Produced by Al Haines
Catholic Problems
in
Western Canada
By
George Thomas Daly, C.SS.R.
_With preface by the Most Reverend O. E. Mathieu,
Archbishop of Regina_
TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF
CANADA, LTD., AT ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE
Permissu Superiorum
ARTHUR T. COUGHLAN, C.SS.R., Provincial.
Imprimatur
EDWARD ALFRED LEBLANC, Bishop of St. John, N.B.
St. John, N.B., December 8th, 1920.
Copyright, Canada, 1921
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LIMITED
TORONTO
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO
THE CATHOLIC HIERARCHY
OF CANADA.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART 1.--RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS
CHAPTER 1.--THIS CALL OF THE WEST
A Call from the West--The Call of the Catholic Church in the West--The
Response of the East--The Specific Object of the Catholic Church
Extension Society.
CHAPTER 2.--BRIDGING THE CHASM
The Catholic Church Extension Society in Canada--Its Principles and
Policy.
CHAPTER 3.--PRO ARIS ET FOCIS
The Ruthenian Problem--A Religious and National Problem--Its
Phases--Its Solution.
CHAPTER 4.--WHY? WHAT? WHO?
The necessity of a Field Secretary for the Organization of our
Missionary Activities.
CHAPTER 5.--PLOUGHING THE SANDS
The Church Union Movement; its Causes and Various Manifestations--The
Protestant and Catholic View-point.
CHAPTER 6.--"THEM ALSO I MUST BRING" (Jo, v, 16)
The Apostolate to non-Catholics; its Obligation--What have we
Done?--What Can we Do?
CHAPTER 7.--PROS AND CONS
Obstacles that Impede. . . . Circumstances that Help the Work of the
Church in Western Canada.
PART 2.--EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS
CHAPTER 8.--WHY SEPARATE?
A Moral Reason--A Social Reason--A Political Reason--A National
Reason--A British Reason--A Religious Reason . . . for our "Separate
Schools."
CHAPTER 9.--A WINDOW IN THE WEST
A Crusade for Better Schools in Saskatchewan: Its History--Its
Lessons--An Invitation and a Warning.
CHAPTER 10.--UNICUIQUE SUUM
Principle on which should be Based the Division of Company-taxes
between Public and Separate Schools.
CHAPTER 11.--DREAM OF REALITY
Higher Education in Western Canada--Duty of the Hour--University
Training, Condition of Genuine leadership--For Catholics Higher
Education means Higher Catholic Education--The Concerted Action of all
Catholics in Western Canada can make a Western Catholic University a
Reality.
PART 3--SOCIAL PROBLEMS
CHAPTER 12.--BEYOND BERLIN
After-war Problems from a Catholic view-point--Reconstruction--The Duty
of the Hour.
CHAPTER 13.--"WHOM DO MEN SAY THAT THE SON OF MAN IS?" (Matt. xvi, 13)
Public Opinion and the Catholic Church--What is Public Opinion--Its
Power--How it is Formed--The Catholic Church in its Relation to Public
Opinion--Our Duties to Public Opinion.
CHAPTER 14.--"TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE" (Jo. viii, 32)
Facts--Principles--Policy of the Catholic Truth Society--Its Value for
the Church in Western Canada.
CHAPTER 15.--A SUGGESTION
Importance of the Catholic Press--Requisites for its Success in the
West.
CHAPTER 16.--THE NEW CANADIAN
Immigration--Are we Ready for it?--Outline of a Plan of Action.
CHAPTER 17--"UT SINT UNUM"
A Catholic Congress of the Western Provinces, the Ultimate Solution of
all their Problems--What is a Congress?--Its Utility--Its
Necessity--Tentative Programme of a General Congress.
CHAPTER 18.--"ULTIMA VERBA"
APPENDIX
I.--AMERICANIZATION
A Thought-compelling and Illuminating Article, by L. P. Edwards, in
"New York Times," on Problems that Confront Canada also.
II.--THE FAD OF AMERICANIZATION
By Glenn Frank in the "Century," June, 1920.
III.--AMERICANIZATION WORK MUST PROCEED SLOWLY
By Rev. D. P. Tighe, "Detroit News," Aug. 24, 1919.
PREFACE
_Letter of the Most Reverend O. E. Mathieu,
Archbishop of Regina, to the Author_
REVEREND G. DALY, C.SS.R.,
St. John, N.B.
Dear Father,--
Quebec Province claims you as her son. There you lived for many years;
there you learned to admire the peaceful life and to appreciate the
genuine happiness of our patriarchal families; there you were an
eyewitness of the "bonne entente" and noble rivalry which exist between
the ethnical groups that go to make up its population.
At various times your sacred ministry has brought you in touch with the
other Eastern Provinces of our broad Dominion. A keen observer, you
readily grasped existing conditions and the mentality of the various
elements of our Canadian Population.
The year 1917 found you laboring in our beloved Province of
Saskatchewan, as Rector of our Cathedral. For three years you lived
with us. The possibilities of our great West soon appealed to your
enthusiastic heart. The various problems which here engage the
attention of the Church fired your soul with noble ambition. I shall
never forget the good you have done in the parish committed to your
care. I shall be ever grateful for the zeal with which you devoted
yourself, heart and soul, to the guidance of those under your charge.
You found your happiness in making others happy, remembering that
kindly actions alone give to our days their real value. Your priestly
heart understood that when one is in God's service he must not be
content with doing things in a half-hearted way or without willing
sacrifice.
But the voice of your Superiors called you to another field of action,
and with ready obedience you hastened to the Eastern extremity of the
Dominion. I can assure you, dear Father, that, though absent, your
memory is still fresh among us. Your old parishioners of Holy Rosary
Cathedral, and others with whom you came in contact through missions
and other work throughout the Province, have kept a fond and faithful
remembrance of your Reverence. The citizens of Regina who are not of
our Faith still remember the noble efforts you always put forth to
promote good will and concord in the community at large. Your charity
proved to them that we were not born to hate but to love one another.
It affords me great pleasure to see that since you left the West you
have continued to have its welfare at heart, its problems ever present
in your thought. For you tell me that you are just about to publish a
book on "Catholic problems in Western Canada."
The West, you have known, studied and loved. The tremendous obstacles,
as well as the great possibilities which there face the Church at this
critical hour of our history, have left on your mind a lasting
impression. You fully realize, dear Father, that our Western problems
are not sufficiently known by the Catholics of the East. Were the
importance of these issues fully appreciated by all, a greater interest
would be taken in regard to their immediate solution. Catholics
throughout the Country, you rightly state, are obliged to further the
influence of Holy Mother Church in our Western Provinces, which will
certainly be called upon within a very near future to play a most
important part in our Dominion.
To draw the attention of Catholics to the critical issues which
conditions, during the last decade or so, have created in our great
West, and to offer solutions which will be beneficial to the Church,
are the noble motives that have prompted your important work and guided
you on to its completion.
Even though some may not fully share your views, or see eye to eye with
you on the means of action you suggest, you will have nevertheless
attained your object. You will have, I am confident, awakened interest
in our Western problems which, I repeat, are unfortunately not known,
or at least, are not fully appreciated by too many of our own.
There is a saying that the heart has reasons which the mind does not
fully grasp. I feel sure that the many hours you have spent in the
composition of your book, coupled with the strenuous work of the
missions, to which you have consecrated yourself with unrelenting zeal
since your departure from our midst, have been calculated to weaken
your health. But your heart, unmindful of self, did not consider time
and fatigue so long as your fellow-man was being benefited. Your love
for God and His Church induced you to undertake this work and carry it
through to completion. Your book, I am sure, is destined to produce
happy results. This will be your consolation and your reward. Asking
God to bless your work and wishing you to accept this expression of my
constant gratitude and sincere friendship, I remain as ever,
Devotedly yours,
OLIVIER ELZEAR MATHIEU,
_Archbishop of Regina._
ARCHBISHOP'S HOUSE,
REGINA, November 21st, 1920.
INTRODUCTION
Praesentia tangens. . . . .
Futura prospiciens.
Problems characterize every age, sum up the complex life of nations and
give them their distinctive features. They form that moral atmosphere
which makes one period of history responsible and tributary to another.
And indeed, in every human problem there is an ethical element. This
imponderable factor, which often baffles our calculations, always
remains the true, permanent driving force. For in the last analysis of
human things, morality is what reachest furthest and matters most.
Problems may vary with the times and the countries, and yet, the moral
issues involved never change; for, right is eternal. To detect this
ethical element amid the ever restless waves of human activities has
ever been the noble and constant effort of true leaders. Like the
pilot they are ever watching for the lighted buoy on the tossing waves.
This moral element underlying all our national problems is what affects
Catholics as such, or rather the medium through which Catholics are
called to affect them. No period should prove more interesting to
Catholics than our own, for the very principles of Christian Ethics are
now being questioned and vindicated in the lives of nations, either by
the benefits accruing from their application, or by the evils
consequent upon their neglect.
Our neo-pagan world is learning by a cruel and sad experience that
Religion is the foundation of morality, and morality that of true
legality. "For unless certain things antecedent to conscience be
granted and firmly held, 'conscience' becomes synonymous with
'sentiment.'"
Mr. Lloyd George himself, addressing a religious gathering in Wales on
June 9, 1920, recognized Religion as the only bulwark able to resist
the rising tide of anarchy. "Bolshevism is spreading throughout the
world," said the British Premier, "and the churches can alone save the
people from the disaster which will ensue, if this anarchy of will and
aim continues to spread." The task of the churches, he continued, was
greater than that which came within the compass of any political party.
Political parties might provide the lamps, lay the wires and turn the
current on to certain machinery, but the churches must be the power
stations. If the generating stations were destroyed, whatever the
arrangements and plans of the political parties might be, it would not
be long before the light was cut off from the homes of the people. The
doctrines taught by the churches are the _only_ security against the
triumph of human selfishness, and human selfishness unchecked will
destroy any plans, however perfect, which politicians may devise.
This period of history, to quote Gladstone, is "an agitated and
expectant age." The world is travelling fast into a new era. The
modern social fabric, built on the shifting sands of selfishness and
injustice is rocking on its foundations. Amid accumulated ruins
nations are searching for the basic principles of true Reconstruction.
This period of unrest is in itself a challenge to Christianity, to the
Church. But the vitalizing force of Christianity can solve these
problems of a decrepit civilization just as it solved the problem of
tottering Rome. Problems therefore must be faced and solved. Every
Catholic has his place in this world-wide work. If our religion does
not make its influence felt in every phase of our life's activities, it
is--as far as our life and its influence on others is concerned--a
gigantic fraud. Bishop Kettler understood this pressing obligation
when, breaking away from a too conservative programme of action, he was
the first in the Church to give an impetus to the study of the modern
social problem. His policy and action were said to have prompted the
celebrated letter of Leo III, _Rerum Novarum_. The words of this great
democratic Bishop still bear his timely message to Catholics of to-day,
"To save the souls of countless workmen entrusted to her by Christ, the
Church must enter the field of Social reform, armed with extraordinary
remedies. She must exert herself to the utmost to rescue the workmen
from a situation which constitutes a real proximate occasion of sin for
them, a situation which makes it morally impossible for them to fulfill
their duties as Christians."
"The Church is bound to interfere '_ex caritate_,'" as these workmen
are in extreme need and cannot help themselves. Otherwise, the
unbelieving workingman will say to her: "Of what use are your fine
teachings to me? What is the use of your referring me, by way of
consolation, to the next world, if in this world you let me and my wife
and my children perish with hunger? You are not seeking my welfare,
you are looking for something else."
Our fair and broad Dominion has not escaped from that spirit of unrest.
Spasmodic eruptions in the East and in the West indicate the same
central fires of the universal volcano upon which the world now sleeps
uneasily. Yet, various reasons have urged us to limit our
investigation and reflections to Western Canada. The predominating
interests of the West have of late become more and more evident in the
economic and political life of our country. Lord Salisbury, when
trouble was brewing on the far-flung border of India, gave to the
people the famous warning "Look at big maps." To get a just
appreciation of our mighty West we may well follow that same advice and
"look at big maps." The sudden and rapid growth of our Prairie
Provinces particularly, the unlimited and perennial resources of their
fertile soil, the progressive spirit of the population have made of the
West the land of great possibilities and mighty problems. The future
of our Country, the peace and prosperity of the nation depend to a
great extent on the reasonable and just exploitation of these resources
and on the adequate solution to these problems.
There is no place in Canada where problems develop more rapidly and
meet with more radical solutions than in Western Canada. This is the
case in every young and prosperous country. No dead are behind the
living, to link the past to the future with the steadying influence of
tradition. Who has not heard of "The Spirit of the West?" Broad in
its vision, sympathetic and ambitious in its plans, over-confident in
its powers and most aggressive in its policies, that spirit grips you
as you pass beyond the Great Lakes into the unlimited horizons of the
rolling prairies. Those who have never experienced its secret
influence, will never fully understand its tremendous power. J. W.
Dafoe, of the Manitoba Free Press, welcoming to the West the Members of
the Imperial Press Conference (1920), assured them that they would
observe in the West evidence "of a newer Canadianism, the Canadianism
of to-morrow; not hostile to the East, but, we think, a little better."
As the West has forced itself on the attention of our economic and
political world, so also have its Religious problems loomed up many and
great on the horizon of the Church. The Catholic Church, there, as in
many mission countries, is in process of formation: immense fields
await the scythe of belated reapers. Yet, notwithstanding this state
of imperfect organization, the Church stands out as one of the great
moral factors which outsiders are the first to respect, and politicians
too willing at times to exploit. Through her teachings and her
children, she is bound to make the beneficial influence of her presence
felt, even by her enemies. Her teachings indeed create for her loyal
children issues which have to be faced squarely and unflinchingly. The
influence of the Church on Society depends on the manner Catholics
understand their social responsibilities and translate into action her
doctrine. We may well apply to the life of the Church in a country
this biological truism: "life consists in adaptation to environment."
From a Catholic viewpoint Our West will be vitalized only in as much as
the Catholics in Western Canada, thoroughly patriotic in their
aspirations and thoroughly Catholic in their ideas and feelings, will
bring their influence to bear on our national life. Their example and
their influence will lead to the silent and "pacific penetration" of
the Society in which they live. And the Catholics throughout Canada
cannot stand aloof, disinterested in the upbuilding of the Western
Provinces, where the Canada of to-morrow is being created. There
indeed the clash of ideals is more marked, the fermentation of thought
is stronger, issues are more vital. Our national life, to a great
extent, will depend on how these conflicting elements are absorbed into
the blood and sinews of the Country.
The problems on which we dwell are, in our humble estimation, of
paramount importance and should arrest the attention and elicit the
co-operation of every Catholic alive to their seriousness. No doubt we
have been sleeping at our posts. Red lights spot the darkness of the
future and speak of danger ahead if the problems upon which we dwell
are not pressed home with constancy and energy, if some concerted
action is not agreed upon. Behind these problems lurk mighty issues.
They strike at the very foundations of Christianity and Christian
civilization, and cannot be disposed of by Parliament-Laws or
Orders-in-Council.
We are a minority, some may say, and without influence. Yes, we are a
minority, but were we a militant minority, our ideas would make their
way. "Small as the Catholic body was in England," said H. Belloc, "it
knew what it thought; it had a determined position. That was of
enormous importance. A minority which was logical, reasonable, and
united was a very much stronger thing than its mere numbers would
suggest." Did not the ideas of a few Oxford men revolutionize the
Church of England and bring on a movement the results of which we still
witness throughout the English-speaking world. The men who see clear
and far, who feel keenly and deeply will necessarily be leaders. The
hand that leads is always governed by a warm heart and a clear eye.
"Devotion is the child of conviction," said Lord Haldane.
The non-Catholic may be inclined to look upon our exposition of these
Western Problems as a merely sectarian viewpoint, and therefore, of no
value to him. He may even look upon our work as an open challenge. I
would answer in Newman's words: "_Our motive for writing has been the
sight of the truth and the desire to show it to others._"
The serious minded non-Catholic, whose soul has not been wholly warped
by prejudice, will at least consider the Catholic Church as one of the
great moral factors in the nation. He will naturally wish to know the
mind of the Church and the reasons for its stand in many problems
common to all Canadians. Our candid explanation will help to give him
a better understanding of facts and a better appreciation of our
position on issues to be faced by us all. We are prompted by a sincere
love for our Country in offering these solutions for the various issues
with which we are confronted. "Preconceived opinions and inherited
prejudices, particularly in religious matters tend to make men either
blind or indifferent to the merits of systems other than their own."
We do not expect our non-Catholic readers to see eye to eye with us in
the discussion of the various problems under examination. Our
viewpoint is naturally the Catholic one. But we do believe that the
broad-minded Westerner is open to conviction and willing to take an
argument on its face value. 'Give us a hearing' . . . . this is the
burden of our message to our non-Catholic countrymen. This book is not
written in a spirit of controversy. Were some to see it in this light,
then I would claim for the author what Birrell said of Newman: "He
contrived to instil into his very controversy more of the spirit of
Christ than most men can find room for in their prayers." Moreover; we
are persuaded that the great war has mellowed the minds of men and made
them more receptive. The contact with other countries has softened the
contours of certain controversies and given to all a broader outlook.
However, should our arguments fail to prove satisfactory or should they
give rise to contradiction, we would repeat here what Newman wrote in
his Preface to "Difficulties of Anglicans," "It has not been our
practice to engage in controversy with those who felt it their duty to
criticise what at any time we have written; but that will not preclude
us under present circumstances, from elucidating what is deficient in
them by further observations, should questions be asked, which, either
from the quarter whence they proceed, or from their intrinsic weight,
have, according to our judgment, a claim upon our attention."
The problems we touch upon are of a general character. They are not
new, but the war and the loose and hysterical thinking which has
accompanied and followed it, have forced them into startling
prominence. We have grouped them under three headings: _religious_,
_educational_, and _social_. We do not pretend to present an
exhaustive treatment of the matter. To do so, would be on our part a
stroke of temerity and for the reader, an assured deception. Human
problems are ever the same. The surface may be somewhat changed, the
handling a little different, but the principles upon which depends
their solution do not change. Our effort is to throw a new light on
old subjects.
To be of service to the Church, and, through Her to our Country, is the
sole ambition we have had before us in gathering together in book-form
stray sheaves of thought, published here and there, during the course
of the last few years. We are quite convinced that a clear vision of
the problems facing the Church in Western Canada will awaken a sense of
the responsibility which they entail for every Catholic in the land.
Our views and suggestions in the matter are but those of a humble
soldier who belongs to the rank and file of the great Catholic army.
But often a private in the firing line can suggest a plan of action
which, when corrected or modified at headquarters, proves to be of some
benefit to his battalion. This explains the dedication of our humble
effort to the Hierarchy of Canada. For in problems which affect the
Church, we would not lose sight of this supreme truth: "The Holy Ghost
has placed the Bishops to rule the Church of God, which He has
purchased with His own blood."--
(Act XX, 28)
ST. PETERS RECTORY,
ST. JOHN, N.B.
On the Feast of the "Immaculate Conception," December 8th, 1920.
PART I
RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS
"It is surprising how at the bottom of every political problem we
always find some theology involved."
--(Proudhom)
CHAPTER 1
THE CALL OF THE WEST[1]
_A Call from the West_
Who has not heard the call of the West? Like the blast of the hunter's
horn in the silent forest, its thrilling and inviting sound has
awakened the echoes throughout the land. Springing from the granite
heart of our mighty Rockies, that call comes through their valleys, is
heard over the "Great Divide" and whispers its way to the foothills.
Soft as the evening breeze, strong as the howling blizzard, we hear it
across the prairie, gathering as it were, on its triumphal march to the
East, something of the immensity of the plains and freshness of the
lakes.
In the din of our manufacturing cities, in the quietness of our towns
and villages, by the rivers and winding bays of our Maritime Provinces,
along the peaceful shores of the St. Lawrence, the call of the West has
been heard.
Its alluring sound has cast a spell upon our youth, the hope of the
country. Faces flushed with the bright hues of life's dawn, eyes
sparkling with the fires of early youth, instinctively turn to the
West. From all points of Eastern Canada young men and young women are
leaving for that mysterious land of brilliant promise and great
possibilities.
The Call of the West! All Canada is eager to hear its message. Has
not the merchant his ear to the ground, listening to the throbbing of
the growing harvest on our Western prairies? He knows that in the
furrows of that rich loam lie the wealth and prosperity of the country
at large. The Eastern manufacturer anxiously scans the daily paper to
be posted on crop conditions in the West. They regulate to a great
extent the activities and output of his plant. And when college and
university days are over, where does the young professional man turn
his eyes? To the West. Westward, with the sun, he travels; its fiery
course is an invitation to and a harbinger of his bright career.
The Call of the West! Across the ocean it has gone and awakened the
dormant energies of old European nations. Settlers of every race and
creed have rushed to our shores, like the waves of "the heaving and
hurrying tide."
The attraction of the Canadian West has become general, at home and
abroad. Nothing can stop this onward march to the land of promise. A
new Canada is being created beyond the Great Lakes.
A very small fraction of the Western fertile soil is under cultivation
and already the phenomenal yield has prompted the nations at large to
call the Prairie Provinces "the granary of the world." Already in
Canada the industrial, commercial, and to a great extent, the political
world hinges on the Western crop. It is the great source of Canada's
national wealth. For, the prodigious resources of our mines and
forests, and the annual yield of our harvest are the two poles upon
which revolves the credit of our country abroad. But the growing value
of the West to the economic and national life of Canada is a mere
shadow of its increasing importance in the religious world. Above the
hum of the binders and loud clatter of the threshing machines, above
the sharp voice of the shrieking steel rail, counting, as it were, one
by one, the freighted cars on their way to the Eastern ports, above the
clamor of commerce and industry, ring out the voices of immortal souls.
The West, for the Church of God also is the land of great possibilities
and brilliant promise. The waving sea of its wheat fields calls to
mind the words of the Master: "Lift up your eyes and see the countries
ready for the harvest. . . . The harvest is great indeed but the
labourers are few. . . ."
On his return from a visit to our Canadian West Cardinal Bourne, in the
course of conversation, spoke of Canada with almost exclusive reference
to the Western Provinces. Some one remarked to him, "Your Grace is
referring to conditions in the West?" "Yes, the West, the West is
Canada!" he replied.
No one can over-estimate the importance of the West from a Catholic
standpoint. It is a new empire that is being formed beyond the Lakes,
an empire with tremendous and perennial resources, with ambitious
ideals and progressive policies, with forward-looking people and
youthful leaders. There the ultra-conservatism of the East has been
brushed aside and space made for a new democracy. The question of
paramount importance for us is: "What will be the condition of the
Church in that coming part of Canada? What share will She have in the
solving of the social, educational and economic problems of that new
domain?"
Every Catholic should be interested in this vital issue. The call of
the West for a Catholic is the call of the Church, the call of a Mother
to a loyal son. She has a right to a hearty response from every
Catholic throughout our broad Dominion. It is, therefore, a duty of
conscience for every son of the Church in Canada to come to the
assistance of his mother, to take her honor to heart. At the present
hour this duty is most imperative, this obligation most pressing.
There is nothing in the wide sphere of our Catholic social duties so
immediate in its urgency or so far reaching in its consequences. The
Church depends on the loyalty of her children.
To bring this call of our Western missions to the attention of every
individual Catholic, to make every soul a co-operator in the extension
of God's kingdom in Canada, to develop that sense of responsibility
which makes one consider the Church's business his own business, to
rally our disbanded forces, to unite our sporadic efforts around the
great work of the "Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada"--such
is the object of these few pages. To place facts before the reader,
and suggest remedies; to sound the call of the West, loud and sonorous
as the bugle pealing a great "_reveille_," strong and clear as the
trumpet blast that stirs the blood; to prompt a timely and generous
response in the East, by uniting the Church of Canada in a crusade of
prayers and sacrifices for our Western Missions: this is our aim and
hopeful ambition.
_The Call of the Catholic Church in the West_
The call of the Church in the West is a cry for help. Great indeed are
the pressing needs of the Western Church, for numerous and various are
the difficulties with which Catholics have to contend on the prairie
and in the small towns.
The first barrier to surmount is _distance_. The very layout of the
country is to a great extent a hindrance to the efficient working of a
parish. The survey of the land has been made from a strictly economic
point of view. Large farms,--vast wheat fields--were the final object
of the survey. The social, educational, and religious phases of the
situation are in the background. This renders church and school
problems particularly difficult to solve, as was outlined in Dr.
Foght's report of the educational survey in the Province of
Saskatchewan (1918). This difficulty--let us not forget--will persist
for years to come in Western Canada. According to competent
authorities wheat growing, being essentially a large unit undertaking,
demands extensive farming. This statement is very important, for its
consequences in Church organization are far-reaching.
The planless settling of the Catholic homesteaders here and there on
the prairie, has also created for the Church one of its greatest
difficulties. Living often 30, 40 and 50 miles from a Catholic chapel,
these settlers drift away from the authority, teaching and sacraments
of the Church. To form self-supporting parishes in the sparsely
settled districts is often an impossibility.
To this barrier of immense distances are added for long months,
_unfavourable climatic conditions_. The very severe cold, the high
winds which have such a sweep on the boundless prairies, the terrific
blizzards of the long winter months, will always remain great obstacles
to an intense Catholic life in rural parishes. Many Sundays, from
December to March, it is a real impossibility for those who live at any
distance to go to Church.
And who are those who have settled on our Western plains? This is not
the place to discuss the immigration policies of the past. We are
dealing with facts. We have the _most cosmopolitan population_ one
could imagine. The most divergent factors go to make up the racial
composition of our western population. We know of a city parish that
counted 16 different nationalities within its boundaries. During the
first and second generation, during what we would call the period of
Canadianization of these various national elements, the Church has to
face a most difficult and complex situation.
Diversity of nations means _variety of ideals, differences of customs
and traditions_. The disassociation from former relations and the
sudden transfer to new conditions of life, have proved to be such a
shock to many settlers that they fail to readjust their lives to the
arising needs. "Separated from the influences of his early life the
immigrant is apt to suffer from disintegrating reaction amid the
perplexing distractions, difficulties and dangers of his new
environment. Frequently it happens that old associations are destroyed
and there is no substitution of the best standards in the new
environment. A vacuum is created which invites the inrush of
destructive influences." How many foreigners have been lost to the
Church because the teachings of their Faith were no longer handed down
to them, wrapped up, we would say, in the folds of their national
customs and celebrations! The oriental and southern mind is more
particularly susceptible to the influence of this national tinge with
which religion itself comes to them.
The fusion of so many ethnical groups and their adaptation to new
surroundings are the result of a very delicate and slow process,
especially in rural communities. "You cannot play with human chemicals
any more than with real ones. You have to know something of
chemistry," said Winston Churchill. Thousands of foreigners have been
lost to the faith because many of our own, clergy and laity, did not
know the first elements of "human chemistry." The great leakage from
the Church in the West is among Catholic immigrants. Unscrupulous
proselytisers on the specious plea of "Canadianization" have weaned
them from the faith of their fathers. This nefarious process is still
at work, especially in the Ruthenian settlements.
_The number of languages_ complicates still more this ethnical problem.
Not hearing the Catholic doctrine in his own language and crippled by
that instinctive shyness and extreme reserve which seem to grasp him as
he steps on our shores, the foreigner often loses contact with the
Church. Like a transplanted shrub in an uncongenial soil, he
languishes for years in his faith and its practices.
_The very atmosphere_ of the West is another great cause of defections
among the faithful. You must live for some years "out West" to
appreciate the full meaning of this statement.
Moral atmosphere is to the soul what air is to the lungs; it is health
and life. Two elements constitute that factor which plays such a vital
part in our religious life--tradition and environment. _Tradition_
links the past to the present and gives to the soul a certain stability
amidst the fluctuations of life. It is made up of details if you wish,
but, like the tossing buoy, these details betray where the anchor is
hidden. This absence of the past has a great influence on our Western
Church. People hailing from all points of Eastern Canada, of the
United States and of Europe, have not yet formed religious traditions
which are to the Catholic life of the family and of the parish what
roots are to a tree.
And what _environments_ surround our scattered settlers on the prairie?
Only those who have come in close relation with the lonely homesteader
can understand how much he is debarred from the influence of Catholic
life. Very often not even a chapel is to be found for miles and miles.
A chapel, no matter how humble it may be, is in the religious world of
a community like the mother-cell; in it life is concentrated; from it
emanates activity. Mass is now often said in a private house, a public
hall or a school house. Children who have not known the beauty and the
warmth of Catholic worship will hardly appreciate its lessons.
Moreover, _social relations_ often bring our Western Catholics in very
frequent contact with the different Protestant churches and their
tremendous activities. _Mixed marriages_ are the outcome of these
circumstances. God alone knows how many of our Catholic boys and girls
have been lost to the faith through "mixed marriages" and marriages
outside of the Church.
* * * * * *
These various obstacles, _geographical_ (distance and climate),
_ethnical_ (race and language), _religious_ (absence of Catholic
tradition and surroundings), are the ever open crevices through which a
tremendous leakage has been draining the vitality of the Church in
Western Canada. So the call of the West is like the frantic S.O.S. on
the high seas, that snaps from the masts of a ship in danger. It is
the cry of thousands of Catholics sinking into the sea of unbelief and
irreligion. In the wreckage there is still a gleam of hope. Great
numbers yet cling to a remnant of the old faith of their fathers; it
will keep them afloat until helping hands come to their rescue.
The Call of the Church in the West is a call of distress. Has the
Church in the East heard it? What is its response?
_The Response of the East_
Has the Church at large in the East heard the call of the West? Has
that cry of distress gone through the ranks of our Catholics like the
shrill blast of the bugle call? Has it awakened our Catholics from
their torpid lethargy and quickened their sense of responsibility? Has
the call been answered, or has it gone out like a cry in the
wilderness, lost in the noise of our busy world, stifled by the clamour
of other voices, smothered under other diocesan and parochial claims?
In the Church of Canada there have always been generous and noble souls
for whom the missions of the West have had a mysterious attraction.
Who can read without emotion of the heroic deeds of the first Jesuits
who followed the explorers and _courreurs-des-bois_ in their perilous
adventures? What tribute of admiration and gratitude do we not owe to
the Oblate missionaries who lived and died with the wandering children
of the plains, who have kept the fires of Faith burning, from the banks
of the Red River to the Pacific Coast, from the winding shores of the
Missouri and Mississippi to the everlasting snows of the Arctic. Their
lives of heroism furnish a bright splash on the rather drab and bleak
landscape of what was known as the Northwest Territories. The Church
of Canada will ever remain indebted to these noble pioneers of the
cross, apostolic bishops and priests of the first hour; their saintly
lives are forever emblazoned on the pages of Canadian history; the
western trails murmur their names in gratitude and the children of the
prairie still bless their memory by the dying fires of their camps.
Indeed the Province of Quebec for years sent her money to help the
struggling schools of Manitoba. The Catholic Church of Canada has
pledged itself in the Plenary Council of Quebec to help the Ruthenian
cause; the Catholic Church Extension Society of late years is enlisting
the sympathies of Eastern Catholics for our Western missions. With the
help of their motherhouses our various sisterhoods have dotted the West
with convents, schools, hospitals and charitable institutions. We all
recognize the beauty and the heroism of their Catholic charity and
apostolic zeal. Notwithstanding these noble efforts, can we safely
state that the Church of Eastern Canada, as a whole, is deeply
interested in the Catholic welfare of the West? Have we kept pace with
the changing conditions the last decade has brought throughout our
Western Canada? _No_. _And this is our national sin_. The Church as
a whole, has not awakened to its responsibility. As individuals, as
parishes, as dioceses, Catholics here and there have nobly done their
duty. As a body, as a living Church of Canada, we have failed to help
the struggling West as we should have done. We have not thrown all the
energies of our great living, organizing Church into this missionary
work. The Catholics of our Eastern Provinces are not yet united in one
great, generous effort to protect and spread the Kingdom of God in
their own fair Dominion. The call of the Church in the West has not
been heard.
Never has the importance of the West loomed up before the public mind
as it has since the beginning of the war. To realize this you have
only to remark its growing influence in our political life. It cannot
be otherwise; the possibilities of the West are so great and so
numerous. Immense virgin prairies are still waiting for the plough.
After the war, during the period of reconstruction, necessarily so
pregnant of great events, the producing powers of our agricultural West
will be tremendous. This is, therefore, a trying period for the Church
in the West. Beyond the waving wheat of the prairie we should
contemplate the ripening harvest of souls. Like a growing youth, the
Church in Western Canada needs more than ever, help and support from
the Mother Church of the East. This assistance in the present stage of
the Western Church is a pressing duty of conscience, not only for the
individual Catholic, but particularly for the Church as a whole, in
Eastern Canada.
This duty is a duty of the hour, a duty most serious, most imperative.
How can it be accomplished? By the united action of the Eastern
dioceses of Canada.
Each diocese is a constituted unity in itself, but not for itself
alone. Like each particular organism in the human system, it exists
for the benefit of the whole. The Catholicity of the Church implies
this idea of solidarity whereby the strong help the weak and the rich
come to the rescue of the poor. Never, perhaps, has the Church
suffered so much from the wasting of energies. The torrent, if not
directed, spends its energy on itself; turned into the mill race, every
drop counts.
One of the great lessons the war has given to the world is the absolute
necessity of centralized effort and the advisability of central
organization rather than multiplying organizations. We are living in
an age of _efficiency_ through _co-operation_.
_Fas est ab hoste doceri_.--The lesson coming from our separated
brethren should strike home. One has to go West to see the feverish
activities of the different denominations in that new field. Ask the
mission organizers of the various non-Catholic bodies how much money
comes from the East to support the struggling Protestant churches of
the West; visit their immense printing establishments which are
producing and distributing the literature you will find on the table of
the lonely Western settler; study these organizations which are
supplying field secretaries, teachers, social workers to our foreign
Catholic settlements, then you will begin to understand this word of
Pius X.: "The strength of the enemy lies in the apathy of the good."
The mass of evidence, which can be had by the simple reading of the
non-Catholic missionary reports, as to their activities in Western
Canada, is nothing short of staggering. What examples! What lessons!
Should they not turn our apathetic Catholics into enthusiastic
apostles, stir them into watchfulness and action? And what could we
not do _with more unity of action_?
Two conditions make united action possible--_uniform plan_ and
_authoritative leadership_. It would be rather preposterous on our
part to attempt to formulate what we could call a plan of campaign for
our Western apostles. We wish only to submit a few suggestions which
may help to group our scattered energies and bring rescue to the
Church, particularly in the unorganized districts of Western Canada.
To readjust our methods to conditions as we find them _means efficiency
with the least waste of energy_. Therefore, we claim that a "survey"
of membership and conditions of the Catholic Church in unorganized
districts is an absolute necessity. It is the only _logical basis_ for
true _knowledge of conditions_ and for development. This "survey" will
bring us into immediate contact with the fallen-away Catholics. As it
is now, are we not too often _waiting_ for the fallen-away to come to
us? If the survey has proved essential in the solving of educational
and social problems, why should it not commend itself in religious
matters? Proselytizers--especially the English Biblical Society, with
headquarters at Toronto and Winnipeg, have the survey of the West down
to a science. Their map room in the Bible House of Winnipeg is a
perfect religious topography of Western Canada. We are firm believers
in what we would call the "Catholicization" of modern methods that have
proved beneficial to any cause. "Without this survey and the grasp
which it yields of the relative proportion of things, a vast waste of
matter and energy alike is inevitable."
This Catholic survey of unorganized districts may appear to some as "a
dream," a desk-policy of apostleship--as too modern, etc.[2] The only
answer I can give are the facts and figures of the American Catholic
Church Extension, whose work along similar lines proves their
efficiency and high value.
The specific and ultimate object of the survey would be to keep
Catholics who live out of the radius of parish life, in constant touch
with the Church, its teaching, its sacraments and its authority. The
mailing of Catholic literature pamphlets, devotional and controversial,
and newspapers, the teaching of catechism by correspondence, as is
practised in certain districts of Minnesota, the selection of teachers
for foreign districts and of boys for higher education, the
establishment of a central Catholic Bureau of information in each
Province, which could serve as a clearing house and centre of Catholic
activities, and other means of apostleship, these would be the natural
consequences of the survey. Who cannot see what a help this would be
to our scattered Catholics? A great help to keep the faith among the
scattered home-steaders.
The service of an _auto-chapel_ would bring them also, at least once a
year, the benefit of the sacraments and the blessing of the priests'
visit. For, let us not forget it, one family now lost to the Church
means several families in the coming generation. This absence of
contact with the Church has been for our scattered English-speaking
Catholics especially, one of the great causes of the loss of faith.
And what about our mission to non-Catholics? We have the truth; are we
doing enough, not only to keep it among our own, but to spread it among
others? Are we aggressive enough? And still I hear the Master say:
"And other sheep I have that are not of this fold; them also _I must
bring_ and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and
shepherd" (Jo. X, 16). _We must bring_ them back; they _shall hear our
voice_. . . . On the strength of that command and of that promise
should our policy not be more saintly aggressive? What an immense
field awaits the zeal of true apostles! Nowhere more than in the West
has absolute disintegration set in among the different denominations.
The universal desire for Church Union is, in our mind, the best proof
of our statement. The most elementary principles of Christianity, of a
supernatural religion, have lost their grasp on the mind of the average
Protestant Westerner. Nominally, he belongs to a denomination, in
reality he belongs to none. And what are we doing to give them the
faith?
A uniform plan of action, once adopted, requires for execution, _an
authoritative leadership_, if desired results are expected. In the
Church of God the Bishops are our authoritative leaders--_Posuit
Episcopos regere Ecclesiam Dei_. In the ordinary life of the Church
this authority in matters spiritual is delegated to and operates
through the parish priests. The parish is with the diocese, the
established unit of religious organization. For the work in
unorganized districts, which is here the special subject of our
attention, could there not be in each Province or in each diocese, four
or five "Free Lances?" [3] Let them be diocesan missionaries, priests
chosen by the Bishops because of their special fitness for this great
work. They would be to the Church what the R.N.W. Mounted Police have
been to the Northwest Territories, or what the itinerant preachers are
to certain denominations in sparsely settled districts. Their mission
would be to visit, preach, baptize, say Mass in the distant districts
not visited by a parish priest. They would be the advance-guard of the
Church throughout the land. During the winter months they could
continue their work by attending to districts within reach of a
railway. The religious Orders,--and they alone can more easily supply
reserves and train subjects for this special work--the religious Orders
surely will be able to enter into this field of missionary activity, at
the same time protecting their subjects with the safeguards of the Rule
as also of paternal vigilance and guidance. An itinerant "regional
clergy" radiating from a centre where they are fortified by the
advantages of common life, is one of the Bishop of Northampton's
remedial suggestions among possible "new methods devised to meet new
needs." This suggestion is to be found in his Lenten Pastoral of 1920.
The Church in the East, through the Catholic Church Extension Society,
would gladly, if well informed on the matter, furnish the financial aid
for the support of these "free lances"--and their apostolic activities.
The Catholic Truth Society would gladly, contribute all the literature
needed to spread the truth and to keep the fires of faith burning on
our prairies. Grouping forces, co-ordination of efforts, is what we
need most in Canada. In the rank and file of the Catholic laity
treasures of enthusiasm, latent powers of energy go to waste because
there is no leader to awaken and direct them. The policy of the
_Catholic Church Extension_ is to act on these long unspoken desires,
to loosen the pent-up energies of the Catholic heart throughout the
land.
_The Specific Object of the Catholic Church Extension Society_
Through its press, literature, auxiliary societies and various other
activities, this apostolic society is ever trying to quicken among
Catholics a profound sense of responsibility to the Church Universal.
The welfare of our Western missions depends on how the Church in the
East understands and shoulders its obligation.
By financial aid we do not only mean donations and contributions, here
and there, from wealthy Catholics. What we have in view is the
financial assistance of the Church in the East, as a whole, as a
corporate body. Every Catholic in Canada must become more or less
interested in "Home Missions" and be willing to do "his little bit."
As the small fibrous roots are the feeders and strength of the tree, so
also the small and continued donations of all Catholics in the East
will be the support of our missions in the West. In the various
Protestant denominations, for every dollar given to support of the
local church another dollar goes to the "Home Mission Fund." At the
last general Methodist Conference (Hamilton, 1918) that Church pledged
_eight million dollars_ ($8,000,000.00) for their missions in the next
five years. With the enormous sums these various religious bodies
receive from the East they support the non-Catholic institutions of
higher education to be found in all cities of Western Canada, they
distribute free of charge tons of literature throughout the prairie,
they defray the expenses of their social workers, field secretaries,
etc. Among the Catholics of hundreds of parishes does not the
prevailing policy seem to be: "Charity begins at home"--and we may add,
often ends there. When one has paid his pew-rent and his dues, bought
a few tickets for a sacred concert or bazaar, thrown on the collection
plate each Sunday a few coppers or a small piece of silver, he thinks
he has accomplished all his duty to the Church. The vision of too many
Catholics does not go beyond the boundaries of their parish or their
diocese. Circumscribed in their views, they remain illiberal in their
sympathies.
Floyd 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_.
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 noble 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 institutions, 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 space 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 God, 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 analysis on
the grace of God. 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 God. 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
assistance 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 Mass 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
principal work of the Extension is to foster, develop and bring to
fruition missionary vocations for the West. Burses are founded to
assist 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 noble task than to
contribute to the education of the heralds of the Gospel, of the
ambassadors 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 noble Cause. Let us give lovingly and
willingly our children to the great harvest, if it be God'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 God's Church on earth. New
dangers, fresh struggles await Her at every turn of the road in Her
onward march to eternity. Assailed 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 passing 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 God. 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
constituted by God. 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.
* * * * * *
Immigration has brought to the Church of Canada many serious and knotty
problems. Among these stands first and foremost the Ruthenian
question. Only those who have followed the various developments of
this perplexing problem and are fully aware of the unceasing activities
of the various Protestant denominations among Catholic foreigners,
grasp their meaning and understand their importance to the Church. The
average Catholic, we are sorry to say, is not awakened to the reality
of this live issue and fails therefore to meet his responsibilities.
Over 250,000 Catholic Ruthenians, of the Greek rite, have settled in
Canada within the past decade or so. They are scattered throughout the
length and breadth of our immense Dominion. You will find them in the
very heart of our large industrial centres, from Sydney to Vancouver,
and in compact groups on our Western prairies. The vast majority of
these Ruthenians belong to the Catholic Church and are our brethren in
the Faith. To protect them against unscrupulous proselytizers, to help
them to keep the faith in the trying period of their acclimatization to
our Canadian national life, in a word, to make the Church of Canada
assume the proper responsibility which Catholic solidarity imposes on
all her children in regard to this new factor of Catholicity in our
country, . . . this is the Ruthenian problem as it presents itself to
us with its various aspects and critical issues. Problems of the moral
and religious order are of a very complex nature. Principles remain
but circumstances change with the fancies of imagination, the impulse
of passion, the whims of the will. This explains how, in the great and
everlasting war between right and wrong, truth and error, the line of
battle is ever shifting, the methods of attack ever changing. Various
therefore have been the phases of the problem under discussion. But,
we presume, they may all be related to two periods: the period of
settlement and the period of assimilation.
_The Period of Settlement_
When a few years ago our shores were heavily invaded by the rising tide
of an intense immigration from the British Isles and Continental
Europe, the Church had to face conditions heretofore unknown. Without
doubt, the most complex in its elements, the most serious in its
consequences, was the Ruthenian issue. It was a case of providing for
the spiritual wants of over a quarter of a million souls. The dearth
of priests, the difference of rite, the difficulty of language, and the
great number of Ruthenians, created for the Church an almost
insurmountable barrier which nothing short of a miracle could
otherthrow [Transcriber's note: overthrow?]. This sudden and large
influx of Catholics belonging to the Greek rite, into a Country where
the Latin Church alone prevailed, constitutes a fact that has never
been seen before in the history of the Church. Thousands and thousands
of these Greek Catholics were scattered through the prairies; roaming
flocks without shepherds, a prey to ravening wolves. Heresy, schism,
atheism, socialism and anarchy openly joined hands to rob these poor
people of the only treasure they had brought with them from the
old-land,--their Catholic Faith. Presbyterian ministers were seen to
celebrate among them "bogus masses"; schismatic emissaries tried to
bribe them with "Moscovite money"; fake bishops were imposing
sacrilegious hands on out-laws and perverts; traitors from among their
ranks, like Judas, bartered away their faith for a few pieces of
silver; a subsidized press,--"The Canadian Farmer" and "The Ranok"--was
ever at work, playing on their patriotism and exploiting their racial
feelings, to cover with ridicule their faith and pious traditions. The
public school became in the hands of the enemy the most powerful
weapon. Government itself, through its various officials, often went
out of its way to thwart the efforts of our missionaries.
It is not without poignant emotion that we have followed, at close
range, this struggle for the mastery of the Ruthenian soul. We hardly
know which we should admire the more, the faithfulness of the
simple-minded Ruthenian, or the devotedness of the few missionaries
who, for the last fifteen years, have lived, worked and died among
them. We all remember that cry of distress, that demand for help which
came from Archbishop Langevin in favor of his Ruthenian children. It
broke upon the land as a clarion call and its voice was heard in the
first Plenary Council of Quebec. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate--the
pioneer missionaries of the West, the Basilians, the Redemptorists, and
a few French-Canadian secular priests, were the first to answer the
call. They divided among themselves that immense field of labour. God
alone knows what sacrifices, what heart-burnings, what hours of
discouragement and loneliness, were theirs in that strenuous period of
settlement when the wilderness began to blossom, when homesteads were
seen to spring up on the bare soil. We have a faint idea of these
difficulties when we read the "_Memoir: 'Tentative de Schisme et
d'heresie au milieu des Ruthènes de l'Ouest Canadien_," of Father
Delaere, C.SS.R., (1908), and Father Sabourin's pamphlet, "_Les
Ruthenes Catholiques_" (1909).
Let us hope that the Church in Canada will keep sacred the memory of
these harvesters of the first hour. The Catholics owe them a debt of
gratitude. We sincerely hope that the history of their heroic efforts
will not be lost and that the first to appreciate them will be the
coming Ruthenian generation. Father Delaere, C.SS.R.--who has laboured
among the Ruthenians in Western Canada for the last twenty years will
one day give us, we sincerely hope, the history of the settlement and
struggles of his adopted people.
Little by little the Ruthenian Church in Canada is emerging from its
first chaotic state. The visit of Mgr. Septeski to Canada, the
appointment of the Very Reverend N. Budka as Bishop of all the
Ruthenians in Canada, marked a turning-point in their history.
Authority is, in the Church of God, the only great vital centre from
which proceed true order and permanent development. The war, it is
true, complicated the Ruthenian issue. We all know what difficulties
the Ruthenian Bishop had to face during this trying period, under what
dark clouds of ungrounded suspicion he lived. But the most painful
feature of this long and cruel ordeal was the absence of sympathy and
the lack of co-operation in those from whom, as a Catholic Bishop, he
had a right to expect them.
_The Period of Assimilation_
The period of settlement has passed, and already a young "CANADIAN"
generation has sprung up sturdy, thrifty, progressive from the
transplanted Ruthenian stock. The numerous children of that prolific
race are gradually passing from the home into the schools and from the
schools into the community life of the country. This Slavic race is
striking deep roots in Canadian soil, particularly in our Western
Provinces. The loss of faith has been heavy, we believe, especially in
our large cities. Naturally, allowance must be made for the drift-wood
which always follows the tide of immigration. In our rural centres, be
it said to the praise of that simple-minded people, and to the
confusion of the enemies of their faith, the great majority have kept
their allegiance to the Church of their baptism. But, where the "bogus
mass," the false priests and "Moscovite money" have failed, the
neutralizing process of a so-called "Canadianization" may succeed. The
flank envelopment has often a greater success than the frontal attack.
This leads us to dwell on another phase of the Ruthenian problem.
In the history of the human race there is nothing more complicated than
ethnic assimilation. It is a slow, delicate and, in many cases, very
dangerous process. In the laboratory of the world many explosions are
due to the ignorance of what we would call "human chemistry." "One
cannot play with human chemicals any more than with real ones. We know
by experience that at times they are _fulginous_ and ready to break
into open flames." But there are two elements which have to be treated
with the greatest care: Religion and Race. They are the two _foci_ of
the ellipse in which moves history; the two shores between which
oscillates the tossing tide of humanity. Lord Morley calls them "the
two incendiary forces of history, ever shooting jets of flame from
undying embers." This explains why the soil of history is so volcanic,
so filled with burning lava which time itself has not cooled.
_The racial element_ in ethnical assimilation is gradually modified by
the imperative adjustment of the immigrant to his new conditions of
life. For the observer and student of history there is nothing more
instructive and, at times, more pathetic than that borderland which
lies between what has been and what is to be in the life of the
immigrant. This violent breaking away from the past and gradual
assimilation with the present has its dangers. Unknown and occult
factors are at work with the blood of several generations, pulsating in
the veins of the new Canadian. Whilst beckoning hands stretch out to
receive him on our shores and initiate him into our national life,
other hands, the hands of the dead, stretch out through several
generations to lay claim on him. Like everything in nature this change
or rather this transformation should be imperceptible. Mutual
toleration is the factor of a healthy assimilation. This has given to
the United States a greater solvent power than has been shown by any
other nation, ancient or modern. Coercive assimilation arouses
national feelings, alien elements, and racial self-assertion. The
worst enemy of Canada is the political power which, to please a
blatant, ultra-loyal faction, pursues the policy of crushing into
uniformity the heterogeneous elements invited to the country and
allured to our shores with the bait of liberty. This patriotism may be
well called the last refuge of scoundrels; it is nothing but
Prussianism wrapped up in the very folds of the Union-Jack. Therefore,
when in the great work of Canadianization this law of social psychology
is not observed, we not only prevent assimilation, but we deprive the
nation of the fertilizing contact and invigorating contrast of various
ethnical elements and ferment future conflict.
_The religious element_ belongs to a higher plane. Although
independent in its nature of any particular racial feature, yet it
co-exists with the love of country, giving to our patriotism something
of its sanctity and durability. But the point at issue here is: Can
the religious element prevent racial assimilation? In the eyes of many
Canadians the Ruthenian's religion is looked upon as one of the
greatest obstacles to his Canadianization. Under the cover of that
specious plea, many agents are at work in our Ruthenian settlements.
With the preconceived idea that their religion with its ritual,
language and traditions, is the greatest obstacle to their
nationalization and to its inherent benefits, these agents are
multiplying their efforts to wean new Canadians from the faith of their
fathers. The last report of the Methodist Missionary Society--1918,
openly states the designs of this Church in the matter. "_Many of
these Ruthenian people are ignorant and degraded; and under the
sinister leadership of their priests are resolved to resist all
Canadianizing influences. . . . For the Christian Church to act at
once is the need of the present hour, if the foreign peoples are to be
made Christian citizens of the great West._". This statement is
symptomatic of the curious Christianity that now prevails among the
various non-Catholic denominations. With them Christianity is nothing
more than social welfare inspired by a vague philanthropy. Differences
of creed are being cast to the winds, and _Social Service is the basic
idea of their forward movement_, around which they are trying to rally
their dwindling forces. It is then but consequent to have the burden
of their message and the policy of their apostolate bear on
Citizenship. The inevitable and perfidious neutrality of state
officialdom unconsciously seconds their efforts in this direction. But
the most efficient co-operators in this nefarious work are the
fallen-away Ruthenians. They have a smattering of education which
makes them the more dangerous among their own.
This organized opinion and co-ordinated action of the "churches"
against the CHURCH should give to all Catholics food for thought. To
be indifferent would be criminal. We can say with Augustine Birrell:
"It is obviously not a wise policy to be totally indifferent to what
other people are thinking about--simply because our own thoughts are
running in another direction."
* * * * * *
This diagnosis of the Ruthenian problem should suggest practical lines
for individual and group action. It would be preposterous on our part
were we to assume an attitude of destructive criticism without having a
remedy to propose. But what we have in mind is to suggest means
whereby the Church as a whole, and the laity in particular, will come
to the help of a few heroic, struggling missionaries and to the rescue
of their Ruthenian flock.
The Ruthenian people in Canada are now going through their assimilation
period. In another generation or so they will be, at least they should
be, all full-fledged Canadian citizens. This "land of opportunity"
that has adopted them has a right to see them all become good citizens,
as ready to shoulder their share of the common burden as they were to
receive the benefits of our liberties.
In our large industrial centres their transformation is rapid. The
stranger is swallowed up in the vortical suction of the city and is
soon carried away in the maelstrom of its strenuous life. He rapidly
loses his identity; only the strong individual will survive, bearing
the features of his race. In our rural settlements where the foreigner
has established colonies, the assimilation is slow and gradual. The
change affects the community and, through it, the individual. But in
all cases this transformation is a necessity, and necessity should be a
deciding factor.
If this process of assimilation, we contend, is not surrounded with
Catholic influence, if it is not carried on by Catholic agents--and is
left only to those who see in the faith of the Ruthenian, a "relic of
the Middle-Ages," an obstacle to Canadian citizenship--the danger to
the faith of our Ruthenian people is greater than in the days of open
attack. This method of neutral proselytism is more insidious, and in
the long run, more telling. We know perfectly well that if the
Canadian Ruthenian is "to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar" he
must first "give to God what belongs to God."
It is therefore our bounden duty to help our Ruthenian brethren to
swing into the main stream of our national existence; and there is no
reason why our religious duties and patriotic endeavors should work at
cross purposes. In fact, if in the present crisis, the two are not
merged into one, there will be a distinct loss to the Catholic Church
in Canada. Have we not waited long enough for the immigrants to come
to us? We contented ourselves with giving them as often as possible a
priest of their language; and have left to others, to neutral and, most
often, openly anti-Catholic agencies the duty of initiating them to
Canadian life. The American Bishops have understood this necessity,
and with what marvellous foresight and wonderful organization have they
thrown into the work of reconstruction the whole weight of the Catholic
Church! Their joint letter--the most timely and most luminous
pronouncement on the labour problem,--their general meeting in
Washington, the constitutions of the Catholic National Board with its
various departments, all go to prove that they grasped the signs of the
times and have readjusted the sails of the Ship of Peter in America to
the new winds that are sweeping over the world. We should never forget
indeed that the Church of God is not of this world but is in this
world. To strip ourselves of crippling "formalism" and to bring the
Church nearer the realities of the times, is, in Byron's words, making
"realities real." Is it not indeed time to broaden our apostolate and
give more scope to the laity? If the non-Catholic denominations are
able to find young men and women who consent to live among our
foreigners as teachers, social workers, field secretaries, lay
missionaries and catechists, surely we should be able to find the same
among our own to protect the faithful against apostasy. We must
remember that the Ruthenians who have come to this country belong,
generally speaking, to that class for whom even existence was a problem
in their native land. They are the very ones who have been protected
in their faith by language, tradition, customs and all that goes to
make up the mental atmosphere of the uneducated mass. When that
atmosphere disappears these poor people are exposed to all pernicious
influences. We are therefore responsible to the Church to build around
them the protective wall of Catholic life. The initiation to their
Canadian life should not be at the price of their Catholic life.
This is the situation. What can be done? Naturally, to quote Lord
Morley: "A settlement of foolscap sheet, independent of facts, of local
circumstances and feeling, and passion, and finance, and other
appurtenances of human nature" . . . will lead nowhere. To do
effective work along the lines suggested in this chapter we must take
facts and circumstances as they are, and work into them the idea, and
then work the idea into the people. The LANGUAGE, the SCHOOL, the
COMMUNITY LIFE are the THREE GREAT FACTORS that the enemies of the
Ruthenian's faith unscrupulously exploit in their nefarious work. We
must meet the enemy on this common ground and beat him with his own
weapons.
_Language_.--The right of a man to his language is an incontestable
right; the free use of it is a primary human liberty. The Church has
always respected this right as one of the most elementary laws of
nature. In the evangelization of nations She has always accommodated
Herself to the ways and language of the people. In this, She is
faithful to the illuminating lesson the Master gave to Her on Her
birthday, Pentecost Sunday, when the Apostles were heard each speaking
his own language. "They began to speak with divers tongues according
as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak . . . _Every man heard them speak
in his own tongue_." Since that day the true Apostle of Christ has
respected the language of the people he evangelized.
The theory of compelling a nation to learn a certain language as if it
were the only vehicle of the "Great Message of Christ" or of waiting
until the people know the missionary's own language . . . is not
Catholic. The Church of Christ is not a nationalistic Church. No one
has to deny his race nor to give up his language to become or to remain
Her faithful child.
But, facts are facts and one must face them and take from them one's
bearings. They stand as the tossing buoy on the drifting waters of our
ordinary life. To ignore them often spells disaster. Now, the fact of
paramount importance is that the English language is fast gaining
ground among the Ruthenians. The recent school laws (we do not discuss
here their wisdom)[2], the anti-foreign feeling that has held the
country in its grip during the war, the violent campaign of a certain
element, the general drift of the various annual conventions, the
studied plan of action of Provincial Governments, the eagerness of the
Ruthenian rising generation to know English[3], and above all the
unbounded zeal of non-Catholic denominations who make the learning of
English the trump card of their game, these are facts, and have to be
reckoned with. The sooner our Ruthenians are made to grasp these
conditions, the better will they be equipped for the struggle of
Canadian life and for the preservation of their Catholic faith. Is it
not time, therefore, for some English-speaking priests to go out among
the Ruthenians and share the work with those valiant missionaries who,
the great majority at least, are strangers to our country, and who have
learned the language, embraced the rite and for the last twenty years
have been doing our work for us? Their presence is a stimulating
lesson and an abiding reproach. A dozen or so of young
English-speaking priests would be a great boon to the Ruthenian
mission, particularly in the West with its present mentality.
The _School_ is the great melting pot. One has to read "The New
Canadian," by Dr. Anderson, to understand the full meaning of this
statement in its relation to the Ruthenian problem. The schools among
the Ruthenians in the Western Provinces are practically all public
schools. The number of Catholic teachers is exceedingly small and yet,
were they available, the Ruthenian trustees would be at liberty and
glad to give them the preference. Only those who know the influence
the teacher wields in a Ruthenian settlement will fully appreciate the
presence of a Catholic teacher. Were a good Catholic teacher to give
to this cause a year or two of her teaching life she would be doing a
great missionary work. If the Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists
can get girls and young men to go, surely we could also, were we to
organize and try it. This is the reason why the foundation, in
Yorkton, of the English speaking Brothers of Toronto, is one of the
wisest moves in the right direction. The idea is to prepare teachers
for the Ruthenian settlements by giving them the benefit of a higher
education under Catholic influences. The Governments of the various
Western Provinces made several attempts to equip the Ruthenian schools
with Ruthenian teachers. With a few exceptions, these embryo teachers
proved to be a failure and from a Catholic view-point a real calamity.
We remember personally how in a certain normal school the special
Ruthenian class was nothing but a hot-bed of infidelity and anarchy.
The students were collaborating with the worst subversive elements in
the country. Therefore, our practical suggestion would be to encourage
the recent foundation of the Christian Brothers by contributing
liberally to its support and to the extension of the work of which it
will become a natural centre. Could there not be a bureau in the East
for the recruiting of teachers? A campaign of education to this
effect, in the Catholic press, would be in season.
_Community work_ is without doubt a deciding factor in our civic life.
Considered from a Christian angle it is nothing else but the practice
of charity. When animated by mere philanthropy it may play havoc with
souls, particularly among our foreign element. The Church in the
United States has realized its importance and has outlined a social
service programme for Catholic agencies. They have field-secretaries
and instructors--often Knights of Columbus--throughout the country,
carrying on this welfare work. I would refer the reader to the monthly
Bulletin of the National Catholic Welfare Council for an idea of the
extensive work of their Catholic social activities. It is simply
wonderful. As times change our activities also have to be modified.
New questions call for new treatment. The initiation of the Ruthenian
people to Canadian life should be our work. Being Catholics they are
our wards in this new country and it is our sacred duty to see that
they receive true ideals of Canadian citizenship without losing the
higher ideal of their Catholic life. At times Canadian liberty has
proved to be to some extent too strong a tonic. It is through a sound,
intelligent, local government exercised in the school district and our
municipal life that the new Canadians can learn best to play their part
in the greater life of Provincial and Federal politics. If any one
desires more details on this subject we refer him to the National
Catholic Welfare Council's Reconstruction pamphlets No. 5 and 7.
Who has not followed with pride the launching of the great educational
programme of the Knights of Columbus, particularly their nation-wide
scheme of supplementary schools for the explanation of the "American
Constitution" to foreigners? It is an open challenge to radicalism.
To educate a citizen in the chart that governs his country, in the
right use of his franchise, is an act of real patriotism and real
Catholicism. Picture to yourself the results of the Ruthenian vote on
an issue in which the Church is involved. Eventually time will bring
such issues.
We would say to our laity what the editor of the 'Columbiad' wrote in
the October number: "The vista of the glory of service that opens
before the mind musing on the power for good within our grip is
sublime. To each the image rises. An army, a host of faces keen with
knowledge, calm with contentment, eager with honest ambition looks up.
Men, women, boys, girls--humanity gazes at the beholder. The eye does
not glimpse the last face, far out beyond the faint horizon of the
panorama. . . . The vista is unending."
Yes, the apostolate among the Ruthenians is, we claim, a necessity of
the hour; its possibilities are beyond realization. Procrastination in
this matter is nothing short of treason and will prove a disaster to
the Ruthenians, and to the Church. Turning to the Knights of Columbus
in Canada and pointing to the feverish and unceasing activities of
other agents among this our people I say: _Go and do likewise_.
* * * * * *
Our conclusion is obvious. The Ruthenian Question stands to-day as a
religious problem to solve and a national duty to fulfill. Church and
Country present a united and pressing claim for our co-operation. This
appeal to the two strongest feelings of the human heart should awaken
patriotic sympathies and quicken Catholic conscience into action. The
issue is serious and far reaching in its consequences. Only organized
opinion with united and determined action can successfully meet it.
[1] This chapter was the matter of a series of articles in the "North
West Review," of Winnipeg. The Editor prefaced them with the following
remarks, to give emphasis to the importance of this Problem:
"We wish to draw the attention of our readers to a series of
authoritative articles now appearing in the Northwest Review on 'The
Ruthenian Problem.'
"The writer is one of our foremost educationalists and knows his
subject thoroughly. Furthermore his manuscript has passed through the
hands of Bishop Budka and other members of the Hierarchy of the West
who have given it their warm approval.
"It is, we think, very essential that the Catholics of this country
should thoroughly understand the problem before them, so that when
called upon to perform their duty in the matter they may be able to act
promptly, wholeheartedly and with conviction.
"Our thanks are due to the author, 'Miles Christi' for having put
before us such a clear presentation of the problem which sooner or
later we shall be called upon to solve.
"The matter is one that to a very large extent concerns the laity and
we think it should be thoroughly discussed in every council of Knights
of Columbus throughout Canada. In districts where this society is not
organized, any other existing Catholic societies might very
appropriately co-ordinate in this good work.
"The question is also one of national as well as Catholic moment and so
entitled to its due share of any 'forward movements' now anticipated."
[2] Judge Buffington, of Pennsylvania, gave a lecture lately on
"Americanization." From it we cull the following paragraph on the
foreign language question:--
"The solution is not in the abolition of foreign languages in this
country. I have heard loyal patriots who found English twisting their
tongues, and Bolshevism has come from the lips of those of New England
culture like Foster. This country has not only been remiss in failing
to teach the foreigner but in teaching the native. I believe in the
English tongue and in the amalgamation resulting from common speech,
but we do not accomplish our aims by destroying other languages."
[3] In a recent report of the Department of Education of the Province
of Saskatchewan, of 177 schools in Ruthenian settlements only 28 have
engaged teachers holding provisional certificates or permits; all the
others are fully normal-trained and perfectly qualified. In many
school districts salaries range between $1,000 and $1,500. The
Ruthenians are among those who pay the best salaries to teachers.
CHAPTER IV.
WHY? WHAT? WHO?
_The Necessity of a Field-Secretary for the Organization of our
Missionary Activities_
No one can read the Encyclical letter which His Holiness has recently
addressed to the Catholic Church on the Propagation of the Faith
throughout the world, without being deeply moved by the yearnings of
the apostolic heart of our Common Father, and vividly impressed by the
lessons that come from his inspired and timely message to each and
every one of us.
Without doubt our own dear country is witnessing that movement which,
inspired by the Holy Ghost, is being felt throughout the Catholic world
in favour of home and foreign missions. The growing interest of our
people in the Catholic Church Extension Society; the enthusiasm with
which the great and noble work of Father Fraser, for Chinese Missions,
was greeted everywhere; the recent foundation and marvellous
development of the community of the "Missionary Sisters of the
Immaculate Conception" in Montreal, for service among the lepers of
China; the wonderful response which the call of Africa met with among
the college and convent youths of the Province of Quebec; the
increasing number of vocations to the missionary orders, both for men
and women,--to mention only a few outstanding and significant
facts,--are evident signs of the "_stirring of the waters_" in the
Church in Canada.
To help to promote and develop fully this providential movement in the
Church of God, we beg to submit a few suggestions which may be of some
use in the great cause of _Home_ and _Foreign Missions_.
_I--Why?_
The continued progress and abiding success of a movement depend on its
organization. For, to realize its proposed aim and accepted plan of
action, organization alone can enlist and keep secure the sympathies of
patrons and members, co-ordinate the various forces, and call into
play, when necessary, new and fresh energies. The greater the number
to be reached by the society or societies which embody this movement,
the more efficient should be the organizing power.
Experience and reason prove that an organization destined to affect the
masses and hold its grip on them, will not live and thrive only on an
occasional appeal or a printed message. These are indeed of great
value, particularly the insistently repeated message in print. We are
great believers in the force of a persistent, regular and frequent
circularization. But, in our humble estimation, there is something
more essential in the matter under consideration, and that is the human
contact and continued influence of a "field-organizer." An extensive
organization without this factor will not be efficient, will not last.
As Floyd Keeler wrote in "America" (July 10, 1920): "It is the personal
equation between the organizer and the various units of the Society
that counts. . . . The masses are accustomed to think in concrete
terms. . . . Long distance appeals and those made to total strangers
do not produce permanent results." This influence of the
field-organizer is so great that we may safely state that the life of a
society fluctuates with the various impulses it receives from him. He
is the very heart which gives health and vigor to its organism.
Here lies the secret of the mission-organizations in the Protestant
Churches, to which, of late, we have referred so frequently in our
Catholic papers, under the heading of: "_Fas est ab hoste
doceri_." . . . Every denomination has its field-organizers entirely
consecrated to mission activities among its people. Financial results
tell to what extent they are effective in their work.
We have also among our own missionary societies, examples that
illustrate the point we wish to emphasize. Since when has the Society
of the Propagation of the Faith, in the dioceses of New York and
Boston, leaped into prominence, and headed by generous contributions
the list of the whole world? How did that change come about? Where is
the secret of this success? The establishment of permanent diocesan
organizers is the answer. What they have done, why could we not do?
"_Quod isti--cur non et nos_?"
Never, we claim, will the missionary potentialities that lie dormant in
Canadian Catholicism, be actuated to bear its message of spiritual
light, heat and power to the Church at large, until we establish in the
field at various points, secretaries or organizers, whose life-work
will be to call into play, to systematize the mission forces of the
Church in Canada. If on the contrary, as in the past, we content
ourselves with an occasional appeal for missions, a collection now and
then, a spasmodic effort here and there, a subscription to a Catholic
paper or missionary magazine, the work for Home and Foreign missions
will remain exterior to the corporate life of the Church, will not be
woven into its very fibre to permeate its activities. As shadows on
the wall, they will suggest rather than reveal the possibilities of our
missionary effort. The great and pressing call of the White Shepherd
of the Vatican will go unheard. If there is a response that comes from
Canada, it will not be from the Church at large.
_II.--What?_
The "_raison d'être_," the definite function of a field-secretary is
organization. This work implies the double duty to spread, by an
intelligent and well thought-out propaganda, the knowledge of the Home
and Foreign Missions and of the responsibility it entails, and to found
and maintain efficient the various societies established to promote and
help their great work.
1. _Vision_. The effective presentation of the case of Catholic
Missions, both to the clergy and to the laity, is the field-secretary's
first and important duty. Nothing indeed can be hoped for, nothing can
be accomplished until the Catholic people fully grasp and intensely
feel what their help and co-operation--however little it may be--mean
to the Church, to the salvation of souls, to the honour of our Blessed
Lord, to the glory of God. _Fac ut videant_! The clear, broad and
deep vision of these great possibilities in the mission fields will
alone overcome selfishness and apathy, awaken interest, stimulate
energy.
The field-secretary is the official expert in mission-matters. He will
be able to accumulate strong evidence, sum up striking statistics and
draw burning comparisons for the effective presentation of his case.
An enthusiastic advocate, he will plead with thrilling appeals, the
great cause placed in his hands.
During his absence from the field of action, the vision he pointed to,
will be kept bright by the recurrence, at stated intervals, of the
printed message. Missionary literature receives its life, vigour and
impulse from the field-organizer and continues his work in his absence.
2. _Action_. To realize that vision and incarnate it in work for the
Home and Foreign Missions, the Field-secretary will take the diocese as
a unit of his organization. In each diocese, with the permission,
authority, and co-operation of the Ordinary, he will establish the
Societies recommended by our Holy Father in his Apostolic Letter, and
others that have been created to meet the specific needs of the country
or to favour certain particular missionary work. Therefore:--
(a) _Among the Clergy_ will be founded "_The Missionary Union of the
Clergy_", which our Holy Father desires to see established in every
diocese. For loving sons and faithful priests of the Church of God the
desire of the Sovereign Pontiff is a command. This, we think, could be
easily done by the field-organizer when he visits each parish for the
purpose of organizing missionary parochial units, as we shall see later.
The beautiful programme of action which is so easily combined with the
ordinary work of the priest in the parish, the facility of his moral
and material co-operation in this great work of missions, the spiritual
favours and wonderful privileges which the "Union" grants to its
members, together with the explicit desire of the Holy See, these are
so many motives and incentives, which should induce all the members of
the clergy to enter the ranks of the "Missionary Union" and assure to
the Church their co-operation in the great mission work, both at Home
and in the Field-Afar.
(b) _Among the laity_ of each parish will be founded:
The "_Propagation of the Faith_"--for Foreign Missions;
The "_Church Extension_"--for Home Missions.
The permanent success of these societies, once established by the
field-organizer, will wholly depend on the selection and appointment of
trustworthy _promoters_, who will distribute the missionary literature,
and collect from their respective circles of 10 or 20 members the
monthly fee, stipulated for each society. This monthly collection
comes as a reminder and is more effective, both morally and
financially, than an annual collection taken up in the Church, as is
now the prevailing custom in several dioceses. The monthly call of the
promoter is a fresh awakening of the missionary spirit in the home, and
stands as the continued call of the Master of the harvest. It keeps
the interest alive and awakens anew the sympathy for the missions.
(c) _Among the Children_ of our Separate Schools and Sunday-Schools,
can be established, with great profit, The "_Holy Childhood Society_."
It is wonderful what interest the kind and sympathetic hearts of
children will take in missionary work. The results obtained by the
distribution of mite boxes are marvellous. To quote an example given
to us by the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, we would
say that through their Sunday-School classes, they raise annually the
sum of $200,000.00.
But above all, the great asset to be considered in this educational
work, is the broad Catholic spirit we create and maintain in the soul
of the child. This is far more important than his actual financial
contribution, and at the same time it prepares him to be, in later
years, a generous contributor. Without any doubt, the Protestants can
teach us here a lesson of organization.
(d) In _Colleges, Boarding-Schools, Convents and Universities_ why
should we not have branches of the "_Catholic Students Mission
Crusade_?" This organization is doing wonderful work in the United
States, and will prove soon to be a potent factor in the Missionary
activities of the Church across the boundary. 250 delegates from
various institutions of higher learning, throughout the country,
gathered in Washington, last August (1920), for the second annual
Convention. Among the delegates, we are proud to note, were a few
Canadians.
(e) The "_follow up_" work is what counts in the long run, in a
movement of this kind. If we do not wish to see all this beautiful
zeal for missions burn away in a passing blaze, we must have a _Central
Bureau_, which will keep in touch with the promoters, and act as the
centre of Missionary activities, in the diocese. There all lines will
converge, gathering information, bringing results; from there, as from
the power-station, will go out to the workers in the field, enthusiasm
and energy. "Unity," says F. Kinsman, "cannot be created by agitated
fragments of a circumference; it must issue from a central force and be
sustained by a centripetal instinct." The Central Bureau, or Clearing
House could be confided to a trustworthy person, who would willingly
give his spare hours to this great Catholic work, until it would grow
to the point of necessitating a permanent and salaried secretary.
It is useless, we believe, to state that a _crusade of prayers_ would
be the sustaining force of this movement. We all know that the
salvation of souls is above all a supernatural process. We may sow,
another may water the seed,--but it is for God to give the
growth,--_Deus autem incrementum dat_.
The _development and fostering of "missionary vocations"_ would be the
natural sequel to this movement at large, in the Church of Canada. How
many young men and women could not the field-secretary find here and
there, and direct to the mission fields where the harvest is plentiful
and the harvesters few.
_III.--Who?_
The function of a field-secretary or organizer is a delicate one, we
fully understand. But we are firmly convinced that priests can be
found, who, with tact, intelligence and enthusiasm for the great Cause
of Missions, and backed with the authority and sympathy of the
Ordinary, are bound to make this work a success. There is a wave of
the missionary spirit passing over the Church of God. The clergy and
the people are eager to help missions at Home and Abroad. But they
desire a concrete, workable plan to pin their activities to; they are
waiting for something definite to act upon, and a responsible
representative of the cause to work with.
Until the development of the organization would call for a diocesan
organizer, _one priest_ could act for a _Province_ or _Region_ of the
Country. The ordinary objection which our proposal here would meet
with, would be the lack of personnel. There is, we know, a shortage of
priests everywhere. But would not the Church, as a whole, in Canada
and throughout the world, receive more benefit from the life of a
priest entirely dedicated to this work of Missions, than if it were
given to a specific parish or diocese. Even were a parish or small
country mission to be deprived for the time being of a resident pastor,
should not that sacrifice be made, generously and cheerfully, for the
sake of a greater cause. It is assuredly a short-sighted policy to
sacrifice hundreds of thousands of souls for the care of a few, to
prefer the welfare of a parish to that of the Church at large. This
reasoning and its disastrous consequences are surely not Catholic.
We emphasise the necessity for the organizer to _consecrate his life
solely to this proposed work_. At this price alone will he make it a
success. Without doubt, it is the work of a man, the work of a life.
God grant that we may see the day when all the latent Missionary forces
of the Church of Canada will be awakened and united in one great
gigantic effort of apostolate! These forces form an invisible army of
reserves on which the Church is to draw, to fill, as it were, the
depleted ranks of Her Missionary units throughout the world. The lack
of organization is the weakness of our strength. Let the leaders come
forward, and we ourselves shall be astonished at the latent powers of
Faith in the Church of Canada.
CHAPTER V.
PLOUGHING THE SANDS
_The Church-Union Movement: its Causes and Various Manifestations. The
Protestant and Catholic View-Point._
Church-union is to-day the outstanding feature of the Protestant world.
The possibilities and promises, the necessity and advantages of this
movement are widely discussed in the press and magazine, in the pulpit
and on the platform, in Church conferences and synods. Denominational
barriers are being swept away; creed lines lowered; inevitably great
changes are impending. This universal unrest is assuredly symptomatic of
a chaotic Christendom outside of the true Church. The peace and
self-confidence of the Catholic Church pursuing the even tenor of Her
life is indeed in striking contrast.
No serious-minded Christian can be disinterested in this supreme effort
of the various Christian denominations for unity. We are not allowed to
doubt the good intentions that animate and direct the promoters of this
inter-church movement. For, as Lord Morley said, "in the heat of the
battle it often happens that men manifest towards the _heretic_ feeling
which should be exclusively reserved for the _heresy_." Yet we believe
that the explanation of _our_ attitude, so much misunderstood and
misinterpreted, cannot but help to hasten the day of the true and
everlasting union, when in accord with the great desire of the Master,
there will be but "One Fold and One Pastor." Gladstone said: "Any man
who advances one step the cause of Christian unity in his life may well
lie down to die content that he had a life well lived."
We said advisedly "_our_" attitude, for it is a vastly interesting point
to note with Hilaire Belloc: "The Catholic understands his opponent,
whereas that opponent does not understand him. A similar contrast
existed once before in the History of Western mankind, to wit, in the
latter days of the Roman Empire. The Catholic understood the Pagan; the
Pagan did not understand the Catholic."
Church-union was always more or less an ideal in the various non-Catholic
denominations. Periodically efforts were made to realize this ideal; but
they always failed in the presence of the bitter antagonism that existed
between the leading factions. The Church-union movement manifested
itself, timidly at first, in the interchange of pulpits, the united
services and inter-communion of several denominations. This exchange in
the ministerial field now prevails among the Nonconformists and has also
affected to a large extent the Anglican communion. But the multiplied
divisions and multiplying sub-divisions among the conflicting creeds, a
wasteful overlapping and disastrous competition in the mission field, the
enlightening experience of the great war, have forced an issue upon the
Churches.
In Scotland the "Old Kirk" is trying to bridge the chasm that has
separated it from the "Free Church" in the past years. In England, under
the leadership of Mr. Shakespeare, the Nonconformists are fusing their
differences and presenting a united front to the Established Church.
Only last year, (1919) in Kingswall Hall, did not the Bishop of London
make most remarkable overtures to the Wesleyans and propose to them a
scheme of union! By the introduction of Evangelical methods and
particularly by the association with Nonconformists on doctrinal grounds,
or in services in which doctrines are involved, the Anglican Church has
been engaged--to speak with Newman--"in diluting its high orthodoxy."
Last August, 1920, Geneva was the meeting place of "The World Christian
Congress." The Congress adopted a resolution to form a "League of
Churches" whose object is to put an end to proselytizing between
Christian churches and promote mutual understanding between them for
Christian missions among non-Christian peoples; secondly, to promote an
association and collaboration of Churches to establish Christian
principles; thirdly, to help the Churches to become acquainted with one
another; fourthly, to bring together smaller Christian communities, and
unite all Churches on questions of faith and order.
But it was reserved for America, the land of daring schemes and audacious
plans, to formulate the most chimerical project of all.
The Episcopalian Church has promoted "_The World Congress on Faith and
Order_." Bishop Weller, of Fond-du-Lac, Wisc., is directing this
gigantic movement. A committee of bishops has already called on the
various heads of Christian Churches, and we all know of their visit to
the Vatican and of the refusal of the Holy See to participate in the
Pan-Christian Congress.
Sponsored by the Presbyterian Church of America, "The United Churches of
Christ" were formed some months ago, with a complete organic union of the
Protestant Churches of America in view. This is . . . "an advance of the
present existing organization of the Federal Council of the Churches of
Christ in America, as it opens the way for consolidation of
administration agencies and the carrying forward of the general work of
the Churches through the council of the United Church."
But the most ambitious scheme is that of the "_Inter Church World
Movement_." It has been called into existence (1918) for the purpose of
developing a plan whereby the Evangelical Churches of North America may
co-operate in carrying out their educational, missionary and benevolent
programme at home and abroad. To discover and group the facts concerning
the world's needs; to build a programme of inspiration and education
based on these facts; to develop spiritual power adequate for the task;
to secure enough lives and money to meet the needs: such is the
tremendous task the "Inter Church World Movement" has set itself. At a
meeting in Atlantic City it was voted to raise the stupendous sum of
$1,300,000,000 to meet the requirements of this Pan-Protestant project.
Two thousand men and women are now (Feb. 1920,) busy at the head-office,
in New York, preparing the world-wide survey and financial campaign.[1]
The Protestant Churches in Canada are also falling in line in this
universal movement for unity. "_The United National Campaign_" which
marked 1919 with thirteen national conventions, represented the
co-operative feature of various churches in a general "_Forward
Movement_." The war, we all know, has impeded the projected union
between the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist denominations.
There is hardly any doubt that this union will be effected in the near
future. But as usual, while the East was deliberating, the forward and
aggressive West was acting. Church-Union is an accomplished fact in many
centres, particularly in the Province of Saskatchewan. Last October the
"Union Church of Western Canada" held a convention in Regina and reported
progress. Conditions in the West, especially in the rural districts,
naturally favour this movement. The strong denominational feeling is
becoming more and more a thing of the past. The identity of churches is
being absorbed in "social service" work, and sectarian peculiarities
considered "obsolete impertinences."
These are the various manifestations of the "Church-Union Movement."
Although loose thinking and indefiniteness of purpose characterize most
of these various moves, a close analysis reveals two different underlying
principles which support and explain them. As an Anglican clergyman
stated: "There are two courses open, uniting on points of agreement and
allowing the differences to settle themselves, or facing differences with
a view of settling them." The first course promotes a "_co-operative
union_" in social and Christian work. This union does not interfere with
matters of belief, but aims solely at the co-operation and co-ordination
of all services which the Churches can render in the missionary,
educational and social fields. It means a League or Federation of
Churches, with a view to "greater efficiency."
The other course goes deeper into the problem under discussion, for it
has as object an "_organic union_." This union means the fusing of all
denominational creeds and forms of worship, or, at least, the acceptance
by all of a certain doctrinal minimum as a basis of the _entente
cordiale_. The Anglicans in the Conference of Lambeth, 1888, formulated
the famous "Quadrilateral" whereby the Scriptures as Rule of Faith, the
Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, the two sacraments of Baptism and of
Eucharist, and the Episcopacy or apostolic succession, are "as the
irreducible minimum on which they would open negotiations for reunion."
[2]
II.
The Protestant Inter-Church Movement is a fact; we know its causes, its
various manifestations, its ultimate aim. To what extent this universal
movement reflects the general, deep and conscientious convictions of the
masses, it would be hard to say. The prevalent indifference and profound
ignorance as regards the specific tenets of each denomination would lead
us to believe that this movement does not spring from the very
soul-depths of the masses. Yet the fact is there, and assuredly of
importance in the religious realm. What is the meaning of this fact?
What is its message? For, every universal fact of that kind reveals and
interprets an ideal.
Naturally the view point of the Protestant will be different from that of
the Catholic. The explanation of the attitude of both, as we stated,
cannot but help to hasten the coming of true union in Christendom. The
non-Catholic mind sees in this Inter-Church Movement the ultimate triumph
of Protestantism, the vindication of the leading principles of the
Reformation. The Anglican Archbishop DuVernet wrote in the "Montreal
Star," May 10th, 1919: "Reviewing the movement towards Christian Union in
Canada, a very natural evolutionary order is at once detected, which
gives us the assurance that a spiritual cosmic urge is at work behind
this united action of the Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and
Congregationalist Churches of Canada, _the great evolutionary movement
towards the comprehensive Church of the Future_."
We all know of the sensation created in Anglican circles by the extreme
views of the Bishop of Carlisle. In a recent article on the "Nineteenth
Century and After"--entitled "Monopoly of Religion," he protests against
the claims of right and the privilege of monopoly in Religion, either in
doctrine or in form of government. He says that the Free Churches have
been right in resisting unto death the doctrines of religious monopoly.
Robert H. Gardner, in the "The Churchman," (_Episcopal_), acknowledges
that "The unanimous recognition of the plans (Interchurch World Movement)
is only a beginning; the hope of all that it will lead to a more perfect
union, and the evident anxiety to leave the Catholic (?) churches free to
maintain their principle without compromise or surrender, have converted
him to the belief that God the Holy Ghost is guiding this movement, and,
therefore, that it is truly Catholic (?)."
If such are the views of the Anglican Church, which, among other
denominations, has always been considered as most conservative, what may
we not expect from the other Churches? And indeed, the reading of
addresses made at their different Conferences and General Assemblies, the
resolutions passed, and the very atmosphere of these meetings tend to
uphold the Church-Union Movement as the realization of unity in
Christendom. "The Christian Century" (organ of the Disciples of Christ)
says: "It marks out the best path yet that has been described for the
attainment of unity. It outlines the goal and bravely takes the first
step towards its realization." The New York "Christian Advocate"
(_Methodist_) thinks: "It will mark a definite step toward that fusing of
Protestant forces whose absence hitherto, is responsible in large part
for the failure of Christianity to make powerful headway among men." As
the Presbyterians were the originators of the movement, "The Continent"
takes a justifiable pride, in quoting from a contemporary, that: "They
are perfectly ready to contemplate a Christian unity that involves the
passing away of this particular organism called the Presbyterian Church,
finely wrought though it be," and exhorts: "Presbyterians, this sort of
reputation is a lot to live up to. But we must not fall from it."
The principles of evolution--principles which we find underlying modern
thought--are freely called upon to explain this movement and justify its
consequences. Our millennial-minded doctors and preachers are
celebrating already the apotheosis of the Universal Church of the future.
And what does the Catholic Church think of Church-Union? What is its
point of view on this "Movement" which has now such hold on the
Protestant denominations? As the Catholic Church is in itself the
largest Christian body, it is but natural to presume that all Christians
will be interested in knowing Her views on this vital subject. For is
She not that Church which Gladstone himself calls, "the most famous of
Christian communions, and the one within which the largest numbers of
Christian souls find their spiritual food!" (Gladstone to Acton, Nov.,
1869.)
The Catholic Church sees in this movement of Church-Union the complete
disintegration of Protestantism and the open condemnation of its
fundamental principles. Those who are not of the "Fold" will perhaps
resent, but not be astonished at this sweeping statement. We would only
ask them to follow our argument and then judge for themselves.
_Union--and therefore unity--will not and cannot be the result of the
present Inter-Church Movement_. This statement involves a question of
fact and of right. _In facto_.--Let us examine first the question of
fact. Union, as now promoted, is either "_co-operative_" or "_organic_."
_Co-operative union ignores differences of creed or form of worship;
organic union suppresses them or merges them into a neutral mixture_.
Co-operative Union,--as a basis of religious unity affecting the religion
of the individual, can be at once dismissed. For, what _religious_
action,--_i.e._, action prompted and guided by a principle, a religious
doctrine,--is possible without that principle, that doctrine? Moral
action,--and Religion is at the same time the foundation and the highest
expression of the moral order,--pre-supposes immutable and recognized
principles. "The mental attitude defined on paper as 'undenominational,'
Miss M. Fletcher says rightly, has no existence in the human mind. Below
all sustained enthusiasms lie strong convictions."--Therefore to ignore
the directing principles of their various denominations in a common
religious action, and yet to pretend to keep their denominational
identity, involves, on the part of the Churches, an absolute
impossibility. Because doctrine is the very foundation, the "_raison
d'être_" of intelligent Christian action. Diversity of opinion is bound
to bring, in religious matters, diversity of action; for, to be
consequent one must act according to his belief. Baptism, for instance,
is necessary or not necessary for salvation. On this doctrinal point
will necessarily hinge a diversity of action in the mission field alloted
to this or to that denomination. The position is quite different when
common action is confined to merely social work. But "social service,"
stripped of all its Christian principles and reduced to pure
philanthropy, is not Christianity; it is mere naturalism or neo-paganism.
The great majority of those for whom Christianity is yet a _living
reality_ understand the nefarious consequences of _"co-operative-union_."
To protect themselves against this scheme of a perfidious neutrality,
they advocate an "_organic union_." This even is to the fore in the
Philadelphia plan of the "Inter-Church World Movement." "The plan of
federal union will have this result, that after it shall have been in
operation for a term of years, the importance of _divisive_ names and
creeds and methods will pass more and more into the dim background of the
past and acquire, even in the particular denomination itself, a merely
historical value, and the churches then will be ready for, and will
demand, a more complete union; so that what was the 'United Churches of
Christ in America' can become the 'United Church of Christ in America,'
and a real ecclesiastical power, holding and administering ecclesiastical
property and funds of such united church."
The promoters of "_organic union_" do not ignore the differences between
creeds, but they are trying to reduce them. This union strikes at the
very bed rock of Divine Revelation. For, the suppression of differences,
or their limitation to a certain doctrinal minimum, implies a compromise,
and a compromise, in matters of truth, is unacceptable. Truth is eternal
and therefore does not change. If the Westminister and Augsburg
Confessions were true yesterday, why should they not be also true to-day?
If the 39 Articles were the rule of Faith for the Anglican Church in the
past, why should they be to-day but "definitions of theological opinions
of the time of the Reformation," as Anglican Bishop Farthing, of
Montreal, recently stated.--"You change . . . therefore you are not
true," we may say, with Bossuet, to those Churches.
_In jure_.--This universal readiness to compromise should not astonish us
when we know that the very fundamental principle of the Reformation is
"_private judgment_" in matters of Faith. The divine message of
Revelation is to be interpreted as each one sees best. This principle
makes, "_de jure_," every Protestant independent in his religious belief,
and opens the door to the most conflicting interpretations of the Divine
Message. "The High Church clergyman to-day," writes A. Birrell, "is no
theologian, he is an opportunist." Dogma degenerates into religious
emotionalism. Doctrine becomes nothing but a "_scheme of theological
impressions_." To tolerate every doctrine is, for a Church, to teach
none. Doctrinal chaos, such as we now see outside of the Catholic
Church, is the inevitable result of compromise. Winston Churchill's
famous novel, "Inside of the Cup," is nothing but the diagnosis of this
disintegration which Protestant Churches are now witnessing.
The history of Protestantism is but the history of its changes of
religious belief. For "between authority and impressionism in matters of
Revelation, there is no alternative." As Christianity is not the product
of the human mind, but a Revelation from God, authority,--a divinely
constituted infallible and living authority--is a necessity, and the only
possible bond of unity.
This disintegrating principle of "private judgment" in matters of Divine
Revelation has been at work since the inception of Protestantism. By the
very force of its dissolving power the primary elements of a supernatural
religion have fast disappeared from the various creeds. One by one the
different Churches have drifted away from their Christian moorings and
taken to the high seas of Rationalism. Assailed by the storms of
unbelief they are breaking on the rocks of religious indifference. Empty
churches are the natural outcome of empty creeds. "The dominant
tendencies are indeed increasingly identified with those currents of
thought which are making way from the definiteness of the ancient Faith,
toward Unitarian vagueness." If Bishop Kinsman, Anglican Bishop of
Delaware, a recent convert to the Catholic Faith, gave this statement as
one of the reasons for leaving the Anglican Creed, with how much more
truth could it not be made of the kaleidoscopic tenets of other
denominations?
This process of dissolution of doctrinal grounds is bound to continue.
The fluid condition of the various churches testifies to the uncertainty
of their actual position and forces them to seek the lowest doctrinal
level. "Their standard is determined by the minimum, rather than by the
maximum view tolerated, since their official position must be gauged, not
by the most they allow, but by the least they insist on." (F. Kinsman.)
The remnants of Christianity that were still to be found in their
teachings are now looked upon as "obsolete dogmas" and, as such,
obstacles to unity. The very fundamental mysteries of the Incarnation
and the Redemption are fast growing dim in the minds and hearts of men.[3]
The Protestant Churches will never come back to their former position.
In this Church-union movement they are burning their bridges behind them.
The gospel of pure "humanitarianism," which is the absolute negation of a
supernatural religion, will eventually be the last result of this present
unity.
Destructive criticism, to be profitable, should be followed by
constructive suggestions.
"_That they may be all one!_" This ideal of the Master, this supreme
wish of His last hours, remains the ideal, the wish of His Church. But
its realization cannot be at the expense of truth. Cardinal Gasparri
outlined to the promoters of the "World Congress on Faith and Order" the
view and position of the Catholic Church in this most important issue.
"The Holy See has decided not to participate in the Pan-Christian
Congress which it is proposed to hold shortly, _as the Catholic Church
considering her dogmatic character, cannot join on an equal footing with
the other Churches_. The feeling at the Vatican is that all other
Christian denominations have seceded from the Church of Rome, which
descends directly from Christ. Rome cannot go to them; _it is for them
to return to her bosom_.[4] The Pope is ready to receive the
representatives of the dissenting churches with open arms, since the
Roman Church has always longed for the _unification of all Religious
Christians_. Pope Leo XIII. was deeply interested in this question and
wrote two famous encyclicals on the subject of the _unification of the
Christian Churches_."
The divine Founder of Christendom did not leave to several Churches the
conservation and propagation of His doctrine. He founded only one Church
and gave "unity" itself, as the supreme test of its divinity. Therefore
the Church, that has remained "one" through time and space, and has
conquered those two great enemies of unity, bears the birth-mark of its
divine origin. The Catholic Church alone makes that specific claim.
History is there to substantiate it. Matthew Arnold himself could not
help acknowledging this universal fact. "Catholicism is that form of
Christianity which is the oldest, the largest, and most popular. It has
been the great popular religion of Christendom. Who has seen the poor in
other churches as they are seen in Catholic Churches? Catholicism
envelopes human life, and Catholics in general feel themselves to have
drawn not only their religion from their Church, but they feel themselves
to have drawn from her, too, their art, poetry and culture. _And if
there is a thing specially alien to religion, it is division. If there
is a thing specially native to religion it is peace and union. Hence the
original attraction towards unity in Rome, and hence the great charm when
that unity is once attained_." The sharp contrast between the actual
restlessness and uncertainty of the dissident Churches, and the calm
assurance and self-possession of the Catholic Church, is not that an
abiding proof of the security of the Catholic position?
Father Palmieri, O.S.A., Ph.D., D.D., who has made the problem of
Christian Unity a life-study, made, in a recent article, these pertinent
remarks: "The reunion of Christianity in the Catholic sense is not a
Babel-like confusion of different sects which oppose creed to creed,
which proclaim their absolute indifference in the doctrinal field, which
take the individual reason as a judge of Christian revelation or
Christian discipline. It would be an absurdity to suppose for a moment
that Catholicism or Catholic Theology would propose this hybrid confusion
of concepts and human caprices under the name of unity. For Catholicism
and Catholic Theology, the reunion of Christianity is the return of
dissident Churches and of the non-Catholic sects to Christian unity, to
the one Church of Jesus Christ, which not only teaches this unity
theoretically but also puts it into practice, in its doctrine, in its
government, in its dogmatic and moral teaching, in its principles of
authority. By logical sequence the Church of Jesus is one. This unity
is not broken by political barriers, by ethnic divisions, by opposing
national aspirations. To tend therefore toward Christian unity signifies
to tend toward the only Church of Jesus Christ, and to effect this unity
is the same as to adhere to it."
Father Palmieri concludes his study with these words: "An impartial study
of many years' duration has fully convinced us that the union of the
dissident churches can be brought about only under the leadership of the
Catholic Church. Outside of Rome there is a principle of dissolution
which breaks up and disintegrates the most solid organisms and which will
cause the breaking up even of the Orthodox Churches. It is therefore in
the supreme interest of Christianity that the Catholic Church addresses
its appeals for union to the dissident Churches, and it will never cease
to exercise this, its noble mission. Its efforts have been crowned with
success several times, and I am convinced that that day will come in
which by means of prayer and action the aspiration of Christ's Vicar for
union will be realized."
Our non-Catholic reader may say that the position we take tends to
strengthen that exclusiveness, that narrowness, that aloofness with which
he has always charged the Church of Rome. But we would ask our
dissenting brethren, can it be otherwise? Truth is indivisible and
unchangeable. Were the unity of the Church Universal to exist only in
the Church of the future we would have to conclude that there was a time
when the Church of Christ did not exist on earth. This would be absurd
and would destroy Christianity in its very foundation. The true Church
of Christ has a right to claim the monopoly of Christianity. The Church
which, through a so-called spirit of broad-mindedness, accepts the
conflicting claims of the various dissident bodies, and is ready to merge
its entity with other denominations, immediately, _de facto_, invalidates
its claim to be "The Church of Christ." For, its position involves a
contradiction and is in itself a self-condemnation.
Yet, the Catholic Church cannot feel indifferent toward this general and
supreme effort of the various fragments of Christendom towards unity.
Confidently she waits for the hour when all will return to her as to the
only centre and source of permanent unity. Yet, we would say with the
Bishop of Northampton, "If we may not compromise the very object of this
remarkable movement towards unity by accepting the pressing invitations
of our separated brethren to make common cause with them, neither can we
rest content to be mere spectators of their perplexities like those who
watch from the shore the efforts of distressed seamen to make their
port." Let us hope that Divine Providence, always gentle and strong in
its dealings with human liberty, will hasten the day when there will be
but "One Fold and One Pastor." In the meantime the efforts made to
constitute unity of Christianity outside of its true centre will prove as
futile as _ploughing the sands of the desert_.
[1] The withdrawal of the Northern Presbyterian and Northern Baptists and
the failure of the financial drive have imperilled the existence of this
ambitious project. Is it not a case of repeating with the Psalmist:
"Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build
it?"--Ps. 126.
[2] In the last Lambeth Conference--1920--the Church of England has again
reduced this minimum by implicitly recognizing the Nonconformist ministry
and abandoning its claim to reunion through the absorption of all sects
in the Anglican communion. It has so shifted from its former position
that it has openly expressed in the Bishops' manifesto the desire to
place itself on some "no man's land" where all the dissident Churches may
safely meet and unite.
[3] Canon E. W. Barnes, of Westminster Abbey, in a sermon to the members
of the British Association, at their meeting at Cardiff, Aug. 29, 1920,
declared that, to harmonize Christian Doctrine with modern science,
particularly with the theory of evolution, he found it necessary to
abandon the doctrine of the Fall of Man and arguments deduced from it by
theologians, from St. Paul onward.
[4] Father Leslie Walker, S.J., in a recent work on "The Problem of
Reunion," suggests we should enquire rather how we came to differ than
what we differ about.
CHAPTER VI.
"THEM ALSO I MUST BRING"
(Jo. X, 16)
_The Apostolate to Non-Catholics--Its Obligation.
What have we done? What can we do?_
The spiritual influence of a Christian is commensurate with his
appreciation of responsibility. The breadth and depth of vision give
to this moral feeling its field of action. The circle of our influence
ceases with the limits of our spiritual outlook. The boundless and
clear visions of all the Great Apostles in the Church of God give us
the key to the generosity and artfulness of their zeal. Just as the
narrowness of our views explains the restrictiveness of our charity and
the limitations of its activities. This is particularly noticeable in
our dealings with the spiritual needs of those outside the Fold. The
claims of our non-Catholic brethren to our charity do not seem to
affect us, because our spiritual outlook has not the proportions of
that of the Master. With Him we do not stand on those heights from
which we could see beyond our own green pastures, "Other sheep that are
not of His Fold and which we must also bring." This explains how the
claim--"_Oportet_" . . . "_We must bring_"--awakens in us no sense of
responsibility and meets with no answer in the ordinary activities of
our life. Every one seems more or less contented with the lines of
denominational demarcation as he finds them around him in the
community. Not to discuss religion, not to busy oneself with the other
man's belief, to be very frequently rather reticent about our own, is a
policy generally accepted in the West. This habit of evasiveness is
not Christian and often leads to the sacrifice of Catholic principles.
Far from us be the idea of advocating rash obtrusiveness, of untimely
aggressive and inconsiderate zeal. But between this excess and that of
a "_laissez faire_" policy there is a golden mean. What is then wrong,
our method or our zeal?
A right understanding and a deep conviction of our duties in the matter
under consideration are of the greatest value for the Church in Western
Canada. May we preface our chapter by asking the reader to keep before
his mind the illuminating distinction of St. Augustine between the Body
and Soul of the Church. Many souls outside of the visible Body of the
Church are nevertheless within the beneficial influence of her
invisible pale. This is a commonplace of theology, we all know, but
evidently, very often forgotten.
Are we in conscience bound to spread the true faith among our
non-Catholic brethren? Most undoubtedly we are. The examples and
precepts of the Master, the canons of the Church, the love of God and
our neighbour, are among the pressing motives which should appeal to a
true Catholic and make him zealous within the sphere of his influence.
"Thy Kingdom Come!" That prayer of the Lord, which has become our
morning and evening prayer, is vain, if in the ordinary course of life
we do not try to extend the boundaries of that spiritual kingdom in the
very souls of those with whom we come in daily contact. Is not the
light of our life to shine out so that it may serve as a beacon to
those outside the Fold? But nothing is more striking than the words of
the Good Shepherd: "And other sheep I have that are not of this Fold;
them also I must bring and they shall hear My voice" (Jo. X., 16). Who
could explain the profound yearnings of the Divine Master's heart and
the deep feeling of obligation that are summed up in these words: "Them
also I must bring." The Divine Shepherd finds Himself responsible for
the sheep that are not of His own Fold and His only ambition is to
bring them in.
This recommendation of Our Lord, His Church understood when in her
Canon-law She makes it a duty for all bishops and priests to look upon
the non-Catholics residing within the boundaries of their jurisdiction
as recommended to them by the Lord and placed in their charge. (Canon
1350, No. 1.)
The Plenary Council of Quebec, the authoritative voice of the Church in
Canada, is most emphatic in its recommendation of our separated
brethren to the zeal of all Catholics. (No. 331)
The obligation of conscience to come to the help of our non-Catholic
neighbour is moreover founded on the precepts of Christian charity. If
Christ will condemn to Hell those who did not give Him to eat and to
drink in the person of the needy, what will He not say to those who
neglect the spiritual works of mercy. The activities of Christian
zeal, to one who rightly understands the spirit of the gospel and the
economy of the redemption, have the same binding force as alms-giving,
and fulfill in the spiritual world the part charity has to play in the
scheme of Christian economics.
The obligation of alms-giving is complementary to the right of
property. For, as St. Thomas says, "It is one thing to have a right to
possess money and another to have a right to use money as one pleases."
(II. _a_, II. _ae_, Q. XXXII., art. 5, ad 2.) This duty when
conscientiously performed re-establishes that economic and social
equilibrium which strict justice alone is not able to create. For, the
inequitable distribution of wealth greatly depends on the inequality of
power of production. This inequality of natural gifts in man remains
an unchangeable fact which faith alone in a Divine Providence can
explain, an ever renascent problem which Christian charity only can
solve.
This mystery of Christian solidarity reveals itself also in the
spiritual world. We may say of each Catholic what St. Ambrose said of
the priesthood: "_Nemo Catholicus sibi_,"--no one is a Catholic for
himself alone. By a mysterious law of Divine Providence the
conservation and propagation of the faith are, after Divine Grace,
largely dependent on the influence of man on man. We are all verily
"Our brothers' keepers." We are commissioned by Christ not only to
keep the faith but also to hand it down to others, not only to keep its
fire burning in our hearts but to spread it, and to fan it into a
conflagration. The gift of faith implies the charitable obligation of
weaving our belief into our every day life and, through that life and
its influence, into the lives of others. The plenitude of some make up
for the penury of others. If St. John, to urge the precept of
alms-giving, said: "He that hath the substance of this world and shall
see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how
doth the charity of God abide in him?" (I. Jo. III, 17), with how much
more truth cannot the condemnation of the Beloved Apostle be applied to
one who, rich in Faith--"that substance of things unseen," makes no
effort to help his brother who is deprived of it? Therefore charity,
through its spiritual works of mercy, re-establishes the equilibrium in
the spiritual realm and stands out as a vital factor in the economy of
our religion. To understand rightly this principle and to reduce it to
action, is to be a true and ardent apostle. Then, and then only, are
we able to say in truth, with the martyr, St. Pacien, "Christian is my
name, but Catholic is my surname."
How pressing is this obligation to be an apostle, to be truly Catholic,
among our non-Catholic brethren? Why should we particularly turn the
energies of our zeal to the conversion of non-Catholics? What special
claim have they to our prayers?
The supernatural element of Faith, often the fruit of a valid baptism,
which still lingers in the souls of many non-Catholics; the fact that
numbers of them, because they are in good faith, belong thereby to the
"Soul of the Church;" the rising tide of indifference and unbelief
which is now burying under its water the last remnants of Christianity
to be found among the conflicting creeds: these are the predominant
motives which, according to the principles of St. Thomas Aquinas,
should attract the preference of our zeal. For the order of the
charity, says the Holy Doctor,[1] depends on the _relations_ of those
we love, to God and to ourselves, and on the _urgency_ of their
spiritual needs. By this doctrine, among those outside of the Church,
those professing Christianity have the first claim to our apostleship.
Therefore missions to non-Catholics, _caeteris paribus_, take
precedence over foreign missions.
We all recognize the reality of this obligation and understand, vaguely
perhaps, the burden of its responsibility. We all indeed, at times,
say with the Divine Master: "There are other sheep that are not of this
Fold; them also I must bring."--But, what have we done to bring them?
Outside of a few casual cases of conversion prompted often by marriage,
and of some spasmodic efforts during a mission, are we not bound to
admit that our policy in our relation with non-Catholics has been one
of aloofness and waiting. This attitude of aloofness may be traced to
many causes. The certainty of his faith gives to the Catholic an
assurance which he carries with him into his every day life. A sense
of superiority is its natural result. It gives him that
self-confidence in religious matters which our separated brethren are
so prone to call "Roman Pride."
There exists in the Catholic soul that feeling we might name "The
timidity of faith." This sensitiveness is but the instinct of
preservation. We have been impressed from our youth that faith is the
greatest heirloom of our Christian heritage. To protect it against any
influence that would endanger it, is always considered a sacred duty.
This is particularly remarked among the masses, whose chances of
education finished with the grammar schools, and in countries or
localities where Catholics are the minority.
The natural result of this attitude and feeling is an estrangement from
those of another faith, a bashful reluctance to meet them and to
co-operate with them in social or civic matters, an unconscious
tendency to see motives that do not exist and, at times, to refrain
from the most elementary acts of charity and courtesy. "It often
happens that we manifest towards the heretic the feeling which should
be exclusively reserved for heresy." (Lord Morley.) That this is
precisely the frame of mind of the ordinary non-Catholic in his
dealings with us, is by no way an excuse for our own unkindness.
Retaliation is not Christ-like. Does not our aloofness confirm our
separated brethren in their false ideas, wrong impressions and bitter
prejudices. We must not forget that centuries of strife and untold
antagonism of misunderstandings and ignorance, stand as a granite wall
between their souls and ours. The teachings and influence of their
home, of their school, and of their church lie in their minds, strata
upon strata, as the silent and lasting mementoes of the great religious
upheaval of the Reformation. Only the influence of a genuine, frank,
Catholic life, seen and felt in daily intercourse will gradually wear
the barrier away. It is a long and slow process, we know, but one
worth trying. Like the ever returning tide it eats its way into the
most solid rock of prejudice and bigotry.
That this aloofness carries with it for the unguarded soul and
untrained mind a great protection, is made evident by the too many
examples of lukewarm Catholics, who by their continued association with
those outside of the Fold have lost the right appreciation of their
faith and are open to compromise. Principles in their lives often
yield to a policy of so called broadmindedness and alleged charity.
But those we have in mind, are the leaders, among the clergy and the
laity. They are grounded in their belief, know its principles and
should be prepared to throw off that aloofness which shades the light
of their faith and prevents it from being seen by those who are bound
to them, in the everyday life, by national, social, commercial, and
often by family ties.
This _quasi_ universal attitude of aloofness has developed among us
what we might call "The policy of waiting." The festive board of
Christ's faith is ready, but the guests from another fold are wanting.
Have we gone "by the highways and byways" and forced ourselves upon
their attention by our pressing invitations . . . "_compelle intrare_?"
No, we stand at the door of the Banquet Hall, receiving politely and
with joy, it is true, those who ask to come in; and there, for the most
part, ends our apostolate. This naturally leads us to say frankly what
we think could be done. For we believe that our methods of apostolate
call for revision, need readjustment. The way to become like St. Paul,
"All things to all men, that we may save them all," (I. Cor. I., 22)
changes with the times.
In the great drama of life the stage-settings are ever shifting and the
_dramatis personae_, changing. The success of the actor is to fit in
as the play goes on. This he does by adopting ways and methods most
appropriate to his surroundings. The problems we face are always the
same, but to be efficient our methods of handling them must evolve and
adjust themselves to the temper of the age. What should be then the
characteristic features of our apostleship among non-Catholics? The
neglect of readjustment of our methods in dealing with our separated
brethren is the avowed cause of the tremendous waste of energy and the
explanation of meagre results. "An enormous amount of energy," said
Father Benson,--and he had the experience,--"has been expended
uselessly in the past, assaulting positions that are no longer held,
and by lack of appreciation of present conditions." In this age of
loose thinking and of rapid dissemination of ideas, _aggressiveness_,
supported by active propaganda, characterizes every world-wide movement
in government, industry, science and religion. Every doctrine, every
theory comes into the open and makes a strong bid for our hearing, for
our following. Why should not the true doctrine of Christ assume this
new shining armour of sane aggressiveness, come more into the open, and
throw down the gauntlet to unbelief and indifference everywhere rampant
and openly defiant? For, if conviction is the father of devotion, if
our belief in the mastery of ideas is genuine, we cannot help but be
aggressive. Needless to say we are not asking for vulgar
aggressiveness, we are not asking for cheap sneers and attacks on the
ignorance and the illogical position of others. By aggressiveness, we
mean coming out in defence of truth which it is our privilege and
responsibility to possess. Never have times been more inviting for an
aggressive Catholicism. The great war has been for Protestantism the
acid test. The result is for the Anglican and Evangelical Churches a
complete failure,[2] and, as the soldiers said "a wash-out." They have
lost their grip on the masses who are rapidly slipping into a religious
chaos. The universal disintegration of creeds, strangely combined with
a secret thirst for truth and unity now sweeps the English-speaking
world. Are not these portentous events that manifest, as "The stirring
of the waters," the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Our 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.
_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 constitutes 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 participation in the activities of life. The family--the
first in order of time and dignity--is beyond doubt the principal 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 substitution 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 constitutes "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 entitled 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_
Authority and liberty are the two poles on which revolves Society. The
perfect equilibrium of these two contending forces, one centripetal,
the other centrifugal, make for its safety and welfare. The
encroachment of one upon the other displaces the social axis and throws
a nation out of its natural orbit. Political Society then oscillates
between autocracy and anarchy. The infringement of this supreme law of
moral gravitation has strewn the paths of history with the ruins of
kingdoms and empires. The violation of a natural law bears always with
itself its own punishment. For, society is not the conventional
creation of man; it is governed by laws that man does not make, but,
which his reason and experience discover and to which he must submit.
This perfect equilibrium of authority and liberty is perfectly
expressed in Lincoln's famous definition: "A sane democracy is one of
the people, by the people and for the people." The reason of this law
of the political order is that liberty is previous to authority, for
authority only exists to protect liberty against tyranny and to
safeguard it against its own excesses. He is best governed who is
least governed. LePlay, the celebrated French economist, made this
just and pertinent remark: "The truly free nations are those who,
without compromising this prosperity, extend the benefices of private
life at the expense of public life." (Réforme Sociale II, page 92.)
Therefore the ideal State exists when all civil or social rights--which
stand for the _public enjoyment_ of all natural rights--are fully
protected by political rights. These political liberties moreover
claim not only the negative protection or non-interference of
authority, but also its positive financial help. For political liberty
exists for the protection of civil liberty, and not _vice versa_. The
collective forces of a society are for the benefit of the individual
and not the individual for them. A State is an institution for the
protection of rights inherent to a free people.
The negation of this principle leads to the State paternalism which
stands for the interference of State in matters which by right belong
to the individual and the family. Never has State interference and
State protection been more exaggerated than they are nowadays. The
passing and pressing emergencies of the great war have accentuated
these tendencies. The nations have kept the habit of being governed by
orders-in-council, by arbitrary censorship and dictatorial methods.
"The Executive has usurped the functions that rightly belong to the
legislative assembly, with a virtual dictatorship as the inevitable
result." The consequence of State Paternalism is the death of
individual liberty either through socialism or autocracy. Man becomes
the chattel of a bureaucratic government.
Of all civil liberties there is none more sacred, more fundamental than
that of education. The freedom of education means the right of a
parent to give to his offspring an education in harmony with his
concept of life, with the dictates of his conscience. As education is
nothing but a preparation for life, its theory goes hand in hand with
the theory of life. To this liberty of the parent should correspond in
society a political right. To deprive a free citizen of this right is
to penalize him and oblige him--as is the case in Manitoba--to buy
twice over a right of conscience. This condition wherever it exists is
a flagrant abuse of political authority and consequently a social
disorder.
Some may object to our argumentation and answer that in a modern
democracy the majority rules, and the majority in the West are against
"separate schools." The political right of the majority cannot cancel
a moral right of the minority. It is a case here of repeating the
statement of Burke: "The tyranny of a democracy is the most dangerous
of all tyrannies because it allows no appeal against itself." This
autocracy of numbers is often more dangerous and more brutal than that
of a caste, of a czar, or of a king. Russia is giving us an
illustration of this autocracy of number. Did not Germany use the same
argument to crush Belgium and to try to dominate the World? Our sons
have fought and died in this war against Prussianism and yet some of
our Canadians--not worthy of the name--would willingly vote drastic
measures of governmental repression which would make the Kaiser smile
and the Czar Nicholas turn in his grave. The velvet glove may cover
the mail-fist, but the blow is the same.
Others may claim that the State has a right to "Uniformity in the
education of its citizens." This is the pretension of those who now
are advocating so strongly and so widely the "federalization of our
schools." We will not discuss the value of this plea for uniformity.
It would open a very interesting pedagogical debate and we are inclined
to believe that the "anti-uniformists" would carry away the honors. We
do not pretend that the State has no rights in matters of education.
But its interference should be consistent with the prior and more
fundamental rights of the individual and the family and not become a
usurpation or abrogation of them. Otherwise it would be the wrong way
of doing the right thing.
_IV.--A National Reason_
The Constitution of a country has as its specific object the
maintenance of the perfect equilibrium between authority and liberty.
"It is the charter of a people's liberties, the shield of the
individual against the possible tyranny of government, the effective
check upon the ambition of every government to extend the sphere of its
delegated powers. Unlike the law, its primary purpose is to restrain
the Government, not the citizen. . . ." (P. Blakely, S.J.) America,
Sept. 18, 1920.
The greatest liberty for the individual, combined with the greatest
good of the commonwealth, has always been the ideal aimed at by the
Fathers of a democratic country. To tamper with the Constitution on
vital issues, to conceive it as an experiment, to ignore its
spirit,--that obvious intention of its framers--is always eventually
fatal to the peace and welfare of the nation. No one lays hands with
impunity on that Ark of the Covenant. The essential changes in the
Constitution of a country act as a time-fuse. An explosion necessarily
follows, although it may take years and generations for a faulty
legislation to disclose its real consequences. This is particularly
true in matters of education. Laws of the educational departments may
change to become more efficient in their administration but should
never touch the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
In Canada the protection of the minority rights is a principle embodied
in our Constitution, in the Imperial Statute of the British North
America. Act. Even where the letter of the Provincial Law has
established the "public school,"--as is the case in the Maritime
Provinces--the spirit of the law is generally observed, and by a
compromise and tacit agreement the rights of the minority are to a
great extent recognized.
In the West, Manitoba stands out in Canadian History as the battlefield
of educational rights. Although the British North America Act,
1867,--that intangible charter of Canadian liberties--stipulates,
section 93, that in the carving out of new Provinces in the vast
domains of the North West Territories the existing educational rights
guaranteed to the minority should be respected, yet, the Manitoba
Legislative Assembly has broken away from the letter and spirit of the
Constitution and constituted a grievance which demands rectification.
The Federal Parliament partially recognized the principle of Separate
Schools in the formation of the Provinces of Saskatchewan and of
Alberta, by introducing, in section 17 of the Autonomy Bills of 1905,
the section 93 of the B.N.A. Act, and by reasserting the existing
rights granted by the N.W.T. School Ordinances of 1901. We say
"partially," for it is not the right of collecting separate taxes and
teaching Religion during the last half hour of the school-day that
constitutes a really Catholic school.
The "Separate schools" in Saskatchewan and Alberta stand on the solid
granite of our Constitution. The highest tribunals of the land and the
Empire have implicitly recognized the principle of the minority-schools
in many of their decisions. Moreover, let us not forget it! the
separate school system in Canada is "_protestant_" in its origin. It
was to protect the protestant minority of Lower Canada that this
system, Catholic in Ontario, Protestant in Quebec, was adopted on
September 18th, 1841. In the West the minority school-law was also
enacted to protect the protestant minority of the Territories. Our
Non-Catholic opponents should not forget this origin of our separate
schools. What their fathers appreciated then for their children, we
appreciate now for ours. The principle remains unchanged.
Some may be surprised at our contention to make an argument in favour
of separate schools out of the very point on which rests the
scaffolding of those who oppose them. They claim that the minority
school principle is the greatest enemy of Canadian Unity. What we
need, they say, is to standardize our schools, and bring all Canadian
children under one system. No genuine "Canadianization" is possible
without this unity of education. The advocates of these ideas are now
at work promoting through the country the "nationalization of schools."
The Conference of Winnipeg, 1919, was the first tangible result of this
movement. A National Bureau of Education--a non-government
institution, at least for the time being; a survey of school text-books
throughout the Provinces, a study of matters affecting the status of
the teaching profession--such are the duties that this National Council
of Education has assumed at its first gathering.
This movement towards Federal control of schools involves the denial
and the eventual suppression of the minority-principle in our system of
Education. This nationalization of Education, we claim, is erroneous
in its principle, anti-constitutional in its operation, and dangerous
in its consequences. Uniformity in education, as a source of
efficiency, is one of the fallacies of our materialistic age. Schools
to be successful have not to be submitted to the same laws of a
commercial or industrial combine. Ethnical and moral values do not
follow the laws of the mart and the stock exchange. If in our
extensive Dominion even a unity of tariff, readily acceptable to the
East and to the West, is Utopian, how much more so would be the unity
of the school system? Education, to be effective, must take the colour
of the environments to meet the needs of the community. The levelling
process would be most detrimental, for uniformity in education is the
seed of decay.
And it is on the plea of making better Canadians that the promoters of
"national schools" are drifting from the very basic principle of our
educational system, from the law and spirit of our Constitution. Our
form of Government, as we all know, is dual. Matters of education are
relevant to the Province. The more the Province will abdicate its
claims, and submit to the growing influence of the Federal powers, the
greater will be the danger of losing the political equilibrium of
Confederation. Unstable equilibrium, once disturbed, is hardly ever
re-established. The centrifugal forces of the Province protect our
liberties against the possible excesses of the centripetal forces of
the Federal Government. Any movement that tends to break the harmony
of these forces is, we claim, anti-Canadian. The Premier of Quebec
speaking to the Deputy Ministers of Education and Superintendents of
Public Instruction, at an inter-provincial Conference sounded this note
of warning: "The absolute control by each Province of its educational
system is the keystone of our Confederation; and the whole structure of
Canada would crumble away if any attempt were made at suppressing that
which holds its several parts together." (Nov. 4, 1921.) Quebec is
blamed for being the great obstacle to the realization of the dreams of
our nationalizers. Quebec, we maintain, is the most sane Province of
the Dominion, and the greatest help to the maintenance of
Confederation. This is now an admitted fact by every serious and broad
minded Canadian. Its conservatism acts, we would say, as the governor
on the complicated machine of Canadian political life. It regulates
its speed and keeps it within the limits of safety. Moreover, we ask,
how could a system which would deny the principles and rights of over
forty per cent. of the population be rightly and justly named
"national"? No one has the right to assume the monopoly of
"nationalism."
"The self-appointed or State-appointed nationalizer, we would say with
Father Millar, S.J., ignorant of our real history or its true meaning,
is fast becoming a menace to the sanity of our laws and to the supreme
wisdom of a traditional national policy." [2]
And what will be the consequences of this levelling uniformity that
crushes parental right and fuses the powers of Provinces into a Federal
unit? The Prussian ideal is the answer. We all know what that means
and where it leads. Its principles are the solvents of what remains of
Christianity--unconscious to many, it is true--in the political life of
our country. The armies that our boys fought on the fields of Flanders
were formed and trained in the national schools of Germany.
_V.--A British Reason_
The great misfortune of many who clamour against our separate schools
is their total ignorance of our history and of the spirit that the
liberty-loving Fathers of the Confederation have breathed into our
laws. To them "national reasons" may not appeal. This is very often
the case of the average Westerner. The West is in its making and has
no past behind it. This fact alone can explain how easy the Western
mind is open to influences opposed to the spirit of our Canadian
institutions. It has no traditions, and traditions are the hidden
roots that plunge down into the soil of history, into the hearts of
past generations, and give to a people, its real national life.
Therefore, a "British reason," a reason founded on British traditions,
on the British way of doing things in the Colonies, may make a stronger
appeal to our Western mentality.
Freedom and fair play for every citizen within the Empire, the
recognition of racial and religious rights, have been the strength and
success of the British Government in its Colonial policy. (We
underline "colonial policy" for, we cannot say the same of England's
policy with Ireland--) We would quote here what a well known Western
public man wrote some years ago when, under the pen-name of "Daylight"
he discussed the "Separate School problem" in the columns of "The
Regina Leader," January 3rd, 1916.
"In conclusion there are one or two general remarks I should like to
make. It has always appeared to me that there is among our
English-speaking people of Canada a section of the community that holds
extreme views on all matters pertaining to nationality and religion.
This section holds and advocates the idea, that there must be no
compromise in dealing with matters pertaining to race and religion. In
a word, they would set about at once to "Prussianize" our complex
population. They forget, or entirely ignore, the fact that this is not
the British plan. If the British Empire is the glorious Empire it is
to-day is it not because of the fact that long ago the British
statesman and the British citizen have learned the lesson of tolerance?
To-day, Great Britain with its forty-five millions of people rules over
hundreds of millions of people of diverse nationalities and religious
faiths, and throughout the whole scheme of government and constitution
runs the idea of reasonable and just tolerance and compromise. Were
this not so the British Empire would quickly fall to pieces. Why then
should we not have more of this spirit in Canada, and particularly in
Western Canada? Some people are mightily concerned about our
foreign-born population. They imagine that the process of assimilation
can and should be accomplished in a day. Nothing is further from the
truth. The process is necessarily a slow one. It is bound to take two
or three, and in some cases, more generations. In the meantime we
should strive to make these people feel that they are welcome to our
broad open plains and to our citizenship. As to the final outcome no
one need have any doubt."
The principle that has created the British Empire is the only principle
that will keep it on the map of the world. This is history,
philosophy, and common sense.
And when we see England recognizing the Catholic elementary schools and
subsidizing to a certain extent our secondary schools, when Scotland
has just brought the Catholic schools of several cities into its
system, is it not painful, to say the least, to hear our
ultra-loyalists ever up in arms against our separate schools? To them
we feel like saying, "Go back to England and Scotland, from whence you
or your forefathers came and learn from the Home Country the lesson of
tolerance, of sane political government."
_VI.--A Historical Reason_
In the discussion of many problems we are liable, particularly in the
West, to limit our vision to conditions as they present themselves to
the observer. This is more noticeable in the educational field. This
frame of mind may be traced to various causes. But there is one cause
which, we believe, is more responsible than others.
Unconsciously our age is "_evolutionist_." "The intellectual movement
of 'evolution,'" said Glenn Frank, "was not the private plaything of
biologists in sequestered laboratories, but a force that altered men's
conceptions in every field of affairs." ("Century," Sept., 1920.) The
theory of evolution has such a grasp on the modern mind that its
concepts of government, of economics, of education are looked upon as
the last and improved effort of man in his eternal struggle to express
an unknown and always receding ideal. This has accustomed the mind to
look upon the past but as a rudiment, an outline, a preparation of the
future.
Without entering into the discussion of the objective evidence of the
theory of evolution we may say that as far as education is concerned
its premises are false. The human soul remains substantially the same
and the process of its education has not varied very much with
centuries. Those therefore who look upon our modern Educational system
as the apex, the summing up of all past phases, are greatly mistaken.
"The lessons of past history," writes Dr. Walsh, "are extremely
precious not only because they show us where others made mistakes but
also because they show us the successes of the past. The better we
know these, the deeper our admiration for them, the better the outlook
for ourselves and our accomplishment."
The State-school is an institution comparatively of very recent date
and has no right to be heralded as the final expression of an
educational system in a democracy. The history of education shows a
lineage of men who can be more than favorably compared with the sons of
our common schools. The mass of the people have indeed more
instruction but, at times, we doubt if they are better educated.
Results are the best judges of educational values. History and
experience prove that success in education depends more on the sense of
responsibility in the parents and of duty in the children, than on
palatial school-houses and elaborate programme of studies. This sense
of duty and the feeling of responsibility are not a necessary
consequence of state schools. On the contrary they are more liable to
be found in independent institutions. For, as we have seen, when the
State substitutes itself for the family, the first consequence is the
unchallenged yield of parental rights.
Those who would make an excursion into history and compare our modern
educational systems with those of the past will find illuminating
points of comparison and instructive conclusions. We would advise them
to take Dr. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., Litt.D., as guide. His books:
"Education, how Old the New"--"The Thirteenth Century"--will prove most
interesting reading.
Already a reactionary policy is being enacted in several countries
where for years the State-School was the only one to share in the
public treasury. In Holland, the Parliament of June, 1920, by a vote
of 72 against 3, passed a new school-law which recognizes and
subsidizes all separate primary, high and normal schools. In Italy,
the Minister of Education, Benedetto Croce, in a speech on the
"reorganization of education," stated publicly that the neutral school
was theoretically absurd and practically impossible. In Spain,[3] by a
Bill of May, 1919, the State universities have passed out of the hands
of the Government. France, Portugal, Argentine Republic are fighting
for the same freedom. In Poland's new charter of liberties, granted by
the Treaty of Versailles, the rights of the minority in school matters
are guaranteed. Our Canadian representatives signed this document. We
were granting then to the new Republic a sacred right which we still
refuse to our own at home, in the Province of Manitoba!
_VII.--A Religious Reason_
The creation of the state-school, necessarily undenominational in
character, has made the "separate school" an absolute necessity. If
religion has any meaning in life this reason of our separation should
be most convincing.
In education one cannot separate the utilitarian side,--the fitting of
the child for the struggle of life,--from its main purpose,--the
development of moral character. The moral aspect alone gives to human
life its true character, its real value. As there is no morality
without religion, the system of education that would debar this
essential feature falls short of its full meaning. With this principle
in view any fair-minded man will understand how true Christian parents
demand a school where their children will receive religious education.
They are in conscience bound to exact for their offspring such
education, and, where the State refuses them their own money to support
their "separate schools" they willingly penalize themselves to give
them this benefit. The child's eternal welfare is not to be sacrificed
to a school system that has not even accomplished the purpose for which
it was established. For, as we shall see, a neutral school is a
practical impossibility.
Those who fail to understand the pressing force of this viewpoint have
in our opinion lost the sense and sacredness of religion. They are
astonished at the bitterness that characterizes at times the conflict.
Are not religious and racial issues so intimately united with the very
conception of life that they hold to the most intimate fibres of the
human heart? For a Catholic, Religion is life itself in its most
sacred aspect.
But, our opponents will argue, in a country like Canada, where
"organized" religion--to speak their language--is so denominational,
religion in school is an impossibility. Is it because other
denominations cannot agree as to their religious tenets that we, who
count over one-third of the total population and who stand united in
our faith, are to surrender what we consider most essential in
education and--lest we forget it--most protective to the best interests
of our Country?
What does the State give us to replace the "separate school"? A
neutral, undenominational, irreligious school. This neutrality we
claim, is erroneous in theory and impossible in practice. The theory
of the neutral school is erroneous because it is against the teaching
of sound psychology and true pedagogy.
The soul of the child cannot be, as it were, divided into watertight
compartments so as to segregate religious influence from its daily
training. As Cardinal O'Connell stated, "We Catholics believe that as
character is by far the most important product of education, the
training of the will, the moulding of the heart, the grounding of the
intellect in clear notions of right and wrong, obligation and duty,
should not be left to haphazard or squeezed as an afterthought into an
hour on Sunday. The moral and spiritual growth of the child ought
normally to keep pace with his mental growth and the Church is
convinced that taking human nature as it is, the result cannot be
obtained effectively without including a judicious mixture of religious
training with the daily routine of the school."
In fact a neutral school is an impossibility. We will simply ask our
readers a few questions and rely on their fairmindedness to formulate
the answers. Can the teaching of history be neutral? The Catholic
Church and the Reformation are historical facts: how are they to be
judged? How are ethics to be treated, without reference to God, to
Jesus Christ, to an eternal sanction? Can a teacher divest himself of
his mental attitude in the teaching of these subjects and answering the
questions of the pupils?
Were the teaching really neutral, the very atmosphere of the
school-room is what counts. This atmosphere is indefinable and yet
everywhere felt. It is made of trifles, but of trifles that count at
that receptive age of childhood. As a subtle perfume it impregnates
the soul of the child with ideas and impressions which it will carry
through life. Therefore the atmosphere of the class-room, we claim,
should be as near as possible, that of the home. The parents have a
right to see that it should be so. Is this possible in a neutral
school? Its very negative character impregnates the class-rooms with
an irreligious feeling which the impressionable mind of the child
cannot but notice. How is the child to grow up with the feeling of
Religion's importance in life if the ban is placed upon Religion the
moment he passes the threshold of the school-room? "What we most
dread," said Bishop McQuaid, "is not the direct teaching of the
State-school, it is the indirect teaching which is most insidious and
most dangerous. It is the moral atmosphere, the tone of thought
permeating these schools that give cause for alarm. It is the
indifferentism with regard to all religious belief we most of all fear.
This is the dominant heresy that, imbibed in youth, can scarcely ever
be eradicated. It is one that already has in our large towns and
cities decimated Protestant Churches."
Even the provision of optional religious instruction at the dying hour
of the class-day cannot redeem the neutral school. In fact the Survey
of School conditions in Saskatchewan conducted by Dr. Foght, in 1918,
revealed there a state of things which in our mind is an eye-opener in
the matter under examination. Out of over 4,000 schools not more than
212 reported as availing themselves of the law on religious
instruction. We leave to the reader to draw the conclusion these
recent statistics suggest.
To conclude this already too lengthy argument, facts are vindicating in
every country the saneness of the Catholic view-point on religious
instruction and atmosphere in the school. The alarming increase of
religious indifference, the rising tide of anarchy, the universal
feeling of unrest, have prompted the unequivocal admissions of leaders
of thought as to the moral failure of the neutral school.
Mr. William Jennings Bryan, in an address before the constitutional
convention of Nebraska, a few years ago, brought this striking
indictment against the State educational system of the United States.
"The greatest menace to the public school system of to-day is, in my
judgment, its Godlessness. We have allowed the moral influence to be
crowded out. When I say moral, I mean morality based upon religion.
We cannot build a system of morality on any other than a religious
basis. We have gone too far in allowing religion to be eliminated from
our schools. I would not have religion taught by public school
teachers, but all sects and creeds should have equal opportunity to
furnish at their own expense to students whose parents desire it, such
instruction not to interfere with the hours of school. Our people will
be better citizens and stronger for their work if along with the
trained mind there is also an awakened moral sense."
In a recent report of the Interchurch Movement, based on a survey of
American Education, prevailing conditions that now threaten the safety
of State and Church are openly imputed to the neglect of religious
training of childhood and youth in the schools. This deficiency in
religious education on the part of the Evangelical sects is called by
the authors of the report "Protestantism's weakest spot." Emphatic
endorsement is given to the "denominational school" and full credit is
not denied to the emphasis placed upon religious teaching in schools by
the Catholic Church.
"It would be absolute madness," said Cardinal Bourne, at an Educational
meeting in Edinburgh, "on the part of any civil authority at the
present day to spurn and reject the educational assistance and
educational power the Catholic Church was willing and ready to place at
their disposal."
In our own country, the urgent necessity of introducing religion in our
public school is now for every serious-minded Canadian an agonizing
problem. How many attempts have been made to solve it? Was it not the
principal topic discussed at the Educational Conference of Winnipeg
(1919)?
The neutral school, we conclude, has been weighed and found wanting.
The hand-writing is on the wall of every country where the experiment
has been made and tells the same tale. _Facts_ and _principles_ give
reason to our "Separate Schools."
* * * * * *
_Why "Separate Schools?_"--Because it is our right and our duty to have
them.--This is our simple and straightforward answer to the ever
renascent objection of those who are not of our opinion. That _right_
rests on the solid rock of Justice, of History and of Religion; that
_duty_ we owe to our children, to ourselves, to our Church, and to our
country.
[1] This chapter formed a series of articles in the North West Review
of Winnipeg. The following editorial comment accompanied our
concluding article.
"This week we publish the last of the series of articles by Father
Daly, C.SS.R., dealing with the separate school question.
"We consider his contribution on this ever topical and historic problem
one of the best reasoned and for the average man the most concise and
useful yet published. It might well be issued in pamphlet form and
kept for reference in every Catholic home in Western Canada, because
the subject is one likely to be controversial for an indefinite period.
Sometimes one finds Catholics who are not as well acquainted with the
fact as they should be that the question of Catholic education can
never be compromised. A solid and reasoned knowledge of this fact is
in some respects as essential as if it were an article of faith,
especially in Western Canada, which, as Father Daly points out, is the
classic land of the school problem.
"Doubtless attempts will be made in the future to bring elementary
education through the pretext of Canadianization, under the "invisible
head" of this country. Or as in the United States segregated attempts
may be made to abolish parochial schools altogether.
"Where there are so many probabilities and so much at stake it might be
well for the average Catholic to be in a position to give a good
account of himself by showing a thorough understanding of the question.
"If the present civilization succeeds, it will do so by adopting the
methods of some, if not all, of our big corporations of to-day, and
thus make of nations, huge Trust socialisms where the individual will
hunger no more for freedom because of his having never tasted it. The
one great desideratum to this end is the absolute control of
education--an end that will never be reached so long as the Catholic
Church continues to save Christian civilization through its religious
schools.
"Would that our fellow citizens of other faiths knew the ruin that they
court by relinquishing to a material power control over the minds and
hearts of their children.
"In every country the public school is bringing young minds under the
spell of worldliness. The result is selfishness, jingoism, narrow
nationalism--an unthinking, a gullible generation to become the easy
prey of exploiters and the docile slaves of commerce.
"No man who has drunk into his heart and mind in youth the truths of
religious education can readily become the willing dupe of a
materialistic state.
"Commerce to-day is the God of nations. It makes wars, compels peace
and tramples upon morality and justice. Surely then Catholics should
study in a particular way the only safeguard left them against such a
fate--the sound philosophy of a religious education."
[2] America, Aug. 21, 1920.
[3] Cfr. Article by Father Vaughan, S.J., on this subject--America,
Feb. 21, 1920.
CHAPTER IX.
A WINDOW IN THE WEST[1]
_A Crusade for Better Schools in Saskatchewan--Its Lessons: an
Invitation and a Warning._
"A Window in the West!"--This was the suggestive title given to a
course of pedagogical studies instituted in a Folk High-School of
Denmark. The object of this course was to promote the study of these
English and American educational ideals which Denmark may assimilate
with profit. They looked to the West for light!
May we be allowed also to open here, in this Educational
Conference. . . . "A Window in the West." Through that window will
come to you the bright vision of the educational activities of our
Western Provinces, and, with that vision, I hope, the sunny and breezy
atmosphere of new and progressive ideas. I will limit my present
remarks to a brief sketch of what was known in Saskatchewan as the
"_Better School Movement_." This educational movement has an
interesting history and carries with it a very profitable lesson. As
the object of this Conference is to forward the cause of education in
this part of our great Dominion, we thought it would be both
interesting and instructive to hear that history and learn that lesson
that comes to us from beyond the Great Lakes.
The West, we know too well, has many things yet to learn from the East;
but good old Mother East should at times forget "what has been"--and
consider more "what is to be." In many points her growing western
daughters can give her helpful suggestions. Moreover this exchange of
ideas in an immense Dominion like ours is, we claim, absolutely
necessary to keep the mental equilibrium between East and West. There
are let us not forget it, many other problems beside the tariff problem
which are widening the breach, deepening the chasm between these two
sections of our Country. True patriotism demands co-operation, and not
antagonism, between these two main sectors of that immense firing line,
which is flung between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
1. _History_.--The history of the "Better School Movement" in
Saskatchewan is not very old, but, like the vegetation on the western
prairies had a rapid and healthy growth. It crowded into a few years a
whole epoch of the educational life of the Province. On June 22, 1915,
the Hon. W. Scott, then Premier and Minister of Education, made his
epochal speech which launched the idea of a reform movement. The
object of this movement was the re-adjustment of the school system, of
its curriculum and administration, to conditions existing throughout
the Province. The people of Saskatchewan were invited to constitute
themselves a grand committee of the whole on education, to study facts
and to suggest means. This invitation of the keen-sighted Premier was
accepted by the people without any distinction of race, creed or
language. The leader of the Opposition indorsed the idea and pledged
the support of his party. This non-partisan movement crystallized
itself in the "Saskatchewan Public Education League" which was formed
at the general meeting of delegates from all over the Province, held in
Regina, in Sept., 1916. The league became a forum for the expression
of public opinion. The newspapers of the Province gave wide publicity
to the new movement and threw open their columns to a public
discussion. Teachers' associations, inspectors' conventions, church
synods, grain growers' meetings, labour unions, medical councils,
trustees' conventions particularly, made school improvements a fruitful
topic at all their meetings of the year. Educational problems and
reforms were in the air: never have we better understood the
educational value of a publicity campaign; never have we seen it
crowned with such a success. The climax of this campaign was a public
holiday, June 30th, 1916; meetings were held in all the school
districts of the Province, speeches were made, resolutions passed.
Public opinion had been moulded and was ready for a "Survey" and
Legislation.
By order in Council, June 7th, 1917, Premier Martin, successor to Hon.
W. Scott, whom ill-health had forced to retire--made definite provision
for an educational Survey. "This survey is in no sense of the word an
investigation; for investigations are necessarily based on assumption
of some sort of misfeasance or malfeasance. It is instead a
sympathetic inquiry into the schools of the people as the schools
actually exist. Suggestions for enlargement and re-direction are made
throughout."
These are the very terms of Dr. Foght's report to the Government. This
specialist in rural school practice, of the Bureau of Education,
Washington, was engaged in this survey from August to November, 1917.
His report was dated Jan. 20, 1918. At the session of that year it was
submitted to Parliament and served as the basis of new legislation.
Its reading will prove most interesting to friends of education, and
most suggestive in the outlining of new policies of administration and
in the remodelling of the curriculum.
II. _Lesson_.--This Saskatchewan Crusade for better schools carries
with it a pointed lesson. In our humble estimation and from our
view-point this lesson is a call for action; at the same time it sounds
a warning.
1. _An Invitation_.--There is nothing, we believe, nothing more
inviting than the readiness of our Western Provinces in dealing with
problems. Here we have a beautiful example of that boldness of western
youth, so confident in its resources, so optimistic in its views.
Like the West, let us diagnose our educational problems; a survey of
prevailing conditions will show facts and figures. Let us see and
admit the truth; camouflage is a poor policy in matters of such
importance.
This diagnosis will naturally suggest remedies. Although there are
certain standards in education, which are as stable as human nature
itself, nevertheless, we must not forget that the human mind is a
living thing--ever re-adjusting itself to environments that various
factors have created. This readjustment of our methods in teaching and
of our policies in administration, we know, is a very delicate process.
But it has to be done and done rightly if education is not to be a
misnomer.
This re-adjustment will demand the co-operation of the educational
expert and the masses. The expert has his ear to the ground, his hand
on the pulse to grasp the trend of human thought. He walks ahead to
blaze the way. To find or, at least, to train specialists to direct
the forward march is the easiest part of the problem. The greatest
difficulty in all great movements is to overcome the profound and
widespread indifference of the masses. Yet through this co-operation
of the people will come the only valuable and permanent reforms.
Without it our experts will court failure.
Two initial tasks impose themselves if we wish to enlist in this great
educational movement the sympathies of the people: 1. To arouse
interest in local communities. 2. To organize individual and group
action.
A wide publicity campaign (in the papers, by means of lectures,
distribution of literature, in season and out of season) is the only
means of arousing the people from their apathy. It takes time to see
the ideas of leaders and experts filter down into the lower strata of
society. Yet we should always have faith in the mastery of ideas, in
the ultimate triumph of truth and right.
The organization of units for a concerted action is a work of time and
patience. Like the incoming tide it creeps in. This will suppose, to
be efficient, a recognized leader and an established and well
thought-out plan. This should be the definite result of this
conference.
2. _Warning_.--But all is not gold in the El Dorado of the West. Many
schemes and laws have its lustre; but they have the brassy sound of the
neo-pagan state-monopoly ideal. This thought of the supremacy of State
in matters of education permeates Dr. Foght's report from cover to
cover. In general, legislation is looked upon in our new Provinces as
the universal panacea for all evils. The West is the land of
experimental legislation. In this we should not imitate our younger
sisters. Let us beware of fads! Let us never forget that legislation,
to be just and beneficial, should but help the individual and the
family in the forwarding of their true interest and in the protection
of their inalienable rights.
This extent of State Monopoly is noticeable in two of the most
important recommendations of Dr. Foght's report. They are the
enlargement of school districts, so that the limits of the district
will coincide with those of the municipality, and the consolidation of
rural schools. Reasons of better administration and great efficiency,
no doubt, militate in favour of this change. Particularly
"Consolidation" is on a working basis in many Provinces. But the great
danger we see in this change is the placing of primary schools further
away from the influence of the parents. The school ceases, to a great
extent, to be "the extension of the home." The control of the parents
is less direct. The doors are wide open to State interference.
These are the lessons we may take from the "Better School Movement" in
Saskatchewan. Let us accept the invitation and heed the warning.
* * * * * *
One parting word.--Let the people of Nova Scotia be up and doing! The
West is draining the East to its advantage. Your sons and daughters
are doing the thinking for those new Provinces and creating another
Dominion beyond our Lakes. If conditions are not changed, the
Provinces "down by the sea" will lose their influence and cease to play
their part around the family table of our vast Dominion. "Light comes
from the East"--our Maritime people will proudly claim. "Yes! . . .
and it travels westward!" . . . answers the Westerner.
[1] This chapter is the substance of a lecture given in Antigonish,
N.S., at the Educational Conference, Aug. 11, 1919.
CHAPTER X.
UNICUIQUE SUUM[1]
_Principle on which should be Based the Division of Company-Taxes
between Public and Separate Schools._
When a point of law is ever before the courts it is an evident sign
that the legislation governing that issue has been either defective in
its basic principle or deficient in its proper application. Such has
been the case of the "Company-School-taxes" in the Provinces of
Saskatchewan and Alberta. Every court in the land has had to deal with
this problem, and if legislation is not changed and placed upon a more
just and solid basis, it will ever be a source of trouble for the
community.
Before dealing with the merit of this school question, we beg to state
that the time for co-operation in educational matters has come. The
day of wrangling and narrow conceptions has passed, we hope. If there
is a sacred liberty ever protected by the British flag it is surely
that of education.--The recognition and protection of ethical and
religious ideals are the most potent factors of the British Empire. He
is a true lover of British ideals who places himself upon that higher
level to judge the rights of minorities and the duties of majorities.
If our Province of Saskatchewan has not known the sterile struggles of
a sister Province it is because this principle has been respected and
protected by our legislation. In suggesting a remedy to our laws
governing Company-school-taxes, I appeal to that broad and fair minded
spirit which seems to characterize our banner Province of the West.
The solution we propose would give more satisfaction to the interested
parties and relieve the problem of its acrimony.
* * * * * *
In the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta the separate schools are
an integral part of the public primary educational system. They are
not parochial nor private schools, but public separate schools. Their
existence is not a favour conceded to the Protestant or Catholic
minority, but rather, the acknowledgement of a natural and
constitutional right. Therefore the separate schools come under the
common law. With the purely public schools, our separate public
schools share equal obligations and equal rights. The same official
inspection, the same qualifications for teachers, the same curriculum
of studies, the same school text-books are required in both cases by
the Department of Education. Equal right to public money is recognized
in the indiscriminate distribution of Government-grants. So both
schools stand side by side with equal duties and equal rights. If this
point of law had been kept in view no painful issue would ever be
raised; co-operation, and not antagonism, would be the aim of the
community at large in the great and sublime work of education. Hard
and bitter things have been said in the press, on the platform and even
in the pulpit: but they do not change a right. Might itself cannot
stamp out RIGHT.
* * * * * *
Public service is the principle of taxation. In return for the benefit
which a business corporation derives from dealings with the public,
distributive justice demands that part of the profits made, return to
the community under the form of taxes. This feature of a business
corporation makes it, I would say, _soulless_. One goes into business
not to make a profession of faith, but to make money. He deals with
every one indifferently. The dollar of a Christian or of a heathen has
the same value as the dollar of a Jew. Were a company to discriminate
with the public on lines of creed the public would be justified in
retaliating.
Public utility, in matters of Company-taxes, is the basic principle of
assessment; it should also be the reason of their equitable
distribution. As the money of the public goes to Companies,
irrespective of creed, so also should the taxes of these Companies come
back to the community, irrespective of creed. As Companies are
assessed in school matters for the _benefit of the children_ of the
community, the proceeds of the assessment should be therefore
divided--_not according to the faith of the shareholders of the
company, but according to the number of children in each school
district_. And as the majority rules, the school district in the
majority should strike the rate of taxation for both districts.
* * * * * *
The division of Company-taxes according to the faith of the
shareholders is _neither just, nor practical_. It is not _just_ for
the reason we have brought forward. The principle involved in the
present law is _just when the individual is concerned_, especially when
the individual is the father of a family. As such, one has a right to
support the school which his conscience obliges him to support. This
natural right, our present law recognizes. _But in the case of a
company the principle of public utility and not the test of faith
should be invoked, we believe_.
This present law governing Company-taxes is not _practical_. The onus
is on the Separate School-Board to enlist each year the sympathies of
the companies. Before how many Boards of Directors is the matter
brought up? The local manager is the one who deals with the problem,
and he often is a stranger to the laws of the Province, with no
sympathy for separate schools. Facts, stubborn facts, are there to
prove our contention. In no city of the Province of Saskatchewan is
the Separate School Board getting its part of Company-taxes. This is
one of the reasons why our rate is often so high when compared with the
Public School rate, and why our Boards are crippled in their finances.
* * * * * *
This simple reasoning should appeal to every fair-minded man. This
change of legislation we advocate in the matter of Company-taxes, is
not a favour we beg--but the mere recognition of a principle of
distributive justice we ask.
NOTE. 1. The argument as presented herein is still stronger when
applied to Companies of public utilities such as tramways, express
companies, etc., for their nature and profits depend absolutely on the
public.
NOTE. 2. SCHOOL LAW OF QUEBEC PROVINCE IN THE MATTER. No. 2892.
"When immovable property of such corporations and companies is within a
territory, placed under the administration of two corporations of
school commissioners of different religious beliefs, established in
virtue of Article 2590, the corporation which comprises the greatest
number of rate-payers entered on the valuation roll, shall be bound to
levy the taxes affecting such property and to divide the same
proportionately to the number of children from five to sixteen years of
age residing in each municipality."--62 V. c. 28, s. 399.
[1] This memoir was presented to the Premier of Saskatchewan at a time
when this problem was widely discussed in the Press. As the
legislation, then enacted, did not bring a satisfactory solution we
thought that the argument as presented would be of service for a future
date.
CHAPTER XI.
DREAM OR REALITY[1]
_Higher Education in Western Canada--Duty of the Hour--University
Training Condition of Genuine Leadership--For Catholics Higher Education
means Higher Catholic Education--The Concerted Action of all Catholics in
Western Canada can make a Western Catholic University a Reality._
Never has the world manifested a keener and more general interest in
higher education. The facilities which Governments offer to place within
the reach of the mass of the people; the benefits of university
education; the enormous sums left by wealthy individuals for the
endowment of chairs and the foundation of scholarships; the eagerness
with which these offers are grasped by men of all classes; the
extraordinary success of the Overseas University in the American Army,
which had a student body of 10,000--these are, without doubt, manifest
signs of public opinion on the matter of higher education. The
world-struggle, we all feel, has shifted to another battlefield, and the
future in every realm of human activity rests on the mastery of ideas.
In that intellectual conflict, the primary school rooms are the trenches
on the first line of defence; the college and university lecture halls
stand out as the strategic heights from which the heavy artillery of
ideas smashes the way to victory. Hold the college and university
heights to-day, and the hinterland of industry, commerce, science, art
and politics will be yours to-morrow.
Catholics throughout our Dominion begin to realize that higher education
is the price of leadership. "Of the many points of contact between the
Church and the modern world, education is the point where Catholicism has
most to gain by energetic thought and action, and most to lose by an
atmosphere of indifference." We are waking up from our deep lethargy and
beginning to understand that we shall not have our share in the shaping
of the destinies of our own Country until our leaders, particularly among
the laity, impose themselves upon the nation by their number and their
value. The magnificent campaign of the "Antigonish Casket" in favour of
higher education and the exchange of views this point at issue brought
from various correspondents, the successful drive in favour of Loyola
College of Montreal, the growing influence of the Catholic student bodies
in the various universities, the creation of Laval, in Montreal, as a
distinct unit from Quebec; the tremendous success this newly born
organization met with in its drive for $5,000,000; all these facts
indicate concentration of forces in the direction of higher education.
The national Catholic conscience is awakened into action. "One of the
most pressing needs of the Church at the present time, is to have a
well-connected body of university-trained Catholics." This statement of
Father Plater, S.J., is true also for Canada and more particularly for
Western Canada. And indeed, this pressing need of higher education has
come home of late to our western Catholics as is evidenced by the great
efforts made to establish colleges in the various Provinces. As this
move is of the greatest importance for the welfare of the Church in that
promising part of our country, we thought to be of some service to the
Western Church in drawing the attention of Catholics to this important
issue and bringing to a focus certain indefinite, hazy views on the
subject.
_Higher Education--Duty of the Hour for Western Catholics._
"When a reflective man of middle life walks along the embowered paths of
Oxford and Cambridge or through their quadrangles whose walls have echoed
to the footsteps of so many brainy men of England, he realizes what these
institutions have been and still are to Great Britain and the Empire."
From the lecture halls of these seats of learning have gone, generation
after generation, the men who framed and directed the course of studies
of other universities, the legislators and statesmen that have shaped the
destinies of the British Empire. "There is not a feature or a point in
the national character which has made England great among the nations of
the world, that is not strongly developed and plainly traceable in our
universities. For eight hundred or a thousand years they have been
intimately associated with everything that has concerned the highest
interest of the country." (W. E. Gladstone.) This example of the power
of Oxford and Cambridge is so typical that one immediately grasps its
meaning and appreciates its full value. On that immense background of
the Empire they stand out indeed in bold relief as the embodiment of
higher education, as the great portals that open on the highway of true
leadership. Is not the affiliation, that subtle intellectual bond which
units our universities of Canada to those two great seats of learning, a
permanent and living proof of this fact?
A university is the vital centre of a nation's life. Around it, by a
gradual process of elimination and a natural force of gravitation, centre
the master minds; from it, as from a fountain-head, flow with true
leadership in every branch of human society, progress, wealth and
prosperity. On the force of this _centripetal_ and _centrifugal_
movement of a university depends its value in the community. "The
increase in number and efficiency of universities," said Bishop Spalding,
"is the healthy proof of the vitality and energy of a nation."
In the educational system of a country the university stands out as the
apex, the culminating and crowning point of its intellectual life. For,
as the college course develops the studious and acquisitive powers of the
mind, the university course has in view its creative and formative
powers. "Glorious to most are the days of life in a great school," says
Morley, "but it is at college that aspiring talents enter into their own
inheritance." "It is the function of education in the highest sense, to
teach man that there are latent in him possibilities beyond what he has
dreamed of, and to develop in him capacities of which without contact
with the highest learning, he had never become aware." (Haldane.) We may
well call the university "the brains of a nation." It equips the student
with standards and tests of objective truth. . . . It makes him dig down
to the bed-rock on which truth in its various manifestations rests. . . .
Universities are indeed the nurseries of the higher life, the living
sources from which knowledge and culture flow in abundant streams. They
do the thinking for the teeming masses who have neither the leisure nor
the opportunity to think for themselves and who live on that mental
atmosphere we call "public opinion." From the heights of our
universities, ideas and principles gradually filter down into the lower
strata of the nation. The novel, the Sunday supplement, the stage, the
cinema screen--these post-graduate courses of the working man--are
popularizing to-day the theories and ideals that were yesterday honoured
in our secular institutions of higher education. It may take time,
perhaps centuries, for this process of intellectual filtration; but
ideas, like the stream, are bound to follow the incline of the water-shed.
If the change that takes place in the mind and conscience of the
individual is a slow and subtle process, what should we not expect when
there is question of a nation? Yes, the process is slow but it is sure.
The permeation of evolutionism into every domain of human thought is a
recent and most striking illustration of it. This fact stands out
conspicuously on the pages of history. "Lord Acton's view of history,"
said Shane Leslie, "was that ideas, not men or events, made the
differences between one era and the next." The mind is always the storm
centre of revolutions, the breeding ground of the most conflicting
theories. The great storms that sweep over humanity always gather on the
high summits of religion and philosophy, blackening the mental horizon;
sooner or later, they break out on the lower plains of the economic
social and political world, spreading everywhere revolution and
destruction. The blasphemous Proudhon gave utterance to a great truth
when he wrote: "It is surprising how at the bottom of every political
problem we always find some theology involved." We lay stress upon this
aspect of universities, for, in our mind, from a catholic view-point, it
is of the greatest importance in the discussion of the present issue.
The university is not only the focus of the intellectual life of a
country; by its research work, by its applied science it becomes also the
very fountain head of all national progress and prosperity. The natural
resources lie dormant, the soil--that perennial source of wealth, is
stagnant, the export-trade of manufactured goods and agricultural
products is at its lowest ebb, until touched by the magic wand of the
university expert. It is he who discovers, develops and shows how to
make use of with profit, the hidden wealth of the land. The research
bureaus instituted by the Government of Canada and the United States,
co-operating with the various universities, are now considered as the
most important factors of national prosperity. The Reclamation Service
of the U.S. by irrigation, drainage and the pulling of stumps will
reclaim nearly 300 million acres for colonization. To bring the economic
value of a university nearer home to us, who does not know the beneficial
influences of Saskatoon University on the agricultural pursuits of
Saskatchewan? This relation of the university and the material
prosperity of a country is so marked that the Mosely Educational
Commission sent by England to the United States, most strongly emphasized
that living connection and necessary correlation between the universities
and the industrial and manufacturing prosperity of the United States.
A university is therefore not a mere luxury, but rather a necessary asset
in a nation's life. "The development of the true spirit of the
University among a people is a good measure of the development of its
soul, and consequently of its civilization" (Haldane). "No country," we
will conclude with "Catholic" in the Antigonish Casket, "ever attained to
any degree of political influence, nor have any people ever risen from a
lower to a higher level of intellectual and social culture, without the
light and inspiration that flow from a genuine university." This vision
was before the eyes of Cecil Rhodes who founded scholarships throughout
the British Empire. These scholarships glean every year in the wide
fields of the Empire the brightest minds and throw them as a beautiful
sheaf at the foot of the great English Alma Mater, Oxford. Millions and
millions have been left for the same purpose to the American Universities.
The university may well then be called the Alma Mater--the nursing
mother, of the leaders of a nation. From its halls "emerge those who
have that power of command which is born of penetrating insight. Such a
power generally carries in its train the gift of organization, and
organization is one of the foundations of national strength." (Lord
Haldane.) The belief that the self-made men were the real successful men
is a thing of the past. A careful investigation has proved that ninety
per cent of the men who stood at the head of large financial, political,
philanthropic, economic, industrial and commercial institutions of the
world were graduates of universities.[2] The self-made man as a leader
is the exception and has necessarily his limitations which he is the
first to feel and acknowledge. Munsterberg in his book "The Americans"
has a page which is very much to the point. "The most important factor
of the aristocratic differentiation of America is higher Education and
culture and this becomes more important every day. The social importance
ascribed to a college graduate is all the time growing. It was kept back
for a long time by unfortunate prejudices. Because other than
intellectual forces had made the nation strong, and everywhere in the
foreground of public activity there were vigorous and influential men who
had not continued their education beyond the public grammar school, so
the masses instinctively believed that insight, real energy and
enterprise were better developed in the school of life than in the world
of books. The college student was thought a weakling, in a way, who
might have fine theories, but who would never help to solve the great
national problems--a sort of academic "mug-wump," but not a leader. The
banking house, factory, farm, the mine, law office and the political
position were thought better places for the young (American) man than the
college lecture halls. . . . This has profoundly changed now, and
changes more, with every year. . . . The change has taken place in
regard to what is expected of the college student; distrust has vanished
and people realize that the _intellectual discipline_ which he has had
until his twenty-second year in the artificial and ideal world is after
all the best training, less by its subject-matter than by its methods, is
the best possible preparation for practical activity. . . . The leading
positions are almost entirely in the hands of men of academic training
and the mistrust of the theorizing college spirit has given place to a
situation in which university presidents and professors have much to say
on all practical questions of public life, and the college graduates are
the real supporters of every movement toward reform and civilization."
(Munsterberg--"The Americans" 600-602.)
The true _leaders_ in society are like the snow-capped heights of a
mountain range: they are the first that the new light of a breaking dawn,
of a coming period, is wont to strike with its rays, to be then reflected
on the silent and sleeping valleys. The men who hold to-day the pen or
draughting pencil in the university are the men who will handle the
levers of the world's intricate machinery. There they grapple with the
various problems of the scientifical, economic and political world and
their views, later on, will gradually influence the whole mental attitude
of the masses, who, in their daily life, are confronted with these same
problems.
This leadership of _thought_ and _action_ is no more the privilege of a
few; in our democratic country every one can aspire to it. The days when
primary education was for the masses, secondary or college education for
the middle classes and university training for "the quality," have passed
away and gradually the benefits of higher education are being extended to
all. The _equality of opportunity_, not that of wealth and position, is
_the test of true democracy_. This condition has created the aristocracy
of brains and character before which the aristocracy of wealth, of blood
and lineage fade into insignificance.
The predominance of the "vocational feature" over the "cultural" in the
scope of our modern universities, the vast "extension work" [3] carried
on in the various fields, the multiplicity of "free scholarships" open to
the competition of the brainy and ambitious boy, are other proofs of this
democratic trait of our modern higher education.
* * * * * *
Since higher education is the stepping stone to leadership, the question
most vital to Catholics in this particular and most momentous period of
our history is: "What share have we in the college and university life of
the country?" "The progress of the Church in any country is attributable
to the _indwelling Spirit_ which guides the Church.--Next, to the piety,
zeal and education of its _priesthood_,--and lastly, though in no mean
degree, to the devotion, activity and education of the _laity_. Where
these three features combine, then the Church is writing the brightest
pages of Her history." (Archbishop Glennon.)
I will not repeat here what "Catholic" in the Antigonish Casket, and
Henry Somerville in his pamphlet, "Higher education and Catholic
Leadership in Canada"--have been writing on for the past year or so.
With them we conclude that outside of the Province of Quebec, the
Catholics of the Dominion have not the influence they should wield.
Naturally there are many reasons to explain this fact. But we will say
with the Editor of the North West Review, "facts cannot be ignored with
impunity, the sooner they are admitted and faced with courage the more
readily shall difficulties be overcome. And the necessity for an
awakening to the demand for higher education is very real."
In the firing line of the world's gigantic struggle we shall never hold
the strategic points to which our number gives us a right in our Canadian
Democracy, unless our leaders are strong in number, and in power.
Catholic leadership will give us the occasion to present, explain and
promote "our solution" to various problems confronting the world. During
this period of universal upheaval and momentous crisis, when all the
ingredients, we would say of the social and economic fabric are in a
state of flux,--like bronze in fusion,--Catholic leaders should be to the
front to supply the casts of Christian civilization. If in the public
press, the legislative assemblies, the labor meetings, public gatherings,
where mind meets mind, ideal clashes with ideal, knowledge with
knowledge, where facts are being examined and weighed, where ideas are
thrown into the melting pot of public debate, if then and there, there is
no one to stand for Catholic views in the various matters under
discussion, can we be astonished that we are absolutely ignored, and our
views not considered? "We believe that an attitude of merely destructive
criticism, of aloofness, scepticism, pessimism, is a deplorable mistake.
It is not by standing aloof from the movements of our day, but by going
fearlessly into them with the message of truth entrusted to our charge,
shall we best fulfil our high mission towards our fellow countrymen. We
must seize these opportunities in the spirit of high confidence and
dauntless zeal which befits those who have the Truth, know they have the
Truth, and are assured that the Truth is great and shall prevail."
(Universe--June 13, 1919.)
Never has a greater opportunity challenged the Church and her leaders
than at this great turning of the tide in the history of the world.
Canada itself is on the threshold of the most eventful and decisive
period of her national life. "The war has brought our country into the
broad stream of internationalism . . . and a new _national consciousness_
is being born and is sweeping over the land." In the future, as in the
past, our Dominion will remain divided by race and creed. But let us not
forget that the various religious and ethnical groups will have only the
influence that gives true leadership. The value and the measure of
higher education among Catholics will therefore give the value and the
measure of their participation in the remodelling of their great country.
If such is the case of Catholics throughout Canada, what would we not say
of Catholics in our Western Provinces. In this reconstruction of our
Dominion the prairie Provinces are without doubt to play a preponderant
part. One has only to open his eyes to see the trend of our national
policies, and immediately grasp the growing importance of our Western
Provinces. The West is gradually passing from the pioneer conditions and
becoming conscious of its importance. With the beautiful qualities and
unlimited resources of youth, it has also its dangerous shortcomings.
Daring, venturous, over confident, the western mind is easily and
frequently hasty and radical in its conclusions. Intoxicated with wealth
and success, inspired and aroused by the great possibilities of his new
home, the Westerner is ever tempted to experiment in legislation, make
extreme views prevail and believe the newest is always the best. He will
boast of broadmindedness, of love of freedom and at the same time will,
under the deceiving tyranny of number, suppress the most sacred rights.
Nowhere we claim in our Dominion, is Catholic leadership and therefore
higher education, more needed at the present hour than in the West. Our
Catholics there need indeed higher education, for, at this hour
particularly, the nation's business is our business; they cannot remain
an isolated factor in presence of the tremendous issues that stare the
world and our country in the face. But if we wish to make our influence
as Catholics felt, let our leadership come from "_Higher Catholic
Education_" as from its fountain head.
_Higher Catholic Education for Catholics in Western Canada._
There is a decided distinction between higher education for Catholics and
higher Catholic education. This leads us to place before the reader the
principles upon which rests the catholic ideal in matters of higher
education and to suggest means of its speedy realization in Western
Canada. A friendly exchange of ideas on this most important and very
interesting topic will be profitable to all at this juncture, and help,
we hope, to clear up hazy notions and cloudy conceptions which some may
entertain on the subject.
* * * * * *
In matters of Catholic education, the most weighty argument is that of
the authority of the Church. Her views and practices, particularly on
questions of education, should be the views and practices of every good
Catholic. In the New Canon-Law, in the Councils and Letters of the
Popes, is to be found the only authoritative direction in this momentous
problem. The Church is most emphatic and most precise in its
pronouncements on the matter of higher education. The Canon 1379,
paragraph 2, of the new Canon-Law, is very explicit on the subject. "If
the public universities are not imbued with Catholic doctrine and
surrounded with a Catholic atmosphere, it is most desirable to found in
that country or region a Catholic University." The Plenary Councils of
Baltimore and of Quebec (Tit, VI-C, VII) command in the most pressing
manner the Catholic youth to frequent only Catholic universities. When
circumstances necessitate attendance at non-Catholic universities,
safeguards are exacted to minimize the danger. These recent dispositions
of the Church's legislation reflect the stand the Church has always taken
on this ground of higher education. Is She not "_Mater universitatum_?"
Modern civilization owes its universities to the Catholic Church, as the
very stones of Cambridge and Oxford still proclaim . . . _lapides
clamabunt_! And in these days of religious indifference, after heroic
efforts and great sacrifices, in spite of the allurement of our wealthy
state and independent institutions, the Church counts in every country
seats of higher learning, where her children may receive the benefit of
university training without danger for their conscience or their faith.
This stand of the Church in primary, secondary and higher education is
the logical conclusion of her doctrine. "The theory of life," said
Father Little, S.J., "and the theory of education go hand in hand." As
the Church has a definite teaching on life, its value and its purpose,
She has necessarily fundamental principles upon which education must rest
if it wishes to be in harmony with Christian life and Catholic belief.
In her eyes education, in all its degrees, must be primarily and
profoundly religious. "If indeed, the Catholic Faith which makes such
tremendous and such confident statements about God and His ways with men,
is true, then obviously it takes the central place in human knowledge,
and all other knowledge groups itself round and is coloured by Faith."
Therefore, the principle, "every Catholic boy and girl in a Catholic
college or university" should be to us as sacred as is "every Catholic
child in a Catholic school." One is the consequence of the other; both
are the practical conclusions of our faith. This close connection
between theories of education and the attitude towards problem of life is
evident in history.
The Pope, Benedict XV, in his recent letter to the American Hierarchy
(March, 1919), writes: "The future of the Church and State absolutely
depends on the condition and organization of the schools; there will be
no other Christians than those whom you will have formed by instruction
and education. . . . We have followed with joy," he adds, "_the
marvellous progress of the Catholic University at Washington, progress so
closely united to the highest hopes of your churches_. We have no doubt
that henceforth you will continue even more actively, to support an
institution of such great usefulness and promise as is the University."
The Most Reverend Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, in 1904, vindicated
for the Irish people not the privilege, but the right to a Catholic
University. "For us Catholics," he wrote, "the Gospel as taught by our
Holy Church, is our philosophy of life and we hold that any attempt to
educate a youth in what we call secularism is a retrogression to a lower
level than that of pre-Christian culture. For this reason we have
withstood every attempt to force _secularism_ on this country and we
shall resist it to the last. We have equally withstood _mixed
education_, which, false as it is in itself and pernicious, is in this
country a specious pretext for Protestant educational ascendancy."
(University education in Ireland.)
If such is the case with Catholic Ireland, what should we not conclude as
regards our Western Provinces? Here, more than anywhere else in Canada,
does the Church need staunch, genuine, Catholic leadership. In it the
future of Catholicity beyond the Great Lakes is involved. Reason and
experience prove that the training which makes for genuine Catholic
influence is plainly out of question unless it be received in a college
and university whose atmosphere, teachings, aspirations and ideals are
thoroughly Catholic. The recent foundations of a Catholic University in
Milan and in Nimeguen, Holland, justify this claim.
* * * * * *
Conditions existing in our modern neutral universities vindicate our
stand and strengthen our position. The tendency in these universities
is, without doubt, towards infidelity or to say the least, towards
diluted Christianity.--"The transformation from the old denominational
education to the new undenominational education was in point of
fact due to an antitheological--and even in some of its
manifestations--anti-religious movement. If it included a sense of the
justice of equal treatment for all creeds and a sense of the liberty
necessary for science, it also included some of the anti-Christian spirit
of Continental liberalism. The undenominational movement was the
practical expression of the liberal and scientific movement." (Life of
Newman--L 306.)
A few years ago there appeared in the "Cosmopolitan Review," under the
glaring title "Blasting at the Rock of Ages," an article which startled
the intellectual world. It was a crude and biting exposure of the
intellectual license and unhealthy moral atmosphere of the great American
universities. To follow the author of this powerful indictment in the
proof of his facts and statements would be beyond the scope of this
paper. Only we would advise some of our near-sighted Catholics who
through that snobbishness which money often gives them, have a sort of
worship for non-Catholic universities, to read this indictment. In
giving them a glance of the "inside of the cup" it may change their
opinion.
Dr. James Henry Leuba, professor of psychology at the Bryn Mawr College,
Pennsylvania, gave out to the public the answers he received from
sociologists, biologists, psychologists and teachers of universities and
other institutions in the United States, as regards their belief in the
existence of God. More than fifty per cent. admitted that they had no
belief whatever in the existence of God; forty per cent. denied the
immortality of the soul. The great majority, said Dr. Leuba, were
university teachers and none could compare with them in influence over
the rising generation. (Cfr. Archeological Report 1917--published by
Ontario Government.)
When subversive theories based on an absolute materialistic conception of
life, and from which God, Divine Providence, Christ, Christianity are
systematically excluded and ridiculed as myths of by-gone days; when, we
say, such theories are rampant in the halls of our modern universities,
should we be astonished to see outright infidelity, political socialism,
religious anarchy, stalk the length and breadth of the land? "Impurity,
obscenity, moral corruption in many forms, with the ever consequent
cynicism and pessimism, forerunners of moral decadence, destruction of
the original, creative, shaping, joyous, confident energies of society,
come daily more boldly to the front of the stage and defy criticism or
mock at the archaic sanctions of yesterday. One does not need to peruse
the great modern historians of Roman morals to foresee the results of
such an educational debauch, when allowed time enough and the working of
its own, unholy but intimate and inexorable logic." (Mgr. Shahan--at the
Catholic Educational Convention, U.S., 1919.) Sow the wind, you will
reap the whirlwind.
Should not such atmosphere of infidelity or diluted Christianity in
non-Catholic universities be for Catholic students a source of danger to
the vigour and even to the integrity of their faith, to their constancy,
in the full and faithful observance of their practical religious duties?
Familiarity with error, at the age of youth principally, breeds contempt
of truth and jeopardizes faith. The suppression of truth in its various
forms, the concealment of religious profession and observance,
necessarily lead to religious indifference. How many sad examples could
we not give to back this statement? This danger which Catholic youth
meets with in the very atmosphere of our neutral universities is still
greater when we consider the method of teaching now in honour in these
schools of higher learning. The tutorial method, still in vogue at
Oxford, has given place to the _professorial_. The systematic lecture
has replaced the exposition of texts. The professor, with his frame of
mind, his views on facts and ideas, is the living book from which our
youth read their daily lesson. His personality dominates the mind of the
pupil. We all know what fascination the science, reputation and
eloquence of a professor have on the unarmed and impressionable minds of
youth. The "_Magister dixit_" is very often the supreme law, the last
criterion of truth. President Garfield's ideal of a college, "Mark
Hopkins on the other end of the log," recognizes the educative value of
the contact with a master-mind.
Authority and reason militate in favor of higher Catholic education for
Catholics in Western Canada, this is the logical conclusion of our
statements.
* * * * * *
Yes, nice theories, some may say; but we are facing facts. How are we to
contend with these well equipped, richly endowed, neutral institutions of
higher education? Where shall we find the resources to pay efficient
teachers, to establish the various faculties that go to form a university
worthy of its name? Have we not a state-university marvellously well
equipped and for which our Provinces are yearly spending fabulous sums?
Why not take advantage of our own money that goes in taxes for the
support of these institutions?
To argue along these lines is to concede to our enemies our position on
the Separate School question. All these objections have been met with in
other countries and other provinces, and the answer to them was the
creation of Catholic colleges and universities.
The great fallacy of the age, and particularly in this part of the
country, is State Monopoly in educational matters. This is looked upon
as the great triumph of modern democracy and the palladium of liberty.
The monopoly over the human mind by this monopoly of education is the
most dangerous of all state-monopolies. It is the resurrection of the
pagan ideal, the magnification of the state to the detriment and
absorption of the individual and the family. Germany has given us an
example of where "the standardization of thought and outlook" by the
State education leads to. The Prussian ideal, in its last analysis, is
nothing else but the pagan ideal.
But no country in the British Empire has pushed the policy of
monopolisation of education so far as our Western Provinces. Under the
specious plea of efficiency and absurd reason of uniformity, they will
not even grant charters to independent institutions of higher learning.
This policy surely does not reflect true statesmanship and makes British
liberty a misnomer on the lips of many of our ultra-loyal Westerners. We
would ask our Western Governments to take lessons in this matter from
England. When some few years ago the question of converting the
university colleges into Universities was before the English public there
was much talk of the danger of Lilliputian universities and of low
standards of teaching and examination. But this question was brought to
trial by the State before a high tribunal and a firm decision was given
in favour of the principle. A special committee of the Privy Council
conducted a semi-judicial enquiry and gave sentence on Febr., 1903. The
result of this decision was that the colleges of Liverpool, Manchester,
Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol, Durham, blossomed out into
teaching universities. This is the real British way of doing things.
The United States[4] have granted university charters to the various
Catholic institutions of higher learning which dot that land of Liberty
from coast to coast. And let us not forget,--facts and figures will bear
us out,--the independent universities in the United States, in England
and in Belgium, only to mention some, have been in many Faculties more
efficient and more successful than the state institutions. The
remarkable record of St. Louis University, a Jesuit institution, is
illustrative of this point. A comparison of the respective medical and
dental records of this institution with perhaps two of the greatest
professional schools of the United States, John Hopkins and Harvard,
gives proof of higher efficiency to St. Louis University. The official
bulletins of the Medical Dental Associations give the statistics.
The right of Catholics to their own schools--primary, secondary,
university, is a birthright we must always fight for. It is the
elementary right of a civilized people to educate her sons as she sees
fit. In the battle for this right the best strategy is to offer the
accomplished fact of a college and a university which by their
efficiency, their intellectual and moral value, impose themselves upon
the community and win their way to acceptance. Let us blaze the trail
and to-morrow, it will be the great highway of Catholic education for the
coming generation in Western Canada.
But instead of this policy of "_isolation_" which in school matters is
the ordinary policy of the Church, some Catholics, in view of
circumstances, rather advocate that of "_permeation_." The presence of
Catholics in State Universities will, they claim, create a better
atmosphere, abate or soften prejudice, beget a better feeling among the
future leaders of the community. In England, it is true, Catholics are
allowed to attend Oxford and Cambridge; in Germany, they attend State
Universities. The Catholics of Australia have since 1916 also a College
in conjunction with the Melbourne State University. Student societies
have been formed, Catholic halls opened, courses of apologetics are given
to help the Catholic youth in the "steady daily pressure working against
them in a non-Catholic university," and to influence religious thought in
those centres of higher learning.
Has this "_modus vivendi_" brought about by various circumstances which
it would be too long to analyze here, produced the desired results? In
Germany it has not created a Catholic atmosphere in one single
university. Have not, on the contrary, the German universities been the
hot-beds of Modernism and many a young cleric has come from their halls
inoculated with this virus.
As for Oxford and Cambridge, we all know the controversy which divided
the Catholics for so many years. As Catholics have been allowed to
follow the courses there for only a few decades, we are not yet, we
believe, in a position to judge of the influence of these universities on
the Catholic body of England as a whole. Time only will tell. But one
thing is certain, no comparison can be established between our state
universities and these colleges. Although in the halls of Oxford,
Christianity "is often attuned to the outlook and temper of the age" as
the book "Foundations" (a statement of Christian belief in terms of
modern thought, by seven Oxford men) sadly reveals it, nevertheless,
there is not to be found in the English Colleges that atmosphere which
the absence of religion has created in our state universities. The
presence of various denominational colleges on the grounds of our
Provincial Universities only gives them a tint of Christianity. The
teaching of history and philosophy will tell the tale. "It must be
remembered that an Oxford scheme was never Newman's ideal. It was a
concession to necessities of the hour. His ideal scheme, alike for
education of the young and for the necessary intellectual defence of
Christianity, had consistently been the erection of a large Catholic
University like Louvain. This he had tried to set up in Ireland. In
such an institution, _research and discussion of the questions of the day
would be combined_ as in the middle ages with a Catholic atmosphere, the
personal ascendancy of able _Christian professors_ and directly
_religious influence_ for the young men." (Life of Newman)--by Ward.
Were there question only of postgraduate work, of some special course in
agriculture, domestic science, there would be no difficulty, we believe,
to see Catholic students take advantage of the marvellous facilities our
state universities offer. The matter, the short term of these courses or
the advanced age of the pupil would be in themselves sufficient
guarantee. _But what we strongly object to is the Arts Course, and
particularly undergraduate work_, even were the contentious subjects,
such as philosophy and history, be given by Catholic teachers to Catholic
students separately. The Arts Course, we must remember, is the real
dominating factor in higher education. For we maintain with Cardinal
Newman that a University is a place of teaching universal knowledge and
that its object is primarily intellectual. It has in view the diffusion
and extension of knowledge, rather than its advancement, which is
reserved to Academies. It is the Arts Course of a University,
particularly its Philosophy, that gives this general knowledge and
enlargement of the mind. Its influence is most telling in the various
Faculties where students specialize for their future career. For
Philosophy plays such a large part in _human life, the movement of
opinions and the direction of minds_. The Catholic student in those most
plastic years, in that critical period of receptivity, wherein ideas are
analyzed and synthesized for life time, cannot help but imbibe ideas and
doctrines opposed to his belief. The elite alone, we believe, can resist
in the long run the influence of that indefinable quality called
atmosphere, and maintain among so many cross-currents, the right course.
The ordinary and inexperienced mind will be, if not contaminated, at
least weakened and this alone is disastrous in a leader. Many changes,
many transformations, we know, take place in the mind of youth as it
emerges "from collegiate visions into the rough path of real life." As
Morley wrote, "We know after the event, the tremendous changes of thought
. . . of conception of life, that coming years and new historic forces
were waiting to unfold before the undergraduate when he had once floated
out beyond the college bar." Yet, the solid teachings of Catholic
Philosophy will remain to him as the charter and compass when his ship
has taken to the high sea. This is the principal reason why we vindicate
the right to our own higher education. To push the argument further, we
would ask why should we be obliged to pay taxes to have doctrines opposed
to our conscience propounded from the professorial chairs of our State
University? The granting of a Charter by the State is but the minimum of
our rights.
_Dream or Reality?_
A Catholic University for Western Canada! Is this but the dream of a far
off future or can it be a reality within a few years?--There is the
problem which now faces the Catholic Church of our Western Provinces and
upon which, in our estimation, rests the influence the Church is to have
in the formation of the new and most promising part of our Dominion
beyond the Great Lakes. A high conception of the duty of the present
hour and the whole-hearted co-operation of every Catholic unit in the
West, will without doubt bring its happy solution and make our dream a
reality. To act on ideal principles with little or no attempt to
forecast accurately what is practicable would be to court failure. We
are gradually passing the mile-stone of pioneer life in the West, and the
Church is slowly but surely being organized and entering into full
possession of her normal life. The duties which Catholic solidarity
imposes upon us as regards the Church and the community at large are
growing apace with the status of the Church in these new Provinces.
Among these duties none, we believe, are more important than that we owe
to the cause of Catholic education. Naturally, the burden of the
responsibility falls here upon parents whose bounden duty it is to see
that the school, college, university, be, as much as possible but the
extension of their Catholic home. _The rising generation in the West has
a right to the benefits of a higher education; to this right corresponds
in the community a duty imposed upon its members by Catholic solidarity_.
For in the growing youth we see the Country and the Church, with whose
future welfare it is necessarily united. A true Catholic must have his
vision of what the Church ought to be in his Country and must work to
make that vision come true.
Through a Catholic University, and through it only, will the Church give
its full _contribution to the national life of Western Canada_ by
creating as we said, Catholic leadership. We have as Catholics, ideas to
give to the nation, to its up-building, and to its prosperity. The sun
of Canadian liberty is shining for our doctrines as it does for other
ideals. And, strange to say, the most subversive theories seem to take
the greatest and most frequent advantage of this freedom. We have no
apology to make for our ideas. They stand on their own merit and have
been vindicated by the acid-test of time. To bring our message to the
country, to spread its beneficial influence is the mission of our
Catholic leaders. Only a large number of truly educated Catholic men are
able to make their influence felt on the life and thought of a country.
This identification of a Catholic university with our Western Provinces
will be an asset to our public life and beneficial to the people at
large, notwithstanding their aloofness and unreasoned opposition to our
principles and methods. The evils of the times are the direct result of
the secularization of education. Catholic higher education is the only
antidote and remedy to this evil. Its principles are a vigorous protest
against materialistic philosophy. We believe in the mastery of ideas and
in the final victory of truth.
_The Church also for her own benefit needs true Catholic leaders_.
Leaders in a Catholic Community, who are not thoroughly Catholic in their
training, who have false notions, warped views, biassed conceptions of
vital questions, are most detrimental to the cause of Catholicity.
Distorted and confused ideas, in religious matters particularly, always
lead to a compromise. After school days they fail to find their Catholic
faith correlated with the _problems_ and _experiences_ which never
troubled them before, and which now, lack of higher education will not
allow them to solve and to face. Have we not indeed in Western Canada to
guard ourselves against latitudinarianism in our Catholic life? Material
prosperity, success in business or in farming, associations with men and
women who have practically no belief whatever, erroneous conceptions of
broadmindedness in religious matters, absence of traditions, lack of
Catholic education, all these causes and many others have created
especially in our cities, where such a large floating population is to be
found, and in our country places where there is no resident priest, a
compromising Catholicism, apologetic Catholics. How many Catholics in
the West are always ready to cringe in presence of those who are not of
our belief and to apologize for their faith. To react against this
abiding danger we need all through the country well instructed and
thoroughly educated Catholic leaders who will be in our world of
agnosticism and irreligion, the protagonists and apologists of
Catholicism. The fearless proclamation of the truth combined with a good
moral public life is in itself a tremendous power. Indeed, we need in
all the avenues of life men whose university training will give them
influence in public life. But let it never be forgotten those captains
of industry, those brilliant and successful professional men, those
progressive farmers--valuable as they all may be--must count more as
leaders of Catholic thought than as money-makers. If not, they will be
found wanting when the Church needs them the most. We emphasize this
point, for in the plea for higher education very often our attention
seems to be more on the successful business man than on the Catholic
thinker.
Love of Church and country will therefore inspire us with a high sense of
duty in relation to the establishment of a seat of higher education in
this promising part of our great Dominion. And this duty, let us not
forget it, _is urgent_. Every decade means a new generation that should
have passed from the halls of our university to the commanding heights of
the country's leadership. Our hesitancy means a further postponement of
the triumph of the Catholic Cause.
This high conception of an urgent duty gives the vision. From the
clearness, breadth and depth of that vision will spring the conquering
spirit of co-operation. Co-operation to be efficient and persevering
demands a united plan of action and an authoritative leadership.
The Catholic population of Western Canada is yet very limited. We cannot
afford to scatter our forces and multiply our institutions. One
university for all Western Canada would be sufficient to meet the present
requirements. The multiplication of inefficient universities is a
calamity for genuine higher education. This has been the contention of
"Catholic" in a recent series of brilliant articles in the "Casket." The
policy would therefore be for all to agree on one college as the
non-Catholics have done in the different Western Provinces. This
naturally requires the sacrifice of parochialism and provincialism. But
if the Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists have each agreed on the
establishment of one educational centre for their students, surely the
Catholics can also sacrifice local interests to the welfare of the cause.
How many efforts our bigoted provincialism has neutralized in the past!
Authoritative leadership only can unite our efforts on this unity of plan
of action. Nothing in this matter can be done without the direction and
support of the Hierarchy of the West. The division among Bishops was,
according to Newman, one of the main causes that made the Dublin Catholic
University scheme a failure. Naturally this problem of higher education
is one that overflows diocesan boundaries and remains common to all.
"Boundaries of jurisdiction, as wrote so advisedly, Archbishop McNeil, of
Toronto, are conveniences and means to an end." Beyond the
responsibilities of each separate diocese there are other
responsibilities which affect the Church of Canada as a whole. Let one
man with vision, judgment, energy, and action, make the creation of the
Catholic University in the West the work and ambition of his life, let
him have the sincere approbation and efficient co-operation of all the
Hierarchy . . . that man, we claim, will rally the Catholic forces around
him and will give to the West and its rising generation the blessing so
much needed of Catholic university training. Newman was fond of
repeating that it is only _individuals_ who do great things.
And what will, this Catholic university mean to Catholic life in Western
Canada? Well established upon the highest academic level by its success
in the competitive field of learning, it will stand out as the embodiment
of Catholic intellectual life and the centre of Catholic activities. It
will be the counter-ideal to the ideal of agnosticism and materialism so
fostered and so prevalent in our neutral universities. Just as the
cathedrals are the expression of the Catholic faith in Christ's abiding
presence in the Sacrament of His love, so is a Catholic university the
embodiment and accomplishment of the Church's ideal in education. By its
extension work, summer courses, circulating libraries, correspondence
courses, lectures, etc., the university would unite our activities,
eliminate waste of energy and direct our combined efforts. Cardinal
Newman believed that a Catholic university was essential for thorough
health and efficiency in the Catholic body at large. To realize all that
a Catholic university would mean one has only to know what Washington
stands for in the life of the Church in the United States. In his
beautiful letter to the American Hierarchy, Benedict XV said of it: "The
University, we trust, will be the _attractive centre_ about which will
gather all who love the teachings of Catholicism."
_What is the Conclusion?_
We may summarize our argumentation in favour of our contention in the
following statements:
1.--THE INTERESTS OF CHURCH AND COUNTRY, PARTICULARLY IN THE WEST, DEMAND
CATHOLIC LEADERSHIP;
2.--NO GENUINE LEADERSHIP WITHOUT UNIVERSITY TRAINING;
3.--FOR CATHOLICS HIGHER EDUCATION MEANS HIGHER CATHOLIC EDUCATION.
Now, Patient reader, allow us to conclude these already too lengthy
pages, by this pointed question: "_Is a Catholic university for Western
Canada within the possibilities of the near future?_"
Our answer will be simple, direct, conclusive, and, we hope, convincing.
If all Catholics in the Western Provinces, under the direction and with
the continued support of the Hierarchy, unite in one sublime and
persistent effort, we have the utmost confidence in its immediate
realization. Some Catholics, we know, will distrust its expediency,
despair of its success or even feel an obligation to oppose it.
Difficulties, most undoubtedly, we will have numerous and great. With
time, patience, perseverance and self-sacrifice we will overcome them.
Nothing succeeds like success. The establishment of a work of that kind
is the work of years and even of centuries. There must be some day a
start, a foundation to build on. The policy of nihilism leads nowhere.
The frequentation of our State universities would indefinitely postpone
all efforts for the Catholic ideal, and be a surrender of the whole
situation. But let us not be carried away with the modern fallacy of
materialistic grandeur. Spacious and beautiful buildings, nice grounds
and attractive surroundings are not to be despised when the finances are
good. But all these things are secondary; they do not give the intrinsic
value to a university, they are not "the pulse of the machine." The
great business of a university is to teach; the highest academic level
should be its worthy ambition. The teachers are the real makers of a
seat of higher learning, they pitch high or low the standard of learning.
This great work will demand from every Catholic a continued effort of
loyal and generous support. The Canon-law, the Councils, the
exhortations of the Pope insists on this support of Catholic
universities. Particularly those who are blessed with the goods of this
world and to whom Providence has been generous, should remember that
"their wealth has a fiduciary character; a character that entails duties
towards the Catholic community at large, none less obligatory because
they are rooted in the virtue of _charity_, instead of the virtue of
_justice_."
But experience tells us that our Catholic institutions are founded and
supported more by the "widow's mite" than by the millionaires' donations.
The support will come from the Catholic communities of Western Canada; it
will indeed come with most gratifying results _if the appeal is lofty in
its motive and proposal, concerted and systematic in its action_.
We are not to go to the Catholics of the West with an appeal in one hand
and an apology in the other. A straightforward, self-respecting
presentation of our cause will bring a no less straightforward and
self-respecting response. To make this appeal an unqualified success
there must be also concerted action. Intensive efforts alone bring
results. This means the canvass of the West for this single purpose, at
a stated time. But any canvass of this kind, to be effective, must be
prepared by an educational campaign. Give the Catholics, we maintain,
the vision of their duty, sound the call . . . and they will respond.
For indifference, profound and widespread,--fruit of ignorance more than
of ill-will,--would be the greatest obstacle to overcome. Arousing
interest will be the initial task. In Australia, Archbishop Mannix
organized a campaign, in co-operation with his suffragan bishops, for the
purpose of the Catholic College of Melbourne and from June to December,
1916, half a million of dollars was collected. The Catholics of Western
Canada are just as ready, we claim, to furnish such annual payment as
would be wanted: if only they are properly called upon. But this proper
calling involves first a systematic and periodical recommendation of its
claims by the clergy and influential laymen.
System will avoid a conflict of claims for other great causes equally
worthy of our generous support. The war has in this matter taught us at
home a great lesson. There were appeals for the Patriotic Fund, the Red
Cross, the Belgium Relief, the French Aid, etc., etc. They all came to
us in rotation. No apology was made, every one felt in duty and honor
bound, and the money was always there with an extraordinary readiness.
Organization is the first element of success.
* * * * * *
Who will be the promoters of this great work? Naturally the Hierarchy of
the West will be its inspiring and moving spirit. But, should not the
Knights of Columbus, that body-guard of Catholic laity, be called to the
honour of "seeing it through." This great undertaking would be a most
appropriate background for all the activities of our valiant Knights in
Western Canada.
A society, Catholic in principle and membership, must, to last, and be an
asset to the Church, have a definite programme of action in harmony with
its aim and constitution. If it keeps its energies pent up behind the
walls of the council-chambers and only finds them an outlet in social
functions and friendly gatherings, it will soon go to seed or die of dry
rot. When on the contrary an organization, such as the Knights of
Columbus, throws the full weight of its energies in the forwarding of a
great cause, the possibilities of its influence are limitless. The war
activities of the Knights and their splendid results for the Church and
the nation are a tangible proof of it.
Could there be a work more in harmony with the aims of the great Catholic
organization than that of higher education. At the national convention
of 1912, held at Colorado Springs, the committee on Catholic Higher
Education ends its report by saying: "In the newer impetus that will come
to Catholic education as the result of better understanding (its
necessity and value), the Knights of Columbus must make themselves an
important factor. We owe it to ourselves and to that special loyalty to
both Church and State which we pride to claim as the special note of the
order. It is often asked what are the Knights of Columbus doing that
they should be so proud of their organization, and the best possible
answer would be for all of us to be able to point to benefits that were
conferred by Knights individually and in bodies upon our Catholic
education. There can be no mistake about the benefit to be conferred on
Church and State by progress in Catholic education."
The active and persevering co-operation of the Knights in the forwarding
of the great cause of a Catholic University for Western Canada, would be
their contribution to the great period of reconstruction which the world
is now facing.
* * * * * *
On one of those beautiful mellow autumn evenings, of which the Prairie
alone has the secret, the traveller, as his train steams into one of our
Western Cities, will behold a stately cupola tipped with a golden
cross.--"What is that new building, yonder on the outskirts of the city?"
will he inquire. The answer will be: "_That is the Catholic University
of Western Canada_."
[1] This chapter appeared as a series of articles, in the North West
Review of Winnipeg,--under the signature of "Miles Christi."
[2] "Less than one per cent. of American men are college graduates Yet
this one per cent. of college graduates has furnished: 55% of our
Presidents, 36% of our Members of Congress, 47% of the Speakers of the
House, 54% of our Vice-Presidents, 62% of our Secretaries of State, 50%
of the Secretaries of the Treasury, 67% of the Attorney Generals, 69% of
the Justices of the Supreme Court."--Dr. Jones, of the University of
Missouri.
[3] Lord Haldane addressing the Co-operative Educational Association
(May, 1920) made this statement: "The universities of England must be
made able, as national institutions, with a larger range of activity than
at present, to undertake extra-mural work on a scale so great that it
will be of general application throughout the land, and they must be put
in a position to be fitted to bring this about."
[4] Speaking of Publicly and privately supported institutions of learning
in the U.S., Dr. Cappen, assistant commissioner of the United States
Bureau of Education stated that there are 93 of the former in the U.S.
and 477 of the latter. About 62 per cent. of the college students in the
country attend voluntarily supported colleges, and the private schools
have about 68 per cent. of the educational funds of the country at their
disposal. This includes of course such very wealthy endowed institutions
as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell and Stanford.
PART III
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
"The political and economic struggles of society are in the last
analysis religious struggles; their sole solution, the teaching of
Jesus Christ."--(John Stuart Mill.)