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Show I IDEAL SOCIAL WORK ! Great Work of Catholic Church in. Foul- ard Lay Activity in United States I Catholic Truth Society of London "L' j Action Populaire" in France Surveys French Industrial Life Von Kettler Initiated Social Work in Germany I "Workmen's Welfare Leagues" Unbiased Un-biased Writers. The Church Progress published an able lecture by Rev. Albert Muntsch, S J., of the St. Louis I University, on "The Catholic Ideals in Social ' Work." The lecture is opportune and shows the Ftrenuous efforts of the church today, throughout ! the entire Catholic world, to knit together its ! forces, lay and cleric, for the uplifting of human ity and the betterment of society. "This is the age for Catholic lay activity. We I jh'"1 the Catholic layman in our church work. We vant and we must have co-operation of our Catholic Cath-olic men in our representative and distinctively Catholic activities in our educational and our missionary work, in our charitable and our. .benevolent .be-nevolent work, in keeping up our splendid institutions institu-tions for learning and Christian culture, our homes 1 asylums, our refuges and hospitals. We need them also in our literary work for helping and fos-irring fos-irring the propaganda of the Catholic press and of wholesome, soul and heart-nourishing literature. We need them in warding off the dangers that be-f. be-f. t our church and our homes, our altars and our Learlhs, our children's and our children's children's welfare. We need them to fight the new dangers that 'have risen up of late years and that threaten threat-en both God and Fatherland: anarchy, infidelity, materialism, pessimism, socialism, in a word, anti-Christian anti-Christian revolutionism, j MOVEMENT IX UNITED STATES, s "This lay activity has fortunately been inaug urated by the Catholics of the United States. If ! we cannot boast the well organized plans of action which guide the efforts of our brethren in Germany, Ger-many, England, and to some extent also in France, we have at least the beginnings of a Catholic social so-cial movemet. In this connection it is certainly to the point to mention the excellent work of "our I Federation of Catholic societies. It is gratifying to note that this body of Catholic men has achieved various reforms of a moral and social kind which benefit not only the memliers of our church but which redound to the credit of the whole community where those reform measures have been carried. Nor is it out of place to refer to what has been done along the lines of social reform re-form work by our German brethren of the faith in this land. By means of their various organizations, organiza-tions, which have been multiplied, in all the great ities of the country, they have done much to f ttach our Catholic working men the meaning of ' Catholic social work and have shown them the dangers dan-gers of seeking relief from prevalent social and industrial in-dustrial ills by measures not in harmony with the teachings of Christ as interpreted by His Holy Church. - 13 WORK IX EXGLAXD. "A splendid work has been lately published ly the Catholic Truth Society of London which j.ives us an idea of the successful social propaganda propagan-da carried on by our English brethren. It is the Catholic Social Year Rook for 1910. English Catholics Cath-olics had long held back from taking any part in nmedying the social needs of their country and fhowed little interest in removing the social grievances griev-ances under which their co-religionists in great industrial in-dustrial centers like London, Manchester, Bristol end Liverpool had been groaning for generations. But finally came the call to arms. The bishops realized that the people were drifting away from the church. The working man fell an easy prey to the Socialist agitator. 'We must bring Catholic Catho-lic principles to bear upon the solution of social wrongs.' This became their war cry. The Catholic Catho-lic Truth Society took an active interest in form-itip form-itip social guilds, inaugurating study circles, spreading spread-ing pamphlet literature and gathering zealous Catholic men and women who were to come in di-T-rt relation with those who most needed help. The booklet alluded to gives some outline of all this excellent work We quote one capital remark: 'A fe nd reason why we are called to take 'part' in social study arises from the present position 'of the Catholic church in this country. The mission of the Catholic church is to save the souls of men. Eut she cannot save their souls if she takes no .ac-Mmt .ac-Mmt of the material conditions in which they live; for it may sometimes happen that those material ma-terial conditions are such as to make men deaf to her spiritual summons.' MOVEMENT IX FRANCE. 'What is being done in England by the Cath-ohe Cath-ohe Truth Society is undertaken across thtvehan-xic-1 Ly a well organized association called 'L'Action I'epulaire.' It strives to learn the actual social and industrial conditions under which French Catholic Catho-lic in citv and country live and work. It has specialists spe-cialists at work, studying local social conditions end 'hen reporting to the headquarters at' Rheims, i-re practical pamphlets for the benefit of Catlike Catli-ke social workers are written on the basis ot these reports. Xo trade in which men or women sr, employed, no kind of occupation is overlooked, tut 'Popular Action' surveys the whole field ot modern French industrial life and tries to sug-rM sug-rM vavs and means by which the bishops and the clergy and well disposed Catholic laymen can as- i . - ' - ' sist in the grand work of a Catholic social , apos-tolate. apos-tolate. ' ' ; ' : INAUGURATED IN GERMANY. "Here the work ; has become " so well ,known through a widely read pamphlet by Rev. C. Plater that it is not necessary to go into details. Suffice Suf-fice it to say that perhaps nowhere is Catholic social so-cial work and the organization of laymen into efficient ef-ficient social 'workers so. well developed as in Germany. Ger-many. The beginnings of the movement go back to that illustrious champion of Catholic rights during the fierce days of religious persecution in Germany the great-hearted : Bishop of Mayence, Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler. The headquarters headquar-ters of Catholic social work .in- Germany may ba said to be at Muerichen-Gladbach, which supports the 'Central-Stelle' or Central. Bureau., It is there that the plan of the : Catholic social campaign is worked out, where the numerous tracts on questions ques-tions of the day are printed, and whence they are. sent to all parts of Germany, and where therei is . even a special school for the training of social workers.. No wonder, that with such well organized plans the Catholics of Germany have set an example ex-ample of uplifting social experiments . to the rest of the Catholic world. There are also the numerous numer-ous societies called ; 'Arbeiterrwohl,' 'Workmen's Welfare Leagues,' at whose meetings the men learn, from competent authorities what attitude to' take on social, economical and idustrial questions and how they may answer 'the questions and objections objec-tions of Socialistic fellow workmen in the shop and factory. "Finally there are the annual meeting meet-ing of the Volksverein, which is said to be 'Wihd-th'orst's 'Wihd-th'orst's legacy to Catholic Germany.? ' 'At . its annual an-nual meetings the social efforts of , the preceding year are reviewed by leading speakers, new plans are made for the future and the. Catholics who have" attended go home inspired to become more zealous workers in the high cause of Catholic social so-cial reform. : "POVERTY, SOCIAL: UNREST." . . "May I be permitted to say that in studying social so-cial conditions in .our own country there were -especially three-works whose sad message I have pondered pon-dered much, and often? These! are Robert Hunter's Hun-ter's 'Poverty,' John Spargo's. The Bitter Cry of the Children' and John Graham Brook's 'The Social Unrest.' And if .it -be said that the authors of theseworks are. men -of outspoken Socialist tendencies ten-dencies then I say, 'We may thank them none the less that they have placed in such clear, true light the ills-that -have eaten their way into our. social ' Continued on Page 6. IDEAL SOCIAL WORK (Continued from page 1.) economic structure. For there is no danger in welcoming the truth no matter whence it comes. And to face big, large, threatening evils with the high resolve to do one's best to remove them is the best interest of all concerned, deserves our admiration. admi-ration. Moreover to expose the wrongs of our present social and industrial life is not Socialism. It is the duty of all who are interested in the future fu-ture welfare of this land of ours to help in such exposure, and what is more, help in applying an efficient remedy. SOLUTION OF DIFFICULTIES. "And if here I part company with my Socialist friends the writers of these books it is because I can offer a better method of curing these ills than they have as yet thought out. For if things have come to "such a pass that many people think that they must accept the Socialist program to better conditions, then I say it is high time for the church to come forward and to show what she can do to bring about an adjustment of the social inequalities and wrongs that weigh upon the nations na-tions today. And the Church of Christ, the church built on the Rock of Eternal Truth, has come' forward for-ward for this purpose and she possesses the means to bring about this happy readjustment. Nor shall I ever think it time lost in showing my brethren that there is a sublime social teaching contained in the Gospel of Truth. Why, the church He found ed wants only scope and opportunity to bring to bear her untold spiritual energies upon these problems. prob-lems. Give her the chance for applying the practical prac-tical wisdom of 2,000 years in guiding men along the paths of light and justice and soon she will solve your problems and the most complex of questions ques-tions will gradually yield to solution. "This matchless wisdom of the church is guiding guid-ing the magnificent social work of the Catholic Truth Society in England today. It is helping the men who are directing 'Action Populaire' to renew all things in Christ among the people of France. It is inspiring our German brethren of the Faith to set afoot plans for social amelioration ameliora-tion which are winning for them the admiration of right-thinking men in all the world. As Wind-thorst, Wind-thorst, the wise statesman, so often showed at the meetings of the Catholic Congress, the church of which he was so worthy a member was never at a loss in face of the most complicated of social questions. ques-tions. She wrestled successfully with the great social so-cial problems which came to the front during the reconstruction and readjustment of all things toward to-ward the close of the Middle Ages. While systems sys-tems of political economy are built up and decay, she remains ever the same in eternal youth, for her wisdom flows from a source Divine, and there is but one Truth. (To be continued.) |