OCR Text |
Show NOT A LUXURY, A NECESSITY In Boston an observer does not necessarily haw; io be equipped with superior intelligence to see that there is a certain formalism a certain lack of the essential militant Catholic point of view in many places. The majority of Catholics go to the early masses mass-es or to the low mass at 11:1.3 and hear no sermon. ser-mon. Hence their Catholic convictions can be appealed ap-pealed to in no other way than by the Catholic-press. Catholic-press. Without a robust Catholic press the clergy have the ground cut from beneath iheir feet. Public opinion does not keep men Catholic, or even Christian. Chris-tian. The tyranny of the next-door neighbor, which at one time almost forced men to church is no longer a force. The church has here only a spiritual spirit-ual hold on the people. Publi c opinion will not strengthen it. Fashion is against it. Expediency is not. as a rule, with it. Tf it were Boston Catholics would not perhaps have been scandalized by a certain marriage several years ago. which grew almost into a "cause celebre." English literature is against the spiritual as presented by ihe church. The press regards it with tolerance, but in a crisis, such as there is today in France a vast amount of educational and "agitational" "agita-tional" work must go on before Catholic claims are presented justly. The great hustling world has only a vague understanding-of the Catholic position. When the Holy Father, reaffirming the view of Pope Leo. recommends the Catholic press as he docs, he shows an insight into conditions of which men with lesser vision are ignorant. If fashion and public opinion and the "wild intellect in-tellect of man'' are forces which tend to loosen the hold of the church on the average Catholic any influence which increases the power of religion should be encouraged. What can more effectively do 1 his than a Catholic Cath-olic paper? Boston Republic. |