"Press Month"

"A Catholic daily or weekly in every Catholic home, a Catholic monthly in every Catholic home, the N. C. W. C. [National Catholic Welfare Conference] Bulletin in every Catholic home," is the objective set for February by the Hierarchy of the U. S.

February is Press Month. January 27 is Press Sunday. Bishops and priests will call attention to the need of strengthening the Catholic press, and will outline its mission--to give Catholics an accurate account of events in which they are interested.

The Catholic Press, according to utterances of Popes Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV and Pius XI, is an "apostolate second only to the divine doctrines and laws and worship of the Church."

Louis H. Walsh, Bishop of Portland, is Chairman of the Department of Press Publicity and Literature, N. C. W. C. Said he: "Propaganda (false as well as true) is the great achievement of our new 20th Century, as revealed during the World War, and is now being carried out to an extent little realized by the rank and file of the people in every nation.

"The Catholic Press in the United States has been doing a wonderful work with meager resources and under many other even greater handicaps.

Now seems to have come the acceptable time for our people to show the same faith, zeal and generosity in the sphere of Catholic Press, Literature and Publicity that they have shown in building up churches, schools, convents and manifold institutions of higher education and charity, to meet all reasonable demands."

The Holy Father expressed the wish that "the greatest advantage should be gained by those Catholics who by the publication of newspapers and other writings illustrate, promote and defend Christian doctrine." He counsels that "they should confute errors and resist the wiles of perverse people, but in a way showing they are inspired by rectitude and especially by charity." To the work of extending the usefulness of the Catholic press, a saint, has been given. He is St. Francis of Sales. In a recent encyclical, the Pope presented him as the Patron Saint of the Catholic Press. He was Bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, 1602-1622, in the days when the Calvinistic "heretics" had to be withstood. He was noted for the energy and zeal displayed in his missionary work in the province Chablais, a stronghold ot Calvinism. His practical advice to defenders of the Faith was given to the world in 1608, when he published his Introduction to the Devout Life.