the deep ethical truths of Catholic ethics, dogmas, which are a guide to the reconstructive activities of all time.  Without changing a jot of the unchangeable truth, new series of interpretations can be given to Catholic dogma, morals, ethics, with explanations that will catch the ear of the intelligent non-Catholic, give him in his own idiom the solid gist of Catholic Doctrine and appeal to him with the simple eloquence that Truth always has, when presented in the proper way.” (Father Garesche, S.J., America, Dec. 28.) For, as the Editor of the Universe said, commenting on the death of Sir Mark Sykes, “The secret of ideal Catholic leadership lies in a passionate desire for the Catholic good inseparable from the common good, combined with a complete aloofness from any sectional interest.”

Now, we may ask, what has given to Catholic France, Catholic Belgium, Catholic England, these eminent leaders who in public and social life, are by their fearless courage and ceaseless action, the very personification of Catholicism?  It is without doubt their Catholic Congresses.  There, the contact with the great problems of the day gave them the vision of things before unseen, made them emerge from the common mass, and marked them as leaders.  There, they learned to think just, broad and deep.  The great Congresses of Catholic Germany brought Windthorst to the foreground and made him the leader of the greatest Catholic organization.  What the Congresses have done for Catholic Germany, Belgium, France and England, they will also do for Canada.  They will give us true leaders, men of clear vision, of indomitable and fearless will, of patient and persevering action.  For mistaken leadership is still a greater calamity than the absence of it.  The Plenary Council of Quebec urges the Catholics of Canada to meet in Congress:  “Qui quidem in talium caetuum frequentia liberius poterunt et validius sui nominis professionem sustinere, hostiles impetus propulsare.”  In the mind of the great Pope Leo XIII, whose words are here quoted, “a Congress is the most powerful offensive and defensive weapon.”  Quebec Plenary Council—­No. 441, d.

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We may then conclude with a French writer:  “A Congress is a sacrament of unity.”  It will visualize to the modern pagan for whom unity of doctrine means nothing, the tremendous powers, the living influences that flow from that same unity on the world.  And for the Catholics at large it will now answer to a widespread, deep-seated longing for a more effective national Catholic unity of action.

Yes, at all times, a Congress is a necessity for united action; but in the troubled periods we now face, after the war, it becomes a factor of supreme interest and of the most vital importance.

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Reconstruction is the world’s watch-word as nations rise from the ruins a long protracted and universal war has accumulated around them.