n settlements.

_The number of languages_ complicates still more this ethnical problem.
Not hearing the Catholic doctrine in his own language and crippled by
that instinctive shyness and extreme reserve which seem to grasp him as
he steps on our shores, the foreigner often loses contact with the
Church. Like a transplanted shrub in an uncongenial soil, he
languishes for years in his faith and its practices.

_The very atmosphere_ of the West is another great cause of defections
among the faithful. You must live for some years "out West" to
appreciate the full meaning of this statement.

Moral atmosphere is to the soul what air is to the lungs; it is health
and life. Two elements constitute that factor which plays such a vital
part in our religious life--tradition and environment. _Tradition_
links the past to the present and gives to the soul a certain stability
amidst the fluctuations of life. It is made up of details if you wish,
but, like the tossing buoy, these details betray where the anchor is
hidden. This absence of the past has a great influence on our Western
Church. People hailing from all points of Eastern Canada, of the
United States and of Europe, have not yet formed religious traditions
which are to the Catholic life of the family and of the parish what
roots are to a tree.

And what _environments_ surround our scattered settlers on the prairie?
Only those who have come in close relation with the lonely homesteader
can understand how much he is debarred from the influence of Catholic
life. Very often not even a chapel is to be found for miles and miles.
A chapel, no matter how humble it may be, is in the religious world of
a community like the mother-cell; in it life is concentrated; from it
emanates activity. Mass is now often said in a private house, a public
hall or a school house. Children who have not known the beauty and the
warmth of Catholic worship will hardly appreciate its lessons.

Moreover, _social relations_ often bring our Western Catholics in very
frequent contact with the different Protestant churches and their
tremendous activities. _Mixed marriages_ are the outcome of these
circumstances. God alone knows how many of our Catholic boys and girls
have been lost to the faith through "mixed marriages" and marriages
outside of the Church.

* * * * * *

These various obstacles, _geographical_ (distance and climate),
_ethnical_ (race and languag