The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-02-24
PAST RAJ LETTE R
OF THE RIGHT REVEREND
BISHOP BUSCH.

BISHOP BUSCH.
| To the Priests and Faithful of the Do
cese Of Lead:
Beloved Brethren:
At the beginning of the new year
your attention was called to the Pre-
cepts of the Church, without the alb
servance of which no one can be con-
sidered a Catholic in good standing.
Now at the beginning of Lent. we
must not overlook the significance of
this Holy Season particularly for US,
the Catholics of the Diocese of Lead.
1t would be stupid and inhuman
for me to ignore the many and severe
hardships we all have suffered in the
recent past and are still feeling all too
keenly.
! To speak of penance self-denial and
modification to men and women, yes
and little children, whose souls have
been and are still being tried as are
ours, may seem utterly out of place,
and yet, instead of thinking our cup of
sorrow so filled as to exempt us from
further sacrifices, we have a special
reason for keeping Lent and must be
very careful to observe it, at least
it's spirit
Mans religious life is warfare
against the world, the flesh and the
devil. In this warfare we must fight
not only singly, but collectively, for we
have been organized into the army of
the Lord
In every army however there are
different groups and divisions, each
with it's proper duties and dangers.
So in this warfare, those who are
with it's false standards, those who
are very rich or very poor, will find
that their struggle is principally
against the flesh, and we who live on
the frontier, who fill the outposts of
religion, are called upon in special
way to fight the devil
The abundant. testimony of the
Sacred Scriptures, both in the Old and
the New Testament, the history of the
world, through paganism, schism,
heresy, and even during the ages of
faith, furnish overwhelming proof of
the existence of the devil, whose dar-
ing reached its climax in the tempta-
ton of the Saviour in the desert.
;. The existence and baneful power of
the devil is not only taught as an
article of Catholic Faith but is brought
i home to us by the Church in her many
; prayers and exorcisms especially those
prescribed in the administration of the
Sacrament of Baptism. 1t is inculcat-
ed in the prayers which the late Pope
, Leo the Thirteenth, directed to be re-
cited by priests and people after every
private mass, and it should be borne in
mind and taken into account by every
Catholic, but especially by the Catho-
lies of the diocese of Lead.
For ours is one of the few remaining
jurisdictions of the United States
where pioneer conditions still largely
) prevail and it is no mere conjecture
that would lead us to expect here, a
most positive and direct attack from
the devil, for this is one of his last
strongholds, here he is still entrenched
in measure, in the pagan depravity
of the Indian and the reckless out
lawry Of the human wreckage that
always infests the borders of civiliza-
ton, here he must make his last stand
against the advance of the Cross, of
Truth and of Morality. of that reli-
gion whose progress spells true civil
cation.
When as Catholics we know that the
devil has power to influence mans
imagination and his feelings, that he
has power over the laws of nature and
the atmosphere, in which the Bible
says he dWells, can We not see his
trail over all the territory which the
Church took possession of in the name
Of Christ when she erected the Dio-
, cese OF Lead?
True to his ancient tactics the devil
I first lured men into this wilderness
: with the exaggerated hope OF gold and
later with the imaginary fields of wav-
ing grain, but when his victims are
g followed by the missionary, the de
8 ceiver becomes the destroyer and
; rides the storm, dries up the clouds,
e throws up the breastwork of the
g rapidly multiplying lodges, sends out
,. his scouts. the homesteading preach.
t ers. rallies his followers with the CRY