The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-08-16

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news they receive
r.nr,.. 'oLic CHURCH IN THE UNITED SrAps5--
In copuec,iee VII the laying Ct the corner
stone Of st. psssieh's Cathedral, Of which a
full report will be found elsewhere, 20 publish
ed Yesterday very interesting sketch o. .ae
rise and rr6sress Of the Catholic church in ttis
city. No one can read that sketch without .
feeling of wonder and surprise. And yet
the history Of the Catholic church in New York
is but counterpart Of iss history in the Ucited
States. Fifty years ego there were in the whole
United States one diOcess two bishops, sixty
eight priests eighty churches, two ecclesiastical
institutions, one college sDd two female acade-
mies. At that time the entire population q the
country WAS seven millions. Assuming the pre-
cent population of the country to be twenty
eight millions--fve millions more than the CEN
sus of 1850 soowsd-it would follow that We
had quAdrupitd our population in the last half
century. Had tho progress Of the Catholic
church barely kept pace with the progress Of
population, there ehculd be at the present day,
on the basis Of the foregoing statement, four
dioceses, eight bishops. two hundred and
seventy two priests, three hundred and twenty
churches, eight ecclesiastical institutions, four
colleges ard eight female academies belonging
to that denomination. But how do the figures
actually stand? Why, in this single arch
diocess they are more than doubled, as we
showed by our article yesterday. In the whole
&c fuA, s,h
proportiopate increase would have given}
there are forty-ope; instead Of eight bishops
there aye thiriy-nine, and two apostolic
Wears; instead of two hundred and seventy-two
priests, there are eighteen hundre d and eventy
two; instead of three hundred and twenty
churches, there are two thousand and fifty-tbree,
besides eight hundred ann twenty-nine stations;
instead of eight ecclesiastical institutions, there
are thirty FIVE instead of four colleges there
are twenty. nine; and instead of eight female
academies there are a hundred and thirty-four.
In other words taking the number Of priests
and of churchesas basis of computation, the
Catholic church has increased, within the last
half century, seven times as fast as the
population.
These are remarkable facts and statistics,
and may well challenge the establishment ana
consideration of all men. To what cause is
this unparalleled growth of the Catholic church
in this country to be attributed! The princi-
pal cause, of course, is to be fouud in the i'm
mense emigration here from the Catholic
countries of Europe but still the Catholic emf
grafton should bear to that Of all others the
proportion of twenty-eight to ono, to make that
the only cause-and statistics will show that no
such disproportion exists. Sill, the immense
influx Of Catholics to our shores must be set
down as the preponderating cause for this won
derful growth of the Catholic church here.
There are, however, other potent causes that
have operated to the same end. Catholi.
cism has been the great conservative
religion Of the United States. The Catho
lie church will not tolerate any innova
tion-it brushes out all heresies, and is the fos
to everything in the shape of " isma" Abolition
ism and spiritualism it utterly discountenances
It's confessional system enables 1t to detect and
weed out the first traces of doubt or in6delity
in the minds of Its subjects; and hence 1t Is moi
liable to those OBJECTIONS which break up oil
other churches into such infinitessimal parts
Thus while the Methodist, Baptist, and othe,
churches have broken to pieces on the slavery
question. the Catholics have stood aloef and
avoided the danger, and hence their church
presents to day that wonderful growth which
we have described.