Opera Omnia

CHAPTER III
THE NEEDS OF THE TIMESIf, in the past, the publishing apostolate could count on success through private initiatives, such initiatives today, although meritorious, would no longer suffice to cope with present-day opposition.
What typifies our times is an immense organization of publications, all hostile to the Church. One reason is that her opponents employ publishing; another is that Jews, Masons, Protestants and Communists... back it with huge sums of money.
What is needed to counteract this is a large and powerful organization with an age-old spirit and modern appearance; namely, the publishing apostolate characterized

not by particular initiatives, but by those of a universal type which can count on an army of qualified people able to maximize results in time and space, adapting it to people's needs.
An apostolate along these lines requires breadth of doctrine, skill of communication and grace; continuity of work, intense zeal and sacrifice; a spirit of fervent prayer.
In sum, the requirement is an army of people with a special vocation and training; people who act in dependence on the Church, and place their complete trust in God's power, which alone can overcome the colossal force of our opponents.
An army of this type could be none other than an army of religious whose proposed special aim is to carry out the publishing apostolate.
As such, the idea is not new; indeed, it conforms fully to the divine economy and to the Church's tradition.
In fact, in every age, God has put in place people and institutions according to need. Thus, he raised up contemplative religious life when Christians wasted their lives in outward show; likewise, religious dedicated to the care of the sick when epidemics raged; so too, missionary religious when there was a worldwide

push towards the foreign missions and the way was opened.
The Church, faithful interpreter of God's designs, has, down the ages, always entrusted general works to the religious as, for example, the missions in pagan lands, the organization of beneficence during epidemics and pestilence, the quest of the Crusades, important studies and research that paved the way for history's most decisive happenings and times, the freeing of slaves, the great reforms, youth education.
Today, too, there is a need for religious families for present day needs. God and the Church do not change style.