The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-04-21
BETTER PREACHING NEEDED.
Father Phelan Talks Plainly on the
Matter of Sermons

From San Francisco comes the re-
port that only 3 per cent of the pOpula-
ton go to church on Sunday, says
Father Phelan of st. Louis, in the
Western Waterman. st. Louis does
better than that, and she is credited
with per cent. The figures for this
city are too low. There are 90, 600 Cath
Ole families in S.. Louis, and that
should give us 100000 church goers
Now there is not an old priest in the
city who would place the average
? Catholic Church attendance at more
than $4,000. We feel that this is above
rather than below the true figures. If
half of the Catholics of st. Louis alb
sent themselves from church on Sun
day in this city, what shall we say of
the ProteStants? We shall say moth
ing; in the first place. because we don I
| know; in the second place, because it
is none of our business. But what shall
we say of this startling showing of
Catholic negligence?
A good number of Catholics must
work on Sunday. Servant girls, street
car employees railroad hands and ca
/ terers Of one kind or another, are not
/ free to go to mass every Sunday. But
| all told these do not number 10000. Ill
ness might account for the absence Of
| say 5000. This leaves 81. 900 absences
unaccOunted for. OF these we might
say that 10000 go to bed on Saturday
night very sleepy and with a heavy
! head. An empty bed at midnight gem
| orally means an empty pew in the
| morning. We might put down 10000
more because they are careless about
their religious duties. This gives US
! 10000 that are ''just naturally no good.
Now this is the situation that cOnfrontS
US priests. What-Sslall we do about it?
In the first place-we might as well
be plain-Spoken-we must preach bet
ter. Bad preaching is worse than no
preaching. BY better preaching we
mean kind. fatherly, earnest and con-
slant admonition in the confessional
and out of it The Holy Father in his
address to the parish priests of Rome
at the beginning of Lent, told them ito
preach; to preach earnestly: to preach
constantly" We imagine the same adj
vice might be given to parish priests
everywhere. 1t is d matter We cannot
leave TO assistants. People do not pay
much attention to assistants when they
assume to direct the congregation The
parish priests should know their people
and their circumstances, that they may
not be unreasonable or accuse them
when they are not guilty. An unjust
accusation launched against a people
does great harm. in that it disgusts
them with church discipline As a
rule, the people of a parish are anxious
TO save their souls. Those whom we
have put down as careless" should be
first reached. More earnest appeals to
their faith and greater attention to
their temptations will generally result
IN their reclamation. When they re-
sumo their place among the regulars
the natural goOd-fOr- nothings'' will
take their place. In that way there
VIII be circulation of grace through
out the entire body parochial, and
there will be hope as long as there |
is life. The work Of the parish priest |
viii be best shown in the attendance at |
Mass on Sunday. This is the portion |
of the care of the flock that falls |
specially to him. He must above all |
know his people. if he would exercise |
over them any authority or influence.
he must mix with them if he would |
exercise his authority and influence |
proftably. A standard Of Observance |
must be set up in The parish and a .
healthy public opinion created. that |
viii condemn mass-missing as dis
graceful. A Catholic who Will stay in
bed on Sunday morning when Mass is !
going on in his parish church should be
ashamed to look a priest. or even a fell
low Catholic, in the face until he
should have gone to confession and by
a public communion repaired the scan
dal.
But something must be said in ex-
tenuation of this lamentable' neglect
Many Of our parishes are too large. It
may be too late to divide them now.
but there was a time in the past when
they could and should have been di-
vided, and thousands of souls would
have been saved thereby. Then some
thing might have been done in some
churches to seat the people. We should
either do away with pews altogether
as they do in Europe, or we should
see that they are occupied The best
way to fill them is to rent them: if we
can't rent them We should see that
they be made adjunctS Of religion by
7ffOrding comfort and convenience to
the people. In many of the churches
Of this city strenuous efforts have been
put forward to reduce to a minimum
this pew nuisance, and we are glad to
earn that in some instances they have
been productive of good We look to
he parish priests of this city to cor
'ect this terrible evil of Mass missing
N this city, and to bring back our
good people to the splendid observance
hat characterized them forty years
1go.