Wheat Among the Cockle

Extract

Perhaps the most deceptive aspect of this new unrest among the European people is the superficial newness of it. Men are not prepared to recognize the age-old undefeated forces of good and evil, God and the devil, in the new complexity of twentieth century life. They will not realize that the new paganism is saying to-day what intellectual fools have said in all the ages, and that the new Christianity is stealing its very essence from the old, the true, the everlasting Church of Christ. And perhaps the most alarming aspect of it is the subtle encroachment of this sophisticated blindness upon the Catholic field of vision. Now, more than ever before, the need for Catholic Action and the opportunities for its promotion are evident on every hand. The bulwarks of the Faith need strengthening with the strength that comes only from unity of thought and purpose, staunch co-operation between the laity and clergy, and unstinted perseverance in the propagation of God’s revealed Word. Without that strength to stem the flood of anti-Christian feeling which is especially directed against the Catholic Church, there is small prospect of preventing the decline and fall of what was once the whole of Christendom.