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Show "THE TURTH ON YOUR SIDE." Reflections Upon a Pi-otestant Minister's Minis-ter's Declaration to. a, Paulist. Editor Intermountain Catholic: A letter recently received from a Protestant minister says: "I have no doubt at all but what you have the truth on your side. You must realize the magnitude of the task that is before be-fore you of convincing a money-loving, pleasure-seeking generation, that the truth is bound up with humility and poverty and self denial, you must, however, eventually succeed in bringing bring-ing the American people to your way of thinking, for a sincerely honest people peo-ple will never be content with- fleeting fleet-ing pleasures ' and pretentious sham." This letter .was written apropos of some inquiries concerning the teach-ins teach-ins of the church on a few essential points. He was an honest doubter and instead of crowding his doubts and misgivings aside, he strove to settle them. How far this type of sincere mind may be, duplicated among ministers min-isters is an interesting query. There are a great many who are turning away from the ministry into secular pursuits because they cannot go on conscientiously and teach what they do not believe themselves, and some are fighting their vay past the trammels of education and family ties and race prejudice into the freedom of the truth. The , Catholic Converts' leagues that are established in a few places are doing a practical good in assisting the ministers who come into the church to self-help and to make provision for those who are dependent on them. The recent practical step toward the inauguration-of the Apostolic Mission House at Washington has given a further impetus to the missionary movement. An increasing number of dioceses are represented among the priest-students there and still others are looking forward to an opportunity to avail themselves of the facilities the Mission House presents. The building of this new institute for the training of diocesan priests for the mission work among non-Catholics will be pushed as -rapidly as the gathering of funds will permit. The starting of the work in a practical way has opened an immense field for diocesan endeavor. endeav-or. Many priests have contented themselves with doing the work that has been placed at their hand, but the non-Cathoic movement affirms that the non-Catholic is as much the object of his solicitation as the Catholic and remote re-mote diocesan districts are to be cultivated cul-tivated with as much earnestness as the populous centers where the costly church is erected. A unique case has come to our notice no-tice recently which was instituted under un-der the inspiration of the new missionary mis-sionary movement. In a town of about 10,000 inhabitants in one of the southern south-ern states there was not a Catholic church but there were eight or ten non-Catholic churches, church-es, some of them without ' minister min-ister or congregation. A Catholic of wealth had established an iron mill there but because there was no church he found it difficult to get Catholics to settle in the town. Through a real estate agent he got an option on one of the non-Catholic churches and then made appication to the bishop for a priest, offering to support him until he was able to support himself. The priest came and at his first mass there were five Caatholics present. It was not long before others who had been Catholics Cath-olics declared themselves and then the non-Catholics came, attracted by the special preaching and beautiful services. serv-ices. Today, after only a few months of services, a small but flourishing congregation con-gregation is established. The desert place has been made to blossom as a rose. It is altogether probable that in other parts of the country this same sort of work can be done. At a non-Cathoic mission given in Grand Rapids by Rev. Bertrand Conway Con-way twenty-seven converts were received re-ceived into the church. (Rev.) A. P. DOYLE. New York. Nov. 29. |
