and propagation of the Faith
in the Mission districts of Canada.

The principles upon which the activities of this Society are based may
be reduced to two: the _doctrinal_ and the _historic_:

1. _Doctrinal Principle_.--All appeals for sympathy and help in the
great cause of Catholic Missions rest on one of the most fundamental
doctrines of our Faith, the Catholicity of the Church. "The Church
Catholic," says the great theologian Suarez, "means the Church
Universal--_Ecclesiam esse catholicam, idem est ac esse universalem_"
(Disput. de Ecclesia IX., sect. VIII., No. 5). This universality of
Christ's Church implies the idea of solidarity, whereby in her living
and indivisible unity She is always and everywhere the same. The
Church, like a perfect vital organism, is a divine organic whole,
solidly constituted, identical to itself, and in all its parts,
throughout time and space. The whole is reflected or rather found in
each part, and each part reflects and possesses the whole. The
Catholicity of the Church is but the expansion of its Unity. It stands
therefore as its permanent and outward manifestation. Should we now
wonder why the Church of Christ is called Catholic? We name things and
persons by that characteristic feature which conveys to our mind the
most accurate concept of them. The very name of the Church is, as you
see, an ever living proof of her divinity. And of that name, we may
well say what is said of the name of Jesus . . . _signum cui
contradicetur_ . . . it will be forever "a sign of contradiction."

The moral aspect of this solidarity of the Church is responsibility.
The Church at large is responsible for each particular diocese and
parish, and each individual diocese and parish is in return responsible
for the Church universal. This responsibility is to be shared by every
Catholic. And as by its Catholicity the Church overcomes the two great
barriers to all human power, time and space, so also should every
Catholic manifest in the affairs of the Church universal an interest
equally as great as that he shares in his own particular parish.
"Co-operation among Catholics," as Archbishop McNeil justly remarked,
"is more than a means to a missionary end. It is an essential part of
Catholic life. Boundaries of jurisdiction are conveniences and means
to an end. In the first century of the Christian era, it was centres
rather than circumferences that marked divisions of work and
jurisdiction;