The Irish standard., 1903-03-14
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND.
A Collection In Aid Of Home ana
Foreign Missions.

| diocese OF st. laul:
Beloved Brethren: In obedience to
the DEGREES OF the Third plenlry
Council of Baltimore, we order that on
the second Sunday of Lent a collection
DC taken up ut all the Masses in the
several churches of the Diocese in aid
Of the Home and Foreign Missionary
Work OF the Church. The proceeds of
such collection will be divided be-
tween the Commission in Baltimore,
whose special charge is to aid mis-
sions among Indian and Negro popu-
lations of the United States, and the
Society of the Propagation of the
Faith, in Paris, whose charity covers
missions among heathens in the whole
world
We wish to impress upon priests
and people the Importance of the col
lection in favor of Home and Foreign
Missions. This is the one collection
taken up in the Diocese which has for
its object Il work reaching out beyond
the limits of both Parish and Did,
cese, and which, consequently, springs
from charity that cannot be other
than unseltish and disinterested. 1t
is fortunate for us that we sometime
find an occasion to test our hearts so
as to ascertain whether they are of
such mould as to prompt us to do
something beyond personal interest,
purely for the glory of God and the
welfare Of His Church. In this man.
her we are enabled to measure our
love for God, and our zeal for the sal
walton of souls redeemed by Christ.
In our days Providence allows the
widest extension to the missionary
work of the Church. Messengers of
divine truth reach into most remote
and hitherto most hidden regions.
They keep pace with the most daring
explorers. Neither the deathly glare
of the African sun nor the prisons and
gibbets of Thibet alright them. In no
age does the Catholic Church fail to
beget heroes of sanctity and of zeal;
in no age does she cease to fulfill the
commands delivered to her by her
founder, to teach all nations, and to
show forth in her catholicity that uni
versai love for souls which was the
inspiration of Bethlehem and of CAL
vary. Shall we refuse to wrest from
our pleasures and our vanites some
small portion of the temporal means
needed to sustain the missionaries of
the Church amid their heroic labors?
How easily we throw away in play,
in drink, in the service of fashion,
sums Of money, a 1.-THE of which would
comfort an Impoverished priest in
China, or in the Congo, and enable
him to win to Christ souls, who dur
ing eternity would praise us as their
saviors! How little we value our op-
portunities to do good for others and
for ourselves. What small use we
make of those opportunities! Too Of
ten the words of the Lord fall upon
deaf ears: Make unto you friends
of the mammon Of iniquity, that when
you shall fail, they may receive you
into everlasting dwellings,"
need make but brief mention of
the special obligation resting upon
Catholics of America to assist in the
conversion of the Indian and Negro
populations of their own country.
There is to be repaid here debt of
| justice as we'll as of charity. The
American people took from the Indian
his hunting-ground and put upon the
Negro the mcrciless chain of servi-
tude. Let us make restitution for
past injuries by helping to bring to
the souls Of Indian and of Negro the
'oys and graccs of the supernatural
the Church in America depends upon
the care given to the conversion of
our Negro brethren. Numbering to-
day eight millions, soon they will be
so many that great must be the in
tluence welded by them in the social
and political affairs of the country.
Nor are they unwilling to hearken to
the voice of the Catholic Church.
They instinctively recognize in her
the firm friend of true liberty and of
human brotherhood. Their natural in
tcrests bring them to the threshold of
her sanctuary. II Catholics in Amer
lea read Alright the signs of the times
and have the power to discern things
surely coming. they will bend all their
energies to the conversion of the
Negro.
This letter will be read in all
churches of the Diocese on the first
Sunday in Lent and also OH the second
Sunday of Lent when the collection,
as prescribed. is to be taken up.
The Society of Propagation of the
Faith prints every two months pub
LEGATION called "Anmals of the Propaga-
tiOn of the Faith"--:l most interesting
periodical, telling of the missionary
work of the Church in the whole
| world. We recommend to pastors to
place copies of this publication in
their parish and Sunday school librar-
les. and give to it general circulation
among the people. Copies can be had.
free of charge. upon application to the
Very Reverend Rector, st. Paul's