The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-07-16

guages of the natives, and only one
had sufficiently mastered English.
I remember having often listened
with delight to this amusing story of
my predecessor, Father Nett, S. J.,
at Keyalle, the very parish of which
l am now the incumbent.
had acquired a smattering of Eng
lish before leaving Belgium, but
knew nothing of the language of this
people, nor one of their customs.
There existed here small church and
a little hut for the missioner. Quite
alone 1 had to find my way over a
district extending fully twenty miles
in all directions. For my conveyance
I had little cart, dragged by little
red bull, and, as guide, a catechist,
who understood no more of my Eng
lish than of his Tamil
Father Neut's situation may have
been little better than that of Robin
son Crusoe, but not very much. Sure
ly it required pluck and courage to
start and to carry on under such cir
cumstances. But our pioneers were a
match for their hard task; they prov
ed to be of the same lineage as those
valiant Belgians, who defended civili-
cation at the User, and stuck to their
guns until victory crowned their eff
forts.
In twenty-five years, for our Silver
Jubilee Is to be celebrated this year,
there has sprung up in Gale, mis-
sion, though small, yet flourishing and
full of promise. The number of Cath
olics has been more than doubled
They are now over thirteen thousand
The priests number twenty, and there
are seven seminarists at Handy. the
Papal Seminary.
Among the religious and education
al institutions we may mention St.
Aloysius' College, which compares IA
vorably with the best colleges On the
island; three converts of the Sisters
Of Charity for the education Of girls;
and more than forty schools with over
1000 pupils.
AS for the piety of our Catholics,
| shall mention only one detail, which
will show at the same time how the
decree of Plus K on frequent Commu-
MON has met with a generous response
even in these remote parts of the
world. In the parish of Keyalle,
which numbers about 1000 Catholics,
the statistics for the last ten years
| are as follows: in 1907, 3,547 Commu-
mons; in 1912, 1850 Communions;
in 1917, 32,53S Communions.
At this present moment, when we
have almost overcome the difficulty of
the languages and of the habits of the
Singhalese, there rises on the horizon
| another black and very menacing
| cloud. l mean the opposition Of rad
icalism, or false nationalism. One
must be here on the spot to realize
the deep change that has taken place
since the Russo-Japanese war From
that day, when they witnessed a peo-
pie of the East defeating a people of
the West, there has arisen a wave of
| pride over all the Oriental nations.
Hence, they argue, the East must
be superior to the West, and the East
ern civilization far better than that of
! Europe. Consequently, Buddhism
and Vedism are preferable to Chris
tianity. And so it has come to pass
that Buddhism, which had fallen into
discredit, has been galvanized anew,
for the occasion, as national or
racial religion. 1t is an appropriate
cloak behind which would-be reform
ers can safely hide their antagonism
to the present regime.
One conclusion which must forcibly
be drawn from this new situation is
the need of numerous and efficient
| native clergy. Fortunately, the
Church authorities have long since an