GROWTH OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 39, 17 January 1890, Page 13

GROWTH OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICA.

(Irish World, November 16.)

The celebration in Baltimore this week is not a local affair. It concerns every Catholic, it concerns every other citizen throughout the Republic. Viewed from a National standpoint, it is second only to the Washington Celebration of last April. Then citizens from all parts of the Union came to New York to participate in the commemoration of our Government's formation. Now thousands of Catholics and thousands of Americans of every creed have gathered in Baltimore to commemorate the formation of the greatest religious body in this country. Washington, 100 years ago, was commissioned by the American people to become the key-stone in onr arch of Civil Government. Carroll, bis friend and counsellor, simultaneously was commissioned by the centre of Chiistian truth to preside over the Church io the United Scates. Tbus the Am:rican nation and the American Church c^me into existence as organised bodies almost at the same mo nent. It was a happy ausrury. The Cross that the brave and pious Christopher Columbus planted as his first act on the soil of the Now World he had discovered ro»e al jft over the org misad form of the creed he professed in the greatest nation of all tha Americas ccn emporaneously wiih that nation's birth.

Nor does the analogy end there. Just as Catholics individually have been uien ifL'd with all the highest aspirations, and have talc a a their due part in all the movements, and have done their full chare in all the battles on land and sea for the welfare of thi Ripubhc, so has the history of their Church closely paralleled the history of the Union. Both began in doubt, and with small resources or population. The first National census, taken in 1790, give 9 our population at 3,200,000. Bishop Carroll estimated the to'al number of Catholics then at 30,000, ministeied to by 30 or 40 pries.s, with practically no churches ; though there were many hundred thousands of Catholic stock aud inspired by Catholic sentiment not enumerated in this count, which includes only actual communicants — many hundred thousands that could not be reached by the few priests in America. Georgetown College had just been founded the previous year, and this then humble institution, since grown to such magnificent proportions and attained to such wide fame, was the only Catholic high school in the country.

Indeed, Catholicity had just emerged from the intolerable colonial period when the British Penal Code was in fall force against it.— Under the old laws Catholics had been banned and there were few places where priests did not carry their lives in their hands. Bat on the formation of the National Government a constitution was adopted which happily incorporated provisions similar to those George Calvert gay» to Maryland in his charter of religious liberty. Bishop Carroll, writing in 1790, explains the reasons for this :—: — " Having renounced subjection to England, the American States found it necessary to form new constitutions for their future government, and, happily, a free toleration of religion was made a fundamental point in all these new constitutions, and in many of them not only was a toleration decreed but also a perfect equality of civil rights for persons of every Christian profession. In some, indeed, the yet unextinguished spirit of prejudice and intolerance excluded Catholics from this equality. Many reasons concurred to produce this happy and just article in the new constitutions :—(1): — (1) Some of the leading characters in the direction of American councils were, by principle, averse to all religious oppression, and, having been much acquainted with the manners and doctrines of Catholics, represented strongly the injustice of excluding them from any civil right.— (2) Catholics concurred as generally and with equal fervour in repelling that oppression which first produced the hostilities with Great Britain, and it would have been impolitic as well as unjust to deprive them of a common share of advantages purchased with common danger and by united action.— (3) The assistance, or at least the neutrality, of Canada was deemed necessary to the success of the United States, and to give equal rights to Catholics might tend to dispose the Canadians favourably to the American cause. Lastly, France began to show a disposition to befriend the United States, and it was conceive! to be very impolitic to disgust that powerful kingdom by unjust severities against the religion which it professed." Thus emancipated, the Church began to make immense strides. Within 18 years it became necessary to elaborate the simple machinery of 1790 by raising Baltimore to metropolitan rank and creating the four suffragan'sees of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bardstown. From that period the expansion has been rapid and steady until the present moment, when, to quote the words of Cardinal Gibbons, " There is now embraced within the territory of the United States a Catholic population of about 9,000,000. There are 13 archbishops and 71 bishops, 8,000 priests, 10,500 churches and chapels, 27 seminaries exclusively devoted to the training of

completed be the fmt institution of its kind in he Uaitld SUtes tlTl™ "J* 88 * c T> t0 CODf ÜBe tbe term 9 «**• «* univeriUy not dZ i r ? all3edtbe distinction between the two. « There is rtituti'an J ,^h rer cD p ire °° Uatry ' ' Bft y ß Bißh °P BBcker » " » single in! of W^ ■ ?>' P i ote9faQt ' ° r nondescript, entitled to the name Of i university, m the European sense of the word." A college is only tJSiSffff'^K ua^ rßit y« A diversity is an tartEfiTS am B ht g b?^ eW v°i eroUnd Of letters ' art8 ' and is tasght by the specialist professors for each branch which ESS??? 1 T° eacb ° r all ; and iQ " b * b law° C med 7cint ffifi'. 7 V ll i eral i? re ' the art8 ' the ™™us sciences and other Srati M n m ° Xford aQd tor it may con g s! Jo? a BTng?eß Tng?e aium^'n Wfl K geaerally the OMe with Bol Va. Padua, ktil tonZlT~?T bt *' and tbe olbßr famoaß foundations of the continent, whicfc were constructed on the lines laid down by the monastic Order; and Doctor Orespi, an Episcopalian writing recently m the London National J2evU>n, expressed the opinion ha! it oSt Sf B f ° nCei r e ' * na tbere i 8 good P romise th »t t«ey will carry vLeSilj S^ndly-coaceireJ institution tk, American selfish samfaction. Our joy rests on broader grounds. We rrioice WthirfHSS^ fe mI 7 ,b, be t UeViDg tb&t «» P«*«i of OhHSS mlf t c ° ntnbate to the stability and the perpetuity of tbe Government. In this country the citizen happily enjoys the b oadest exorcise inTntn tr? feg^, rdßto P r f. ventitfr o^ b eiQgabusedanddegeneral shf fa X 2SSS. t F Atb - oIIC ctmrch i 8 the frieQd oE law and ord <*. SV«JSt P 5 legitimate authority, she is the sem opponen of anarchy on the one hacd and of oppression on the other, and by her conservative spirit she is an element of strength to the nation Indeed, to proclaim loyalty to a Government like ours is, as it ought to be, a spontaneous act of love as well a 9 a duty to all who preach Sat tTr,;,/^ 79 ° f Nero tbe ApoPtles commSS that the ruler should be honoured and prayed for, and that his rLnS nn f Ce r 8 , 88 v hoUld be f ob8 f yed < witb what alacrity should we enjoi^ Md SnSS ( r oDßltut ed authorities who are the people's own choice, and should wa inculcate obedience to the laws which were framed for muTty?'- 6 P romotiQ g the welfare and happiness of the com-