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.