Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1921-07-16
The Third Order of st. Frapc;s
Founded Seven Hundred
Years.
HAS Been an Important and Potent
Factor in Worlds Social
Regeneration.
Through Imitation of This Saint
Lies Every Hope of Future
Salvation.
THE HOLY FATHERS LETTER.

In an appeal to Franciscan ter
tlarles, Father Cuthbert, o. S. F. C
says: The Franciscan order has
; from its infancy considered itserf
especially commissioned by God to
oppose the selfshness and luxury
or the world" Never was the
work OF the devoted men and wom-
en- who belong to this pious contra
ternity of greater importance than
today Never has il Dromised
larger results. For selfishness and
luxury have once more. as in
Francis time, become abominable
vices of the social body. To oppose
barrier to this insidious plague.
to check the spread of frivolous H.
cense, has become an imperative So
cial necessity. But the brave work
must be done by men and women of
the world. Here is the splendid on
| portunity for the members of the
Third Order. For. says Father
| Cuthbert est. Francis founded his
order for all whose souls revolted
| against the corruption and sin of
the time, and when he extended his
order so as to embrace men and
women living in the world he Gre
| ated a hostile camp in the midst of
the world itself to do battle with
the social immortality of degen-
crate age"
The century of st. Fraicis was
hike our own, time of great social
Insurance and discomfort There
were feuds and fierce civic rivalries
which drove men like Dante into
exile. There was vulgar luxury and
display of finery and destinations
wealth beside squalid poverty. There
was hard-heartedness toward the
poor and contempt for those OF
lowly station. And as in our day,
the latter reacted by following re-
formers who promised relief
through means the church was
Obliged to condemn To a society
thus rent asunder st. Francis APP
pealed. not as an ordinary social
reformer would by criticising the
evil tendencies. but rather by point
ing out higher ideal, namely pow
erty. He himself espoused poverty
and filled the hearts of others with
the same lofty love for her. Thus
did he become the great social re-
former of his time. And the Third
Order came into being because
numerous men and women who
could not leave the world earnestly
desired to realize the ideal of the
Poor Man of Assist. II has been
well said that this movement was
a great social reformation 1t led
men forward to heaven by making
the way on earth straighter and
more like unto heaven 1t dealt
not with general abstract principles.
but with the actual facts of the
world-the civic feuds. the intense
the luxuriousness and
of the thirteenth cen
ury."
We speak of our age as the age
Of democracy But the age which
brides itself on being such is also
the age of fierce industrialism, the
age which saw the rise of the
sweatshop. the beginning of child
abor. the work of mothers in fac
tories, and the grinding OF the
under the heel of cap
talism. The labor union and much
needed social legislation are only
beginning TO do away with the
worst evils of a distinctly industrial
civilization. But all attempts at so
'ial reform will be without avail
Until men realize the needs of so
not the means of produce
ion, not even industrial society,
tut the individual. Because st.
francis and his Third Orderr ac-
this they became a so
ial asset of priceless value. Ex-
lting poverty. teaching charity, St.
francis and his followers brought
bout social justice. The Able
ionier in his History of ST.
'rancis" quite correctly claims:
The Third Order may be said to be
ne of the greatest efforts ever att
smpted for introducing more JUS
ce among men, They 1.-THE Ter
aries) changed the then existing
)cial order in favor of the weak
nd humble"
No wonder Pope Benedict hopes
,r an awakening. of the Third Or
sr from the coming centenary OBJ
'rvance. Referring to the evils of
ar day which he desires to see
he says in his pronounce
emit: IF we consider carefully.
Iere are at present two passions
'ewailing in this incredible per-
,rsity of customs-the unbounded
We OF riches and an unquenchable
irst for pleasure. Thence the
anne of our age, that while pro-
'essing increasingly in the con
and comforts OF life.
'vertheless in what concerns the
lty Of living uprightly, which is
r more important, it seems eager
hurry back to the corruption of
ganism. And in truth the more
en- lose sight of the eternal goods
epared for them in heaven the
ore are they attracted toward
e perishable ones. and once they
e sinfully bent toward earth.
cry virtue in them easily becomes