The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-12-29
Continued from page IL
CAMPAIGN in PRIESTLY
VOCATIONS
Continued from page u

1
There are many sad and morbid
manifestations of this spirit without
the Church, l am sorry to remark.
All sorts of strange cults and stran-
ger freaks of the spiritual life are
very plentiful among you. But even
these alterations are signs of the
growing hunger and thirst of the
human soul for real religion, and only
within the Catholic Church may these
cravings be safely satisfied. So I
hope that the time will speedily arrive
when Galley may cooperate with the
Church in America in this great work.
War Vacations to the Priesthood.
But the aspect of my visit to this
country which is of more pressing
consequence just now is the work
that Galley hopes to do in fostering
and training war vocations to the
priesthood.
THE main problem of the Church
in Great Britain in the immediate
future will be how to fill the vacant
places in the ranks of the priesthood,
secular and regular, when the roll
call is made at the end of the war;
Bishops are looking with anxiety to
the future as to how they may carry
on their religious work.
''At the same time, the war has
been a universal mission, and thou
sands are looking at the Church and
1ro-n snir 1aiY xx,s+H
than favorable eyes. She has come
out of the test of death and the bat
tlefield as only the Church of God
can. People have been brought face
to face with the real thing.
''Is this great opportunity to be
lost for want of priests? Is the
white harvest to be left to rot un-
garnered for the want of laborers?
| If not, it means the fostering and
rescue of every vocation to the priest
hood and the religious life.
God always provides, and the war
has also brought our young men face
to face with the realities of life by
the grim reality of death. There
never was time when there were so
many who longed to leave the fishing
nets of the world to follow their
Divine Master in His fishing for the
souls of men.
Late" Vacations.
These are called late yocations
In many cases a youth will have
thought over the question in pre-war
| dove I,,,+ 4l,1 80 ~, Looo.
seemed impossible. Want of classical
education, or of means, drove him into
the merchants or professional mans
Office in spite of his high ambitions.
The war, however, has revived his
hopes. His experience has doubled
his value. He is tried young candi-
date. He knows the world and has
fought against it as well as against
the devil and the flesh. There are
dozens and dozens of men who have
been brought face to face with spirit
ual realities, and whose only ambition
and hope is to devote the remainder
of life to the greatest cause. There
is difficulty. 1t is that young sub
ljects like these cannot be received
into a seminary or the novitate Of a
religious house until they have been
tested and prepared, and have ac-
4 quired knowledge of Latin. At the
present time so far as we know there
is in the British Isles no place where
men can be received, nor is there
machinery for dealing with them.
Something has already been done
by means of Our Lady's Young
Priests Fund set going by the Stella
Maris' magazine, and at present
there are many young candidates
placed in various day and boarding
colleges in preparation for different
dioceses and orders. These, however,
are not the later vocations of the
/ young men at present in the army
who are specially in our mind and for
whom particularly it is wished that
something may be done. BY the
4 time the war has ended we must be
ready to receive and to deal with
them.
AN appeal was made to the Bene-
i dictine community of Galley to open
i up a central preparatory college for
all dioceses and orders where some of
these young candidates may be re-
ceiyed as in clearing house to be
sorted and placed according to the
lsigns of their vocations."
: Galley Prepared to Undertake the
Work.
| Galley, with true apostolic spirit
4 is prepared to undertake this work.
4 1t is a work for which this commun'
4 ity by its special character is well
suited. Its priests are never away
h from home, and their own training in
the monastic and spiritual life has
SO equipped them that they will be
J able to undertake the guidance and
training of young men without in the
least interfering with the discipline
} and regularity of their own commun-
J ity life.
It is estimated that the cost Of a
candidate will be $3.50 year. Some
will be made ready to enter a. rem
, mary or novitiate in one year; Others
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