The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-06-06

the present day the spiritual power
of our priesthood cries importunate-
ly for an increase. Upon our priest
hood devolves the work of the
Catholic press. Upon the laity rests
more and more the duty of acting as
interpreters of Catholic truth to Sec
ular literature. Such an interpreter
is NJ. Bazin or Agnes Repplier. They
speak the mind of the Church in a
language that can be apprehended by
people engaged in secular pursuits
with the secular mind. They are
not apologize; they speak as having
authority. They do not veil in di-
plomacy or ambiguity the source of
their teaching; yet they adapt them
selves to every form of teachableness
or apprehension. The impetuous
convert is not always to be trusted
for this work. Like a sick man just
coming out of successful operation,
he is inclined to be effusive over the
wonders of his hospital, his surgeons.
his nurses, and even his convalescent
diet. We are sometimes told not to
trust him until he has learned to for
get a little the authors of his health
and happiness.
But there is usually media of
safety in all human affairs. The
lay convert of some ten or fifteen
years. experience may, as rule. be
trusted to walk in the paths of the
secular press with honor to his faith
and charity to his enemies. The
purgative way of spiritual and intel
lectual suffering has inevitably soft
ened his heart and clarified his
vision. He sees, o, he sees the
worlds need; and he tenderly lays
his hand upon it's aching spots to
heal. Not as the skilled surgeon of
the priesthood to whom the invalid
press has not yet submitted itself,
but as brother or sister of the bon
secour who at least knows what ails
it. and can influence it to go to the
hospital.
Unlike free son of the house,
such as M. Balm, the founding con-
vert writer must keep more closely
perhaps to the security of his fos-
ter mother for guidance and protec-
ton. Yet, though less eminent and
magnetic than the sons of the house
hold, the lay convert of some years
of experience may be relied upon to
represent his mother with apprecia-
ton, and even a degree of illumina-
tion.
An excellent way for novice in
this work is to begin with a subur-
ban or even a rural newspaper, to
challenge some of the long-accepted
fallacies of its Open Forum or Peo-
Pies Column. Socialism, defective
systems of local education, sectarian
controversies-all these things open
the way for Catholic writer to re-
ply with truth, with beauty, usually
with what seems to the jaded editor
a startling originality. Discussion is
opened among thinking people. Fair
play is demanded, and in a measure
usually allowed in our American
press. Some heretical or socialistic
hitherto accustomed to the
right Of way in his local paper for
his literary fireworks, suddenly finds
himself brought up short by Cath
Ollie truth which he does not at first
recognize as such, but which he soon
ascertains is stern reality-his en-
envy par excellence, walking up to
him without fear. A school girl of
fifteen recently put to rout a socialis-
tic propaganda in Southern city in
this manner. The palm Of victory
was publicly awarded her, and there
was wholesale cleanup of Social
ism in her town paper. A mere cate
chism child. she COMPOUNDED the doc
tors of Marx and Bebel with her
Catholic truth.
Current forms of social amuse-
ment. agitations for public reading
rooms. sewer systems, or whatever
may for the hour occupy the public
consciousness-all offer to the Cath
Ollie lay writer. provided he is willing,
like St. Teresa of the Child Jesus. to
make himself Small" opportunities
for substituting Catholic ideals for
chaotic experiments. If he is bright,
resourceful, in full possession of the
truths of the Church's wisdom, his
statements will be copied by neigh
boring journals, and even find wild
er acceptance and quotation. He
has started current of pure au-
thority into the more or less stag
nant pools of false philosophy and
confirmed prejudice. Such Cath
Ollie contributor to the secular press
has been known to check and even
wholly eliminate some swelling tide
of erroneous belief or propaganda.
We speak from rather happy and,
humanity speaking, successful exper-
fence in this work. The interpreter
of the Church's teachings to the Sec