The Church, like Christ, her Founder and Master, is to be a “Sign of Contradiction.”  Her very name “Catholic” is a perennial witness to her sublime and admirable Catholicity, and thereby an abiding proof of her Divinity.  A Church that modifies her tenets and adjusts her moral standards to accommodate herself to the conveniences and fancies of the world is not, and cannot be the Church of Christ.  Now, as in the times of the Apostles, the Church “Is a Sect that is everywhere spoken against”—­“If ye were of the world?” said the Saviour, “the world would love his own; but ye are not of this world, therefore the world hateth you.”  Yes, suspicion, contempt and hostility are the hall-marks of historic Christianity, for they are the realization of Christ’s promises to His Church, the fulfilment of His prophesies.  This fact for a Christian who has eyes to see, and ears to hear, is particularly noticeable when periodically a tidal wave of bigotry or open persecution strikes the Catholic Church, lashes itself into fury, washes the Rock of Peter with ugly foam . . . and dies away, ashamed of its own powerlessness and unfairness.

Viewing this relation of Public Opinion to the Catholic Church—­not as an evidence of that spiritual conflict, often unconscious but ever real—­but as a fact, a historic reality, some may ask the proof of our rather bold statement.  Even those who are not of our Faith, and yet always wish to be fair and broad in their dealings with the Catholic Church, may question it.

The proof is very simple to give.  Public Opinion is against the Catholic Church, because the powers that create and maintain Public Opinion are against the Catholic Church.  Facts here speak for themselves.

The Press—­the Novel—­the Periodical Literature—­the Cinema—­the Stage—­the Public School—­the Academy and University Halls—­the Legislative Assemblies . . . are without doubt the high voltage-wires that receive, carry and distribute the current of Public Opinion.  Or rather, like the wireless stations they gather those invisible and imponderable waves of thought and feeling that are ever flashing through the intellectual and moral atmosphere of nations, and translate their message to the masses.  Between these powers and Public Opinion there is a continuous action and reaction.  They are at the same time the moulders and mirrors of Public Opinion.  They are its masters, but with the condition of being first its servants.

Of all these creative forces none is greater and more universal than the Press.  If Public Opinion is the king and master of the modern world, the Press is assuredly his faithful and most active Prime Minister.  This chief executive has extended the kingdom of his master to the very confines of the civilized world.  Nothing has contributed more to the rule of Public Opinion than the Press.  With it ideas and opinions