190 THEISLAND ACADIANS 
     
    
   
   
    
     RELIGION-BASED SOCIETIES 
     
    
   
   
    
     Over the years the number of societies of a religious or socio- 
     
     religious nature gradually increased in the parishes. Temperance 
     
     societies still existed although they lost their momentum at the begin- 
     
     ning of the century when they became Good Death Societies and 
     
     their educational and cultural role was taken over by other organiza- 
     
     tions. 
     
    

    
     With the founding of convents, societies for young girls were 
     
     established: the Infant Jesus Society, the Guardian Angels Society, and 
     
     the Children of Mary. Other religious groups for adults sprung up 
     
     during the 1890s. The Holy Family Society and the League of the 
     
     Sacred Heart were established around 1893°8; the Holy Rosary Brother- 
     
     hood and the Holy Name Society (for men only) appeared later in 
     
     the diocese. Generally these organizations were concerned with moral 
     
     instruction and promoting worship. The number of societies in a 
     
     parish depended on the zeal of the pastor and the presence of a 
     
     convent. 
     
    

    
     Other Catholic organizations were formed after 1920, such as 
     
     the Catholic Women’s League whose first chapter on the Island was 
     
     founded in Charlottetown in 1921. The Catholic Women’s League was 
     
     interested in Catholic education, the family and ecumenism’; as a 
     
     movement it spread quickly into several parishes in the province 
     
     including ones with a strong Acadian element. This organization oper- 
     
     ated in English only. 
     
    

    
     Around 1936, the Egmont Bay priest, Father F-X. Gallant, asked 
     
     parishioners enrolled in the Women’s Institute (sponsored by the 
     
     Department of Agriculture) to form a French-Catholic society under 
     
     the name of the Altar Women’s Society®. Acadian women responded 
     
     to their priest’s request and set up a parish-wide organization with a 
     
     branch in nearly every school district thus replacing, in most cases, 
     
     the Women’s Institute. Several years later the women in Mont Carmel 
     
     joined the society. This new organization filled the same role as the 
     
     Catholic Women’s League and the Women’s Institute, except that it 
     
     functioned in French. Mrs. Madeleine Gallant, one of the founding 
     
     members, described the activities of the Altar Women’s Society: 
     
    
   
   
    
     You might well ask yourselves why the Altar Women’s Society was organized. 
     
     Obviously in the parishes where there are no convents there are no sisters