ALL THIS I SAW FIRST IN THE CATHOLIC PRESS

By JOHN PEARMAIN
IWAS born a Methodist, in a rural part of England. It may sound incredible, but I was almost grown-up before I knew that the Catholic Church had even survived in this country; my teachers always spoke of it in the past tense; naturally we thought of it as something that died out in the 16th century. At 20 I became an Anglican, at 27 a clergyman; and still I knew next to nothing about the Catholic Church. The long process of my Catholic education and ultimate conversion began on the day when a Catholic, in a house where I was visiting non-Catholics, gave me a Catholic paper, I was staggered; I had no idea there were enough Catholics in England to run a newspaper. I read every word of it. It was the first Catholic reading I had ever had the opportunity of doing. .1 began to learn, and it was in every sense news to me that the Catholic Church did not consist of a few superstitious foreigners; that she is a living, growing, vigorous institution, teaching all nations; that she claimed to he the Body of Christ, the One True Church; that she was still producing saints; that she included in her members G. K. Chesterton and Sheila KayeSmith; that she was succeeding while "the Churches'' were failing; that thousands of clergymen had joined her, and 12,000 laymen a year; that alone she was defending the family against immorality; that all her doctrines, including Infallibility, were logical and consistent; that her social teaching was complete and yet always abreast of the changing scene.
All this I learnt from the Catholic Press.
Making enquiries
THEN I began to read the books the Catholic Press recommended; and when eventually 1 met a priest, he said: "You seem to know it all already."
That was thanks to the Catjpolic Press, through which I discovered the Church. There are 46 million others in Britain who could find her in the same way; but only if we isse the Catholic Press, not only for our own good but towards the conversion of England.
We must not leave Englands conversion only to the Enquirers' Class movement, admirable as that is. So far, only a small minority have reached the stage of being enquirers. The Apostolate of the Press implies the existence of apostles; the call to apostles is: "Going, teach all." Every one of us can do that by means of Catholic papers, beginning the conversion of an outsider into an enquirer.
In another sense, too, every reader can win other apostles by converting a non-reader into a reader.
We speak of the "problems of illiteracy" in the East; we have the same problem here, in the millions of Catholics who cannot read a Catholic paper because they do not have one, and in the 4 million non-Catholics who cannot read a Catholic paper because they have never seen one. Is not the fault, in both cases, ours?
I would go further than "Traveller's" recent letter, and say: "Order three or six extra papers and put them in letter-boxes on your way to early Mass on Sunday. Better still, send them to people you know, and begin opening the way to an Apostolate of the Press Conversion Movement of your own. You have an example in St. Paul, who sent a Catholic paper to the non-Catholic Philemon."
No Mass-missers
GR. RICHARD SMITH, of Carlisle, has been saying that we lose five people by lapsing for every two we gain by conversion and growth. I know a priest of wide experience who claims that a Catholic paper is a weekly stimulant, and, just as lapsing always begins with Mass-missing, he says he has never known a regular reader of a Catholic paper to become a Mass-misser.
We are sometimes told that Catholic Action has largely failed. May it not be that we have tended to think too much in terms of starting new societies? Fr. Bernard Basset has said that they do not succeed in harnessing the energies of more than 50,000 Catholics, which is less than 2 per cent. of our numbers. fs not the Apostetlate of the Press something that the other 98 per cent. of us can. and must, do. personal work which is the best form of Catholic Action and conversion movement?
I have just been told of a lady, as yet only an enquirer, who is already making efforts to gain new readers for the Catholic Press. What a challenge that is to the rest of us! Every Sunday morning, too, the Communists are out with the Daily Worker; are we going to allow the children of the Kremlin to be seen to be more enthusiastic than the chidren of Light?
There is a rather puzzing text which says, in effect: "Do not let the light which is in (or, among) you, be darkness." Are we not guilty of this, and of hiding our light under a bushel, if we neglect the Apostolate of the Press?
Truth in print
"' IX months ago Bishop Heenan issued a striking pastoral letter about our Catholic papers. It was addressed to the diocese of Leeds but it was widely reported, even in the secular Press, and the principles it laid down were, and are, applicable to all Catholics everywhere at all times.
Mgr. Heenan said: "There are many things Catholics ought to know which find no place in Sunday instructions. Almost every day you see in your papers news about the Catholic Church, a speech by a Bishop, or new attacks on the Church. Your friends want to know your views. Secular papers are often misleading. You have a duty to be well informed about the Church and world affairs.
"How can you gain this information? By being regular readers of the Catholic Press. Take a Catholic paper and judge for yourselves. Many non-Catholics read our papers to get information which is found nowhere else. During the war non-Catholics began reading Catholic papers because they were looking for facts without propaganda.
"You owe it to your family and to the Church to take a Catholic paper. When you have read it, pass it on to your non-Catholic friends. Your arguments will be powerfully supported if you can show them the truth in print. Be apostles. Be up to date in your defence of the Church of God. Every home can afford a few pence for a Catholic paper. Take one home with you Those words might well be reprinted every year. They have been quoted many times already. No one would be happier than Mgr. Heenan if the time came when they became out of a date" if a time came when it was no longer necessary to quote them, except as part of the history of a movement that swept every Catholic into the readership of the Catholic Press.
Tata who read . .