CATHOLICS AND METHODISTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 8, 23 February 1899, Page 19

CATHOLICS AND METHODISTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

THE KDITOB OF ™.^X»«.) AN A MER[ CAN TO THE EDITOB. Sib— Your American correspondent makes the following comment on certain statistics of religions denomination in the United States published by the Independent of January 5 :- i "I h ! S,?- a , n ,P atho . lie total CP o P«lation of the United States] is P M M' 3 ?l1 nu an i n ? reaSe ° f 219J91 [° n the y ear 1897]. That of the Methodist Church ,s placed at 5,898,094, an increase of 162,196 That statement is misleading as to the relative strength of the two Churches Ihe Methodist figures stand for actual communicants™ full membership-nearly all adults. The Catholic figures stand for the entire amihes of all who have ever been members of that Church, including all the children.' It is well to bear in mind that the figures are those of the Ttulej* ndmt. Your correspondent alone is responsible for the com panson as to the relative numerical strength of the two religious bodies. The comparison can scarcely be regarded as either fair or final, and for the following chief reasons : 1 No statistics of the membership of religious denominations are collected or published by the United States Government The con-ect aVa e ° n the sub J ect are<at bes t> merely approximately 2. Your correspondent employs the title ' Methodist Church ' as if it designated one ecclesiastical corporate body, one unbroken •denomination' I can find no record of any single Christian body .m the Lmted States which styles itself, without other qualifying word, 'TIP Methods Church./ I have not a copy of the Ind/jZ ih ,zf of January •> but there lie before me, in a San Francisco piper two-thirds of a wide column of the Independents statistical tables From them I take the following entry .— «*"«sb. irrM%'' th ° diStS " 17 b ° dieS ' " " members > 5,808,094 ; increase, These figures correspond exactly with those given by your correspondent for ' the Methodist Church.' The important qualifying words, '17 bodies,' failed to catch his eye. The '17 bodies' referred to include, presumably, with later additions, the fourteen United Stat a Episcopal and non-Episcopal Methodist Chnrchea enumerate! m detail by Professor Schaff in his Ildigious Enevcl«. Wiha, cd. ISB3, Vol. 111., p, 1494.* The number is, in reality far greater, as. according to the same distinguished Protestant authb'ritv it includes a considerable number ' of-separate small secessions that are bracketed together under the gemral heading of 'lndependent Methods Churches.' The Enrydo JM -dia Bntannh-a regards even the American Episcopal Methodists as < five distinct sections or Churches, even though there is no great divergence in their doctrine or discipline. Your correspondent gave no hint that, in his count of heads, he was, in effect, lumping together seventeen distinct religious corporate bodies as one. «i»wnoc 3. Your correspondent says — ' The Catholic figures stand for the entire families of all who have ever been members of that bS'remart -° *" the childre g/ This dement calls for^ three C»th"r The ,, B^ ms of enumeration adopted by United States Catho ie authorities are stated in the statistical volume published in 189; by Dr. O'Uorman, of jthe Washington Catholic University It r», 1 i° Ifrt1 fr th f " Iformiltlon o f N-Z- T.vhiet roadVrs wo~mov~add 7h«t enumerate- .the M.-thodist Church ol C'mada and tho MoVhodist EnLon^

is not necessary to give any details of them here. Let it suffice to state that they bear no resemblance to the wholesale method of inclusion mentioned by your correspondent. Even as far back as its issue of August 2, 1891, the New York Herald, basing its figures on the number of 'communicants,' gives the combined Unittd S^Uites Methodist Churches, in round numbers ([ believe), 4,G00000, and the Catholic body G,2~>o,oi~> It is not necessary for me to stand by either the Herald* figures or it basis of comparison. (b) The San Francisco paper to which 1 refer above says : ' It must be noted that the Independent only includes the number of Catholic adults. The total Catholic population is far in excess of tic Indi'j> r n'J<'nt'* figures.' (c) Tour correspondent's last quoted statement implies that the figures (8,3'' ">, 178) given by the In'lejtendcnt not silone include 1 all the children,' etc., but that they are, moreover supplied from Catholic sources, or on the Catholic method of count. Such an idea would be wholly misleading. I have before me many returns of total Church membership compiled by United States Catholic*. Between the highest and the lowest of them there is a wide divergence. But even the lowest that I can lay my hand on for 1898 — that of Hoffman's Catholic Directory — is greatly in excess of that given by your correspondent as including, among many others. ' all the children.' I have not yet received the statistics for the present year. But Hoffmann's Catholic Directory for 1898 gives a total Catholic population of 9,8.>G,G22 — a much tDo low estimate if his figures for 1890 (8,:501,3G7) are even approximately correct. Sadleir's Directory for I*9B gives (I think) close on 12,000,000. The noted historical and philological writer, Dr. Gilmary Shea, was said by the New York Su n to be ' the best Catholic authority ' on the subject. He went elaborately into the matter, and computed the Catholic population of the United States at 10,027,000 in 1890. On the same basis of calculation this would give about 12.">00,000 for 189.">. Dr. O'Gorman's estimate was 12,000,000 for 189."). In his notable article in the Edinburgh for April, 18i)0, Mr. Bodley — whose religious belief I have not ascertained — gives the total for that year as, in round numbers, 10,000,000, thus practically agreeing with Dr. Gilmary Shea. As already stated, neither these nor any other figures arc final or based on indisputable authority. They are advanced simply to meet the double inference of your American correspondent, that the ludrp> nth nts figures, as applied by him — that is, as including ' all the children.' kc— come from Catholic sources, or are based on the methods of statistical enumeration in vogue among Catholic authorities in the United States. Even were we to accept his .statement, there would still be no ecclesiastical corporate body in the United States that approaches in numerical strength the one that is known to us by the l^gal designation of Roman Catholic. — Yours, ,Vc, Editor, N.Z. Tablet. Tuesday, February 21.