Catholic Action is in fashion at last. For many years a small band of writers and lecturers have been urging their fellow-Catholics to get ready to take their places in the world-movements all around and to help in all spheres of life: political, social and economic, as well as religious. Furthermore, their emphasis has been that Catholics should take part in these activities not just as individual human beings, but specifically as Catholics, with the force and prestige of the Faith behind their endeavours. Many years have elapsed since this suggestion was first put forward by the Holy Father, but it is only of recent times that much attention has been paid to it by the Catholic community in general. Indeed, it has taken several years of hard times to demonstrate to Catholics at large that there is a specifically Catholic attitude to social ills and remedies for them which the Church alone possesses.

Yet this is almost as far as things have gone. There is much talk about Catholic Action—and there, far too often, the matter ends. When pressed for some practical confimation of our brave speaking, we can only point to one movement—the Catholic Land Associations—and even this is in its infancy. Already, indeed, we have done far too much pointing in this direction. One swallow does not make a summer, and while the Catholic land movement is a welcome development (welcome even if we disagree with it, because it is something practical at last) it can only be regarded as the beginning of Catholic social action. Far more is needed before the Catholic solution to our social problem is appreciated as it deserves by the nation as a whole.