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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
Atlanta, Ga.— I Have read with considerable in
terest and attention the report of publicity commit
tee and the supplement for the year ending August
3 1, 1919. I am astounded at the spledid work done
by the Catholic Laymen’s Association in furnishing in
formation about Catholicity throughout the State of
Georgia and the South. Please send me half dozen
of your pamphlets on ’Catholics and Marriage.’
New York.— You will be pleased to know that I
am using to good effect your report and the very
valuable statement of Bishop Keiley, with the officials
of an organization in Philadelphia and in Newark,
which will eventually do work like your own Associa
tion. I am also using it with a friend in London who
wants to become addicted’ to this kind of work.”
Cold Spring, N. Y.—‘‘Both Fr. Bergen and myself
wish to extend to you and the Laymen’s League our
most sincere thanks for your courtesy in sending us
your pamphlets, and in putting our names on your
mailing list. 1 also received the Bishop’s pamphlet,
for which I thank you. I know we shall find them
very useful in our work here. I may mention that,
though I have read of your work many times, and
have heard some rather flattering criticisms, it was
especially commended to me by a very dear friend.”
Vidalia, Ga. I am in receipt of yours of the I 2th
inst., and ask that you please send me a copy of
the Douay Edition, referred to in your letter. I am
glad to see you sending out literature. It, no doubt,
will have a good effect. So many people are ignorant
as to what Catholics believe. May you continue the
work and be blessed in your efforts.”
Columbus, Ga.—“Being 78J years old, I am too old
to study criticisms or controversies; 1 did not ask for
for the pamphlets which you advertised for any such
purpose. But having recently lost, by death the wife
with whom I had lived 46 years, I was interested
chiefly in Chapter XIII. of ‘The Faith of Our Fathers.’
Hebrews, 12th chapter, 23d verse, I have always un
derstood, gives us as among the helps and privileges
of the Christian dispensation ‘Jesus the Mediator and
the ministry of Angels and of the just made perfect.’
Your understanding of ‘Communion of Saints’ is
broader than I have been accustomed to, and I am
trying to claim all that I may rightfully claim under
this head. We are Catholics and Methodists and Bap
tists, etc., generally and chiefly because we were
'born that way.’ I love them all—I would thank you
for the Testament if you can spare it.”
New York.—"I thank you very much for your two
letters of November 20th, and also for the copies of
the report and the copies of the Bishop’s letter, which
arrived in good time for the purpose for which I
sought them. I am very much pleased to know that
you hope to have your Laymen s Association organ
ized in South Carolina. There is no reason why
there should not be such a League in every state in
the Union.
St. Louis, Mo.—“I am trying to locate for the library
a pamphlet entitled ‘Catholicism and Politics,’ pub
lished by the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Geor
gia. Can you either send a copy of the pamphlet, or
tell me where one may be obtained, and greatly
oblige?”
Newport, Rhode Island.—‘‘Permit me to extend you
my sincere thanks for the little pamphlet, ‘The Pope
and the War,’ which I received yesterday. It is a
handy little volume, and one that will accomplish an
immense amount of good. For the benefit of the
many non-Catholic young men whofrequent our club,
I think it would be well to have a few of these sent to
me, as well as some copies of ‘Catholics and Mar
riage.’ ”
BISHOP DROSSAERTS ON THE LAY
APOSTOLATE.
(Fortnightly Review, November 15, 1919.)
His thesis is that the most outstanding factor in
the Church of our own times is the activity and
prominence of the Catholic laymen, and that in the
lay apostolate lies one of the chief hopes of the
future.
The external conditions of our social order are
such, he says, ‘‘that the Church must more and more
enlist the co-operation of her devoted lay people to
further her beneficent missions,” not only in Europe,
but much more here in America, where ‘‘we must
ward off the gross materialism that is so rampant out
side the Church,” and protect the Church against the
many portentous dangers” arising against her.
Like The Fortnightly Review, the Bishop of San
Antonio sees trouble ahead. “Unless we wilfully
close our eyes to the signs of the times,” he says f “we
cannot fail to see the dark clouds on the horizon por
tending difficulties and persecution for the Church in
America.”
Among the immediately threatening dangers Mgr.
Drossaerts mentions particularly the growing ten
dency to tax all church property, which, if carried
out, would terribly cripple the activities of the Church;
and the open and bold attempts made in our State
legislatures to control or abolish the Catholic schools.
These and similar tendencies must be vigorously com
batted by the laity, intelligently co-operating with the
clergy.
The Bishop s final warning deserves to be blazoned
forth in every Catholic newspaper and from every
pulpit in the land: “Yes, serious dangers, real dan
gers, threaten the Church of our days. Let us not
live in a fool s paradise. Let us not be misled by
roseate pictures of the Church’s strength and prog
ress in this country. , , . We cannot rest on our oars.
Each man must do his duty. And today the Church
must rely more than ever on her laity.”