nephew, also a priest, in Petra, Spain.



The Meaning of California Missions



By Right Rev. Bishop Conaty, of Los Angeles



In the mission celebrations which occur in California from time to time,
there are two views which men take--the this-world-view and the
other-world-view. In either view the missions stand out gloriously. In
the first, the builders, who were the padres, are beheld as practical
men possessing fine artistic sense and creative genius. From the
memories of old Spain and the elemental materials at hand, the forests,
the soil and sunlight, they made the original picture-building which
artists since have loved to paint, and poets loved to praise. From this
same viewpoint the mission builders are seen as philanthropists who
selected human materials as gross as the mud from which they made the
adobe brick, and from these built up a civilization that was more
wonderful than all the mission-edifices which remain as monuments to
their altruistic efforts.

But there is another view of the missions which must appeal especially
to Catholics. Indeed it is natural to the farther-seeing Catholic eye.
It is the other-world-view. It is the vision of souls. It is seen to
have been the motive of every action of the master-builder padres. It is