The Propagation of the Faith.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 23, 5 June 1902, Page 3

The Propagation of the Faith.

The Society for the Propagation of the Faith (says the San Francihoo Monitor') has just issued a forty-page pamphlet relating to the history of the origin, development, and work lor Catholic missions during thi eighty years of its txistcuce. The aim of this pamphlet is chiefly to get our people acquainted with the missionary work of the Onuroh. From this interesting publication we learn that there are at least l."), 000 p:iestß and religious, 5000 teaching Broihers and -45,000 Sisters laborw g a* missionaries, not t) ppeak of the priests, Brothers and Sisters ua'ive to the regions where they work, catechists and others who make up the per-onnel of a mission, and the labortrs i.mnng the Oriental Itit s. Probably the estimate is much too 8ui.»ll, but \eit s>. At the lowest computation there are, at the opening of the twentieth century, about (55.000 missionaries ; G5.000 men and women who have left their country, their brothers and bisters, houses and lands, and all the blessings that they hold most dear in this world, to bring the still greater blessing of the faith to those who are as yet deprived of ifc. Assuredly it is an astonishing number, which iniy well rejoice our hearts ; and all the moie because a century ago thefae missionaries scarcely numbered 1000 all told. Sixty-five thousand missionaries is a noble army ; but what victories are yet to be won ! Almost 1,500.000.000 of human beings inhabit the earth ; and only about 400,000,000 are baptised Chriß(ians The imm ( jn«e majority of more than 1,000,000 000 have not yet, auknowledg>d Christ, and are divided among the many eecta of Buddhism, Mohametanisin, Fetichisin, and infidelity, The Society tor the Piopagaiion of the Faith, which has won countless thou-smds to the fai'h, whose missionaries have d el martyrs' rie tns and have lived lives O" unparalleled heroism and si lf-denial, ow<d it 1 - ongi i to the effort-" of two humble women. In IS2O SI me. Petit ani Mile Jarico-, of Lyon°, France, formed a boeiety to lender financial assistance to poor foreign missions. The piojeci proipeied und only five ycrs after its beginning the society had lulhllel tt.e Catholic character its founders gave it from the first ; and to-iiay it aidn more than HOO dioceses, vicariates, and prtfeotures in evory pait of the world. A most valuable record of its progress may be found at the headquarUrs of the society in Lyons, not in their book", but in the thousands of mementos of mibsionary

activity and endurance gathered from every quarter of the globe" Instruments of war and peace, instruments of torture, and relics of the martyrs make a collection that represents heroic achievements worthy to rank with the first ages of Christianity. Among the thousands of missionaries assisted by the Propagation of the Faith, many have already won the palm of martyrdom, both men and women. Two were placed on our altars by the present Pontiff , Leo XIII, in 181)0: the Blessed Perboyre C M., martyred in China in 1810, and Blesaed Chanel, S.M., who suffered at the handa of ihe savages of the island of Futuna, CWanica, in 1844. The cause of several others is under consideration in Rome.' From 1&22-ISKK) the bociety has distributed over £13,000 000, of which amount £1,200,000 was spent in missionary work in the United States.