Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

Welsh are very deaf to all attempts made to "reach" them in English'. Until the issue of converting Wales through its own language was 'met and dealt with as it would be in any other foreign land where Catholicism is preached, it is hard to see how the conversion of Wales will be begun'. Welsh people, he warned, would not play any part in supporting a Church that seemed to be an Anglicising influence. They would 'hesitate to as much glance in at the portals of a church which cannot appeal to them in any vernacular but English, with the consequent accompaniment of English modes of thought and traditions'. Prejudices would soon soften with the use of Welsh hymns and prayers. The Welsh were, after all, 'eager to welcome as friends those who will master even a little of the language' and this would naturally prepare the way for conversions.56 A year later Donald Attwater was to echo these sentiments. 'Those Catholics who maintain the language question has nothing to do with the conversion of Wales have usually had very little intimate association with the common people; and, quite simply, they are talking nonsense.'57 During the post-war years, similar articles appeared in the Menevia Record. In its very first issue in 1953, Peter Morgan suggested that all Catholics in Wales, including the laity, should acquire some amount of Welsh and teach it to their children. While there was admittedly 'no short cut to holiness no, not even through the Welsh tongue,' he encouraged 'our cradle Catholics would show at least a sympathetic interest in the Welsh tongue, a kindly respect for the Welsh way of life.' This was for the sake of 'preparing the way for conversions' and showing that the Church was 'not a foreign element in this land'.58 A year later Leo Arnold reiterated the same point. Welsh was the medium which the Welsh people used to express spiritual or aesthetic sentiments, even though the vast majority would also be fluent in English. Consequently, 'a knowledge of Welsh is of great importance if any appeal to the religious sentiments of the Welsh people is to have any large-scale or lasting effect'. The 'highest motive' for learning Welsh, he concluded, was the conversion of Wales to its ancient faith.59 There were some who were clearly vexed at the fact that so few Catholics were making an effort to master the language. 'Why is it that the language difficulty, so brilliantly overcome throughout the Foreign Missions, has been so consistently shirked in Wales?' wrote one commentator. 'The Welsh lost the Faith through the lack of a native- speaking clergy; they will never regain it while this lack persists.'60 Such frequent calls went hand in hand with the practical efforts of successive bishops to foster a Welsh-speaking clergy. One of the main reasons