Catholic Problems in Western Canada Part 12

Advertis.e.m.e.nt! Modern business is built to a great extent on the mysterious allurement, the attractive invitation and innocent camouflage of the advertis.e.m.e.nt that you find sparkling everywhere, on the flashy poster, in the show-window, in the magazine, in the daily paper. Without willingness to admit our weakness, we fall victims to this wizard that we despised yesterday and court to-day, and line up at the counter ... for a Special Sale, an Astonis.h.i.+ng Bargain. "We are so thoroughly accustomed to the exploits of the advertiser that we take them as a matter of course, rarely pausing to appreciate the art, or at least, the artfulness with which we have been lured into the acceptance of his ideas."

Fas.h.i.+on! Who can a.n.a.lyze this power so great, so universal? Who can explain the psychology of this fact? Every spring and fall of the year Dame Fas.h.i.+on has an opening-ball-Paris plays the tune, New York wields the baton, the ladies of the world ... keep time ... and the gentlemen pay the piper.

We mention these facts of every day life to ill.u.s.trate the permeating and driving force of an idea, when constantly kept before the mind. And what advertis.e.m.e.nt and fas.h.i.+on are in the commercial and social life, Propaganda and Publicity are in the world of thought. The policy of propaganda is to enlist the active co-operation of every vehicle of thought for the furtherance of an idea and to keep that idea ever before the public. One readily sees the tremendous responsibilities, and understands the flagrant abuses of those called to create and direct Public Opinion. "The supremacy of ideas," it was stated, "gives the greatest places of opportunity to those who awaken, stimulate and organize the thinking of the people and especially the thinking of a people in a democracy. The teacher's desk, the preacher's pulpit, the orator's platform, the writer and editor's sanctum-these are the places of true leaders.h.i.+p, the thrones of real power."

This a.n.a.lysis of Public Opinion, of its power, of its formation will now make us better understand its relations with the Catholic Church.

Public Opinion and the Catholic Church.

Nowadays the relation of Public Opinion to the Catholic Church is, generally speaking, one of suspicion, frequently of silent contempt and very often of open hostility. This statement of fact may appear to many too sweeping; its broadness may trouble the peaceful faith of others. Yet, history and every day experience prove the truth of our a.s.sertion. We go further and claim that for the Church this condition will, and must exist. The Church, like Christ, her Founder and Master, is to be a "Sign of Contradiction." Her very name "Catholic" is a perennial witness to her sublime and admirable Catholicity, and thereby an abiding proof of her Divinity. A Church that modifies her tenets and adjusts her moral standards to accommodate herself to the conveniences and fancies of the world is not, and cannot be the Church of Christ. Now, as in the times of the Apostles, the Church "Is a Sect that is everywhere spoken against"-"If ye were of the world?" said the Saviour, "the world would love his own; but ye are not of this world, therefore the world hateth you." Yes, suspicion, contempt and hostility are the hall-marks of historic Christianity, for they are the realization of Christ's promises to His Church, the fulfilment of His prophesies. This fact for a Christian who has eyes to see, and ears to hear, is particularly noticeable when periodically a tidal wave of bigotry or open persecution strikes the Catholic Church, lashes itself into fury, washes the Rock of Peter with ugly foam ... and dies away, ashamed of its own powerlessness and unfairness.

Viewing this relation of Public Opinion to the Catholic Church-not as an evidence of that spiritual conflict, often unconscious but ever real-but as a fact, a historic reality, some may ask the proof of our rather bold statement. Even those who are not of our Faith, and yet always wish to be fair and broad in their dealings with the Catholic Church, may question it.

The proof is very simple to give. Public Opinion is against the Catholic Church, because the powers that create and maintain Public Opinion are against the Catholic Church. Facts here speak for themselves.

The Press-the Novel-the Periodical Literature-the Cinema-the Stage-the Public School-the Academy and University Halls-the Legislative a.s.semblies ... are without doubt the high voltage-wires that receive, carry and distribute the current of Public Opinion. Or rather, like the wireless stations they gather those invisible and imponderable waves of thought and feeling that are ever flas.h.i.+ng through the intellectual and moral atmosphere of nations, and translate their message to the ma.s.ses. Between these powers and Public Opinion there is a continuous action and reaction. They are at the same time the moulders and mirrors of Public Opinion. They are its masters, but with the condition of being first its servants.

Of all these creative forces none is greater and more universal than the Press. If Public Opinion is the king and master of the modern world, the Press is a.s.suredly his faithful and most active Prime Minister. This chief executive has extended the kingdom of his master to the very confines of the civilized world. Nothing has contributed more to the rule of Public Opinion than the Press. With it ideas and opinions run through the public mind as rapidly as the dispatches that carry them. "Mental touch is no longer bound up with physical proximity. With the telegraph to collect and transmit the expressions and signs of the ruling mood, and the fast mail to hurry to the eager clutch of waiting thousands the still damp sheets of the morning daily, remote people are brought as it were into one another's presence." (Ross-Social Psychology.)

The ordinary man now sees the world through his newspaper. He absorbs facts and principles with the shades and variations the daily paper gives them. Reports of events and announcements of policies are colored to suit the aims and opinions of the editors and proprietors. Windy plat.i.tudes-at least for those who know facts and have studied principles-become gospel truth for the unthinking ma.s.s. Public Opinion is thus conscripted by an "irresponsible power." This irresponsibility of the Press is without doubt the greatest menace of the day. For, the opinions,-we mean to say-the propelling forces of the silent millions are at its mercy... . And these silent millions make and unmake the world.

This great power of the Press is inimical to the Catholic Church. By press, you will readily understand, we do not mean any particular paper, or a certain group of papers, but rather that formidable ensemble of tremendous financial backing, of world-wide information-services, of chains of papers that encircle the globe, of these various agencies that tap the telegraphic wires of every country and keep the cables hot. The Hearst papers alone reach simultaneously four or five million readers daily. From New York to San Francisco one man is leading the minds of these millions "to conclusions that he wants them to arrive at"-What Hearst is for the United States, Lord Northcliffe is for England.

This great press is against the Catholic Church. The total suppression of truths and of facts; the conspiracy of silence-often more dangerous than an open attack; the coloring of news with shades of thought suited to a definite purpose; the partial admission of truth and the maimed relation of facts; the bold a.s.sertion of deliberate falsehoods; the deceptive headlines-and the people live on headlines; the insinuating t.i.tle which is often in flagrant contradiction to the dispatch it underlines:-these are a few of its various strategies of attack. "The Pope and the War," "Quebec and the War," "The Guelph Novitiate Incident," are recent instances of what we refer to.

Some may object that the Catholics are of a rather susceptible nature and always expect "privileges"-No, we only want the privileges of truth, we mean fair play, equality, and justice.

What we say of the Press can also be said of periodical literature and modern fiction. "The very nature of periodical literature," says Cardinal Newman, "broken into small wholes and demanded punctually to an hour involves the habit of extempore philosophy ... and that philosophy, we know is not Christian philosophy. The writers can give no better guarantee for the philosophical truth of their principles than their popularity at the moment and their happy conformity in ethical character to the age which admires them."

Any one who has kept in touch with the stream of modern fiction is well aware to what extent its waters are polluted and have contaminated the mind and heart of our present generation. When the world has been slaking its literary thirst at sources such as H. G. Wells, Galsworthy, Ibanez-only to mention a few-should we be astonished that public opinion is drifting to paganism? If theories of "Free Love" and Divorce are rampant in our society, the responsibility to a great extent lies with our modern novel. The novels that are written and read, indicate the mind and morals of a people.

What could we not write of the Moving-Picture and the Stage? Suffice it to state with Rev. R. A. Knox-then an anglican minister, and now a catholic priest: "When a nation has lost its hold of first truths and its love for clear issues, which has had its morality sapped by sentiment, thinks of Christian marriage in the light of the problem-play ... the moral fibre of that nation is gone." For, the vision of life and the interpretation of its pleasures and sorrows, that come from the glare of the foot-lights, or the dimness of the Movie-Screen, are surely not that given by the Catholic Church. Over the screen of the movies and the proscenium of the stage could we not very often write what the author of the play "Enjoy Life," Max Hermann Neisse, said lately to a Berlin sensation-seeking audience that was underlying with frantic applause the unsavory remarks and filthy inuendos of the closing act: "Pardon me, I did not write this act.-You dictated it to me."

In pandering to the morbid curiosity and l.u.s.tful pa.s.sions of a pleasure-mad world, the stage, the moving-picture, the novel, the ill.u.s.trated weekly are leading Public Opinion to depths before unknown. The abyss calls to the abyss. Ways of living always follow ways of thinking. Should we then be astonished that crime-wave after crime-wave is sweeping the sh.o.r.es of every country.

Existing conditions in our universities, public academies and schools are not of a nature to conciliate Public Opinion with the Catholic Church. We know perfectly well that in our seats of higher-learning the Church is looked upon as an effete Inst.i.tution, as something of the past that has kept a certain air of respectability. Her teachings and her history are there viewed in the light of the "evolution theory." Who has not read, a few years ago, that terrible indictment against the antichristian education of the American Universities, as it appeared in a celebrated article, under the t.i.tle: "Blasting at the Rock of Ages?"

In our legislative a.s.semblies, here and abroad, do we not find the educational problem the burning problem for Church and State? Over the head of the child swords clash, for the child of to-day is the man of to-morrow. The stand the Catholic Church takes on the educational problem-from which She never deviates-has always stirred Public Opinion against her in political and social circles. We have only to mention "separate schools" to awaken the memories of a long and bitter struggle.

The same inimical relations dominate the International Order. Rome and its world-wide moral influence have been deliberately ostracized in the recent and unhappy attempt to form a League of Nations.

So the tide of Public Opinion sweeps upon tide. Everywhere its heavy waves break into a foamy froth on the Rock of Peter. We conclude: Public Opinion is against the Catholic Church.

Our Duties to Public Opinion.

The antagonism against the Catholic Church is an overt fact. What are the causes? A distorted vision, born of misrepresentation of facts and misrepresentation of doctrine and practice; the blind prejudice against which our refutation of facts and explanation of principles are of little avail: these are the two main causes to which can be traced this universal opposition. And indeed no one will tax us with exaggeration were we to repeat here what Tertullian wrote in his "Defence of the Church," a hundred years after St. John's death: "They think the Catholics to be the cause of every public calamity, of every national ill." Have we not in our own country, organizations that live and thrive only on enmity to the Church of Rome? They cannot meet without pa.s.sing resolutions of condemnation of the Church, of the Pope, of separate schools, etc. We all know how often Public Opinion, in our country, has been inflamed by prejudiced appeals to racial and religious feelings. Racial antagonism itself is only a cover for anti-Catholic fanaticism.

Let us, by clear and sound thinking, by definite and bold expression enlighten Public Opinion. To-day Public Opinion is s.h.i.+fting as the winds, swinging like a boat with the ebb and flow of the tide. These are days of loose thought, wild words, catchy phrases, especially in social and religious matters. Words and phrases are pa.s.sed off as ideas, and fragments of an idea as the whole idea. Let ideas always be clear-cut, with a sharp, definite relief. Hazy notions are of no constructive value, and always full of danger, particularly in times of intellectual ferment, such as we are now going through. They are on the great sea of Truth as the smoke-screens, behind which lurk the destroyers of error.

Cardinal Newman concludes one of his letters on "The Position of Catholics"-which bears on the subject of Catholics making themselves known: "Protestantism is fierce because it does not know you; ignorance is its strength; error is its life; therefore bring yourselves before it, press yourselves upon it, force yourselves into notice against its will. Oblige men to know you. Politicians and philosophers would be against you, but not the people, if they knew you."

Create Public Opinion by individual and concerted action, that is our next duty. Truth spreads, not like the devastating torrent, but like the tide. From individual to individual as from pebble to pebble it slowly creeps in and spreads the silent power of its rising waters. "No one ever talks freely about anything without contributing something, let it be ever so little, to the unseen forces which carry the race on to its final destiny. Even if he does not make a positive impression he counteracts or modifies some other impression, or sets in motion some train of ideas in some one else, which helps to change the face of the world." G.o.dkin "Problems of Modern Democracy." 221-224.

By the continued repet.i.tion of truth and the persevering refutation of falsehood we will help to create around us, in our limited sphere of action, a sane Public Opinion. But it is above all by the radiance of our moral life that truth, particularly religious truth, will spread. Religion, as we know, is of the moral order; its dogmas, precepts and sacraments reach out into that domain. Paul Bourget, the celebrated French writer sums up one of his most striking novels in this phrase: "At Forty-three" which he calls the noon hour of life-"man must live what he believes or he will eventually believe as he lives." To live up to our principles is always the best proof of our belief in them.

Concerted action will extend the benefits of this individual action to the creation of Public Opinion in the Community, in Society at large. As all great powers, Public Opinion is courted; this courts.h.i.+p is "Propaganda." Truth requires propaganda as life needs transmission. An efficient propaganda takes myriad forms but its purpose is always the same, i.e., give to others our ideas and through them organize the public mind. Distribution of literature, lectures, the press, the novel, the cinema, bureaus of information, active partic.i.p.ation in public life are vital factors of an efficiently organized propaganda. The recent Northcliffe propaganda, followed by the Hearst propaganda are typical ill.u.s.trations of how the public mind of a Country was swayed from a pro-British to an Anti-English att.i.tude.

The Direction of Public Opinion is the ultimate triumph of propaganda. This is obtained when our principles pa.s.s into the warp and woof of the social textures which are always in the making on the great loom of our nation's life. Ideas have their full value when they are extended to social and political issues. It is only then that they influence a nation as such. For our lives are knitted with the lives of others, and their action and reaction upon them form our public life. "In the formation and guidance of the public opinion which ultimately determines public action, Catholics bear responsibility and must take their part." (Cardinal Bourne, at the Catholic Congress of England, 1920.)

As Catholics we have a contribution to make to the great upbuilding of our Country. There is in every problem an ethical side, an unchanging and unchangeable principle, the bedrock on which it rests. This principle, the Catholic doctrine possesses; we know it, we are sure of it. Why not then have that aggressiveness of militant Catholics who take advantage of every opportunity, without being obtrusive? Are we not too apologetic in our Public life? We would not suggest in the least to be discourteously aggressive, although at times we are tempted to do so and seem justified in our retaliation. But there is no reason why we should apologize for our principles, for the solutions we have to offer. The sun of Canadian liberty s.h.i.+nes also for us and for what we stand; we have our place under the shade of the "Maple Leaf."

May we add a word for our non-Catholic friends. They also have duties towards Public Opinion in its relation with the Catholic Church.

Receptiveness of mind is, in our estimation, the first and most important duty of the non-Catholic. Open-mindedness was named by Confucius "mental hospitality." It opens the door to truth by allowing ourselves to be convinced by the strength of argument and the weight of evidence. This state of receptivity permits the mind to correct its distorted vision, and to see facts and principles as they really are. Freedom of mind enables those who possess it to see things in their true proportions.

Fair-mindedness will overcome prejudice, the great obstacle in matters of Religion. Prejudice is made of a coa.r.s.e and impenetrable fibre, of a close woven texture; it is the product of numerous and various influences. The ordinary causes of this pre-judgment or mental torsion are an habitual intellectual outlook resulting from education and surrounding influences, and a mental laziness which fails to question its own att.i.tude and to pursue principles to their logical conclusions, and problems to their solution. This explains how reluctantly the mind, in religious matters particularly, will accept views contrary to those with which it has been familiar since early youth and which time and surroundings have but strengthened. A straight-forward appeal to fairmindedness is alone able to break down this barrier.

Duties are in proportion to the responsibilities they entail. Public Opinion, as we have seen, is a tremendous power but it is the power of a high explosive which misdirected and ill-used will spread disaster. Leaders.h.i.+p is the spark that ignites the charge, is responsible for its driving force. In the days of real intellectual leaders.h.i.+p the mastery of ideas prevailed and Public Opinion was considered as the triumph of an idea. But in our days of so called democratic equality the centre of gravity of this power has s.h.i.+fted from the leader to the mult.i.tude. De Tocqueville in his book "Democracy in America" [1] has a remarkable page, ill.u.s.trating this point. "The nearer the people," he writes, "are drawn to a common level of an equal and similar condition the less p.r.o.ne each man becomes to place implicit faith in a certain man or certain cla.s.ses of men. But his readiness to believe the mult.i.tude increases and opinion is more than ever the mistress of the world. Not only is common opinion the only guide which private judgment retains among democratic people, but amongst such a people it possesses a power infinitely beyond what it has elsewhere. At periods of equality men have no faith in one another by reason of their common resemblance; but this very resemblance gives them almost unbounded confidence in the judgment of the public; for it would not seem probable, as they are all endowed with equal means of judging, but that the greater truth should go with the greater number. The public has therefore among a democratic people a singular power which aristocratic nations cannot conceive of; for it does not persuade to certain opinions, but it impresses them and infuses them in the intellect by a sort of enormous pressure of the minds of all upon the reason of each."

To this prestige of vast numbers Bryce has given a name. "Out of the mingled feelings that the mult.i.tude will prevail and that the mult.i.tude, because it will prevail, must be right, there grows a self-distrust, a despondency, a disposition to fall into line, to acquiesce in the dominant opinion, to submit thought as well as action to the encompa.s.sing powers of numbers."

"This tendency to acquiescence and submission, this sense of insignificance of individual effort, this belief that the affairs of men are swayed by large forces whose movements may be studied but cannot be turned, I have ventured to call it "The Fatalism of the Mult.i.tude." It is often confounded with the tyranny of the majority, but is at the bottom different though, of course, its existence makes tyranny by the majority easier and more complete... . In the fatalism of the mult.i.tude there is neither legal nor moral compulsion; there is merely a loss of resisting power, a diminished sense of personal responsibility of the duty to battle for one's own opinion, such as has been bred in some people, by the belief of an over mastering fate." [2]

One can readily grasp the dangers of Public Opinion at the mercy of blatant agitators and unscrupulous leaders. They have no idea to promote, but only a feeling to exploit. They flatter Public Opinion to gain it. They appear to consult it when in reality they are creating and directing it. They catch the restless and undirecting currents of popular feeling when they are seeking an outlet and swing them slowly at first but with a growing impetus in the channels of their own interest or of the party they represent. The people are deluded into thinking that they are their own leaders and masters. The feeling of unrest that now prevails is due to this abuse of Public Opinion. Like children the leaders of nations have been playing with this wire of high voltage. Should we be surprised to see the world suffer deadly shocks from whence it should receive light and power?

We are now at one of the most momentous periods of history. Never have clear thinking, earnest expression and concerted action been more needed than now. The world is ringing with wild words and dying from loose thinking. "The persistent statement of principles and the union of all true conservative forces are absolutely necessary, if we wish to bring the nation safe through this agonizing period and make the world safe for democracy," as President Wilson said.

Therefore we claim that it is for the greatest benefit of the community at large to have Public Opinion enlightened as to the value of the Church as a reconstructive factor.

"Great have been the Problems of War!" But, with Clemenceau, we also are realizing-and some countries, with bitter deception and depressing sorrow, "That greater still are the Problems of Peace."

[1] Vol. II., Chap. II.

[2] Bryce-"The American Commonwealth," Vol. II., Chap. 84.

CHAPTER XIV.

TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE[1]

(Jo. VIII, 32)

Facts-Principles-Policy of the Catholic Truth Society-Its value for the Church in Western Canada.

Truth and liberty, error and license are inseparable partners. The measure of truth gives the measure of true liberty, just as the degree of error tells the degree of bondage. This is a logical necessity, a natural consequence. The Master emphasized it when He said: "And you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free." These pregnant words of Christ are the charter of Christian civilisation and mark the pa.s.sing of expediency as the supreme rule of human liberty.

This explicit confidence in the abiding power of Truth and in its necessary relation with our moral and religious life has prompted the creation of the Catholic Truth Society and inspired its policy. Never was any Society more useful nor so well adapted to the conditions of present times.

The world nowadays is fast drifting from its Christian moorings and taking to the high seas of modern paganism. The outlook on human life is as in the days of Greece and Rome. The old cry: panem et circeuses!-is to be found on the lips of our mult.i.tudes and reflects the aspirations of their life. In the social realm, State-monopoly is fast absorbing the individual and the family, and is heralded as the supreme ideal of human society. A speedy and complete return to Christian principles will alone re-establish the world on its proper axis. Christian Truth shall again make the world free and save it from the bondage of neo-paganism. For, history and experience prove that there is nothing more tyrannical than that bondage-let it be the bondage of Czardom or Bolshevism-which comes to man under the cover and name of liberty. In the present universal unrest, so widely and so emphatically voiced throughout the world, the mission of the Catholic Truth Society appears as most providential. The spreading of Catholic Truth will help the world to reconquer its liberties and, with them, true civilization.