1. _Doctrinal Principle_.--All appeals for sympathy and help in the great cause of Catholic Missions rest on one of the most fundamental doctrines of our Faith, the Catholicity of the Church. "The Church Catholic," says the great theologian Suarez, "means the Church Universal--_Ecclesiam esse catholicam, idem est ac esse universalem_" (Disput. de Ecclesia IX., sect. VIII., No. 5). This universality of Christ's Church implies the idea of solidarity, whereby in her living and indivisible unity She is always and everywhere the same. The Church, like a perfect vital organism, is a divine organic whole, solidly constituted, identical to itself, and in all its parts, throughout time and space. The whole is reflected or rather found in each part, and each part reflects and possesses the whole. The Catholicity of the Church is but the expansion of its Unity. It stands therefore as its permanent and outward manifestation. Should we now wonder why the Church of Christ is called Catholic? We name things and persons by that characteristic feature which conveys to our mind the most accurate concept of them. The very name of the Church is, as you see, an ever living proof of her divinity. And of that name, we may well say what is said of the name of Jesus . . . _signum cui contradicetur_ . . . it will be forever "a sign of contradiction." The moral aspect of this solidarity of the Church is responsibility. The Church at large is responsible for each particular diocese and parish, and each individual diocese and parish is in return responsible for the Church universal. This responsibility is to be shared by every Catholic. And as by its Catholicity the Church overcomes the two great barriers to all human power, time and space, so also should every Catholic manifest in the affairs of the Church universal an interest equally as great as that he shares in his own particular parish. "Co-operation among Catholics," as Archbishop McNeil justly remarked, "is more than a means to a missionary end. It is an essential part of Catholic life. Boundaries of jurisdiction are conveniences and means to an end. In the first century of the Christian era, it was centres rather than circumferences that marked divisions of work and jurisdiction; but in any case administrative divisions were never intended to be divisions of brotherhood. The divisions of the Church into dioceses and parishes are to further increase, and not to weaken or destroy its Catholicity." And what we say of these divisions of space, may also be said of those of time. As the glorious memories of the divine history of the Church belong to each individual Catholic, so also should the possibilities of her future destinies in our country and throughout the world, preoccupy his thoughts and affections in the present.