s.

CHAPTER EIGHTH

THE YOUNG PRIEST'S ACTIVITIES

I should like to see the priest at the head of every movement for
the bettering and uplifting of the people.

[Side note: The Last Fortress]

Ireland is the last fortress of Catholic Christendom. Latin
Christianity is having to struggle for existence; and for us,
time will but multiply, from within and without, the forces
organised by Satan to capture the last stronghold that flies the
Papal banner.

[Side note: Satan's First Move]

His first effort will be in the future, as it has ever been in
the past, to drive a wedge of separation between the priests and
the people. That accomplished, half his battle is won. If he can
get the people to despise the priest in any capacity as a social
man, a politician, &c., he knows that time rubs out fine-drawn
distinctions; they will cease to respect at the altar the man
they are accustomed to flout on the street; and if they once come
to despise the priest, they will soon despise the sacraments he
administers, and challenge the Gospel which he preaches. Let us
forestall him, and bind the people to our hearts with hoops of
steel. For their sakes more than for ours we cannot make our hold
too firm or root ourselves too deeply in their affections. For
what hope could there be for souls if a chasm should yawn between
the pastor and his flock, if those God has united by so many and
such sacred ties should glare hatred and distrust from opposing
camps?

The priest is supreme in Ireland to-day; but in the near future
he may have many a rival claimant; and should the people pass
under alien sway, the last fortress is gone.

Now, when we unroll the map of social Ireland, we discover a
multitude of ways by which the priest can keep in touch with,
direct and uplift the people, and each effort for their sakes
means a fresh strengthening of the bonds that bind the hearts of
priests and people.

Let us take a survey of the situation. That done, the number of
ways by which the priest can become the reformer of his parish
will at once disclose themselves.

[Side note: A Statement of Facts]

Have you ever faced the sad problem:--Why are our asylums
enlarging while our general population is shrinking?

Three main causes are responsible.

[Side note: Food]

_The food we are eating_, especially the use of overdrawn tea. A
gentleman of over twenty years' experience, as governor of a
lunatic asylum, assured the writer that ne