No Catholic is a Catholic for himself only.  Christian Charity imposes upon us the duty to help our brother.  The spreading of Catholic Truth is one of the great works of Mercy and is as binding as alms-giving for the relief of temporal want.  The love of God and of our neighbour is the foundation of this obligation.  This consciousness of Christian solidarity whereby the rich come to the rescue of the poor, the learned help the ignorant, is the driving force behind the Catholic Truth Society.

With the vision of the Truth and the conscientious impulse to spread it, the Society is bound to grow in a genuine Catholic soil.  We say it frankly, there is something wanting in a parish where the Catholic Truth Society meets with no response, creates no interest.  The sense of real Catholicism and the consciousness of the duties it implies are conspicuous by their absence.  There, Christianity does not run deep enough.  This also stands true where the Catholic Church Extension or other organization of its kind, has no hold.  The same principle is at stake; in both cases deficiency reveals a negative, rather than a militant Christianity.

Policy.

The world nowadays, like Pilate, asks the Church:  “What is Truth?” But like Pilate also, proud of its power, its wealth, and success, it will not wait for the answer.  Yet the Church’s mission is to give to the world that truth after which humanity thirsts.  Her mode of dispensation will vary from age to age.  New times, new duties.  Her policy is often suggested by the change of front in the line of the enemy.

As the “printed word” is now the great vehicle of propaganda, the great message of Catholic Truth will be given more by print than by speech.  This new apostleship has opened the doors to Catholic lay activity.  The Catholic Truth Society is one of its many forms and should, to be faithful to its origin, remain a specifically Catholic laymen’s movement.

The policy of the Catholic Truth Society is very broad and embraces a great variety of activities which all tend to the propagation and defense of Catholic Truth.

Pamphlets.—­The printing and diffusion of pamphlets are characteristic features of the Society.  These winged booklets have come to be most fruitful transmitters of Catholic Truth.  Silent Messengers of truth, they steal their way into homes and circles where the priest, and even at times the catholic layman cannot penetrate.  Eloquent Preachers, their voice is heard to the extremities of the earth.  Perpetual Missionaries, they continue the work when the apostle has passed to another field.  They keep the light of faith burning bright in many a lonely homesteader’s cabin on the Prairies of our Great West.  How often have we not seen farmers coming into the Regina Cathedral to fill their pockets with pamphlets from the book-rack before they returned to their farms often situated at thirty or forty miles from a Church!  Silent Controversionalists, they give Catholic information and drive the argument home without offence to the pride of the reader, for, the personal element of the controversy is eliminated.  Their unobtrusiveness is what the inquirer appreciates in matters of religious research particularly.