The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-01-07

result of the canvass was that we OBJ
tanned over 300 orders, from SO per
cent. of the people called upon, Of
whom 80 per cent. had not been re-
ceiving Catholic papers before. We
also are supplying Catholics with
our papers, and if there are any of our
parishioners too poor to buy them we
supply them free. We receive the
papers straight from the publishers
every Friday morning, when they are
divided into separate parcels by the
| friend of a brother. and sent to the
homes of the brothers, who deliver
I them every Friday night or Saturday
at the homes of the customers. We
are also arranging for the distribution
| of the Catholic Truth Society publica-
| tions on the same lines as the pa
pers."
The writer adds that work of this
kind might easily be taken up by other
| conferences, by
Guilds, Young Mems Societies, Con-
fraterhities
and the like, and that such work is
full of consolation and is evidently
blessed by God
1t is much to be hoped that this
splendid example of what can be done
by zeal and enterprise may encourage
others to take up similar methods.
1t is also much to be hoped that a
special section will be established at
the next Catholic Congress to deal
with this important matter of the
Catholic press. Some suggestions on
this head will be offered later; it is
enough to say here that such a section
might do much to concert methods of
circulating Catholic newspapers by
means of parochial organization of
this sort.
Interest in the Church.
This, then, is the first of our needs
the systematic circulation of Cath
olic newspapers among Catholics. If
we can secure that we shall have Sc
cured much. In the first place we
shall develop and maintain among all
classes of the Catholic body keen
and intelligent interest in their re-
ligion. Some words spoken by Dean
Shine deserve to be repeated:
Unless we are interested in the
Church-in her life in this and other
lands, in her victories and defeats, in
her gains and losses, in her pronounce
ments and the exposition of her doc
trines, in the progress of her liturgical
year, in the hardships. needs, and sue
cesses of her missia yies--nnlesg In
d woTu, W. q. II Interested III Hef
worldwide life in all its phases, we
are not worthy Of the Catholic name.
And yet legion is the name of those
who are not SO interested, to judge by
the numbers who never read a Cath
olic newspaper. A Catholic newspa-
per should be taken in every Catholic
home. The Catholic who does not
read his Catholic newspaper is only
half alive; he misses the pleasure of
the fulness of Catholic life. I can
quite understand Cardinal Mercier say
ing that he would put off the building
of church in order to provide money
for the founding of good Catholic
newspaper"
Moreover, the reading of Catholic
newspapers, while giving readers "the
pleasure of the fulness of Catholic
life" will at the same time help to
fortify them against the
Persistent and lnsidious Attacks
upon their faith which assail them
both in the secular press and in their
converse with others. If they are not
will go down like nine pins before
the bombardment of anti-Catholic
calumny and shallow rationalism, from
which they cannot escape. The half
baked, half-instructed Catholic, with
out interest in his religion, who every
day of his life hears the Church be-
Titled and bespattered, will begin by
being shamefaced and perplexed, and
in time will come to acquiesce. If we
are to enable him to keep the price
less heritage of his faith, we must
strengthen the Catholic spirit within
him and make him proof against the
lying sophistries which he is sure to
encounter. For this purpose the Cath
olic press is most valuable ally.
There is no exaggeration in calling the
work of propagating it
An ApostoIate.
No one has urged the duty more en-
phatically than the Pope and the
Bishops. Their stirring iniunctions
have often been quoted in the columns
of the press; but space must be found
for few sentences taken from Pas
tora1 issued by the recent First
Plenary Council of Quebec:
eve are forced to the conviction
that the establishment, diffusion, and
loyal support of journals Catholic in
the fullest sense of the word is work
of supreme utility, and we have no
hesitancy in saying that it is in our
day even an absolute necessity.
1t is our cherished wish that the faith
full subscribe for them and uphold
them in every way, and that the clergy
give them every encouragement and
labor for their greater diffusion. There
Is probably at the present time no
more effective means of defending the
stronghold of good than solidly to
man the outposts erected by our faith
with the fearless sentinels of Catholic
journalism. Rev. c. Platter, S. r., in
Liverpool Times"
RlRI ICAI IMSTlTIlrE q.