Obstacles that impede. . . . Circumstances that help the work of the Church in Western Canada.

The opening of the North West Territories to immigration, and their creation into distinct Provinces of the Dominion stand as land marks of portentous meaning in the History of Canada. The settlement and development of these immense fertile prairies of the West were bound to react on the economic powers and political outlook of our Country. By the sheer weight of their economic value these new Provinces have leaped into prominence and forced themselves upon the attention of the Country at large. The Western issues are now so weighty that only the greatest prudence and wisest statesmanship will maintain the equilibrium between the conflicting forces of the East and the West of our broad Dominion. Canada now stands at the parting of the ways in its home and foreign policy. Every true and patriotic Canadian is proud of the progressiveness of these new Provinces beyond our great Lakes and anxious to see them bring their contributions to the Commonwealth by sharing in the direction of its government. Their presence around the family table is not that of strangers or intruders, but of young, stalwart and rightly ambitious sons.

Yet, as Religion is the necessary factor of true prosperity, the religious outlook in these young Provinces is what naturally appeals to the Catholic mind. What are then the prospects for the Church in Western Canada? A rapid survey of conditions will enable us to take our bearings and impress upon our minds the value of our co-operation at this juncture of our History. The Church in the West is in its making and we cannot over-emphasize the responsibility of every Catholic in the matter. The knowledge of existing conditions will be to us what the topography of the country under survey is to the engineer. It helps to adjust the vision, to give the sense of proportion and to suggest the easiest grades.

To know well an obstacle is often the best means to overcome it, just as in modern warfare to locate the enemies' batteries is to silence them. In our Chapter, "The Call of the West," we have explained the obstacles with which Catholics have to contend on the prairie and in small towns. We pointed out those obstacles, geographical (distance and climate), ethnical (race and language), religious (absence of catholic traditions and surroundings), and marked how they were as wide crevices through which vitality is being lost to the Church in Western Canada. It is our intention here to dwell only on difficulties of a general character, inherent to the state of this new country and effecting the Church in its corporate existence.

The materialistic spirit, in all its forms, characterizes the West. The youth of our Eastern Provinces and foreigners from every shore flocked to this Eldorado by the thousands and hundreds of thousands with the one particular aim in view, to better their material condition. Their success has been so great that we may well say that the very atmosphere of the West is surcharged with commercialism. The "crop" is the ever-recurring factor and eternal topic of Western life. No better picture reflects this attitude than that which is offered to the traveller as his train goes rolling on through the even prairie. Ever emerging on the horizon and dotting the landscape of the bald plain the grain elevator stands indeed as the most conspicuous land mark of our Western towns. The elevators are in our prairie landscapes what the church spires are in the Quebec villages, along the shores of the St. Lawrence. Here and there they stand as symbols; they interpret an ideal. Naturally a population so immersed in material pursuits and frequently, not to say always, separated by the very force of circumstances from the vitalizing contact of spiritual influence, rapidly loses grasp of the supernatural and becomes refractory to the doctrines and practices of the Church. Nothing is more adverse to the influence of Christianity than material prosperity combined with the absolute ignorance of its divine teachings. The wealthy and prosperous farmer out West is inclined to look down on the Church and consider Her "out of date." [1]

This materialistic atmosphere and the absence of catholic traditions and associations act also as a corrosive on the faith of Catholics, particularly of our young people. Like a strong acid it eats away the teachings of good Christian parents and the impressions of a Catholic home. Only those who have seen at close range these sad soul transformations can believe in their painful reality and explain their frequency.

The activities of non-Catholic bodies among the foreign element are another obstacle to the work of the Church. Like the locusts of Egypt a cloud of proselytizers have alighted on those parts of the Provinces where the new Canadian is in the making. We have seen in another chapter (Pro aris, et focis—or, the Ruthenian Problem) how under the cover of Canadianization, the foreigner is being weaned away from the Faith of his Fathers and what menace this is for the Church.

This systematic effort of the various denominations is being supported by the combined action of their clergy and laity in the East. Men and money are flowing into the West to Christianize (sic!) our Catholic foreigners. The final result of this proselytizing effort is not a permanent increased membership for these churches, but rather indifference and irreligion among our foreign element. Facts and figures prove it. And to re-establish these souls in the Faith of their Baptism is no easy task, we all know. It is far easier to tear down than to rebuild.

This united action of the different Churches stands out in sharp contrast with the lack of co-operation among Catholics throughout Canada. The absence of co-operation of the East with the West affects very seriously the welfare of the Church in the new Provinces. We all willingly and gratefully acknowledge the contributions in men and money that have come from the East through the channels of the Religious Orders, of the Catholic Church Extension and from other sources. But absorbed by parochial and diocesan interests the Catholic Church in Eastern Canada has not as yet fully realized the seriousness of our Western problems. With its co-operation only can the weight of the Church as a whole be brought to bear in their solution.

This policy of unity of action is also most urgent for the Catholics of the Western Provinces. We are a minority in each Province; concerted action can alone press our legitimate claims and bring to us success in these activities which necessarily overlap the boundaries of dioceses and provinces, as is the case with the Catholic Press and Higher Education. Diocesan isolation, if we are not careful, can become the weakness of our strength, in these critical stages of rapid development. Yet, there are no Provinces in the Dominion where the Church faces so many identical problems under identical conditions as in the Western Provinces. Should not this alone suggest to our leaders a unity of plan and realize among our Western Catholics concerted action?

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As there is a silver lining to the darkest cloud, there is a bright side for the Church in conditions out West.

The striking feature of the Canadian West is the newness of the country. Youth is stamped everywhere clear and bold; the dash and buoyancy of the people reflect it faithfully. Optimism is the predominant note in that land of immensities and great possibilities. Untrammelled by set traditions and cast-iron customs, every one is there to start a new life. The past does not seem to exist for the Westerner; the future is his sole concern.

This newness of the country and the optimistic mood which it creates can be called into the service of the Church. They form an atmosphere of tolerance which proves most helpful for the preaching of Her doctrine and the maintenance of Her institutions.

The youthfulness of the country has left its mark on the character of the Westerner. There is something of the vastness of the prairie in his mind. He is generally broad, and boasts of it most willingly. This trait is very noticeable in his passion to revaluate theories, to redefine notions brought from the East. The great success with which he has met in various co-operative schemes has also developed in him a high sense of self-reliance. The only danger is that he carries that same self-assurance into domains where he often over-reaches himself. This fact is very noticeable in the various annual Conventions. Unconsciously, in matters beyond his grasp, he is at the mercy of a few leaders. Resolutions are passed, legislation is suggested, without realization of their consequences.

The rapid disintegration of Protestantism is another factor with which the Church can count. Church union is in many places an accomplished fact. This alone is a convincing proof of the want of grasp, of definiteness that exists in religious matters. We would refer our reader to the Chapter "Ploughing the Sands." To what extent this rather negative disposition will hasten the spreading of the true Faith, is difficult to state. Will it, as is evident in England, promote a movement of return to the Church or accentuate, as in the United States, indifference and unbelief, the future alone can tell. But, is it not our duty in the meantime to make use of every tide and wind to bring the ship to port? The tide, as it is now running, shall bring to the Church many a shipwrecked soul.

This is our firm belief.

This rapid survey of Western conditions in their relation with the Church, without being a searching examination, outlines, as it were, the actual religious topography of our new Provinces. Our sole ambition is to help to wipe away, in our work, useless curves, make easier the grades and map out the straightest and most direct route to success. With the knowledge of conditions, less energy will be lost and more time will be gained. Time and energy are the necessary factors of true and permanent progress.

[1] "Catholics to a certain extent will remain an alien body. We differ from those around us in a profound fashion, not in matters of direct doctrine, for which the modern world has largely ceased to care, but in the effects of that doctrine. The Catholic's whole conception of man and of the fundamentals of human life is a different thing from that held by those about us."—H. Belloc.