It would almost seem as if Christians have taken the attitude today that the world is all quite hopeless, tha} nothing can be done about it, and have consequently withdrawn themselves as far as possible from the danger of contamination, This, was not the attitude of the early Christians who came forth out of the Catacombs into a world that was not so very much different from our own. They went forth into that world, met it and conquered it. The ancient world became Christians not because Christians kept aloof from the! pagan world, but because they mingled with it and like a handful of leaven permeated and changed the whole mass. Blessed with a precious heritage, they share that heritage with others. There are some three hundred and fifty million Catholics in the world today who also possess that same precious heritage. The world may well ask: What are you doing with it?
The Christian must not recoil before the magnitude of the social problems which face him in the world of today. He must not be frightened by anti-Christian force of ich actu-make up his from striving to sanctify himself against them, he must strive to. sanctify the social structures themselves.
Great masses of Catholics sit. passively by watching the intense acti ties of the Church. But what the bishops and priests do in virtue of their priesthood, the laity are expected to do through their participation in that royal priesthood. It is the work of every Catholic in the world to bring Jesus Christ into the lives of those with whom he associates. The Catholic Action programme demands that the Catholic layman and laywoman regard themselves as assoelated- with the priest in bringing Christ and His truth to.the minds of men, Phe Need of Action But is all this practical in the world gipes? Eminently so! It is especial Shortly after the first World War, the Christian position throughout the industrial próvinces of Belgium apto be desperate. Three men, a young priest and we. young laymen, joined together and decided to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.