Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1919-03-15

as we see from the aforecited para
| graph, are to take the initiative In
training candidates for service fol
the period of social reconstruction
Those in attendance shared the
opinion of Father Perceval, who
presided. He said lit was up tC
the teaching nuns to carry the
proposition through. The full force
of such a movement could not pos.
sibly be felt for some considerable
time; possibly not in their own gen
Grafton. 1t would be necessary first
create new traditions in our Cath
Ollie schools. But once these tradi.
tions were created and fostered
tehre was really no limit to the
amount of good that might come
out of it," He therefore invited the
teaching nuns to help the great
cause of Gods church in this coun-
try in the tremendous responsible
ties that lay before 1t in the future.
First they must equip themselves,
and then through them the children
under their care. The world lay
about us In ruins, and the only
thing that could save it was recon-
struction on distinctively Catholic
lines. The motto of the church to-
day must surely be the motto that
was given by our Holy Father
Plus x, Ito restore all things IN
Christ" The nuns part In this
(humanly speaking) impossible task
was great and noble one. 1t was
nothing less than to make England
Catholic through her women, and
to attempt that with any success
they must tackle the thing at its
source and get at the Catholic girl.
The question at once arises
whether these suggestions would be
practicable in our country. The
working out of the plan would have
to be left to the Bishops, the super
Tors of the various religious COM
munities and the diocesan school
superintendent. From these sources
we may expect much help and CO.
operation in the great work which
we can no longer neglect But that
efforts along this line will be taken
before long is quite evident. The
Hospital Sisters" and those in
terested in their work, chiefly
Catholic physicians and nurses, have
already organized Catholic Hos
pital Association to safeguard their
interests and to promote the eff
cheney Of their particular branch of
social service. That the work will
now have to be widened so as to
include the entire field of social
service needs no further proof.
To ask the Sisters to devote par.
of their summer vacation to such
studies seems hardly fair in view
of the fact that so many of them
are giving up part of that time to
work along scholastic and profess
sional lines, though many of them
would no doubt be willing to do so.
Fortunately an approach to a solu-
tion of this vital problem has been
made by Father John w. Keogh,
chaplain of st. Bede's at the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania. He real
lied long ago that zone of the
greatest drawbacks in handling our
charity problems is that our Cath
Ollie laymen know nothing or
scarcely anything of the charity
situation in the church: and much
more, know little how to deal with
it when they do recognize it's pres
ence." He therefore organized the
Catholic students of the university
into social service committees, and
under his guidance they undertook
splendid social service work. taking
in charge settlement houses con-
Quoted in seven centers by eighty
five Catholic students.
In 1914, just before the outbreak
OF the war. Rev. Thomas Wright.
one of the up-to-date English social
workers. said that "social study as
an initial step to practical Christian
citizenship is fast becoming 'popu-
lar among Catholics" Now after
the great war and in the throes Of
this era of reconstruction the need
of sound social instruction as an aid
to practical Christian citizenship"
is more urgent. more vital and more
insistent than ever. For the COM
ing years loom up large with the
promise of far-reaching and even
disastrous changes in the entire so
cial and political order.
G. B. of G. ".