nse field of labour. God
alone knows what sacrifices, what heart-burnings, what hours of
discouragement and loneliness, were theirs in that strenuous period of
settlement when the wilderness began to blossom, when homesteads were
seen to spring up on the bare soil. We have a faint idea of these
difficulties when we read the "_Memoir: 'Tentative de Schisme et
d'heresie au milieu des Ruthenes de l'Ouest Canadien_," of Father
Delaere, C.SS.R., (1908), and Father Sabourin's pamphlet, "_Les
Ruthenes Catholiques_" (1909).

Let us hope that the Church in Canada will keep sacred the memory of
these harvesters of the first hour. The Catholics owe them a debt of
gratitude. We sincerely hope that the history of their heroic efforts
will not be lost and that the first to appreciate them will be the
coming Ruthenian generation. Father Delaere, C.SS.R.--who has laboured
among the Ruthenians in Western Canada for the last twenty years will
one day give us, we sincerely hope, the history of the settlement and
struggles of his adopted people.

Little by little the Ruthenian Church in Canada is emerging from its
first chaotic state. The visit of Mgr. Septeski to Canada, the
appointment of the Very Reverend N. Budka as Bishop of all the
Ruthenians in Canada, marked a turning-point in their history.
Authority is, in the Church of God, the only great vital centre from
which proceed true order and permanent development. The war, it is
true, complicated the Ruthenian issue. We all know what difficulties
the Ruthenian Bishop had to face during this trying period, under what
dark clouds of ungrounded suspicion he lived. But the most painful
feature of this long and cruel ordeal was the absence of sympathy and
the lack of co-operation in those from whom, as a Catholic Bishop, he
had a right to expect them.

_The Period of Assimilation_

The period of settlement has passed, and already a young "CANADIAN"
generation has sprung up sturdy, thrifty, progressive from the
transplanted Ruthenian stock. The numerous children of that prolific
race are gradually passing from the home into the schools and from the
schools into the community life of the country. This Slavic race is
striking deep roots in Canadian soil, particularly in our Western
Provinces. The loss of faith has been heavy, we believe, especially in
our large cities. Naturally, allowance must be made for the drift-wood
which always follows the tide of immigration. In our