As Catholics we have a contribution to make to the great upbuilding of our Country.  There is in every problem an ethical side, an unchanging and unchangeable principle, the bedrock on which it rests.  This principle, the Catholic doctrine possesses; we know it, we are sure of it.  Why not then have that aggressiveness of militant Catholics who take advantage of every opportunity, without being obtrusive?  Are we not too apologetic in our Public life?  We would not suggest in the least to be discourteously aggressive, although at times we are tempted to do so and seem justified in our retaliation.  But there is no reason why we should apologize for our principles, for the solutions we have to offer.  The sun of Canadian liberty shines also for us and for what we stand; we have our place under the shade of the “Maple Leaf.”

May we add a word for our non-Catholic friends.  They also have duties towards Public Opinion in its relation with the Catholic Church.

Receptiveness of mind is, in our estimation, the first and most important duty of the non-Catholic.  Open-mindedness was named by Confucius “mental hospitality.”  It opens the door to truth by allowing ourselves to be convinced by the strength of argument and the weight of evidence.  This state of receptivity permits the mind to correct its distorted vision, and to see facts and principles as they really are.  Freedom of mind enables those who possess it to see things in their true proportions.

Fair-mindedness will overcome prejudice, the great obstacle in matters of Religion.  Prejudice is made of a coarse and impenetrable fibre, of a close woven texture; it is the product of numerous and various influences.  The ordinary causes of this pre-judgment or mental torsion are an habitual intellectual outlook resulting from education and surrounding influences, and a mental laziness which fails to question its own attitude and to pursue principles to their logical conclusions, and problems to their solution.  This explains how reluctantly the mind, in religious matters particularly, will accept views contrary to those with which it has been familiar since early youth and which time and surroundings have but strengthened.  A straight-forward appeal to fairmindedness is alone able to break down this barrier.

Duties are in proportion to the responsibilities they entail.  Public Opinion, as we have seen, is a tremendous power but it is the power of a high explosive which misdirected and ill-used will spread disaster.  Leadership is the spark that ignites the charge, is responsible for its driving force.  In the days of real intellectual leadership the mastery of ideas prevailed and Public Opinion was considered as the triumph of an idea.  But in our days of so called democratic equality the centre of gravity of this power has shifted from the leader to the multitude.  De Tocqueville in his book “Democracy in America”