Catholic Problems in Western Canada
G >> George Thomas Daly >> Catholic Problems in Western CanadaFloyd Keeler, a neo-convert to the Catholic Faith, made recently this
most instructive statement. "Perhaps the greatest problem which the
convert is the most surprised to find existing in the Catholic Church,
is the problem why the average American Catholic is so supremely
selfsatisfied and seems to have so little thought for the propagation
of the Faith which he professes. Coming from a body which has had for
many years a well-organized system of missionary propaganda and which,
in spite of its many and grave doctrinal difficulties, is fairly well
permeated with missionary spirit, _it is a shock_ to find that within
the Fold so little attention is paid to what really ought to be the
very breath of life to its people, the Extension of the Kingdom of God
on earth, the carrying out of our "Lord's Last Will and Testament." To
find Catholics whose ideals are bound up within their own parishes, who
possess no sort of vision of the world beyond, still lying "in darkness
and in the shadow of death" and no concern over its redemption, is a
phenomenon which is hard to explain."
"It distresses us more than we can tell to find those who are nourished
at the breasts of the Bride of Christ, callous to Her charms, unmindful
of Her privileges, thoughtlessly and grudgingly rendering their minimum
of service, for we realize how Christ is thus being 'wounded in the
house of His friends' and His Bride made to lose Her comeliness in the
sight of men. But the Catholic press and the Catholic pulpit, fired
with the zeal of this new apostolate can, and we believe will solve the
problem."--("America," March 13, 1920.)
Our parishes and dioceses will never suffer from an increased zeal in
the broader interests of the Universal Church.[4] There can be no
conflict of interests in the Church of God, if seen from the proper
point of view,--the glory of God and the salvation of souls. "It is
because we have need of men and means at home that I am convinced we
ought to send both men and means abroad. In exact proportion as we
freely give what we have freely received will our works at home prosper
and the zeal and number of our priests be multiplied. This is the test
and the measure of Catholic life among us. The missionary spirit is
the condition of the growth, and, if Faith is to extend at home it must
be by our aiding to carry it abroad" (Card. Manning). Was it not while
he was building the Cathedral of Westminster, that Card. Vaughn founded
the "Mission Society?"
This missionary spirit has also a bearing on the spiritual welfare of
the flock in which it is fostered. For those who would object that
giving money to our Western Church is "carrying coals to Newcastle," we
would state that the West now needs more the help of the East than at
any other time. The organized parishes are indeed beginning to be
self-supporting; but the work we have outlined in these pages, if it is
to be done, has to be supported by the Catholics of Canada at large.
The spiritual aids will be the prayers, Masses, sacrifices of all kind
offered for our Home Missions. Nothing strengthens faith and
stimulates genuine piety, as prayers and sacrifices for the great cause
of our missions. They are so disinterested, they reveal true love for
our Blessed Lord.
Only a chosen few are called to go into the field at home and afar and
reap the ripening harvest. But all are commanded by the Master to pray
the Father for harvesters. This sublime apostleship of prayer is the
privilege and duty of every Christian. Is there anything more
instructive and more pathetic than the invitation of the Saviour to
co-operate with Him in this great work of the Redemption. "And seeing
the multitudes he had compassion on them: because they were distressed
and lying like sheep that have no shepherd. Then He said to His
disciples: the harvest indeed is great but the labourers are few. Pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he send labourers into the
harvest." (Math. IX, 36, 37, 38.)
The Divine Master cannot but hear the prayer asking Him to send
"labourers to the ripening harvest." And could we give better proof of
devotion to Church and Country?
Great is the seriousness of the present hour, tremendous the task that
confronts us after the war. Never has any generation in history been
so freighted with the responsibilities of the future as ours is,
marching home from the battlefields of Europe. We are living in
stirring and changeful times. Nowhere in the Dominion of Canada will
the period of reconstruction have more far-reaching effects than in the
West. The after-war problems will meet there with rapid and very often
radical solutions. To understand this issue that faces our country, to
grasp it in all its breadth and fulness, should we not broaden our
vision, readjust it, we would say, to the new scale of changing
conditions? Only then will we be able to marshal our forces and throw
the weight of Catholic principles into the solving of the social,
economic and religious problems of the hour. "The Church cannot remain
an isolated factor in the nation. The Catholic Church possesses
spiritual and moral resources which are at the command of the nation in
every great crisis. The message to the nation to forget local
boundaries and provincialism is a message likewise to the Catholic
Church. Parochial, diocesan and provincial limits must be forgotten in
the face of the greater tasks which burden our collective religious
resources." (Card. Gibbons.) Let us give to the people that broad,
Catholic vision of our present duty to our country and to our Church.
The broader the outlook, the deeper the insight. The measure of their
vision will be the measure of their action. No leader can meet with
success without a certain receptivity to work upon. This receptivity
is formed by spreading ideas, by an educational propaganda.
It may take time before the vision struggles into consciousness and
wins its way to the dominance of the mind. What we need is a
systematized, continuous effort that will gradually crystalize that
vision into a definite workable project. A flourish of trumpets and
blaze of Catholic zeal, as we are accustomed to witness on the occasion
of some special sermon and appeal by a missionary, will only prompt an
act of passing generosity.
The special object of the _Catholic Church Extension Society_ is to
awaken the collective consciousness of the Catholic population and to
give to Catholics that vision of their social responsibility and
religious solidarity and to keep it, by its organization, in a healthy
condition. It realizes that co-operation from the Church at large will
exist and maintain itself only if preceded, accompanied and upheld by a
strong and vigilant Catholic public opinion. In return public opinion,
once created in the ranks of our Catholic laity, will make the
_Extension Society_ a live-wire, a dynamic force of the Church in
Canada. Let us not forget, vision--and public opinion is the vision of
the multitude--is the first and primary of constructive forces.
To have Catholic action we must first create a Catholic mind.
A publicity campaign, followed by a dominion-wide drive for funds,
would be now in order. The spirit of giving and of giving for great
causes is in the air. A campaign of that nature--we have seen it often
during the war,--is in itself an education. It spreads information and
arouses the sense of duty.
From the clearness, breadth and depth of that vision will spring the
conquering spirit of united action. Forgetting then our lingual and
racial differences that have created in the past among us so many
unfortunate misunderstandings and have weakened our forces before the
enemy, we will rise to the level of our faith, to the creative powers
of true Catholicity.
The "Call of the West" has been heard. It comes to you with the
_burning problems_ of the _present_ . . . _praesentia tangens_ . . .
and the _vision of brilliant promises and heavy responsibilities_ of
the future . . . _furtra prospiciens_.
WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER?
[1] This Chapter formed the matter of a series of articles published in
the "Catholic Register" of Toronto. The Catholic Church Extension
Society republished them in pamphlet form with the following
introduction by Archbishop McNeil.
"The author of this pamphlet has lived in the West and has felt--I was
going to say--the need of Catholic co-operation, but that falls short
of the reality. Co-operation among Catholics 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
centuries of the Christian era it was centres rather than
circumferences that marked divisions of work and of jurisdiction; but,
in any case, administrative divisions were never intended to be
divisions of brotherhood. In places where we are well established we
are inclined to look upon Christian brotherhood in an abstract way. In
the West they feel it as a necessity of Catholic life, not only as a
source of financial help, but as brotherhood in sympathy, interest, and
mutual helpfulness. The West can help the East by its growing
influence, and Catholics in the West can do their part in defence of
Catholic ideals and Catholic institutions. The more we do for them the
more they can do for us. Father Daly describes the Call of the West,
and it is fittingly through Catholic Extension that the call is now
made and will be answered."
[2] "The Universe" the great Catholic Weekly of England, had in its
editorial notes the following remarks on this suggestion of ours:
A "DESK-POLICY" OF APOSTLESHIP
The Catholic Church in Canada possesses a Home Missionary problem of
the extent of which we can scarcely form an idea. In making his appeal
from the West to the East of the vast Dominion, Father Daly, C.S.S.R.,
who has just issued a pamphlet on the subject through the Church
Extension Press, Toronto, brings out some salient truths on the subject
of co-operation and organization which Catholics all the world over can
well take to heart and apply to themselves. "Two conditions (he says)
made united action possible--uniform plan and authoritative leadership.
To readjust our methods to conditions as we find them means efficiency
with the least waste of energy, and acting on this principle Father
Daly advocates a 'survey' of membership and conditions of the Catholic
Church in unorganized districts as the one means of getting at lapsed
Catholics. 'Too often,' he observes, 'we are waiting for the fallen
away to come to us.' This is true indeed. Protestant proselytizers in
the west of Canada have the whole 'survey' scheme worked out on a
scientific basis. Father Daly is more willing to learn from them. "I
am a firm believer," he writes, "in what I would call the
Catholicization of modern methods that have proved beneficial in any
cause." The problem of unorganized districts and of a scattered
Catholic population in our own case is, of course, minute compared with
that of Canada; but it is there, and sufficiently in evidence to
justify the Redemptorist Father's "desk-policy of apostleship." There
is no reason, in short, why the interorganization of the members of the
most perfect organization in the world should be committed to a kind of
spiritual rule of thumb."
[3] The following letter prompted by the reading of this very article
was received by the President of the Church Extension, dated, March 14,
1919, at a point of Saskatchewan we know quite well; it is illustrative
of conditions prevailing in many districts of our Great West:
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 God-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 illustration 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 Mass 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 God'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 God 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 constituted, identical to itself, and in all its parts,
throughout time and space. 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 space, 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 circumferences 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 space, 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 classical illustration 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 assistance 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_.