The Lay Community
THE LAY COMMUNITY BECAUSE of the remarkable success of the national broadcast of the Catholic Hour, which must be considered the outstanding achievement of Catholic action in the United States...
...This interest must not be allowed to remain undirected...
...Up to this time, despite the best efforts of its officers and the comparatively few local councils who realized the national character of the movement, little general interest has been created...
...This apathy and indifference have to a large extent been penetrated at last by the success of the Catholic Hour...
...Perhaps not since the organization of the Catholic War Council, and its subsequent reorganization after the catastrophe of the world war, has this annual gathering met at so critical a time...
...Those in charge of the convention have issued an urgent appeal to the delegates who are to be present to come well prepared to take an effective part in this vital portion of the convention's work...
...Without permitting ourselves to become needlessly pessimistic, it is, nevertheless, true to say that the economic, political, social and religious problems marking the closing months of this year are graver than they have been at any time since the war...
...The disruptive or destructive influence of many false, sometimes highly pernicious, philosophies is being brought to bear upon these disturbed and frightened souls...
...With a consciousness of its high opportunity that indicates it is fully awake to the situation, the National Council of Catholic Men has formed within its organization a group of permanent national committees which will present the result of their studies to the delegates assembled at Kansas City, together with practical recommendations for various types of Catholic action...
...They are pressing for solution with an urgency made painful by the widespread distress of so many millions of good people, who, without much, if any, fault of their own, are bearing the brunt of the present crisis...
...Thousands of thoughtful men and women have been brought together in a community of interest, and of pride in their Church, and of willingness to cooperate in spreading the benefits of their faith...
...For many reasons, which in no way reflect upon the capacity of those who have been responsibile for directing the fortunes of the National Council of Catholic Men, it is common knowledge that this particular department of the great organization set up by our bishops for the promotion of Catholic action has not achieved up to now a degree of success commensurate with its ideals and its opportunities...
...THE LAY COMMUNITY BECAUSE of the remarkable success of the national broadcast of the Catholic Hour, which must be considered the outstanding achievement of Catholic action in the United States during the last year, the annual convention of the National Council of Catholic Men, which organization planned and conducts the broadcast, will meet this year (Kansas City, October 19-21 inclusive) under highly favorable auspices...
...It is to be hoped that many delegates representing the more important and effective types of Catholic organizations will take the fullest advantage of this opportunity to make effective the program to be discussed at Kansas City...
...And we know of no more effective centre for the rallying of these reconstructive energies of Catholic action than the national organization which acts under the direction of the leaders of our faith...
...that it was too limited in its appeal...
...Without laboring these points, which surely are obvious at least to those whom we address in these pages it would logically follow that the responsibility of Catholics to bring the protective and recreative energies of their religion, and of the philosophy that flows from their religious principles, to bear upon the solution of these problems, cannot be ignored...
...Those responsible for that program adopted the sound principle of respecting the audience to which they meant to appeal...
...Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned as the major reason for the slow growth and small effect so far gained by the National Council of Catholic Men...
...Perhaps the best, in the sense of being the most Catholic, of all their actions, is to open the way toward that greater and more comprehensive field of work which is now beginning to be perceived...
...These reports and recommendations will be presented for open discussion...
...It should not be used simply to support the radio hour, important as that feature of Catholic action undoubtedly is...
...Even such unfavorable criticisms as we have heard are in our opinion indirect tributes to the value of the broadcast, being to the general effect that the broadcast was "over the heads" of the people...
...So high are those ideals, indeed, and so almost overwhelming are the possibilities of adequately organized and properly directed lay action, that it is hardly to be wondered at that neither ideals nor opportunities have so far been fully expressed in action...
...The future program of national Catholic action will be based upon the results of these discussions...
...There can be no reasonable doubt of the substantial and permanent value of the Catholic Hour, quite apart from the effect which its success—and some of the lessons which, it seems to us, are pointed out by the character of that success—may have upon the fortunes of the organization responsible for it...
...and without such general interest, the very best and most practical plans cannot be carried out...
...That lay Catholics in general have been and still are existing in a condition of sluggish apathy in regard to what might be called the social aspects and responsibilities of their religion, is a condition which is too apparent to all well-informed observers to need much dwelling upon...
...This is not to say that the National Council of Catholic Men has not accomplished many and exceedingly worthwhile things...
...in a word, too "highbrow," which really means that the success of the broadcast was solidly based upon the high quality of its program...
...It must be brought to bear upon the entire program of lay Catholic action, particularly as this program has been shaped by the leaders and workers who have behind them the proper authority and ultimate direction of those without whose support no sort of Catholic action can succeed—the bishops...
...The fact that the main function of the National Council of Catholic Men, as of all other departments of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, is to bring about coordinated, cooperative action among all Catholic lay groups, and that in no way does it seek to take the place or to interfere with any properly recognized and adequately functioning society or movement, should be an imperative invitation to all these units of the Catholic body to participate in the convention at Kansas City...
Vol. 12 • October 1930 • No. 22
