The supernatural element of Faith, often the fruit of a valid baptism, which still lingers in the souls of many non-Catholics; the fact that numbers of them, because they are in good faith, belong thereby to the “Soul of the Church;” the rising tide of indifference and unbelief which is now burying under its water the last remnants of Christianity to be found among the conflicting creeds:  these are the predominant motives which, according to the principles of St. Thomas Aquinas, should attract the preference of our zeal.  For the order of the charity, says the Holy Doctor,[1] depends on the relations of those we love, to God and to ourselves, and on the urgency of their spiritual needs.  By this doctrine, among those outside of the Church, those professing Christianity have the first claim to our apostleship.  Therefore missions to non-Catholics, caeteris paribus, take precedence over foreign missions.

We all recognize the reality of this obligation and understand, vaguely perhaps, the burden of its responsibility.  We all indeed, at times, say with the Divine Master:  “There are other sheep that are not of this Fold; them also I must bring.”—­But, what have we done to bring them?

Outside of a few casual cases of conversion prompted often by marriage, and of some spasmodic efforts during a mission, are we not bound to admit that our policy in our relation with non-Catholics has been one of aloofness and waiting.  This attitude of aloofness may be traced to many causes.  The certainty of his faith gives to the Catholic an assurance which he carries with him into his every day life.  A sense of superiority is its natural result.  It gives him that self-confidence in religious matters which our separated brethren are so prone to call “Roman Pride.”

There exists in the Catholic soul that feeling we might name “The timidity of faith.”  This sensitiveness is but the instinct of preservation.  We have been impressed from our youth that faith is the greatest heirloom of our Christian heritage.  To protect it against any influence that would endanger it, is always considered a sacred duty.  This is particularly remarked among the masses, whose chances of education finished with the grammar schools, and in countries or localities where Catholics are the minority.

The natural result of this attitude and feeling is an estrangement from those of another faith, a bashful reluctance to meet them and to co-operate with them in social or civic matters, an unconscious tendency to see motives that do not exist and, at times, to refrain from the most elementary acts of charity and courtesy.  “It often happens that we manifest towards the heretic the feeling which should be exclusively reserved for heresy.” (Lord Morley.) That this is precisely the frame of mind of the ordinary non-Catholic in his dealings with us, is by no way an excuse for our own unkindness.  Retaliation is not Christ-like.