[Side note: His Peril Abroad]

From what class are the emigrants drawn? From the young. It is
hard to part with them: but there is one consolation. They go to
build up the Church in other lands, but every precaution must be
taken to strengthen them for the trials awaiting them. Now, every
returned American and Australian priest will candidly tell you
that the Irish emigrant is poorly equipped for his new
surroundings.

Dr. Kenrick and Cardinal Gibbons go so far as to say that the
neglect of the Irish priest in preparing his emigrating flock, is
the main source of leakage in the American Church. They are not
able to answer the most ordinary objections, and they have not
moral strength to withstand the shafts of ridicule. In the fierce
cross-currents of unbelief, he is poorly able to keep his
foothold. Many stagger; some fall, never to rise.

We reply:--Look at our Confirmation classes, and at the admirable
lives of the youth before they leave us. Neither of these weaken
the contention. At the age a child is confirmed, he is incapable
of reflective reason; his knowledge is three parts memory. It is
between the Confirmation day and the twentieth year that the
convictions and principles that guide a lifetime are formed. Yet,
this is the precise period during which the young boy is
permitted to starve.

Secondly, the good life of a person reared in a purely Catholic
atmosphere is no guarantee of what he may become when