labour problem,—­their general meeting in Washington, the constitutions of the Catholic National Board with its various departments, all go to prove that they grasped the signs of the times and have readjusted the sails of the Ship of Peter in America to the new winds that are sweeping over the world.  We should never forget indeed that the Church of God is not of this world but is in this world.  To strip ourselves of crippling “formalism” and to bring the Church nearer the realities of the times, is, in Byron’s words, making “realities real.”  Is it not indeed time to broaden our apostolate and give more scope to the laity?  If the non-Catholic denominations are able to find young men and women who consent to live among our foreigners as teachers, social workers, field secretaries, lay missionaries and catechists, surely we should be able to find the same among our own to protect the faithful against apostasy.  We must remember that the Ruthenians who have come to this country belong, generally speaking, to that class for whom even existence was a problem in their native land.  They are the very ones who have been protected in their faith by language, tradition, customs and all that goes to make up the mental atmosphere of the uneducated mass.  When that atmosphere disappears these poor people are exposed to all pernicious influences.  We are therefore responsible to the Church to build around them the protective wall of Catholic life.  The initiation to their Canadian life should not be at the price of their Catholic life.

This is the situation.  What can be done?  Naturally, to quote Lord Morley:  “A settlement of foolscap sheet, independent of facts, of local circumstances and feeling, and passion, and finance, and other appurtenances of human nature” . . . will lead nowhere.  To do effective work along the lines suggested in this chapter we must take facts and circumstances as they are, and work into them the idea, and then work the idea into the people.  The LANGUAGE, the SCHOOL, the COMMUNITY LIFE are the THREE GREAT FACTORS that the enemies of the Ruthenian’s faith unscrupulously exploit in their nefarious work.  We must meet the enemy on this common ground and beat him with his own weapons.

Language.—­The right of a man to his language is an incontestable right; the free use of it is a primary human liberty.  The Church has always respected this right as one of the most elementary laws of nature.  In the evangelization of nations She has always accommodated Herself to the ways and language of the people.  In this, She is faithful to the illuminating lesson the Master gave to Her on Her birthday, Pentecost Sunday, when the Apostles were heard each speaking his own language.  “They began to speak with divers tongues according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak . . . Every man heard them speak in his own tongue.”  Since that day the true Apostle of Christ has respected the language of the people he evangelized.