Catholic Problems in Western Canada Part 6

Has not the time come to throw off this false timidity and "To go out into the highways and hedges and compel our separated brethren to come in, that the Master's house may be filled." (Luke Ch. 14). Long enough have we waited for them to come to us. An intelligent Methodist was recently asked the question: "What do you think is the greatest obstacle to the spread of the Catholic Faith?" And he answered: "Ignorance,-because Protestants do not understand what Catholic teaching is, and if your people have the courage of their convictions and claim that they know the truth, why do they not come out like the Socialists, Radicalists, Salvation Army, and other bodies who have come out, and explain to the public what they believe and why."

Did not Cardinal Newman in the conclusion of his lecture: "The Position of Catholics," make similar statements? "Protestantism," he says, "is fierce because it does not know you; ignorance is its strength; error is its life. Therefore bring yourselves before it, press yourselves upon it, force yourselves into notice against its will... . Oblige men to know you... . Politicians and Philosophers would be against you, but not the people, if it knew you."

Yes, we willingly endorse what the English Dominican, Father Hugh Pope, advocated in his article, "The Modern Apostolate," in the August issue, 1919, "The Ecclesiastical Review," and in several other English newspapers and magazines. Has not indeed the time come when we should revolutionize all our methods, when we should apply to Home Missions something of the methods which now we have fancied pertained solely to the Foreign Missions. Some we know will criticize this forward policy as bold, open to ridicule, an innovation, an undignified intrusion, a Billy-Sunday method, etc.-"On a.n.a.lysis what does all this opposition come to, but that we are afraid." "Afraid!" our critics will exclaim, "of what? I should like to know?" Is not the answer: "Yes, afraid of what the people will say" (Father Pope, O.P.). Anch.o.r.ed in the past they will continue to spend their energies in giving what we would call "spiritual delicacies" to the few good souls around them, while at their very doors crowds are dying of spiritual hunger for want of bread. And in all tranquillity of conscience they will raise their eyes to Heaven and thank the Lord that they are not like them. If indeed we wait until the non-Catholics come to our churches and to our rectories and ask to be received into the Church, we shall wait until Doomsday. After all, what we here advocate, is nothing new. Is it not the modern interpretation, suited to our times, of the "Omnia Omnibus"-"All things to all men," of St. Paul?

Along what definite lines should this aggressiveness be developed? Zeal, we know, is very ingenious in its ways and means, and has in their use the freedom of the spirit of G.o.d. Yet, there are certain methods, certain activities, which have proved successful and could be adopted to suit the circ.u.mstances of each community. Missions to non-Catholics and lectures in public halls, if well and intelligently advertised, will always draw an audience. Nothing appeals more to the mind of the inquirer than a lucid and simple exposition of the Faith. Controversy beclouds the issue. Were there any particular doubt in mind, the Question-box affords an opportunity to elucidate it. The distribution of literature will confirm the message of the spoken word and continue to carry on its work, helping the seed to germinate in G.o.d's own time. Inquiry cla.s.ses and information bureaus are of a great help to those who are reluctant yet to meet a priest, or to be known as wavering in their faith.

The great error in connection with this matter is to expect immediate results from such work. Truth and Divine Grace work slowly. To measure the success of a lecture or a mission to non-Catholics by the number of immediate converts is completely unfair and against reason. The main and direct object of these lectures is to combat the three obstacles in the way of conversion, indifference, ignorance, and prejudice, and to prepare the soil for the Great Sower. The important point we should not forget is that, as in all propaganda, the "systematic follow-up work" counts. The persistency and recurrence of the message give it its strength and influence.

In all we have said and suggested it must not be supposed that we forget Faith to be a gift of G.o.d ... Donum Dei. The salvation and sanctification of a soul are essentially a supernatural process. We can no more trace the ways of G.o.d than we can forecast the ways of the wind. Therefore the greater our activities are, the greater should be the supernatural force behind them. Prayer, constant and fervent prayer, for the conversion of our separated brethren should be ever on our lips and in our hearts. Yet, strange thing! We hardly ever hear of public prayers and ma.s.ses said for this great work. If our desires were more real, should they not find expression here and there in some public form of prayer.

We should close this chapter with the instructive and inviting example that comes to us from our Catholic brethren in Protestant England. A wonderful Catholic campaign is now on through Scotland and England. Various societies have grouped the active Catholic laity into various units, with the one great object in view, to give back to England the faith she has been robbed of centuries ago.

The "Catholic Truth Society" stands in the background as the heavy artillery that has been firing at long range at positions the enemies are gradually leaving. For the last thirty years it has been breaking the way to victory. "The Catholic Evidence Guild" and "Social Guild," like the light cavalry are reconnoitering the lines and positions. The "Motor Chapel" and "The Bexhill Library"-that Catholic Post-Library, with its 16,000 volumes-are what we call the flying corps of this great Catholic army. And while the various militant units are pushing forward their lines, the members of "Our Lady of Ransom's League" are praying on the mountain with up-lifted hands for the conversion of their Country.

The Catholics of the United States are following suit. The Paulist Fathers with their missions to non-Catholics, their press and "Catholic Missionary Union," devoted to the conversion of America, have undoubtedly done splendid work. The Catholic laity have also been most active under the auspices of the Knights of Columbus. MM. Goldstein and Peter Collins, Dr. Walsh and Mrs. Avery are lecturing through the country and have met with great success. This awakening of the missionary spirit is one of the most healthy signs of the Catholicity of the Church across the border. It is with reason that the Holy See looks to America for the future wants of the Mission Field.

These examples of an apostolic awakening that come to us from countries where religious conditions are very much the same as those that prevail in Western Canada, are most illuminating. They sound to us like the Master's voice: "Why stand idle all day ... go you also into my vineyard."

[1] Since the principle of charity is G.o.d and the person who loves, it must needs be that the affection of love increases in proportion to the nearness to one another of these principles. For wherever we find a principle order depends on relation to that principle. (Summa. II, II Qu. 26 art. 7.)

[2] Cfr. "Army and Religion."-Book written by Protestant Army Chaplains. It is a candid record of the failure of the Churches, Anglican and Evangelical, at the front, during the great war.

CHAPTER VII.

PROS AND CONS

Obstacles that impede... . Circ.u.mstances that help the work of the Church in Western Canada.

The opening of the North West Territories to immigration, and their creation into distinct Provinces of the Dominion stand as land marks of portentous meaning in the History of Canada. The settlement and development of these immense fertile prairies of the West were bound to react on the economic powers and political outlook of our Country. By the sheer weight of their economic value these new Provinces have leaped into prominence and forced themselves upon the attention of the Country at large. The Western issues are now so weighty that only the greatest prudence and wisest statesmanship will maintain the equilibrium between the conflicting forces of the East and the West of our broad Dominion. Canada now stands at the parting of the ways in its home and foreign policy. Every true and patriotic Canadian is proud of the progressiveness of these new Provinces beyond our great Lakes and anxious to see them bring their contributions to the Commonwealth by sharing in the direction of its government. Their presence around the family table is not that of strangers or intruders, but of young, stalwart and rightly ambitious sons.

Yet, as Religion is the necessary factor of true prosperity, the religious outlook in these young Provinces is what naturally appeals to the Catholic mind. What are then the prospects for the Church in Western Canada? A rapid survey of conditions will enable us to take our bearings and impress upon our minds the value of our co-operation at this juncture of our History. The Church in the West is in its making and we cannot over-emphasize the responsibility of every Catholic in the matter. The knowledge of existing conditions will be to us what the topography of the country under survey is to the engineer. It helps to adjust the vision, to give the sense of proportion and to suggest the easiest grades.

To know well an obstacle is often the best means to overcome it, just as in modern warfare to locate the enemies' batteries is to silence them. In our Chapter, "The Call of the West," we have explained the obstacles with which Catholics have to contend on the prairie and in small towns. We pointed out those obstacles, geographical (distance and climate), ethnical (race and language), religious (absence of catholic traditions and surroundings), and marked how they were as wide crevices through which vitality is being lost to the Church in Western Canada. It is our intention here to dwell only on difficulties of a general character, inherent to the state of this new country and effecting the Church in its corporate existence.

The materialistic spirit, in all its forms, characterizes the West. The youth of our Eastern Provinces and foreigners from every sh.o.r.e flocked to this Eldorado by the thousands and hundreds of thousands with the one particular aim in view, to better their material condition. Their success has been so great that we may well say that the very atmosphere of the West is surcharged with commercialism. The "crop" is the ever-recurring factor and eternal topic of Western life. No better picture reflects this att.i.tude than that which is offered to the traveller as his train goes rolling on through the even prairie. Ever emerging on the horizon and dotting the landscape of the bald plain the grain elevator stands indeed as the most conspicuous land mark of our Western towns. The elevators are in our prairie landscapes what the church spires are in the Quebec villages, along the sh.o.r.es of the St. Lawrence. Here and there they stand as symbols; they interpret an ideal. Naturally a population so immersed in material pursuits and frequently, not to say always, separated by the very force of circ.u.mstances from the vitalizing contact of spiritual influence, rapidly loses grasp of the supernatural and becomes refractory to the doctrines and practices of the Church. Nothing is more adverse to the influence of Christianity than material prosperity combined with the absolute ignorance of its divine teachings. The wealthy and prosperous farmer out West is inclined to look down on the Church and consider Her "out of date." [1]

This materialistic atmosphere and the absence of catholic traditions and a.s.sociations act also as a corrosive on the faith of Catholics, particularly of our young people. Like a strong acid it eats away the teachings of good Christian parents and the impressions of a Catholic home. Only those who have seen at close range these sad soul transformations can believe in their painful reality and explain their frequency.

The activities of non-Catholic bodies among the foreign element are another obstacle to the work of the Church. Like the locusts of Egypt a cloud of proselytizers have alighted on those parts of the Provinces where the new Canadian is in the making. We have seen in another chapter (Pro aris, et focis-or, the Ruthenian Problem) how under the cover of Canadianization, the foreigner is being weaned away from the Faith of his Fathers and what menace this is for the Church.

This systematic effort of the various denominations is being supported by the combined action of their clergy and laity in the East. Men and money are flowing into the West to Christianize (sic!) our Catholic foreigners. The final result of this proselytizing effort is not a permanent increased membership for these churches, but rather indifference and irreligion among our foreign element. Facts and figures prove it. And to re-establish these souls in the Faith of their Baptism is no easy task, we all know. It is far easier to tear down than to rebuild.

This united action of the different Churches stands out in sharp contrast with the lack of co-operation among Catholics throughout Canada. The absence of co-operation of the East with the West affects very seriously the welfare of the Church in the new Provinces. We all willingly and gratefully acknowledge the contributions in men and money that have come from the East through the channels of the Religious Orders, of the Catholic Church Extension and from other sources. But absorbed by parochial and diocesan interests the Catholic Church in Eastern Canada has not as yet fully realized the seriousness of our Western problems. With its co-operation only can the weight of the Church as a whole be brought to bear in their solution.

This policy of unity of action is also most urgent for the Catholics of the Western Provinces. We are a minority in each Province; concerted action can alone press our legitimate claims and bring to us success in these activities which necessarily overlap the boundaries of dioceses and provinces, as is the case with the Catholic Press and Higher Education. Diocesan isolation, if we are not careful, can become the weakness of our strength, in these critical stages of rapid development. Yet, there are no Provinces in the Dominion where the Church faces so many identical problems under identical conditions as in the Western Provinces. Should not this alone suggest to our leaders a unity of plan and realize among our Western Catholics concerted action?

As there is a silver lining to the darkest cloud, there is a bright side for the Church in conditions out West.

The striking feature of the Canadian West is the newness of the country. Youth is stamped everywhere clear and bold; the dash and buoyancy of the people reflect it faithfully. Optimism is the predominant note in that land of immensities and great possibilities. Untrammelled by set traditions and cast-iron customs, every one is there to start a new life. The past does not seem to exist for the Westerner; the future is his sole concern.

This newness of the country and the optimistic mood which it creates can be called into the service of the Church. They form an atmosphere of tolerance which proves most helpful for the preaching of Her doctrine and the maintenance of Her inst.i.tutions.

The youthfulness of the country has left its mark on the character of the Westerner. There is something of the vastness of the prairie in his mind. He is generally broad, and boasts of it most willingly. This trait is very noticeable in his pa.s.sion to revaluate theories, to redefine notions brought from the East. The great success with which he has met in various co-operative schemes has also developed in him a high sense of self-reliance. The only danger is that he carries that same self-a.s.surance into domains where he often over-reaches himself. This fact is very noticeable in the various annual Conventions. Unconsciously, in matters beyond his grasp, he is at the mercy of a few leaders. Resolutions are pa.s.sed, legislation is suggested, without realization of their consequences.

The rapid disintegration of Protestantism is another factor with which the Church can count. Church union is in many places an accomplished fact. This alone is a convincing proof of the want of grasp, of definiteness that exists in religious matters. We would refer our reader to the Chapter "Ploughing the Sands." To what extent this rather negative disposition will hasten the spreading of the true Faith, is difficult to state. Will it, as is evident in England, promote a movement of return to the Church or accentuate, as in the United States, indifference and unbelief, the future alone can tell. But, is it not our duty in the meantime to make use of every tide and wind to bring the ship to port? The tide, as it is now running, shall bring to the Church many a shipwrecked soul.

This is our firm belief.

This rapid survey of Western conditions in their relation with the Church, without being a searching examination, outlines, as it were, the actual religious topography of our new Provinces. Our sole ambition is to help to wipe away, in our work, useless curves, make easier the grades and map out the straightest and most direct route to success. With the knowledge of conditions, less energy will be lost and more time will be gained. Time and energy are the necessary factors of true and permanent progress.

[1] "Catholics to a certain extent will remain an alien body. We differ from those around us in a profound fashion, not in matters of direct doctrine, for which the modern world has largely ceased to care, but in the effects of that doctrine. The Catholic's whole conception of man and of the fundamentals of human life is a different thing from that held by those about us."-H. Belloc.

PART II

EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS

"To-day's boy is to-morrow's man."

CHAPTER VIII.

WHY SEPARATE?[1]

A Moral Reason-A Social Reason-A Political Reason-A National Reason-A British Reason-A Historical Reason-A Religious Reason-For "Separate Schools."

The West is without a doubt the cla.s.sical land of the "School problem in Canada." The Prairie Provinces will remember the struggles that have marked their birth in the Dominion. The words, "separate schools," rang loud and angry over the cradle of these youngest partners in our Confederation. The conflict has not subsided with years. Although the rights of the minority, at least in Saskatchewan and Alberta, are partially recognized by law, there are yet some who seem to have a mission to reopen the conflict by ever dragging the problem into the open arena of our political life. Under the specious pretext of national welfare they would foist upon the Canadian Public opinions and measures opposed to our existing system and to the broad spirit of liberty that inspires and maintains it. But we all know that in this persistent and methodical opposition to our separate schools the fundamental issue is a religious one. Life, after all, is a spiritual value. The school is the great loom on which the rising youth weaves its thread into the great and amazing tapestry of the nation. Who has the mastery of the school, has in the making that mysterious tapestry of human life.

This problem is but an aspect of the eternal struggle between the Christian and the Pagan ideal. The pagan ideal of civilization is the absorption of the individual by the State, the confiscation of liberty by the political monopoly of the nation.

The Christian ideal is the State at the service and for the protection of the individual and of the family. "To Caesar what belongs to Caesar; to G.o.d what belongs to G.o.d." Before the ever recrudescent forces of neo-paganisim it is most useful, we contend, to rea.s.sert in plain, terse language the principles, the reasons that explain and justify our persistent att.i.tude on the school problem. They will be our answer to the question which is ever thrown at Catholics in Western Canada:

"Why separate?" We have placed the discussion of this problem on the higher plain of the unchangeable and unchanging principles of truth and justice, for, we are firm believers in the pacific penetration of ideas and in their conquering power. In truth alone, the Master stated, is true and abiding liberty: "You will know truth, and truth will make you free." Every true Canadian readily grasps the transcendent importance of the problem under examination and should bring to its discussion open-mindedness and sincerity.

I.-A Moral Reason

It is the right and duty of the parent to educate his child. This right is founded on nature. The child is the offspring of the parents, the continuation as it were of their own life. They are therefore the natural educators of their children. When they commit them to the care of others for instruction it is their right to have them educated as they wish. As by the supreme and sacred right of conscience man is free to give to his life its moral direction, so also does the same principle apply to the education of a child for whose conscience, as for whose life, the parent is responsible. The moral right of the parent, which is one with that of the child in that period of life, is fundamental. It const.i.tutes the bed-rock on which rest all other rights in matters of education. To deny that principle, to deflect it from its proper meaning, to recognize it only partially, is to blast the very foundation of human nature. No reason of common good, of citizenship, can overthrow this right; on the contrary, it presupposes it; for, the State can only interfere to protect and help this right. It can never suppress it, and only supplement it when the parents are deficient and fall short of this sacred duty they owe their offspring.

II.-A Social Reason

Society is made up of various units, lending to one another support by the mutual partic.i.p.ation in the activities of life. The family-the first in order of time and dignity-is beyond doubt the princ.i.p.al and central unit. The other social factors presuppose it and exist for its protection. Is it not the source from which springs the very life of the individual and wherein society replenishes its forces? The placing of the individual as the specific social unit of our modern democracy is a pernicious error. This fallacy has destroyed Society by upsetting the essential order of its units and has robbed the individual of his most elementary rights.

The subst.i.tution of the State for the family is most detrimental in any sphere of life. In matters of education it is nothing short of a disaster. The "State School Teacher" is an anomaly. It is the subversion of true social order for it const.i.tutes "an unwarranted interference of the State in a function preeminently social. Education is a social function and cannot be converted into a governmental charge without violence to it." What Treitsche said of the Judiciary Power in a country may well be applied to education. "We find the first and fundamental principle of jurisprudence to be that no one should be withdrawn from the jurisdiction of his natural judge." The natural school of the child is the family; the common school should be nothing but an extension of the home. The mission of the school is to supplement the home and not to supplant it. The child and the parent therefore are ent.i.tled to have the same atmosphere pervade both school and home. Everything that is relevant to education belongs to the family. A policy that favours intrusion of an undue influence of the State in the school and destroys home authority and parental influence is unnatural and therefore anti-social. The State is not the natural teacher of the child.

This fusion of the political and social orders-which in reality means the suppression of the latter to the profit of the former-is the fatal error of the day and producive [Transcriber's note: productive?] of great evils. An Educational Department is the open door through which any Government may force its particular views on the growing generation. The monopoly of State education is nothing else but the conscription of the minds, an "intellectual militarism," which eventually leads to the absorption of the individual and the family and to greater disasters than war. Under the cover of citizenship it will legalize a country into servitude. The school ambitions of Prussia prepared the catastrophe the world has just witnessed. Always and everywhere the same cause will produce the same effects.

III.-A Political Reason