The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-01-15


from his fellow Catholics of other ma
tionalities
THE stern apprenticeship of relig-
ious persecution with its consequent
reactions having been denied some OF
our modern immigrants, they are in
consequence unprepared as Catholics
for the temptations and the scandals
which unlimited freedom always offers
to simple people who in the short
passage of the Atlantic cease to be
jewellers Of their ancestral fields and
become for ever after denizens OF the
crowded city tenement. 1t thus re-
mains true that whatever may be the
virtue or the defects of the various
groups of our Catholic people in the
United States, their determining char
acteristic is still largely something
which they brought with them or
failed to bring with them from the
old countries of Europe. 1t surely is
not anything which has been devel-
oped in this country in view of our
special needs and demands.
FFOQiSi0uS 9TOWlN OF SHuICtIs
Moreover, it is not surprising that
the prodigious growth of the Church
in the United States has been brought
about by an enthusiasm, loyalty and
a generosity which laid more stress on
material development than it did on
the spiritual and Intellectual Church
building and the erection of ali other
kinds of buildings, necessary for our
work, have been matters of prime i'm
portance with us. We found ourselves
without a place 70 worship, without a
school or charitable institution, and
we set ourselves to the task of pro-
viding them in the shortest possible
space of time. There was no govern
ment to give us these buildings or to
endow them when obtained; no mu-
nificent patrons to take the place of
European governments or of secular
church enriched by the pious bounty
of other ages. Here everything was
to be done at once; done by the poor,
for the poor Our conditions have thus
unduly emphasized the role Of the
parish unit, which, however neces-
sary, is ordinarily a principle of ex-
clusion and of narrowness. The very
success that has crowned our paro-
chial activity is a present danger to
the Church in this country. The par
ish indeed built around an altar which
is the seat of our sacramento life, is
indispensable. From a very early age
it has been the unit of order and of
government Immediately dependent
upon episcopal jurisdiction and such,
no doubt, it will always remain. But
as in this country almost the entire
income of the Church has been de-
rived from parochial sources, it has
been in consequence unduly stressed
and holds a position of Importance in
our Catholic Church in the United
States which, while distinctly strong
in parochial organization, is lament
ably weak in national influence. All
that can be undertaken by the parish
is attempted and usually well done.
Even such things as Catholic schools
which have no necessary relation to
a parish church are, because of our
financial system, made it's appendage.
What the parish does not call for is
usually neglected or done in disor-
derby fashion.
Desutory, Uneven, Inadequate.
Thus the literary expression OF
Catholic thought being outside the
range even of the best regulated par.
ish, is desultory, uneven, inadequate
Nobody who examined the publications
which appear on the tables of the
public libraries of Chicago or any
other large American city in whose vi
entities millions of Catholics live
would Judge that the Catholic body
was anything but timid, touchy and
surely negligible group of citizens
who were not yet acclimated. He
would never guess from the papers OF
the periodicals that were being read
or from the books that were being
called for that there we're twenty mil
lions or more of Catholics in the coun
try, that they we're moreover alert and
practical and most generous in theiI
contributions to the Church, and thai
there is not perhaps country in the
world today where Catholic men are
more ready to identify themselves
with their religion than here The un
ostentatious piety of a metropolis like
this city would be worth a pilgrimage
were it not so familiar to Catholics il
most parts of the country as not tt
seem remarkable.
yet without an adequate literar,
expression, how can we be sure tina
our present caste of mind will be tina
of the next generation? The childlik
faith of the first generation of the i'm
migrants children is not heritag
that will pass without contest to sue
ceeding generations who have no rae
consciousness save that of the cour
try of their birth. Now the dom!
nant thought of the land is not Cath
Ollie, but materialistic. There
scarcely a great daily in the countr
which does not employ Catholics a
editorial writer's, yet, so negligible
body are we that not even the SHARP
est censor could detect a distinctl
Catholic thought in them which is no
either disputed or patronized. Whel
ever you go in the country you fin,
the same conditions, prodigious pa
rochial activity and supine indifference
fo tho general needs of the Church