The Outer Guard

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 27, Issue 21, 27 May 1909, Page 809

The Outer Guard

' The Church,' says the Boston Pilot, ' needs a defender in the outside world. Her interests are too vast and her mission too valuable to be without some public voice to assert her claims and make known and respected her principles of thought and action. Her fair '-name is tfie precious heritage of every Catholic, and must be defended from every hand which seeks to tarnish it. Such a work is not merely a duty. It is a blessed privilege, and all Catholics should covet the opportunity of sharing in such a glorious enterprise. If it is the ideal that is behind men's work that gives it value, what price shall be set upon the labor of those who in any way contribute to promote the glory of the Church in the face of the public opinion of the world? Lesser ideals than this have inspired men to follow after lofty purposes, and have nerved their energies to noble deeds of achievement; and arming the Chxirch with a public official voice which shall present her claims upon the consciences of men and recount her beneficent work and mission" should enlist the deepest sympathy and most active efforts of the Catholic people. . . We are living in a modern world. Public opinion has become in our time a great compelling force. It is generated and kept powerful by the work of the public press. It must not be said of us that "the children of this world are wiaer in their generation than the children of light." '