An example of how the missions aimed to bring to all groups to live the Gospel within the context of their particular life situations is found in the mission preached in 1849 in Manchester. The Oblates in England responded to the problem of alcohol abuse by reaching out to the heavy drinkers with a practical solution: they formed an association to encourage temperance. Father Casimir Aubert wrote to Eugene:
We likewise had a sort of compensation in a ceremony which is not yet known on the European continent, I mean the solemn commitment in the Society of Temperance. At the invitation of Father Cooke, who is a faithful disciple of Father Mathieu as you are aware, more than five hundred persons enrolled themselves under the banner of this association and took the oath, at the foot of the altar, to abstain during the rest of their lives from all intoxicating liquor.
I must add that many had need of this remedy for it is inconceivable how drunkenness reigns in such a general manner amongst the working classes of the great cities of England; and what is still worse, almost as much amongst the women as amongst the men.
Undated letter of Casimir Aubert transcribed by E. de Mazenod
and reproduced in O.W. III, n. 34, footnote 2.