ch has been for our scattered English-speaking
Catholics especially, one of the great causes of the loss of faith.

And what about our mission to non-Catholics? We have the truth; are we
doing enough, not only to keep it among our own, but to spread it among
others? Are we aggressive enough? And still I hear the Master say:
"And other sheep I have that are not of this fold; them also _I must
bring_ and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and
shepherd" (Jo. X, 16). _We must bring_ them back; they _shall hear our
voice_. . . . On the strength of that command and of that promise
should our policy not be more saintly aggressive? What an immense
field awaits the zeal of true apostles! Nowhere more than in the West
has absolute disintegration set in among the different denominations.
The universal desire for Church Union is, in our mind, the best proof
of our statement. The most elementary principles of Christianity, of a
supernatural religion, have lost their grasp on the mind of the average
Protestant Westerner. Nominally, he belongs to a denomination, in
reality he belongs to none. And what are we doing to give them the
faith?

A uniform plan of action, once adopted, requires for execution, _an
authoritative leadership_, if desired results are expected. In the
Church of God the Bishops are our authoritative leaders--_Posuit
Episcopos regere Ecclesiam Dei_. In the ordinary life of the Church
this authority in matters spiritual is delegated to and operates
through the parish priests. The parish is with the diocese, the
established unit of religious organization. For the work in
unorganized districts, which is here the special subject of our
attention, could there not be in each Province or in each diocese, four
or five "Free Lances?" [3] Let them be diocesan missionaries, priests
chosen by the Bishops because of their special fitness for this great
work. They would be to the Church what the R.N.W. Mounted Police have
been to the Northwest Territories, or what the itinerant preachers are
to certain denominations in sparsely settled districts. Their mission
would be to visit, preach, baptize, say Mass in the distant districts
not visited by a parish priest. They would be the advance-guard of the
Church throughout the land. During the winter months they could
continue their work by attending to districts within reach of a
railway. The religious Orders,--and they alone can more easily supply