VOL. I
he Challenge
NO. I
VAST AREAS OF NATION PRIESTLESS Almost 1,000 counties in the United States lack the advantages of resident Catholic guidance - this is the No-PriestLand of America.
MISSIONARY MAP OF THE UNITED STATES
A
ND one very striking fact: these counties include most of the areas of the United States where the birth rate is highesf Their young people settle down for life in cities, towns and open country in every section of the United States. This means that our NoPriest-Land is exercising a stronger influence upon the future destinies of America than any other sections. The populations of our cities are being kept up by the inflow from these and other HERE IS THE CHALLENGE- We are not the givers rural sections in which Catholic influbut the receivers-A CHALLENGE FROM NO PRIEST ence is weak. They are the reservoirs of LAND TO THE MISSIONARY ZEAL OF CATHOLICS the population supply. Within these scattered areas are to be It is in such sections as these that most favored of all our foreign misfound many highly respectable and lynchings, feuds, moonshining and pro- sion fields? Not only because of the influential families, people of refine- hibition movements have been in great- great need of Christianizing influences ment, culture and high ideals of civic est respect. It is in such sections that among them, but also because the desrighteousness, people whose ancestors the Ku Klux Klan boasts its largest tinies of their offspring were so closely have contributed to our Nation's membership and most enthusiastic sup- tied in with the welfare of our own present and future generations. / noblest traditions, and whose sons, no port. Yet as a matter of cold fact these doubt, will continue to do so. But even Suppose our No-Priest-Land were among these favored classes religion is some great island out in the Atlantic millions among whom there is so much counting less and less. E ach succeeding or Pacific. Suppose we knew that along need of missionary laborers and no generation yields a weakened allegiance with their many fine natural traits there priests to break the bread of truth to to the faith of its more pious Protestant was deep social degradation and spiri- them are even closer to us. They are ancestry. tual starvation among millions of our brethren and fellow citizens, shar- Bill w1thin these regwns are alsorru - - i s inhaoitantr Suppose we coiilil m ark --(Continued on Page Four) lions of people of a more backward from year to year the drift of its type- the backwoodsmen, the moun- younger population into our own bortaineers, the farm tenants, share-crop- ders to become our fellow citizens in 0, PRAY TO-NIGHT! pers, a nd day laborers. They are the city, town and country and could note 0 , pray t o-n ight, under-privileged people. Their schools their neutralizing effect upon religious So many souls are groping in the dark, are poor. Illiteracy is widespread. life and practice in the places where So many stars are waiting for a spark Ignorance, prejudice and superstition the Church is strongest today. What To give t hem light, hold a powerful grip upon their minds. would be our attitude toward that 0 , pray to-night! Their religion is fed to them by unedu- island and its people? Is there any 0 , pray to-nig ht, cated or poorly educated leaders who question but that we should long ago Dawn is so far away are rapidly losing their Clmfidence and have sent a missionary society among its For those whose ray support. A very large percentage of millions to teach them better ways of Of hope is lost from sightthem ranging in different sections from living, and most of all, to teach them 0 , pray to-night! 30% to 90 % are unaffiliated with any the way of eternal salvation? Would -Margery Murphy church. they not have become by this time the
68 MILLION
UNBELIEVERS
IN THE
u. s.
WHAT ARE WE DOING FOR THESE? "TEACH YE ALL NATIONS,"
saith the Lord-and that means EVEN OUR OWN
Int.
The Share-croppers-Neglected, Exploited and Despe rate.
our refined society- he does not massacre the unborn, as the families of 6 to 15 children, not rare in our southern mountains, will testify. The family tie is a real bond of union. They love their own to the point of fighting for them. And perhaps these fine, sturdy folk would be a bit less whisky-and-shotgunconscious today if the Church of Christ had been missioning among them these ma ny years. There a re five million ot these people living in the Southern Apoalachian region. Their little churches are numerous but large numbers of
The Share-Cropper.
U. & U. Ph oto.
The Ne groes-Ignored and Exploited but Unconcerned.
C
OTTON was once cultivated by sl aves on the great planta tions of the South. It is now cultivated by underprivileged and exploited white and colored ha recroppers, t~n ants a nd farm-laborers. T echnically they are free men but actua lly they a re serfs, little if at all above the condition of slaves. The misery of these poor people, with their la rge famili es living-or ra ther existing-in shacks unfit for human h abita tion, on a diet insufficient for !1ormal man, is un peakable. Their moral and spiritual condition can be imagined. A play recently produced, portraying their moral degradation, shocked the nati on. Socialism and Communism have seized upon their misery to e tablish a foothold in their midst. H ere i a fi eld for Christia n mi siona ry zeal. There is no group tha t is more worthy of our pity, or that calls more urgently for our help. When shall we begin ? T en million people in the South a re engaged in cotton culture. Most of them are of this type.
Th e Sout hern M ountaineer
A
:BIT quick on the trigger? Yes. Predisposed to moon hine a nd brawls a nd feuds? Y e . Highly individual and tenacious of unp rogressive ways of living? Yes, guilty on every count. But h e is not guilty of the sins of
Home Mission enterprise that labors for the conversion of Rural America. Communi m h as for ma ny years been working a mong the Negroes and has m ade substa ntial h eadway. As a race they have merited the Holy Father's very special solicitude. The Church of Christ must increase its effort in their beh alf.
0 The Mountain Folk-A Virile Stock Going to Se ed.
them are abandoned. Only 37 % of the moun tain folk are members of any church group.
The N egro. Negro, as a separa te missionary T HEproblem, is not new to the Ca tholic Church in America. The Josephite F a thers, established to work among them, h ave been doing a magnificent work. More recently the Pas ioni sts, the Dominicans, the J esuits have been sending missionary prie ts to labor for their conversion. But there a re 13,000,000 egroes in the United Sta tes a nd only 250,000 of them a re Ca tholics. They become necessarily a part of every
F all these groups a nd of many others who live in backward a nd forgotten places throughout rural America several observa tions might be ventured:
1. They a re at the h eadwa ters of our popula tion supply. Their la rge families are saving us as a nation from the catastrophe of a declining population. Their sons and daughters and grandchildren who do not stay a t home become part of our cities, towns, and other rura l communities. For better or for worse they a nd their descendants affect the life of the whole na tion. The institution tha t does not give a large sha re of a ttention to them is playing a losing game for the future. 2. The under privileged condition of the e backward m illions within our gates fu rnishes an unlimited field for the exerci e of the corporal and spiri¡ ( Cor.•tinued on Page Four )
MISSIONIZE "NO PRIEST LAND" AND C
I_
THE HOME MISSIONERS OF AMERICA HAVE A PLAN . . . . OUR SPONSOR An American Society of Catholic Home Missions is Being Formed to Operate in the Rural Sections of the United States 1. The establishment of a religious Society to labor for the conversion of rural America to the Church of J esus Christ with the same earnestness and determination and on the sam e intensive basis as our foreign missionary societies are laboring for the conversion of the people of foreign lands. 2. The Society will be composed of secular priests without vows, banded together u nder a superior and a rule in the manner of the Sulpicians and M aryknollers. Coopera ting communities of Sisters and Brothers will be formed as opportunity affords. 3. T he methpd of the society will be twofold : The z e a I o u s and clear-visioned Archbishop of Cincinnati, the Most Rev. John T. McNicholas, O.P., S.T.M., sponsors our Crusade for Neglected Souls. His letter follows :
Reverend Dear Father: I a m happy to welcome you to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati . The Archbishop of Baltimore, recognizing the thoughtful and prayerful years through which you h ave passed in preparing for a work which I hope will be abundantly blessed by God, has granted you an indefinite leave of absence. I ask you to go to the historic section of Brown County and to take charge, temporarily, of St. Martin Parish. I h ave recommended your proposed home mission society to the priests of the a rchdiocese assembled in retreat, asking their prayers and urging them to favor you and your companions, especially during the first struggling period of organization. It is important that an episcopal board be formed, which you can consult whenever you need the direction of the Church and which will enable you to profit by the missionary experience of many dioceses. I h ave already asked several bishops to serve on this boa rd . They h ave gladly consented to serve. Asking God to bless you and your work, and trusting that Cincinnati will give to you some of its best men, be( Con•tinued on Page Four)
( 1) Direct contact with the mission field (a) by parochial activity in weak country parishes assigned to it, and (b ) by annually repeated missions with careful mail follow-up work in the purely non-Ca tholic territory surrounding these parishes. (2 ) Indirect contact, by making their technique, inspiration and other h elps available a t all times to the ruraJ diocesan clergy throughout the United States through printed propaganda and short courses for mission-minded priests. 4. The Society will concentrate its activities upon the rural sections, first: because it is there that the Church is weakest today, a nd secondly, because the popu la tions of these sections give the greatest promise of future increase and exercise a dominant influence upon the future of our urban cen ters. 5. It is felt tha t the vast importance and extent of the rural mission field as well as the specialized training tha t will be necessary and the persistence through succeeding generations of the objectives that are sought, call for a separa te religious community with its own Superior and Rule to lead the way, develop missionary technique and supply m ethods a nd other h elps to mission-minded · .cesans not specially rainecL£or.Jhis work. ~·············································································································--·· Th e Hom e Missioners of Ame rica C incinnati, Ohio. 426 East Fifth Street Rev. and dear Father Bishop: I gladly acce pt THE CHALLENGE and I want to take part in the work of the HOM E MISSIONERS OF AMERICA by send ing a cont ri bu tio n and becoming a FRIE ND OF THE RURAL MISSIONS. I enclose $ . . is a subsc ription to all the iss ues you will publish in 1938.
herewith , fifty cents of which
Nam e................................................................................................. . (Please state whether Mr., Miss or Mrs. )
Add ress ........................................................................................... . Town .......................................................... State ......................... .
:RISTIANIZE AMERICA FROM ITS ROOTS
• AMONG OUR WELL-WISHERS ( Continued from Page Th ree)
cause the mission field should h ave the best, I am , F aithfully yours in Christ, +JoHN T. McNICHOLAs, Archbishop of Cincinnati.
Maryknoll's Sup erior· G ene ra l, th e Most Rev. Jam es E. Wa ls h, D. D., with his cosm o· polita n lov e of f ellow man , pl e dg e s cooperation.
D ear Father Bishop:
The news tha t you are seeking to inaugura te a movement to h elp the rural missions h as not come to me as a complete surprise, but rather as a confirma tion of long ch erished hope. T he other sheep of our own country have been calling for missionaries for a century. A glorious field of apostolic labor is waiting. If your enterprise proves to be the Providential m eans designed by Almighty God to answer this call a nd staff this field, surely the Churcl: of America will rejoice. Your movement holds a peculia r interest for me and for all a t M aryknoll, inasmuch as it tends to emphasize a theory held strongly by our beloved founders. When Bishop J ames Anthony Walsh and Fa ther Price inaugura ted their venture in fields afar, they had no notion of thereby robbing the fields a t home. They held on the other hand tha t the expa nsion of ch a rity involved in foreign missions could not fail to stimulate a nd benefit the home missions. They prophesied tha t the foreign efFort, by a natural reaction (and also supern a tural ), would witness an increase of zeal for the home effort. Fa tner Price, p articula rly, as you know, had already spent a lifetime in the home mission work before h e left it to join in founding M aryknoll. H e did not transfer his affections. H e regarded his new work, not as an abandonm ent of the h ome missions which he loved, but ra ther as an act of logical continua tion that could not fail to benefit them in even greater degree. Your generous appraisal of his North Ca rolina apostolate as a forerunner of your own is gratefully appreciated by us.
I might add that it was the belief of Bish op Walsh, often expressed a t M aryknoll, that the home mission problem would eventually be solved by a special organiza tion fi tted for the task. It is a work to be done by priests, and its success will lie in an organiza tion tha t can supply a nd guarantee the proper preliminary training and the proper lifetime care of the priests who perform it. 'M ay the blessing of God rest on your zealous enterprise. Your beginnings will probably be humble and difficult, but all works of God look for head winds a t the start. If it a ttains its objective of lling our neglected countryside with ardent and persevering apostles, it will be worth all it costs. With best wishes, dear F ather Bishop, and with union of prayers, I am, Sincerely in Ch rist, + J AMES E. WALSH, Superior General.
PRAY FOR US Th at we may have a n a bund a nt harvest of Vocations a mong t he fi ne, intelli ge nt, courag eous an d pio us C at holic Youth of A merica. God bl ess t hem.
Th e Bishop of Fo rt Wayne , t he Most Rev. Joh n F. Noll , D. D., has long d esired such a Soci ety. Read wh at he says:
D eaT Father : As a member of the America n Board of Ca tholic Missions, I h ave had an unusual opportunity to become familiar with the mission needs under the American Flag, and h ave often wish ed that there would be ina ugurated and developed a Society of priests wh o would .devote their lives to the service of scattered Ca tholics, to the reclama tion of the lapsed Ca tholics, and to the evangelization of nonCatholics re3ident in the same wide area. I am glad that you contemplate launching an undertaking designed to
OUR CRADLE
St. Martin's Church, Brown County, oldest parish in Ohio outside of Cin· cinnati, whe re w e are beginning ever so simply to develop our Plan.
meet these very urgent needs, and I pray tha t Almigh ty God may richly bless and prosper your enterprise. Sincerely in Christ, + J oHN F . NoLL, Bishop of Fort Wayne.
• And may we also introduceBut here our space abruptly ends, with a sheaf of endorsement letters on our desk awaiting publication. But there will be another CHALLENGE soon-if you have enjoyed this one. And in case you have, we have provided a · coupon on Page Three to give you a convenient way to express YOUR approval in A MEDIUM THAT IS GREATLY NEEDED TODAY.
(Contimted from Page One )
ing our own United Sta tes with us from birth to burial. They are as much Americans as we. H ow is it that we have delayed so long to see their needs and organize for their relief ? (Continu ed fr om Page T wo )
tual works of mercy by the Church of J esus Christ. Various Protestant missions and non-sectarian organizations of a humanitarian na ture are a t work among them. The Communists a re neglecting no opportunity tha t is offered . The Catholic Church, except among the Negroes, is practically inactive in a missionary way. 3. R egardless of their importance or unimporta nce to us, they are human beings for whom the Savior died.
YOUR HELP IS VITAL FOR THIS CAUSE