Catholic Problems in Western Canada

by George Thomas Daly

(Jo. VIII, 32)

Facts—Principles—Policy of the Catholic Truth Society—Its value for the Church in Western Canada.

Truth and liberty, error and license are inseparable partners. The measure of truth gives the measure of true liberty, just as the degree of error tells the degree of bondage. This is a logical necessity, a natural consequence. The Master emphasized it when He said: "And you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free." These pregnant words of Christ are the charter of Christian civilisation and mark the passing of expediency as the supreme rule of human liberty.

This explicit confidence in the abiding power of Truth and in its necessary relation with our moral and religious life has prompted the creation of the Catholic Truth Society and inspired its policy. Never was any Society more useful nor so well adapted to the conditions of present times.

The world nowadays is fast drifting from its Christian moorings and taking to the high seas of modern paganism. The outlook on human life is as in the days of Greece and Rome. The old cry: panem et circeuses!—is to be found on the lips of our multitudes and reflects the aspirations of their life. In the social realm, State-monopoly is fast absorbing the individual and the family, and is heralded as the supreme ideal of human society. A speedy and complete return to Christian principles will alone re-establish the world on its proper axis. Christian Truth shall again make the world free and save it from the bondage of neo-paganism. For, history and experience prove that there is nothing more tyrannical than that bondage—let it be the bondage of Czardom or Bolshevism—which comes to man under the cover and name of liberty. In the present universal unrest, so widely and so emphatically voiced throughout the world, the mission of the Catholic Truth Society appears as most providential. The spreading of Catholic Truth will help the world to reconquer its liberties and, with them, true civilization.

To state facts, discuss principles and advocate policies, in connection with the Catholic Truth Society of Canada, particularly in the West, is the object of this chapter.

Facts.

The Catholic Truth Society was born in England; November 5th, 1884, was its birthday; Mr. Britten,[2] its honored and devoted parent. The activities of the Anglican Church inspired this great Catholic layman to counteract the influence of its propaganda. Tract for tract, pamphlet for pamphlet, lecture for lecture, advertisement for advertisement was the plan of campaign of our new militant leader. To marshal all the tremendous forces of the "printed word" for the service and defence of Mother Church was his noble ambition. He had implicit faith in the everlasting vitality which lies concealed in the divine seed of the Word of God. He knew that by spreading it broadcast, it would necessarily fall on prepared and expectant soil, germinate and produce a hundred fold. With the approbation of the Hierarchy and the generous support of a few intelligent associates, the Society issued devotional, controversial, historical and dogmatic pamphlets. Small in form, compact in doctrine, living in expression, these messengers of Truth winged their way through the world. Little by little the Society's influence has spread everywhere and proved beyond doubt to be a great factor of Catholic apostolate in our time.

For twenty-one years (1888-1909) the annual meeting of the Catholic Truth Society was the outstanding event of Catholic life in England. It became the field on which Catholic forces—clergy and laity—met yearly to exchange ideas, formulate plans, co-ordinate purpose and concentrate activity. This gathering gave rise to the "National Catholic Congress"—which now stands out as the annual review, the "mass-manoeuvre," of the Church militant in England. These meetings have made of a handful of Catholics, many but neo-converts of yesterday, the aggressive body we all admire, and from which we, in Canada, have many things to learn.

The Editor of the "Universe" in his issue of Sept. 22, 1919, on the occasion of the C.T.S. Conference in Nottingham, paid a beautiful tribute to the Society. "This summing up of its activities is in itself an inspiration and incentive. We are reminded by this Conference of the debt and duty we owe to the society under whose auspices it meets. The debt is all-pervading. How many Catholics in this country are there, teachers or taught, who have not profited directly and personally by the labour and enterprise, freely given, of the comparatively few who, since that memorable day of its foundation, November 5, 1884, have maintained, written for, and contributed to the expenses of the Catholic Truth Society? It has provided the apologist with an armoury and the teacher with material; it has saved the scholarly many an hour of troublesome research; it has given the unlearned instruction suited to their needs; it has given the masses of our people the popular Catholic literature they want; it has been a veritable sleuth-hound on the track of traducers of the Church; it has explained and commended her cause to even greater numbers outside her pale who were simply ill-informed; it has helped more souls than anyone will ever be able to count, into the Fold. Moreover, it has been the fruitful parent of progeny (not always filially grateful) which extends to-day to the uttermost parts of the earth. And always it has maintained a standard—which, in fact, it created amongst us—of material high quality, of intellectual respectability and of religious solidity, the more worthy of grateful appreciation because not everywhere fully appreciated. Nor can we forget that the Society is in a real sense "the work of one man," though never has it been that very different thing, a "one-man work." No one layman (and very few ecclesiastics) has done a larger definite and objective work for the Catholic Church in our time than Mr. Britten."