The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-01-26
Lay Cooperation.

A paramount and benefcent work
is there for laymen to assist in propa-.
eating the tenets of the Church for
the welfare of mankind. Every good
Catholic should spare no efforts to ex-
tend the grand mission of the Church,
the ignorance of which, among out
siders, is most pitiable. View this
noble work, Catholics must be we'll
equipped with the knowledge of their
faith in order to dissipate doubts and
misunderstanding on religious sub
/ jects among persons, ofttimes eager:
| to know the whole truth. Their duty,
is to spread about the glorious aims
of the Church. An intelligent grasp
of their religion should laymen, there
fore, possess, to illuminate the dense
darkness of ignorance and bigotry.
Catholics should exemplify in their
daily lives the lessons the Church in
culcates. Their dealings and mode of
living should breathe the spirit of
Christ. The worthy conduct of Catho-
lies cannot be oyerestimated. Their
actions bear untold fruit for the
dignity, respect, and reverence for the
Church. While good Catholic pro-
duces, by his word and actions, a
salutary effect on all classes of men,
bad Catholic not only Injuries him.
self, but also the cause he should hold
most sacred.
| Alas, Catholics there are who, i'm
! bued with the materialistic spirit of
the age, act and speak favorably of
the Church and her administration in
face of Catholics and in Catholic
meetings, but stand stamped as cow
ards and traitors in presence of non
Catholics and in Protestant assem-
blies Tainted with iberalistic, COM
promising and minimizing spirit and
held thereby with contempt and dis
trust by non Catholics for actions and
concessions, which their Church evil
IDENTIFY cannot tolerate, lukewarm
Catholics sell, cheat and trick their
fellow Catholics. They forget that
faith, obedience, loyalty and rev.
erence should be their standard on
all occasions.
Contrary to modern indifferentism,
1.-THE men of the century should under
| stand the prime fact that religion, far
from being matter of personal taste,
personal selection or personal thought,
is an essential duty of the creature to
/ the Creator. An absolute need is re-
Iligion to mortals, especially in times
of affliction as the present hour mani
tests. Bloodstained Europe is return
ing to God in her terrible distress of
the destruction of art, sculpture, prop
erty and human life. Fallenaways
l'are embracing again with fervor the
practices of piety. The lukewarm, in
different, yea, scoffers of holy things
are, in their desolation and bitter
4 grief, frequenting the churches for
spiritual consolation and divine as
distance Now do they recognize the
greatness, the power and the bene-
ficence of the God of the Universe,
Whom they formerly ridiculed, aban-
.Idoned and endeavored to drive from
their shores. Soldiers on the battle
fields receive the holy Sacramento
from their priest-comrades, q. invoke
EGod by pious aspirations. seek the
protection of the Virgin Mother by
the recitation of the rosary and the
wearing of the scapular, and implose
the intercession of the saints
r TIMOTHY CORBETT,
Bishop Of Crookston.
| Given at Crookston, January rs,
II 1919