Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1913-10-04
Why Religious Activities Are
Behind the Times In Their
Methods.
Horse Sense i'm Religious Propa-
ganda Advocated by Ann
brose Willis.
WHAT RELIGIOUS men FORGET

From Ambrose Willis, the noted
English writer and associate of
Father Herbert Vaughan, who came
from London to the Catholic Fedora
tion convention in Milwaukee, the
Kentucky Irish American has re-
ceived a special letter dealing with
'horse sense in the religious propa-
ganda," in which he expresses the
following views:
Religion is of course another
| worldly matter. Gods ways are not
our ways and you can not save souls
by arithmetic and system any more
than you can make men holy by act
of Parliament. All this admit
readily enough, and yet just as we
men have bodies as well as souls, re-
ligion also has a material side as we'll
as its spiritual, practical as well
as its theoretical side, and this is
fact that religious men are
little inclined to forget.
The men who are most successful
in religious propaganda are the men
who do not forget it, The saints
and the mystics are always the most
practical specimen of religious man
hood They realize that God helps
those who help themselves They
see nothing flippant in Napoleon's
dictum, Trust in God and keep your
powder dry''--it was Napoleon.
wasn't it? If not, never mind! They
realize that it is a fallacy TO say
that the church is bound to succeed
in any case, and therefore why
Ktn Il.
can never be entirely overcome, but
the measure of her success in her
divine mission of saving souls is not
predetermined and it depends very
largely on our efforts
And let us remember that those
efforts have got to be intelligent ef-
forts. And this is where we come TO
the point There are certain meth
DDS of procedure that have proved
successful in the business of the
world. The keenest intellects of the
modern business world have studied
them out and by applying them have
made mighty Successes in commerce.
Why don't we Catholics study those
methods and apply them to the work
of saving souls? Why are our or
facturers and department stores
Why don't We call in business ex-
perts to plan up for us our labor
saving systems that will conserve
our energies and make our efforts a
thousand times more effective? Why
don't we apply to our problems OF
religious organization and propa-
ganda the same careful study. spe-
cialized thought and enterprising
enthusiasm that we see in all sue
cessful business life? Why Is IL
that so often religious activities are
behind the times in their methods?
If We are really going to make
good we have got to do Just this-we
have got to give up preconceived
we have got to throw out
exaggerated ideas of decorum. We
have got to take our coats off and
sit down and study out ways and
means that are going to make our
organization so perfect that the
head of a big commercial enterprise
will admire it, The muddle, the
dust, the makeshift, the inferior
have got to go. Whatever II is we
are up against has got to be the best
of its kind in the country. We sim
ply can't afford to employ old-fash-
ioned methods and makeshift arti-
fices-they are too expensive. The
only way we can make good is to be
continually studying the causes that
brought about the success of our
powerful business men and adap.
those methods to our work. II en-
terprise and system and keen or
ganization pay in secular business,
they must pay in religious business,
and ii is not fair to our cause 10
hamper IL with anything less ade-
quate than the best that keen brains
can supply.