In the Church of Canada there have always been generous and noble souls for whom the missions of the West have had a mysterious attraction.  Who can read without emotion of the heroic deeds of the first Jesuits who followed the explorers and courreurs-des-bois in their perilous adventures?  What tribute of admiration and gratitude do we not owe to the Oblate missionaries who lived and died with the wandering children of the plains, who have kept the fires of Faith burning, from the banks of the Red River to the Pacific Coast, from the winding shores of the Missouri and Mississippi to the everlasting snows of the Arctic.  Their lives of heroism furnish a bright splash on the rather drab and bleak landscape of what was known as the Northwest Territories.  The Church of Canada will ever remain indebted to these noble pioneers of the cross, apostolic bishops and priests of the first hour; their saintly lives are forever emblazoned on the pages of Canadian history; the western trails murmur their names in gratitude and the children of the prairie still bless their memory by the dying fires of their camps.

Indeed the Province of Quebec for years sent her money to help the struggling schools of Manitoba.  The Catholic Church of Canada has pledged itself in the Plenary Council of Quebec to help the Ruthenian cause; the Catholic Church Extension Society of late years is enlisting the sympathies of Eastern Catholics for our Western missions.  With the help of their motherhouses our various sisterhoods have dotted the West with convents, schools, hospitals and charitable institutions.  We all recognize the beauty and the heroism of their Catholic charity and apostolic zeal.  Notwithstanding these noble efforts, can we safely state that the Church of Eastern Canada, as a whole, is deeply interested in the Catholic welfare of the West?  Have we kept pace with the changing conditions the last decade has brought throughout our Western Canada? No. And this is our national sin.  The Church as a whole, has not awakened to its responsibility.  As individuals, as parishes, as dioceses, Catholics here and there have nobly done their duty.  As a body, as a living Church of Canada, we have failed to help the struggling West as we should have done.  We have not thrown all the energies of our great living, organizing Church into this missionary work.  The Catholics of our Eastern Provinces are not yet united in one great, generous effort to protect and spread the Kingdom of God in their own fair Dominion.  The call of the Church in the West has not been heard.

Never has the importance of the West loomed up before the public mind as it has since the beginning of the war.  To realize this you have only to remark its growing influence in our political life.  It cannot be otherwise; the possibilities of the West are so great and so numerous.  Immense virgin prairies are still waiting for the plough.  After the war, during the period of reconstruction, necessarily