Catholic Problems in Western Canada

by George Thomas Daly

Yet, as Religion is the necessary factor of true prosperity, the religious outlook in these young Provinces is what naturally appeals to the Catholic mind. What are then the prospects for the Church in Western Canada? A rapid survey of conditions will enable us to take our bearings and impress upon our minds the value of our co-operation at this juncture of our History. The Church in the West is in its making and we cannot over-emphasize the responsibility of every Catholic in the matter. The knowledge of existing conditions will be to us what the topography of the country under survey is to the engineer. It helps to adjust the vision, to give the sense of proportion and to suggest the easiest grades.

To know well an obstacle is often the best means to overcome it, just as in modern warfare to locate the enemies' batteries is to silence them. In our Chapter, "The Call of the West," we have explained the obstacles with which Catholics have to contend on the prairie and in small towns. We pointed out those obstacles, geographical (distance and climate), ethnical (race and language), religious (absence of catholic traditions and surroundings), and marked how they were as wide crevices through which vitality is being lost to the Church in Western Canada. It is our intention here to dwell only on difficulties of a general character, inherent to the state of this new country and effecting the Church in its corporate existence.

The materialistic spirit, in all its forms, characterizes the West. The youth of our Eastern Provinces and foreigners from every shore flocked to this Eldorado by the thousands and hundreds of thousands with the one particular aim in view, to better their material condition. Their success has been so great that we may well say that the very atmosphere of the West is surcharged with commercialism. The "crop" is the ever-recurring factor and eternal topic of Western life. No better picture reflects this attitude than that which is offered to the traveller as his train goes rolling on through the even prairie. Ever emerging on the horizon and dotting the landscape of the bald plain the grain elevator stands indeed as the most conspicuous land mark of our Western towns. The elevators are in our prairie landscapes what the church spires are in the Quebec villages, along the shores of the St. Lawrence. Here and there they stand as symbols; they interpret an ideal. Naturally a population so immersed in material pursuits and frequently, not to say always, separated by the very force of circumstances from the vitalizing contact of spiritual influence, rapidly loses grasp of the supernatural and becomes refractory to the doctrines and practices of the Church. Nothing is more adverse to the influence of Christianity than material prosperity combined with the absolute ignorance of its divine teachings. The wealthy and prosperous farmer out West is inclined to look down on the Church and consider Her "out of date." [1]

This materialistic atmosphere and the absence of catholic traditions and associations act also as a corrosive on the faith of Catholics, particularly of our young people. Like a strong acid it eats away the teachings of good Christian parents and the impressions of a Catholic home. Only those who have seen at close range these sad soul transformations can believe in their painful reality and explain their frequency.

The activities of non-Catholic bodies among the foreign element are another obstacle to the work of the Church. Like the locusts of Egypt a cloud of proselytizers have alighted on those parts of the Provinces where the new Canadian is in the making. We have seen in another chapter (Pro aris, et focis—or, the Ruthenian Problem) how under the cover of Canadianization, the foreigner is being weaned away from the Faith of his Fathers and what menace this is for the Church.

This systematic effort of the various denominations is being supported by the combined action of their clergy and laity in the East. Men and money are flowing into the West to Christianize (sic!) our Catholic foreigners. The final result of this proselytizing effort is not a permanent increased membership for these churches, but rather indifference and irreligion among our foreign element. Facts and figures prove it. And to re-establish these souls in the Faith of their Baptism is no easy task, we all know. It is far easier to tear down than to rebuild.

This united action of the different Churches stands out in sharp contrast with the lack of co-operation among Catholics throughout Canada. The absence of co-operation of the East with the West affects very seriously the welfare of the Church in the new Provinces. We all willingly and gratefully acknowledge the contributions in men and money that have come from the East through the channels of the Religious Orders, of the Catholic Church Extension and from other sources. But absorbed by parochial and diocesan interests the Catholic Church in Eastern Canada has not as yet fully realized the seriousness of our Western problems. With its co-operation only can the weight of the Church as a whole be brought to bear in their solution.

This policy of unity of action is also most urgent for the Catholics of the Western Provinces. We are a minority in each Province; concerted action can alone press our legitimate claims and bring to us success in these activities which necessarily overlap the boundaries of dioceses and provinces, as is the case with the Catholic Press and Higher Education. Diocesan isolation, if we are not careful, can become the weakness of our strength, in these critical stages of rapid development. Yet, there are no Provinces in the Dominion where the Church faces so many identical problems under identical conditions as in the Western Provinces. Should not this alone suggest to our leaders a unity of plan and realize among our Western Catholics concerted action?

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As there is a silver lining to the darkest cloud, there is a bright side for the Church in conditions out West.