The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-03-02
PARISH CENSUS SNAPSHOTS
+ TAKEN BY PASTOR,

James F. Irwin, who writes column
Of pithy comment every week in The
Tablet, has recently made parochial
visitation of his flock and gives the
following snapshot views of the re-
suits of taking a parish census:
Visiting over eight hundred homes
recently gives us at least a reason
able notion of how "the other half
lives Our general impression is a
favorable one-they are living very
happily in spite Of war and high
prices. 3Luxuries are fast disappear
ing, economical habits are being cul-
tivated and somehow or other people
learn how to keep On smiling.
The vast majority of city Catholics
lives in houses that are occupied by
two or more families. The law clas-
SITES these as .'fenements," but the
average citizen doesn't like that
name. Flat" or mere ''house," is
his. term of endearment
f The visit: Of a Catholic priest to a
home is an event. 1t brings very
CLOSE to the family it's relations to
the Church. 1t almost reproduces
the intimacy of the confessional for
the parties visited. Questions of NOR
ais, conduct and domestic discipline
invariably are brought forth, and the
priest is constituted lawyer, doctor and
spiritual adviser all in one. If Pop
is drinking, or Johnnie not working,
or Mary keeping company with a non
Catholic, the priest is sure to hear it,
and he advances advice and admoni-
lions enough to settle all the problems
of the household. a r-.
The Queen of the Home.
Housekeeping is the natural voca-
tion of the woman. Here she is the
born strategiSt: Her home reflects
herself more than the mirror. Even
if she be out the visitor could put
down plausible description of her
by observing the home she keeps.
Happy, the man with wife who is
as neatin her married life as she was
in the days of company keeping.
AS cement is to the bricks so are
children to the home. They make it
worth while 1.-THE more1the merrier, -
says the wise and God-fearing man.
What a question is that of the family.
In every house we see it worked out
with more or less success. Families
in every stage of development. are
found in every house. God help the
couple without the healthy cry Of the
of noisy youngsters!
When visitor gaZes upon a room
full of youngsters of all sizes, and
watches the keen eyes of mother
and notes her hundred and one means
of caring for them in their little trou-
bles, he but realizes that there is a
saving grace in the sacrament of mar
riage that enables mother to cheer
fully face the interminable task of
ruling group of helpless children.
What a grim thing is the childless
home. We. met many Of them. They
are neat, that's all. Invariably one
finds the pet animals in evidence.
Homely faced dogs and hideous par
rots barked and screamed their wei
come, or threat! Every woman has
large capacity for love and if it is
not given to babies it is wasted on
animals. Invariably we called their
attention to the crying needs of the
asylums, who are crying out for af'
lection and motherly care. What a
shame that SO many cry in vain whilst
angora cats and poodles are usurping
their places in so many Catholic
homes
ed adopt an orphan, but one can
never tell how they will turn out,
was the usual cry of the selfish child
less woman. Then they would quote
a case where somebody wasn't over
didn't realize all it's foster mother
had planned for it. All this over.
looks the fact that all of ones own
do not turn OUT just right. One
doesn't have to be an orphan to turn
OUT badly. The charity alone exer
cised by the foster parents would in,
cline God to bless their work. The
vast majority Of adopted children re-
turn a hundred fold the love and af
lection given them by their foster
parents. It's an experiment worth
while. ., -
1t is an axiom amongst the clergy
that pastor who does not visit his
people does not know them. The
overcrowded Masses on Sunday is not
true criterion of the devotion of the
people, 1t is but a sign of the over
crowded population of his parish. The
personal question: do ayou go. to
Mass?" asked at. home is the best way
of knowing the true conditions of a
parish.
We never yet met fallen away
Catholic who did not Immediately tell
us of the fact that he was as good
or better than the neighbor who in
variably s'haunts the church. - In this
way they ease their conscience. II
is the falsest. kind of logic to think
that keeping house clean and neat
and feeding a husband are substitutes
for divine worship. HI
Going to Sunday Mass, besides being
a religious duty, is social obliga
tion as we'll. It means a public act OF
worship which gives editication I'd
oucsc 1,.i hor he1uE tn Eanctify the