STATISTICS OF THE CHURCH IN CANADA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 28, 6 November 1885, Page 11

STATISTICS OF THE CHURCH IN CANADA.

The history of the Church in Canada ia not, indeed, a history of nro?n?°nn' fw '** " th iY nited States, but it is none the lesnta£rt. NorthAm fi a lr° a ?n ?e? c eadj , aDDals Of tbe Fre nc h colonies in NolthN 01 th America are full of extremely romantic episodes, and of the rlZ 0 , > meD^ h Whlle f the B& T time ' the * are a record of Canadian Catholicity. Whoever has read Father Oharlevoix's invaluable history ZVJa,\ h « w . rit "*fiPtf^e Protestant historian Parkman, need not pL^h % S e ?' 8 u° ry v° fthepropagatioa of fche faith in Canada is full of absorbing interest. When Jacques Cartier and his adventnrous companions sailed from the shores of France to seek new domains for their sovereign, they brought with them the Cross and the Gospel. Blackrobed missionaries were familiar figures on the U? , 8 . °V he , Bt< Law / cn u oe 300 *«*« a go. and many a peaceful hamlet lay clustered around the spire of a Catholic church iv Old Quebec ™i? »S p^' ? mg ?, ce ° rge 8 men '" as the Canadian Indians 'used to call the British until less than thirty years, ago captured the "Gibraltar of America 'by stealth. The beauty and charm of LongfeUow's poem ?L ® vaa B ellQe ; are due mainly to a fact that it is a perfect reflection of the peaceful and edifying life that was led by the early Catholic settlers of Acadia. The difficulties that were encountered and overcome by the Jesuit and Recollet Fathers when they went preaching the Gospel among the Indians, excite the admiration and amazement of a modern reader. Like their brethren in the far south, they plunged into huge forests and forded rushing streams. They braved the icy keenness of polar blasts as well as the nuny privations and hardships that necessarilyi ly accompany an expedition of pioneers into a vast wilderness. Their success was great and lasting ; and in addition to the Catholics of French, Irish and Scotch descent, the Dominion to-day contains many hundreds of Indians whose forefathers derived the same faith from the early missionaries. The origin of the Scottish Catholic colonies is the theme of a rather mournful story. After the battle of Culloden, when the hopes of the Stuart dynasty were irrevocably crushed, and the remnants of the Jacobite clans were thrown into great disorder, a cruel work of forcible depopulation was begun in the northernmost counties of Britain Hundreds ot Catholic Highlanders were driven from their native glens to make room for southern strangers and their deer parks The sad story of Ireland s wrongs and sufferings is, of course, unparalleled in the history of nations, but the injustice and seveiitv with which many of the Celts of Scotland were treated, in some' instances by their apostate chieftains, were of ai similar character, and such as to excite tbe sympathy of all Irishmen. The love of the fatherland is a well-known characteristic of all people living in mountainous regions and the exiled Highlanders displayed not a little of that noble senttm»nt when they named certain spots in Nova Scotia " Lochaber " and • lona, " Glencoe " and " Keppoch " in mem )ry of the distant land ot their birth. The Catholic p >pulation of the diocese of Arichat which includes the counties ot Pictou, Antigonish and Guysborough in Nova Scotia, and those of Inverness, Kichtnond, VictoiU and Capa Breton in the island bearing that name, is estimated to bo about 73,000 The great majority of them are of Highland descent while some are of Highland birtb. The^ew province of Manitoba, in spite of its rigorous and inbo-spitable enmate. seems destined to become eventually a thnving colony. If so, there will probably be a lar^e Catholic population around Lake Wmnipeg in the near future It°is extremely difficult to exhibit the rate of growth of Catholicity in Canada, on account uf the scarcity of authentic statistics relating to thirty fifty, or entity years ago ; but it will henceforth be quite feasible to show the progress of the Church in that country with the gieatest accuracy. The following statistics relate not merely to Canada prjper, but to the wuole of what is officially cdlei tbe Dominion of Canada, including (besides Quebec and Ontario) the maritime provinces, Manitoba, the northwest territory and British Columbia. For purposes of ecclesiastic jurisdiction this vast region is divided into four provinces, with two adjacent districts, one of which, comprising the island of Newfoundland is directly bubject to the Holy See, while tbe other part of the province of Oregon, which, as the name implies, is chiefly within the United States. The four provinces are those of Quebec, Halifax, Toronto and St. Boniface consisting respectively of ten, five and four dioceses or vicariatesapostolic. The total ascertained Catholic population of the Dominion is 1,943.243, being considerably more tnan one-third of (he entire population, The most populous diocese is Montreal, which has 412,000 Catholics, followed by Queb'c with 296,666. Next in order comes Three Rivers with 124,000, St. Hyacinthe with" 110,210, and Ottawa with 100 000. The total number of priests is 2,054, of bishops 24, aad of archbishop'), 5. The number of churches is 1,556, and if to these we add the 367 chapels and missions that are scattered throughout the less thickly settled parts of the country, we Mud that there are no fewer than 1,923 places of Catholic worship in the Dominion. That Catholic worship flourishes among our northern neighbours may be inferred from tbe fact that there axe altogether 130 establishments devoted to higher education, 45 of them being colleges and 85 academies, while rudimentary education is represented by 3,511 parochial schools. In connection with this subject it should' be observed that the number of ecclesiastical seminaries i 9 17. One of them, the Grand Seminary at Moutreal, is very famous for the number of priests it has sent out. With regard to charitable institutions, the list is a goodly one, for there aie 45 asylums ami oG hospitals. The bulk of the Catholic population of the Dominion is, of course, in Lower Canada, and the great majority of Quebec Catholics are of French descent. In the province of Halifax there are about 110,000 out of a total Catholic population of 278,000; in that of Toronto there are about 75,000 out of a total of 266 000 ; and m that of St. Boniface about 13,000 out of a total of 38,000. The census of 1881 showed the grand total of the population of Lower Canada to be 1,359,027, anil of these 1,170,718 were Catholics. Since Quebec province has notieceived any great mui-ease of inhabitants in the past four years, these figures may be taken as afawly correct indication of the state of things at the present day.— Tor ntc Tribune,