The theory of compelling a nation to learn a certain language as if it were the only vehicle of the “Great Message of Christ” or of waiting until the people know the missionary’s own language . . . is not Catholic.  The Church of Christ is not a nationalistic Church.  No one has to deny his race nor to give up his language to become or to remain Her faithful child.

But, facts are facts and one must face them and take from them one’s bearings.  They stand as the tossing buoy on the drifting waters of our ordinary life.  To ignore them often spells disaster.  Now, the fact of paramount importance is that the English language is fast gaining ground among the Ruthenians.  The recent school laws (we do not discuss here their wisdom)[2], the anti-foreign feeling that has held the country in its grip during the war, the violent campaign of a certain element, the general drift of the various annual conventions, the studied plan of action of Provincial Governments, the eagerness of the Ruthenian rising generation to know English[3], and above all the unbounded zeal of non-Catholic denominations who make the learning of English the trump card of their game, these are facts, and have to be reckoned with.  The sooner our Ruthenians are made to grasp these conditions, the better will they be equipped for the struggle of Canadian life and for the preservation of their Catholic faith.  Is it not time, therefore, for some English-speaking priests to go out among the Ruthenians and share the work with those valiant missionaries who, the great majority at least, are strangers to our country, and who have learned the language, embraced the rite and for the last twenty years have been doing our work for us?  Their presence is a stimulating lesson and an abiding reproach.  A dozen or so of young English-speaking priests would be a great boon to the Ruthenian mission, particularly in the West with its present mentality.

The School is the great melting pot.  One has to read “The New Canadian,” by Dr. Anderson, to understand the full meaning of this statement in its relation to the Ruthenian problem.  The schools among the Ruthenians in the Western Provinces are practically all public schools.  The number of Catholic teachers is exceedingly small and yet, were they available, the Ruthenian trustees would be at liberty and glad to give them the preference.  Only those who know the influence the teacher wields in a Ruthenian settlement will fully appreciate the presence of a Catholic teacher.  Were a good Catholic teacher to give to this cause a year or two of her teaching life she would be doing a great missionary work.  If the Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists can get girls and young men to go, surely we could also, were we to organize and try it.  This is the reason why the foundation, in Yorkton, of the English speaking Brothers of Toronto, is one of the wisest moves in the right direction.  The idea is to prepare teachers for the Ruthenian settlements