EVERY PARISH TO HAVE A MISSION NEXT YEAR

By DOUGLAS HYDE Throughout next year all England and Wales will be one great mission field and every practising Catholic, whether priest or layman will be a missionary.
For the year preceding Holy Year is to see the greatest all-out effort for the conversion of England, in the form of a General Mission to be preached in every parish in the land. Organising it will be the Catholic Missionary Society.
As in the case of previous more limited missions, the Religious Congregations will throw their whole weight behind the C.M.S. effect. But, because of the mission's size and scope large numbers of the parochial clergy will be asked to volunteer for mission work, exchanging pulpits and working in other parishes.
But in addition the assistance of every possible layman will be needed to make it a success.
In a letter sent to the clergy last week, Fr. John Heenan, Superior of the C.M.S., asks all clergy seriously to consider offering their services, and warns that : " If you decide to volunteer remember that giving missions is really hard work. Assiduous visiting is no less important than the actual preaching."
VAST WORK He adds : " If we did not know from experience the great goodwill of our brother clergy, both secular and regular, we should lack the courage to begin this vast work with all the intricacies of organisation it entails."
Missions will, Fr. Heenan told me, he held in the cities and towns during the spring and autumn, i.e., from the beginning of March to the end of June and the beginning of October to the end of the year.
Villages and rural towns will be served during July and August.
The aims, and therefore the appeal of the mission, will be broad. First, there will be thejob of making already active Catholics see the possibilities and responsibilities of the moment.
Then there will be the task of bringing back the lapsed Catholic to a spiritual life and Catholic activity.
BASIC APPEAL Finally there is the need for reaching out beyond these to the vast pagan mass outside the Church who make up the bulk of our fellowcountrymen. They are the ones who, as Fr. Heenan reminded me, are not merely indifferent but lacking any real belief at all.
There will, of course, be different occasions set aside for each of these sections during the course of a mission in any parish. But the basic appeal will be the same for all. " First, the existence of God and the fact that Christ is God; second, the problem of evil; third, the problem of modern materialism and the Christian approach to it."
There will be plenty for every layman and lay organisation to do. In every area there will he weeks of local preparatory work, publicising the coming mission through the local press, handbills and by word of mouth.