[We took occasion, some months ago, to sketch a number of the charitable works of Paris, in the hope of stirring the emulation of some of our leisured, zealous, and wealthy fellow-citizens to undertake something of the kind in this densely crowded city. The correspondent whose communication is given below, and whose contributions have often graced our pages, has felt her soul stirring with the same impulse in visiting Catholic Europe. Her earnest words came appropriately after the letter we published last month respecting a Refuge or Central Mission-House for vagabond children. There lies an open field where hundreds may work without jostling each other; and we hope this iron may be hammered while it is hot into a practical shape, and not merely serve as a poker to a useless fire of sentimental philanthropy. There is nothing like reducing the abstract to the concrete, sentiment to work, resolution to definite action.
We venture to suggest something else, also, to those of our fair readers who may be awakened to a desire of claiming their woman's rights by the appeal of their gifted countrywoman. It is practical, and yet not so difficult, as sending checks for one thousand dollars, or searching the streets for vagrant children. A society exists in Paris for making and embroidering vestments and other ornaments for the altars of poor churches and missions. Why not inaugurate the same work among the ladies of New York, for the benefit, first, of small country churches and chapels in our own diocese, and secondarily of similar churches elsewhere? We cannot rival Paris by a sudden coup de main or accomplish everything in a day. But it is possible to make a beginning with one necessary work of charity after another, and to bring them gradually to the colossal dimensions which want and misery and vice have attained without any effort.—Ed. C. W.]
In The Atlantic Monthly of April and May, 1868, appeared a generous and high-toned article, entitled "Our Roman Catholic Brethren," in which the author, appreciating the fact that no one can lose ground by treating with justice those who differ from him in opinion, frankly recognized the noble struggles of our priesthood and the success with which they have been crowned.
One assertion in this article we shall venture to comment upon, making this the occasion for a few suggestions to the Catholic women of the United States, whose right to share the labors of Catholic men is inalienable and incontestable, being founded upon the unvarying teaching of the church.
The author, in speaking of a missionary bishop whom he had known and respected as an "absolute gentleman," an "exquisite human being," in whom all the frailties springing from self-love had been consumed, leaving the "whole man kind, serene, urbane, and utterly sincere," concludes thus: "A Catholic priest, indeed, would be much to blame if he failed to attain a high degree of serenity, moral refinement, and paternal dignity;" because, be it understood, he has neither family cares nor business anxieties to harass him.
Most assuredly true, so far as concerns priests in a Catholic country, where the ranks of the priesthood are full; perhaps true in a purely missionary country, where the priest, in his intervals of repose, communes with his only companions, God and nature; absolutely untrue when applied to a parish priest in the United States, drained of his spiritual riches all day, and often half the night, and for relaxation thrown sometimes upon the companionship of his inferiors. It is no uncommon thing to see a noble priest, at the very centre and core of life, when powers should be ripe, strength unbroken, hope and nerves unshaken, break down, crushed under the weight of work which should have been divided between several persons, leaving to each one work enough to occupy a man of average capacity, time for study, and time for the recuperation of his spiritual powers by prayer and meditation.
Now, where is the remedy for this? Not in a sufficient number of clergymen, because we cannot hope for such a blessing for many years to come. Not in a diminution of labor, thank God, for the domain of the church is constantly widening, and souls are clamoring more and more eagerly for the privileges of religion. The assistance must come from the laity, not working each one after a fashion of his or her own, but in a systematic manner, doing the work recommended by the parish priest in the way most agreeable to him.
That the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul contains all the elements necessary for providing Catholic men with missionary work, we are well aware; therefore we address ourselves exclusively to Catholic women.
Early in February of the present year, on a radiant Roman day, the remains of Saint Ignatius, bishop and martyr, were brought in triumph to the Colosseum from their resting-place in San Clemente. There, where, 1758 years before, the cry had gone up from 80,000 spectators, "Ignatius to the lions!" the Litany of the Saints arose to heaven; there, where wild beasts had snarled over their consecrated prey, canonized bones lay on a gorgeous bier, surrounded by cardinals, bishops, priests, and religious, gathering about them in veneration. One, at least, of those who watched the scene from the crumbling galleries, asked herself eagerly if God has ceased to call upon his children for sacrifices, as he called upon the early Christians; and conviction answered. No; that, though martyrdom has a mysterious value in the eyes of the church, she tenderly loves those who patiently endure the pangs of "that incurable malady which we call life."