Missions in England

Irish Jesuit Province

Missions in EnglandAuthor(s): Robert NashSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 78, No. 920 (Feb., 1950), pp. 51-61Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20516118 .

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MISSIONS IN ENGLAND By ROBERT NASH, S.J.

SOMEWHERE round about 1922 Monsignor Ronald Knox told a Dublin audience that he believed that in forty years hence a man

in England would be forced to choose between Catholicism and

paganism. A sad confirmation of his words was afforded by the recent

44 Mission to London ", organized and widely publicized by the non

Catholic churches with the praiseworthy object of "

bringing back

Christ to the man in the street ". Tens of thousands of pounds were

spent on propaganda; nearly every one of London's millions received,

by post, a personal invitation to participate; the Protestant Bishop, for

a full fortnight ahead, had an article each evening in the paper to

stimulate interest in the project; the mission was advertised for

London to look at on the screen in the cinema, and for London to

listen to as it blared from every radio; newspapers carried screaming headlines and the different non-Catholic churches set up huge posters

?all calculated to arouse enthusiasm and secure packed con

gregations. And, on the closing night, 1,000 people forgathered at St. Paul's

Cathedral! One clergyman wrote euphemistically about the mag nificent response in his place of worship. It was estimated that he

had between forty-five and fifty scattered through the pews ! One is

reminded of Horace's mountain in labour and the ridiculus mus.

Assuredly it is in no spirit of harshness or cynicism that the

history of this fiasco is set down here. Rather must one feel nothing but a most poignant sorrow for such multitudes stumbling thus

helplessly amidst the blackness of paganism and materialism; rather must one who knows the truth be galvanized into action to share it

with others, and warned to preserve it and consolidate it in those who are of the household of the Faith.

441 worked for five years in a parish in England," said a priest. 44 We had about 42,000 souls. Three thousand of these were

Catholics about half of whom went regularly to Mass and the Sacra

ments; the other half never went, or practically never. There were

39,000 non-Catholics. Eight hundred of these, at a very generous estimate, attended church ".

51



IRISH MONTHLY

If it is painfully obvious that non-Catholics expect no guidance from their accredited teachers, there are signs that many are willing and eager to listen if the truth be presented to them. This is the

priest's opportunity, and its urgency is further brought home to him

if the privilege be given him to take an active part in the present Catholic missions being conducted throughout England.

If he is permitted to put his impressions on record, the experiences he has in common with his brother-priests, he cannot truthfully paint a rose-tinted picture of the multitudes flocking around him, all

keyed-up to hear him and guide their lives by the Christian principles he delivers to them. Would that this were so ! But the bleak reality is that on all sides he finds apathy, ignorance, vice, materialism, and

a leakage from the Church that is little short of terrifying to witness or even to chronicle. The overwhelming majority are complacent

pagans who are perfectly satisfied with the principle that "

all that

hell and heaven stuff was snuffed out with the Middle Ages ".

The Children

During the mission at X, the 300 Catholic children from the parish school were present each morning at a special Mass and Instruction. "If we could manage to hold them'9 said the missioner to the parish

priest as the youngsters filed out of the church, "

they would, in a

few years' time, form a splendid nucleus for a healthy Catholic

population." These boys and girls have devoted and efficient Catholic teachers.

They are constantly in contact with their zealous priests and nuns.

The ideals and principles and obligations of Catholics are carefully expounded and their truth and importance regularly emphasized.

Especially stressed is the Sunday Mass and the reception of the Sacraments. Sometimes the young people are cajoled to go to Mass

by the promise of a film afterwards from which the absentees are

excluded! Regularly every month they are conducted into the

church, on a stated day and at a stated hour, to secure that they go to Confession and receive Holy Communion.

The priests and teachers are the first to admit and recognize the obvious danger in all this of mere regimentation. But what is the alternative? We tried an experiment. During the mission we did not have Confessions

" organized "?as would normally happen?for

the Friday. Instead, we announced them for the Saturday, whpo 52



MISSIONS IN ENGLAND

there was no school, and the young people, if they came, would do

so voluntarily.

Everything that could be thought of was put before them about

the meaning of the Sacraments, their importance and value as being the divinely-appointed means of effecting so close and marvellous a

union with Our Lord, the Friend and Lover of children. Possibly we had sixty of them back to us on Saturday, certainly not more, and

all of these ranged in age from about seven to ten. Out of 300, more

than 200?and these approaching the age when most of all one wished

to see them come?failed to turn up simply because there was no

coercion. 44

I'm leaving school in a month's time," announced a youth of

fifteen, "

then I can be like Daddy and never go to church ! "

That

this expresses faithfully the mentality of the greater number is pain

fully evident. "

I doubt if 10 per cent, of them go when once they leave school," the zealous Catholic teacher told me. This may be an

exaggeration, but it is significant none the less.

I encountered a lad of sixteen whom we will call Jim Smith. Jim

had left the Catholic school at fourteen, had not since then put his

foot inside a church and did not even know a mission was being

given in the church, ten minutes' walk from his home. Nor was he

particularly excited when told. His mother, well-enough intentioned in

her way but a non-Catholic, promised to **

do her best ". His father, a

Catholic, was working too hard all the week and on Sundays needed

a long sleep. He had not been to Mass or Sacraments for years. Jim's case is typical of others, very many others, so typical indeed

that after a while one almost comes to regard it as normal. He

promised faithfully to attend the mission and receive the Sacra

ments, but, as was expected, the promise was not kept. Like

thousands, that boy will grow up, "

marry "

outside the Church and

bring up another family of pagans. It is notorious that many non-Catholic schools are conducted by

teachers who openly profess their allegiance to Communism. In

many cases education has degenerated into physical culture. "

You cannot expect the modern child to concentrate on books," a parish

priest was recently informed by an "

educationalist ". "

Give those

boys plenty of football and swimming and boxing, and teach them to work with their hands so as to be able to get a job in life."

At Christmas a priest asked a young man with a degree: " What,

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IRISH MONTHLY

to you, is the significance of this festivity?" The fellow had no

notion. "Did you ever hear anything about Christ?" prompted the

priest. A moment's pause. Then, with a puzzled expression: "No,

Father, I'm afraid I can't say I ever did. Oh, wait a minute ! Wasn't

it He Who was discovered by Moses amongst the bulrushes!"

The Homes

"If we could manage to hold them!" Yes, in the years of their

innocence, there is the anima naturaliter Catholica, but think of

the poison-laden atmosphere in which it has to exist. Visit the homes

of the children; consider their parents. A little girl of seven came back from Mass on a Sunday and

declared proudly that she had received Our Lord two mornings in

succession. "'Now, don't you dare to do the like again," piped up

seventy-year-old granny from her corner. "

Too much religion makes

little girls very wicked!" The Catholic teacher is often blamed for

giving his charges "

too much religion ". Religion gets you nowhere

when you are looking for a job, you see.

Visitation of the Catholic homes forms an essential portion of the

missioner's work. "

Being a priest in England," said a pastor to me, "

is a very different proposition from being a priest in Ireland." He

instanced the wearisome trudging from house to house, the intermin

able climbing up and down the stairs of the flats, but most of all the

depressing nature of this sort of work. "

Can't you understand," he

added, "that we have to fight hard to keep ourselves from dis

couragement?" During the mission one spent from three to five

hours visiting each day, and often, as one dragged one's feet along the hot streets on the way home, one found oneself inclined to think

and to ask: "What's the use? For all the good done, I might just as well have spent those hours in the presbytery."

This is utterly false, but it is the very natural reaction when, after

all one's efforts, there is literally nothing whatever to show by way of visible results attained. The priest seems to have made no impres sion whatsoever. It is at such moments that one takes solid comfort in the thought that visible results were very noticeably absent too

at Nazareth and on Calvary. So they form no criterion of success

or failure. Every step walked, every stairs climbed, every word

spoken, every effort made to awaken the dormant conscience, has each 54



MISSIONS IN ENGLAND

its own intrinsic value which is in no way affected by what appears

outwardly.

Further, as more than one priest has pointed out to me, it may well

be that the priest of to-day is sowing what will be reaped by the priest of to-morrow. It may be, too, that the failure to make an impression on a soul in London is balanced by a conversion in Bombay or

Pekin, brought about just precisely because the London priest kept on trying. Is not this, after all, only an application of the doctrine

of the Mystical Body? One thing certain is, that nothing done for

God is wasted, not the widow's mite nor the cup of cold water.

But to rule one's efforts by such supernatural principles is to be a

man steeped in the spirit of faith.

The priests knew their people from a to z, so one had a fair idea

what to expect as one knocked at the doors and waited for them to

open. Generally the priest was received courteously. (Only once

was the door slammed in my face and the order given not to call

again. This was by the "

husband "

of an Irish Catholic girl.) A

question or two usually extracted the information that the owner of

the house was a Catholic, went to Mass "

sometimes ", and had not

been to the Sacraments for years. Ordinarily, the marriage was a

mixed one; nearly always it had been performed either in a Registry Office or in a non-Catholic church; the children, if young, were

attending the non-Catholic school, and, if grown-up, had married

outside the Church.

Having listened to this tale and said whatever one could about it, one moved on to the next address, and then, da capo, the same all

over again. In the majority of cases visited this was the routine, so

that after a while one experienced a delightful sense of relief and

surprise when one happened upon an "

all-Catholic "

home.

In a few cases confusion arises between the Church and the High

Anglican Churches, and it is hard to speak with moderation of the

deception practised?unconsciously, one fervently hopes?and the

advantages taken of the ignorance of some Catholics and of their

inability to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit.

What is to be done? Frankly, in some cases there seems to be

nothing possible to do. The "

Catholic "

has completely lost touch

with the Church for thirty or forty years. All sense of sin has gone, all idea of compunction, all belief, it would seem, in eternal life and

55



IRISH MONTHLY

eternal rewards or punishments. The soul is dead, the conscience

lulled into a profound slumber.

With some of these one tries, with all the forcefulness at one's

command, to speak of the account to be given to God, or the

imminence of hell, or the ingratitude to Our Lord. Or one reminds

them of their early life with its innocence and purity and love for

Mary, and draws the appalling contrast with their present state. One

can only hope that some of the things said may penetrate, and then

one passes on. . . . I confess to a feeling of gratification when, on

returning to a house to inquire for a number, I found the woman?a

typical "

case "

whom I had just interviewed?weeping over what I

had said ! She came, though for only one night, to the mission after

years of absence.

But not all cases are hopeless; far from it! I sat for over an hour

with three young fellows in their twenties, all from Catholic schools

and all three lapsed. We discussed the Bible, the Divinity of Our

Lord, Our Blessed Lady, the claims of the Church, and the explana tion of the different sects outside it.

They showed an intelligent interest and asked some good questions. This gave a ray of hope, but against it, they never prayed, and when

invited to come to the mission, they refused. The youngest of the

three, aged twenty-five, seemed the most hopeful. I tried to get him

to promise to say even one Our Father and one Hail Mary morning and night, again to be met with a flat refusal. The example of his

two older brothers did not help him, nor of his mother, ill in bed

upstairs, who never went to Mass or said a prayer. I met a lady and her daughter, the girl aged twenty-one, a lapsed

Catholic, the mother a non-Catholic. We had a long talk in which

both seemed interested. I would have hopes for that mother if only the girl had character enough to lead the way by living up to her

faith. A young man, non-Catholic, had listened to a sermon given by a

missioner in another church. "

It gave you something to think

about," was his comment. "

I never in my life heard such definite

and clear teaching from a pulpit." We talked things over for a full

hour and I shall be surprised if he does not find his way into the

Church and make a sterling Catholic.

One of his difficulties was the Tyrone Power case, and it was good to observe the satisfaction with which he learned the true answer.

56



MISSIONS IN ENGLAND

Fortunately, I had a copy of the current issue of the Catholic Gazette

which discussed the case and which I left with him. Incidentally, I

am waiting to meet that missioner and shake his hand.

A man holding a prominent position, a non-Catholic, received

the priest most willingly, listened to what he had to say, asked many

questions, declared himself satisfied with the answers, and promised to look for more. He expressed himself grateful for Catholic

literature given to him, promised to read it?and has done so.

One night a non-Catholic policeman turned up to make inquiries from the parish priest about a boy. He wandered in to the sermon,

remained all the time, told a Catholic pal he was much impressed, " because it rings true ", and promised to come again. The Catholic

friend has been commissioned to help him along. The most common excuse is "no time"; "working all the week

and too tired on Sunday "; "

don't believe in those things no more "!

A priest had arranged for a ne temer? pair to come up to the church

at four in the afternoon and have the marriage put right. He had

gone to no end of trouble about that same case. Four o'clock came,

half-past, and five, but no man and woman. The priest called next

morning. "

Ah, Father, we went to the pictures ! "

Anybody can see that the truth is that there is a deplorable

ignorance of the meaning of religion and the supernatural. God is

never thought of, and it is a chilling experience to come bolt up

against people who stare at you, vacantly and uncomprehendingly, when you speak about Him and our duties towards Him. They fail to see the point; what is there to get excited over, anyway? It

is one thing to read about these things and hear about them. It is

quite another to meet them in actual life, to be brought face to face

with men and women for whom God means literally nothing. And how do they die? The nuns and nurses will answer. On

them devolves the task of breaking the news. "

You must know that

you are not going to be long more with us in this world. What do

you think will happen next?" "Really, I haven't a notion!"

There are, thus, the cases that are, humanly speaking, hopeless, and

those with whom one might hope to get somewhere. There are also, thank God, the

" all-Catholic

" families and it would be a gross

injustice and misrepresentation to omit mention of them. We had

them every night at the mission, and many of them at daily Holy Communion, and finer Catholics I have yet to meet. They were

57



IRISH MONTHLY

zealous apostles and spared no effort to bring along others with

them. One entire such family engaged that each member should

bring a different outsider each night of the fortnight. How many does one touch ? In a parish where there were 2,000

Catholics, about 700?-rather less than more one would say? attended at least some portion of the mission and approached the Sacraments.

What is particularly distressing in most of the tangled marriage cases is that so much blame must be laid at the door of the Catholic

partner. It is not too much to say that in at least 70 or 80 per cent,

of the mixed marriages, the Catholic could, without any difficulty or at least with very little, have brought the non-Catholic to the

Church for the marriage. Most non-Catholics do not care where

they go, but the Catholic lacks the interest in the faith and the sense

of responsibility to insist on the observance of the laws of the Church.

"I didn't much mind where we were married," a non-Catholic

told me. "My wife (a Catholic!) said the Registry Office was as

good as anywhere else, so that is where we went." Many priests have agreed that this attitude on the part of Catholics is all too common.

More. In many cases the Catholic could, with a little tactful and

resolute handling of the case, have brought the non-Catholic the whole

way into the Church and made of him or her a splendid Catholic. Often one could see that there was excellent material, but the Catholic was too lazy, too unconcerned in a matter of such stupendous import ance. On the Catholic side there is divine truth, divinely-guaranteed against all possibility of error, supported by sound arguments with

their appeal to man's reasoning powers. On the non-Catholic side there is confusion, contradiction, doubt, uncertainty and indifference.

There is little blame to the non-Catholic who loses interest (if he ever

had any) in this maze which calls itself religion. But who is going to find words to stigmatize as it deserves the laissez-faire of the

Catholic?

Environment

The remark is frequently made that "

there is no morality here w.

In one parish alone?a comparatively small one?there were three slot machines set up in the public street where a person pushed in half-a-crown and drew out a contraceptive. There was, further, a

58



MISSIONS IN ENGLAND

birth-control clinic, and the chemists' shops openly advertised birth

control appliances. I met a woman carrying in her arms a little baby six months old.

We chatted a while and then I asked if he were baptized. "

Now,

that you ask me, I really don't think he is," she beamed. "

But he's

sweet, don't you think?" A priest of long experience of work in

London gives it as his considered opinion that 80 per cent, are

unbaptized, and another priest whom I since consulted does not think

this to be any exaggeration. What a struggle it means to a lad to keep up his religion in such

an environment ! Nobody in his own home goes to Mass. He lives

in a flat where the fifty or sixty surrounding families are all pagans and sleep soundly on Sunday mornings till noon. He must, of neces

sity, make friends with pagan boys his own age, and be odd man

out if he wants to go to Mass or say his prayers. I learned about a group of 800 men and youths living together in

a camp, 300 of whom were Catholics. If these were seen going to

Mass they were jeered at by their companions and dubbed sissies, and

if, under stress of petty persecution and human respect, any chap

dropped out of the line, he was at once hailed as a decent fellow,

and, with acclamations and many claps on the back, escorted over

to the bar to have a drink with the others. I asked if these others were also young fellows, to be told that, for the most part they were

married men, living apart from their wives, their average age round

about the thirty mark, several of them lapsed Catholics. Perhaps these facts too have their own significance.

One can understand the words of a parish priest to the effect that

fidelity to Mass entails, in many cases, the practice of heroic virtue.

An English priest, who has given missions throughout the country over a period of many years, declared from the pulpit that to call

England to-day a Christian country is nothing short of blasphemy. A

member of Parliament who was present congratulated him afterwards

and expressed the wish that that sermon could be delivered in the

House of Commons. "

You get me in there," said the priest, "

and

I assure you that what you have just listened to is mild in com

parison with what I shall tell them!"

Lack of space forbids further description of the pagan atmosphere, but enough has been said if these instances serve to awaken a practical

sympathy with those Catholics who have to breathe it. When a

59



IRISH MONTHLY

priest has actually seen with his own eyes what Catholics are "

up

against", he is slower to inveigh against our Irish boys and girls who fall by the wayside when they go over to England. He does

not condone their fall or exonerate them from blame, but he can

more easily understand it. It is hard to live amongst icebergs and

not feel the cold.

Reactions

"Being a priest in England is a very different proposition from

being a priest in Ireland." Yes, it is, and the uphill fight being made

with such perseverance and courage by our English brethren makes

the Irish priest appreciate more than ever the spirit of the Catholics

at home. "

Our problem," said that same English priest, "

is to get our people to come into the Church; yours is to keep them out!"

This was not meant to be taken literally, but perhaps it serves as an

index of our respective tasks.

It is common for the English priest to have to move heaven and

earth to get his people to come to Mass and Sacraments and

mission. How his heart would expand with gratitude if he saw, in his own church, the throngs that flock around us here, merely because we have notified them! It is with bitter remorse that an Irish

priest remembers how casually he may at times have taken his

people's response; how testy it is possible for him to become with

them when they delay him at Confessions, when they make a mistake

about the time for coming up to the rails for Holy Communion and are filled with concern lest they miss It ! All this, at a time when his

fellow-priest in England must use herculean efforts?and does?to

keep his flock together! ** Can't you see that it is easy for us to get discouraged?" Surely

it is most intelligible. One comes back home after hours of visitation such as has been described. Everywhere one has found laxity, every

where apathy, eveiywhere broken promises, everywhere almost com

plete lack of any sense of the supernatural.

Nothing can preserve the apostle from this fatal mentality except he himself be a deeply spiritual man. St. Ignatius of Loyola had worked for fallen women in Rome, to be advised by the knowing ones that he was wasting his time. The whole lot of them would

inevitably return to their trade. "If I succeed in keeping one of

these girls off the street for a single night, even with the certain

?)



MISSIONS IN ENGLAND

knowledge that she will go back again the next night, I consider all

my time and expense and labour to be well repaid." It is the view

point of a saint, and he acquires it through constant contact with

God in fervent and unremitting prayer. In the light of God's

countenance he sees very clearly the frightful malice of a single mortal

sin and recognizes that no toil is too great to prevent even one.

"Everyone feels, my beloved sons," Our Holy Father says to

priests, "

that mankind is now at a decisive turning-point in its history, before which the clergy cannot remain inert spectators. . . . The

present hour calls from the priest a stronger virtue, a more ardent

zeal, a more intrepid firmness. . . ." Contact with his people, made

and maintained, is indeed vitally necessary. Social functions in which

Catholics come to know Catholics and inter-marry are worthy of aU

praise. But without the foundation of a solidly spiritual life the

priest's efforts to win souls must ever remain a pitiable failure. He

can be a very pleasant companion, a "good mixer", an eloquent

preacher, a splendid organizer, an able theologian?and accomplish little!

For all the while it remains true that the world will be saved only

by the weapons forged on Calvary by the Great High Priest Himself

?prayer, unworldliness, self-sacrifice. No mere simmering heat will

suffice for the instrument destined to hew down God's enemies. It

must be red-hot, and for this it must be plunged deep and plunged

habitually into the flames surrounding the Sacred Heart. This is only to repeat the words of the Sovereign Pontiffs, who, in their turn, are reiterating the teaching of Our Divine Lord.

They pray God to shield His Church from a priesthood tainted

with the spirit of the world, a priesthood for whom the practice of

regular prayer and self-sacrifice would be a forgotten memory, for

they are emphatic in declaring that, than such a priesthood, no deeper or more injurious wound could be dealt to the Mystical Body of

Christ.

To win the world for Jesus Christ, to make England once more

the Dowry of Mary, even to convert one single sinner or inspire one

single fervent soul with a greater degree of fervour, is a supernatural work. To delude oneself into thinking that it can be done by means

that are merely natural is much more silly than to believe that the

forest oak can be felled to the ground by hacking it with a razor

blade.

61



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