Catholic Problems in Western Canada

by George Thomas Daly

This would have a great bearing on various issues and offer a great medium for organized opinion and co-ordinated action. Has not the time come when our women forces have to organize and unite into one great Canadian Catholic Body?

3. Literature, Publicity.—We are living in an age when literature and publicity are the great vehicles of public opinion. We need, to carry on the work successfully, plenty of good literature and efficient, sane publicity. The hour has come to walk right out in the open and nail our sign to the post at every cross-way. Our Catholic Immigrants are entitled to this service which will offset the influences of dangerous agencies that meet them too often as they set foot on our shores.

A new map of Western Canada with designations of Churches and Missions, with resident or non-resident priests is needed. The map published before the war would have to be revised, for the growth of the Church has been wonderful—in certain dioceses particularly. Attractive booklets giving useful information and warning the incoming immigrants against the specific dangers he is liable to meet with; folders and cards with addresses of the nearest Catholic churches and rectories, with 'phone number of the Catholic Bureau, should be ready on hand. A list of the various offices of the Society and of other Catholic Social Centres should also be now prepared. This, we may remark, is very important and demands careful study and experience. A short snappy leaflet very often goes further than a diluted booklet. What others have done or are doing in this line will be of great help. Before the war the Catholic Immigration Society of Canada had such literature. The Catholic Truth Society of Canada could co-operate in this matter.

To reach the Catholic immigrant and emigrant is very often a problem of publicity. Posters on the docks, in the railroad stations and other prominent places, cards, notices on the bulletin-boards of the steamers and hotels, distribution of leaflets on boats and trains, copies of current activities in the newspapers, advertising in our papers and papers abroad, listing of the Catholic Bureau with other similar work in the city, are some of the means to keep our work before the public. Let us not be afraid to place our name where it can be seen. We cannot afford to hide our light under the bushel. Let it burn bright, to attract and guide our Catholic brother as he comes to our shores and goes through our country.

4. Co-operation.—Co-operation of all our bureaus with our Catholic Societies of Emigration of England, Ireland, etc., with Canadian Government bureaus, Federal and Provincial and various other benevolent organizations in Canada, as Traveller's Aid, etc., will be a marked and appreciated aid to our work. And when others will see us at "Our Father's work," they will refer our own to us. This is the ordinary experience of all engaged in Social Service activities.

The Catholic Emigration Society of England has been recently formed and is preparing for the exodus that will follow the inauguration of the Government schemes for assisting ex-Service men. This Society will work on national lines with international co-operation. The "Universe" of Sept. 26, 1919, gives us an account of the first meeting. The movement is endorsed by the Hierarchy and representatives of Catholic life in the British Isles, Canada, Australia and South-Africa.

5. Finance.—Naturally this work will demand funds. Catholic Charity will come to our rescue as this is certainly a work of preservation which should appeal to any zealous Catholic. And what others have been able to do, why could we not find means to do?

But in this work the Canadian Government will give a helping hand. The authorities in Ottawa will be the first to appreciate what we will do for our new Canadians. In a recent memoir submitted to the Premiers of our various Provinces the social welfare of the immigrants was one of the topics to which particular attention was given. We can see that the Government will be ready to subsidize social work in Immigration, provided there is no over-lapping. There will be subsidies for our work, if we are organized and ask for them. When looking over the amounts distributed to various Immigrations Societies, we see, for instance, in 1913-1914 the Salvation Army receiving a subsidy of over $22,000, while all the Catholic Immigration Societies received only about $6,000. We conclude that it is simply because we did not ask for our "Pound of Flesh."

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Should not, therefore, the work of Catholic Immigration with all its wonderful possibilities for the welfare of Church and Country, appeal to our Canadian Knights of Columbus? Many and many a settler has been lost to the Church—he, his children and future generations—because perhaps no one was there to receive him on his arrival in his new Country, to help him to settle where there was a church, a priest, and a Catholic school. No one needs more the help of his Catholic brother than the immigrant, who has just broken away with a past made up of customs, friendships, racial feelings, of all that is dear to man's heart, and faces an enigmatic future.