The Progress of the Church in the United States [pp. 1-19]

in the United States.
in America has doubtless gone for
something in the familiarity which religious minds are gradually acquiring
with the principles of political liberty;'
and thus the growth of American
Catholicism is allied to the world-wide
reaction which is now taking place
after the religious eclipse of the last
century. This transformation of the
United States, in truth, is only one
marked incident in the intellectual
revolution which is drawing the whole
world toward the Catholic ChurchEngland as well as America, Germany
as well as England, even Bulgaria in
the far East. The foreign press brings
us daily the signs of this progress;
and nothing can be easier than to point
them out in France under our own
eyes. But unfortunately we have been
too much in the habit, for the last century, of leading a life of continual
mortification, too conscious that we
were laughed at by the leaders of public opinion. We crawled along in fear
and trembling, creeping close to the
walls, dreading at every step to give
offence, or to cause scandal, or to lose
some of our brethren. Accustomed
to see our ranks thinned and whole
files carried off in the flower of their
youth, we stood in too great fear of the
deceitful power of doctrines which
seemed to promise everything to man
and ask nothing from him in return.
And therefore many of us still find
it hard to understand the new state of
things in which we are making progress without external help. This
progress, however, inaugurated by the
energy of a few, the perseverance of
all, and the overruling hand of divine
Providence, is unquestionably going
on, and may easily be proved. We
have only to visit our churches, attend
some of the special retreats for men,
or look at the Easter communions, to
see what long steps faith and religious
practice have taken within the last
forty years. The change is most perceptible among the educated classes
and in the learned professions. We
have heard old professors express their
astonishment in comparing the schools
2
of the present time with those of their
youth. It was then almost impossible
to find a young man at the tcole Polytechnique, at St. Cyr, or at the Acole
Centrale, with enough faith and enough
courage openly to profess his religion;
now it may be said that a fifth or perhaps a fourth part of the students
openly and unhesitatingly perform their
Easter duty. We ourselves remember that no longer ago than 1830 it
required a degree of courage of which
few were found capable to manifest any
religious sentiment in the public lyceums. Voltairianism-or to speak
better, an intolerant fanaticism-delighted to cover these faithful few with
public ridicule; while now, if we may
believe the best authorized accounts,
it is only a small minority who openly
profess infidelity. We can affirm that
in the School of Law the change is
quite as great, and it has begun to
operate even in that time-honored
stronghold of materialism, the School
of Medicine.
But what must strikeus most forcibly
in the examination of these questions
is the fact, already pointed out by the
Abbd Meignan, that the progress of
religion has kept even pace with the
extension of free institutions. Wherever the liberal regime has been established, the reaction in favor of religion
has become stronger, no doubt because
liberty places man face to face with
the consequences of his own acts and
the necessities of his feeble nature.
Man is never so powerfully impelled
to draw near to God as when he becomes conscious of his own weakness;
never so deeply impressed with the
emptiness of false doctrines as when
he has experienced their nothingness
in the practical affairs of life. The
violence of external disorder soon leads
him to reflect upon the necessity of
solid, methodical, moral education, such
as regulates one's life, and such as the
Church alone can impart. And therefore the great changcre of sentiment of
which we have spoken is perceptible
chiefly among the educated and liberal
classes, while with the ignorant and
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