The participation in civic, social and national activities will afford the occasion of meeting our non-Catholic neighbours.  This personal and repeated contact, particularly with the leaders of the community, on occasions when the best brains can concentrate together without clash of principle, is, in our humble estimation, of the greatest value.  The participation of the Knights of Columbus in war activities and reconstruction work is a striking illustration of this point.  Nothing has more helped the Church in the American Republic, in breaking down the barrier of anti-Catholic prejudice, than the stand its Catholic laity took during and after the Great War.  Have we not in Western Canada been rather remiss in our participation in public activities?  If we have not had our share in public life, it has often been, we must confess, our own fault.

The strength of the silent propaganda lies in its persistency and consistency.  A silent continuous and intelligent activity, and not a mere passivity, on the part of Catholics, is what characterizes this tremendous force.  Like the tide, it creeps from pebble to pebble, from rock to rock, submerging every thing under its conquering waters.

The logic of Catholic life lends its consistency to this silent force.  Our life is indeed the best proof of our principles.  No one on the contrary does more harm to the Church than a Catholic whose life is not in harmony with his belief.  The non-Catholic points to his life, with a sneer, and says:  “See, he is no better than others!” This reasoning, we know is false, but for the unthinking masses, very often conclusive.

This silent drive is the necessary background of the open propaganda of which we would now say a few words.

The sincerely aggressive Catholicism of the laity cannot confine its activities to the home and narrow circle of friends, no more than that of the clergy can find its limit in the pulpit and the confessional.  Let us go into the open.  The sun of liberty is blazing bright for us all, under the blue skies of Canada.  To witness at times, our cringing spirit, our childlike timidity, our cowardice, one would think that we were still under the penal laws and legal disabilities known by our fathers and forefathers.  “What is there to check our dash forward?” we would ask with Father Vaughan.  “Absolutely nothing, but ourselves, nothing but what we term prudence.”  Prudence! thin veneer, hardly able to conceal our apathy and unwarranted timidity.

Has not the time come to throw off this false timidity and “To go out into the highways and hedges and compel our separated brethren to come in, that the Master’s house may be filled.” (Luke Ch. 14).  Long enough have we waited for them to come to us.  An intelligent Methodist was recently asked the question:  “What do you think is the greatest obstacle to the spread of the Catholic Faith?” And he answered:  “Ignorance,—­because Protestants do not understand what Catholic teaching is, and if your people have the courage of their convictions and claim that they know the truth, why do they not come out like the Socialists, Radicalists, Salvation Army, and other bodies who have come out, and explain to the public what they believe and why.”