Bishop Flaget’s Hopeful Message for Catholics in America

Even in the early days of the American Church, there was a lost flock

In the first-half of the 19th century, the new diocese of Bardstown, the home of the Catholic Church past the Allegheny Mountains was thriving and growing as Americans went out westward to explore the land of opportunity.

Bishop Flaget was a regarded as a living saint, an American patriarch respected by all, the shepherd of a land which would become 44 separate dioceses. Even despite this success by all apparent means, Flaget was sometimes a melancholic and scrupulous man, once about to burn his diary because he feared writing about his endeavors would raise his pride.

It is in this same diary of Bishop Flaget, our founding father and a caring man, a passage about his concern for fallen away Catholics in early America. His message rings in our ears today and provides encouragement for our priests:

"It is almost impossible to form an idea of the Catholics who forget their religion on account of the lack of priests, or the lack of zeal in the priests who have charge of these congregations. Not a day passes that we do not find great numbers of these strayed sheep, who, because they do not see their real shepherd, become Baptists, Methodists, etc., or at least nothingists.

"To remedy this great evil it would be necessary that a priest, filled with the spirit of God, and convinced of the value of souls, should often get away from his accustomed route, and going out into the country, ask if there are not Catholics in those regions. The discovery of a single one will lead to the discovery of ten others. If he found only one family he could say mass there, preach, catechise and pray. Let him show a great desire for the salvation of souls, and a contempt for their money. With such dispositions a priest would have the consolation of bringing to the bosom of the Church millions of her children who never will enter it unless we go after them."

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I think this passage gives us a deep insight into the frontier missionary mindset, and provides a valuable reminder of evangelization for the salvation of souls

How many people in our lives are fallen away Catholics, perhaps raised in a Catholic school or poorly catechized, who just need someone to talk with them. Let us honor Bishop Flaget by taking inspiration from his zeal!

The discovery of a single one will lead to the discovery of ten others.

Let us end with this prayer from The Garden of the Soul prayer book, provided by Aleteia:

“God of Mercy, look down with an eye of pity and compassion on all those souls who have gone away from the paths of truth and unity, and from the one fold of the one Shepherd, Jesus Christ, into the by-paths of error. O, bring them back to you and to your Church. Dispel their darkness by your heavenly light; take off the veil from before their eyes, with which the common enemy hath blindfolded them. Take away from them the spirit of obstinacy, pride, and self-conceit. Give them a humble and docile heart. Give them a strong desire of finding out your truth, and a strong grace to enable them to embrace it. Amen.”