The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-04-05

The deplorable lack of practical
Catholics among the men OF Latin
countries goes far to explain the sad
condition to which the, Church has
been reduced among these nations
and to account for the feeble efforts
that have been made to protect her
from persecution. If the Church is
to regain her rightful power in those
lands it must be by converting the
men. One may lament that the edu-
cation they received in boyhood did
not succeed in making them fervent
Christians; one may hope that the
Catholic schools and colleges of to-
day may produce better Catholics in
the generation that is growing up;
but the difficulty to be faced and
solved today in these countries, and
to a lessor extent among ourselves,
is how to turn Indifferent men into
practical Catholics. In the light of
these conditions need we explain why
our Holy Father asks us to pray that
the Apostleship of Prayer, with it's
simple and fruitful organization, may
go on developing from day to day un-
til it has reached all of these men
and turned them into practical Cath
olics and apostles?
Nowadays men are reached by or
ganization. If we can get these neg
ligent Catholics to join some society
or association of Catholics, if we can
give them the support and encourage
ment of other men, there is chance
of winning their souls. And so in
many places the vital question is how
to get all of the Catholics enrolled
in some Catholic body that will lead
them to church, to the confessional,
and to the altar rail.
In the Apostleship of Prayer or the
League of the Sacred Heart we have
an organization that seems adapted
to every man that still acknowledges
the name of Catholic The obliga-
lions that our League imposes are so
slight that no man can consider them
a burden. AS we know all that is re-
quired is the consent to have his name
enrolled and the promise to make the
Morning Offering, the little prayer by
which he offers up all his actions to
God.
The man who joins the League be-
gins at once to share in the showers
of graces that are drawn down from
Heaven by the prayers of millions OF
associates What an advantage that
is! Yet it is not all. Joined now
with the body of Catholics, he will
profit by their example and their zeal
that will tend to entice him to the
loyal practice of his faith and to the
reception of the Sacramento as fire.
quently as possible.
We must pray that the effect of oul
united appeal to Almighty God may
be a revival of interest in the wei
fare of Catholic men all over the
world. The success already obtained
among men, especially in getting them
to monthly communion by the estab
lishment of Mems Leagues, has
brought intense consolation to the &c
clesiastical authorities. In one par
ish of the United States 1000 me1
receive holy communion in a body
on the third Sunday of every month
Sometimes there have been as man!
as 1000.
. We are living in the age of FIRE
. quent communion. Our sanity ant
beloved Pontiff urges it upon all. W.
must not be satisfied with few dali!
communicates. It must be our ain
to bring the men, the workers in ou
cities and in the country, to the alta
rail by the thousands at least ever.
month, and it can be easily effecte'
by the organization of Mems League
of the Sacred Heart, for which we ar
asked to pray.