Catholic Problems in Western CanadaDaly, George Thomas
Religion
Catholic Problems in Western Canada
Daly, George Thomas
Catholic Church -- Canada
The sincerely aggressive Catholicism of the laity cannot confine its
activities to the home and narrow circle of friends, no more than that
of the clergy can find its limit in the pulpit and the confessional.
Let us go into the open. The sun of liberty is blazing bright for us
all, under the blue skies of Canada. To witness at times, our cringing
spirit, our childlike timidity, our cowardice, one would think that we
were still under the penal laws and legal disabilities known by our
fathers and forefathers. "What is there to check our dash forward?" we
would ask with Father Vaughan. "Absolutely nothing, but ourselves,
nothing but what we term prudence." Prudence! thin veneer, hardly able
to conceal our apathy and unwarranted timidity.
Has not the time come to throw off this false timidity and "To go out
into the highways and hedges and compel our separated brethren to come
in, that the Master's house may be filled." (Luke Ch. 14). Long enough
have we waited for them to come to us. An intelligent Methodist was
recently asked the question: "What do you think is the greatest
obstacle to the spread of the Catholic Faith?" And he answered:
"Ignorance,--because Protestants do not understand what Catholic
teaching is, and if your people have the courage of their convictions
and claim that they know the truth, why do they not come out like the
Socialists, Radicalists, Salvation Army, and other bodies who have come
out, and explain to the public what they believe and why."
Did not Cardinal Newman in the conclusion of his lecture: "The Position
of Catholics," make similar statements? "Protestantism," he says, "is
fierce because it does not know you; ignorance is its strength; error
is its life. Therefore bring yourselves before it, press yourselves
upon it, force yourselves into notice against its will. . . . Oblige
men to know you. . . . Politicians and Philosophers would be against
you, but not the people, if it knew you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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