The bulletin (Augusta, Ga.) 1920-1957, January 01, 1920, Image 8

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8 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.”