the Rocky Mountains have written me commending the general establishment of the Holy Name Society throughout their dioceses. To bring about this recognition and to effect the strong organization that we have to-day has been on the part of many a labor of love for God. Many silent but effectual forces of priestly and religious lives have been spent in the service of the Master and for the honor of His name.
A Retrospect
I may be permitted to say to my brethren of the clergy that in the retrospect of forty years in Holy Name activity I see scores of zealous, saintly priests, now dead, whose names will never be associated with the great movement but who worked enthusiastically for the honor of the Holy Name. Surprise is sometimes expressed at "the prominence into which the Holy Name Society has come in recent years." We priests of the older generation who saw the sowing of the seed see no disproportion in the harvest. The work was done quietly, but effectively. The ground was well prepared. In the greater number of dioceses, and in most of the principal cities of the country, at least one or two Holy Name Societies flourished and furnished proof of the important factor that a well-organized society of men is in the life of a parish. The Holy Name Society seems to be peculiarly well adapted to unite and to preserve in unity the Catholic men of the United States. It requires the mere essentials of a decent, honest, churchgoing man of clean speech. As Bishop McFaul has aptly expressed it, the Holy Name Society supplies members with "just that amount of 'moral suasion' which many men need in order to keep them loyal to the regular reception of the Sacraments." When we see to-day the desertion of Catholic m.en in Catholic countries, the fact is forcefully brought home to us that in the Old World there was not enough attention given to the organization of boys and men into Church societies or confraternities along lines that would not have been too exacting. Throughout the Latin countries a great number of sodalities and pious
