Catholic Paper is Means of Grace
Original Publication Date: 10.31.1958
In the current drive for subscriptions, The Florida Catholic has given much interesting information about the paper … its growth over the years, the increase in readers, the homes it has reached, the kind of news it has given, the tasks it set out to do, and so on. While thinking of this, it occurs to us that the important and the most interesting information by far is unobtainable. We will never know, for instance, how many who were lukewarm Catholics were helped out of their spiritual rut by reading in the Catholic paper what the heroic martyrs of today have suffered for the Church at the hands of the communists.
There is no way of calculating how many were given a new appreciation of the world–wide mission of the Church by reading in these pages the marvelous accounts of Catholicity at work in every nation under the sun.
It would be inspiring to know how many young people, girls and boys, who followed the fascinating story of the growth of the Church in the mission lands of Florida in this paper, felt inclined to give themselves to the work of the priesthood and sisterhood.
The record books never will be able to tell the full story of Pius XII’s influence on all of us as he spoke every week in The Florida Catholic.
Over the years we have had full coverage of all the major talks and statements this learned Pope made, a rich mine of information that no secular publication ever gave.
Who can tell how many were turned to God and away from sin and selfishness by following his instructions or taking to heart his gentle rebukes?
No one can tell us either with any accuracy how many non–Catholics who had been infected with bigotry found for the first time a reasonable explanation of Catholic convictions by chancing upon a copy of the Catholic paper. An “accident” of this kind was for them in truth an actual grace.
Who knows the number of non–Catholics who have found our paper in buses and waiting rooms, or in the back of Church when they timidly made a visit, and from that initial contact developed an interest in things Catholic?
There have been, we know for sure, many Catholic families which have found our paper a powerful antidote to the pagan literature which finds a welcome in many of our homes.
We are safe, too, in assuming that many parents, tempted to take the law of God into their own hands in the matter of having children, have learned time and again on these pages the reasons why such a law exists and have thus been helped to let the will of God rule their homes.
In fact, all the perplexing moral problems of our day have been explained in detail frequently in our Catholic paper, thus providing practical guidance our people need so much.
None of this information can be found, but by God’s grace it must give an impressive account of the way Christ’s work is being done through the written word. But, as every good Catholic knows, none of this has happened merely because the Church is true and zealous, and her work needs no help.
The Florida Catholic has received fine cooperation from our Catholic people in the past, and needs even greater help in the future, because her aims are broader. This explains the current “drive,” the attempt to win more readers, more loyal users of this powerful weapon which the Church values so highly.
We want all our Catholic people — and as many non–Catholics as possible — to find in these pages week after week some of the helps needed to fulfill the purpose of their lives.
This paper is meant to teach the spiritual significance beyond the secular news, to inform where there is ignorance and to correct where there are mistaken ideas. It is meant to be a review to some extent of their religious training.
Perhaps above all, it is intended to infuse in us the Catholic viewpoint, the spiritual slant so vitally needed by our people in the materialism of our times.
Whoever furthers the cause of the diocesan paper is furthering the cause of Christ and the Church. Many of our people need only to be convinced of this fact in order to get busy and put The Florida Catholic in every home.