out doubt our own dear country is witnessing that movement which,
inspired by the Holy Ghost, is being felt throughout the Catholic world
in favour of home and foreign missions. The growing interest of our
people in the Catholic Church Extension Society; the enthusiasm with
which the great and noble work of Father Fraser, for Chinese Missions,
was greeted everywhere; the recent foundation and marvellous
development of the community of the "Missionary Sisters of the
Immaculate Conception" in Montreal, for service among the lepers of
China; the wonderful response which the call of Africa met with among
the college and convent youths of the Province of Quebec; the
increasing number of vocations to the missionary orders, both for men
and women,--to mention only a few outstanding and significant
facts,--are evident signs of the "_stirring of the waters_" in the
Church in Canada.
To help to promote and develop fully this providential movement in the
Church of God, we beg to submit a few suggestions which may be of some
use in the great cause of _Home_ and _Foreign Missions_.
_I--Why?_
The continued progress and abiding success of a movement depend on its
organization. For, to realize its proposed aim and accepted plan of
action, organization alone can enlist and keep secure the sympathies of
patrons and members, co-ordinate the various forces, and call into
play, when necessary, new and fresh energies. The greater the number
to be reached by the society or societies which embody this movement,
the more efficient should be the organizing power.
Experience and reason prove that an organization destined to affect the
masses and hold its grip on them, will not live and thrive only on an
occasional appeal or a printed message. These are indeed of great
value, particularly the insistently repeated message in print. We are
great believers in the force of a persistent, regular and frequent
circularization. But, in our humble estimation, there is something
more essential in the matter under consideration, and that is the human
contact and continued influence of a "field-organizer." An extensive
organization without this factor will not be efficient, will not last.
As Floyd Keeler wrote in "America" (July 10, 1920): "It is the personal
equation between the organizer and the various units of the Society
that counts. . . . The masses are accustomed to think in concrete
terms. . . . Long distance appeals and those made
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