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OCR
THE
Irish Catholic Benevolent Union
OF THE
UNITED STATES AND CANADA.
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
No. 711 SANSOM STREET,
Philadelphia, December 23d, 1890.
DEAR SIR AND BROTHER:
, LI send herewith blank, upon which please make the report of your Society, due at this office
January 1oth,’’ 1891, as the Constitution of the National Union requires. :
The Executive Committee of the Union has levied a fer capita tax of seven cents for each member of the
societies according to the report for January, 1891. Female members of Union societies pay one-half that amount.
Please send the amount due by your Society, but do not delay the sending of the report of membership, &c.,
until you are able to send the tax. The report is desired at once, so as to facilitate the work of this office, and
to enable the National Officers to know the condition of the Union and its several societies. What has your
Society done towards organizing a branch of the Union composed of Catholic women? Would not such a
branch be as useful in your locality as your Society has been? Why should our Catholic women be without
the protection and mutual co-operation which a society of Catholic women would afford? Will your Society
appoint a committee to form a branch composed of Catholic ladies of your locality? Please ask the Society to
do this at its next meeting.
What is your Society doing to increase its membership? Is it’content in these days of Catholic activity to
rest content with the numbers now on its roll and to make no effort to add many more? These are the days
of Catholic organizations, and we must not be lax in endeavors to band our people together. Our Holy Father
Leo XIII. has urged the formation of societies, aud has-just appointed three Cardinals and three laymen to direct
the movements of Catholic societies in Italy. In this good land, where Cardinal Lavigiere has just said the
Church alone is free, we Catholic laymen have a duty to do to the Church, our country, and our people, which we
must be active and resolute in endeavoring to do. We must ‘‘organize! organize!’’ as the great Archbishop
Ireland advised when closing the great Catholic Lay Congress a year ago. What is your Society doing towards
that purpose? Thousands upon thousands of our people are not yet allied to any society. The I. C. B. U. is
such an organization to which no one can possibly have an objection. Practical Catholicity is its only requirement.
To encourage an endeavor on the part of your Society, if it is now inactive, let me refer to the Philadelphia
branches of the Union. In most of the societies here special efforts are this year being directed towards an
increase of the membership of the several societies. Rallies are held, at which speakers from other societies
address the members and friends gathered for the occasion. Badges of the Union and other gifts are offered to
those adding new members. New societies are being formed in localities where needed. Why do not branches
elsewhere do the same according to circumstances operating in their localities ?
The Union is offering a Prize Badge for an increase of membership. Small societies are the very ones which
ought to compete for this prize. The winning society last year won the handsome prize by adding but thirty-nine
members. Many of our smaller-sized societies could do as well and even better than that this year if they would
but try. Do not be deterred by the fear that large societies have ‘‘a better chance.’? Experience proves that they
do not contest. So let the societies of less than one hundred members but arise to the importance of the move-
ment,.and they will do wonders in adding to their numbers.
‘The general condition of the Union is good. It is well doing its work.
Do not let any of the members of your branch leave your limits without taking the Traveling Card of the
Union with them. There is great laxity in this respect, and there is an indifference or neglect in reporting the
number of Cards issued and received. It is the Card system which illustrates the practical workings and good of
the Union to those who can see nothing beyond direct evidence that ‘‘union is strength and power.’’ Convey
to all the members of your Society my earnest prayer that they may have ‘‘A Merry Christmas and Happy New
Year,’ and that 1891 may be to each and alla year of grace and prosperity and good health to them and _ their
loved ones. Fraternally,
MARTIN I. J. GRIFFIN,
Secretary I. C. Bo U.
‘
‘not later than