The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 15 June 1916, Page 37

The Catholic World

ENGLAND CHARITABLE BEQUESTS. Miss -Emma Houlgrave, of Seaforth, Lancashire, who died on February 4, aged 85, left estate of the gross value of £42,554, of which £38,116 is net personalty. She bequeathed £IOOO each to the two executors of her will; £SO and an annuity of £3O each to two servants; and £SOOO each to the Catholic College, Upholland, and the Catholic Blind Asylum, Liverpool. IMPUDENT ORANGEMEN. There are probably some few thousands of Orangemen fighting for the cause of the Allies (says the Catholic Times). Millions of Catholics, the bravest of the brave, have fought and suffered for the cause in Belgium, representing a Catholic nation. Millions of Catholics have faced and are facing death for that cause in France, that brave, chivalrous nation. Millions of the intrepid sons of Catholic Italy are nobly upholding the cause in the campaign, against Austria, not to speak of the immense number of Catholics of the -British Empire who are in the firing line. All these Catholic combatants revere the Pope and look up to him as their spiritual father. Yet the so-called ‘ Loyal Orange Institution of England,’ with its few thousands of fighting men, insults them and him by sending to Mr. Asquith a protest against the visit of courtesy which he paid to the Holy Father when in Rome. The proAuction is a piece of downright traitorism, for its authors must know that in offending his Holiness and the millions and millions of Catholics who are supporting the cause of the Allies in belligerent countries, and also the millions and millions of Catholics in the neutral countries, they are playing into the hands of the Germans. They may call themselves loyal, but they prove by their'conduct that they are dangerous traitors—dangerous especially at critical moments. In their protest they combine falsehoods with insultsfalsehoods such as the statements that the Vatican was the chief cause of the war and that the Pope did nothing to prevent it, which no German invention could surpass in malignity.

ROME ORDINATION . OF CONVERTS. The Rev. Mr. Spencer-Borrow and the Rev. Mr. Moultrie, formerly Anglican ministers, have received the Order of Deacon at the hands of the Most Rev. Archbishop Zongi, President of the Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics, where these gentlemen are pursuing their studies for the priesthood. A RELIGIOUS CENSUS. Our contemporary, Home, extracts a set of intensely interesting facts from the Italian census of 1911 the results of which have only recently been published. We all know the expensive proselytising efforts that are being made on behalf of Protestantism of various forms in Rome and Italy. Now while, out of a total population of 35,597,784, 32,983,664 declared themselves to be Catholics, the Protestants resident in Italy, including the foreigners, were 123,253, most of them living in Piedmont, Sicily, and Lombardy (Liguria had - only 6558). The Jews numbered 34,324. The figures for the Protestants, as our contemporary remarks, do not indicate that they are making any real progress' in spite of the amount of money they spend every year on their propaganda, and the promises they make to the Americans who supply the funds. The great majority of strangers resident in . Italy are Protestants; the Waldensians, who are a very old sect in Italy, account for most of the rest, and the Methodists ' and Baptists, about whom one hears most, have only some precarious thousands in their ranks. ‘ It is not from these that the-realt-danger to

Catholicity and Christianity threatens in Italy or anywhere else,’ says Home. - ‘ For the most significant religious feature of this census of 1911 consists in the fact that the number of persons who wrote themselves and their children down as Atheists was 874,522, while 653,404 refused to make any statement as to their religious position. The geographical distribution of these has its lesson, for the atheists and the silent ones are most numerous where socialism has taken deepest root and obtained widest diffusion.’ THE POPE AND THE PEACE CONGRESS. As weeks go by (says a Rome correspondent), the literature on the question of the Pope’s participation, in the Peace Congress increases, the latest exponent of the Pontiff’s cause being Senator Eugenio Valli, who declares an invitation to the Holy Father to attend the meeting in the capacity of a sovereign is perfectly conformable to international law. , ‘ The Pontiff,’ he declares, is, in point of fact, considered a sovereign, and his representatives are regarded -as diplomatic agents.’ - Moreover, by all the Powers implicit consent has been given to the precedence of the Papal representatives, apart from any question of seniority. It is worth adding that the part of a lecture delivered by the Marquis Crispolti, the well-known Catholic journalist, in Bologna, which deals with ‘ Italy’s objection’' to the Pope’s participation in the Congress, has been* reproduced without comment in the anti-Papal daily of Rome, 11 Giornale d'ltalia. The Marquis Crispolti appeals to the political leaders of Italy to show breadth* of view in deciding upon the attitude they will adopt, on this question. • -

UNITED STATES

RELIGIOUS STATISTICS.'There are 16,564,109 Catholics in Continental! United States, according to the Catholic Directory.. The increase in the number of Catholics during the* year 1915 is shown to be 254,799. It is impossible for all of the archdioceses and dioceses to take a new? census each year. To the figure 16,564, could be added, according to the compiler, at least 1,656,410,, "representing the floating Catholic population of the United States, of which no records are kept. Adding, this 10 per cent, . would increase the Catholic figures , to* over 18,000,000. Instead of deducting 15 per cent., for children and infants, as is frequently done by statisticians, he believes that 10 per cent, should be added! to arrive at the real Catholic population. The figures: shown are those furnished by the chancery officials.. Including the Catholics of the island possessions of the* United States, it is found that there are 24,922,062 Catholics under ■ the United States flag. In the United States proper there are 16,564,109; in the Philippines there are 7,285,458. The additional 1,072,495 are in Alaska,, the Canal Zone, in Guam, in American Samoa, in the Hawaiian ' Islands, and in Porto Rico. Djeath laid a heavy hand on American prelates and priests during the year 1915,- and not in a score of years have so many changes taken places. ‘ One Archbishop and ten Bishops passed away, and according to the necrology section, 321 priests went to their eternal reward. There are 19,572 Catholic clergymen in the United States. Of these 14,318 are secularclergy, while 5254 are members of religious Orders.. The publication lists 10,058 Catholic churches with resident priests, 5105 mission churches, 85 seminarieswith 6201 students studying for the priesthood, 112; homes for aged, 210 colleges for boys, 685 academies: for girls,' and 5588 parochial schools. In these parochial schools there are enrolled 1,497,949 children*. There are 283 orphan asylums, with 48,089 orphans..