Catholic Problems in Western Canada Part 15

The Congress (1) establishes a Catholic platform and rallies our forces around it, by creating a social solidarity, (2) enables our existing inst.i.tutions and societies to extend their activities by the co-ordination of efforts; (3) facilitates the creation of new organizations to meet specific needs. "We cannot," writes Father Plater, S.J., "stand aloof from secular movements, neither may we wholly surrender ourselves to them. We must by common study bring them to the test of Catholic principles and we must by common action bend them to the great issues of which the world is losing sight."

Moreover, once the Catholic laity has been lured into taking active part in social work, once it feels that it is no more a dead unit but a living factor, the Congress becomes a necessity, for it then serves as the mental background that throws its work in relief and keeps the fires of enthusiasm burning.

Necessity of a Catholic Congress at the Present Time.

The absolute absence of unity and cohesion in our various social activities; the momentous period of reconstruction with its far-reaching consequences in our national, political, social and economic life; the examples given to us by other Catholic countries and by our own enemies; these three and potent reasons urge, in our estimation, the calling of a Congress to get our bearings and to discuss ways and means of action.

The deplorable lack of unity in the Church of Canada is obvious and can be traced to many causes. Racial and language conflicts particularly, have divided our forces, absorbed our activities, narrowed our views and made us forget the Catholic view-point of greater problems. But times and ideas are changing. Never, we believe has the feeling of our divisions and dissensions been so acute; never has the demand for united action been so imperative as now. The distressing times through which the world is pa.s.sing have forced upon us issues which will require the united strength of Catholic forces.

United action, so much desired and so desperately needed, requires a uniform plan and an authoritative leadership. A Congress will give us these two elements of a much desired unity.

Too long, we believe, have Catholic social activities been directed along purely parochial and diocesan lines. The isolated action of parishes, especially in our cities, is no longer able to grapple with and solve our modern complex problems. Parochialism is conducive to the enjoyment of the Church's beneficial influences, but often leads us to forget our responsibilities to the Church Universal. "Parochialism is the clog on the wheel of united Catholic Action in Canada." (Canadian Freeman, Nov. 13, 1919.) And even on a broader field have we not seen conflicting directions and abstinence of necessary interference, precisely because the issues were seen in different quarters from different angles. So, a united plan of action which is so absolutely necessary for efficient work cannot be obtained without consultation and exchange of ideas.

This unity of plan will bring the Catholic consciousness to a focus. It will create an intelligent interest in Catholic social work, and lead to the gradual formation of various specific social organizations. When luminous rays are brought to a focus their light and heat are most intense.

The best concerted plans, the greatest enthusiasm to execute them, will be of no avail without leadership. For the secret of the success and usefulness of an organization is to be found in the ability, character and ideals of its leader. Never perhaps in Canada, has the absence of authoritative leadership, especially among the Catholic laity, been felt so keenly as at the present trying period. Let us hear an authoritative writer on the matter:

"When the great buzz and stir of rebuilding comes and the interchange and counterchange of ideas begin, the newly awakened folk will begin to enquire what the Church has to say and to suggest on every ethical and religious problem that comes up in the course of planning and discussion. But they will wish to know, not in the terms in which great minds of the past have formulated Catholic teaching, but in the speech and with the ill.u.s.trations of contemporary life. What we need is Catholic intellectual leadership to interpret in a way they can understand, the deep ethical truths of Catholic ethics, dogmas, which are a guide to the reconstructive activities of all time. Without changing a jot of the unchangeable truth, new series of interpretations can be given to Catholic dogma, morals, ethics, with explanations that will catch the ear of the intelligent non-Catholic, give him in his own idiom the solid gist of Catholic Doctrine and appeal to him with the simple eloquence that Truth always has, when presented in the proper way." (Father Garesche, S.J., America, Dec. 28.) For, as the Editor of the Universe said, commenting on the death of Sir Mark Sykes, "The secret of ideal Catholic leadership lies in a pa.s.sionate desire for the Catholic good inseparable from the common good, combined with a complete aloofness from any sectional interest."

Now, we may ask, what has given to Catholic France, Catholic Belgium, Catholic England, these eminent leaders who in public and social life, are by their fearless courage and ceaseless action, the very personification of Catholicism? It is without doubt their Catholic Congresses. There, the contact with the great problems of the day gave them the vision of things before unseen, made them emerge from the common ma.s.s, and marked them as leaders. There, they learned to think just, broad and deep. The great Congresses of Catholic Germany brought Windthorst to the foreground and made him the leader of the greatest Catholic organization. What the Congresses have done for Catholic Germany, Belgium, France and England, they will also do for Canada. They will give us true leaders, men of clear vision, of indomitable and fearless will, of patient and persevering action. For mistaken leadership is still a greater calamity than the absence of it. The Plenary Council of Quebec urges the Catholics of Canada to meet in Congress: "Qui quidem in talium caetuum frequentia liberius poterunt et validius sui nominis professionem sustinere, hostiles impetus propulsare." In the mind of the great Pope Leo XIII, whose words are here quoted, "a Congress is the most powerful offensive and defensive weapon." Quebec Plenary Council-No. 441, d.

We may then conclude with a French writer: "A Congress is a sacrament of unity." It will visualize to the modern pagan for whom unity of doctrine means nothing, the tremendous powers, the living influences that flow from that same unity on the world. And for the Catholics at large it will now answer to a widespread, deep-seated longing for a more effective national Catholic unity of action.

Yes, at all times, a Congress is a necessity for united action; but in the troubled periods we now face, after the war, it becomes a factor of supreme interest and of the most vital importance.

Reconstruction is the world's watch-word as nations rise from the ruins a long protracted and universal war has acc.u.mulated around them.

The period of reconstruction, more than that of the war, will test our national fibre. The problems we face are in extent, in character, in complexity greater than at any other period of history. The strain will be greater, for the conflict is being lifted to a higher plane, that of ideas. And ideas are the supreme realities, the dynamic forces that rule the world, the fulcrum that shifts the axis of the world's civilization.

In these momentous times, the isolation of Catholics would be a calamity; their partic.i.p.ation, a blessing, for Church and country. To stand aloof from the solution of the problems that stare us in the face and insistently demand attention and solution, to confine our efforts solely to parochial inst.i.tutions and not enter into the broader field of public life is for Catholics, at this hour, nothing short of a calamity. The consequences of this abstention will be to limit our action to mere protestation and often useless defence, when our principles are a.s.sailed and our positions in danger, when a leakage, through the social activities of others, is but too manifest. Let us on the contrary, turn the energies we lose in mere defence to constructive work, and our positions will be safer, and our principles better appreciated. "Our liberties are best defended when Catholics throw themselves into the stream of public life."

And does not Catholic doctrine stand essentially for constructive forces in the social, political and economic life of a country? We possess the foundation, the plans, the material of all true and lasting social reconstruction. The Gospel and the natural law form the rock-bottom foundation; the definite and unchanging principles of morality are its structural lines; justice is as the steel girders and charity the fast-binding cement.

"At the present day," wrote Professor G. Toniolo, the eminent Catholic Italian economist, "the great Encyclicals of Leo XIII, which, sustained by the common light of the Evangelical teachings of Christian philosophy and Revelation, have illuminated all the phases of social, civil and political knowledge in harmonious, logical connections. At the present day we possess a unified complex of sociological teachings, brought together in a system, which rests against the supernatural, which measures up to the problems of our age, which, absorbing everything, takes unto itself all that is true in modern science and is proven by experience, and thus is prepared to oppose successfully a positivistic, materialistic and anti-Christian sociology."

Yes, we possess the true solution of modern problems and ... what are we doing to give it to the world, to the community in which we live? Why, the very fabric of social order is questioned, our working men are absorbing everywhere the most subversive doctrines; the relations between capital and labor are strained to a breaking-point; our industrial system is controlled by economic theories divorced from ethics, whereby the worker is a mere producer; the State-monopoly is gradually spreading its influences as huge tentacles, around our most sacred liberties; the equilibrium between liberty and authority-these two poles of Christian civilization-is being displaced; ... and what are the activities of the Catholic body, as a whole, in Canada, to stem the rising tide? A sermon, now and then, on Socialism or on the rights and duties of labour, will not solve the problems and extinguish the volcano upon which we are peacefully living. In our cities, the housing problem, which involves to a great extent, the moral life of the ma.s.ses, is acute; the white slave traffic has established its haunts and commercialized vice; the moving picture-show has become everywhere the most popular educational factor: at its school the young generation, eyes riveted on the flickering screen, is drinking in the alluring lessons of free love, divorce and every anti-Christian doctrine; our ports will soon see a new tide of immigration invade our sh.o.r.es; the non-catholic denominations are crumbling away under the very weight of their destructive and disintegrating principle of private judgment; we are surrounded with pagans to whom the supernatural religion of Christianity is but a name or a memory; from our great West comes the urgent cry for help, for men and money; the Church Extension, as the watchman in the night is crying out to our uninterested Catholics-"the day is coming, the night is coming"-meaning that the faint streak on the eastern horizon may be the last rays of a dying day or the first blush of a new dawn; ... and what are we doing? Here and there, a spasmodic effort, a generous outburst of zeal-the work of some society, parish or diocese. While, what we need now is the combined effort of all the Catholics. This will only be obtained through a Congress. What we need is organized opinion. The modern world is very sensitive to organized opinion.-Let us get together! We only need leaders to see our opinion become "articulate and authoritative" and make its weight felt in public life. Never has a Congress been more necessary than now. Without it, Catholics will not take part in reconstruction, for a Congress alone can unite us and give us the guarantee that our energies will not be "frittered away by overlapping and friction."

There is a great moral tide now running in the world, said President Wilson in his toast to the King of England ... and that tide is the great opportunity for Catholic social principles to take the high sea of public life. Let us therefore, like the skilful mariner, count with this set of the tide and catch it at its crest. "There is a tide in the affairs of nations like that of men, which when taken at the flood leads on to glory. If we do not direct the ideas that are awork in the seething mind of the world, they will spend their energies in retributive destruction," wrote the Philosopher President of the United States.

"The thrilling opportunities of the time, we will say with Father Garesche, S.J., should stir us to the depths of our souls' capacity with enthusiasm, energy and sacrifice... . Our realization of the needs and chances of the Church and the world, should stir us to the utmost of personal effort."

Exempla Trahunt.-The great benefits that have ensued from a general consultation or meeting of the body Catholic in various countries form the best standing proof of their value. In England the annual conference of the Catholic Truth Society and other federated Societies, is the leading event of Catholic life. It has developed among the English Catholic laity, a militant, virile Catholicism, most remarkable for its aggressive policy and wonderful for its array of social organizations, as one may readily learn from the "Hand-book of Catholic Charitable and Social work" published by the C. T. Society of London. Who does not know the wonderful results of the yearly Catholic Congresses of Germany before the war? We would refer the reader to the wonderful book of Father Plater, S.J., "Catholic Social Work in Germany." To the same source may be traced the great social activities of Catholics in France and Belgium. In 1919 the Catholics of Holland met at Utrecht, and in a national general convention, discussed the Catholic view-point of burning questions-political, social and spiritual. The results of their united efforts are already tangible. Legislation favourable to Catholic Schools has been enacted; a Catholic University is being founded; the Catholic press is a power; sane social legislation has been adopted.

An example that may strike home better, is one that comes from our brethren in the United States. Federation has already accomplished wonders among our American Catholics and is welding into one great unit the various societies of the Church in that immense country. This federation is only in its infancy and already its action has created a mental att.i.tude which makes united action, in various spheres, a reality. The annual meetings of the Catholic Education a.s.sociation, of the Catholic Hospitals, of Catholic Charities, of Catholic Press make good our statement. These gatherings have broadened the outlook and sympathies of the American Catholics in general, and created the vision, the sterling Catholicism, the fearless energy and the fervent enthusiasm that characterize leaders. Has not the general meeting of the American Catholic Hierarchy opened a new era for the Church in the United States? Five Boards have been formed: Education, Social Work, Press and Literature, Lay Societies, Home and Foreign Missions. Through these channels the American Episcopacy will know the doings, the needs and the possibilities of the Church as a whole, and be able at any time, to throw, on a given point, on a new issue, the full weight of united forces.

"The Welfare Council begins its second year of life and activity. It has already, in a remarkable and effective way, shown the wonderful wealth of Catholic activity, and Catholic Service throughout the country; it has unified our Catholic organizations, leaving to all their autonomy; it has made Catholic faith a greater factor in American life; and under its leaders it will, without doubt, be a further source of strength, of help and co-operation to the entire Catholic body of the Country. It is the Catholic body expressing itself with one voice and one heart in the work and in the interests common to us all as Catholics."-The N.C.W.C. Bulletin, Oct., 1920.

Fas est ab hoste doceri... . Powerful is the example of a brother, but often, stronger and more pungent is the example that comes from an enemy. There are times indeed, when shame and honour are stronger than love. This brings us to speak of the tremendous activities of our separated brethren. Never have their efforts in view of organizing their social service departments been so persistent and so manifest, particularly in the mission field. Doctrinal lines are being lowered and various denominations absorbed gradually into a "Church-union" scheme from coast to coast. A "social service programme" is the only binding element which is giving to them a fict.i.tious unity. Fabulous sums are placed at the disposal of these bodies for home and foreign mission work. The Methodist Conference of Canada (1918-Hamilton) has pledged itself to levy $8,000,000 in the next four years for mission work. In our own country, in our Western Provinces, the field secretaries are most active among our Catholic foreigners. On the landing stage of our docks they are found to welcome the immigrants to our sh.o.r.es. And what could we not say of their "press activities!"

This movement for co-operation has, since the end of the war, taken tremendous proportions. Here is a fact which speaks volumes... . "The fight between Protestants and Catholics," said a German Protestant minister, "will forthwith subside in the domain of dogma, but it will rise in the domain of social problems. No doubt truth in the social order will prevail as it has prevailed in the field of religious dogma. But we have to change our strategy, study new tactics, and in our plan of campaign turn from the defensive to the offensive." Never should the Catholics of Canada present a more united front. To sneer and snap our fingers at the energies and organizing powers of others is often but a poor excuse for our own inertia. It is certainly no argument. Fas est ab hoste doceri. The lesson has often a sting, but it is a lesson... . We need organization! ... The Congress is the great medium of organization. What are we going to do? Changing a little the wording of one of Cicero's famous sentences, in his orations against Catiline, the arch-enemy of Rome, we shall say: "The enemy is at our doors! ... and we are not even deliberating!"

Before giving a suggestive programme for a Congress may we answer some objections.

"The need for co-operation and co-ordination is indeed admitted on all hands; it is its feasibility that is doubted by so many good Catholics. It is admitted to be an ideal; the question that is raised is whether the difficulties are not too great to be surmounted otherwise than by a very slow and lengthy process of evolution. That such a gradual evolution would be in accordance with both nature and history we should be the first to admit. But, after all, there is such a thing as r.e.t.a.r.ding or a.s.sisting the process of evolution. The valuable maxim that 'things are what they are and their consequences will be what they will be,' is after all but half the truth. No Catholic believes that we are carried helpless along a stream of circ.u.mstances. He believes that man is man, a free being whose free action can within limits mould circ.u.mstance; and he believes that G.o.d is G.o.d, the one free Being Who can and does overrule circ.u.mstance, and Who, when and where He pleases, gives efficacy to the endeavour of His free creatures to do the same." (Universe, Aug. 15th, 1919.)

Some may say that by coming together we shall awaken susceptibilities, our motives will be suspected ... and the final result will be more prejudice, more bigotry... .

There is no reason why a Congress should be of an unfriendly aggressiveness. We have ideas to advocate, they stand on their own merit. They are in our belief, the only key of salvation; let us then get together and bring them by organization and team work, into the domain of realities. Moreover, our enemies are not so very particular in dealing with us and with our principles. The best policy is to meet in the open, as our Catholics are doing in England and stand on the value of our doctrine and our works-"Ex fructibus cognescetis illos."

"What about the autonomy of parish and diocesan units? Are they not supreme? Will not what we advocate interfere with these organizations? Will it not destroy the work of our parochial societies, etc., etc.?"

"Organization which would attempt to meddle with local autonomy would not only defeat its purpose, but would be chiselling its own epitaph." ... The parish and diocesan units are and must ever remain supreme, each in its own sphere. We could never get a better working basis; more genuine Christian charity and self sacrifice could not be met with outside of our acting brotherhoods and charitable organizations... . But, what we need more is co-operation between these various units in view of solving the complex social problems, especially in our cities. This suppresses neglect and over-lapping, gives efficiency with the least waste of energies. "Blend organization and co-ordination with the greatest amount of local autonomy and individual initiative": this is the sole aim a Congress has in view. There, and there alone, lies the solution of our problems.

Tentative Programme of Congress.

I-Preparation.

The remote preparation for such a great and important undertaking, would consist in what we would term "an educational campaign." The initial difficulty, the greatest obstacle would be to overcome the general apathy, the want of interest, vis inertiae. This could be done by the Catholic press, lectures, sermons, etc. It may take time to wake up our people from their slumber, but the faith is there with its latent energies, and we can count on them. The forces are there; they only need an occasion to call them into play.

The immediate preparation would consist in the appointment of a small but strong organizing committee. Agitation without organization is useless. On the choice and activities of this committee depends the entire success of the congress.

The various activities of this committee would be:

1. Decide on Name.-Congress, ... Conference, ... Catholic Social Service Meeting, etc... . This seems of no importance; but, in fact, it often goes a long way in interesting the public and warding off prejudice.

2. Decide on Place.-Winnipeg-Regina-Edmonton-Calgary-Saskatoon-Vancouver.

3. Decide on Delegates.-Mode of selection,-clerical,-lay. It is very essential that a meeting of that kind should be thoroughly popular and representative.

4. Decide on Speakers, Language.-(One or several sections.)

5. Decide on Programme.-This is really the essential work of the organizing committee. In drawing the agenda, emphasis is to be laid upon problems of immediate necessity:

Defence and construction; defence against the enemies' activities; strong constructive policy with a wide scope for all energies: these are the two poles on which revolve a good programme.

Racial-Language-Political issues are to be absolutely barred from the programme.