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If Catholic Womanhood
is
Lowering Its Standards
-What will be the Consequences for the Faith in Australia? Numbers of good Catholic Families Give no Vocations to the Church Priest considers nationwide effort necessary to maintain religious vocations among
women By Rev. Ed. J. Doddy,D.D., in "Emmaus."
Recent controversies in some of our daily papers about the decline of morals among girls and young women and the analyses of causes and proposals for redemies would be humourous were the matter less serious. From it all emerges the fact that people who do not claim to be much concerned about religion are disgusted with the moral outlook and conduct of many young women in public. There is still the consciousness that the morality of a nation may be judged by and is dependant upon the standard of morThat ality of the nation's women. there has been a decline in moral conduct before the public will hardly be Nor are the causes of such denieddecline hard to trace. What is mildly amazing is that so many people who have for years past ignored or despised the warnings of Catholic bishops and priests are suddenly struck as with a bomb-explosion with the realisation that Australia is really drifting towards paganism. It is not the scope of this paper to ask whether the call-up of girls and young women and their being drafted
into industry and various phases of war -work is the cause or the occasion of much of the immorality which has made itself so apparent recently in Australia. It is obvious that the real cause must be sought elsewhere, however aggravating these influences may be. The question we would raise here is whether Catholic womanhood is lowering its standard and what the consequences will be to the future of the Church in Australia. The question is prompted by the realisation, firstly, of what the Catholic women of Australia have done during the first century of our history. The "women of the West" and the "little Irish mother" have been immortalised for their part in the work of building up our continent and our homes; and we admit with gratitude the debt that we owe to the marvellous nuns and brothers who have trained in our schools hundreds of thousands of loyal citizens and splendid Catholics. The query is urged when we contemplate the development that is taking place and which will be greatly augmented
Is there not reason to think that some nation-wide effort to increase number of vocations to the cloister is necessary? after the war. Optimism is a grand Are thing, but facts must be faced. there danger signals that the future of the Church in Australia may be harassed by internal as well as by external troubles? From this one aspect it might be asked what is portended by the growing impatience of restraint among Catholic girls, by the number who contract marriages outside the Church, by the number of gooi Catholic families that give no vocations to the Church. Much of the indifferentism among careless Catholics is accompanied by a want of instruction. It is comparatively easy to instruct a convert and help him to become a good Catholic, but it is not easy to instruct careless and ignorant Catholics. What would
our position be but for the work of our schools. Pastors of souls, particularly in country places, are faced with the want of Catholic schools. It is not satisfactory to have twothirds of the
children of a parish attending State schools in country places because of the impossibility of obtaining nuns. It is becoming a rare thing now to find a new convent and school being opened. It is even becoming 'difficult to replace those religious teachers who, through age and sickness and death are no longer able to continue their work in the schools. The temporary cessation of postulants from Ireland and other places has increased the difficulty, but these sources, while of inestimable value now as in the past, do (Cont'nued on Back Cover.)
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