Lark of zeal begins hi Ireland says Legion founder

IRISH MISSIONERS REPORT PROGRESS
C.H.' REPORTER
FOUR priests, three have reported on out their missions to Britain.
Irish and one English, their progress in carrying the Irish immigrants in
Their views are printed in the September issue of "The Furrow." t h e Maynooth monthly magazine. The Legion of Mary has been chosen as a key society for developing the lay aposto late. One experienced priest says : " Most Irish boys and w girls, men and omen, will respond generously if they feel needed; if they are given an ideal, or if they are given plenty of apostolic work."
Fifty to eighty per cent joining the Legion in England and Wales
re
today a Irish. Seventy per cent of the nurses in England are Catholic; 50 per cent Irish.
At home
Even so, progress would be greater if there were a better training in Ireland. Fr. Aedan McGrath, now at work among his compatriots here, quotes Mr. Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary, as follows: " The trouble begins in Ireland. Until we produce in our Irish schools boys and girls who not only know their Faith, but who can talk it fluently, and who,are determined to give it to others — until we produce apostles—we are only producing half-baked Catholics ". Work in the Legion is helping the new Irish in three ways: Ito know the Faith they learnt little of back home; 2—to want to get other Irish to know it too; 3—to want to get the English to want it. Fr. Eamon Gaynor, another Irish priest who is now ministering to the quarter of a million Irish workers in the building trade in this country, says: " There are some, undoubtedly, who are careless. But there is no group of emigrants anywhere in the world more faithful to the practice of their religion than ours.
Potential
" The real problem is that in them you have a body of close on a million people, mostly excellent Catholics, living among a people who need their Faith, who, in many instances, arc searching for it. They have never been effectively marshalled to help these
. people .
..In fact, they do not realise what they are capable of doing. They are potential apostles, in the best traditions of the Irish race. But their potential is left undeveloped."
The work of consolidation Is taken up eagerly. At the crack of dawn Legionaries are at main linestations to welcome new arrivals
from Ireland; a banner is held high so that they may be recognised. "British railway officials are pleased with this work. It is all the more heroic as the trains come so early in the morning," says Fr. s McGrath. From the outset the invading army of England' new apostles are taught that it is wrong to say: "I have kept the Faith to myself ",
"Astounding," is Fr. Gaynor's description of the response of his compatriots to having a priest living among them in the camps.
..There is hadly one per cent you could write off as lost to the Faith. I think these figures are amazing, especially when you remember that it is with ordinary working-men that you are dealing. ' In London's great hotels there are Irish workers. too, who respond well to the ministrations of
o ma
their own priests. As many as 15,000 are to be found in the alone. A r
London hotels al000m is often placed at the disposal of the priest, to which at stated times, the staff may come along.