The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-08-20

IMMUNITY WORK AT HOME
CROFT.
The following is brief report given
by the acting chaplain at Fort Smell
ing: ,a-s
In the neighborhood surrounding
the Homecroft Center there are 174
Catholic souls in AS families. Of these
there are 46 men and 81 women, each
over 1S years of age. There are Sc
between the ages of and Is. and 21
under six years of age. Among the As
families there are IA mixed marriages,
10 of which were made invalidly, and
of these are still invalid. Of the 8
still invalid, 4 are in the way Of being
validated, while of the remaining
are raising IL children in non-Catho-
lie sects.
In addition to this group of homes
Immediately surrounding the Home
croft center two other communities
are tributary to it in lesser degree.
Fort Smelling is one of these. The
other is composed of probably dozen
Catholic families scattered along West
Seventh street south of Montreal
away from the club. At Fort Smelling
there are about $50 Catholics among
the 500 soldiers. About a dozen of
these soldiers have visited the club
occasionally and the families of four
of them are among the regular patrons
and members Of the center
Societies are Helpful.
Several Catholic societies have been
organized at the club and meet there
regulaIh These societies were
organ. under the direction of the
priests attending the Fort Smelling
chapel; but they owe their energy and
activity very largely to the work Of
the community center.
The priest giving only few hours
on Saturday afternoon and all of Sun
day forenoon to the work of the
centers at Fort Smelling and Homecroft
could do nothing with the societies
were it not for the cordial and home
like atmosphere surrounding at all
times the community center.
The Apostleship of Prayer meeting
at the club has through it's eight or
ten promoters reached out into
practically every home, Catholic and
partially Catholic. BY the activities
of this society few Catholics were
discovered and some invalid mar
riages were made known TO the priest.
The Girls Club was originally COM
posed of Catholic girls with few non
Catholics. From it's work the senior
girls sodality of the Assumption was
evolved in August, 1920.
The Altar society for the married
women and the Holy Name society,
having on it's roster the names of %
men, both meet regularly at the com.
munity center. These two societies
in addition to their own peculiar aims
generally deal with the community
problems that require attention. AT
one time it is the financial problems
of the boys baseball club, at another
time the formation of kindergarten
class, or again the best methods OF
dealing with the menace of public
dance hall or gambling place. These
and many other problems are general
ly discussed in a genuine spirit oi
Catholic charity and neighborly help
fulness.
When the present chaplain took uI
his work at Fort Smelling and Home
croft in October, 1919, he was tolt
that there was much bigotry against
the few Catholics in the latter place
and that there was considerable pro
selytizing by two non-Catholit
ministers.
Catholics are Optimistic. Is
In proof of the latter contention i
was pointed out that among the
members of the Lutheran Young Peo
ple's League sixteen were Catholics
The priest, coming only once eacl
week to the community could do yer.
little to remedy these conditions unit
the community center was formed ant
the present worker, Miss Mayme Kelly
took up her residence there. From
that time on it was comparativel.
easy to gather the children for Sunda.
School instruction and to organize th
various club, classes. The Catholics o
the community know one another nov
and know how to be mutually helpful
whereas formerly they were isolate'
and mutually suspicious. Their nor
Catholic neighbors respect them nov
for their energy and public spirit. JUS
one instance of this: the young me-
have a base BAH team and of the min
regular players six are non-Catholics
yet the captain is Catholic, and thei
meeting place is the Catholic socia
center.
The pessimistic gossip of the dis
couraged and timid Catholic OF tw
years ago has disappeared before
buoyant progressive optimism.
Due credit for this change must b