Principle and policy are the basic ideas of organized action. If the principles upon which an organization rests are true and elevating, if the policy it advocates and which governs its activities is practical, easy, and attractive, the organization itself is bound to meet in time with an unlimited success. The higher the principles, the more inviting the policy, the more living and telling will be the resultant action. Therefore, to place before our readers the principles and policy of the Catholic Extension Society will no doubt help them to understand better its claims and respond more generously to its appeal.
The Kingdom of God comes upon earth through the Apostolate of the Church. "As the Father sent me, I also send you," said Christ to His Apostles, and to all who were to take their place in succeeding generations. For, these words of Christ created the Catholic Apostolate and maintain it. His words, indeed, are words of life.
The Apostolate of the Church is an absolute necessity, the very condition of Her existence and progress. The Catholic Church Extension is one of the most beautiful expressions of that Apostolate, for its object is, as we stated, the conservation and propagation of the Faith in the Mission districts of Canada.
The principles upon which the activities of this Society are based may be reduced to two: the _doctrinal_ and the _historic_:
1. _Doctrinal Principle_.--All appeals for sympathy and help in the great cause of Catholic Missions rest on one of the most fundamental doctrines of our Faith, the Catholicity of the Church. "The Church Catholic," says the great theologian Suarez, "means the Church Universal--_Ecclesiam esse catholicam, idem est ac esse universalem_" (Disput. de Ecclesia IX., sect. VIII., No. 5). This universality of Christ's Church implies the idea of solidarity, whereby in her living and indivisible unity She is always and everywhere the same. The Church, like a perfect vital organism, is a divine organic whole, solidly constituted, identical to itself, and in all its parts, throughout time and space. The whole is reflected or rather found in each part, and each part reflects and possesses the whole. The Catholicity of the Church is but the expansion of its Unity. It stands therefore as its permanent and outward manifestation. Should we now wonder why the Church of Christ is called Catholic? We name things and persons by that characteristic feature which conveys to our mind the most accurate concept of them. The very name of the Church is, as you see, an ever living proof of her divinity. And of that name, we may well say what is said of the name of Jesus . . . _signum cui contradicetur_ . . . it will be forever "a sign of contradiction."