Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-02-20
INCREASE OFROMANIsM.

Archbishop Hughes recently delivered a lee
ture before the Young Catholic Friends Soci-
ETY., in Baltimore, a digest of which we ma IN
the New Bedford Mercury. According to TINS
preIate. people have indulged in specuiations
unon the power and endurance of the Catholic
Church in the United States, this church new
er having been, before the Declaration of In
dependcnce, connected with any government,
except as its fsrvorite or its foe. The Arch
bishop derives the Catholics in the L. States
from three sources-the primitive stock of the
Maryland colony, immigration anG conversion.
In tho year 1855, John Carroll, Jesuit, was
appointed by the Holy See as the Superior of
the clergy in this country. In Maryland, at
that date, there were between sixteen and
twenty thousand catholics; in Pennsylvania
eight thousand; in New York there were two
hundred. ssThese,'' he says, s'are the three
sources from which, as l wiz Eme them, the
native, hereditary and American Catholics are
to be derived" At this date, 1885, there were
four Catholic churches in the States, but no
Catholic schools, colleges, hospitals or orphan
asylums. From subsequent accessions of ter
ritory, the Archbishop does not consider that
we have gained many original Catholics. Next
/ comes immigration, and this, according to the
| lecturer, has been too highly rated. Up to
the year 1925, the immigration from the Brit
| ish Empire amounts to a little over 100000,
but the tide OF Catholic immigrants did not
set in towards this country till after the close
of the revolutionary war, and great part of
| this even was Protestant, that is, the north
| country people, who settled in New Jersey and
| Western Pennsylvania. From the year 1928
to the year 1850, period of twenty-five years,
! there arrived from Great Britain and Ireland,
| 1853 325 immigrants, and from the year 1850
to 1856, in the city of New York alone l,3l9,-
$50 Immigrants, and in all from these coun-
tries, since 1870, We may call the immigration
about 8, ,250,0 900. For the last fifteen years, the
Archbishop considers that four-ffths of the
immigration has been Catholic, and that one
of three of the immigrants die soon after their
arrival, as they are especially exposed to the
accidents Of life, to sickness, hardship OF ev-
cry kind, and toilsome poverty. Hundreds OF
i thousands of the descendants of the Catholic
immigrants, have fallen away from their reli-
gion, but it is equally true that they hardly
added anything to any other denomination OF
Christians.
By the census of 1850 there were in the o.
: nited States 19, SOB ,065 white inhabitants, OF
whom 2,240, ,535 were of foreign birth. With
the exception of 0,000, which was the num-
Der of Irish according to the census, the re-
mainder of those of foreign birth came from
Sweden, Norway, the German States, Great
Britain &C., mostly Protestants according tc
the lecturer BY the closest examination, and
arranging the results according to the best as
certained authority within reach, it follows as
/, an approximate calculation that at the present
day there are in the United States, say, clever
hundred thousand Il ,100, ,000 Catholics borr
, in foreign lands; over eight hundred Thousand
Irish and three hundred thousand Germans
because of the German immigration there arc
| two Protestants for one Catholic. Now, We
, find according to the Catholic Almanac fo
1856, that the Catholic population of the Uni
ted States is 2 1897 500, eIeren husdred housant
foreign born Catholics, and the balance, twelve
hundred and ninety-seyen thousand five hun
dred, must be of the primitive stock or have
been acquired. Conversion, then, must be ia
ken as one Of the chief means TO which vi
may attribute the increase of the Catholi'
Church. We have already given the tota
Catholic population the number OF priests II
1885 was %; now there are 1761 priests; a