THE LOSS OF CHILDREN SUSTAINED BY THE CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 26, 17 October 1884, Page 25

THE LOSS OF CHILDREN SUSTAINED BY THE CHURCH.

(From the San Francisco Monitor.)

A correspondent in a neighbouring city asks us, if, in our reports of the progress of the Church, wa are aware of the vast numbers that are f ailing away from the Catkolic faith ? This question has been askei and answered a hundred times before, both publicly and privately. Christians " fell away " from the practice of Christianity even during the time oar Blessed Savio'ir dwelt upon earth, yet that disaster to individuals did not prevent St. Paul from telling the Romans, in his epistte written to them twenty.four years after our Lord's Ascension, that Ilieir faith mas spoken of in tfie whole world. Catholics are human, jnst like other people ; the Church is made np of saints and sinners— Catholics who are good, bad, or iniifferent, but then it must be borne in mind that oar Blessed Redeemer's mission on earth was to bring sinners to repentance, and such, is thi mission main tailed by His Church ever sincj.

It is unreasonable to suppose that all Catholics born into the world and baptized into the Church will persevere in aiming at Christian perfection by a constant practice of th i\v faith. Adaiaaud Eve fell and were expelled from Paradise, yet they had not a single temptation to sin in their position, where a hundred exist for the nineteenth century Catholic. There are a thousand temptations thown in the path of Catholic children now a days — even by Catholic parents themselves— that were entirely unknown to Catholic* in former centuries.

The child of Catholic parents is sent to the corner grocery for five cents worth of beer, when it is scarcely the height of the counter across which it receives the pitcher filled with stuff pernicious to perseverance in religion — and here is whare the innocent victim very often lays the corner-stone of an intemperate life that repudiates religion afterwards. The child is next sent to a public school — where " priestcraft " is spurned and <{ Popish " domination denounced — until the poor, helpless, and innocent victim forgets even the' " Our Father " it learned in early youth from the priest of the parish. Then the child is placed at work in some factory where vile literature is read out of bad books and immoral illustrated papers, and where blasphemy is heard out of bad men's mouths, until, after a few months' training, the once Catholic child has only a knowledge of God through the b'asphemous use of His Holy Name. He is now ripe to bj " r^ped " into some secret society, or to become the habitue of some saloon, and then Sunday becomes a day for dice, drunkenness, and disorder. A " mixed marriage " may be subsequently contracted, and when the "Justice " has joined the ouple, they live together just as long as it pleases their pleasure, and then they take up with some one other " affinity," just like their neighbours- who are higher in the social seal-j — but no less guilty in the sight of Goi. This is but an epitome of the fat« th it befalls thousanda of the children of Catholic parents who (Mibarately pi tee obstacles in, the way of their offspring so that it is almost impcwsibl^ for them to prow up Catholics. Is the Cliurch to blame for this? Was our Blessed Redeemer to blame for the defection of Judis 1 These questions must necessarily receive nesative answers.

The Catholic parent is the power next to God in directing the destiny of the Catholic child. Catholic churches, schools, priests, or S's'ers sodalities, are of no avail in preserving the faith in the htarta of thnss who are driven to the devil by means of bad fathers affd bad mothers. The mo9t repulsive object in the sight of God —as Cardinal Manning recently said — is a had Catltolie — and the man or woman who says that they are Catholics, but not practical, are the class that compose .the modern Herods — and ma«*cre the innocent obillre 1 God grave them for His kingdom.

Oh ! what heavenly recompense and glory awaits tho»e pi ms, virtusus, temperate* and prudent Catholic parents who watch cons'an'lv over their children's welfare, and who bring them up to know God. to love Him and serve Him ! High places in Heaven are reserved for such sowers of the see<l of Catholic faith. But who can fathomjhe fate of those unfortunate Catholic parents who uotoaly fall away from the fa*th themselves, but who aiso drag down their offspring into that deep pit of perdition into which they plunge tdeir own poor bouls? God's law spurnel, God's Church ignored, Gutl's graces repudiated, Goi's m9rcy refused ! Oh 1 what ingratitude cat* equal that which adds to personal injury open insult to Almighty God ! Yet the world is full of just such Catholic parents ; we see them coming ont of the " Black Maria " nearly every morning in the week ; we see their chili ren carried off in the police van to the House of Correction, the Industrial School, or the Magdalen Asylum, and we can only hope that" some miraculous intervention of Heaven- will stay the tide of crime that is d-solating s j m my Catholic homes and damning so many Catholic souls.

The name causes lead to the same results in every city in Christendom. The current of criminal life on the part of Catholics runs precisely in the same direction m all parts of the world. It rises in the foothills of indifference, and hfter gathering strdugth from the poisonous rivers of the Seven Deadly Sins, it lose* itself in the surging sea of perdition !

The Church cannot control those who cannot or will not central themselves, hence she is, in a me isure helpless to save or succour the sinner who contumaciously perseveres in Bin and refuses to come under " the sweet yoke of the Cross." Useless is the Mass to those who are too drnnk or too dilatory to attend ; unavailing are the Bacramentß to those who are too deeply absoibed in the world's siu to receive them ; ineffectual is the sermon to the Berried soul of the Catholic Sunday pleasure-seeker whose church U the tinnoe-room of some picnic- park, and whosß prayer book is the Police Gazette. Abortive are the Sunday schools to Uatho'ic parents who prefer their children to picnic in the public beer garden rather than pray to God in communion with their classmates. No Catholic prelate or priest has any power over such co-called Catholics ; the Catholic Press is not patronised by them ; Catholic charities are unaided by them ; Catholic rites are repudiated, and Catholic Sacraments spurned by them— until the greatness of God's mercy casts a cloud of clemency.

over their leprous lives and they call on the Church to do for them in their last dour what a life-time of piety could barely achieve Bad literature, intemperance, bad example, mixed marriages, bad company, godless education, secret societies, and the common crime of blaspheming the name of God— are the snares that snatch thousands of souls annually from the Church. Bishops issue pastorals against all these, but the world whirls roand on its vicious course • priests preach against them, bat the world turns a deaf ear to the voice that speaks with God's authority. Catholic journals denounce them, but those who read Catholic literature do not come under the category of the criminal classes we are alluding to; hence, where the Church is powerless to prevent the loss of souls, she is also blameless for the defection of her children. Nor is she the first and only saintly mother who had bad children. The first son of Adam and Eye was a fratricide. Many and many a good, pious, and virtuouß lather and mother have sines raised sons and daughters who hive brought the blush of shame to their cheeks and sent their gray hairs in sorrow to the yrave ! Like such pious parents, the Church of God can only pray and patiently await che power of God's goodness to send back her prodigal children to her ever-open arms. She is prepared to receive them and thereby give additional joy to the angels in heaven at the return of every piodigal child who has left her holy, peaceful, and happy sanctuary in order to become a swineherd in the sty of Satan I

Catholics will fall away, and converts will come into the Charon as long as the world lasts, hence, to say that because Satan grabs a few go-as-you-please Catholics occasionally, therefore the Church is not progressing, ia just as foolish as to say that the Church oE God was not as complete when it had not even a hundred members as it is to-day with its two hundred and fifty millions. The way to keep the faith is to pray for final perseverance. And thwe who have the priceless privilege of beiag practical in their faith should pray daily that God may not withdraw His grace from them, bat that out of the plenitude of His mercy, he may prove the Good Shepherd to the stray sheep, and leave the ninety-nine in the fold to go search for the one that is lost.