The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-01-21

virtue
CATHOLICS IN THE UNITED STATES.
The great Congregationalist paper, the
New York Independent, recently pub
lished the religious statistics of the
United States for 1898, in which it gives
the total membership of all denomina-
tions at 27,714,523. The Catholic men,
bership is placed at S,395,178 in four
bodies, including "old Catholics" IRE
formed Catholics" and the Polish
Branch" Catholics apostolic and
Christian Catholics" are given sepa-
rateiy and aggregate some $4,000 mem
bers. The religious and secular papers
of all kinds have commented on these
statistics from every point of view and
have drawn diverse comparisons and
conclusions. Among the secular papers
is the Chicago Tribune, which is some
what displeased at placing the Roman
Catholics lat the head of all the sects in
point of numbers; whereas the Metho-
dists are really entitled to that posi-
tlon." The writer is evidently follow
er of John Wesley and does not seem to
know the meaning of "sect" when he ap-
plies it to the Catholic church. The
Independent places the membership of
the Methodist church of II different
bodies at 5,S9S,O94. The Tribune man
says that these figures stand for active
communicates, nearly all adults, while
the Catholic figures stand practically for
the entire families of all who have ever
been members of the church and incluee
the children down to young age. He
says if the Methodists were counted that
way they would number not less than
12,0OO,OOO.
We have no disposition to deprive the
Methodists of holding first place il they
are entitled to it. We do not know
how the Independent acquired it's church
statistics, but we cannot accept them as
authentic, as far as Catholic are concern
ed. Unfortunately, Catholic directories
which are supposed to be authoritative
are far from being accurate and fire.
quently give the same figures from the
same dioceses for succeeding years with
out any increase or diminution, thus
falsely showing that the Catholic popula-
ton in many places, in spite of births
and deaths, remains stationary The
compilers are not to blame for this. They
do their best to obtain returns, but those
who ought to give the information are
either too apathetic or Indifferent to take
census. We have no doubt whatever
that the Catholic population is largely
in excess of that given in Catholic direc-
tories, and at a conservative estimate we
place it at upward of 100000 instead
of 100000 as given by the Independent.
The Tribune writer says that calling
the total population of the country U.s.
100000 more than 100000 may be broad
ly set down as coming within the Prot
estant pale, while the bulk of the re-
mainder falls within Catholic member
ship, still leaving several millions of out
siders. Of course, it is all speculation on
his part. We cannot agree with him
that the "nothingarians" or agnostics
draw quite as large a proportion from
the Catholic sphere Of influence as from
the Protestant and when he says that
the Catholic backsliders are not count,Al
out of the Catholic church he is labor
ing under delusion.
The statistical figures given by the IN
dependent are not satisfactory to us as
far as Catholics go. They are certainly
interesting, nevertheless. According to
them the American people are split up,
into AZ denominations. Catholics, Meth
odists and Baptists take the lead in the
order named, the last having 10 separate
bodies numbering 4,364,427 members in
good standing. The Prebysrerians come
next with IL bodies comprising 1,542, 4O1
members, closely followed by the Luz
therans with 20 bodies of 1,526,552. The
Episcopalians, including the reformed"
have over 100000, while the Jews have
100000. Every facility should be af-
forded to Catholic publishers in ascer-
tanning the Catholic population and we
trust that the directories in future will
be an improvement on the previous pub
lications.