Page 187 - 聖母軍團員手冊（英文版，2014年5月-2022年1月更新版）

Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 182

182 EXTENSION AND RECRUITING CHAPTER 31
Those responsible argue that they must not risk the entry of
unsuit able material. But neither must they deny the benefits
of membership to all, except a tiny few. If choice has to be
made between undue rigour and undue laxity, the former is
the greater error, because it kills the lay apostolate for want of
workers. The other course would merely breed mistakes, and
these can be repaired.
The praesidium will take a medium course, but some
element of risk must inevitably be faced. The only certain way
of ascertaining that material is suitable is by actual
experiment. The real safeguard is that the unsuitable person, if
he does enter, quickly drops out under the stress of the work.
Who ever heard of the raising of an army being abandoned
because of the fear that inefficient material might creep in?
The system of the army exists for the moulding and handling
of average human material in quantity. Likewise, the Legion,
being an army, must aim at a fairly large membership. It has,
of course, its tests for membership, but those tests should not
be such that good, average material cannot pass them. The
spiritual and close-knit system of the Legion exists for the
purpose of moulding and controlling persons who require
moulding and discipline, not for supermen. There should be
no question of taking in only a type which is so superlatively
holy and discreet as not to represent the ordinary laity at all.
To sum up, therefore, the sorrow is not that so few are fit
for membership, but that so few are willing to assume the
burden of it. This leads to the further considerations which
follow:
(c) Eligible persons may be deterred from joining because
the atmosphere of the praesidium is excessively staid or stiff
or otherwise uncongenial to them.
The Legion does not restrict its membership to the young,
but the young must be specially sought for and catered for. If
the Legion does not attract them, it is largely failing in its
purpose, for the movement which does not appeal to the
young will never exert a wide influence. Furthermore, the
young are the key to the future. Therefore, the reasonable
tastes of youth must be understood and allowed for. Bright,
generous, enthusiastic youth must not be kept out by setting
up standards which are inappropriate to the young or which