SIR,—One of your readers has asked for a distinction between Catholic action and Catholic activities, Is the following any use?
Catholic Action is the Spirit of Christ in action, and of this Catholic activities are only a part. There is nothing new about Catholic Action. It means being a " doer and not merely a hearer of the Word." The special aspect of it stressed by the Holy Father (as 1 understand it) is the obligation of the layman to teach his faith as well as to learn it and live it. Hitherto lay folk have generally regarded this as the special province of priests and nuns. • The rest of the Holy Father's teaching on the subject can be summed up in Our Lord's exhortation " Have salt in you."
Perhaps the following questionnaire puts it on a more practical footing: Do you know your Catechism?
Do you fully understand it'?
Does your life demonstrate it?
Can you explain it to others?
Do you realise the necessity of doing so?
Do you care about these things more than anything else?
Would you lay down your life to save your neighbour's soul—or rather would you live uncomfortably for his sake?
What share in your Christian love have your housemaid, the postman who delivers your letters, the people you meet casually in the course of a day? Do you ever pray for them?
A great doctor (not Catholic) once said: "We can all go down to the slums and help the poor, it is so easy. Tt is in our own homes that the difficulty lies." AN F. C. H.