Devotional and controversial works are numerous, and a few at least, such as the writings of St. Liguori, Father Faber, Dr. Manning, and Cardinal Wiseman, the Guide for Catholic Young Women, Following of Christ, Catholic Christian Instructed, Lenten Monitor, as well as several others, should be always found in Catholic libraries. In history, as far as the English language
is concerned, we are not so rich. We have, it is true, four or five histories of Ireland, possessing peculiar merits, and exhibiting more or less defects, but all full of useful information. Lingard’s England, entire or abridged, is decidedly the best of that country. Shea’s History of the Catholic Missions in the United States, McSherry’s Maryland, Bishop Bayley’s Church in New York, McGee’s Irish Letters and Catholic History, De Courcey’s and Shea’s Catholic Church in America, go far to supply the defect, at least in part. Then there are the Works of Archbishop Hughes, one of the great prelates of the church in America, and the writings of Dr. O. A. Brownson, particularly his Essays and American Republic, than whom no man of our day, it is safe to say, writes with more vigor or with a clearer understanding of his subject. The works of Bishop England are, we regret to say, too little known, and, being for some time out of print, are now almost unattainable. Darras’s Church History, the only complete history of the church yet published in our language, should, if possible, be read by every Catholic, and find a conspicuous place in all our libraries. The Lives of Deceased Prelates of the United States, by Clarke, which has just been published, is a very valuable book, containing a great deal of remote and contemporary history; and if Mr. Shea could be induced by proper encouragement to further develop the subjects he has selected for his books, as we feel certain of his ability to do so, a great deal of additional matter connected with the struggles and sufferings of the early pioneers of religion, now almost forgotten or unknown, would be placed before the public. In biography, which maybe called history in detail, our resources are abundant. We have, besides numerous
lives of Christ, a complete Lives of the Popes, Butler’s Lives of the Saints, several of St. Patrick, St. Vincent de Paul, Curé of Ars, and some two hundred separate lives of the holy men and women who in every age of the church were conspicuous for their sanctity, wisdom, and devotion to the faith, a list of which may be chosen from the catalogue of any of our principal publishers; and last, though not least, is Montalembert’s great work, The Monks of the West, an American edition of which is just published.
So far as materials are concerned, we have a plenitude of them of every variety and in all departments of literature, and we have endeavored to show that very little money is required to purchase them. What is wanted is organization and action. For these we must depend to a great extent on the local pastors, and on the half a dozen leading laymen who are most generally to be found in every congregation. There is a homely proverb, but nevertheless true, that “what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.” Let one or two influential men in each parish think seriously over the matter, call their associates together, and explain to them the advantages to be derived by themselves and their children from cheap and good reading, collect the subscriptions, put themselves in communication with any of our Catholic booksellers, and the work is done. The first and most important step thus taken, the future welfare of the library is assured. It is unnecessary to say that such a movement ought to and would receive the warmest encouragement from their spiritual superiors. Apart from the benefits arising from the reading of moral books to the cause of religion, the spirit of mutual intercourse, interchange of thought, and
friendly co-operation engendered by reading the same book, and meeting at stated times for a common object, would lead insensibly to the formation of a compact and efficient organization, exceedingly useful when the interests of charity, education, or the church are to be subserved. Not only this, but, knowing how overtaxed are the attention and time of so many of our missionary priests in providing the means of building churches and schools, as well as attending to the spiritual wants of their scattered flocks, we consider that an intelligent body of young people, such as we would naturally expect to see connected with a library society, would form a valuable lay staff of workers whose pleasure it would be to aid their pastor in all his material transactions. The more intelligent Catholics become, the less trouble, in two ways, they entail on their spiritual guide. They become aware easily of his wants, or rather the wants of the church of which he is to them the representative, and need little inducement to contribute their means freely for the benefit of charity or religion, while, at the same time, they make the most efficient agents in influencing the actions of others with whom they are daily brought in contact.
Firmly believing that the spread of these societies throughout this country would have a most marked and beneficent effect, morally and mentally, on our rapidly growing Catholic population, we submit these remarks to the serious consideration of the reverend clergy, and of those laymen who have been favored with more wealth and a better education than the majority of their fellow-Catholics. We must not forget that we live in an age of great mental activity and progress, so-called. Let us keep pace with our neighbors in everything that leads to the acquisition of true knowledge, but let our progress be in the right direction, and worthy of the name we bear, and of the religion we profess.
[145] History of the Protestant Reformation. By the Most Rev. M. J. Spalding, D.D. Baltimore.
[146] Mary, Queen of Scots. By James F. Meline. New York. 1871.