Progress in America

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 12, 23 March 1905, Page 19

Progress in America

' The Catholic population of the continental United States,' says the Milwaukee ' Catholic Citi/.en,' 'is 12,462,793, according to the figures compiled by the M. H. Wilt/ius Co. for the " Catholic Directory " for 1905. To this may be added a population of 7,058,699 for the Philippines, 1,000,000 for Porto Rico amd 32,000 for tlie Sandwich Islands. This makes the Catholic pofcvuKatton under the American flag 20,553,492. The total population of this territory is about 80,000,000, so the Oatholics number one-quarter of the whole. The compilation for 1904 showed the total Catholic population of the continental United States to te 11,887,317, making the increase for the year 575,476. Thisi is considerably under the actual figures. The data upon which the statistics are based is obtained fr*om the bishops and archbishops, who in turn are given their information by the local pastors. Inasmuch as the figures supplied by the pastors to t«heir bishops are used as the basis for apportioning the parish assessments, it can be readily seen that the tendency is to give underestimates of population, in order to keep down the parisn assessments. . . . For the continental United States the figures for 1905 ajid 1904 follow :—l9os—Archbishops, 15 ; bishops, 88 ; clergy, secular, 10,325, religious, 3,532, total clergy, 13,857 ; churches witfi residont priests, 7481 ; missions with churches, 3906 ; total churches, 11,387 ; seminaries, 83 ; students, 3926 ; colleges for boys, 191 ; academies for girls, 692 ; parishes with schools, 4235 ; children aittendlng, 1,031,378 ; orphan asylums-, 252 ; orphans, 37,822 ; charitable institutions, 987 ; toUil children in Catholic institutions, 1,021,899 ; Catholic population, 12,462,793. Since last year two new dioceses—Fall River, Mass., and Great Falls, Mont.,—have been erected. Last year there were four vacancies in the American hierarchy. This year every bishopric and archbishopric is filled. According to the compilers of the directory this is the first time in many years mat there has beetn no vacancy in the hierarchy. Of the dioteese of the continental United States the two largest are those of Chicago and New York, with each a Catholic population of 1,200,000. The smallest is that of Baker City, Idaho, with 3218.'

9 An interesting comparison with the figures supplied above by our valued Milwaukee contemporary is furnished by Dr. Henry K. Carroll's annual statistics of the Churches, as supplied in the ' Christian Advocate,' an American Presbyterian organ. The largest Protestant denominations, acoor'ding to 1)r. Carroll's careful estimates, are the following .—The Northern Methodists, with 2,847,932 memibers ; the Northern, Southern and Colored Baptists, with a total of 4/850,234 ; the Soutih-

em Methodists, 1,556,728 ; the Northern Presbyterians,

1,069,170 ; the Disciples, 1,233,866 ; the Episcopalians,' 798,642 ; the Congregational ists, 667,951. Dowie's ' Christian Catholic Cli'urch ' is credited with about '40,000 memibers, and Mother Eddy's 'Christian Science * con-: cern— wihich is neither Christian nor scientific— lias a reputed following of 66,000. In the course of an edi- ' torial comment on the religious statistics of the United Spates for IflO4 the r American Friend ' says : ' ' These figures can give at least but a feeble idea of the state of religion in our country. They will impress evory one with the fact that Roman Catholicism 1 ; is a mighty force, rapidly expanding.'