The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-12-15
some one is able to prove that pigs came
thousands of years ago to America by the
Northwest Passage Independent.
Rome and the United States.

The religious, and to large extent the
political, differences which separate the Ro-.
man Catholic inhabitants of this country
from all their fellow. citizens are so great
that the question whether the number of
Roman Catholics among us is increasing at
more rapid or at smaller rate than the
total population of the United States, is one
of grave and universal interest. 1t is re-
markable that among Roman Catholics, as
we'll as among those who do not belong to
that Church, there are widely different opin-
ions on the subject. Some, like Father
Hecker, regard the prospect as very hope
full, calculating that the Roman Catholics
increase so much more rapidly than the total
population, that they may soon be expected
to constitute majority. Others lament
that the losses of the Church so far exceed
her gains that there is ground for alarm,
rather than hope, as regards the future
Protestant writer's have sometimes accepted
the former view, and sounded the alarm as
to the danger with which the advance of the
Roman Catholic Church threatens our free
institutions; while those accepting the second
view rejoice that the free spirit which is the
soul of our civilization is arresting checking,
and improving evenso powerful an organiza-
ton as the Church of Rome.
That opinions so widely differing can be
entertained, arises from the circumstance
that thus far the statistics of no form of re-
ligious belief in the United States have been
so deficient as those of the Roman Catholic
Church. While the Methodsts, Presbyte-
rians, Congregationalists Baptists, aud other
denominations, publish annually an official
account of their actual membership, based
on the reports of the ministers of all the
congregations, the Roman Catholic bishops
seem to have made little or no provision to
ascertain the real number Of their adherents.
The Catholic Almanac, annually published
by Messrs. Sadlier, in this city, contains the
lists of the priests, and for some dioceses an
estimate of the entire population connected
with the Church but for number of
dioceses not even such an estimate is furnish
ed. Thus the Catholics themselves are
generally ignorant of their own numerical
strength.
We showed several weeks ago, that, asSum-
ing the estimates furnished by some of the
Bishops to be correct, and taking them as
basis for the calculation of the population of
the remaining dioceses, the Roman Catholic
population of the United States would amount
to about FIVE millions, or one-sixth of our to-
tai population. Surprising this to be the
real number of the Roman Catholics, we
further showed, from the statistics of immi-
grafton, that the Roman Catholic Church
has not held her own; that so far from ad-
vancing, she is steadily losing ground; and
that not only our total population, but also
several of the leading Protestant denomina-
tons are advancing at much more rapid
rate than the Roman Catholic Church.
Though our article has been largely Co
pied, the correctness of its figures has not
been disputed Our Catholic contemporary,
the New York Tablet, consoled itself that if
the Roman Catholics numbered only five
millions of people, all the Protestant sects
together had only about six-thus commit
ting the singular blunder of confounding the
number of actual adult members of Protes
tant churches, who are computed at from six
to seven millions, with the total population,
which is at least eighteen millions. While
assuming the figures furnished by the Bishops
as the basis of our calculations, we had seri-
Gus doubts as to their correctness, believing
them in many instances to be too high. Our
doubts are fully justified by very interest
inc volume on the Roman Catholic statistics
of this country which has just appeared, and
which gives on the subject more detailed and
trustworthy information than any previous
volume on the subject. 1t is directory of
the German Catholic clergy of this country,
published by the Rev. E. A. Reiter, Ger
man Jesuit in Boston, and giving the name
of every congregation attended by Ger
man priest, with the population of the parish
and the scholars attending the Catholic
schools. Nothing equally full has ever been
published Altogether, according to this
work, there are in the United States 1160
German Catholic priests, 705 German Catho-
lie parishes, and German Catholic popula-
ton of 1,044,00 souls. If the average
population of the non German Catholic par
ishes is about equal to that of the German,
the total Catholic population of the United
States would amount to 3,350,000 inhabi-
tants He shows by example that many of
the vague estimates of the Catholic popula-
ton of several dioceses are too high, and he
admits that the Church has suffered and is
suffering immense losses. These losses he
ascribes chiefly to the absence of Catholic
schools, and he urges the non-German con-
gregations in this country to follow the good
example set them by the Germans who have
Catholic school in connection with almost
every church.
Whether the hopes of the author in this
respect will be realized or not, we leave to
the future. For us, it sufices to call atten-
ton to the interesting fact that the most
thorough research as to the number of Ro-
man Catholics in this country which has yet
been made shows their number to be consid-
erably smaller than has heretofore been gen
orally assumed. The losses, therefore, of
the Church have also been much greater than
has before been supposed. -MethOdist.
Try IT AND SEE.--Have you enemies?
Go straight on and don't mind them. If
they get in your way, walk round them, re-
gardless of their spite, A man that has no
enemies is seldom good for anything. He
is made of that kind of material which is so