operate in
patriotic, civic and social undertakings as if they were none of our
business. The nation's business is our business. If we serve the
nation efficiently, we serve the Church. We take then the best means
to open the eyes of our fellow-countrymen to the fact that Catholicism
is not uncivic. If we make ourselves valued, anti-Catholic prejudice
will be dispelled.

Cardinal Bourne in his letter on "Social Reform" speaks very pointedly
of the duty of every Catholic in this matter. His pronouncement and
that of the American Hierarchy are the most notable declarations from
Catholic sources on "Social Re-construction." "It is admitted on all
hands," says the English Primate, "that a new order of things, new
social conditions between the different sections in which Society is
divided will arise as a consequence of the destruction of the formerly
existing conditions.

"The very foundations of political and social life, of our economic
system, of morals, of religion are being sharply scrutinized, and this,
not only by a few writers and speakers, but by a very large number of
people in every class of life, especially among the workers."

The nation's business is our business. The true love of country
demands from Catholics at this critical stage of our history to throw
all their energies into the various social activities. Society
throughout the world is shaken in its very foundations. This universal
unrest in the political, social and economic spheres is a decided mark
of the birth-throes of a new social order. Therefore, we will conclude
with Cardinal Gibbons; "The Church cannot remain an isolated factor in
the nation. The Catholic Church possesses spiritual and moral
resources which are at the command of the nation in every crisis."

The reform or remodelling of the social fabric, if it is to be
effective and abiding, must ultimately rest on the definite and
unchanging principles of morality. These principles constitute the
moral law, as physical principles are the basis of the physical law.
Ernest Fayle, in a very instructive article on "Reconstruction," in the
October number of the "_London Quarterly Review_," makes a statement
very pertinent to this matter; "The economic, political and social
factors in human life are so inextricably entangled that if we accept
quality of life and not mere power or wealth as the touchstone of
national success we dare not, even in the consideration of economic or
pol