the entire Church of
America was foreign by birth or parentage, and belonged to the
toiling masses of the people: "not many rich, not many noble." And,
Father Hecker was asked, whom are you going to get to write for the
magazine? How many Catholic literary men and women do you know of?
Prudence, therefore, stood sponsor to courage. The cautious policy of
an eclectic was adopted, and for more than a year the magazine, with
the exception of its book reviews, was made up of selections and
translations from foreign periodicals. The late John R. G. Hassard,
who had already succeeded as a journalist, was chosen by Father
Hecker as his assistant in the editorial work. Efforts were at once
made to secure original articles; but before the magazine was filled
by them three or four years were spent in urgent soliciting, in very
elaborate sub-editing of MSS., and in reliance on the steady
assistance of the pens of the Paulist Fathers. As a compensation,
_The Catholic World_ has introduced to the public many of our best
writers, and first and last has brought our ablest minds on both
sides of the water into contact with the most intelligent Catholics
in the United States. All through its career it has represented
Catholic truth before the American public in such wise as to command
respect, and has brought about the conversion of many of its
non-Catholic readers. Since its beginning it has been forced to hold
its own against the claims of not unwelcome rivals, and against the
almost overwhelming attractions of the great illustrated secular
monthlies, to say nothing of the vicissitudes of the business world;
and it has succeeded in doing so, Father Hecker's purpose in
establishing it has been realized, for it has ever been a first-rate
Catholic monthly of general literature, holding an equal place with
similar publications in the world of letters. He was its
editor-in-chief till the time of his death, except during three years
of illness and absence in Europe. He conducted it so as to occupy
much of the field open to the Apostolate of the Press, giving solid
doctrine in form of controversy, and discussing such religious truths
as were of current interest. He kept its readers informed of the
changeful moods of non-Catholic thought, and furnished them with
short studies of instructive eras and personages in history. These
graver topics have been floated along by contributions of a lighter
kind, by good fiction and conscientious literary