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Show WHY CONVERTS. COME TO US. Editor Intermountain Catholic: At a -mission given to the non-Catholics in the Cathedral of Chicago, by Rev. Bertrand Co way,' C. S. Pr, there were over 1,000 non-Catholics in attendance each evening. Most of these non-Catholics were people of more than ordinary Intelligence, with considerable refinement, refine-ment, and many of them of notable standing in the social world. This latter lat-ter fact was indicated not only by their intelligent appearance, but by the searching character of the questions ques-tions that were placed in the question box. That it is possible to secure an audience audi-ence of this character when the only question to .be. treated is that of religion, re-ligion, and particularly of the old and despised Catholic church, is a condition condi-tion of tremendous significance. The facility with which the American people peo-ple run after fads is well known, so that if the attraction were the latest cult or enunciation of some new heresy one might readily understand the reason rea-son for the crowd. But there was no sensationalism. It was the plain, straightforward preaching of Christian t truth that the' world has listened to for nearly 2,000 years. There is only ;one explanation of the eager interest to know what the Catholic church teaches, and that is the complete breaking down of all teaching author ity outside the church. The people are anxious' to know the truth. They have been drinking from broken cisterns and their thirst has not been allayed. They have gone here and there in search of some satisfying doctrines, hut in every instance they have been disgusted and deceived, so they are coming back to the perennial fountain of the church. Protestanism as an organized religion re-ligion has disintegrated in most of the large cities of the west, but there is no place in which this has come about so completely as in the city of Chicago. Chi-cago. Not long ago at. one time there were ten Protestant churches for sale. As another evidence of the demoralized demoral-ized condition religion had come to outside out-side the Catholic church, it was credibly cred-ibly stated that a number of enterprising enterpris-ing money-makers bought up one of these vacant 'churches, hired a good chorus of voices and ran the church merely as a money-making affair, in the same way and -with as much indifference in-difference to right and wrong as they would run a dime museum. Little wonder that as the churches go to pieces the real earnest souls look for religious teachers who will speak as with authority, and for a religious church that will satisfy the deepest aspirations of their souls. They are being persuaded that the old Catholic church is still stanch and safe. It has borne its burden of souls through the ages to a haven of rest, and it still knows how to guide the present generation safely over the rocks and shoals of our modern life. In the inquiry class that Father Conway Con-way has organized there are nearly 200. The majority of these will ultimately ulti-mately find rest in the bosom of the church. After a recent mission to non-Catholics in a western city one of the leading lead-ing men of the town wrote to one of the missionaries to this effect: "I have always esteemed Father" (mentioning the pastor's name), "for his own personal per-sonal qualities of upright manhood, but I have attended the mission and have learned a great deal of the beauty and excellence of the Catholic- church, and I now esteem him also for what he represents. It is an invariable rule, the better the Catholic church is known the more she is respected and loved." (Rev.) A; P. DOYLE, New York, Nov. 10. |