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Show o IT IS A SIGN OF LIFE. A report has been made public recently re-cently showing that the Society for the Propagation "of the Faith In Lyons Ly-ons has collected and disbursed during the past year $1,319,608.93. While this enormous sum of money is some measure meas-ure of the activity in the Catholic church in regard to missionary work,' still this is a "report from only one of the many societies that are engaged in missionary enterprises. There has never been published any available figures which gather together in any statistical statement the expenses of carrying on the entire missionary propaganda in the Catholic church. The Methodists raised $20,000,000 dur-! dur-! ing the past two years as their Twentieth Twen-tieth century thank offering, and while this is a splendid showing, still it must be remembered that in the Unit-States Unit-States alone the Catholic church raises $15,000,000 every year Tor parish par-ish school purposes, to say nothing of the generous donations that are offered of-fered for the propagation of the faith. Of the immense sum that was raised and distributed by the Lyons society, $85,000 were contributed by the Catholic pepole in the United States. When their number and growing grow-ing wealth are taken into consideration, considera-tion, $85,000 seems to be a mere bagatelle, baga-telle, and when figured down it shows a per capita contribution of seven mills and a half. Of course this is ridiculously ri-diculously small. Still, probably in all the world there is no people that have so many demands made on them for church purposes as the Catholic people peo-ple in the United States, and certainly there is no people that give so generously gener-ously in proportion to their means. While the Lyons Society for the Propagation of the Faith Is one of the largest ana most innuentiai missionary mission-ary organizations, yet there are others in this country that are also looking after domestic needs. The Josephites are caring for the spread of the church among the negroes, the Indian Preservation Society is looking out for the Redmen ,and the Apostolic Mission Mis-sion House, which is now in process of erection at Wasington, is fostering the spread of Catholic teaching among thie non-Catholics of the United States. It is difficult to compare the various spheres of missionary work in either importance or in usefulness. It would be rather a invidious task, inasmuch as it is a question of saving souls, and all souls are equally valuable before God, whether they animate the heathen heath-en in the Far East, or the negro in the South, or the red Indian in the West, or the convert from Protestantism. There is one thing that is very certain, cer-tain, and that is, the measure of the depth of one's own religion is the generosity gen-erosity with which he gives to its advancement ad-vancement among others who possess it or not. It is very frequently said in the work of making converts that one never begins to appreciate his religion relig-ion so much as when he has succeeded in making one a convert to it, and there is a whole lot of truth in this statement. The non-Catholic Mission movement, if it had done nothing else among the priesthood and people of this country, has awakened a love and appreciation of the church that in many instances had heretofore lain dormant. There is a whole generation of better, more earnest, and more aggressive ag-gressive Catholics on account of it. |