Catholic Problems in Western Canada Part 2

Very Reverend and dear Father,-

I have just read your article in the Febr., 15 issue and I am so pleased with your suggestion for relieving the situation for scattered Catholics throughout the West that I must write my appreciation. I am sure that very few people in the East realize what a veritable necessity those Free Lances you spoke of are to so many Western people, or what a G.o.d-send those auto-chapels would be. Western homesteaders do not stray far from home for two very good reasons, lack of transportation facilities and lack of funds.

We live 12 miles from the church, that is my own family. The others live thirty-five and fifty miles away and up to this year we have had nothing but a waggon to travel in, and now those that live farthest away have still only a waggon. So you will understand that we have not made more than necessary trips or not many more. And I wonder if my brothers would make those, were it not for my mothers insistence. They are surrounded by such bad influences. It's not that it is a sectarian influence, but rather a total lack of religion altogether. The only things that matter greatly are the material things of this world. To confess yourself religious, especially Catholic, is to confess yourself old fashioned and to cause people to smile. You know that is harder to combat than bigoted opposition. Your plan to send out pamphlets would be appreciated by many-But above all we need the personal touch of a priest. We need it as our crops need rain, etc... .

[4] As an ill.u.s.tration of what in a simple and unostentatious way can be done by any parish in the mission cause the editor of the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith (N.Y.) refers to an invitation extended to him to attend a Christmas sale. It took place in a parish of the Brooklyn diocese on Dec. 3, 1919, the feast of St. Francis Xavier, patron of the mission cause. Thanks mainly to the efforts of an energetic lady, but with the consent and patronage of the pastor, a Xavirian Mission Circle had been formed. Within eighteen months after its organization the newly found circle had paid off a $500.00 mortgage for a heavily burdened priest in the South, had adopted eight abandoned children of the Chinese Missions, had sent 1,000 Ma.s.s intentions, was supporting seven catechists in Africa, India, and China, was educating a Chinese seminarian, had given 150 volumes to the parochial library of a bigoted section in the South, and was able then to place upon exhibition a number of sacred vessels that were to be forwarded as gifts to poor priests. "And did all these activities not interfere with your parochial work?" Mgr. Freri asked the pastor. "Not in the least"-was the answer-"My collections have never been larger." "EVEN PROTESTANTISM FINDS THAT HOME COLLECTIONS ARE IN DIRECT PROPORTION TO THE MISSION GIFTS."

CHAPTER II.

BRIDGING THE CHASM[1]

Most touching in its divine simplicity, most sublime in its inspired lessons was the invitation of the Master to His Apostles: "Behold I say to you lift up your eyes and see the countries, for they are white, already to harvest," (John IV, 35)-As He stood by the well of Jacob, facing the slopes of the hills of Samaria, He pointed out to them the crowds that were hastening to listen to His Message and believe in His divine mission. The fields around lay desolate and lifeless, for it was then winter. "Do you not say," asks Jesus, "there are yet four months and then the harvest cometh? Behold I say to you lift up your eyes and see the countries for they are white already to harvest." This human harvest, of which the Master speaks, is but the prelude of that immense harvest of souls ever ripening under the rays of G.o.d's divine grace in the great field of this world. The Church, like Christ, also invites us to contemplate that waving harvest and to pray the Lord to send labourers into the field.

This divine invitation, the Catholic Church Extension Society makes its own, to plead the cause of our Home Missions. Pointing to our Western Provinces, to that great Dominion beyond the Lakes, that missionary organization says to every Catholic in the land: "The harvest is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he send labourers into the harvest."

The Catholic Church Extension Society has been founded in Canada, for the conservation and propagation of the Catholic Faith in our mission districts. Its very name, as we readily see, shows forth its object and explains its existence. Canada, as we all know, possesses vast areas, in her Western Provinces particularly, where the Church has not yet established the influence of her permanent organization. There, her children suffer from the prolonged absence of her teaching, of her sacraments, of her authority, and are struggling against the abiding presence of numerous, rich, aggressive, and unscrupulous proselytizers. Yet, on the vast stretches of prairie, where the lonely homesteader has just broken the virgin soil, amid the snows of the bleak North, by the rushing waters of the Fraser, the Mackenzie, the Peace, and the Saskatchewan Rivers, in the far distant valleys of the Rockies-the words of the Master are still a living reality... . "The fields are ready for the harvest and the workers are few." The Extension Society has been established in Canada to point out to our Catholic laity these fields where the harvest is waiting and to help to send labourers into them. Its sublime mission is to bridge the chasm which separates the East from the West. It is the binding and living link between the organized Church and the mission field. This sublime object of the Society makes it most worthy of our commendation and of your loyal and generous support.

Principle and policy are the basic ideas of organized action. If the principles upon which an organization rests are true and elevating, if the policy it advocates and which governs its activities is practical, easy, and attractive, the organization itself is bound to meet in time with an unlimited success. The higher the principles, the more inviting the policy, the more living and telling will be the resultant action. Therefore, to place before our readers the principles and policy of the Catholic Extension Society will no doubt help them to understand better its claims and respond more generously to its appeal.

I.-Principles

The Kingdom of G.o.d comes upon earth through the Apostolate of the Church. "As the Father sent me, I also send you," said Christ to His Apostles, and to all who were to take their place in succeeding generations. For, these words of Christ created the Catholic Apostolate and maintain it. His words, indeed, are words of life.

The Apostolate of the Church is an absolute necessity, the very condition of Her existence and progress. The Catholic Church Extension is one of the most beautiful expressions of that Apostolate, for its object is, as we stated, the conservation and propagation of the Faith in the Mission districts of Canada.

The principles upon which the activities of this Society are based may be reduced to two: the doctrinal and the historic:

1. Doctrinal Principle.-All appeals for sympathy and help in the great cause of Catholic Missions rest on one of the most fundamental doctrines of our Faith, the Catholicity of the Church. "The Church Catholic," says the great theologian Suarez, "means the Church Universal-Ecclesiam esse catholicam, idem est ac esse universalem" (Disput. de Ecclesia IX., sect. VIII., No. 5). This universality of Christ's Church implies the idea of solidarity, whereby in her living and indivisible unity She is always and everywhere the same. The Church, like a perfect vital organism, is a divine organic whole, solidly const.i.tuted, identical to itself, and in all its parts, throughout time and s.p.a.ce. The whole is reflected or rather found in each part, and each part reflects and possesses the whole. The Catholicity of the Church is but the expansion of its Unity. It stands therefore as its permanent and outward manifestation. Should we now wonder why the Church of Christ is called Catholic? We name things and persons by that characteristic feature which conveys to our mind the most accurate concept of them. The very name of the Church is, as you see, an ever living proof of her divinity. And of that name, we may well say what is said of the name of Jesus ... signum cui contradicetur ... it will be forever "a sign of contradiction."

The moral aspect of this solidarity of the Church is responsibility. The Church at large is responsible for each particular diocese and parish, and each individual diocese and parish is in return responsible for the Church universal. This responsibility is to be shared by every Catholic. And as by its Catholicity the Church overcomes the two great barriers to all human power, time and s.p.a.ce, so also should every Catholic manifest in the affairs of the Church universal an interest equally as great as that he shares in his own particular parish. "Co-operation among Catholics," as Archbishop McNeil justly remarked, "is more than a means to a missionary end. It is an essential part of Catholic life. Boundaries of jurisdiction are conveniences and means to an end. In the first century of the Christian era, it was centres rather than circ.u.mferences that marked divisions of work and jurisdiction; but in any case administrative divisions were never intended to be divisions of brotherhood. The divisions of the Church into dioceses and parishes are to further increase, and not to weaken or destroy its Catholicity."

And what we say of these divisions of s.p.a.ce, may also be said of those of time. As the glorious memories of the divine history of the Church belong to each individual Catholic, so also should the possibilities of her future destinies in our country and throughout the world, preoccupy his thoughts and affections in the present.

This is one of the most comprehensive and most pregnant aspects of the Church. It throws open the whole world to the zeal of every individual Catholic. Wherever the tents of Israel are, there he finds his home, be it in the wilds of Africa, or on the islands of Oceanica, under the scorching sun of the tropics or in the snows of the lonely North. But as we are more closely united with those among whom Divine Providence has cast our lot in this world, our home-missions have the first claim on our zeal and generosity. For, according to St. Thomas Acquinas, the more or less close relationship with our neighbor is the measure of the intensity of our love and devotedness.

We now understand what the Church Extensions' claim means for the missions of Canada. The intention of the Society, as we may readily see, is not to limit our zeal to any national issue, but rather, to develop more easily the missionary spirit and direct its first effort to the welfare of our own countrymen by the consideration of our own wants.

2. Historic Principle.-The lesson of facts is very often more striking than that of doctrine. They are here the concrete expression, in the various nations, and through the course of centuries, of those fundamental principles we have just considered. It is indeed a law of Catholic History, that the more Catholic a nation is, the more apostolic, the more missionary it will prove itself to be. The missionary spirit is the test of Catholicity, the abiding proof of its solidarity.

The history of Catholic nations justifies this statement; their zeal for the propagation of the faith will explain their rise and downfall in the eyes of the Church. Ireland is a cla.s.sical ill.u.s.tration of this point. Poor, persecuted, downtrodden, the land of the Gael still remains the seminary of the world's apostles. The foreign missions always appealed to the Irish people and "the limits of the earth have heard the voice" of its zealous missionaries. Does not France, notwithstanding the persecution of the Church by its government, still remain the great missionary country of the world? She sends more missionaries and gives more monetary aid to the "Propagation of the Faith" than any other Catholic nation. England's return to Catholicism is most promising, for her converts of yesterday are already in the field afar. The awakening of that same apostolic spirit in the Church of the United States is the most convincing sign of the great strides Catholicity is making in that land of Liberty.

This unwritten law which prevails throughout the history of Catholic nations and expresses so forcibly and so persistently the doctrinal principle of which we spoke, justifies the claims of the Catholic Extension and gives strength to its appeal.

Such are the two principles upon which rest the Extension Society-dogma and history. They strike the very bed-rock of our Faith. But if its principles are sublime and inspiring-its policy is simple and effective.

II.-Policy

The policy of an organization is the direction of its activities, the plan of campaign for the furtherance of its principles, the line of action in the realization of its ideal. The Policy of the Church Extension is twofold: education and action. To give to all the Catholics of our country, an accurate knowledge of conditions in our various mission fields, to develop in them the true missionary spirit, to make them think in terms of the Church Universal ... this is its educational policy. To organize in every parish a branch of the Society and through it to enlist the sympathy and receive the spiritual and financial a.s.sistance of every member, to develop, co-ordinate and direct the missionary activities of all our dioceses in favor of our home missions; in other words, to promote efficiency through organization, centralization of efforts with the least waste of energy ... this is its policy of action.

1. Policy of Education.-The acuteness of our sense of duty depends largely on the breadth and depth of our vision. This principle explains the importance of the Catholic Extension educational policy. Through its official organ, "The Catholic Register," by means of pamphlets, leaflets, and lectures and sermons, the Society is most intent on giving to the Catholics of Canada, first hand knowledge of conditions in our mission districts. We are perfectly convinced that when all our Catholics will have fully realized the truth of these conditions, they will immediately understand their responsibilities and fulfill generously their duty. But what is that "call of the West" which the Catholic Church Extension is sounding like a cry of alarm through the country? You all know, what I would call, "the Romance of the West."

A few decades ago Western Canada was but a bleak, lifeless plain, extending from the Great Lakes to the foothills of the Rockies, dotted here and there with the Indian wigwam, the roving herds of buffaloes, the solitary chapel of the Catholic missionary, and the lonely posts of the Hudson Bay fur-traders. Suddenly under the magic steel of the plough, that immense waste of land woke up from its age-long slumber. The desolate prairie became within a few years the greatest granary of the world. The Indian trail gave place to transcontinental highways, to those "long, long, and winding," steel trails that have led the youth of our Country and the exiles of Europe "into the lands of their dreams." These trans-Canada roads have conquered distances and linked the Atlantic to the Pacific. They may well be considered as the arteries of our Dominion; through them indeed flows rapid and warm the blood of our national life and in them one can hear, as it were, the pulsations of its great and n.o.ble heart. The transcontinental lines are responsible for the birth and phenomenal growth of our Prairie Provinces.

What are the conditions of the Church in these new and promising Provinces? It is not the time, nor is it the place to discuss errors or absence of policy that have crippled the Church's work and growth in that period of rapid transformation. We take facts as they are now. The Church in Western Canada to hold its ground, to extend its work and develop its inst.i.tutions, has an absolute need of the help of the East. The barrier of immense distances to which are added, for long months, unfavorable climatic conditions; diversity of nationality, variety of racial ideals, differences of language, customs and traditions; absence of Catholic traditions and a prevailing atmosphere of unbelief and irreligion; such are, in a few words, the tremendous obstacles against which the Western Church in its infancy has to contend.

This vision of distress, the Extension wishes to place before every Catholic in Canada; this call for help, it wishes him to hear.

But particularly the future of the Church in these Provinces forms the subject of the Extension's preoccupations. We all realize the vast possibilities of our Western Provinces, and the important part they must of necessity play in the future affairs of our Dominion. The Church's influence then will be what we make it by our efforts now, and its progress will be in exact proportion to the amount of our foresight.

This responsibility of the present and the future, the Church Extension preaches to all in season and out of season. Like the beacon by the sea, it is ever turning its revolving lights over the immense uncharted ocean of our Western missions and hopes that with time, every Catholic in Canada will take his course on them. For, let us not forget it, if we do not take care of our mission districts, others will, and that to the detriment and loss of the Church.-Fas est ab hoste doceri! It is permissible, says the proverb, to receive a lesson from an enemy. Only those who have worked out West on the missions know to what extent unscrupulous and most aggressive proselytizers are always on the ground, ever at work among our people. They are digging broad and deep trenches around the settlements of our Catholic foreigners, particularly Ruthenians, draining to their profit the dormant energies of the new Canadian. The invasion is slow but sure, the leakage, great and continual. This lesson that comes from the tremendous activities of the various Protestant denominations should strike home more forcibly. The more stinging the lash, the more sudden the rebound.

This educational policy of the Church Extension appeals to the Catholic mind and tells it something it desires to know. It awakens that latent Catholicity which Baptism has given us and on which the narrow limitations of time and s.p.a.ce have no claim. This education of our Catholic laity in the value and necessity of the missionary spirit, in the perfect knowledge and true appreciation of its character in the Church of G.o.d, is the end and result of the Extension policy. To make that spirit the inspiring, guiding and testing power of Catholic life, is the definite aim of its educational work, of its publicity campaign. When our laity will have absorbed the lesson, it will be ready for action. This knowledge will awaken our sense of responsibility and prompt our sympathetic support. This leads us to say a word on the Society's policy of action.

2. Policy of Action.-Vision resolves itself into action. When the mind sees deep and clear, the heart feels warm and generous, the will acts promptly and decisively. As the spark leaps bright and sharp from the silent battery, ignites the fuel and drives the piston, so will a broad vision give a generous impulse to action. You readily see the value of an educational policy, and its intimate connection with that of action.

Action to be efficient and lasting must be organized. Grouping of forces, co-ordination of efforts, are what we need most in the Church of Canada. In the rank and file of the laity, hidden treasures of enthusiasm, latent powers of energy go to waste, because there is no leader to awaken them, or if aroused, no organization to direct them. The policy of the Catholic Extension is to bring to vigorous activity these long slumbering desires, to give an effective vent to the pent up energies of the Catholic heart, to group all Catholic missionary work for the conservation and propagation of the Faith in our mission districts.

Have we not been working too much as separate units? Has not our zeal been limited by the boundaries of our parishes and dioceses? What activities have been absorbed by side-issues, while the great cause of the Church at large should have occupied our attention! We were deliberating ... and the West was being lost to us! The time has come to rally around the Church in our mission fields and prove ourselves worthy of our name-"Christian" and our surname-"Catholic." The policy, therefore, of the Extension is to enlist the organized effort of every parish, of every diocese in a great missionary movement, and to throw the weight of the Catholic influence of the East into the immense field of our Western missions. It is not for the promotion of any project, for the benefit of any particular section of the Church in Canada, that the Extension Society exists. True genuine Catholicity is the only inspiration of its activities.

This united action will manifest itself first and above all in prayer. The preservation of the Faith, and the conversion of souls are supernatural works depending primarily and in the final a.n.a.lysis on the grace of G.o.d. Never has it been more necessary to emphasize this trait of the Catholic Aspostolate. Confronted with elaborate schemes of finance and the co-operative action of various denominations, we may take lessons from them, but should never forget that there is something more fundamental; we mean, the grace of G.o.d. Our prayer-the prayer of every child, the prayer of every man and woman within the fold, the prayer of every nun and priest, should be the prayer of the Master to the Heavenly Father: "Send harvesters into the fields!" How powerful should not that prayer be! How strong a binding link between the East and the West!

But prayer, like faith, without works is dead. The Extension, therefore, not only solicits our prayers, but also our help to meet the needs of our home-missions-Men and money, financial aid and apostolic vocations, these are the needs of the hour. Money to build chapels, schools, orphanages, hospitals; money to help the Catholic press, the spreading of Catholic Literature; money to forward the great and vital cause of higher education. This organized financial a.s.sistance of the Church in the East, as a whole, as a corporate body, is the best expression of the reality and sincerity of Catholic solidarity. To boast of our beautiful churches and sumptuous cathedrals in the East and to leave our priests in the West without a decent chapel to say Ma.s.s denote either painful ignorance of actual facts or the fallacy of our Catholicity.

Great is the need of money, but greater still the need of men. The princ.i.p.al work of the Extension is to foster, develop and bring to fruition missionary vocations for the West. Burses are founded to a.s.sist young men in their studies, and in a few years, it is the hope of the Extension to be able to send to every diocese of the West zealous harvesters for the harvest that is awaiting them beyond the Lakes. Could we be invited to share a more n.o.ble task than to contribute to the education of the heralds of the Gospel, of the amba.s.sadors of Christ to that Western Kingdom of ours?

Let us conclude.

These are the principles on which rests the Church Extension Society; this is the policy it pursues. The adoption of these principles and the furtherance of this policy will, we are confident, develop the true type of the Catholic Laity. The parish, its works, its pastor, will be the first to benefit by this missionary spirit of the laity. Long enough has the priest, the missionary, laboured alone in the harvest field and borne the heats of the day; long enough have but a few loyal and generous souls shouldered the burden of the missionary work in Canada; long enough have our Catholics limited their zealous efforts to the confines of their parish or their diocese. The time has come for every Catholic in Canada to answer the call of the Master, to take his place in the harvest field, to share the responsibilities of the present and prepare a glorious future for the Church in our great and prosperous Dominion.

The appeal that comes to the Church of Canada from the Catholic Extension is straightforward. It needs no apology. It stands its ground on its own merits. It is not-let us never forget it-an appeal to our charity. It is a pressing call to accomplish a sacred duty, a timely warning not to neglect it. And indeed, active co-operation in the work of Extension is, we repeat, an unfaltering belief in the reality of our Catholicism. It knits our soul to the very soul of the Church, our heart to Her heart.

Strengthened by these highest motives of Catholic Solidarity and Christian Charity we should give joyfully and generously. Let us levy a tax on our income, no matter how small it may be, remembering the fiduciary character of our earthly possessions. Let us give our time and our services to this n.o.ble Cause. Let us give lovingly and willingly our children to the great harvest, if it be G.o.d's will to call them to His service. But above all let us pray that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ may come in our beloved Country through the Extension of His divine Church.

[1] This chapter formed the substance of a Sermon preached on "Extension Sunday" in St. Finnan's Cathedral, Alexandria, Ont.

CHAPTER III.

PRO ARIS ET FOCIS[1]

Militancy is the characteristic feature of G.o.d's Church on earth. New dangers, fresh struggles await Her at every turn of the road in Her onward march to eternity. a.s.sailed from within by her own children, attacked from without by bitter enemies, she is ever working out through the frailties of human nature her sublime destiny. Not of this world, but pa.s.sing through it, She has necessarily to suffer from the inherent weakness of her children. It is the human side of the divine Church. Those who would be scandalized at this ever renascent warfare against the Catholic Church, in all times and in all countries, should remember that this hall-mark of true Christianity is the fulfillment of Christ's promise and the realization of his prophecy.

In this great firing line of the Church militant every Catholic has his place. His marked duty is to make the divine triumph over the human in his individual life and through it-no matter how limited his circle of influence may be-in the great life of the Church and in society at large. He should make his own the various problems confronting the Church in his country and help, within the sphere of his activities, to offer a happy solution.

Two great problems now face the Church in Canada, and tax to the utmost the wisdom of its leaders: The race problem and the Ruthenian problem. In many centres the former has weakened the principle of authority and paralyzed our efforts of co-operation; the latter means a tremendous leakage through which the Church, particularly in Western Canada, is losing every day an important and vital factor.

The race problem has always existed and will always exist in the Church of G.o.d. This problem is imbedded in human nature. It plunges its roots into the very depths of the human heart. Language is the tap-root which gives life and vigor to its various manifestations. Language is indeed the best expression and highest manifestation of the race. The race problem therefore is generally complicated with the language problem.

The Catholic Church has always respected the racial feelings and the language of nations, for they are based on natural law, and natural law is nothing else but the expression of the fundamental relations const.i.tuted by G.o.d. Yet history can tell what the Church had to suffer from racial and language differences. We all agree on principles, but often differ on policies. The angle of vision varies; facts are misrepresented; ideals misinterpreted; feeling and not judgment is appealed to, in these racial conflicts. But it is not our intention to deal with this great problem. Only let us ever remember the words of Benedict XV. in his letter "Comisso Divinitus" to the Catholics of Canada. He sees in our divisions a source of weakness for the Church, a subject of scandal for our separated brethren and a cause for him of sadness and anxiety. Let us therefore hope that the wishes of the Common Father of Catholicity will soon be realized and that the Church in Canada will see the clouds of misunderstanding lift and a brighter day break on the horizon.

The problem to which I would draw again the attention of our Catholics throughout the land is one that has been frequently of late placed before the Catholic public. But as its aspects are ever changing and its importance growing, I would wish to throw light on some new factors at play in this momentous issue.