RELIGIOUS STATISTICS OF PARIS FOR THE YEAR 1868.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 35, 27 December 1873, Page 12

RELIGIOUS STATISTICS OF PARIS FOR THE YEAR 1868.

SinnUKO up, then, we fad that Paris proper numbers 634 psroohial clergy for 1,680,683 people, or one Priest for every 8247. Without Pans there are in the diocese 126 priests for 241,647 people, or one priest for 1,913 people. So much for the parochial clergy ; but there w an array behind, which must not be left out of our consideration The four diocesan seminaries, the theological faculty of the Sorbonne' the school for higher ecclesiastical studies, and the Chapter of St Genevieve, number 72 priests on their different staff*. The > Cathedral of Notre Dame has twenty- three canons, three vicars-general, and three sectaries, over a-id above the four vicars who have been already accounted for. These three vicars-general are at the head of the three Arcdeaconries into which, for the purposes of administration, the dioce-e of Paris is divided, viz.: Notre Dame, St. Ghmevieve. and Bt. Uenw. To the 58 religious houses for women, ana 30 hopitali and asylums for the sick, the lyceums, and 26 more higher schools and other institutions are attached 13 J secular priests; the whole of whom reaches a figure of 915, which m»y, however, have been sfcil further increased within the pas* year. B:it again, there exists furfcherl among the great families a considerable number of domestic chaplains, and ecclesiastics who act as tutors, but do not fail to contribute a cartain amount of help in supplying the spiritual needs of the diocese Turning from the secular to the regular clergy there are 22 reli. nous orders or congregation* of priests, some of which, as for instance the Jesuits and Dominicans, have two or three separate houses The Jesuits alone number tome hundred members, as also does the semi> nary for f jreign missions. In all these houses there must be from 800 to 1000 priests, who act powerfully, by preaching, by missioos by hearing confessions, and in many other ways, in promoting the »Diril tual progress of the diocese. Several of th^e orders, as the Jesuits the Lazansts, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Capuchins and others, possess churches of their own, which wwe not, of course taken nito account in our enumeration of the parochial churches of Paris The number of such churches of religious orders and institutions is not less thau from 18 J co 200— many ot them, however, are not reeularlv open to the public. s»»»«y It will not, then, be far from the truth if we reckon the total of secular and regular parochial and non-parochial clergy cf Paris as at least 2000. AS ipend is allowed by the State only to the cure himself and his two first vicars ; these stipends are of very small amount nanny from 1200 to 3000 franc* a year. The other vicar* and Yar&us officers in the churches— and how numerous these are the foreitoinz account of the parish clergy suffices to show— receive nothing what erer from the State, whose contributions generally are of no Brest account, two-thirds of the priests throughout France receiving from it but a pittance of some 900 frances a year,* whilst in towns it raises the amount of its stipend to 2,500 francs, or in a few cases to somewhat more. In churches with a large staff of clergy, the State subsidy nukes a very small figure. The remainder must bo made up from other .torn cs. And here it must be remembered that the acqui itioo of real property and the foundation of regular endowment are rendered very diffi suit by modern legislation. First of all comes the produce of the chairs, of which one may have the use during the time of service from two to five cents. On extraordinary occasions the price is of course raised. A tenth of the chair-rent is handed over to the ordinary for the general purposes of the diocese. Besides this, the tees for various offi.:es amount t'i a considerable sum, but of these fees only a small proportion falls to the cure himself. The tees are resigned to thenumeroua vicars, while the cure undertakes the gratuitous administrations of baptism. The income of the cure is, nevertheless, considerable — in most churches reaching or exceeding 20,000 francos. The first and second vicars draw from the parish considerable salaries, ranging from 4000 to 15,000 fraoes.a year, the remaining vicars besides thtir fees and stipends for sayiug Mass, receive from 1200, to 4000 n-aiics a year. ; i tJ* c smalleßt BUtn flowed by the State to a, Protortant *>astor In the trovino ii 1500 francs a r«a-. Tha uecesaary maintenance of wife aud tamilr mar oeriSS go to account for this more literal treatment.-' Boston Pdot ' T ' P