The Catholic News

There are many indications of the breaking down of prejudice against the Catholic Church and priests in the South of U.S.A. Among the striking instances reported recently here an invitation from the minister and deacons of a Methodist church to use that structure for a Catholic mission, a call to a priest to be a "part-time pastor" of a coloured Protestant church, and the closing of all local Protestant churches so that the congregation might attend a mission.

This course of action implies a different attitude from that which prevailed in the days when Catholic priests were more hated than the devil and more feared than poison.

The opening wedge has been made, and it is the part of Catholic Action to continue the work. The following incident is contained in the report of the Most Rev. Thomas J. Toolen, Bishop of Mobile: " A few months ago a mission was held i n Grenville in Central Alabama. It was announced in all Protestant churches.

The ministers told their congregations their churches would be closed during the week and all should attend the Catholiic church. The Protestant choirs combined to sing the hymns and Benediction; and a most successful mission was carried on. There are only about twenty Catholics in Grenville, a town of perhaps five thousand people.

The Ave Maria
- Malaya Catholic Leader, February 16th, 1935 (1935.pdf pp68)