The World's Debt to the Catholic Church

When Christ Himself lived here on earth there were just two things that He occupied Himself with,--teaching all men who came to Him and helping the helpless around Him. He went about doing good, curing the sick, enabling the lame to walk, the blind to see and the deaf to hear, but devoting Himself to the care of suffering humanity, though not neglecting His great duty of teaching. These two phases of Christ's life are very well exemplified in the history of the Church.

Teaching all nations has been always exemplified. From the earliest days the houses of the Christian bishops even in the time of persecutions were homes for the very poor, for travelers and for the ailing. In their ceremony of consecration bishops are required to make a special solemn promise to care for the poor. As time went on bishops' houses became really hospitals, in both senses of that word, as guest houses and places for the ill who had no otherwhere to lay their heads. The orders of deacons and deaconesses were established and maintained so that their members might devote themselves to the care of the poor and the ailing and the instincts of the feminine heart were given an object, and women's affections were called upon so as to secure the best possible conditions for the poor.