The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-03-14


to be saved and to come to knowl-
edge of the truth" He is their good,
their need, their destiny, their Cod
as He is ours. God so desires their
love that He sent His only Begotten
Son into this world to win it.
We should, then, from motives OF
faith, feel concern for the salvation of
these races, and, from charity, unite
their welfare with our own. 1t should
be natural for us to feel.
The great-hearted Captain who dis
covered our continent, like all Catho-
lies engaging in enterprises of moment,
was stirred by religion in his heroic
venture, and hoped that he might be
on mission for God, that his caravels
tossing on the untracked sea, might be
freighted with divine blessing for the
natives of an unknown world.
Love for the salvation of the ma
tives of the new world led mission
aries in the 18th, 18th and 18th CEN
turtles to leave their homes in Spain
and France, cross the lonely sea, and
seek, in the vast spaces of this land,
savages who had scarcely the simplest
terms of religion in their speech, who
scorned decent restraint upon their
conduct, and who were in perpetual
warfare.
This story is more thrilling than
any romance. Why should we not
make it this year our Lenten reading?
We shall do something worth while
for the conversion of the Indians when
we get more interested in them. We
shall carry on the work of the pioneer
missionaries with more spirit when
fathers and mothers feel it the SUI
preme joy of parenthood to give their
best sons and daughters to Christ for
the noble service of souls. Christ is
not now asking, in this service, the
apostolate of blood, but the peaceful
apostolate of church and school.
Our opportunity to evangelize the
negroes of this country dates from
emancipation, for in slavery they fol
lowed the religion of their masters,
and these we're commonly non-Catho'
lies.
The conversion of the negroes was
one of the chief anxieties of the Sec
ond Plenary Council envoked at the
close of the Civil War. A beginning
of the actual work was made when
DR.. O'Connor gave up his Bishops
throne in Pittsburg to labor as a
Jesuit in negro parish in Baltimore
and when the Bishops of the South set
up separate churches for the negroes
of their dioceses. In 1871, Father
Vaughan, of England, afterwards Car
dinal Archbishop of Westminster
opened in this country house of his
missionaries for the conversion of the
colored race.
We have not yet advanced beyond
the beginning of this promising apos
tolate. The work must go on; we
must have souls for Christ among the
ten million negroes of these States, fol
we are Catholics. We cannot, there
fore, be a narrow sect, limited, to &
tongue, race, or land, since Christ has
made us universal, giving us the
whole world for a spiritual kingdom
and the nations for an inheritance
We need missionaries and money.
How may we recruit missionaries
Our Lord gives us the secret. Wher
He had gone through the cities anC
towns of Galilee, and had looked upor
the spiritual restitution of the people
THE harvest" He said in sorrow
indeed is great, but the Eaborers are
few" What, then, does He recon
mend? Instant action and organiza
ton? No; prayer, first of all. pray
We, therefore, the Lord of the harvest
that He send forth laborers into His
harvest (St Matt. TX, XXXVIID. We
beseech, then, the fervent in every
parish, by their love of Christ anC
their pity for perishing souls to pray
God to raise up amongst us holy mis-
sionaries, both men and women, who
will labor for the conversion of the
Indians and negroes.
Money, too, is needed. Not, indeed
would we imply that money can make
missionary, or win a soul to God
Only the love of Christ can make true
missionaries; and the Blood of Chris
not silver and gold-is the price O.
the souls of men. And yet, again
Missionaries are not trained and sup
ported, and chapels and schools bull
without money. We are, then, no
asking pay for the consecrated service
of our priests and nuns, but mean:
for their sustenance and for the con
tinuance of their work.
We feel sure, then, that to all who
hear this appeal it would be truly {
pain could they realize, as we do, tina
these good priests and nuns who have
given up home, and race, and refined
companionship, to spend, on a few
hundreds in a lonely Western reserva
ton or a poor Southern mission, the
lives they can live but once, are il
real anxiety of mind from year to veal
lest their work utterly perish for the
want of a few dollars, or that they are
longing with eager ambition to be able
this year to extend, for the enlarge
ment of Gods work, their woodeI
chapel or school by few feet.
Please aid them by your prayer:
and aims.