The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-05-18
ABLE AND JEALOUS LAYMEN.
Needed by the Catholic Church In
America Today.

The troubles that beset the Church
today, it has been observed, are due
not so much to the malice of her foes,
as to the apathy of her friends. The
disadvantages under which she labors
are caused less by the courage and &C
tivity of her enemies than by the
coWardice and resourcelessness of
the laymen who should be her defend
ers. If we look abroad says Amer
ica," we see a noisy little band of anti
clericals Selling ecclesiastical property
and prescribing divine worship. Here
at home we often find the Church's
progress hindered and her work left
undone owing largely to the lack of
jealous and efficient body of laymen
In proportion to their numbers
American Catholics seem to have in
their ranks far too few men of mark.
In civil and commercial life, in the
trades and in the professions, repre-
sentative Catholics are not sufficiently
conspicuous. More men are needed of
high principles, lofty ideals, and wide
education. The Church can take little
pride surely in owning as her sons
politicians who never receive the Sac
raments, labor leaders who are advo-
Gates of violent and even anarchial
methods of reform, social climbers
who make Protestant marriages, pro-
fessional men who send their boys to
non-Catholic colleges, or officials
whose public utterances are often as
wanting in good taste as in Catholic
loyalty.
The Church regards with sorrow
and anxiety children of hers who in
their eagerness to attain wealth and
position are deaf or Indifferent to her
pleadings when she urges them to be
men likewise who can help her to face
and solve the problems she now has
to meet. For the Church in America
must minister effectively to the spirit
ual needs of the Catholic immigrants
that are f1ocking by thousands to our
shores, she must protect the lambs of
her fold from sectarian settlement
workers, she must safeguard the faith
of her little ones, maintain and defend
against enemies countless charitable
up against the forces of socialism, i'm
morality and irreligion a bulwark of
well-edited and well-supported papers
and reviews.
But bishops, priests and religious
cannot, of course, gain all these OBJ
jects unaided. The cooperation and
assistance of a devout, efficient and
highly-educated laity are needed.
These laymen, besides keeping the
commandments, would also undertake
works of zeal, besides being upright
and energetic they would be men OF
trained and cultivated minds, besides
Christians and scholars they would be
gentlemen.
Then there would not be wanting, If
occasion offered, men for instance,
who could write trenchant letter to
the press to correct public opinion on
some Catholic question, who could
make a strong and effective speech
for some Catholic object, who would
think little of devoting time and
money and personal service to the pro-
motion of Catholic causes. With such
a laity to second or inspire the initia
tive of the clergy, and with union and
cooperation among all the Catholics
in our land, whatever their race OF
tongue or origin may be, it would be
rash to set limits to the progress thai
the Church would make in the United
States during the coming century, OF
to venture putting bounds to the power
and influence she would have in
strengthening and preserving our re
public.