Set up a large Crucifix at Charing Cross; the police would think you simply insane. Insane, and truly: but why? why dare you not do it? why must you not? Because you are averse to the sacred sign? Not so; you have it in your chamber, yet a Catholic would not dare to do so, more than another. It is true that awful, touching, winning Form has before now converted the very savage who gazed upon it; he has wondered, has asked what it meant, has broken into tears, and been converted ere he knew that he believed. The manifestation of love has been the incentive to faith. I cannot certainly predict what would take place, if a saint appealed to the guilty consciences of those thousand passers-by, through the instrumentality of the Divine Sign. But such occurrences are not of every day; what you would too securely and confidently foretell, my brethren, were such an exhibition made, would be, that it would but excite the scorn, the rage, {284} the blasphemy, of the out-pouring flocking multitude, a multitude who in their hearts are unbelievers. Alas! there is no idea in the national mind, supernaturally implanted, which the Crucifix embodies. Let a Catholic mob be as profligate in conduct as an English, still it cannot withstand, it cannot disown, it can but worship the Crucifix; it is the external representation of a fact, of which one and all are conscious to themselves and to each other. And hence, I say, in their fairs and places of amusement, in the booths, upon the stalls, upon the doors of wine-shops, will be paintings of the Blessed Virgin, or St. Michael, or the souls in purgatory, or of some Scripture subject. Innocence, guilt, and what is between the two, all range themselves under the same banners; for even the resorts of sin will be made doubly frightful by the blasphemous introduction of some sainted patron.
-St. Cardinal Henry Newman
We are a group of young men around the Bloomington-Normal, IL area who are empassioned about the teachings of the Church, in particular her social teachings as explained in encyclicals such as Rerum Novarum, Quadragessimo Anno, and Quanta Cura.
We also love the life an example of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, who sought to live radically and make the whole of the world won over to Christ.
We meet weekly to study such texts and books. If this sounds like you, contact us.