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Show .WORK. Of MISSIONARIES Catholicity a Mark of the Church Diversion Di-version and Numerical Strength of Dif-j Dif-j ferent Religious Denominations Pa-I Pa-I gans in the Lead Work of Catholic ! Missionaries in the Different Continents j Sisters Outnumber All Others ! -Words of Praise. I The Church a founded by Christ was to bo universal. Our Savior shed His Blood for all mankind, and the Society which He instituted musr, call all men. without distinction of race, color or nationality, to partake of the fruits of His Redemption. Re-demption. One of tlie distinctive marks of thi Church is its Catholicity, and the work of the Catholic Missions is the work of Christ Himself. To .separate -it from 'our practice, of religion is to fail to understand the Gospel! To take interest-, in and help the Catholic missions ought to be for every member of the Church the logical consequence conse-quence of his name of Catholic. And yet. how-many how-many Catholics in the I'nited States know anything; about Catholic missions ? In his ".Votes on Catholic Missions," Rev. A. IT. Atteridge. S. .1.. makes a remark, which is as true today as if was when written, twenty-three years ago: "Most Catholics, we fear, know very little of the mission work of the Church.. For the most part, they have a kind of vague impression that there is a lireat deal to be done, and that something-S something-S is being done for the propagation of the Faith in j heathen hinds, that some of the religious orders ' j have missions in India. China and Africa, etc.. that the Society for the Propagation of the Faith collects money to help the missions, and that something more in the same way is done by the Society of the Holy Childhood. " How many Ca lics in the I'nited States know as muchas this.ont the wonderful work' of the f the fVdie vy Mnarie in foreign fi-ls4 Sect; ' ; -'TZVZluiL'lihi ft6 be.fcar-.-Ht l !. jrjpaJUy '-V--",- " get .that they rfi jphai: security. to misT.nary iubo,, 1 , and should intuit help those who ere njt so blo.'sed. . ? i Today there arc about l.oOO miliioi.-s of human -- - beings on 'the earth. According1 to the latest statis- -1;. tics there are ovt of that total population: 272 millions ......Catholics millions Protestant 12(millions f Schismatics 11 millions. Jews And over l.oito millions, made up of Mohammedans. Mohamme-dans. Buddhists. Brahmins. Pagans, Fetichists and other non-Christians. It is quite safe to assume, then, that today out of a total population, of l.COO millions, there are less than K(M millions of Christians, and of these, only about one-half are Catholics, the others beini? divided among Schismatics and the multitudinous sects of Protestantism. Today, eighteen centuries after the Redemption!, of mankind, there are over 1.000 millions of our fellow fel-low human beings who have not as yet received the) Gospel message, and most of these have never heard the Xame of Jesus Christ! ' And yet the Savior died for them as well as fop us. When He sent His Apostles throughout the) world He said: "Go and teach all nations. - Preach the Gospel to every creature." Th Church has been faithful to her mission from thej beginning, and at no time, perhaps, since the apostolic apos-tolic age has the tack of evangelizing the infidel . been carried on by a larger number of workers and; pursued with greater success than in the last eighty; years. Let us give a glance at the Catholic Missions,. We hear a great, deal in this country of Protest ant missions. We see frequent mention in oui dailies of the meetings of their numerous societies,: reports of their work, both at home and on the for-1 eign field; of the sacrifices made by their repre-. sentatives and the generous support they receive) ' from their fellow members. Yes. we hear much o ; Protestant missions, and next to nothing of Catho-J lie missions; and yet the Catholic Church has an army of missionaries working for the conversion o the heathen. ' It is difficult to furnish accurate figure? as to. lhe number of Catholic missionaries, because of the different views people take of a missionary coun-i coun-i try. In the popular sense, a missionary country is; one where the Church has not as yet acquired a strong foothold, or where heresy, schism or pagan-, ism prevails, and those are missionaries who havo left their native land to go to distant regions, especially espe-cially heathen countries, for the purpose of spreading spread-ing the Faith among unbelievers. From this viewpoint we may safely assert that there are at least 15.000 Secular and Religious Priests, 5,T0O Brothers. 4.,0()0 Sisters Laboring as missionaries among heretics, heathen? and infidels. The way some of these 1.1,000 Missionary Priests are distributed throughout the World will give an idea of the all-embracing solicitude of the Church for the conversion of the infidels to the true Faith-AMERICA. Faith-AMERICA. Canada .- 4.1 West Indies S7- Central America , 2 1 South America i-.t E TROPE. Balkan States ...lus Denmark n- (Continued on page 4.) ) , i , WORK OF MISSIONARIES. (Continued from page 1. Saxony Xorway Sweden AFRICA. Xoith Africa Fquatoi'ial Africa South Africa " African Islands - ASIA. Arabia ' China ( 'orea India Indo-China Malavasia Persia Turkish Empire ,v ' OCEAXICA. Australasia . Polynesia These missionaries are distributed anion- ; .-,5 Congregations or Missionary Societies, who assisted by :;o Orders of Brothers to the uim.h. of ...000. an.l 12." Orders of Sisters, numbering together about 4.1.000. The missions count h f sides about l.oOO native Priests and lo.ono ri;.-,, Sisters. QFALITY OF MISSIONARY LABOR. If we have nor penetrated further into r.ue.'.. , districts and won more souls to Christ it is nor (,,, ; lack of the qualities required in a true missio'ia'? . j The men ati.l women whom the Catholic Church has ent to ihe fortign mission fields are a cre.le. and a joy to us. The spirit which has guided then, ; far from home and country, and the strength j purpose which has urged them to lives of tint oh! j sacrifices are f themselves sufficient guarantee j that heroic work is being done. Nor are we Cath" i lies alone in our admiration of their labors. Test! monies from fair-minded Protestants speak of tit-- privations of our Catholic Priests and Xiuis: and j observant travelers, many of them with inherited j prejudices airainst the Church, return to the Tinted ; States from such countries as China. Japan, tin- Islands of the Pacific and Africa, vnthusiastic in their praise of Caiholic missionaries and with an ; exalted opinion of the Church which they so nobly ; represent. ' The following is from, the pen of Baron Binder : Kriegelstein. who happened to be in Manchuria .' from the beginning of the Russo-Japanese war a- ; correspondent to the Protestant German journal, the "Krewzzeitung" : "The Catholic missionaries are men of faith so strong and in conscience so firm that we can truly style them heroes of a valor from which soldiers. courageous though they I.e. are as different as the earth is from the sky. I have observed these niod.jst heroes in Turkey. India. In-dia. China and South America, and I have never found one who did not respond to the sublime exi- ' gencies of hrs vocation." Here is what Madame Lohnniann. the well-known well-known rationalistic writer, says: "At the sight of the immense blessings .derived from the Catholic Orders and Missionaries it is impossible im-possible not to be filled with genuine and frank respect and esteem. I have had opportunities of coining to know in the West Indies and in the East Indies and in the various countries of Europe the exemplary life of the religious and missionaries mission-aries of the Catholic Church, and of witnessing the unsparing charity of the nuns in the school i nis and the hospital wards. Many of our people w. re in the habit, before visiting those countries, of calumniating the Catholics, either through ig- noram-e or through human respect. But after seeing the wonders ,,f the Catholic apostleship amongst the lepers an.l the poor despised blacks. r these same people, in my hearing, avowed with shame that Catholic charity and self-sacrifice surpasses sur-passes in heroism everything imaginable in that respect, holding a unique place in the world and in history." (1) We have omitted reckoning the number of missionaries in the Tinted States and certain European countries, such as Great ' Britain. North Germany, Switzerland. Holland, etc. because of th'-difficulty th'-difficulty of determining' who are missionaries, 1 also because in some of these countries, or parts ot them.the real missionary stage has passed, although al-though for special reasons they have been retained under the jurisdiction of the Propaganda. We must add the remark that in some cases our figures are approximate only. |