aiting them. Now, every
returned American and Australian priest will candidly tell you
that the Irish emigrant is poorly equipped for his new
surroundings.

Dr. Kenrick and Cardinal Gibbons go so far as to say that the
neglect of the Irish priest in preparing his emigrating flock, is
the main source of leakage in the American Church. They are not
able to answer the most ordinary objections, and they have not
moral strength to withstand the shafts of ridicule. In the fierce
cross-currents of unbelief, he is poorly able to keep his
foothold. Many stagger; some fall, never to rise.

We reply:--Look at our Confirmation classes, and at the admirable
lives of the youth before they leave us. Neither of these weaken
the contention. At the age a child is confirmed, he is incapable
of reflective reason; his knowledge is three parts memory. It is
between the Confirmation day and the twentieth year that the
convictions and principles that guide a lifetime are formed. Yet,
this is the precise period during which the young boy is
permitted to starve.

Secondly, the good life of a person reared in a purely Catholic
atmosphere is no guarantee of what he may become when
transplanted to a country where the very atmosphere palpitates
with doubt and denial.

[Side note: Activity III]

Here surely is a field that urgently demands a young priest's
activities.

_Every young priest should be the eldest brother to the young men
of the parish_, the repository of their confidence, the director
of their sports, the organizer of their Feis; and when there is
danger of angry passions running high or of drunkenness getting
in among them, the curate's place is not the study, but the
football field.

To such a curate it would be an easy task to organize the young
men of the parish for a Sunday meeting during the four winter
months, and give them a thorough course in "Catholic belief" or
"Faith of Our Fathers."

This would be a distinct advantage not only to those who are
leaving, but to those who remain. The Catholic mind of this
country is now, by travel and reading, brought into constant
contact with Protestant and infidel thought.

These meetings should wear as little of the appearance of a class
as possible. Boys should be taught to look upon them as friendly
meetings of brothers discussing the weapons with which to face
the future: the session might appropriately close with an
excursion or a social evening.

Now that we have trea