Persons who had scarcely heard its name were professing its tenets; priests absorbed it, as they absorbed God in Communion--he mentioned the names of the recent apostates--children drank it in like Christianity itself.

The soul "naturally Christian" seemed to be becoming "the soul naturally infidel." Persecution, cried the priest, was to be welcomed like salvation, prayed for, and grasped; but he feared that the authorities were too shrewd, and knew the antidote and the poison apart.

There might be individual martyrdoms--in fact there would be, and very many--but they would be in spite of secular government, not because of it.
Finally, he expected, Humanitarianism would presently put on the dress of liturgy and sacrifice, and when that was done, the Church's cause, unless God intervened, would be over.
Percy sat back, trembling.
"Yes, my son.

And what do you think should be done ?" Percy flung out his hands.
"Holy Father--the mass, prayer, the rosary.

These first and last.