The serious minded non-Catholic, whose soul has not been wholly warped by prejudice, will at least consider the Catholic Church as one of the great moral factors in the nation.  He will naturally wish to know the mind of the Church and the reasons for its stand in many problems common to all Canadians.  Our candid explanation will help to give him a better understanding of facts and a better appreciation of our position on issues to be faced by us all.  We are prompted by a sincere love for our Country in offering these solutions for the various issues with which we are confronted.  “Preconceived opinions and inherited prejudices, particularly in religious matters tend to make men either blind or indifferent to the merits of systems other than their own.”  We do not expect our non-Catholic readers to see eye to eye with us in the discussion of the various problems under examination.  Our viewpoint is naturally the Catholic one.  But we do believe that the broad-minded Westerner is open to conviction and willing to take an argument on its face value.  ‘Give us a hearing’ . . . . this is the burden of our message to our non-Catholic countrymen.  This book is not written in a spirit of controversy.  Were some to see it in this light, then I would claim for the author what Birrell said of Newman:  “He contrived to instil into his very controversy more of the spirit of Christ than most men can find room for in their prayers.”  Moreover; we are persuaded that the great war has mellowed the minds of men and made them more receptive.  The contact with other countries has softened the contours of certain controversies and given to all a broader outlook.

However, should our arguments fail to prove satisfactory or should they give rise to contradiction, we would repeat here what Newman wrote in his Preface to “Difficulties of Anglicans,” “It has not been our practice to engage in controversy with those who felt it their duty to criticise what at any time we have written; but that will not preclude us under present circumstances, from elucidating what is deficient in them by further observations, should questions be asked, which, either from the quarter whence they proceed, or from their intrinsic weight, have, according to our judgment, a claim upon our attention.”

The problems we touch upon are of a general character.  They are not new, but the war and the loose and hysterical thinking which has accompanied and followed it, have forced them into startling prominence.  We have grouped them under three headings:  religious, educational, and social.  We do not pretend to present an exhaustive treatment of the matter.  To do so, would be on our part a stroke of temerity and for the reader, an assured deception.  Human problems are ever the same.  The surface may be somewhat changed, the handling a little different, but the principles upon which depends their solution do not change.  Our effort is to throw a new light on old subjects.