ice-chills of infidelity in America or Australia, where the very
air is electric with doubt and denial, and when the storm beats
upon him, is his head armed to defend his Faith?

Where could he get the necessary knowledge? Not from the book in
his hand, for it is "Marie Corelli" or "Hall Caine" you find him
best acquainted with. Not from the Catholic newspaper, for the
question is--Do we possess one? It is a strange fact that while
Irish Catholics abroad have founded, and support, splendid
Catholic journals in every land where they have found a home, the
mother Church from which they sprang is practically defenceless.
He gets poor assistance from the pulpit; for while homilies and
exhortations are admirable in their way, they fall far short of
covering the needs of this questioning age. Our dogmatic
treatises are permitted to lie entombed in dust on our top
shelves, while clear and homely exposition of Catholic truth
would be drunk in like honey by the people.

You point to our beautiful churches, beautiful they are indeed.
But to what purpose do we raise temples of stone if we permit the
living temple of the soul to be eaten into by the poison mildews
of evil thought. The Continent is dotted over with stately but
empty basilicas, silent and mournful monuments to a Faith and a
love long since departed.

[Side note: Questions]

Now that we begin to realise the danger and the extent of this
evil, a number of questions naturally suggest themselves.