Catholic Problems in Western Canada
G >> George Thomas Daly >> Catholic Problems in Western CanadaOur policy of aggressiveness, if it be true and resolute, will find
expression in an intelligent, active and persevering propaganda.
Propaganda is the dissemination of ideas, with the view of giving them
a strong foothold in the mind. The gradual development of the message
it carries and the recurrence of its lessons at stated intervals are
the principal factors of this great force. To be efficient and
successful our propaganda among our non-Catholic brethren will assume
two distinct forms: The open and the silent form.
The _silent propaganda_ is the spreading of Catholic ideas through the
contact of our every day life with those who are not of our own Faith.
Willingly or unwillingly we are bound to leave an impression of our
belief in the business and social circles into which our life is cast.
Our silence and abstention alone often militate against the Church.
Let then the purity and spirituality of our lives, the honesty of our
commercial relations, the sanctity of our home, bear witness to the
sacredness of our religion and to the seriousness of its teachings.
A true Catholic life is in itself a living antithesis of the prevalent
neo-pagan ideals, and stands as the best proof of our Faith's sincerity
and of the depth of its conviction. "If life is the test of thought
rather than thought the test of life," wrote Van Dyke, "we should be
able to get light on the real worth of a man's ideals by looking at the
shape they would give to human existence if they were faithfully
applied." For, as Cromwell said, "The mind is the man."
The participation in civic, social and national activities will afford
the occasion of meeting our non-Catholic neighbours. This personal and
repeated contact, particularly with the leaders of the community, on
occasions when the best brains can concentrate together without clash
of principle, is, in our humble estimation, of the greatest value. The
participation of the Knights of Columbus in war activities and
reconstruction work is a striking illustration of this point. Nothing
has more helped the Church in the American Republic, in breaking down
the barrier of anti-Catholic prejudice, than the stand its Catholic
laity took during and after the Great War. Have we not in Western
Canada been rather remiss in our participation in public activities?
If we have not had our share in public life, it has often been, we must
confess, our own fault.
The strength of the silent propaganda lies in its _persistency_ and
_consistency_. A silent continuous and intelligent activity, and not a
mere passivity, on the part of Catholics, is what characterizes this
tremendous force. Like the tide, it creeps from pebble to pebble, from
rock to rock, submerging every thing under its conquering waters.
The logic of Catholic life lends its consistency to this silent force.
Our life is indeed the best proof of our principles. No one on the
contrary does more harm to the Church than a Catholic whose life is not
in harmony with his belief. The non-Catholic points to his life, with
a sneer, and says: "See, he is no better than others!" This reasoning,
we know is false, but for the unthinking masses, very often conclusive.
This silent drive is the necessary background of the _open propaganda_
of which we would now say a few words.
The sincerely aggressive Catholicism of the laity cannot confine its
activities to the home and narrow circle of friends, no more than that
of the clergy can find its limit in the pulpit and the confessional.
Let us go into the open. The sun of liberty is blazing bright for us
all, under the blue skies of Canada. To witness at times, our cringing
spirit, our childlike timidity, our cowardice, one would think that we
were still under the penal laws and legal disabilities known by our
fathers and forefathers. "What is there to check our dash forward?" we
would ask with Father Vaughan. "Absolutely nothing, but ourselves,
nothing but what we term prudence." Prudence! thin veneer, hardly able
to conceal our apathy and unwarranted timidity.
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 analysis 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.). Anchored 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 God. Yet, there are certain
methods, certain activities, which have proved successful and could be
adopted to suit the circumstances 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
God's own time. Inquiry classes 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 God . . . _Donum Dei_. The salvation and
sanctification of a soul are essentially a supernatural process. We
can no more trace the ways of God 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 masses 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 God 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. . . . Circumstances 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 shore
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 attitude 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 shores 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
circumstances 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 associations 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 institutions.
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 passion 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-assurance 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 passed, 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 classical 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 God what belongs to God." Before the ever recrudescent
forces of neo-paganisim it is most useful, we contend, to reassert in
plain, terse language the principles, the reasons that explain and
justify our persistent attitude 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.