The Vigor of the Mustard Seed
THE VIGOR OF THE MUSTARD SEED THERE have been anxious modern moments during which the best of men doubted the vitality of the Christian church. It seemed, indeed, that the world was too much...
...Third, what part of this immigrant population became definitely identified with life in this country...
...The American Catholic Churcb is made up of immigrants and their children...
...What could be more useful, therefore, than to find the question—"Has the immigrant kept the Faith...
...Here Dr...
...For the first time a writer on this important subject has taken the trouble to apply the accredited norms of investigation...
...Mr...
...and through the turmoil of shifting standards of thought, conduct and art, which now make so hectically for disillusionment and demoralization...
...And perhaps the fiery martyrdom of early Christian days was really no sterner a trial than the continued spiritual starvation of pioneer days...
...four representatives in the Sacred College it takes a leading place in the councils of the Holy Father, who has thus so signally honored it...
...We have called attention to the chief elements in Dr...
...The gates of the United States were open to a vast succession of religious men and women forced to migrate from their European foundations, and to another equally brilliant succession who came of their own free will because the need was great...
...Fourth—and this question is of the greatest significance—what was the natural increase of the resident married immigrant population...
...One circumstance, however, was of crucial importance...
...Shaughnessy's calculations are of exceptional value because, though in the nature of things they could not avoid being conjectural, they are made with careful regard for all factors known to have been operative...
...2.50...
...These had been reared in the great tradition—reared staunchly and wisely...
...As for the loyal Christian, though he may know that the final test of orthodoxy is in something deeper than numbers, the evidence of enormous losses among souls is naturally appalling...
...neither indicates a vast movement either in one direction or in another...
...It is authoritative...
...It is an optimistic answer— "It is very probable that there has been no loss at all, beyond that defection of Catholics which ordinarily takes place among any population, due to the weakness of human nature and the usual manifestations of the same...
...and certainly neither warrants the assertion that whole multitudes of Catholics have been lost in the shuffle of migration...
...These various aspects of the problem are discussed in the present volume with exacting nicety and common sense...
...The estimate is arrived at with painstaking carefulness, but we believe it the least acceptable calculation in the book...
...Neither the rudeness of life nor the heavy financial burden of new parishes and institutions turned the poor from their religious ideal...
...Has the Immigrant Kept the Faith...
...This reassuring conclusion is based upon evidence of the soundest possible character...
...Secondly, how many immigrants came to this country, and what percentage of them was Catholic...
...Not even the unbelieving can be indifferent to the spiritual complexion of the democracy which envelopes our life and law...
...Belloc speculates, in one of his essays, on the mission of Saint Patrick, saying that his task merely began with the conversion of Ireland and was continued later in the spiritual conquest of so many virgin lands...
...Does not this indicate a general tendency to lapse...
...through the complex process of education...
...Decade by decade the ebb and flow of the movement to these shores is measured with the finest instruments of statistical science...
...America is the composite product of immigrants...
...The more one ponders it and examines into its details, the more firmly one is convinced that Dr...
...Shaughnessy: "The Church which but a century ago was, as it were, the least of churches, is now second only to Italy in the number of its residential sees, while in membership, also, it is rightfully entitled to almost the same rank...
...Certainly, that is proved to be true in the case of America...
...It is, above all, inspiring...
...The gigantic task of transplanting a nation from the consecrated routine of an old world into the chaotic freedom of a new continent was completed, not, indeed, without casualties, but steadily and carefully...
...By Gerald Shaughnessy...
...Shaughnessy is, in the main, right...
...Allowance must be made, one sees at a glance, for those who soon returned to their native lands...
...But over all these the great throng triumphed, planting upon unnumbered hills the cross of penitence and resurrection...
...First, how many Catholics were there in this country at the close of colonial days...
...Some dubious persons have said, all this theorizing is very well, of course...
...At any rate, it is not of 3io THE COMMONWEAL January 27, 1926 major importance...
...When we behold the vigorous organization of that Church today, do we see the fruits of wholesale community enterprise, or are we looking at an achievement made possible by "survival of the fittest...
...We cannot afford to lose sight of their names, for they were princely heroes in the first great effort to spiritualize American democracy...
...Gerald Shaughnessy...
...These two groups are mutually compensatory...
...It was a strong faith, indeed, which the long barbarism of pioneer years could not slough into the discard with so much else of venerable custom and affectionate remembrance...
...New York: The Macmillan Company...
...Our author replies with an invaluable fund of statistical material covering the various migrations from foreign countries, and estimating the number of Catholics involved on the basis of their numerical strength in the mother countries...
...As the result of new laws and changed industrial conditions, the age of immigration has come to a close...
...Statisticians have informed us that a very large proportion of families has cut adrift from any professed religious creed...
...and even those predisposed to disagree will probably have to concede that Dr...
...With its...
...put and answered by a scholarly theologian as able as Dr...
...Shaughnessy's study for the reason that its scientific trustworthiness needs to be understood and properly evaluated...
...for those who died almost immediately...
...It seemed, indeed, that the world was too much with us, shouting down the summons that had gone out upon the four winds from a lonely Hill of Death...
...Shaughnessy answers with the number, 35,000...
...Shaughnessy is ready with an answer...
...Obviously, these matters are of the greatest importance to all, if they are true...
...There is one thing more...
...through the adjustment of industrial living to standards of justice and charity...
...The Church which but a few decades ago was calling for charity, now is almost the fountainhead itself of charity in succoring its stricken and unfortunate brethren in Europe...
...There are virtually four matters to consider...
...Yes, but everybody also knows that everywhere families—and many of them— have learned the lesson of conversion...
...It is consoling...
...and the fidelity of the Irish is no more remarkable than that of the Germans and other racial groups...
...To them must go, in large measure, the credit for an achievement thus summarized by Dr...
...While the flourishing condition of the Catholic Church in this country is due to the hard and heroic effort expended in welding together the immigrants from older lands, it is in a large measure due also to those immigrants themselves...
...The triumph of the Church in the United States, therefore, is as much a matter of conservation as of creation...
...There was a multitude of reasons why the majority of immigrants should have discarded the faith of their fathers—reasons such as poverty, social ostracism, scarcity of priests, and poor instruction...
...and for the fact that, owing to the large preponderance of men among the newcomers, marriage was out of the question for many...
...It is our task to see that their children are led as safely through the vast changes of modern civilization...
...Why was this so...
...Shaughnessy, looking back over the long pageant of figures arranged for his study, finds the event "providential...
...It was this influx of spiritual captains, resolute as the times demanded, which made the great rescue possible...
...but everybody knows that everywhere families—and many of them—have given up religious practice...
...and Catholics are even yet aware of statements, often made by men of high authoritativeness, that many of their own had fallen away into shadowy apostasies...
...Shaughnessy's study is absolutely sound in its major conclusions and their premises...
...Have we not wondered, time and time again, if anything short of absolute triumph would satisfy paganism in America...
Vol. 3 • January 1926 • No. 12
