The Blakes and the Flanagans, BQR for April 1856

The Blakes and Flanagans.

As the scene of the Blakes and Flanagans is laid in New York, and as the design of the story is to serve the cause of Catholic education in this country, we wish Mrs. sadlier had made it a tale illustrative of simply Catholic Life in the United States. She would thus have adapted it to the whole Catholic American public, and not to part only of our Catholic population. The excellent lesson she would read our Catholic parents is needed by those of American as well as by those of Irish birth, and it loses much of ts force by the special application she has seen proper t make of it. Catholicity is Catholic, and identified with no particular race or nation, and to mixture of races, and where the Catholic body is made up not only of Native Americans, but of emigrants from every European nation, is by no means to advance its interests.

We have thus far, as everybody knows, depended chiefly on the immigration of Catholic foreigners for the growth and prosperity of the church in the United States, and on the Irish more than on any other class of immigrants. The Irish immigrants are not the only Catholics in the country, as some good people imagine, but they, and their children born here, are a very large majority. In the greater number of place they make up the prinicpal part of our congregations, and are the most active, energetic, and devoted part, and the most liberal in supporting Catholic interests and institutions. No Catholic American is, or can be insensible to what we owe to Catholics born in Ireland for our present numbers and position. But, we think, the time has come when we should cease to speak of ourselves as Irish, German, English, French, or even as American Catholics, and accustom ourselves to think and speak of ourselves in religion simply as Catholics, and in all else as men and Americans. These foreign national distinctions, though naturally dear to the immigrants themselves, who are not expected to forget their fatherland, cannot be kept up in this country, even if it were desirable that they should be. The children of foreign-born parents do and will grow up Americans, and as Americans in thought, affection, and interest, as the descendant of the first settlers of Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, or New York. The foreign national distinctions are, for the most part, obliterated with the first generation, and all attempts to perpetuate them, especially where Englis is the mother tongue, are and must be fruitless.  Catholics in the country, of whatever national origin, are in general heartily tired of them. They serve only to divide and weaken our forces, to place us in a false position in the country, and prevent us from feeling and acting as one homogeneous body. We are all Catholics; we are all Americans ; and our duty and our interest alike require us to avoid all expressions that must excite in ourselves or in others a feeling to the contrary. If a man is good Catholic, and does his duty as a loyal. American citizen, it is nothing to me where he or his parents were born; and if I do my duty as a Catholic and as American citizen, nobody has any right to object to me that this is my native land. The only man for us, as Catolics, to mark and avoid is he, whether American-born or foreign-born, who labors to stir up prejudices of race or nation amongst us, draws odiouscomparisons between native-born and foreign-born Catholics, and seeks to divide us according to the race or nation from which we have sprung. Such a man is an emissary of Satan, and no Catholic, no lover of the country should bid him good morrow. Nolite recipere eum in domum, nec Ave ei dixeritis. He is worse than a heretic. Let the most worthy fill the most exalted places; let no one be chosen or rejected solely for his birthplace, or that of his progenitors. Undoubtedly, we want a national clergy, that is, national in the sense that they understand and appreciate the real interests and wants of Catholicity in the United States, and will labor for them with enlightened and true-hearted zeal; but it is not therefore necessary they should all be born or educated in the country. We have never yet sympathized, and trust we never shall sympathize, with that spirit, formerly so strong in Poland and England, which wold suffer none but natives of the land to recieve preferment in the national church; we will never stop to ask the nationality of the priest before consenting to recieve the sacraments at his hands, or to inquire whether the prelate whom the Holy Ghost has placed over us be Saxon or Celt, before begging his blessing, or yielding him the reverence and obedience due to his pastoral office. This is the view we have always taken ever since we have had the honor to conduct a Catholic review, and it is the only view, in our judgment, proper to be entertained by any Catholic in the Union. 

It is to be regretted that Mrs. Sadlier should have written her book with a different view, and in an exclusive national spirit. The distinction of Saxon and Celt does not belong to this country, and no good can come from an attempt to naturalize it here. It should never find its way into our Catholic uralize it here. It should never find its way into our Catholic American literature. The interests, the wants, the trials and the dangers of Catholics here are the same whatever their original nationality. The children of all, reference had to their social condition, are alike exposed to the corrupting influences of a non-Catholic society. The children of the Blakes and Flanagans are neither more nor kess exposed than thr children of American-born tradesmen. The distinction here is not between Catholics and American, but between Catholic and non-Catholic. Mrs. Sadlier writes as if Irish and Catholic, and American and non-Catholic, were synonymous, and thus unintentionally adopts the views of the Know-nothings, and plays into their hands by representing Catholics as an alien body or a foreign colony in the bosom of the commonwealth. She, moreover, throws a additional obstacle in the way of the conversion of our non-Catholic countrymen by enlisting their national sentiments and prejudices against our religion. But she is quite mistaken in her assumption. The archbishop of New York has proved, in his lecture delivered in Baltimore last January, that a large majority of the Catholic population of the country are native-born Americans. For the great majority of us, this is the land of our birth, our country, the only one we have ever seen, and the only one we ever expect or wish to call our own. This is an important fact not to be lost sight of. Catholics in the United States are to all intents and purposes Americans, and, as to the great majority, cannot with any propriety at all be addressed Catholics here as Americans, as a homogeneous body, without reference to this fact that some of us were born in foreign countries. This, too, is what those not of American birth ask of us, and what will best please them. They have chosen their home here; they regard this as their country, love it as their country, love it as their own, identify themselves with it, and wish to be treated, not as foreigners, but as Americans, standing on the broad platform of American equality. They very properly resent distinctions made to their prejudice, but they ask not distinctions made to their prejudice, but they ask no distinctions to be made in their favor. All they ask is equality, and equality is best secured to them by saying nothing about their birth-place, and treating them precisely as if they were born on American soil.

Mrs. Sadlier not being an American herself, and living under a foreign government, has not felt as we feel, the importance of not making any distinction in our Catholic population on account of their birthplace, and has therefore failed to do us the service in her Blakes and Flanagans she no doubt intended, and has less served that portion of us who were born in Ireland than she imagines. She would have done better to have regarded us all simply as Catolic, since she was writing with a Catholic purpose, and spared her sneers at native Americans, and the expression of her contempt for the country. She will be thought by many to be simply giving expression to the sentiments of those Catholics among us who are of Irish birth, which, coupled with the movements that have for some time been going on amongst a few of them, may subject their American patriotism to undeserved suspicion. As an American, whose ancestors have been identified with the country for seven or eight generations, we protest against th distinctions she makes; for if they are made, they will inevitably place Irish-born Catholics in a position inferior to that of American-born Catholics. We will not consent to be placed below their level, and they shall not, as far as depends of us, be placed below ours. We wish to be treated as Catholic Americans, and as Catholic Americans we make no distinction between foreign-born and native-born Catholics, except to protest against all such distinction; and we hope all catholic writers, authors, editors, and lecturers, will do the same, and address always the whole body of Catholics in the county, as one body, forming an integral and living portion of one American people.

But, aside from the objection we have pointed out, and which we can in some measure excuse in Mrs. Sadlier, living and writing as she does in a foreign country, we think well of her Blakes and Flanagans. It is a work of genius, and possesses real merit as a work of fiction; but it has a far greater merit as a work of high moral aim, intended to impress upon the minds and hearts of parents the necessity of securing a Catholic education for their children. If there is any one thing more than another that the church looks after, it is the religious education of the young. She has a mother’s love for children, and says always, in the language of our Lord, “Suffer like children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” In no way can we better prove our Catholic spirit and our love and fidelity to the church, than by laboring diligently and persuasively for the religious instruction and training of the young. Mrs. Sadlier, in calling our attention to this great subject, and doing her best to enlist all our zeal in its behalf, has done well, has done nobly, and deserves, as she receives, our gratitude.

Owing to the multitude of immigrants pouring in upon us before we have had time or means to prepare for their reception, to the poverty, and we may say little education, of large numbers of them, to our want of churches, priests, and proper teachers, and the absolute necessity of providing for the administration of the sacraments to those ready to perish for the lack of them, we have not been able to do all for our children that we could wish, nor all that was necessary; but we cannot, whether native-born or foreign born, be justly accused of having been indifferent to Catholic education; and an impartial judgment will honor us for what we have thus far done, rather than condemn us because we have not done more. That some of our children have been lost for the lack of proper looking after we cannot deny; but all have not been lost, as is evident from the fact that the majority of us now living have been born in the country. In an old Catholic country, with permanent congregations, plenty of churches, a full supply of priests, and a completely organized hierarchy, there is all the machinery for education at hand, and it is easily placed in operation. But here all is new, and we have had everything to create at once, in a moment, and with very inadequate means at our disposal. No suitable provision could be made for the young without the hierarchy, without priests, churches, and fixed congregations. Without these, where was to be our centre of operations, who were to be our teachers, and who were to furnish the means? We have this far has, it would seem, enough to do to effect the ecclesiastical organization of the country, to gather congregations, erect churches, provide for the education of the clergy, and to get ourselves into a position in which we could devote ourselves to looking after and educating the children.

We doubt if even our well-informed friends have duly considered what has been done by Catholics here since 1785, five years before the first bishop for the United States was consecrated. At that time we numbered only about thirty thousand, now we count at least two million and a half. Then there were only four or five churched in the Union, now there are seven archbishops and thirty-five bishops; then there were only twenty-two or twenty-three priests, now there are seventeen hundred and sixty-one. We had then no theological seminaries; we have now thirty-three, besides five preparatory seminaries. We had no college; we have now twenty-six incorporated and nine unincorporated colleges. There was then no female academy, and now we have one hundred and thirty-seven. Now when it is considered that three fifths of these churched have been built, and these seminaries, colleges, and academies have been founded, during the last sixteen ears, it must be conceded that we have not been wholly idle, or sparing of our names. When we take into the account that our colleges exceed in number those of any Protestant sect, and surpass, with three or four exceptions, in the beauty and extent of their edifices, any others in the country; that our churches number among them not few of the largest, most splendid and costly in the Union; and add our convents, nunneries, female academies, hospitals, and orphan asylums, we are ourselves at a loss to determine whence have come the means to erect them. The means have come, in chief part, from these who within the last thirty years have come into the country, with little except their hands and industrious dispositions. Some help has, indeed, come from abroad, but we have contributed to pious, charitable, and other objects in Ireland alone, to say nothing of any other foreign nation. While engaged in building these churches, colleges, academies, hospitals, orphan asylums, &c., we could not be expected to provide equally for the education of all our children, especially to children of the very poor; and before we have erected them, had permanent congregations organized, a spiritual home for Catholic parents provided, the hierarchy established, and a supply of priests and teachers obtained, we neither had nor could put in operation the necessary machinery for looking after and educating the mass of poor children whose parents were unable themselves, no matter for what cause or causes, to give them a proper religious training. Looking at the difficulties we have had to contend with, the much we have had to do, and the unsettled and moving character of a large portion of our population, our poverty, and our comparatively few priests and still fewer teachers, it would be unjust to blame us for the past, or to cast the shadow of a reproach upon those who have thus far labored to provide for our catholic wants. We have done much, far more than could reasonably have been expected; and if we are still behind Lower Canada, which is substantially a Catholic province, we are, as to the life, vigor, energy and prosperity of our Catholicity, behind no other Catholic population on this continent.

So much we have felt due to ourselves to say in our defence against the charge of neglecting Catholic education, brought against us especially by our Canadian neighbors. But we admit that what was sufficient for our defence in the past will not suffice us in the future. We have no longer the same excuse, the same inability. There is now, owing to a rush of immigrants, throwing an immense Catholic population into the country in want of every thing, altogether faster than it has been possible for us to provide for them, or for them to provide for themselves an immerse number of Catholic children unprovided with the means of Catholic education. These we must now look after, and we shall be inexcusable if we do not. Many of them are orphans or half-orphans; and large numbers of others, from a variety of causes, receive and can receive no education at home. Their parents, where their parents are living, are in many cases too poor and too unacquainted with home education, to train them up, in this non-Catholic country, I their holy religion. All the life and energy of the parents are exhausted in efforts to obtain the bare necessaries of physical existence. Besides, a very considerable portion of our people are from a country where it was not so necessary to look after the training of the young as it is with us. Let a child grow up wild in Ireland and he will still grow up a Catholic, for the tone of society, the very atmosphere of the country is Catholic, but neglect a child here, and he is equally sure to grow up a Protestant or an unbeliever. It is not every parent who has to delve from morning to night, that at once perceives this difference, or is able to bring himself on the instant to take the precautions required by it. These and other kindred causes have thrown upon our hands a large number of children from five to sixteen years of age,  who are in great peril, and whose wants are not met by the arrangements we have hitherto been able to adopt. But to suppose our bishops and clergy, or even our laity, are insensible to this fact, would be a great mistake, and a grave injustice. The whole Catholic public is becoming alive to it, and when we consider what they have already done, in the way erecting churches and providing for the education of the children of the more easy classes, we may rest assured that some way will in an incredibly short space of time be found to meet the emergency.

There is no doubt that one of the first and most necessary measures for the protection of our children is the establishment of Catholic day-school. They are certainly doing great good, and must be supported, not only for what they themselves do, but for the opportunity they will afford of doing something more. But we cannot agree with Mrs. Sadlier that they are themselves sufficient to secure our children, In her story the children of the Flanagans grow up good Catholics, and the children of the Blakes bad Catholics, or no Catholics at all; and she would have us believe that the difference is all owing to the fact that Tim Flanagan sends his children to a Catholic school, and Miles Blake sends his to the public school. But in the progress of her story she unwillingly assigns other cause amply sufficient of themselves to account for it. The system of domestic training in the two families is very different. Miles Blake himself is represented as a sorry sort of a Catholic, who holds to the church from the force of habit and a point of honor, rather than from and earnest conviction or living faith. He is utterly unconscious of the dangers to which his children are exposed, and takes no pains to protect them. It cannot be beaten into his head that his son Harry can ever turn his back either of the old faith or the old land. Instead of teaching Harry his religion, and leading him to love and practice it, he encourages him to fight those who speak against it, and procures him many a broken head in quarrels with non-Catholic boys. The boy knows little of his religion, knows nothing and cares less for Ireland, and has only his pugnacious qualities developed and commended by his father, who hears of his fights with great glee, and bids him “give it to the Yankee boys.” What wonder that he grows up indifferent to his religion, and that, when he finds out that this is his native country, and that, after all, he is himself a Yankee boy, he loses his respect for the church, for his father, and his father’s original country? Hardly any thing good could have come of him, had he gone to St. Peter’s school, so long as he was so injudiciously treated at home. 

Tim Flanagan is an Irishman as well as Miles Blake, his brother-in-law, but he is a sensible man, who loves his religion and understands the dangers to which in a city like ours the children of Catholic parents are exposed. He turns his attention to bringing up his children, not foreigners in their native land, but Catholics, not to fight and knock down Yankee buys under the pretence of vindicating the old faith or the old land, but to be practically Catholics, loving their religion, and seeking to honor it and their father’s native country as well as their own by their virtues and their correct and winning deportment. With such a father and his judicious training, Ned Flanagan would have passed through the public schools, even, with comparative safety. The home influences would have counteracted to a great extent the unfavorable influences of the school-room. The Catholic school, being as it was a very excellent school,-not such as some we have seen,-was unquestionably an advantage, but even without it, Ned Flanagan would never have been a Harry Blake; nor with it would Harry Blake have been a Ned Flanagan. More depends on home and family than on the school, and when parents are sufficiently interested and disposed themselves to train their children right at home, there is less danger than Mrs. Sadlier would have us believe in our public school, bas as they are. She has not made out her case. To have done that she should have subjected both parties to the same home influences, and have made the difference of schools the only difference to which the different results could be ascribed. Her own good sense and correct observation got the better of her theory.

Let no one, however, infer from these remarks that we like common-school system, so long as it is in the hands of non-Catholics, or are indifferent to the establishment of Catholic schools. We need these Catholic day-schools, as we cannot doubt, since our bishops and clergy, to whom the decision in such matters belongs are, everywhere laboring to establish them. All we wish to do here is, to guard against expecting from our own day-schools what they of themselves alone will not and cannot give, and against attributing to the public schools what is really the fault of Catholic parents themselves. The public schools are ruinous, if our Catholic parents truth to them and neglect or but ill perform the duties of domestic or home education; but when parents understand and faithfully perform their own duties, and themselves bring up their children in the fear and nurture of the Lord, the public schools will rarely of themselves cause our children to apostatize. The blame we cast on Protestants and the public schools is much more frequently deserved by Catholic parents who neglect entirely, or worse than neglect entirely, religious education of their children. But this fact does not lessen the importance or the necessity of Catholic day-schools; for it is impossible to make all who are able even to watch with proper care over the faith and piety of their children, and be always on hand to answer any difficulty that may be suggested to the child’s minds, or to remove instantly and false impression the lessons of the school-room or of school companions may have made. Many Parents, finding themselves here in a strange country, poor, disappointed in their expectations, or corrupted through evil example, fall into habits of intemperance, and are unable to exert any but a bad influence on their children. The poor children have no home, and are worse than orphans. Others would do their duty, but never themselves having received a good home education, do not know how to do it; and, with the best dispositions in the world, do, by their over-indulgence or over-severity, or by both combined, more to alienate their children, in a country like ours, from their religion that to attach them to it. Another class of parents are equally too poor, and necessarily too much engrossed with procuring the bare means of subsistence, to be able to give their children a religious education, to watch over their faith and morals, and to protect them from the dangerous influenced to which they are exposed. Finally, there is a large class of orphans, who have no relatives and none that are able to adopt them and supply a father’s or a mother’s care. These considerations are sufficient to show that we cannot rely safely either on the public schools or on home education; and the schools of our own and very necessary, especially since there can be no hope of the state’s consenting to authorize separate schools, as it should, for Catholic and Protestant children. Undoubtedly, then, the first step in preserving our children is to establish, wherever practicable, and at the earliest moment possible, parochial schools.

But these schools even will not suffice without the co-operation of parents, or without a substitute of some sort for that co-operation. We do not find that all who are educated in Catholic schools are Ned Flanagans. Many a Harry Blake, or even worse, has come out from our colleges. The fact is well known, and is deplorable; where lies the fault, it is not for us to say. All we would say is, that out boys go to college, are surrounded, as we suppose, by Catholic influences during their college life, come out sometimes well disposed, and, after a year or two, begin to neglect their religion, and, finally, stray away and are no more heard of as Catholics. It would be unjust to attribute this sad result to the good fathers who, in general, have charge of our colleges, for they do all that mean in their ssituation can do. We bring no accusation  anybody; we refer to the fact to prove that Catholic schools alone will not accomplish the end we have in view. The principal reason in the case of the graduate of our colleges is that, on going forth from the care of their alma mater, they find no Catholic society, no Catholic public opinion, to encourage, protect, and sustain them. If they enter not a seminary to study for the priesthood, they are thrown into non-Catholic society, exposed to non-Catholic influences, and, perhaps, soon adapt the notion that their Catholicity is in the way of their getting on in the world; and, also, not unlikely, that they are not treated with as much warmth and consideration by the clergy and the better class of Catholics as they think themselves entitled to, or as they had expected. If they have not parents of standing and judgement, piety and intelligence, who maintain an influence over them and are capable or directing them, they are in great danger of becoming, if not apostates, at least lukewarm Catholics. We fear that not so much had been done as might be, to save these young men. Nothing will do more to save them, than the feeling that Catholics, especially the clergy, take a deep interest in them, consult their welfare, and are desirous of engaging them in every way possible in the service of religion, and of advancing them in life. The way to retain our young men, college-bred or not, is to place a generous confidence in them, to devise ways and means by which they can take an active part in promoting Catholic interests. We lose them by giving them nothing to do, and leaving them to run away with the notion that they are regarded as of no importance, are counted for nothing, and must seek their friends outside of the Catholic body. But even here we see, as things settle down, the complaint we might be disposed to make is begun to be removed. We are establishing all over the country young men’s institutes-associations looking to the intellectual and literacy improvement of the members, and to the direct or indirect advancement of Catholic interests. In these institutes our young men, especially our educated young men, can take part; find an outlet for their internal activity, an employment for their learning and talents, and a gratification of their social feelings, and laudable desire to distinguish themselves. They get enlisted too, actively enlisted, on the side of their religion, and, consequently, become more interested in it and more firmly attached to it. We have seen this in Albany, Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans, and other places. They create a Catholic public opinion among Catholics, and a Catholic public opinion, too, that extends beyond Catholics and acts on the whole population of the city. It is not easy to estimate the amount of good that has already been done by these institutes; certainly not the amount that would be done were they established in all our cities and large towns, as they easily might be. In these institutes, as much should be done by the members as possible, and it is very desirable that young men be encouraged to come forward as lecturers. Here is room for improvement. The institutes have been too ambitious of getting lectures of reputation from abroad, which often occasions a heavy expense, and embarrasses the infant society, besides defeating one of their chief ends- that of developing and employing the talent and learning of –that of developing and employing the talent and learning of the young men in the place. We do not want lecturing should become a business or profession for any one. These associations need not excite any distrust on the part of the clergy, and, as a general thing, they do not and will not. We have found the clergy almost everything their warm and efficient patrons. They are not, and should not be organized without the good will of the clergy, who should have the power to suppress them, the instant they seem likely to exert and influence unfavorable to religion; it is desirable, we think, that they should be managed chiefly by the young men themselves, and that as much latitude should be allowed them as in compatible with their fidelity to the church. In this country it does not answer to attempt to hold our young men with too taught a rein. The dominant sentiment of the country is liberty, and this sentiment is as strong in our Catholic young men as any other; perhaps even stronger. We must yield much to that sentiment, and leave our young men all the liberty in these institutes compatible with their faith and duty as Catholics. This can be done with more safety here than elsewhere, because liberty is less a novelty in this country, and there, of course, will be; but, when they are small, we must wink at them, for we are never to expect perfection in any thing human.

Another excellent way of preserving our young men is to enlist them in societies or associations for protecting our instructing poor Catholic children, in what are called Young Catholics’ Friends’ Societies. We grow attached to that we labor for, and we often secure our own salvation in seeking that of others. The clergy are too few, and have too many duties to be able themselves to look after the multitude of our poor children, to gather them together, and give them that spiritual instruction which they need, They must be assisted in this so necessary work by the laity. But here again we have already begun the work, and nothing remains but to extend and perfect it. In Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Portland. Syracuse, Newark, Brooklyn, New York, and we know not in how many other places, these associations already exist. They accomplish a double object. They are of great spiritual utility to the members themselves, engage them in a Catholic work, and develop in them a Catholic public spirit. They deepen their love of their religion, strengthen their attachment to the Catholic body, and secure them graces which enable them the more easily to resist the non-Catholic influences of the country. They enlist them anew, and in a visible manner, in the army of our Lord, and make them feel that they really ae soldiers in his service. The more we can enlist in this way, the more do we protect, and the more are we able to effect for the children of the poor.

We know not why there need now be any of our children lost that human aid can save. We are aware of the difficulties which have heretofore existed, but they do not exist now, or at least only in a far less degree. Now we have our hierarchy, and a large number of priests; the country all dotted over with churches, and wherever there is a church, a congregation. Very few Catholics now live so remote from church that they cannot, occasionally at least, hear mass. We have a laity able and willing, if called upon, to do all that the laity can do to assist the clergy in the religious instruction of the children who cannot receive a proper religious education from their parents. Alone, the clergy, we admit cannot do all that needs to be done; that is, they cannot do it with their own hands. But they can in this matter multiply themselves a thousand-fold, by calling to their aid the young men and women of their parish, employing them to find out the children and to bring them to catechism, and, under the direction of the pastor, teach them the catechism itself. Some may have it for their mission simply to teach Christian doctrine, others to look after the children of parents unable or too careless to send their children; others still may have it for theirs to raise funds to clothe decently the children of the destitute. In this way the whole congregation may be engaged as a committee of safety for the rising generation. The parish might be divided for this purpose into districts, and special persons appointed to look after the children of a particular district, and thus every Catholic child would be known, looked after, and protected. Not a child could then be lost or tampered with, without the whole congregation knowing it, and, if necessary, rushing to its rescue, and the soul of any one child is worth more than all this would cost. The thing is practicable enough, and is no more than some Protestant sects are doing to steal our children from us, can we not be as active and as vigilant as the enemies of our religion, and do as much to save them as they to destroy them? The thing is already done in many places, and it needs only to have attention called to it, in order, after a little time, to have it done everywhere. It is nothing new, it in no suggestion of ours, and we are doing nothing but smply urging the extension of that which already exists.

Our Catholic women, too, can do a great service, not only in teaching girls the catechism, as the young men do our boys, but in looking after them in the depths of poverty and misery, clothing them, and bringing them together, and teaching them plain sewing and various other things which they should know, and which they cannot learn from their parents. This is a work for our rich and fashionable women, and for all in easy circumstances. They do it in many places already, and perhaps to some extent wherever there is a Catholic congregation. It is a work congenial to the heart of a true Catholic women, and a work that would be a vast service to those who live in society, in preventing them from being too much engrossed with the world, and protecting them from its evil examples. It would make them feel more deeply their Catholic faith, and more sensible of the fact that all Catholics are equal members of Christ’s mystic body.  They do much, and God bless them for it, but we want them to do on a large scale, though in a quiet manner, what is now done only on a small scale.  Let them each for herself form the resolution, that no Catholic girl in the land shall be lost for the lack of catholic care in instruction.  With so many thousands at work with all the zeal and devotion of the female heart enlightened and exalted by the grace of God, no one would dare reproach us, that we do not know how , in this country, to save our children to the church.  We must all set to work, old and young, male and female, to assist our clergy in saving this multitude of children God has blessed us with, and who are the future hope of the church and the country.  It is our duty, and at present our most pressing duty and in no work can we engage with a greater certainty of drawing  down the blessing of God upon ourselves and our republic.  

This will have, in various ways, a good effect on our children.  Children have a public opinion of their own, and are more governed by it than grown up people are by theirs.  Now a large number of our children are lost, because they have got the notion that they are not regarded as of any importance to the church, and that nobody in the church cares much about them.  They thus corrupt and pervert on another.  But what we are urging would give them just public opinion.  They would feel that they are cared for, that they belong, not only to the church by their baptism, but to the Catholic body; and that, if they are lost, it is their own fault, not the fault, the indifference, or the neglect of others.  They would be drawn to the church by gratitude for her care of them, her tenderness to the, and her wise foresight for the, and they would strengthen and confirm one another.  Each would become a sort of lay missionary to the other.  The history of the martyr age tells us of what children at a very tender age are capable; and if we get up among them what we venture to call a Catholic esprit du corps, we may defy, in general, the efforts of sectarians, philanthropists, and infidels, to seduce them from us. To this same end, it is important that every pains possible to be taken to bring children to church, and enable them to hear the best music we have, and to witness the imposing ceremonial of the Catholic service. The splendid services of the church makes a strong impression on young minds, give them associations which will render them incapable of ever being satisfied with the cold, dry, and prosaic services of the Protestant temple. Let our children have all the advantages possible of the Catholic service, and let them witness whatever is solemn, grand, and imposing, and have as many processions and performances of their own, in connection with religion, as possible. Whatever is pleasing or attractive in their young lives, should be associated with their church; for, in this country, it is through their hearts and their convictions, not simply by force of parental or pastoral authority, that they are to be preserved to Catholicity.

These are various things, which, it seems to us, are needed, in addition to the Catholic day-school, to secure the end our friend Mrs. Sadlier proposes to us in her Blakes and Flanagans, and all these things we have already commenced. We must indeed regret the many losses we have had in past times, but we are unable to see how they could, taking things as they were, have been avoided. But, if we suffer equal losses in future we shall be inexcusable, and shall have no right to expect the blessing of God upon the church in America. We are in a condition now, if we but put forth all our strength, and use all the means in our hands, to save the present rising generation. We have only to continue and extend what has already been commenced. Whether we shall do so or not, it is not for us to say; but, looking to the past, the fair conclusion is that we shall.

We have, undoubtedly, reached a crisis in Catholic affairs in this country. Hitherto we have had foreign immigration, not only to provide form but to rely upon, and the most thus far done has been done by foreign-born Catholics. Immigration is now rapidly diminishing, and seems likely to become in a few years too insignificant to mention. The future of Catholicity here, as the archbishop of New York has well remarked, depends, under God, on the Catholics now in the country, the majority of whom are native-born Americans. The responsibility now rest on us. We can no longer hope for accusations from abroad to make up for losses at home. In a short time, we shall be deprived of the wisdom, the experience, the sterling piety, zeal, and energy of those foreign-born Catholics to whom we owe our present commanding and prosperous condition. We are to be thrown back on ourselves, and left to our own resources, as native Americans. How we shall meet the crisis, we know not. We contemplate it not without some misgivings. Yet, when we remember that the God of our fathers is our God, and the God is here as well as in old Europe, we hope we shall do our best to prove ourselves not wholly unworthy of the trust committed to us. Yet we have a great work before us, and not easily shall we be able to prove at the end of seventy years a progress relatively as great as that made since 1785. We are saddened as well as gladdened at the prospect before us, and fear that the children will hardly make good the places of the fathers.

Nevertheless, it does not become us to despond. It become us rather to prove that Catholicity loses none of its virtue by passing into a native American heart, and that even Americans can be good Catholics, live, and, if need be, die for their religion; that our natural power energy, and activity, do not desert us on our becoming Catholics, and that it is possible for us to hold as high a rank in the Catholic world as we now hold in the commercial and industrial world. Let us strive to prove it; and, as the first step towards it, let us lose no time in putting in operation all the machinery necessary to save the present rising generation, the future hope of the church and the republic.