The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-15

The tremendous awakening of the missionary spirit in the Roman Catho- lie Church in the United States will be made manifest In the American Catholic Missionary Congress which assemblies in Chicago today. Until the beginning of this month the church in America was regarded by Rome as missionary effort Now that the American Church has been removed from the control of the Congregation of the Propaganda. good Catholics are .~oud of the fact that the first na- tional meeting under the new order will be c missionary congress.
 The Congress will be attended by ahe Papal Delegate. Diomede Fai- conio, titular archbishop of LArissa, and by majority of the archbishops and bishops of the country Sermons on ''The Missionary Spirit" will De preached in all the Catholic Churches Of Chicago by prominent prelateS or the United States and Canada. From this meeting is expected to develop an increased zeal for missionary work which will sweep over the whole country. LIZ
 Missionary work in the Catholic Church in this country is serepresented by several societies and institnticns the Apostolic Mission Home. the Church Extension Society, the Society for the Propagation os the Faith. the Bureaus for Indian or for Negro Mis- sions. the local missionary societies and various religious orders. All of these have part in the Chicago con gress, which is all-embraeing.
 It fs only within the past ten years that systematic missionary effort has been made prominent feature pr Catholic Church work In the United States. American Catholics are look Ing more and more to the Catholic University at Washington as a center of church activity in this country. The Apostolic Mission House. on the university grounds, Is the center of the missionary endeavor to reach non Catholics. This home Is the training school for the missionaries, picked priests especialI gifted as preachers who are sent here from all over the country to be trained for life work in the mission field.
 Fifteen years ago the first mission to, non- Catholics was held. It was followed by others and ten years ago the movement wac we'll under way. There are now more than 6 hundred missionaries in the field preaching to n-Catholtcs. Last year 26,0 ,055 con verts were received into the Catholic Church in the United States almost wholly as a result of the missions to non Catholics.
 This peculiar phase of religious activity is unique in the Church of Rome; not that the church Is different in the United States, but that The American people are different and the opportunities here are different. The guiding. spirits of the Apostolic Ms sion House have found from practical experience that they can send mis- eE.aAN oNa H1t Ars country to preach to non-Cathoiics and that they will be given respectful hearing. They have found that non Catholics will come to listen to the explanations of the peculiar and Iis- tinctive doctrines of the Catholic Church, provided they are presented by a man who Is a good speaker and who is personally attractive.
 The policy adopted in all these mis- sions IS to confine the effort to ex- plaining the doctrines of the Catholic Church. All reference to other ANrciles is avoided and controversial questions are not permitted to come alp. RAne of the Affective features or the missions to non Catholics has been the question box. Originating with the PauIist Fathers, this feature of missions has proved to be universally popular The missionary explains that he will answer any question con corning the faith or practices of the church, and a box Is handed about, 10 receive the questions. The repliesa to the questions reach directly some per son who Is interested. and they oftenl give the missionaries new ideas Frivolous questions. and inquiries about other churches are ignored or turned aside with a soft answer" Actual questions and answers prlginat-I ing in this way formed the basis of a' two-volume text book called "The question Box" which now forms part of every n1issiohary's equipment.
 The Apostolic Mission Home is the headouarters of the Catholic Mission ary Union, representing the Bishops Of tbe Tinted States, which aims to reach the non-Catholics and 'to make Amer lea dominaritly Catholic" Not only do the missionaries of this organization seek to add converts to the church in nlaces where the church is already es- tabIished, but they are going out Into the frontier and are getting converts 10 organize new parishes.
 Here comes in the work of the Church Extension Society. This Is comparatively young organization which is initiating the methods so long in use by various Protestant Churches in America. When there are but few Catholics in small town. ana most of them quite poor as Is frequent ly the case, the Church Extenslon Society helps build church. If the people of the parish can raise a small sum, the Society will advance enough