Say the New Apostles
" A nucleus of dynamic possibilities and of high potential ", Is how Fr. Andrew Beck, A.A., classes the new type of welleducated Catholic, impatient for action, which Is feet becoming noticeable in this country now. His remarks occur in an important article called " In Defence of the Sword: and published in the July issue of The Clergy Review. It will be of Interest to all who have the interests of Christian Co-operation and or all forms of Catholic Action at heart.
" We are living in an age," says Fr. Beck, " which is witnessing the emergence in strong numbers of a new and vitally important type of Catholic, the well-educated man or woman of the professional class, partly the product of two or three generations of our Catholic secondary schools, and partly comprising that class of educated convert which for years past has been steadily coming Into the Church. I do not think that, as a body, we are aware of the potentialities of this type of Catholic. nor of the strength of our numbers In this field.
" We have had hitherto something like two extremes, At the one end of the scale were the Catholic ' poor and lower-class families, impotent and unheeded, grand fighters when well led, hut inarticulate without leadership, looking, as a rule, to the clergy
For guidance, At the other end were the Catholic families of the old tradition, whose forefathers had kept alive the flame of the Faith in the dark penal days. They were to a great extent tradition-bound, suffering, too, from a sense of grievance, possibly of inferiority, anxious to justify themselves in the eyes of the world.
" BUT ONLY RECENTLY HAVE WE HAI) IN ANYTHING APPROACHING IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS T II E K F E N. WELL-EDUCATED, ACTIVE APOSTOLIC LAITY OF THE PROFESSIONAI. CLASSES, THE SCHOOLMASTER, THE LAWYER, THE JOURNALIST, THE CIVIL SERVANT, FROM VVIIICII MOST CATHOLIC SOCIETIES DRAW THEIR MEMBERS, AND ALL CATHOLIC ACTION SEEMS TO DRAW ITS STRENGTH — AND F R 0 M . WHICH, INCIDENTALLY, THE MAJORITY OF THE CATHOLIC CLERGY HAVE SPRUNG. THESE CATHOLIC MEN AND WOMEN WANT TO GET SOMETHING DONE.
" They are, I believe, at times genuinely infuriated at what they think are our lack of vision and vehemence, our parochialism, our submergence in minor local affairs while matters of universal consequence remain apparently' unconsidered and vital questions seem to be unsolved."