never dreamed. But I do not believe I would be a Catholic today if I had not seen a copy of Our Sunday Visitor, from which I learned most of what I know about God and His Church. —D. A. B.” We stated at the beginning of this article that our edi- torial and advertising staffs had completed a number of sur- veys, but we have made no reference to the advertising. We shall do so very briefly. First, in the words of Father Bruno Hagspiel, Mission Procure of the Society of the Divine Word: ‘‘I am delighted with the results of my advertisements in your paper. 0. S. V. is by all means the best medium we have. After having tried just about all of them, the last , I am still convinced that 0. S. V. reaches the most people and is actually read. Too many Catholic publications are subscribed to as more or less an act of charity, but are never looked into. But 0. S. V. is read through and through because it is eminently worth read- ing. That is why advertisements in 0. S. V. receive the finest possible response.” Secular advertsiing companies and agencies also offer their testimony. In the spring of this year we signed a con- tract with the agency placing advertisements for Book House For Children. Our first ad on this set of classics—highly ap- proved by many Catholic educators—brought in more than 2,200 inquiries—a greater number than was realized from any similar advertisement published in any other paper or com- bination of papers offering the same circulation as 0. S. V. Another advertisement for a non-religious article was that offering Webster's Encyclopedia Dictionary. The same ad, of equal size, was published on the same day in a New York 34 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND daily’s book review section. This section has a circulation about equal to ours—approximately 500,000. When the orders for the books were in, it was learned that Our Sunday Visitor “out-pulled” the secular daily three to one. These examples prove, we submit, that Our Sunday Visi- tor is read. They prove the worth of a pastor’s getting behind the introduction of the paper in his parish, to its and its peoples’ benefit. The slogan of Our Sunday Visitor is, to serve the Church. It has no selfish interests. It appeals for your support for the good which it can do with your active cooperation. It believes with the late Pope Pius X: “In vain will you build churches, preach missions, found schools ; all good works, all your efforts will be destroyed, if you can not, at the same time, wield the defensive and offensive weapons of a press that is Catholic, loyal and sincere.” How much more true are those words today than when they were written twenty-five years ago! There was then no indecent literature evil, no movies which needed a Legion of Decency to guide and censor their producers; our people as a whole were not nearly as religiously indifferent as they are today; family life was stronger and temptations outside the home fewer ; divorce was a comparatively minor evil. Archbishop Rummel is authority for the statement that we are losing 4,000,000 Catholics to the Church each year. And these and all of our people, especially those who have not a parochial school education or whose children are not in our schools, can be reached, influenced and made firm in their faith only by the Pastor’s first assistant—the instruc- tive Catholic Press, of which Our Sunday Visitor is the greatest unit in point of circulation and reader interest. And it’s reader interest that counts. IT’S ‘READER INTEREST’ THAT COUNTS 35 WHAT ONE MAN HAS DONE TO SPREAD CATHOLIC READING MATTER You, who are interested in the wider circulation of Cath- olic literature, and who would like to do far more to promote it than you have been doing, might contact Frank S. Estis, 1925 So. Troy St., Chicago. He has, during the past 21 years dis- tributed 25,000,000 papers and magazines—which means more than 1,250,000 each year. His interest began 21 years ago while he was a patient at the Edward Hines Hospital. Some friend had sent him a bundle of magazines which, after select- ing those that he thought were suitable for everyone to read, he began to distribute among other patients, and they all wanted more of it. He decided that, after leaving the hos- pital he would make the distribution of literature his hobby. Most of the magazines, newspapers and books distributed by Mr. Estis have been Catholic, and he claims that the fruits of his missionary effort have been “at least one convert a day.” Today Mr. Estis distributes 30,000 pieces of reading matter a month, on each of which he stamps the following appeal: “May I have your religious and secular magazines, books, prayerbooks, newspapers, for hospitals, institutions, etc?” Mr. Estis has erected about forty racks in public places from which people can help themselves to OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, and to a number of magazines and papers which are turned over to him after the subscribers will have finished reading the same. About fifty volunteer workers assist him in distributing his literature in many institutions in the Chicago area. Although we have noted that most of the literature which Mr. Estis distributes is Catholic, he is glad to receive any kind of clean reading matter, even of a secular nature. Today the interest of Mr. Estis in clean reading has enlisted his services 36 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND in the campaign against unclean reading. He is eager to help the cause promoted by the National Organization for Decent Literature. Why do you, the reader, not make the distribution of good reading matter a hobby? Why do you not become an apostle for the dissemination of good seed and keep out of your com- munity entirely the bad printed seed? Why cannot you and a few others of your parish, see to it that Our Sunday Visitor will reach every family in your parish? That being done, you can certainly induce every family to pass on his paper to some non- Catholic who would be glad to have it. Therefore, why riot get system into the campaign for the full coverage in your community by a paper which will start people to pray and to think? Dear Friend : — Will you accept with the compliments of OUR SUNDAY VISITOR this Souvenir of its thirtieth anniversary? It contains information which will be quite helpful to the priest. Despite the fact that numerous Catholic papers have been founded since OUR SUNDAY VISITOR was launched, one-half of all the pastors of English parishes in the United States have continued to make OUR SUNDAY VISITOR available to their parishioners. Pope Pius X wrote Father Noll a very warm letter of approbation and en- couragement, and each succeeding Pontiff has urged the wider patronage of OUR SUNDAY VISITOR because it features popular instruction. One-half of all Catholic children in the United States still lack systematic religious instruction, and their parents, for the most part, also lack it. This one-half of the entire Catholic population needs religious instruction badly, and others need it far more than religious news. All need spiritual stimulation more than they need anything else. (over) CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT First Class Permit No. 8, Sec. 510 P. L. & R., Huntington, Indiana OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, HUNTINGTON, Business Reply Card INDIANA OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, therefore, never relaxes its effort to get all Catholics to be practical Catholics, and to patronize and support their parish church. Because of this many priests throughout the nation regard as their very best parish invest- ment, the placing of OUR SUNDAY VISITOR in every home. But it is more usual for the priest to order a bundle of OUR SUNDAY VISITOR to be sold by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, or by school children at the exits of the church. When men, or even boys, become newsboys for the Catholic paper the congregation is impressed, the indifferent are induced to take the paper home, and the revenue is always more than adequate to meet the cost. We are telling these things chiefly for the benefit of those priests who have not as yet tried out OUR SUNDAY VISITOR. The motto of OUR SUNDAY VISITOR is “to serve the Church,” and that also means to serve you, one of her agents. We herewith agree to serve you cheerfully and with profit to yourself and people. Will you let us serve you? OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, Huntington, Indiana FILL IN AND MAIL THIS ORDER BLANK TODAY Enter my NEW order for copies of O.S.V., regular edition at 1 Vz cents per copy. Enter my NEW order for copies of your NEWS EDITION at two cents per copy. Increase my order from to copies of your regular edition. Increase my order from to copies of your NEWS EDITION. Change mv order for copies of your regular edition to copies of your NEWS EDITION. Enter my subscription to THE ACOLYTE: 1 Year $1.00 /* 3 Years, $2.50 Rev Church Address City State What Is Wrong With Our Schools—And Our Homes? We submit the two following letters, one from a priest, the other from a mother, which touch upon the question of our failure, in many instances, to inculcate a strong religious zeal in our students. 7148 Forsythe Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. Your Excellency: I am deeply impressed with your “What Is Wrong With Our Schools.” A copy should be put in the hands of every teacher in our parochial schools. I am going to see that each Sister and Priest here will make the pamphlet a vade mecum hereafter. You meet the issue facing us. Congratulating you on your solution of what, indeed, is a vital problem, and asking your blessing, I am Sincerely yours, Rev. Francis J. O’Connor Not a Criticism—A Lament Your Excellency: Here is one Catholic mother who is willing to rise up and proclaim to the world that she and the Catholic schools have made a complete failure of bringing up her offspring —and craves to know the reason why ! My husband and I are really embittered by our dis- couraging experiences. We, ourselves, the products of Catholic schools, are both practical Catholics and our children have never spent a day in a public school. We have denied ourselves for years trying to give them the best Catholic education possible, and one must admit that higher Catholic education is expensive. 38 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND Living in a small town at the time and thinking the advantages better elsewhere, we sent some of the older children, after finishing grade school, to boarding aca- demies where each one completed the four years of high school. I might mention in passing that all our children are of good average intelligence, and when small showed marked religious fervor in the home. I took pride in teach- ing them their prayers, catechism and bible history long before they started to school and (unknown to them) have prayed daily that they might all follow religious voca- tions. They have had the privilege of being taught by the following religious orders at various times: Dominican, Jesuit, Holy Cross, Visitation, Incarnate Word, Charity of Nazareth, Notre Dame and St. Joseph, so it would seem that some of them ought to turn out to be “spiritual Catholics.” But what have we to show for it all? Our young people are disobedient and rebellious, disrespectful and in- solent to us, and worst of all have no practical knowledge of their religion or any deep-seated love of their Faith. When in the grades they were much better informed and had more solid piety than at any subsequent time. The high school years apparently are the ruinous ones. We are bewildered by the whole situation. A classmate of one of my daughters told with peals of laughter of her parents’ endeavor to have family rosary during October, and how she and her sisters crawled out of the room, one by one, leaving their parents praying alone. I, too, have tried in vain to keep up family prayers. All goes well when the children are small, but in their teens, it cannot be accomplished. All this talk nowadays about this young generation far surpassing every other young generation of its day is WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS? 39 a joke. The only things they excel in are lawlessness and disrespect. My husband and I have discussed the subject many a time far into the night, and have come to the conclusion that the present day nit-wit parents are at the seat of most of the trouble. The young are simply aping their fathers and moth- ers, who in turn won’t be bothered with disciplining their restive charges. (I must admit it is a most disagreeable job.) The average parents of today love excitement. Night clubs, dancing, cards, smoking, drinking, trashy movies and swing radio programs are important items in their lives, and naturally the children catch the fever. The precious old time faith of our fathers is worn so lightly on the modern sleeve that one slight breath is enough to blow it away. Young people may go to confession about once a month, but many will often receive Holy Communion every Sunday at a late Mass without prayer-book, having eaten at some roadhouse up until nearly midnight. They have plenty of time to primp but are restive in church services. They claim they know their own con- sciences and ridicule any parental advice. It is a discouraging outlook to say the least ! I do not see how the pendulum can swing back while a pagan civilization races forward at the present mad pace. The whole Christian world has slumped shamefully. Not until parents are willing to make the training of their off- spring, not a side issue, but the paramount labor of their lives, dominated by the highest ideals, and, wearing sack cloth and ashes, pray, pray, pray, like St. Monica of old, will the Lord see fit to change posterity for the better. Mrs. J. P. M. The above are only two samples of many letters which reach us. 40 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND We are hearing from every direction that products of Catholic schools and even of Catholic colleges are, on the whole, giving a very poor account of themselves, and even from cas- ual observation, we know how true the charge is. To those who are bent on discovering the real explanation various opinions are volunteered. Some exonerate the school al- most completely and throw the blame on the non-cooperative and even obstructionist home. Others charge that the charac- ter and the excessive amount of recreational life, as compared to former days, are chiefly responsible. But those who, because really worried, are giving to the subject the most serious consideration believe that the basic cause is to be found (1) in the false assumption that religious instruction imparted in the school will of itself produce spirit- uality; and (2) in the neglect of the teacher to apply the catechetical lesson both to the child’s own private conduct and to an apostolate in which he is in duty bound, even as a you, to promote. Religious education has too long been identified with reli- gious instruction. If the assumption were correct the best informed Catholics would necessarily be the most spiritual men and women. The general principle may be sound, that, apart from the gift of divine faith and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, consistent religious practice must rest on a foundation of religious knowledge, but how much knowledge must a child have before it can begin to build up a spiritual life? Back in infancy the supernatural virtues were infused into the child of Catholic parents ; through Baptism it became formally incorporated into Christ and was adopted as His child by its Creator; it became a “son of God,” a brother or sister of the Eternal Son of God, WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS? 41 a “new creature” filled with grace and therefore with the Holy Ghost. Does the child require considerable knowledge about God before it can be filled with a consciousness of God’s infinite love for it, and be permeated with the conviction that it should love Him in return with all its heart? Must a child know its mother, in a dozen particulars before it can love her? How much do the most learned among us know about a thousand things of which we make reasonable use? Even the domestic animal becomes most devoted to its master, although it never learns to know anything about him save his love. Surely it never learns whether he is a lawyer, or a physician, or a plumb- er, but it is conscious of his affection and of his provident care for it. Knowledge of God must not be identified with knowledge about God. How much more can the theologian know of the Holy Eucharist than the child? It suffices all of us to know that it contains the real, true, substantial presence of Jesus Christ, God and man, under the form of bread, for love of us. When Christ declared “this is eternal life that they may know Thee, 0 God and Whom Thou hast sent, Jesus Christ,” He certainly did not mean that all who knew much about God and His Incarnate Son, would obtain eternal life, for St. John (1 John II, 4) writes, “he who saith that he knoweth Him and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is pot in him.” The same apostle insists that the first duty of teachers is to cultivate the supernatural life received by the child in Baptism. He writes, “let the unction which you have received from Him abide in you. If that abide in you . . . you also shall abide in the Son and in the Father . . . and you have 42 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND no need that any man teach you, but as His unction teacheth you of all things” (1 John II, 24-27). Such Scripture utterances could be greatly multiplied. For instance John observes “he that loveth not knoweth not God” (ibid IV, 8) ; and St. Peter closes his second epistle with the words “but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” St. Paul agrees with these other apostles “for if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ , yet not many fathers.” What does he mean by “fathers”? He tells them imme- diately in these words: “For this cause have I sent to you Timothy, who will put you in mind of my ways, which are in Christ Jesus, as I teach everywhere in every church.” Paul kept his converts reminded of their new relationship to God, which is not enjoyed by others, a relationship which the aver- age Catholic child enjoys from infancy. Reversing the Process When the late Pope Pius X ordered the clergy throughout the world to admit to its first Holy Communion the child on which the light of reason had just dawned, he defended the principle that efforts should be made to spiritualize the child immediately after acquainting it with its relationship to God and to Christ. Hence many of us now maintain that instead of waiting for spiritual stimulation through doctrinal instruc- tion we should begin to arouse in the child of God an interest in things spiritual from the day it enrolls in school, whereupon it will likely fall in love with the little catechism. Does not the little child usually pray more fervently than the adult although it is taught its prayers before it is taught much of anything about the God to Whom they are addressed? For the beginning of spiritual formation it needs only to know WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS? 43 that He is a good God, that it was made for Him, and that Jesus loved it unto death. Prayer will become as spontaneous, as it should be nat- ural and easy, if the child be filled with a consciousness of God’s ever-nearness, of His special readiness to answer the prayers of good children. Prayer and the cultivation of virtue will become a habit — and habit becomes a second nature—if the pupil will come to realize vividly that God has shown a special selective love for the Catholic child, who is, in a peculiar manner, God’s child, in whose soul He actually lives, but from whose soul He must depart the moment it will seriously grieve Him. Does it not seem most plausible that if the child be taught in a simple way to love our Lord it will want to know all about Him; that if it be kept mindful of its dignity as a child of God, of the vast difference between the Catholic and non-Cath- olic child; that if it be kept conscious of the presence of God within its soul, of the actual presence of Jesus in the near-by tabernacle, of His daily appearance on the altar at Mass, of the intense personal love shown it by Jesus in Holy Com- munion—if the child, I say, were reminded of these facts daily, would not the Catechism lessons which deal with all these things, be devoured with greater relish and be more readily grasped? In school the child must not receive the impression that it is in the hands of a policeman instead of a mothet if we would hope to have it attracted to things spiritual. The teacher should train it along lines of love instead of fear. The Cate- chism lesson will be disliked as much as spinach if the only reason for learning it is to escape a punishment the next day. “Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and in the spirit of meekness? (1 Cor. IV, 21). 44 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND The goodness of God in Himself and His goodness to us, our relation to Him as children and heirs of His glory in Heaven, Calvary and the Eucharist, should be presented in all their loveliness before the child gets a catechism scare. These supernatural facts should certainly affect children deeply and create in them an appetite for more knowledge and more saint- liness. After “tasting and seeing how sweet the Lord is,” the appetite should develop without much pressure from the teacher. Love for God will inspire action for the promotion of His interests, while mere instruction, even though it be con- tinued unto the mastery of a book, might conceivably leave the Catholic ice cold—and experience teaches us that the gener- ality of well-instructed Catholic youths are cold in their per- sonal religious practice and cold towards an apostolate. The school day, in every classroom, could be opened with two or three minutes of spiritual reading dealing with the beauty of child virtues—of obedience, of kindness, of honesty, of charity, of truthfulness. If these were presented both in their own attractiveness and from the viewpoint of God, Whom the little one is being cultivated to love dearly, would the aver- age child have a sin problem? And would not the Catechism lessons dealing with these and other virtues be so much more easily understood? It would help if a “Resolution for the Week” relating to some child virtue were displayed on the blackboard of every classroom, and if one minute of “particular examen” were con- ducted in relation to it at the end of the school day. If the child gathers a first impression that God is a severe Master, Who is concerned only about blind obedience to His “must” legislation, it will not likely grow up in His love nor become enthusiastic about promoting His cause. WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS? 45 Many Holy People Lacked Instruction The Church has had a multitude of saints who never learned to read, and hence could not have studied a catechism. There is such a thing as a Catholic instinct, which was so strong in many of our grandparents that it would have led them to martyrdom if their faith had been tested. The best of the laity in the early days of the Church had far less instruction in the faith than the fifth grader in our parochial schools, yet they were filled with the Holy Ghost and fired with zeal for the spread of Christ’s cause. They were afire with zeal because they were imbued with love for Christ, not because they studied catechisms. They were filled with the consciousness that they were “new creatures,” “sons of God,” “tabernacles of the Holy Ghost.” These fundamental convic- tions made easy of acceptance the few instructions they had on the Incarnation, the Redemption, the Resurrection and As- cension, on the marvels of the Mass and Holy Communion. Their relationship to Christ and their brethren through the Mystical Body was better understood by them than by us and, therefore, they felt in duty bound to participate in the aposto- late of their Bishops. They never entertained even the idea that their religion was something for their own benefit only. “Prayer and action” were always associated in their minds. The strength which they received from daily Mass and Holy Communion they were expected to convert into power for the spread of Christ’s Kingdom, for the winning of recruits for Him. How Paul Exhorted New Children in the Faith In his Epistle to the Colossians, Chapter three, St. Paul writes to his new converts and reminds them that precisely be- cause they were converts they must forsake the ways of the world. They were to take for granted that they may no longer 46 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND live like worldly people, but rather quite differently; that they must, in fact, be examples to others of the Christian way of life. He reminds them that, although before they “put off” the old and “put on” the new man they had been addicted to many sinful practices, now that they are “risen with Christ,” they “must walk in newness of life,” and “seek the things that are above.” Treating his converts as children in the Faith, Paul tells them that certain vices for which even “the children of un- belief” will be terribly judged, must not even be known among them. Then he enumerates lesser sins which they must avoid and the opposite virtues they must practice, in these words : “Put you also away all anger, indignation, malice, blas- phemy, filthy speech out of your mouth. “Lie not one to another; stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds. “And putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowl- edge, according to the image of Him that created Him.” About the virtues which must characterize their lives, Paul says: “Put ye on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience: “Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another; even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so do you also. “But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection. “And let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts, wherein also you are called in one body; and be ye thankful. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS? 47 hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God. “And whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” (Col. Ill, 5-17). Surely the same logic which demands that converts to the faith live differently ever after, also demands that those who are made “new creatures” early in life should be kept constant- ly reminded of their relationship to God, and of their obliga- tion to live differently from those who had never been blessed as they were. St. Peter strongly emphasizes as a greater need than in- struction constant reminders of the obvious duties of every Catholic because he belongs to “the elect of God,” a “chosen generation.” He writes : “For which cause I will begin to put you always in re- membrance of these things : though indeed you know them and are confirmed in the present truth.” (2 Peter I, 12). To the youths who have gone through the Catholic school these words of St. Peter are most applicable : “For if, flying from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they be again entangled in them and overcome : their latter state is be- come unto them worse than the former. “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them.” (2 Peter II, 20-21). Isn’t there real sarcasm in the demand that the Catholic of our day, reared in a school of Christ, must first inform him- self and then inform others ; and that after reforming himself he must strive to reform society? What excuse is there for one 48 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND who has majored in religion for eight and twelve and sixteen years not to be truly informed and reformed? Is there any justifiable reason why he or she should not always have been ready for a call to—in fact why he should not always have been a participant in the apostolate of—Catholic Action? Princi- pally to faulty school training must be ascribed the failure of the average well-instructed Catholic to be truly “informed and reformed.” The order to be followed in “forming” Christians should be that which must have prevailed, under divine inspiration, centuries before Christ. It is implied by David when he prays “teach me, 0 Lord, goodness and discipline and knowledge” (Psalm 118). Neglecting the Art We have been teaching the science of religion and not its art; we have simply assumed that personal religious practice and apostolic action would necessarily result from a good fund of religious knowledge. You have only to watch parochial school children at Mass, including altar boys, even when they intend to approach Holy Communion, to be convinced of their lack of seriousness—and after receiving Holy Communion do you observe in them any indication of spontaneous fervor and love? As they begin, mechanically, so will they continue through life; a habit of indifference will become a second na- ture most difficult to conquer in later life. The Public School Should be The Catholic's Opportunity The great worry of Bishops in our day is the influence of public high schools on the Catholic children who must fre- quent them after having had eight years of protection and religious guidance in the parochial school. But would the danger be so great if, throughout those eight years, the child had received a truly spiritual formation, WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS? 49 if he had grown to experience the joy of the saints, if he had become truly imbued with love for Christ? Would he not rather enter the public school determined not only to remain uncon- taminated, not only not to follow the pagan practices of those who know not God nor His laws, but actually set on reforming others? The public school, instead of being the terrible danger that it is to the faith and morals of our youth, should be a most favorable battleground for the winning of victories for Christ. But knowing the Catechism by heart will not be of much help. Non-Catholic youths do not argue matters of doctrine, but rather matters of morals. It is the loose conduct of non- Catholic school-mates, and not their religious opinions, which are a danger to Catholic youths. The former have never experi- enced as the Catholic has the joy of living virtuously for the love of God. If Catholic students would studiously show their new non-Catholic acquaintances how to live, as is their duty, many of them would first admire and then follow. The parochial grade schools should produce such spiritual youths, such apostles for Christ ; they should be at least as effi- cient in generating zeal as are the schools of anti-Christ. Communist leaders never think of recruiting new members for the individual’s good, but rather to procure new workers for their cause ; and no member is satisfied with the application of Communist doctrine to self-improvement but rather to an apostolate. How few Catholics, although registered soldiers of Christ, ever think of any obligation to engage in an apostolate? Are Not Parents Most to Blame? The teacher will claim that the blame which is attached to the school should really be placed on the shoulders of par- ents, who do not cooperate, as they should, with the discipline of the school. We grant that there is considerable justification 50 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND for their complaint, but would not those parents cooperate if they themselves had received proper spiritual stimulation? If the child were now being trained in the direction of an apostolate throughout the eight years in which it is enrolled in the elementary school, it would greatly change the attitude of parents. If the child exhibited a desire to go to daily Mass, not because the priest or the teacher urges it, but because it would not miss its benefits for anything; if its heart seemed to be aglow with love for God, which wins for it the admira- tion of its non-Catholic playmates, would not the parents, put to shame by the supreme goodness of the child, be converted to better ways? If the Catholic High School were recruited from youths thus spiritually formed in the primary grades, could not won- ders be wrought for and through them during the next four years? They would be ready for Jocism or the Legion of Mary, or any other Apostolate, and thousands of them would be attracted to the priesthood, brotherhoods and sisterhoods. But because the religious course in grade schools appealed only to their intellects or terribly taxed their memories many Catholic children enter the Catholic High School against their will, where the religion course is regarded as just an extra sub- ject for which no credits are allowed; where the course is asso- ciated with a book with which the student has already wrestled for eight years. Its “musts” and its “don’ts,” which have come to be regarded as a curtailment of youth’s liberties, took all the joy out of religious practice during the elementary grades ; and now, as adolescents, they interiorly rebel against the continued curtailment of that freedom which seems to be accorded to all who are not of their faith. It is because parents have also confused religious educa- tion with religious instruction that they see no need of send- WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS? 51 ing their children to Catholic High Schools. They have a notion that eight years of religious instruction were sufficient, and that their boy or girl should “have no need for further instruc- tion.” After School Days After High School days the average Catholic youth seldom thinks of working for Christ or even of asserting his or her moral convictions in his social life. He was not trained as a soldier in the army of Christ, and therefore feels no obligation to engage in battle for Him. He was never trained as an apos- tle and, therefore, feels no duty to “make the light of his faith shine before others.” He feels that he is meeting his full obli- gation to God and to himself if he attends Sunday Mass and answers the pulpit call to a routine confession and Commun- ion. That he is in duty bound to represent Christ and His religion among his fellow-workers or neighbors or social ac- quaintances is new doctrine to him. How applicable to youths out of school are these admoni- tions of St. Paul ! “Let no man despise thy youth ; but be thou an example of the faithful in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity” (1 Tim. IV, 12). “But evil men and seducers shall grow worse and worse: erring and driving into error. “But continue thou in those things which thou hast learned and which have been committed to thee: knowing of ’whom thou hast learned them” (2 Tim. Ill, 13-14). “In all things shew thyself an example of good works, in doctrine, in integrity, in gravity” (Titus II, 7). “Let everyone of you please his neighbor unto good, to edification” (Rom. XV, 2). 52 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND Even the intellectuals of our day, as of St. Paul’s time, are best reached not by argument, but by the power which is be- hind Christ crucified, and by stunning blows of the Holy Ghost. St. Paul’s words (1 Cor. I, 21-24) would seem to be writ- ten for our day: “For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world, by wisdom , knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of our preaching to save them that believe. “For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom : “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness : “But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Of himself St. Paul says (1 Cor. II, 2) : “For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” The important thing for Catholics is “to have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. II, 16). Loyalty to God demands that when the Catholic youth will go out from school into the world he must strive to win others to Christ by the practice of the Christian virtues enumerated by St. Paul. Isn’t he a traitor to Christ if he will begin to follow the lead of those who have never “cast off the works of darkness,” or were never “transferred from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love?” Religious Knowledge Valuable But Spirituality More You certainly will not understand me to be minimizing the benefits of advanced religious knowledge. I am rather contend- WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS? 63 ing that deep spirituality, which is possible without a theolo- gian’s information, is more important. Religious instruction and a wooing to piety and zeal should go together. If religious knowledge makes good Catholics, then graduates of Catholic colleges, Catholic intellectuals generally, should be the most spiritual men. The well-instructed as well as the poorly-instructed Catho- lic, lacking spirituality, often leave the Church, but the spir- itual Catholic, wheather well or poorly instructed, never. The best instructed frequently fall into religious indifference, and marry outside the Church, but the spiritual Catholic never. The former may lose their souls, the latter surely will not. Now isn’t there something that the clergy, the members of teaching Communities can do about this? The subject merits wide discussion and, since the Church cannot fail us, a practical solution can be found. Some Questions Which Await A Correct Answer Even during the years of unemployment, when the world had nothing to offer young men and women, vocations to the Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods greatly declined. Numerous Sisterhoods are receiving fewer candidates each year than they are losing Sisters by death and by forced retirement from school and hospital. Should we not try to find the answer to the “why” ? On their Confirmation tours Bishops note that priests, who have charge of parishes in towns and small cities where the Catholic population is small and where there is much bigotry, have more converts proportionately than pastors of large par- ishes in cities where the population is from thirty to forty per cent Catholic. What may be the reason “why?” Every Catholic has been anointed and sealed as a “Christ- follower,” and as a “soldier” in the army of Christ; and one- half the Catholic population of the United States has received its education in a school of Christ. Why are they now “follow- ing” the pagan-minded crowd, when they are obliged to “lead” in the cause of Christ? Why have they not the “soldier” spirit individually, and why do they not move as an army? Are the standards of the Catholic business man, the Catho- lic politician, the Catholic lawyer, noticeably higher than the standards of those of their fellowmen who, throughout their lives, never received religious instruction or guidance? If not, where must the blame be attached? QUESTIONS WHICH AWAIT A CORRECT ANSWER 55 Most people in the United States have never lived outside the “kingdom of darkness.” Catholics were transferred in in- fancy from that “kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love” ; they became “new creatures,” “the elect of God,” “put off the old man and put on the new, who was created in holiness of truth.” Throughput their lives their souls have been fed on divine things. If, therefore, they do not live differently from their non-Catholic fellows, if they do not “live worthy of the vocation to which they are called,” is it not due to the fact that during the long period of religious instruc- tion they were not sufficiently impressed with their wonderful privileges and with the consequent obligations? History is witness to the fact that Catholics have for cen- turies lived individualistic lives and not as “members of one another” and of the mystical body of Christ. Otherwise how could one even conceive of a successful persecution of the Church in Germany, or England, or Scotland, or Switzerland in a day when all the people were Catholic? It is everywhere admitted that the ills of modern society are due principally to a de-Christianization of a social body which had long been professedly Christian. Had the Catholic body been compact, had it been active in accordance with its convictions, would not the spirit of Christ have so permeated society that the evils of divorce, birth prevention, class hatreds, Godless education and political corruption could never have gained a firm foothold? Must not a start be made sometime in the direction of a militant united Christian front? And is it not the right time to begin now, even if the old order seems actually to have been sold out to anti-Christ? , 56 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND In the mind of the writer the start should be made with the children in the first grades of our schools, before the “world, the flesh and the devil” have made any impressions on them, when their pure hearts can be trained to love Christ with great intensity. Their religion should be kept before them as a cause which even they must assist in promoting in their own homes, in their neighborhood associations. Religious instruction and spiritual stimulation must go hand in hand, and the things of faith should be presented in a manner that will attract the children to them, that will make attendance at Mass and the frequent reception of the Sacra- ments a joy. The children should be exhorted, purely out of love for Christ, to become missionaries in the home. If Catholic school children were all reared along the lines of an apostolate would most of them not be “ready to go” when entering public schools, with “the charity of Christ urging them”? Just as there should be perfect unity in the family, so Catholic families should, as a unit, be urged to pray for and, by prudent effort, to win the next door neighbor’s family for Christ. If today most converts are made by the good example of some Catholics, would there not be a veritable flood of con- verts if all Catholics not only favorably impressed non-Catho- lics by their beautiful lives, but by their zeal for the promo- tion of Christ’s cause? Every non-Catholic in the United States would be covered if each Catholic only influenced an average of five of them in this way. Brief Meditations For The Priest I TU ES SACERDOS — Ergo pertines ad Deurn You belong to God and not to yourself. He has selected you, and you have chosen Him, and irrevocably. I have chosen you (John XV), said God; The Lord is the portion of my in- heritance (Ps. 15), said you. Hence the choice was mutual. Therefore your life is not your own to live as you may see fit. If every person is responsible to God for the use or abuse he makes of his time, of his talents, of his senses, of his worldly means, how much more the priest? You must serve God, not incidentally, not after other things are attended to, like people of the world, but professedly and uninterrupted- ly, because the service of God is your life’s calling. Your dignity is great, but that is for others to bear in mind. You must think more of your responsibility than of your dignity. Such a dignity as yours demands perfec- tion of life. If you are not striving for that your present dignity will be your future shame and humiliation. From God’s viewpoint you are one of those friends of whom the Psalmist says: Nimis honorificati sunt (Ps. 138). But are you one, of whom the same writer declared Cum in honore es- set, non intellexit (Ps. 48), one to whom the Apostle’s warn- ing applies neglect not the grace which has been given you by the imposition of hands (I Tim.) ? 58 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND The greater your elevation the more severe must be your judgment. Like Christ you must ever seek the glory of the Heavenly Father, I seek not my own glory (John VIII). Like Jesus you have been sent to do a great work for the Father, in fact, to continue the very work of His divine Son as Saviour of souls, as Teacher, as Sacrificer, as a Dispenser of divine things. Not one of these offices may be subordinated to temporal in- terests of your own. Is God actually receiving glory from your private life? Is His cause being benefited by it? Are you doing all that could be expected of you as His Ambassador among men? Remember the injunction I have appointed you that you should go, and should bring forth fruit (John XV). “Grant, 0 Lord, that I may know and do Thy will”—300 days Indul. each time. II TU ES SACERDOS — Ergo pertines ad Ecclesiam By holding an official position in the Church you belong in the closest manner to Christ, because the Church is His body. The Church cannot function without you, because you have been made an indispensable person for the work the Church is to do. You are to be the pattern of the flock. Your very food, like that of Christ, must be to do the will of Him Who sent you. Your light must shine before men. In fact you must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect, or you are not a worthy official and representative of Christ. You have put BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST SO on the Lord Jesus Christ. Of you, therefore, it should be particularly true I live , now not I, but Christ liveth in me. Nothing is more reasonable than that qui mihi ministrat me sequatur (John 12). To many Catholics, and to most non-Catholics you are the Church. When you edify, the Church gains; when you scandalize, the Church suffers. The Church would never knowingly admit a worldly- minded or lukewarm candidate to her sacred ministry. Do you know them to be worthy she always asks. Hence your life must be characterized by the holiness of Christ, by the zeal of Christ, by Christ’s love of souls. If you lack these requisites you are not a fit minister of the New Testament. A fit minister of the Church, like a fit official of the State, like a fit representative of any business enterprise, will spend himself and be spent in its behalf. He will not be content with rendering a routine service, in exchange for comfortable living quarters and an allowance which will en- able him to subsist with the least amount of worry. The true priest will look for work, will cultivate the field entrusted to his care, will have the machinery of his local service station in constant motion for the generous dis- pensing of divine things. Do you omit the Holy Hour because too few attend it? Omit Novenas and special devotions for the same reason? If you do not display zeal, how can you expect your people to catch it? Let your living motto be “All for Thee, most Sacred Heart of Jesus”—300 days Indul. each time. 80 PROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND III TU ES SACERDOS — Ergo pertines ad populum Every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men. People can procure the supernatural things only through the priest. They must procure supernatural things if they would attain unto supernatural beatitude in eternity. They must be admitted into God’s kingdom through you; placed in God’s friendship through you; kept in His friend- ship through you; restored to His friendship through you. You are Christ’s agent or minister in relation to them, and the first requisite of Christ’s minister is, ut inveniatur fidelis (I Cor.). In advising a priest of his day St. Paul says: Tu vero vigila, in omnibus labora, ministerium tuum imple (2 Tim.). You must be more interested in having people pray than pay. You must go after the ones who are lost or who are straying. You must train all as thoroughly as possible in the science of God and of salvation, and be at their disposal at all times for the frequent reception of the Sacraments which are their chief means of sanctification. Your habitual dis- position must be that of Paul expressed in the words gladly will I spend myself and be spent for souls (2 Cor. XII). Golf and automobile riding should be for the purpose of recuperation, to make you “more fit” for further work rather than for the pleasure of it, for you are not of the world ; Christ has called you out of the world. Like the Master you are come into the Church’s ministry ut fideles vitam habeant et abundantius habeant (John X). The success of some priests and the failure of others is so evident. Is the good you are doing apparent? BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 61 You are an employee, not a master in the Church; there- fore you may not stand all the day idle and expect an easy judgment. Your lifetime duty as an alter Christus is to re- produce Jesus Christ in others. Christ was benignus, mansuetus, though not compromis- ing. So, according to His own orders, should the priest be: Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. XXI). God's greatest gift from Heaven appeared in the form of a dove. Government of a parish by intimidation is all wrong, as so many disrupted congregations prove. il Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine”—300 days Indul. each time. IV TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo debes Sacrificium offerre If you are ever another Christ, it is when you are at the altar, the mediator between God and man. You impersonate the innocent Victim, Who was sanctus, impolutus, segregatus a peccatoribus. “This is My body; this is My blood." Christ spent three hours in prayer in the Garden before His sacrifice. How much and how earnestly do you pray be- fore sacrificing? Do you ever go to the altar without reflecting seriously on the words: “Ego volo ‘conficere' ( produce ) corpus et sanguinem Domini nostri, Jesu Christi, ad laudem omni- potentis Dei,” etc.? Can you always say truthfully “VOLO celebrare”? Would 62 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND this be true if there were no stipend, and no one to assist at your Mass? Did you have greater reverence for the Mass during the first year of your priesthood? If so, were you wrong then and right now? Remember that besides glorifying God by sacrificing, the Mass is also ad utilitatem meant, totiusque Ecclesiae militantis. Do you see to it as well as pray ut non tibi proveniat in judi- cium et condemnationem? Mechanical sacrificing and speed cannot be excused on any grounds. Digne, attente, ac devote are requisites more binding when sacrificing than when pray- ing. Do you have intentions of your own at every Mass? Do you remember parishioners who are in spiritual or physical distress? Do you make application of the plenary indulgence of the Privileged Altar? Do you seek to be disposed, by fortnightly confession, to gain other indulgences? People may seem to prefer the short Mass, but at heart they have much more regard for the priest who exhibits more devotion. They would like to have such a priest say the Masses they engage. All the rubrics can be reverently ob- served by protracting the service only five minutes. Do your people sufficiently realize the significance of the Mass? The size of week-day attendance will answer the question. Unless your people are edified at the manner in which you say Mass—think of the Judgment before the disedified Christ, Whom you represent! Sweetest heart of Jesus / implore that I may ever love Thee more and more—300 days Indul. each time. BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 63 V TU ES SACERDOS — Ergo debes orare officialiter Few are the priests who do not recite the Divine Office with scrupulous regularity — sed quomodo? If the breviary becomes a burden to them it is all of their own making. If they divided the daily office into three parts, and strove to occupy themselves with it according to some kind of schedule, it would not be a burden. Say the Holy Office, at one sitting, and especially in the late hours of the night, rush its re- cital, and it must be a huge burden. You recite the Divine Office, which is of the Church’s compilation, as an official of the Church. It is a universal prayer in which you participate as one among 300,000 whose combined chorus of praise, if it be “in unione illius divinae intentionis qua Christus in terris laudes Deo persolvit,” must be a prayer of tremendous power. The great need is for every unit in the chorus to be in tune. Are you? It is a continuous prayer which you must of- fer with the Church and for your people. Its purpose is the same as that of the Mass. If there were no compulsion to say the Holy Office it would be neglected as often as is your daily meditation. It is well that it is of obligation, and the priest who should, without a grave reason, omit the Holy Office, should also omit to say Mass. If Bible reading is good, you use the Bible in saying your office. If sermons are good, the greatest saints preach to you in the Divine office. 64 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND If instructions are good, they are associated with the office of every feast. How beautiful the sentiments in the hymns! You ask God’s blessing a dozen times in the office. It is your morning and evening prayer, in which you and 300,- 000 others ask “ut in hac die ad nullum declinemus peccatum” and that God may grant you i(noctem quietam et finem per- fectum” If “when two or three are gathered together” privately in Christ’s name, He is in their midst, how near must He be when 300,000 of His accredited delegates are united in prayer in His name officially! No longer regard the Office as a burden, but as a source of help to the Church, yourself and your parishioners, next only to the Mass. My God and my All—300 days Indul. each time. VI TU ES SACERDOS — Ergo debes esse homo Dei Every child of God should be personally devoted to God, should be in frequent personal communication with God; in other words, should be a man of prayer. But the priest who is consecrated to God and who should not only retain his first fervor but grow “in grace as he grows in years,” must especially apply himself to prayer. “Your life is hidden with Jesus Christ, in God.” (Col. III). The Church commands daily meditation for the Sem- inarian; she assumes that the priest will practice daily medi- tation. The rule of every Religious Order or Community of men and women makes meditation obligatory. Why should BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 65 the secular priest be dispensed from it? Even Christ meditated “Himself alone” during His public life after living in re- treat for 30 years. Are you able to offer a valid excuse even to your con- fessor for not practicing meditation at least fifteen minutes at the beginning of the day—before you offer the Holy Mass? Be true to yourself: Do you neglect daily meditation be- cause of lack of time? Is it not rather because of lack of courage? You could rise fifteen minutes earlier; you could spend fifteen minutes with a meditation book before retiring. Could you convince yourself that you have no time to read the newspaper; to listen to the radio? You will be less able to convince the Judge that you had no time. You ring the Angelus bell for others; do you heed it yourself? You urge parishioners to attend Benediction; how far would you go to be present at it? You invite the people to a Holy Hour weekly or monthly; how often do you “watch” with Jesus privately? You recommend the Way of the Cross; how often do you follow it when you do not conduct it for others? You recommend mortification to others; do you prac- tice it? You lay down the fasting law, other laws, for your people; do you observe them? You collect for the missions, for the orphans, for the Holy Father; do you yourself give? Are you as devoted to the Sacred Heart or to Mary as you want your parishioners to be? If, like the Pharisee, you bind others with “onera gravia et importabilia,” which you hesitate to carry yourself, must you not look for even a more severe condemnation from the Master “cum venerit judicare” ? My Jesus, mercy—300 day Indul. each time. 66 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND VII TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo es medicus animae If there be “joy in Heaven over one sinner that doeth penance, 1” what source of joy must the good confessor be who makes white as snow numerous souls, which had been scarlet by reason of grievous sins! We marvel over well- authenticated physical cures which take place at Mary’s shrines or are attributed to the intercession of other Saints—and they are comparatively few. The spiritual cures which it is in your power to effect by the hundreds are equally marvelous and a thousand times more important. Are you a good practicing physician in the spiritual order? Do you take the individual penitent seriously and strive to diagnose what is fundamentally wrong, or do you take account of symptoms only? Do you even administer absolution mechanically, think- ing only of how many people you can serve in the least space of time? Since individuals come to you for personal spiritual attention, as confessor you are in position to do immense good for them and for God; and surely that was in the mind of Him “Who came to seek and save those who were lost,” and Whose place you take. True it is that people crowd about the confessional, and their number would diminish if they could not be served quickly ; but why should the physician be at the service of his patients only four or five hours a week? Be patient and sympathetic as the soul’s physician, but sufficiently stern to arouse a disposition for amendment, on which perfect spiritual health is always conditioned. BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 67 Do you pay friendly visits to fallen-away Catholics when they are ill? Some of these people do not grasp the error of their ways either because they had never been well in- structed or because they had read themselves into an anti- Catholic attitude. It is necessary to “talk things over ,, with them. Then there are others who despair of God’s mercy after a long life of irreligion and sin. They would welcome consolation, and assistance with their confession. Of course some hardened sinners need a great deal of prayer. Remem- ber in the Mass and your Office the fallen-away Catholic whom you intend to visit. Confession is the dreaded thing for the fallen-aways. They hardly know how to unravel the tangle of their lives. Help them. Divine Heart of Jesus, convert sinners save the dying, and free the poor souls in Purgatory—300 days Indul. each time. VIII TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo debes praedicare St. Paul tells us what the burden of our sermons must be, viz., “Christ and Him crucified.” Paul does not mean that we should preach only on Christ’s Atonement, but on all the things which that Atonement suggests, namely, His divinity, and therefore the divinity of His Church, of His teaching, of His moral code; the value of souls for whom He made atone- ment—therefore the heinousness of sin and its consequences; the value of grace; His infinite love for souls; the provision He made for the sanctification of souls—therefore the Sac- raments, etc. It is commonly remarked that the clergy do not preach 68 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND as of yore; that they do not prepare their sermons as did priests of the last generation; that the terrifying truths, such as Judgment and Hell, are slighted. Yet Holy Scrip- ture tells us that people are deterred from sin especially by “remembering their last end.” Are you one who is accused of preaching “money” Sun- day after Sunday? Are you one who regards elongated an- nouncements as a sermon? Are you one whom people accuse of not practicing what you preach? Are you one who gives vent to anger in the pulpit? Are you one, who emphasizes ecclesiastical law more than the divine; who insists more on having your personal will done than the Church’s will? Like the Master you are to “minister,” not to be minister to. You are the Church’s agent, and must yourself learn to obey before demanding obedience. The value of your sermon is to be measured not by your eloquence, but by the spiritual lesson it conveys, and this les- son should be easily perceived. Short sermons containing one good lesson forcibly presented are better than long ones —and the people prefer them, no matter how good the preacher. Many Catholics allege as their reason for not inviting non-Catholic friends to Sunday services with them the fear that the priest will not impress them favorably, either be- cause of his scolding or his money demands, or his poor ser- mon. The practice of distributing multigraph copies of Sun- day announcements is growing, and is to be commended es- pecially in churches where Masses are close together. Do you give at least a brief instruction at every Mass? Eucharistic heart of Jesus, model of the priestly heart, have mercy on us—300 days Indul. each time. BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 69 IX TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo debes aegrotos visitare A large proportion of the Sunday gospels deals with the attention our Divine Savior gave to the sick and to others afflicted in body. His was a sympathetic heart. He knew what it meant to suffer—and must not the priest have the “spirit of Christ”? Do you wait until relatives of those seriously ill call for you? After administering the last rites do you feel that you have done your duty? If you were near death would you be satisfied with a monthly Communion? Knowing that the ritual prayers are the Church’s own prayers, would you not like to have them said over you frequently? During sickness the priest can do most even for the souls of the household of the sick person. They will never forget his kindness during illness, and will be the better Catholics because of it. On the other hand, decline to answer a sick call on any grounds, and you often alienate a whole family from the Church. You are ordained “for men,” and you are obliged, at least ex cavitate, to wait on all the people confided to your care when they are dangerously ill, whether they have sup- ported your parish works or not. Retaliation, which may entail terrible eternal conse- quences, will not easily be pardoned. “I was sick and you did not visit Me” will be Christ’s words justifying His sentence “Depart from Me.” Protracted illness becomes the greatest blessing if the soul be purged through it. The average Catholic does not know how to convert sickness of body into health of soul. 70 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND The priest should point the way, counseling resignation, fre- quent acts of love and contrition, the reading of the Imitation of Christ, the recitation of the Rosary, and above all, week- ly Holy Communion. “God is charity; and he that abideth in charity abideth in God; and God in him” (John IV). The priest certainly lacks charity if he be cold towards the sick and poor. The con- solations of religion are never so much realized as when one is near death. The priest who has little compassion for the sick is re- buked by Christ in the parable of the Good Samaritan, is rebuked more by being denied the Sacrament of Extreme Unction himself. Heart of Jesus, once in agony, have pity on the dying—300 day Indul. each time. X TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo debes pascere agnos Christ's commission to Peter (John XXI) was for the universal Church. With and under Peter you have the iden- tical commission relative to the jurisdiction assigned to you. If you conduct a parish school you are doing a far-reach- ing work, but if you are doing little for the instruction of Catholic children who do not patronize your school you are woefully inconsistent and negligent. If religious instruc- tion be needed for one group it is needed for the other. It is much more necessary for the latter group, because it is likely that it represents those who live at a great distance from the church or having negligent parents. BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 71 The children of good parents are not nearly in the same danger of being lost to the faith as are the children of indifferent parents. In a matter of this kind the theoreti- cal must give way to the practical. The theory is right which demands attendance at the parish school on the part of all children living within reason- able distance. But if parents will not send them the punish- ment must not be inflicted on the child. The Church’s punish- ments are remedial, yours would be vindictive. Co-operating parents relieve the priest’s burden; opposing parents do not remove the burden, but increase it for the priest. If the priest cannot be the regular catechizer of the school children, he must be at least their frequent examiner. He should review at least once a week the lessons assigned and heard by the Sisters. Priests never learn their theology too well in a life time; yet they assume that the child should become a finished theologian during its elementary education. We cease teaching Catechism just when the child has reach- ed the age of fair comprehension. Its past memorized lessons will not meet future needs. As children will con- tinue to read and inform themselves on other matters after they leave school, so should they be urged, in season and out of season, to read Catholic literature and to inform them- selves better on the Church’s attitude towards all questions. An instructive Catholic paper should be placed in the homes of all people in places where there is no parochial school. Sacred Heart of Jesus I trust in Thee—300 days Indul. each time. 72 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND XI TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo debes pascere oves Too often attention to the children is interrupted pre- cisely when they need it most, when they go out from the wholesome school atmosphere into an entirely new environ- ment. They either go to the public school where they form associations with those who have been trained neither in faith nor morals, or they mingle at work with people whose standards, whose theories, and whose practices are at variance with those inculcated in the parish school for the child’s guidance through life. Now is the time when priests must particularly retain a hold on these youths; they should furnish the occasion to bring them together at least once a month, and to keep them reminded of the correctness of their ideals, of their obliga- tion to uphold them in the face of whatever contrary prac- tices they observe. By this means these young people can be kept active members of the Holy Name Society or the Blessed Virgin Sodality, and be brought to the sacraments frequently. Study Clubs should be conducted for these young people in accordance with the problems they themselves must face. The priest should know with whom the young people of his parish associate, with the character and religion of the person with whom any of them keep company. The priest’s greatest disappointment usually comes from the ranks of his young people, but the period between school days and marriage is the period during which the greatest good can be accomplished for all time. BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 73 The priest must try to prevent mixed marriages by winning the confidence of the young people, though always with dignity and the proper reserve. He should “talk it over” with John or Mary in plenty of time. If he cannot break up what seems to be an unsatisfactory courtship he should at least try to induce his young parishioner to bring his or her non-Catholic friend for instruction in ample time for a Cath- olic marriage. Have you failed to take great interest in the young people after they leave your school? Have you alienated them by terrorizing them? Have you lost their respect by being just a little too familiar with them? Save youth and you will save the next generation! St. Joseph , friend of the Sacred Heart, pray for me— 300 day Indul. each time. XII TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo debes quaerere alias oves Converts to the Catholic Church represent only four to each parish having a resident priest. We are certain that more than four persons in the average parish are lost each year to the Church by mixed marriages, by moving away from home, or by giving up the practice of their religion for other reasons. The net gain to the Church is, therefore, from the natural increase of births over deaths, and from immigra- tion. What do you do to win converts to the Catholic faith? Have you ever put one off or asked him to begin his instruc- tions later, alleging lack of time? Have you failed to take 74 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND advantage of the interest of well disposed non-Catholics by sending them Catholic literature, or by having some prudent parishioner, in all respects their equal, to become better ac- quainted with them? In the case of marriage converts you should make certain that, though often brought to you by force, they will em- brace the Church fully convinced and cheerfully. Try to make such persons feel at home, and urge them to express them- selves freely by objection and question. It must never be assumed that they understand; hence they should be asked questions concerning matters important. You must pray for these and urge them to pray for Heavenly guidance. Engage good converts to interest themselves in pros- pective converts. His own parishioners must bring non- Catholics to the priest, who has no way of making a first ap- proach to them. Every Catholic should be frequently remind- ed of showing his appreciation for the gift of faith by praying and laboring for the conversion of at least one non-Catholic. The Apostles had to go from place to place to preach and interest people in the faith. To-day their successors have a permanent address, and expect people to come to them. The losses to the Church in Latin countries is due principally to this policy. But in large parishes the priest has little op- portunity to meet many non-Catholics personally. But “has (sc. oves ) oportet me adducere” The priest can reach these for Christ only through his people. Therefore, you are not doing your duty unless you make missionaries out of many of your parishioners. Sweet heart of Jesus, be my love—300 days Indul. each time . BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 75 XIII TU ES SACERDOS- — Ergo debes esse continens If the New Law be the perfection of the Old, celibacy should be a distinguishing mark of the priesthood, because even in the Old Testament priests who served the Temple of Jerusalem were obliged to live as celibates during the year covered by their term of office. We are told that only virgins are guards of honor to Christ in Heaven, that “they follow Him wheresoever He goeth.” Therefore His guards of honor, the keepers of His household here on earth, should be virgins. Those who were nearest to Jesus during His life time, Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, John, the beloved disciple, were virgins. Of all the Apostles, St. Jerome said: “Apostoli aut virgines, aut post nuptias continentes.” But why discuss theories; you have become a celibate in fact. Immediately before you were admitted to the sub- diaconate you were reminded: “Hactenus liber es,” and you were told to depart if you did not wish to be bound for life to celibacy. When you stepped forward to the ordaining Bishop celibacy became a part of your ordination bargain with God. Christ is your spouse; you may cultivate affection for no other. Spiritual interests alone should engage your at- tention. “ Virgo es; quid te mulieris delectat societas?” (St. Augustine.) As a total abstinence pledge for life makes the observance of temperance easy if one remains away from drinking per- sons and the places they patronize, so the pledge of celibacy 76 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND is easy of observance for the one who avoids the danger. Like St. Paul you must “castigare corpus ” and “omnes sensus cor- poris , through whose avenues the mind and heart are con- taminated. You pray every day for a <(cor mundum” ; but it can not be mundum if its affections are not holy, if it be not completely detached from things ((immunda et vana.” A cor mundum de- mands a mens munda, from which a vita munda follows logi- cally. Like the Victim you offer, you must be a u hostia sancta, hostia immaculata.” Propter votum bis peccas quando con- sentiens tangis, spectas, cogitas, concupiscis turpia. Take the suitable resolution and say frequently: Jesus, source of all purity, have mercy on us—300 days Indul. each time. XIV TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo debes caute ambulare You have learned from experience that men are not trans- formed into angels by ordination, even though, in imitation of the angels U neque nubent neque nubentur.” He who did not hesitate to tempt Christ will not decline to tempt His ministers. The greatest saint-priests have confessed to tentationes fre- quentes et violentes, but they were undisturbed because God’s grace, with which they cooperated, was always sufficient, and converted temptation into merit. The Church has always insisted that the priest’s “ene- mies should not be of his own household,” and therefore de- mands ut femina, cui oura domus committitur, sit non sol- BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 77 um adulta, sed superadulta. The law in England well ex- presses that in general force “Let the servants who attend on the priests be of advanced age, modest, prudent, and of blameless life, ascertained by experience, that the injunctions of the Canons be obeyed.” The law of the Church relating to attendance at the theatre, to the frequenting of bathing resorts, to the read- ing of certain literature, to the practice of medicine, to the wearing of the Roman collar, to social visits, is equally severe, and calculated to keep away “occasiones peccati vel scandali.” “Detachment” is the Church’s counsel to the clergy not only as a preventive measure, but to bind them closer to God cui soli servire debent. Hence she warns her priests against particular friendships, against nimia familiaritas with adolescent youth of both sexes, against automobile rid- ing with women. Modesty and gravity decent sacerdotes, so that, as you were admonished during the ordination ceremony “the odor of your life may be the delight of the Church of God” (Roman Pontifical). The Council of Trent says “the actions of the priest should inspire all with veneration.” St. Paul speaks in a similar strain, “Be thou an example of the faithful in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity . . in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee” (I Tim. IV). You are “sanctificatus Domino” (Zach. XIV) ; hence “0 man of God, pursue justice” (I Tim. VI). Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul—Indul. of 7 years and 7 quar. 78 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND XV TU ES SACERDOS — Ergo debes esse obediens The most outstanding lesson of Christ's own life, and that which His Apostle Paul emphasized most, was His obedience. “At the head of the book it is written: ‘Behold I come to do Thy will, 0 God’." By His obedience unto the death of the cross Jesus would repair the disobedience of Adam. His very “meat” would be to do the will of Him that sent Him. Thirty years of His life are summed up with the words: “He was subject.” Practically the last word uttered by the newly ordained priest to his consecrating Bishop is “promitto” in answer to the question: “Promittis mihi et successoribus meis obedien- tiam et reverentiam ?” If the Holy Father is the “servus servorum Dei” in the government of the universal Church, evidently Bishops must be “ servi” of the universal pastor, and priests must be the “servi” (in the proper sense) of the Bishop both because order demands it and because such is the will of God. All officers of the Church, in fact all members of the Church, should <( sentire cum Ecclesia There may be laws in the general Code of the Church, or statutes for the diocesan government, whose wisdom may not be apparent to some priests; but like God's marriage law they conduce to the general good, and their enforcement, like that of the marriage law, works injury only in exceptional cases of which account cannot be taken. Christ obeyed the laws of the Jewish Church when, because He was infinitely above them, He was exempted from them. If Our Exemplar set an example in anything it was in Obedience, BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 79 Obedience should not be rendered reluctantly, but should be motivated by love for God, for the authority in His Church which imposes it. Our religion is the religion of authority in contradistinction to the religion of private judgment, which makes for the chaos instead of order so manifest in Protes- tantism. Humility is the foundation virtue, and obedience is the best evidence of its presence. Do you obey the stipulations of Canon Law and the statutes of your diocese as faithfully as you want your peo- ple to obey the laws which you have often promulgated for the spiritual and material advancement of your parish? Jesus , meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine—300 days Indul. each time. XVI TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo debes esse doctus Your commission is to “go, teach.” Every effective teach- er must be a student. The newly ordained is no more a learned man in his sphere than is the secular college stu- dent on the day of his graduation. Each has still a great deal to learn. Your studies should be related to preaching, and to the counsel and guidance which you should be prepared to give to the community as well as to your own. Because Catholic theology is fixed and the priest assumes that he is able to expound it, he is not as much devoted to study as is the average Protestant minister, who must study to reach his own conclusions, and to be able to discuss matters current. The true priest will study hard in order to be able to FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIENDSO confute current errors, religious and social, and to protect his flock and the community from the influence of current false philosophy. “The lips of the priest shall keep knowl- edge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth” (Mai. II). Study must find a place on the daily program of every priest. He will have the time if he prepares his instructions, his sodality talks, by study. He may study for the purpose of writing—but he must study throughout his life. The great doctors of the Church took trouble to write much even though the means of circulating their writings were extremely limited. Today college graduates occupy our pews, and their es- teem for their priest dwindles, when his pulpit utterances do not give evidence of learning. Satan alters his campaign against the Church and souls from age to age, and the priest’s duty is to act the part of a general in leading the people to foil his latest tactics — “to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one.” (Eph. VI). Today the priest must either use the printing press or inform the laity through study clubs, and make missionaries of them. Pius XI ever preached Catholic Action through the laity. But the priest must be their leader. In most Catholic countries, where the priest’s learning need not be so varied as in the United States, clerical Con- ferences are held with far greater frequency and half a dozen papers are read at each, and all must be prepared to participate in the discussions. Sweet heart of Mary, be my salvation—300 days Indul. each time. BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 81 XVII TU ES SACERDOS—Ergo es defensor fidei We must preach the Gospel positively and aggressively to our own people, and should not fear to be equally positive and aggressive when preaching it to those outside the fold. Yet prudence may often dictate that we take a negative and de- fensive attitude when dealing with those who are misinformed. They have already erected a structure in their own minds upon which ours cannot be reared. Theirs must be first pulled down, and its very foundation often destroyed before we can build ours in its place. Church defense has been called for centuries by the name of “Apologetics.” The name suggests purely defensive argu- ment, while the Church wants us to employ both defensive and offensive weapons. Pope Pius X urged these methods particularly in rela- tion to the press. It is the press which is principally respon- sible for the social errors in America and the religious indif- ference of her people. The majority of our countrymen do not receive their religious opinions from the pulpit, for they never attend church. They receive them from the literature they read, and that is why practically every secular periodical carries religious articles. In scarcely an instance would these articles pass the Catholic test. Therefore they must be con- futed, and by the centuries old Christian teaching, which is Catholic teaching, with its convincing logic. Whose duty is it to defend the Church, to protect the people, to uphold Chris- tian morality, if not the priest’s? If you have not the talent or time to write in behalf of the Church you represent, then you must circulate informa- 82 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND tive literature which others write, among the non-Catholics as well as Catholics of your community. Should your people not relish Catholic literature, it is your duty to cultivate their taste in the name of God and His cause. In dealing with Protestants always be mindful that they have an entirely different concept of the Church than you have; in fact, few of them regard membership in any Chris- ' tian organization as necessary. Even the strictest among them hold that they may go to God directly, or through Christ, the only Mediator, and need no Church. Always prove the character of the Church, and hence her necessity. Mary, our hope, pray for us—S00 days Indul. each time. XVIII TU ES SACERDOS — Ergo zelus tuus debet esse Catholicus You were chosen by God not to fill some special pastor- ate, but to serve His universal Church. You hold your parish by favor of your Bishop, who derives his jurisdiction from the Vicar of Christ. The souls of your parish are your special charge, but souls generally must have your concern if you are a true priest, or even a true soldier of Christ, who died to save all, and is hailed as “Rex universorum.” The Church can preach the Gospel to all nations and to every creature only if some of her clergy actually go abroad and the rest support them in their work by prayers and the collection of alms. The faith was brought to our land by priests supported from abroad. BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 83 This world is large; the number to be converted more than 1,000,000,000; missionaries number more than 100,000, and the grant of even a small per capita pittance requires a huge sum of money. Collected systematically through the So- ciety for the Propagation of the Faith for Home and Foreign Missions the burden is made light. The Holy Father says that $10,000,000.00 are needed annually. If every priest introduced the Society, and collected the amount of $1.00 the year from adult parishioners ade- quate support would be realized. Because the conduct of this work is preeminently the- Church’s first duty, rich indulgences and blessings are imparted to every contributor, and espe- cially to every priest promoter. You have not the spirit of Christ, you are selfish, you are a hindrance to the Church’s expansion, and God will “re- quire pagan souls at your hands” if your zeal be bounded by your parish limits. You pray, and your people pray daily that “God’s Kingdom may spread.” Back up your prayers by supplying the means on which the spread of the faith depends. We have a foreign mission field in our own country. Nearly 2,000,000 people from Old Mexico have settled along our southwest boundary line. Protestants spend millions to rob them of their faith. Being poor, American Catholics must help build their churches and schools. Only two per cent of our Negro population of 12,000,000 are Catholics. It will remain so unless we help the bishops and priests of the southern states. Sacred Heart of Jesus , Thy Kingdom come—300 days Indul. each time. 84 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND XIX TU ES SACERDOS — Ergo cave avaritiam Bona temporalia must be regarded as means to advance spiritualia, and not vice versa. For a priest to covet a parish or other work for the bigger financial returns is fundament- ally wrong. Your charge is the cura animarum, and only in- cidentally the cura pecuniarum. Against a different attitude of mind we have both the positive teaching and beautiful ex- ample of Christ; His counsel to the young man who would become perfect; the proud boast of the Apostles that they had left all things to follow Jesus; the vow of poverty which the Church imposes on religious. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” —is the very first Beatitude. We understand well how sorely in need of money the average parish is. But isn’t that pastor most successful in raising financial support for parish work, who is least inter- ested in getting money for himself? Many priests do far more harm than good by leaving the impression that the in- dividual’s money means more to them than the practice of his faith. How often do parishioners draw this conclusion, and logically? The Church has the first claim on whatever money the priest should save because he belongs to the Church, and the money represents offerings and returns for spiritualia. He who ministers at the altar is entitled to a living from the altar, but his relatives and friends are not. How can priests expect the laity to remember Catholic causes in their last wills if they themselves do not make the Church their prin- cipal beneficiary? While people are always disedified when they read of a priest leaving a considerable fortune at death, BRIEF MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRIEST 85 if he should possess one and has needy relatives, he should meet these needs in some other way than by last will. Rather than invest your money in securities whose pro- tection and later disposition must command your time and worry, why not invest it on an annuity basis with some incor- porated organization working for God? If sufficient income, especially for a rainy day, is your primary concern, the method suggested insures a staple income, while the safety of the principal for a good cause is certain. Never have parish money and your own entered on the same bank book. Make a Will, and apprise the Chancery Where it may be found. Avoid speculating, and beware of those who make “special offers” to priests. My God, unite all minds in the truth, and all hearts in charity—300 days lndul. each time . XX TU ES SACERDOS — Ergo es custos Domini You are called a priest because God must be glorified daily through the Eucharistic Sacrifice which you are com- missioned to offer. Through you and through you only is it possible for Christ’s promise to be realized “Behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world.” Through you, and through you only, may the people receive the Bread of Life. In the Holy Eucharist as a Sacrifice you prepare the Holy Eucharist as a Sacrament, and reserve it in your parish church. This reservation would not be permitted if you were not close by. You are the custodian of the Tabernacle Prisoner. 86 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND The altar, the seat of the “memorial of His wonderful works” (Ps. CX) should be kept immaculate. What is the condition of your altar, of its tabernacle, of the cloths, of the crucifix, candle-sticks, veils, of the sanctuary lamps, of the whole sanctuary? Do you change the species with the regular- ity prescribed by the rubrics? Is your favorite devotion directed to Him Who becomes Incarnate through you every day, and Who has a right to expect your special interest? Do you apply His words only to the laity : “Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavily burdened and I shall refresh you”? (Matt. XI). Do you carry your worries, spiritual and, financial, to Him? Do you pray to Him privately and publicly for the conversion of sinners, for the gift of faith in behalf of others? You often speak to the people of the loneliness of Jesus in a deserted church; do you do much to make Him less lonely? Are you an active member of the Priests’ Eucharistic League? When you pray officially, in the name of the Church, do you do so, at least frequently, before the altar? Is the faith of your people in the Blessed Sacrament and their devo- tions to this Sacrament of love augmented by your deep faith and devotion? 0 Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving he every moment Thine—300 days lndul. each time. The Best Approach To Non-Catholics* (1) You may be aware that the Catholic Church has 100,000,000 more members in the world than all Protestant churches combined—but that does not make the Catholic Church the true Church. (2) You may be aware that the Catholic Church is the oldest among all religions calling themselves Christian—but that would not make it the true Church unless it had God Himself as its author. (3) You may be one of those who do not believe in the need of membership in any religious organization, holding that religion is a personal matter, and that if one’s heart is right with God he stands an equal chance with church-members for everlasting bliss in Heaven. But what if God actually did found a Church, in which you are obliged to have membership? (4) It may never have occurred to you that the destiny of man—if it be association with God in everlasting glory—must be supernatural. If his destiny be supernatural, then the means whereby it is to be attained must also be supernatural. But surely no man can invent supernatural means of salvation. (5) You may call yourself a Bible Christian, but so do the Jehovah Witnesses; so do the Seventh Day Adventists, while you do not agree with them at all. The Bible has no au- thority except in the Catholic Church, because it was the Catholic Church which declared that book to be authentic and inspired. The Catholic Church had the Bible all to herself for *This and the following chapter have been published in small pam- phlet form for distribution, at reasonable cost, among non-Catho- lics. Entitled “God’s Plan for Your Salvation,” the pamphlet sells for only $3.50 per 100 copies, plus postage. 88 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND fifteen hundred years, and during that time could have altered it and Protestantism would know nothing about it, because Protestants accepted the Bible in the sixteenth century, with- out questioning its accuracy or authority. By that act it recog- nized the infallible authority of the Catholic Church which, in the fourth century, declared the writings contained in the Canon to be the word of God. The Bible can be inspired, and yet, as St. Peter reminds us, the reader can ‘‘wrest it to his own destruction” if he insists on interpreting it according to his own lights. You certainly do not believe that the Holy Ghost inspires each reader in view of the fact that the contradictory inter- pretations of it by its readers are responsible for the more than four hundred Protestant sects in the world. How, do you suppose, the people could have gotten their faith from the Bible during the first four centuries when it did not exist in its present form—yet those four centuries are called “the golden era of the Church,” the era when 10,000,000 martyrs who never saw the Bible, gave up their lives in testimony of the faith they had received through the preaching of the Apos- tles and their successors, and through the official interpretation of the Bible by the ruling power in the Church? The authority of the Bible falls when you deny the author- ity of the Church which declared it to be God’s revealed word. If you have heard that the Catholic Church would not permit her people to read the Bible, that she even “chained” it during the Middle Ages, you have heard fables. The so-called “chained” Bible was an “open” Bible. The chain was not drawn around a closed book, but was fastened to the cover of an open book displayed on a table in all churches. It was “chained” lest someone might steal it, because it was a prec- ious manuscript Bible, written on vellum or parchment. Paper THE BEST APPROACH TO NON-CATHOLICS 89 was not invented until the thirteenth century, and the printing press was not invented until the fifteenth century. The great artists of the Middle Ages showed their famil- iarity with the Bible by painting principally Bible scenes and Bible characters. The people showed their familiarity with the Bible in the so-called “miracle plays,” which were the common stage plays of those centuries. The priest, from the earliest times, has read from the Bible to the people at all public services, and the reverence which the Catholic Church has for the Bible is manifest during the Mass when the people stand at the reading of the gospel of the day and when the priest kisses the gospel book after reading from it. It is also manifest from the exhortations of the Popes, who not only urge every family to have a copy of the Bible in the home, but to read from it at least fifteen or twenty minutes each day. If you ever met Catholics who seem to be less able to quote from Holy Scripture than you are, it is because they feel cer- tain of the correctness of their faith without having to defend it from Holy Scripture. When Catholics read the Bible they read it, not to find their faith, but to strengthen it, and to be edified by such reading. (6) You may be one of those who hold, but would not be able to prove, that one religion is as good as another. If one religion be of divine, and others be of human origin, there must be an essential difference between one and all others. Try to settle this question of fact. If you do not believe that you have the right to go out today and start a new religion and promise eternal happiness to all who join you, then no human being in the past could have had that right—simply for the reason that no person may give what does not belong to him. Heaven be- longs to no man and, therefore, the greatest saint would not be empowered to institute a religion capable of leading his follow- 90 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND ers to the heavenly home of God. If Heaven is the exclusive property of God only He may offer it to anybody on any terms. (7) You may be one who believes that every person is born into this world a child of God, although your reason would insist that he can be only a creature until adopted by God as a child. If your child remains only a creature until it is adopted by God through the regenerating waters of Baptism, would you not want it to be a child of God from early infancy? (8) If you have regarded the Catholic religion as no dif- ferent from any other except insofar as it is older and more widespread, it is easy to understand why you have not been particularly interested in it. You may even have been quite opposed to it, because of the prejudices in which you have been reared. But has it never occurred to you that such prejudices existed against Christ and His Apostles, so much so that they were murdered? Cardinal Newman, G. K. Chesterton, Arnold Lunn, Dr. William E. Orchard, scholarly converts to the Catholic Church in England, entertained such prejudices for a long time, and the two latter even wrote books against the Catholic Church. Have you ever tried to ascertain what the Catholic Church has to say about herself? Sam Atkinson, the well known ration- alist, was bitter towards the Catholic Church and towards other religions as well. Strangely he became interested in Con- fucianism, and when he told a Catholic priest that he went to Confucius himself to learn about his philosophy, the priest asked whether he had ever gone to the Catholic Church itself to learn about the Catholic religion. His answer was that he had never read a Catholic book, but that he now would in order to be fair. The result was his conversion to the Catholic reli- gion. THE BEST APPROACH TO NON-CATHOLICS 91 If your mind has been poisoned against the Catholic Church by reading partisan history, I would call your attention to the fact that, at the present moment, a number of teachers of history at such universities as Harvard, Columbia, Prince- ton, New York University, Western Reserve University, be- came converts to the Catholic Church after making impartial research into history. If you have been taught that the Ages were “dark” during which the Catholic Church flourished throughout Europe, we would call your attention to the fact that most scholars recog- nize that the thirteenth century, when the Catholic Church flourished most, was, in many respects, the greatest of all cen- turies. It was the century of great saints, philosophers, artists, sculptors, scientists. Ralph Adams Crams, world-famous architect, is probably the greatest authority on the Middle Ages, and he suggests to our modern statesmen that they should go back to the so-called “dark” Ages, in order to obtain the “light” needed to show us the way out of the twentieth century chaos. You have probably heard of the Medievalists, an organiza- tion of men, mostly non-Catholic, which has branches in many cities . Their purpose is to emphasize the good things of the Middle Ages. If you have read that the Church too often tried to run the State, how about the modern tendency of the State to run the Church, to curtail its influence and even to destroy it? Those who have taken for granted that the Popes were wrong when they were in conflict with dictator kings, should be ready to change their minds in the light of the fulsome praise bestowed on recent Popes by the secular press for opposing such civil rulers as Stalin and Hitler. 92 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND We would ask you to note what the following scholars say about the misrepresentations of the Catholic Church in his- torical works written by men who themselves had been pre- viously poisoned by anti-Catholic propaganda contained in Pro- testant works of history. Dean Stanley—“Life and Letters of Dean Stanley” Vol. 1, p. 151. —“I am convinced that Protestantism in general treats Catholics with shameful ignorance and un- fairness.” Dr. Schaff—“Polit. Eccl. Con. U. S.” p. 230.—“The Roman Catholic Church is bemired from day to day with all possible calumnies.” Dr. Nightingale—“Rel. of All Nations” p. 16.—“In scarcely a single instance has a case concerning them (Catholics) been fairly stated; the channels of history, not grossly corrupted.” Dr. Littledale—In Innovations , p. 16. —“Two menda- cious partisans, the infamous Foxe and the not much more respectable Burnet, have so overlaid all the history of the Reformation with falsehood, that it has been well nigh impossible for readers to get at the facts.” Dr. Johnson — “His Relig. Life,” etc., p. 1U9.—“In the present day there is much vituperation of Roman Catholic belief.” Hyndman—In “Hist. Basis of Socialism in England,” p. 15. —“Protestant divines fail to discover anything but luxury, debauchery and hypocrisy in the Catholic Church of the fifteenth century. It is high time that, without any prejudice in favor of that Church, the nonsense which has been foisted on to the public by men interested in suppressing the facts should be exposed. It is not true that the Church of our ancestors was the organized fraud which it suits fanatics to represent it.” THE BEST APPROACH TO NON-CATHOLICS 93 What About Your Sins? What if the Catholic religion be essentially different from all others? What if you were convinced beyond doubt that you could have your sins forgiven in the Catholic Church? When the great scholar and writer, Gilbert K. Chesterton, was asked to give the chief reason for his conversion, he answered : “There were many important reasons, but chief among them was that I wanted to make sure that I could have my sins forgiven.” You are right in your notion that only God can forgive sin. but God has always dealt with man through man, and what if He actually did commit to His Church the power of forgiving sins in His name? What if you were convinced that Christ is actually present under the Eucharistic form in every Catholic church in order “to give rest to those who labor and are heavily laden”? This may, at first, be difficult to believe, but if God is willing to take man to His own home in Heaven, why should He not be willing to live among men on earth? We could instance here scores of conversions started by a quiet visit of a non-Catholic to a Catholic church at a time when only the power of the Eucharist could have influenced them. What if you believed that the Catholic Church was in pos- session of supernatural things, by which divine life is brought to the soul, and then promoted, so that it may be made worthy of everlasting association with God in the supernatural glory of Heaven? This certainly is worth finding out. Not only does the Roman Catholic Church claim these things, but the 100,000,000 Greeks claim them, and so do Oriental Christian sects, which are one thousand years older than any Protestant religion. 94 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND claim them. Evidently, therefore, they must have been ack- nowledged by all the Christians in the world until the time of the so-called Reformation. What if you have been the victim, along with hundreds of thousands of others, of anti-Catholic propaganda, just as most people in the world today have been victims of other sorts of propaganda? Begin to Pray for Guidance You are probably acquainted with some Catholics who are anything but saints. But if you had an acquaintance with many Catholics you would probably know some who are exceptionally good. But saints and sinners have a place in Christ’s Church. Those who are saints owe their sanctity principally to the Church. Those who are sinners, are what they are because they do not live according to the teachings of the Church. The Church was intended by Christ to make saints out of sinners. Therefore it is expected that sinners should be in the Church. Christ declared that He came “not to call the righteous but sinners to penance.” He noted that “those who are well need not a physician, but rather those who are sick.” It was God’s wish that every person on earth, in whatsoever country he would live, should be a member of His universal Kingdom in this world—citizens of their own respective country and citi- zens in His Kingdom as well. The Communist who has no use for the Catholic Church, but who has had considerable influence in Labor Unions, charges the Catholic Church with being on the side of Capital- ism, despite the fact that fifty years ago Pope Leo XIII issued an Encyclical on Capital and Labor, which showed him to be fifty years ahead of his time. Ten years ago Pope Pius XI wrote a similar Encyclical, commemorating the fortieth anni- versary of his predecessor’s famous document, places the THE BEST APPROACH TO NON-CATHOLiCS Catholic Church definitely on the side of Social Justice, partic- ularly for the workingman. The late Heywood Broun, the noted newspaper columnist, had no use for any of the churches until he discovered, only a year before he died, that the Catholic Church was the truest friend of the toiler, of the underprivileged. You have probably heard the story of the infidel who, after much persuasion agreed to pray conditionally. He fell on his knees and prayed: “0, God, if there be a God, have mercy on my soul, if I have a bouI.” Now it is likely that you believe both in a God and in an immortal soul. If you do, you should be all the more ready to pray to God that he may enlighten you to know whether, among the four hundred religious organizations in the United States, there be not one which He would acknowledge as His own, holding a commission to teach in His name, and entrusted with the means of supernatural life. No one, who ever took the trouble to investigate the claims of the Catholic religion honestly, was ever disappointed; no convert, who ever studied the Catholic religion and practiced it faithfully, ever regretted his step. On the contrary, nearly everyone of the hundreds of thousands of converts in the United States will testify that he found in the Catholic Church the greatest joy and happiness. The Nature Of The Church And The Dignity Of The Christian Orestes A. Brownson, probably the greatest philosopher in America during the last century, after having tried Socialism, Congregationalism and Presbyterianism, was converted to the Catholic religion, largely because of the appeal which the Church, in the Catholic sense, had for him. After his conver- sion he expressed in very beautiful language the relationship of the Church to individuals and vice versa. He wrote : “The Church is not merely an aggregation of indi- viduals, deriving her being and life from the individuals aggregated, put an organism living her own divine life from her own center, and imparting life to her members. The life flows, not from the members to her, but from her to them . . . The Christian does not precede and make the Church, or impart to her the Christian life, but rather the reverse—the Church assimilates to herself individuals and congregations by a law analogous to that by which the body assimilates the food which is eaten, and converts into living flesh . . . The Church can no more derive her life from her members than in the natural order the mother can derive her natural life from her children ! . . . Hence St. Paul teaches that the relation of husband and wife, in the Sacrament of Marriage, is a figure of the re- lation of Christ and the Church. The Church is called the bride, the spouse of Christ, and is the mother of His chil- dren. The believer is begotten by the Holy Ghost, and born of her, and nourished at her breast, and we always call her ‘our mother/ ” The true Church of Christ is divine not only because He, Who was divine, founded it, but because the Holy Spirit of God actually lives in it, guides it, teaches through it, and dis- penses divine life to its members. The true Church of Christ is a living organism, composed of both body and soul the same as yourself. Therefore it is not merely a religious organization , such as those founded by men. NATURE OP CHURCH AND DIGNITY OF CHRISTIAN 91 St. Paul tells us (Col. 1, 18.) that the Church is a body of which Christ Himself is the head. Into that body Christ, upon His return to Heaven, sent the Holy Spirit “to abide with it forever/’ as its soul. Paul also tells us (Rom. 11, 16-24) that the member of the Church must be grafted on this divine body, if he would hope to share its divine life. This truth is stated beautifully in the Parable of the Vine and the Branches. Christ said “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Just as the branch can bear no fruit unless it remain united to the vine, so neither can you unless you remain united to Me.” The Christian must be united to Christ by being a living member of His body, the Church. The implication is that those who are not members of Christ’s Church, although they may live good lives in a natural way, cannot bear fruit that has supernatural and, therefore, Heaven-earning value. The dignity which man would possess after his redemption by Christ, provided he would become a follower of Christ through active membership in His Church, was kept a secret with God throughout all eternity and was revealed to the angels only through the Church, according to St. Paul (Eph. Ill, 9ff). We were not born into the Kingdom of Christ. St. Paul tells us that God transferred us from the “power of darkness to the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love.” Adam and Eve, before their sin, were closely united to God by grace, but God did not dwell personally within their souls as the Holy Spirit dwells personally in the soul of the re- generated Christian as long as he lives free from grievous sin. The same Sacrament of Baptism which elevates the child of man to the rank of child of God, and through which “he is born again of the Holy Ghost” (John 3, 5.), also makes him a 98 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND member of the body of Christ—called frequently by St. Matt- hew “the Kingdom of Heaven’' in this world. Just as the Holy Ghost entered the body of the Church on Pentecost, so also did He enter the souls of the individual Apostles, and of the more than one hundred others gathered to- gether with them in the Cenacle at Jerusalem (Acts 2, 1-4.) Just as the Church is called “the Kingdom of Heaven” in this world, because the Holy Ghost animates it, governs it, and through it dispenses divine love, so the human body, which houses a soul in which the Holy Ghost dwells, is called “a temple of the Holy Ghost” (I Cor. 6, 19.). I have already declared that no one is born into this world as a child of God. But St. John tells us that “to as many as re- ceive Christ is given the power to become the sons of God” (John I, 12.) That sonship is conferred through the Sacra- ment of Baptism, which the same Apostle (John 3. 5.) tells us actually imparts a new birth, the birth to a supernatural life, lacking which we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. St. Peter informs us that once we are made God’s adopted children we become “the elect of God,” “domestics of God,” and a “chosen generation.” These characterizations may sound like exaggerated figures of speech, but St. John insists that we are not only “called but are children of God” after Baptism. When we become the adopted children of God we actually become brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. Hence St. Peter rightfully says we become “domestics of God,” i.e., members of the very family of God. If all this seems just too good to be true, we must recall that it is much more difficult to believe that the Son of God came down from Heaven and permitted Himself to be mur- dered for our salvation than, after believing that, to believe NATURE OF CHURCH AND DIGNITY OF CHRISTIAN 99 that His infinite love would invent a means to keep redeemed man close to Him. That is why the doctrine of the Holy Euch- arist, as believed by Catholics, is so appealing. It presents Christ in His infinite love for the individual soul, which He not only craves to bring safely to Heaven, but which He also craves to live with while it is struggling for everlasting life. If this doctrine be new to you, it is only additional proof of what we have contended, namely, that the Catholic Church is essentially different from others; that it is not only God’s Kingdom on earth through which we pass into His Kingdom in Heaven, but it is God’s agency to lead and prepare man for his everlasting well-being. Read A Book Which Explains This booklet does not contain explanations of the separate doctrines of the Church, but is intended merely to stimulate the reader to seek further information about the Catholic Church, not from her enemies, but from her own representatives. [We would suggest the reading of Father Smith Instructs Jackson, published by Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, Indiana.] No man or woman can pretend to possess a liberal educa- tion unless he or she will make an impartial study of the Cath- olic Church. If this statement, on the face of it, seems sur- prising, let us only take note of the fact that the Catholic Church was the civilizer and the Christianizer of all of Europe; that the history of no European country can be understood apart from the Catholic Church; that the world owes the Bible to her, as well as the preservation of all the writings of an- tiquity, such as the Latin and Greek classics, which you studied in high school and college. Whatever books were written between the dawn of Chris- tianity and the sixteenth century were written by her sons and daughters. The “smear” campaign, which was started by kings 100 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND and princes of the Hitler type several centuries ago, and con- tinued ever since by the infidel, the Communist, the Socialist, and by badly informed, even though well-meaning, writers and clergymen, should not obscure the great blessings which the world owes to the Catholic Church. The great English statesman, Gladstone, said of her: “She has marched for fifteen hundred years (since the days of Constantine) at the head of civilization, and has harnessed to her chariot as the horses of a triumphal car, the chief intellectual and material forces of the world : her art, the art of the world; her genius, the genius of the world; her greatness, glory, grandeur and majesty, have been almost, though not absolutely all that in these respects the world has had to boast of.” Thomas Lomax Hunter, non-Catholic columnist of the Richmond Times Dispatch, wrote only recently (in the spring of 1942) : “It lived through the overthrow of the Roman Em- pire; the rise of Mohammedanism, and turned it back from the conquest of Europe at Tours and Lepanto. It endured the terrors of the Tartar invasions. When I hear politicians talking about the overthrow of Christian civi- lization, I look at the Roman Catholic Church and am com- forted. You can persecute it but you can’t kill it. Stalin and Stalinism are but a passing incident. The Church bell will ring for the Kremlin again ... If I had to pick out any institution certain to survive the present world-mad- ness, I should unhesitatingly put my hand on the Roman Catholic Church. Armored in its uncompromising super- naturalism, there it stands, eternal and indefectible.” Why Is Membership In God’s Church Necessary ? The majority of our countrymen regard religious prac- tice as purely an affair between themselves personally and God. They may hold that it is good to belong to a religious organi- zation, but contend that it is not necessary; they imintam that they are quite as good, or could be just as good, who I NATURE OF CHURCH AND DIGNITY OF CHRISTIAN 101 profess themselves Christians, affiliated to a Christian body. Their religious opinions may be as good as those of numerous people who belong to the churches, but who are in woeful dis- agreement and openly acknowledge that they are not sure of themselves. But all this is actually beside the question. The opinions of people count for nothing, no matter how sincere, if Al- mighty God has actually made a very definite revelation. It should be easy, even for the uncultured mind, to comprehend that the Creator has a right to demand that He be known as far as He chose to reveal Himself; that He has a right to de- mand definite service for an eternal prize; that if He has de- stined His children on earth to supernatural beatitude in eter- nity, supernatural means for its attainment must be placed within everyone’s reach. All this seems so simple that one must wonder that it is not patent to everybody. We might arrive at many conclusions, mathematical, scientific, economic, by our own serious study, but we cannot learn what Almighty God actually wants of us unless He Him- self tells us. We could not, for instance, know that there are three persons in one God, that the second Person of the Blessed Trinity became man, that the souls of our first parents were endowed with supernatural as well as natural life, that a spec- ial ordinance in the Church is capable of conferring this super- natural life on every soul, that there are other ordinances cal- culated to promote this life—we could not know these and many other things apart from revelation. Moreover, we could not reasonably expect that the revelation, as it was originally made, would be safeguarded through the centuries in its ori- ginal accuracy without divine protection for the institution to which it was committed. 102 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND Every land is filled with numerous courts, and with hun- dreds of men versed in the law, yet how often within any man’s lifetime is not the highest court of the land asked to give an official interpretation of a law or to pass on the constitutional- ity of some measure for which legal sanction is requested. The true Church of Christ must have received its teaching direct from Christ, and that is receiving it in a supernatural way; it must continue to be Christ’s Church, and this means that, throughout the centuries, it must ever teach the same, and be competent to give utterance to official decisions relating to matters revealed or presumably revealed, and to matters which deal with morals. In other words, the Church must know both what has been revealed by the Almighty, and what is necessary in the matter of conduct for our salvation. Then if salvation itself be of the supernatural order, the Church must be in possession of divinely-instituted helps which make such a salvation attainable. We have already intimated that the means of salvation must be of the same order as salvation itself. Now evidently such means could not be invented by men. Only a God can give divine things, can give supernatural things. We are taught that God enlightens and strengthens the soul supernaturally by actual grace, in order that it may be able to discern good from evil, and be enabled to do the good and to avoid the evil. With the help of this actual grace many a pagan to whom the definite things of revelation have never been brought home, is enabled to elicit an act of perfect love and perfect contrition, through which sanctifying grace is introduced into his soul — without the help of any special religious ordinance or sacra- ment. But this is not the ordinary way in which people are to be saved. They are expected to become citizens in Christ’s Kingdom; are expected to be instructed in the teachings and NATURE OF CHURCH AND DIGNITY OF CHRISTIAN 103 laws of that Kingdom. They are expected to participate in the divinely instituted form of worship in that Kingdom ; they are expected to promote their soul’s sanctification through the re- ception of the Sacraments, committed to that Kingdom. Isn’t it clear that only by using the supernatural we can hope to grow supernaturally, and to reach a supernatural des- tiny? But isn’t it equally clear that only a Church of actual divine origin, divinely protected against the gates of hell, divinely commissioned to teach and to dispense the mysteries of God, of which it alone can be in possession, can be adequate for the purpose? The best way to trace the continuity of the Catholic Church from the time of Christ is to go back over the list of Popes from Pope Pius XII to Peter; and it is nearly as easy as to trace the succession of Presidents from Roosevelt to Wash- ington. St. Augustine, who wrote in the early part of the fifth century to prove the apostolicity of the Catholic Church against the Donatists, records the names of Popes and the order of their succession up to his time, and from that day it is easy. St. Augustine wrote: “For, if it be a question of Episcopal succession, the surest way is to count from Peter himself, to whom, as rep- resenting the whole Church, the Lord said: ‘On this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not pre- vail against her’. To Peter succeeded Linus; to Linus, Cletus ; to Cletus, Clement ; to Clement, Evaristus ; to Evaristus, Alexander; to Alexander, Sixtus; to Sixtus, Telesphorus; to Telesphorus, Hyginus; to Hyginus, Pius; to Pius, Anicete; to Anicete, Soter; to Soter, Eleutherius; to Eleutherius, Victor; to Victor, Zephyrinus; to Zephy- rinus, Calixtus; to Calixtus, Urban; to Urban, Pontian; to Pontian, Antherus ; to Antherus, Fabianus ; to Fabianus, Cornelius; to Cornelius, Lucius; to Lucius, Stephen; to 104 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND Stephen, Sixtus; to Sixtus, Dionisius; to Dionisius, Felix; to Felix, Eutichianus; to Eutichianus, Caius; to Caius, Marcellinus; to Marcellinus, Marcellus; to Marcellus, Eu- sebius; to Eusebius, Melchiades; to Melchiades, Sylvester; to Sylvester, Marcus; to Marcus, Julius; to Julius, Liber- ius; to Liberius, Damasus; to Damasus, Siricius; to Siri- cius, Anastasius, who now occupies the same See.” Another reliable record of the Catholic Church’s life is to be found in the General Councils held by her in nearly every century. They constitute a sort of diary, reporting what she stood for and what she had to contend with throughout her whole existence. These Councils were held at Nice (325) ; Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431); Chalcedon (451); Con- stantinople (680), etc. until the last General Council of the Vatican, held in 1870. The Greek Church, then in union with Rome, participated in these Councils, until the 9th century, presided over by the Pope or his delegate. Then there are extant the writings of the Church’s apolo- gists in the early centuries, such as Clement, the third Pope, Irenaeus, Polycarp, the Disciple of St. John the Apostle, Ori- gen, Tertullian, of the second century, Cyprian, Augustine, Jerome, Gregory, Cyril, etc., whose writings we often quote to show the sameness of our belief with that of the early Church. How Orthodox Is Protestantism? That America needs more religion every observant person will readily admit, but those who are most eager to bring reli- gion to the 70,000,000 who possess none of it, are greatly puzzled. It is difficult to establish a basis of agreement on what Christianity means, or even to arouse interest in religion among people who are unfamiliar with its A B C’s. The aver- age non-Catholic American is committed to the theory that “religion is a good thing,” but he has no definite ideas concern- ing those truths which are fundamental to the Christian reli- gion, such as the divinity of Christ, the need of infallible au- thority, or even the existence of one Church. He respects everyone’s religious “opinions,” but never thinks of them as convictions; and he regards religious expression as an emo- tional reflex. As far as morals go he is more likely to subscribe to those Christian standards which are of lesser than to those which are of greater importance. He might be opposed, for instance, to raffles, and petty gambling, but not to remarriage after di- vorce, nor to pre-natal murder. Imagine, if you can, to what sort of “spiritual values” most of our politicians would subscribe, although, in their speeches they are fond to declare that these must be empha- sized more than material values. What sort of an answer, do you suppose, you would receive if you asked the average United States Senator or Congressman or member of the President’s Cabinet, “Do you believe that Christ was actually God?” George Herbert Betts, of Northwestern University, ad- dressed that question and other questions to 1500 ministers, 700 106 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND of whom sent him an answer; 500 of these were actually in charge of churches, and 200 were getting ready for “ordina- tion.” The clergymen represented twenty denominations in Chicago, and in its environs extending forty miles from the city. All the larger Protestant denominations were represented in the poll, the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Congrega- tionalism Episcopalian, Evangelical, Lutheran—and thirteen others. Of the Protestant clergymen in charge of parishes only 76% believed in the divinity of Christ; only 80% that Christ was born of a virgin; only 82% that He rose again from the dead; only 73% in the resurrection of man’s body; only 67% believed in original sin; only 35% in the necessity of baptism; only 41% believed that it is necessary to belong to a church at all; and 43% believed that, regardless of creed or personal be- lief, people should be received into church membership. The averages would not be nearly as high as recorded if Lutherans and Episcopalians had not been included. The clergymen of the former organization were nearly as orthodox as Catholics. The answers received from those ready to be ordained to the ministry were given separately to indicate the trend to greater liberalism in religion. Of these only 44% believed in the Trinity; only 64% that God is omnipotent; only 38% that He is unchangeable; only 24% that God has wrought any mir- acles; only 9% that there is a devil; only 8% that the Bible was written under inspiration; only 27% that Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Christ; only 25% that Jesus was born of a virgin; only 44% that His power was equal to that of God; only 45% that He had power to restore the dead to life; only 29% that His death was the one act which made pos- sibly the forgiveness of man’s sins; only 42% believed in the HOW ORTHODOX IS PROTESTANTISM? 107 Resurrection; only 18%, in the resurrection of the body; only 20%, in eternal punishment; only 18%, that man’s fate in eternity is determined by his spiritual status at the time of death; only 17%, in a general judgment; only 13%, in original sin; only 14% in the necessity of Baptism; only 16% that it is necessary to belong to any church. If Christian clergymen themselves deny most of the things which, for long centuries, were regarded as fundamental, what can be expected of the laity, who have never had any religious instruction? The non-Catholic laity are urged to read the Bible, but only 30% of the Methodists and 15% of the Congre- gationalists hold that one must believe that the Bible was in- spired. These and clergymen of all the other denominations, except the Lutheran, held that “the Bible was written as other great literature is written, by men who were subject to error of knowledge and understanding” ; it contains myths and legends. Mr. Betts deduces certain conclusions from a study of his poll. Some of these conclusions are : (1) No denomination, except perhaps the Lutheran, has any right to demand that fixed creeds should be taught the young ; that the clergy of no other denomination subscribe to a common creed beyond belief in the existence of a God. (2) Greater differences of belief are shown between in- dividual ministers of the same denomination than between totals for different denominations. (3) There is no good reason why separate Protestant or- ganizations should exist—except, perhaps, the Lutheran. (4) As compared with the ministers the beliefs of theo- logical students reflect a more distinct drift away from the older or orthodox positions, and a tendency to be in accord with the scientific thought of the day. [He might have said with the infidel and rationalistic thought of the day]. 108 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND (5) Religion itself is as much a product of social revolu- tion as is democracy, education or industrialism. . . . and no religion as practiced by the masses rises higher than the social ethic of its time. (6) A creed dealing with a few great areas of experience, such as God and His attributes ; man, His life and destiny, the universe and its control, would have very general acceptance among major denominations. (7) A brief simple creed, such as this, would, for most persons, meet the universal psychological need for religious belief. (8) Recognizing the wide diversity of belief on the part of intelligent persons, no individual or sect has the right to en- force on the young beliefs peculiar to that individual or sect. Mr. Betts quotes from letters received from a number of clergymen which give evidence of their hypocrisy. One de- clared that he says with reservation, when reciting the Apos- tles’ Creed with the congregation, the words “I believe in the resurrection of the body.” Another minister reported that he personally suppresses the words in the Creed “born of the Virgin Mary.” A third reported “I am not in accord with some of the be- liefs held by a considerable proportion of my congregation. If I preached what I believed I would disturb and offend many of my congregation.” A fourth reported that his superiors hold him to be a “heretic,” but that because he is honest they tolerate him. Mr. Betts, who took this survey, writes in the Foreword to his book: “Happily, the day of the Catechism as the chief basis of religious instruction has passed. Happily also, the in- fluence of long, complicated formal creeds is waning . . . Some of the beliefs carefully taught a few generations HOW ORTHODOX IS PROTESTANTISM? 109 ago as settled doctrines of the Church are no longer re- garded as essential by the mass of Christians.” If America is to be reChristianized, it is evident that we must begin at the bottom, namely with the child, and trust that “a little child shall lead” the parents. If we would have non-Catholics give consideration to the Catholic viewpoint it will be necessary to drop the defensive and start an offensive presentation of the Church’s teaching in relation to Christ’s divinity, therefore the divinity of His religion, the authority behind that religion, its supernatural character and the essential difference from all other religious organizations. Every Christian Must Crusade For Christ More disturbing than the war itself are the sad pros- pects for post-war conditions, if followers of Christ here and elsewhere will not begin, even now, to check the influence of those who are thinking of everything else than of Him or His interests in the new world order they hope to see established. Our President has promised to take care of the “freedom of religion” after the war; but who is going to restore to the nations “a common norm of morality,” which our present Pon- tiff declares to be far more paramount? In the new world order those things must obtain, whose absence, the Popes have told us, occasioned the national and international ills of the past several decades. Archbishop Spellman, of New York, recently observed: “The abandonment of Christ, and His teachings, in personal life, in social life, in civic life and in inter- national life, has brought us to the end of the world we have known. The way back to peace with justice through victory is in the identical order—personal righteousness, social decency, civic morality and international probity.” We are frequently told that the United Nations must win the peace as well as the war. Win the peace from whom and for what? We must try to make all Americans as intensely inter- ested in winning a post-war peace for Christ as they are now interested in winning the war itself. Their one absorbing interest today is this war, the progress of which is kept be- fore them in prominent headlines in every newspaper; in the magazines dealing with the analyses of the news of the week; in national and international radio broadcasts; in the EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 111 appeal for the purchase of war stamps and bonds; in the registration for war service, for civilian defense; in the vast appropriations by the government for ordnance plants, new mills and factories designed solely to produce instruments of war. Face to face with these reminders, living in a war- saturated atmosphere, every citizen in the land is war-con- scious, and he is prodded on to take this war seriously and to lend every possible support towards its successful prosecu- tion and conclusion. Our Citizens Should Also Become Religion-Conscious Now it is this kind of agitation for God, for Christ, for the recognition and observance of God’s commandments, that is needed throughout the world—and it should not be postponed. If we had propaganda for Christ, supported by the Federal government, by national radio programs and exhorta- tions, by news commentators, by the editors of papers and magazines, by the movies, by school teachers, by the directors of recreational programs, America would become aroused to a higher pitch of enthusiasm for an all-out victory for God than that which it now exhibits for a victory over the enemies of the human race. Viscount Bryce, writing in the Laymen's Bulletin , Lon- don, sometime ago, pointed out that religion could do all the things which I have indicated it should do, when he observed: “It (religion) is the strongest moral force because it appeals to all men, not to those only who are fit to re- ceive learning and philosophy. Further it has been and is strong because it appeals to the noblest and deepest parts of human nature.” If all who are interested in getting America on God’s side in this war, in order that it may be made worthy of having God on its side, were to wire or write to the President and 112 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND members of Congress as they wire and write about hundreds of other things of relatively insignificant importance; if they wrote to the editors of newspapers, to the radio broadcasting companies, to the superintendents and principals of schools, requesting them to talk prayer, repentance, and conduct in keeping with God’s commandments, and if they forced response, everybody would become religion-conscious, God’s great in- terests in this world would be brought to the fore, the spir- itual, the supernatural, God’s plan of salvation and His terms, would become subjects of daily inquiry and conversation. Out of this interest would ensue a general recognition of the sovereignty of God, of the allegiance which both ruler and subject owe to Him, of the source of man’s rights, and of his correlative duties to both God and his fellows, of the eternal law of justice and charity, as applied to human re- lations ; and such recognition would determine the basis for the establishment of a tranquil order of society and then of its permanency. If Man's Duties to God Were Widely Publicized If the subject of religion and right living were upper- most in everyone’s mind, as representing the one thing neces- sary, religious instruction would be brought to every child in the nation; religious papers would reach every home; fam- ily life would become holier and happier and, therefore, the divorce evil would soon disappear; the nation’s $15,000,000,- 000 crime bill would be reduced by four-fifths; the lewd magazine would go out of existence; in the light of its al- most divine dignity and its divine everlasting destiny the child would be wanted and, therefore, the practice of contra- ception would become a rare thing; the Christian brotherhood which would develop would cure the evils of capitalism and of class conflicts; and Socialism and Communism would lose EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 113 their appeal ; and millions would probably knock at the priest's door for instruction. To establish just such a condition of society God became Incarnate; to bring such a state of society to realization through the sanctification of the individual, is the one mission of the Church; it is the thing for which Christ taught us to pray in the first petitions of that prayer par excellence, which He enjoined on all children of the common Heavenly Father: that His name may be hallowed; that His Kingdom may come, that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is not, therefore, a phantasy for which I plead, but for the things which St. Paul demanded the “elect of God," the “chosen generation," the “fellow citizens of the saints,” to make actual. I know you will counter to my optimism the perversity of the human will, the evil inclinations of the human being. But Christ thought of those things when He came down on earth to teach and to promulgate His moral law, and to in- stitute those divine ordinances which make their keeping possible and easy. He thought of those things when He furnished His Church with the sacraments which elevate mere creatures of God to the rank of children of God, and children of God to the rank of soldiers in His army, commissioned as crusaders to fight for the one great cause which infinitely transcends all others. The Apostles thought of those things when they went out to soften hearts of stone and make Christian martyrs out of Jews and pagans—and succeeded. If it is possible for one person to become a saint it is possible for all to become saints. If for centuries the kings and emperors of the world believed themselves obligated to rule in the name of God, from Whom they received their 114 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND power and authority, then kings and emperors and presi- dents can believe that way today; if the constitutions of states in the past were built on the laws of God, they can be so built anew; and our President has told us that he wants them built that way. Speaking of government John Ruskin said: “The mo- ment government ceases to be the practical enforcement of Divine Law it is tyranny”; and speaking of religion, he says: “Anything which makes religion the second object, makes religion no object. God will put up with a great many things in the human heart, but there is one thing He will not put up with in it—a second place. He who offers God a second place, offers Him no place.” What Ruskin said in the following words is far more true today than when he uttered them: “The world, unquestioned by others or by itself, mingles with and overwhelms the small body of Christians, legislates for them, moralizes for them, reasons for them, and though it itself is, of course, greatly and beneficiently influenced by the association, and held in check by its pre- tence of Christianity, yet undermines in nearly the same degree the sincerity and practical power of Christianity itself.” This situation must be altered. “I have overcome the world,” said Christ, and if He has relost it His Church is bound to fight for its restoration. “This is the victory, which overcometh the world, our faith,” said St. John, and we who have that faith are in conscience bound to win this victory for it. Pope Leo XIII wrote these forceful words in his En- cyclical, Christ Our Redeemer : “The security of the State demands that we should be brought back to Him, from Whom we ought never to have departed ; to Him Who is the Way, the Truth and EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 115 the Life, not as individuals merely, but as human so- ciety through all its extent. Christ our Lord must be reinstated as the Ruler of human society. It belongs to Him, as do all its members. All the elements of the commonwealth; legal commands and prohibitions, popu- lar institutions, schools, marriage, home-life, the work- shop, and the palace, all must be made to come to that fountain and imbibe the life that comes from Him. No one should fail to see that on this largely depends the civilization of nations.” He continues: “Never to have known Jesus Christ in any way is the greatest of misfortunes, but it involves no perver- sity or ingratitude. But having known Him, to reject or forget Him is so great a crime as to be scarcely credible. “The case of governments is much the same as that of the individual; they also must run into fatal issues, if they depart from the way. The Creator and Redeemer of human nature, the Son of God, is King and Lord of the world, and holds absolute sovereignty over men, both as individuals and as members of society. God, His Fath- er, hath given to Him power and honor and dominion; and all peoples, tribes and languages shall serve Him.” Christopher Dawson, after quoting the words of Pope Pius to the effect that no political arrangement, no new order, no League of Nations, no international institution will help us if our civilization falls into the power of blind forces, observes : “We have to arm ourselves for a spiritual conflict with the organized forces of evil which, as St. Paul says, are not merely material or human, but are themselves spiritual, ‘world rulers’ of this darkness.” Cardinal Van Roey, of Belgium, in a pastoral directed to his people only a few months ago, reminded them of the same truth: “The Church claims and should claim the right to 116 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND teach those moral principles which govern life. Not only the individual and private life of every person, but also the life of the family, the society and the State. The heads of States, kings and the mightiest emperors are subject like all other men to the divine and natural law. Like all men and like all statesmen they are subject to these laws in every sphere and in all their actions, alike in the political, national and international domains. “The Church will never renounce Her right of pro- claiming the truth and showing what is just and un- just, of defining and defending the rights and duties of individuals as well as families and states.” In his first Encyclical, October 20, 1939, Pope Pius XII pointed out what must be fought to win this victory. He wrote : “The deep and ultimate root of present day evils is the rejection of the universal norm of morality, from which results a practical denial of God, of divinity, and of the teachings of Christ. Hence there is derived a sad- dening return of paganism to the distress of consciences and of States . . . “Many, perhaps, while abandoning the teachings of Christ, are not fully conscious of being led astray by the mirage of glittering phrases. “They do not realize they are resigning themselves to the whims of poor, fickle human wisdom. “They speak of ‘progress’ when they are going back; of being ‘raised’ when they grovel; of ‘arriving at man’s estate’ when they stoop to servility.” Will Politicians Write The Peace ? On Christmas, 1941, Pope Pius XII declared, without equiv- ocation, that “there is no salvation for the world, but in Christ.” But, how is Christ to be brought back to society? Is it to be done by laymen, unaided by the Church? By poli- ticians, economists, university professors, or even states- EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 117 men, few among whom know the A. B. C/s of religion, and have ever seriously concerned themselves about a moral code? Name a single statesman, or any combination of states- men, whom you would trust to rebuild society, to convert chaos into order, to decide or even to think unselfishly when weighing the national interests and the lasting welfare of friend and foe alike. Within a month after Pearl Harbor the Methodist Church brought together 1200 college students of that faith to the University of Illinois to consider plans for post-war recon- struction. The papers reported that student leaders present represented every state in the Union, and that the Board of Missions had sent fifty foreign students to the Conference. Would you trust these zealous students, probably aided by the International Student Service, which, according to the Organ of the National Federation of Catholic College Students, “has always been under the direction of left-wing leader- ship/’ to guide our statesmen? Protestant Leaders Admit Incompetency Would you trust the aggregate of Protestant churches? Only last month (March, 1942) the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America called to a conference, at Ohio Wesleyan University, 384 men, representing more than ’thirty denominations, to discuss post-war problems, and what did they decide? The Conference, representing three-fourths of all the Protestants in the nation, felt competent only to discuss and pass resolutions for better political and economic international relationships between nations. It demanded a “world gov- ernment of delegated powers ; complete abandonment of United States’ isolationism; strong immediate limitations on national sovereignty; international control of all armies and 118 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND navies; a universal system of money; world-wide freedom of immigration; progressive elimination of all tariff and quota restrictions on world trade; autonomy for all subject or colonial people; no punitive reparations; no humiliating decrees of war guilt, no arbitrary dismemberment of nations,” etc. All these recommendations may be good, but how about religion’s case? One clergyman probably spoke the mind of the entire Conference when he admitted that Protestantism’s disunity would make it powerless to do anything religiously constructive for the world. Hence the Conference could only generalize on religion and morals as follows: “Christian citizens must seek to translate their be- liefs into practical realities, and to create a public opinion which will insure that the United States shall play its full and essential part in the creation of a moral way of international living.” A defeatist attitude was taken by Dr. William Patton, of England, co-secretary of the World Conference of Churches, who told the delegates, “Collectivism is coming, whether we like it or not.” On the subject of Peace, the Conference issued this harm- less statement: “The first post-war duty of the Church will be the achievement of a just peace settlement, with due regard to the welfare of all the nations, the vanquished, the over- run and the victors alike.” I would not have you gather the impression that the average non-Catholic clergyman or layman would not be deeply interested in a loftier spiritual and moral order throughout the world, or that Protestantism should not have representation at the Peace Table. I merely observe that the separate denominations of Protestantism cannot speak with EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 119 any force, and that collectively they cannot speak with any authority. Individual non-Catholic clergymen and laymen have spoken as forcibly as Catholics in characterizing the war as a chastisement of Heaven, and in emphasizing the need of a truly Christian order for the preservation of civilization; but they confess their incompetency to set the Christian forces in motion. Dr. Felix Adler, the Jewish educator, had the courage to say lately: “At the root of the world’s catastrophe is the im- moral behavior of mankind. Faulty moral ideals, and not defective economic theories, are primarily responsible for the ills besetting mankind. The way out is by the slow growth of the spiritual ideal.” But can the Jews bring Christ back into the world? Roger W. Babson, only recently, wrote these words : “One thing is certain, namely, the world cannot re- cover from this deluge as long as it ignores God and His laws. This is what brought on World War II. It will be Christ or chaos after the armistice . . . “We sincerely hope the Churches of America will soon unite and state courageously that the world must turn over a new leaf in order to bring peace. Not only must the United States lead this return to God, but we who are enjoying security and comforts should lead in such a spiritual awakening.” Babson says he “hopes” the churches of America will soon unite to save civilization. But many non-Catholic schol- ars, with whom our President seems to agree, hold that re- ligious help can come only from the Catholic Church? What we say about the helplessness of Protestant America to bring God’s cause to the Peace Table is equally true of Protestant England. 120 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND England Does Not Practice Religion According to the World Almanac of 1942, only 7,000,000 people out of 44,000,000 in England are active members of the churches, and these include the 2,361,504 Catholics, who, by the way, are more numerous than members of the Estab- lished Church. Deduct the Catholics, and the combined mem- bership of Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and other re- ligious in England is under 5,000,000, or only one-ninth of the population. In other words, eight-ninths of the non-Catholics of England are not even members, much less regular patrons, of the churches. Neither Does The United States In our own country patronage of the churches by pro- fessed members is declining from year to year. But that the majority of church going people in our nation are not with God is evidenced by their attitude towards the most im- portant divine laws. They believe in divorce, which means that they believe in that which Christ very clearly designated “adultery”; they believe in contraception, which Holy Scrip- ture stigmatizes as “a detestable thing.” In fact most of them seem to subscribe to the non-Catholic doctrine of the professors, sociologists, psychologists and communists, that there is no stable moral code. Our Government, while recognizing God and His ruler- ship, and attributing the rights of men directly to their Creator, has most inconsistently, over a period of one hun- dred years, excluded instruction about God and about man’s rights from the classroom, and has penalized those who seek such instruction in a different system of schools. We have no reason, therefore, to be complacent, and to hope for ultimate victory for our armed forces in this war, and for a just and healthy state of society following it, either EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 121 on the assumption that God is certainly on our side, or on the much publicized fact that we have a greater industrial capacity for turning out implements of war than all our enemies taken together. If our prime interests in life be material, God is as much against us as against any other national group which has been less favored materially. His interests must become our interests, and they are first and last spiritual, supernatural, and eternal. The “other things,” material things, are promised in return for the pursuit of “the Kingdom of God and His justice,” and not even primarily in answer to prayer. Protestantism is impotent to restore God to all nations; if the Jews cannot do it; if statesmen, politicians, economists, sociologists, industrialists cannot do it, surely Socialism, and Communism cannot; neither can Town Meetings of the Air and Round Table radio discussions. But Socialism and Com- munism are busier now to establish a post-war order in which God will have no place at all than Christians are to build a new order on a divine foundation. The Busy Ones Socialists and Communists are extremely busy at this time both in the United States and England, reorganizing their disbanded forces, and taking advantage of the present situa- tion when the government is the principal employer of labor. Socialists feel confident that the opportunity was never so favorable for government ownership of all natural resources and of all tools of production, now that the State is already the owner, in large part, of those very things. Widespread prop- aganda in favor of making the situation permanent will, they believe, do the trick. Socialist thinking and planning are all in line with that one objective, 122 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND Norman Thomas, the many times candidate for Presi- dent on the Socialist Party Ticket, is on the air several times a week. At nearly every Round Table Discussion, usually broadcast over a large network of stations, there is someone selected to present the Socialist viewpoint. Prospects look brighter to them than ever before because of the more favorable popular attitude towards Soviet Russia, and because the 11,000,000 people organized in Labor Unions today, whose leadership they have long sought to control, may be more tractable. Party members through the many branches of the Amer- ican Civil Liberties Union petitioned the President for the release of Earl Browder from prison, evidently for Com- munism’s benefit. Only a few months ago (March 1, 1942), Homer L. Chail- laux, National Americanism Director of the American Legion, speaking in Indianapolis, said that he possessed numerous handbills issued by the Communist Party, urging all mem- bers to enlist immediately in Civilian Defense Corps, and warned Americans to be on the watch against this attempt of Communists to infiltrate into the key-defense and gov- ernment posts during the present war period. Mr. Chaillaux said further: “American Communists are interested in civilian de- fense only as a means of saving Russia, and not for sav- ing this country ... If we do not resist their encroach- ments now we will wake up some day, after we have badly exhausted ourselves in beating the Axis, to find a strong and virulent Communist organization within our midst all ready to overthrow our government by force or violence.” On May 9, 1942 Canadians were warned of efforts by com- munist agents to work their way into the ranks of the domin- EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 123 ion’s armed forces. The warning came from Lieut. Col. James Mess, director of army recruiting for Canada. Speaking before the Canadian club of Saskatoon, Sask., Col. Mess said, “I wonder how many of you realize that we have a Communist problem today. Communism is one of the prob- lems facing Canadians right now.” Official sources in Montreal subsequently were reported to have estimated that four or five Communists had found their way into practically every battalion. Hold Patriotic Rallies Col. Mess said Communism became quite active in the dominion a year ago, with the initial line of action framed by party members being to gain the confidence of the dominion’s population and to infiltrate into the Canadian army. “They started with a Red Cross rally. It was quite a suc- cess. Then they began a recruiting rally, followed by conduct- ing a number of demonstrations of loyalty. Unfortunately, along with these worthy enterprises came demands for re- lease of anti-Fascists.” The commentator for the National Broadcasting Company in London recently informed the American people, in his broadcast, that in England Communist literature is being distributed from the National Headquarters of the Labor Party, and that at some labor meetings the Internationale is sung. Life (April 23, 1942) carried an illustrated article designed to show how popular Soviet Russia has become in England. Last year Bishop Joseph McCormack, of Hexham, and Newcastle, wrote in a pastoral letter: “The forces of disorder are ever on the watch. When the war ends these evil forces will use the opportunity 124 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND of the times to attempt a decisive blow at Christianity. There are ominous attempts, already in evidence, to con- fuse the public and distract attention from the Prime Minister’s fine assurance that our alliance with Russia is an alliance against the Nazi tyranny and in no way an alliance with Communism. “The kind of war in which we are engaged has inevitably helped to undermine family life; children are taken from their parents, married women are at war work and are missed at home; communal meals are being taken for granted. This communal life is, for the time being at least, replacing family life. I say Tor the time being’ but we all know how ominously little the State was doing for the family even before the war necessitated these things. It is true the State was doing a great deal for the children, but all this was being done for the children merely as groups of little citizens, and not as members of their own family; the tendency of the State was to ignore the family’s rights and duties to the chil- dren, to supplant and replace them by State care.” Joseph Cummins, National President of the Catholic Young Men’s Society, speaking before the Catholic Women’s League of England, observed that unless parents are alert and staunch in their resistance they may find home life destroyed and the children the property of the State. “Com- munal feeding,” he said, “communal nurseries, and the various other wartime measures the government has had to adopt, may become permanent.” In January, 1942 issue of the Catholic Worker of Mel- bourne we read: “A few weeks ago, Melbourne people saw a great public demonstration of friedship with the Soviet Gov- ernment. The streets were thronged and thousands marched with enthusiasm for the cause. “In the ranks, one could recognize Melbourne’s former leading members of the Communist Party—now under EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 125 Commonwealth Government ban for subversive activity- prejudicial to the effective prosecution of the war. “Most of the marching thousands carried tiny Soviet flags. Many of the great industrial unions were strong- ly represented. Huge banners with slogans and portraits of Communists leaders were carried. Crowds cheered on all sides. “How many of these people who took part in the march are still Communists at heart who want bloody rev- olution here in Australia? Many marched in genuine ad- miration of the Russian people’s gallantry, but how many had a deeper, more ominous motive? Have former Aus- tralian Reds given up the practice of their fanatical faith? “The tactic of the Red is to strike during times of crisis. “Christian Workers of Australia, On Guard! And Beware !” Joseph E. Davies, former Ambassador of the United States to the Soviet Republic, and other men with equal po- litical influence, are writing and saying nice things about Russia. In Look magazine, April 3, 1942, he wrote “Christian ideals and ethics can be reconciled with the Communist way of life.” Last January Anthony Eden, upon his return from Rus- sia, publicly stated that “there is no real conflict of interests between the Soviet Union and Britain.” The present Foreign Minister of England, Sir Stafford Cripps, a long time so- cialist, who could lead the Labor Party withersoever he wills, said on February 9, 1942, ‘Stalin is the greatest realist ever born.” We are acquainted with the distinction made between the Government of Russia and its people, between Soviet Russia as an anti-God state, and as an ally of the United States in this war. But that distinction is seldom made by 126 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND those public men who bestow fulsome praise on Stalin. It has not, to our knowledge, been made by Davies, nor by Eden, nor by Cripps. Count de Saint-Aulaire, the French statesman and dip- lomat, in his work Geneva vs. Peace, which was written in 1937—two years before the present war—accused Anthony Eden of entertaining friendship for Russia and inexcusable dislike for Italy. The Town Meeting of the Air, which has a larger radio audience than any other program, which has organized more than 3,000 local Town Meeting groups, has striven to en- lighten the American people on the things which relate to war and to peace, to the sort of order that should prevail after the entire world fights unto exhaustion; to the rights of men, to capital and labor, to international relationships, to national problems, etc., but not in one out of these hundreds of programs was the case of religion presented. Its manage- ment seems to have a flair for university professors, the au- thors of sensational books, sociologists, who have no religion; and psychologists who recognize no code of morals. Our wishful thinking, our academic discussions, even our prayers will not win the day against the organized forces of irreligion and disorder. Throughout his entire Pontificate Pope Pius XI appealed for action. Our own academic discussions, based on sound Catholic principles, as they are, are of little avail now, and will be of lesser avail in the future, whether they deal with faith, morals, the family, Christian education, Capital and Labor, a just peace, or with any other momentous subject, unless they be carried in the spirit of a crusade to the 100,000,000 non-Catholic Americans, who give ear to the charlatans, be- EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 127 cause to most of them the dictates of Christian philosophy are alien. What is needed is a Christian movement, and you laymen, organized under the Catholic Hierarchy itself, can do much in the way of promoting that movement in the United States. The light of the Catholic faith must be made “to shine before men” to attract them to its beauty and the power of righteous living by Catholics must shame others. Catholics individually and collectively do not relate their religion to the social life of their nation, do not relate it to the problems of the day, even though social life can be im- proved and humanity’s ills be healed only through the ap- plication of the principles of their religion. Nine out of ten Catholics think only of performing their own personal duties to God—and they confine them to the minimum. Because they regarded their religion as a pri- vate affair the Catholics of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, on several occasions, looked on indifferently while their enemies organized and plotted against their Church, took over the reins of government, and invoked the strong arm of the civil power to close Catholic institutions and to destroy com- pletely their social influence. I hope there will be no more of that after this war. The same countries in Europe, which have been in a terrible plight during the past few years, were in similar difficulties seventy-five years ago. Had their people then rallied together as soldiers in the army of Christ, destroyed the power of His enemies, and retained the control of the social order, the new trials may have been averted. At that time Orestes A. Brownson placed all the blame on the in- activity of the Catholic body in those countries. He wrote in January, 1873: 128 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND “The weakness of Catholics in the conflict with the powers of earth and hell, is in the deadness of our faith, in the lukewarmness of our charity, in the fact that we have fallen into routine, feel that somebody must de- fend us, without any trouble or effort on our part, in our not being ready to give up all for Christ, even life itself. “We are afraid to be confessors, martyrs. We praise the martyrs, and we admire, we honor them, but we are too weak to follow them and, therefore, the wicked triumph over us.” For several years now Catholics, Protestants and Jews have joined their voices and efforts in order to combat racial and religious prejudice, and to promote more social tolerance. It is time for all these forces to work together towards the far more important matter of restoring religion and morality to the nation. Racial and religious intolerance would die a natural death if all people were banded together as brothers in the name of God for the recognition of His moral law by the entire world, after nations will have been severely chastised through this frightful war for the repudiation of that law. On last Christmas eve (1941) Pope Pius XII declared: “The formation of the peace is a universal under- taking for the common good, which requires the collabora- tion of all Christendom in the religious and moral aspects of the new edifice which is to be constructed.” Cardinal Hinsley, of England, recently said: “All our efforts are directed to secure the peace of Christ in the future rebuilding of civilization . . . There can never be peace while the spirit of anti-Christ goeth about seeking whom he may devour.” The spirit of anti-Christ permeated many universities, a large segment of the press, the motion picture, the powerful secret societies, and, in many countries, political movements and even rulers of nations. EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 129 There must, therefore, be a world-wide “back to God” movement, and if we of the United States set that movement in motion, people of other nations will join it. Gilbert Ches- terton truly said, “If we are right in our duty to God, every- thing else in the world will be right too.” Cardinal Seredi, of Hungary, observed in February, 1942 : “Not collective responsibility, which exists only in theory, but individual responsibility, is the basis of Cath- olic morals.” This means that every Catholic, whether united with others in an organization or not, must live as a child of God, and fight as a soldier of Christ. It is precisely because so many Catholics, although sufficiently armed with the armour of Christ, have preferred to be “fifth columnists” and “Quis- lings” in the Kingdom of God that the cause of Christ has been defeated so many times by His enemies. Probably never before were non-Catholics so well dis- posed to listen to a defense of the Papacy, because they are now clamoring for it to do the things which partisan historians were long wont to criticize it for having once done. Hitherto such historians, and the millions whose thinking they in- fluenced, antecedently assumed that civil rulers were always right and the Popes always wrong whenever there was a conflict between them. But today people ask: Why doesn’t the Pope take action against Hitler? Why doesn’t he with- draw the allegiance of the Italian people from Mussolini? Why wasn’t he able to prevent this terrible war? The present Pope could answer them in the words of Benedict XV, the Pope who governed the Church during the last world war. He said: “For over a century the Governments of Europe had conspired to undermine the moral power of the Holy See. 130 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND Nothing that could humiliate the Pope had been spared, and now all the belligerents are appealing to me to do this or to say that. “I cannot,” said the Pope, “publicly pronounce upon disputed questions of fact, concerning which no evidence other than an ex parte telegram, is furnished me. If the belligerents want my arbitration, and will give me the means to exercise it, they have only to ask it.” No measure of political or military leadership can re- form either individuals or society. Moral guidance must proceed from a moral source, and from a source which has divine authority behind it; and that authority would speak out with all its strength if the world could be aroused to recognize it. The Church must again become mankind’s teacher, or there will be no post-war civilization. The Vatican Radio, in January, 1942, broadcast an ex- tract from an article which appeared in LaCroix, as follows: “Whatever is organized must be founded on moral principles, and recognize God and the authority of the Church. The States that deny God are bound to perish sooner or later. In the future State there is no room for aggression against smaller nations and national minori- ties. We have seen the violation of treaties, the doctrine of the right of might and collective egotism. But re- sponsible statesmen must not hesitate before the gigantic task of restoring to the world its tranquillity, and es- tablishing economic and social international collaboration with the proper religious foundation.” For a century now students have been taught in the universities, both in Europe and America, that there is no source of knowledge except that which is established by science and one’s own experience; that man had a material origin; that he is molded and shaped by forces from without; EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 131 that if there be a God, He never spoke to man, and evidently never sent His divine Son to earth to teach him. Teachers in our colleges and public schools, editors of many newspapers, publishers of our magazines, a large percentage of our lawyers and physicians, of our con- gressmen and senators were reared on that philosophy; and since they, more than the spokesmen for the churches, form public opinion, they must be invited and persuaded to lend a willing ear to her, who in the past, built up a Christian civi- lization upon poorer material than that which will obtain at the end of this war. In the February, 1942, number of Fortune, William Ernest Hocking, a professor of Philosophy at Harvard, denounced the scientist who scorns origins and purposes, and confines his studies solely to the blind operations of things ; the psychologist who peers into one’s soul, while rejecting the existence of a soul; the historian, who records purported facts without any relation to the things which produced them. He reminded science that its divorce from religion has “made man a mean- ingless jumping-jack in a universe of purposeless change.” He blamed the secularization of the State on the secularization of science, and said the abominable State systems, including dictatorships, are built on the teaching of Godless science. He reminded the “modern” that science itself was originally the off-spring of Christendom, and quoted the medieval Bacon as uttering a truism when he declared: “In order to master nature we must first obey her.” He ridiculed the very idea of “self-assertion,” when approaching truth, which is an objec- tive reality, in relation to which no scholar can be independent. Summing up his indictment of modern science Profes- sor Hocking observed: “To be free to work, science first threw religion and 132 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND ethics out of the laboratory, and then threw them out of the universe . . . Natural law remains in a physical world minus God; but rights, minus God, empty the physical world.” Stalin and Hitler are the fruits of modern scientific teach- ing. They did precisely what materialistic scientists do in re- lation to their victims; that is, before attempting to regiment man and deprive him of his rights, they first took action against God, the source of human rights. Professor Hocking concludes his indictment with the words : If science, the guilty party to the divorce, should once more become reconciled to its bride, religion, it will become a power for great good. “The unity on which democracy rests is not man, the scientific fact; it is something beyond man; it is God.” Carlos Romulo, of the Philippine Islands, speaking at Notre Dame a few years ago, developed the thesis, whose correct content should be self-evident to any reflecting person, namely, that if the attitude of the unbeliever is wrong, his outlook on life, his science, his philosophy, all his teaching must also be basically wrong. Romulo said: “No one can believe human life forshadows, through mysteries, a more ample and intimate existence with God ; no one can believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Who saved us by His death and sanctifies us by His Sac- raments; no one can believe himself a conscious soul un- der the commandment of Divine Love; no one, I repeat, can believe these things without having altered pro- foundly the quality of his thought and the direction of his outlook. Such belief is a tradition among the Fil- ipinos. It distinguishes us among the peoples of the Far East; and it will be a vital, creative agent in the forma- tion of our new nation.” EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 138 While we pray for victory for the Democratic way of life, let us mean for the Christian way of life, the way of life which Christ made mandatory on all men; and, while praying, let us teach and show our fellow-countrymen how to live it. If God is to take sides He will evidently be on the side of the people who are on His side. His declared policy is “turn to Me and I shall turn to you/’ My program for the regeneration of society is a daring one, I submit. But Almighty God can be satisfied with noth- ing short of a supreme effort by His children to bring it to a realization. Mankind must submit to His rule; His will must be law to every individual, even to the rulers of nations. To His divine Son He gave universal dominion. His Church must “make disciples of all nations, 1” not principally through the clergy who cannot reach them all, but through the Catholic laity, under the direction of the Bishops and priests. No one knows better than I, who have dealt with non- Catholics in a large way, for thirty-five years, how difficult would be the task, humanly speaking, of winning all America for Christ at any previous period of our nation’s life; but today people are asking, like Peter, “To whom shall we go” for the “words of eternal life,” “to whom shall we go” for light to lead us out of the world’s darkness, for guidance towards peace, for the solution of the intricate problems of the day? The leading statesmen of our times, bankers and captains of industry, political economists and scientists, a World Court and League of Nations, have exhausted their collective ingenuity in an effort to be of help, but all of them have failed utterly. Religion alone has not been tried. There- fore, if all of us will aggressively insist that it, and it only, has the answer to humanity’s pleadings, as well as the cure for individual heartbreaks and for society’s ills, most of the 134 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND perplexed will give us a hearing. The twelve unlettered, un- couth messengers of Chirst, assisted by an apostolic laity, whose names, even while they were still among the living, “were written in the Book of Life,” successfully achieved a far greater victory than I am proposing that 30,000,000 of us undertake. The religious and moral-minded who want certain- ty and conviction, would listen; and the irreligious and im- moral-minded would, I believe, be shamed into silence and re- morse. I am keenly aware that our religious language would not be intelligible to most Americans until after we actually in- terested them in trying to learn it, even though they be favorably disposed to the thing called “Christianity.” To them God may be a Supreme Being governing the universe, but He is too majestic to concern Himself about us. To them a Christian is any Gentile, baptized or unbaptized, who chooses Christ, divine or only divinely sent, as an ideal to follow. To them the Bible is a book which teaches good ethics, but most of the same have long been antiqated. To their freedom of judgment creeds and dogmas are abhorrent. To them the Catholic Church, and all other churches, belong in the same category; regarding all of them as human, they logically hold that none of them can be necessary for salvation. When we talk of the supernatural, they think of miracles the occurance of which they are disinclined to admit. Grace, the very life of God in the soul, is only a mysterious word. One whose religious ideas are so hazy will be slow to un- derstand the one who holds the Church to be a divinely in- stituted Kingdom in this world intended, first, to advance the interests of God among men, and secondly, to instruct, guide and assist man on the way to a Paradise of eternal delights. The American and the British people, or at least their EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST CRUSADE FOR CHRIST 135 civil rulers, have not lost the sense of justice and of charity, as was made plain by the provision of the Atlantic Charter. It must now be made clear to them that God was the direct Author of one religion; that it, therefore, must be essentially different from all others; that it was commissioned to teach individuals and nations with His authority; that, therefore, it must be mankind’s safest guide. There is no excuse for the “liberal” Catholic at any time, for he retards rather than assists the cause of Christ. For the conversion of a nation, Catholicity in its strength, and not in its weakness, is needed. In addressing the Lenten preachers of the churches in Rome on Shrove Tuesday, 1941, Pope Pius XII told them that God has sent the present trials to recall mankind to His faith. We must spread this thought and keep it dominant in our own respective communities. The Pope said: “People in human society have need to know God. The tremendous present-day events are principally the conse- quences of negation of God; and irreligion, like a con- tagion, disturbs and corrupts the souls of peoples and, like a fire, threatens Europe and other continents. It is the proof through which our Lord, with powerful voice, wishes to recall mankind to the faith and divine service.” If there was ever a time when the 30,000,000 of us should try to convert most of the 100,000,000, who are not of Christ’s fold, which means only three for each of us, that time is now. Catholics must lay aside their inferiority complex; they must desist from regarding themselves as a minority group. Four-fifths of them live in the cities, where they constitute from thirty to sixty per cent of the entire population—and the big questions of the day are to be settled in cities, where industries are situated, where labor is employed, where im- 136 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND portant newspapers are published, where the influential schools and colleges are located, and where non-Catholics are not in- terested in Protestantism. The captains of the Motion Picture industry have ap- praised Catholics as constituting one-half of the entire popu- lation of the nation, because Catholics live where the big mo- tion picture houses are located. That is why they yielded to the demands of the Legion of Decency. There is no doubt about Catholics constituting at least one-half of the industrial labor in the United States and, therefore, the field of labor rightfully belongs to them. But they seem content to remain followers, while their coun- try's and Church's enemies often take control. I repeat that if ever there was a time for a real crusade, that time is now, but it will be a failure unless every Cath- olic in every parish unit—and that means each of you—will join it, become vocal, become active and see it through. A new order in the economic sphere may be needed, but the restoration of the old order of religion and morals is far more important. How To Make Your People Apostolic Are your parishioners working to win friends for Christ and His Church? Are they taking advantage of the present opportunity, when religion outside the Catholic Church is confusion itself, to point out the essential difference between the Catholic Church and all others? Do you have your people keep their non-Catholic brethren mindful of the fact that, in the world, there are 100,000,000 more Catholics than there are members of all other churches combined? Do your people make capital of the fact that four-fifths of all Christians in the world today—including the 100,000,- 000 of Greeks and other Oriental Christians—have the Mass, Confession, pray for the dead, honor the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, believe in Apostolic succession, the same as we do? Should not that argument alone be a very forceful one, because if all Christians believed that way for 1500 years and four-fifths of them today believe that way, the doctrines re- ferred to must be right? One hundred million of our countrymen live in cities and towns, and 81 per cent of all our people live in cities and towns. In most large cities east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason and Dixon Line, Catholics constitute more than one-third of the population. In some cities they number one- half and in a few as high as three-fifths. If we deduct the 10,000,000 divorcees, most of whom 138 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND could not become Catholics if they wanted to, we would have the ratio of at least 30,000,000 Catholics to 90,000,000 non- Catholics. If each Catholic, by prayer, the distribution of literature, and good example, tried to convert only three per- sons, the whole country would be covered. Have your people an inferiority complex? They should not have it in the light of figures herewith presented. They belong to the largest body of Christians in the world; to the oldest Christian body; to a religion which is essentially dif- ferent from all others ; to the religion to which all the martyrs and the canonized saints belonged. What demand do Protestant religions make that ours does not meet? If their principal demand is faith, haven't we more of that than they have? If their demand is good works are not we more conspicu- ous for those than they are? Do our people not pray more, attend divine services bet- ter, practice self-denial and mortification to a greater degree? Taking the Church as such—are not her moral standards higher ? Doesn’t she love all men, and more particularly the op- pressed, the poor, the underprivileged? Does she not stand for justice for all? Has labor a more sincere friend? Has government, whether it be a Monarchy, a Republic, a Democracy, a stronger supporter than the Catholic Church? Is she not the principal foe of the nation’s foes? Germany would have gone Socialistic and even Com- munistic after the War if it had not been for the Center Party, which fought those two isms, and which was equally opposed to Nazism until that Party was disbanded by Hitler. Did not Germany find it necessary to select Catholic Chan- HOW TO MAKE YOUR PEOPLE APOSTOLIC 139 cellors from the end of the World War Number One until Hitler’s time, in order to keep the nation from drifting into chaos? Were not these Chancellors appointed by a Prussian Protestant President of the Republic? Could you conceive of Russia having gone Bolshevistic and scattering subversive seeds throughout the World if Rus- sia had been Catholic and ruled according to Catholic prin- ciples? If Catholics were kept mindful of these and numerous other matters for which the world is indebted to the Church, would they not be rather proud of her, would they not be eager to have their non-Catholic friends know about these things? Catholics should rather have a “superiority” than an “in- feriority” complex; and they probably would have if too many of them did not labor under the false impression that their re- ligion is for their own personal use only; and that its chief constituents are “don’t’s.” In the training of our school children do we not lay more emphasis on what they should not do than on what they should cheerfully do for the merit of it? The Catholic religion, with its every doctrine and its every practice can be presented in a manner that should attract others. Do your people know how to so present it? Our Sunday Visitor has so many non-Catholic readers that its instructive articles are related principally to them, and each family in your parish should get it into three non- Catholic homes. We would suggest that the start be made with our month- end edition, for which we accept three annual subscriptions for $1.00. Each month-end number contains a Conversion Story, written by one who credits his or her conversion, at least in part, to Our Sunday Visitor. Are We A Christian Nation? Q—How would you classify the American citizenry accord- ing to religion and no religion? A—Our countrymen—132,000,000 in number—may be quite correctly classified as follows in relation to religion : Catholics, all affiliated with the same religion, approxi- mately 30,000,000 * Protestants, divided among some 400 religious bodies, count 36,000,000. Affiliates of Oriental Christian sects, who profess alle- giance neither to the Roman Catholic nor Protestant bodies, 1 , 200 , 000. Jehovah’s Witnesses, who call themselves “Bible Students,” but reject both Catholicism and organized Protestantism, about 1 , 000 , 000 . Jews, who racially profess belief in God, immortality, etc., but most of whom do not practice their religion, some over 5,000,000. Members of Pagan bodies, such as Mohammedans, Confu- cians, Schintoists, etc., 500,000. A total of slightly less than 74,000,000, who claim practical or at least nominal affiliation with the Churches. (1) This leaves nearly 60,000,000 Americans outside of all the churches, and committed to no religious practice. Most of these are pagan in the Bible sense, since they were never The latest Catholic Directory lists the Catholic population of the United States as less than 23,000,000. But this report covers only those who are known to their clergy, and who support their parish churches. Catholics are predominantly an urban people, and in large cities a high percentage of them frequently move from one district to another, and do not take the trouble to make themselves known to the pastors, whose churches they patronize during brief periods. If a house to house religious census were taken the number who would have them- selves listed as Catholics would probably be 35,000,000. The non-practicing ones would likely constitute 6,000,000—which would leave 30,000,000 active Catholics. ARE WE A CHRISTIAN NATION? 141 baptized ; yet their attitude towards Christianity—if we except the Communists, Rationalists, Freethinkers and professed Atheists among them—is sympathetic. Most of the 60,000,000 who are outside of all churches, hold that membership in a religious organization is unneces- sary; that many non-members live just as religiously and morally as do members ; that all churches are equally good be- cause they have a common aim, but that no one of them can be necessary for salvation because they all are of human origin; that the right to the name “Christian” is not dependent on any special religious ordinance, such as Baptism, even though this may initiate one into a religious organization; that one is a “Christian” if he subscribes to Christian “ideals.” This group reduces the entire contents of religion to the Golden Rule. Protestant Church Members (2) Protestants, for the most part, subscribe to the theory that “one religion is as good as another,” because all profess equally that “the Bible and the Bible only,” as inter- preted by the individual, is the sole rule of faith; that church affiliation has its advantages (such as common worship, the opportunity to hear sermons and to receive spiritual direction), but that good people outside the churches have no reason to worry about their salvation. Even this group seems to ignore the need of a supernatural way to a supernatural end generally, or even the need of fol- lowing any definite plan of salvation. The Cause of Chaos in Both Groups (3) The Protestant principle of Private Judgment has not only created the 400 divisions which obtain in Protes- tantism, but is also, by its logical practical application, chiefly 142 FROM A FRIEND TO A FRIEND responsible for the indifference towards all religion among the 60,000,000 who are outside the Christian churches. This observation hardly calls for proof. Are not the divi- sions in Protestantism—at least one for every year of its ex- istence—publicized by the different sects themselves, and ad- vertised by their separate houses of worship occupying promi- nent sites on hundreds of street intersections in our large cities? To the non-church member they are living signals of the confusion which reigns among Protestant Christians, of the separating effects of the “private judgment” theory. Hence it is difficult to interest him; he even prefers to go his own way. Logically applied to the limit, that theory must lead to religious skepticism, rationalism, and even to infidelity. It cer- tainly leads to “No-Churchism.” The non-member justifies his position by reasoning thus: If 400 years of experience proves that the “Bible Only” claim (and particularly the liberty given to Protestants to read into it their own views) tends to divide and confuse people; if it creates serious doubts among clergymen themselves concerning the fundamentals of Christianity—why should I join any of the churches? Only certainty in belief will satisfy the reflecting inquirer. The Number Of Catholics In The United States As we have noted elsewhere the latest Catholic Directory lists the number of Catholics in continental United States as slightly under 23,000,000. But there is reason to believe that Catholics number at least 35,000,000. Every time a complete census has been gathered throughout a diocese it has revealed a much larger number of Catholics than the Chanceries report to the Catholic Directory. This is due : (1) To the fact that Catholics are an urban people, and many of them never made themselves known to the pastor of the parishes in which they had lived temporarily, nor to the pastors into whose districts they moved later; (2) Many pastors list only those who are “practical” Catholics and supporters of their church; If Catholic boys constitute thirty per cent of the army and navy enrollees, it might be assumed that Catholics constitute one-third of the population of the United States—which would be 41,000,000. Allowing for the possible greater physical fitness of Catholic boys, and the larger families from which they come, we certainly could not account for more than 6,000,000—the difference between 41,000,000 and 35,000,000. While there may be more births in Catholic homes, Cath- olics certainly die at the same rate as other people. A diocese which reports 1,100 deaths should have 100,000 Catholics. Some Of Our Church's Enemies According to the World Almanac of 1942, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan still number more than 5,100,000. The Imperial Wizard is J. A. Colescott, Atlanta, Georgia. The Freemasons of the United States number 2,461,605, divided among 15,441 Lodges. More than half of the Free- masons in the world are in the United States. The active anti-Christian group of Masons, numbering 250,000, belong to the Scottish Rite, 33° Southern Jurisdiction. This organization has been in the United States since 1801, with national offices at Charleston, South Carolina. But most of its activities are carried on from Washington, D. C. Its official Organ, the New Age, is an anti-Catholic magazine. Its editorial staff founded and published the Fellowship Forum, a National Klan paper. It claims to be the Mother Lodge of the World, having branches in nearly every country in Europe (where it has not been suppressed), as well as in the Latin countries of Mexico, Central and South America, and the Philippines. It has friendly relations with the atheistic Grand Orient. It initiated and sponsored the Oregon anti- parochial School Law, and has been working, since 1921, for a Department of Education in the Federal Government. The Southern Jurisdiction of Freemasonry does its worst work against the Church through a News Bureau and Press Service, which it has sent for many years—twice a month—to every daily and weekly newspaper, and to the sectarian press. This service is predominantly anti-Catholic. The American Association for the Advancement of Athe~ ism, with headquarters at 38 Park Ave., New York City, SOME OF OUR CHURCH’S ENEMIES 145 claims 100,000 members, who are very aggressive in pro- moting legislation hostile to Catholic School interests. The Birth Control Federation of America, 501 Madison Ave., Newr York City, is not only trying to control the num- ber of births in poor families, but is teaching immoral prac- tices, thus undermining religion and morals. The Catholic Church is fought less directly and less fre- quently by publishers of many widely read periodicals, by pro- fessors of ‘‘philosophy” and “psychology” and “education” at many universities, and more particularly at Teachers Colleges. Divorces The United States leads all nations of the world in di- vorce. Japan, which comes second, has only about one-half the number of divorces in relation to its population. Why should there be such a difference between the di- vorce rate in the United States and the divorce rate in Can- ada, which borders immediately on our country? Yet Can- ada has only one divorce to every three hundred marriages every year, while the United States has one to every five. In cities the rate is two and one-half times that of rural areas, which means that in cities there is almost one divorce to every two marriages. What a risk our young Catholic people run in meeting a divorcee, since 81% of Catholics live in the cities! The average duration of marriages ending in divorce is four years; not long ago it was seven years. One out of five marriages ending in divorce does not last one year. Of all divorces 71% are among childless couples. Of all marriages 18% are childless. 35% of divorcees remarry within a year. Those who go to another state for a divorce, such as Nevada or Idaho, usual- ly marry immediately; only six weeks’ residence is required. The principal reason alleged for divorce is “emotional incompatibility.” Our notion is that the chief contributing cause to unhappy marriages is the “romantic” courtship, in which there may be no love at all, but only fascination and lust. The magazines young people read help to identify fascination with love. DIVORCES 147 Religious marriage offers the strongest obstacle to di- vorce, according to Rev. Albert J. Murphy, Director of Char- ities in the Cleveland Diocese. His statement is based on statistics gathered by religious groups, sociologists and public officials. A study of marriage, Father Murphy notes, discloses that only 19.6% of civil marriages are to be found in the “good ad- justment” classification, as against 49.6% of religious mar- riages found in this group. “Of the ‘poor adjustment’ classifi- cation,” he observes, “54.9% were civil marriages, whereas 22.5% were religious ceremony marriages.” The National Organization For Decent Literature N. O. D. L. Have the magazine racks in your community been purged of their filthy periodicals? There are still nearly 200 magazines calculated to nullify the effect of the moral instructions which you and your school teachers have instilled into the children. In another place we have noted that one out of every five divorces is granted within the first year of marriage; these are due largely to the shallowness of “romantic” fascina- tion, which, in these magazines, is identified with love. The majority of the druggists do not wish to sell these magazines, but most of them will continue to sell them if some of them do, because they ease their conscience by the thought that the peo- ple who buy them would do so even if they themselves re- moved them from their racks. Most of them would be glad to have a real local campaign designed to keep such magazines out of the community altogether. , The publication of these magazines should not, of course, be permitted by law. Canada, Australia and a number of other countries do not allow them to be brought to their people. Now would be a very favorable time to induce Congress to write a stricter law, (1) because the morale of the nation would be stronger if its morals were; (2) because we want the blessing of Heaven on our armed forces; and (3) because thousands of tons of paper could be saved each month if there were 200 fewer magazines. There would still be more than 400 others for people to read; and (4) because in April, 1942, the Postmaster General issued a decree to all publishers, threat- N. 0. D. L. 149 ening the withdrawal of the second class mail privileges from all periodicals which carry illustrations or advertisements which display nudity, or stories which feature illicit relations. If you could draw up a form of petition directed to the President and Congress, signed by many of your parishioners —and if every other pastor would do that—we believe that the magazine evil would be cured at its source. The Postmaster General and the Chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are in sympathy with the N. 0. D. L. and would welcome pressure on Congress to stiffen the law. Our Sunday Visitor will supply you each month with a re- vised list of periodicals banned by the N. 0. D. L. for 50c a year. But for $1.00 you can get this list together with the Acolyte—our magazine for priests and the official organ of the N.O.D.L. No Conflict Between Our Sunday Visitor And Other Catholic Papers Our Sunday Visitor was a charter member of the Catho- lic Press Association, and a subscriber to the N. C. W. C. News Service from the beginning. Therefore it could have combined Catholic news with Catholic instruction thirty years ago. How- ever it was never willing to injure local Catholic papers by going into their territory with all the news they carried plus instruction, at one-half the price of the local Catholic paper. When Our Sunday Visitor was founded not one out of ten Catholic homes received any Catholic paper, and the taste for Catholic literature which we developed prepared the way for a larger circulation of the diocesan papers. But which home is there in the country which receives only one secular paper? Why should not Catholics receive their diocesan paper for the local Catholic news and support a praiseworthy local enterprise, and at the same time receive Our Sunday Visitor which carries practical religious and moral instructions for everyone in the home—and written in that popular style which makes Our Sunday Visitor so well liked? If this was always true, it is doubly true today, since we publish an eight page section for Youths out of school. It is the only Catholic paper in existence for young men and women, and it publishes those things which our young people so badly need today,—such as a continuation of religious instructions, helps for discussion groups, for the spiritual activities of the C. Y. 0., or similar organizations. Then letters and articles from other youths of their same age, make the more indifferent NO CONFLICT 151 young men or lady feel ashamed. In addition to all this we employ sports and fiction writers of national reputation. The double-page spread, to which Father Gartland, C. S. C., long time editor of the Notre Dame Religious Bulletin, is the chief contributor, would be worth more than the price of Our Sunday Visitor for a whole year. It is true that we publish four pages of general Catholic news in a special edition for those priests who have requested it. And although we have never wished to make any inroads on the local papers, this special edition is now one of the most popular of Catholic news-papers. One half of all pastors who have charge of English par- ishes in the United States order a bundle of papers for distri- bution or sale at the church exits on Sunday. It pays both financially and spirituality. Let pastors who have distributed O.S.V. uninterruptedly for thirty, twenty, ten, or even five years, report to you on the excellent investment it is. The publishers, as we note elsewhere, possess much evi- dence to support the contention that O.S.V. excels all other papers from the point of view of “reader interest.” Bishop Noll's Books Having had vastly greater experience with non-Catholics than any other clergyman in the United States, Father Noll has always had this group in mind in the preparation of his books. In his Fairest Argument , printed thirty years ago, Father Noll defended the entire system of Catholic teaching and prac- tice by non-Catholic witnesses. That he was correct in his esti- mate that the most favorable approach to prejudiced non- Catholics would be through a book in which clergymen of var- ious denominations, as well as non-Catholic educators and his- torians were quoted, became immediately manifest when the book elicited great interest from Protestants. When he prepared, in dialogue form, his Father Smith In- structs Jackson he kept constantly in mind the average Pro- testant attitude towards the doctrine to be elucidated, and for- mulated questions which really forestalled the ones which the non-Catholic inquirer would be prompted to ask. The popular- ity of this work is shown by the almost forty editions it has passed through; and its value as an instructor is evi- denced by the numerous converts which it has made in every state in the Union. The book, which is being used by Kenrick Theological Seminary and other institutions for the instruction of people by correspondence, has also been translated into Spanish, French, Hungarian and Portuguese. Have you ever given this book, for supplementary read- ing, to people whom you are instructing? It is so arranged as to parallel the Baltimore Catechism. Chaplains at army camps claim the boys like this work very much. BISHOP NOLL’S BOOKS 153 Some years ago, after seeing the Socialist Vestpocket Book of Facts, Father Noll got out a Vestpocket Book of Cath- olic Facts, which also has gone through many editions, and has been a ready handbook of information both for Catholics and non-Catholics. His Decline of Nations aims at proving, by more than 200 prominent non-Catholic witnesses, that the disintegration of Christian civilization has been occasioned by the things which were the logical consequences of the Protestant Reformation in Germany and England, of the rationalism of France and the French Revolution, of the Marxian philosophy, and of the complete secularization of society. Father Noll is the author of different kinds of Catechisms, such as, A Catechism on Birth Control, A Catechism Dealing with Lewd literature, a Catechism on Communism. His latest work, entitled Our National Enemy Number One is an indictment of the public school system, in which his arguments are supported by some 300 statesmen, educators, editors and writers, clergymen, and judges of courts. This book is a veritable reservoir of good things for priests to quote in their sermons, lectures, writings. Back in 1924 Our Sunday Visitor began the publication of a special magazine for the clergy which it named The Aco- lyte, because it was to be a “server of the priest.” There was no thought of reaping revenue from this magazine because its circulation, restricted to priests, would naturally be limited, and because the intention was to publish it at the low rate of $1.00 a year. Most magazines for priests cost three or four times that much. Two years ago it was found necessary for the National Organization for Decent Literature to use a periodical to keep the diocesan and parish directors of the N. 0. D. L. informed concerning the progress of that movement. Because Bishop Noll was the National Episcopal Chairman of the N. 0. D. L., he offered the use of the Acolyte for such publicity. Therefore, it would not be out of place for the Acolyte to have lay subscribers today, because many laymen who con- THE ACOLYTE 155 duct the drive for cleaner magazine racks, who keep vigilance over the racks, and who need the list of banned magazines as revised from month to month, should have the information it contains. Of course, every priest should have this magazine even for that purpose alone; but if he should not care to sur- render his copy to members of the N. 0. D. L. local committee, he might apprise them of the fact that they may have the Acolyte at the same price as priests, namely, at $1.00 the year. 34 The many priests who have doubled and tripled their parish revenue during the past twenty-five years, through an Every Sunday Collection Envelope, probably do not know that Father Noll, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Huntington, In- diana, was the very first Catholic priest in the United States to introduce it and to recommend it throughout the country. This was back in 1916. Most priests did not look on the same with favor at the time, because they thought that weekly envelope collections would be too drastic an innovation. But it was not long until most priests in the nation were using them. Protestant firms began to make and sell them to the Catholic clergy, in many cases under an assumed Catholic name. Even today the only large Catholic Weekly Envelopes producer is Our Sunday Visi- tor which supplies thousands of Catholic parishes. Although Protestant houses solicit Catholic patronage, Our Sunday Visi- tor has never solicited any Protestant patronage. Our Sunday Visitor has always sold these envelopes at the lowest possible price. If some southern firms offer them at lower cost it is due to the fact that in the south lower wages have always been paid to employees. Pamphlets are printed and distributed by a great many publishing houses today, but we are certain that Our Sunday Visitor is the leading printer and circulator of pamphlets on various subjects. 150 titles, selling at the low rate of $3.50 per hundred, are sold direct to the individual reader, much like the nasty Blue Book pamphlets of the Haldeman-Julius Co., namely, at five cents each, postpaid. But we have numerous others. Not only is the field of doctrine fully covered by these pamphlets, but that of morals as well. We have pamphlets designed for young people that are in great demand, such as those on courtship, on a happy marriage, etc. Then Our Sunday Visitor has, from the inception of the Catholic Hour, sponsored by the National Council of Cath- olic Men, been the official publisher of every radio address de- livered on the Catholic Hour program by the Church’s best specialists among public speakers. At the end of every series the several addresses of each speaker are published in pamphlet form. If you should like to have for your library every Catholic Hour address delivered during the past ten years, covering almost any subject on which you might be called on to write or speak, remember that they are procurable, at a low price, (now only $13.50 for 105 booklets containing more than 575 addresses) from Our Sunday Visitor. Back in 1908—thirty-four years ago—Father Noll began the publication of a high class, thirty-two page, Parish Monthly, the body of which was made available to other pastors throughout the United States for a local periodical. In order to have a Parish Monthly of his own the pastor only needs to prepare whatever items of local interest he cares to, and then to have them printed either in his own community or by Our Sunday Visitor, and bound with the thirty-two page “body” into one magazine. The cost of this thirty-two page insert, plus the printing of local items, is paid! for by advertising gathered locally from the merchants. These merchants may not be favorable to advertising in- the average church paper, but they are usually very glad to patronize a magazine of such high class as that furnished’, monthly by Our Sunday Visitor. We omitted to say that the pastor may give the magazine any name he sees fit, while the thirty-two page “body” is called The Catholic Family Monthly. If you be interested in having a Parish* monthly magazine write to Our Sunday Visitor for particulsais, frices.