The Irish standard., 1902-03-08
THB CHURCH IN AMERICA.

time in the yul,ed States, contributes
to the Irish Ecclesiastical Review for
February an arllcle which has elected
a great deal of comment from the
Irish press in Ireland. Father Shin
nors, the writer, is a member Of the
Oblate Order. He says that notwith-
standing the rapid growth of Catholi-
cism in America and the accessions to
it from the conversion of Protestants,
the losses to the Church can be count
ed by the millions. He admits that
it is very hard to give an approximate
guess at the number Of apostates, but
thinks it safe to say that in the last
sixty years ten millions have gone in
the way Of 'unbelief and perdition.".
This is how he figures it out:
During the last sixty years, think,
it is no exaggeration to say that as
many as 100000 men and women of
the Irish race emigrated to America.
or these nearly all were Catholics, and
nearly all left their homes in the prime
of youth or the full strength of early
manhood. With the proverbial fertil-
ity of the Irish race, is it too much to
say that at present there ought to be
as many as 100000 Catholics of
Irish birth or blood in the United
States? But, besides these, you have
to reckon some millions of Catholics
from other countries-from Germany,
Poland, Italy, France, Austria, and
Canada. l do not think, therefore,
that am very wrong in asserting that
il all cmigrants and their children had
remained faithful to the Church, we
should today have in America popu-
lation of 2O,OOO,OOO Catholics. In 9TH
er words, the leakage Of the past sixty
years must have amounted to more
than half the Catholic population, as
account must be taken of the large
numbers Of converts that have allud-
ed to-"
The number of Irish immigrants CIV
en- by Father Shinnors is too high, and
the Catholic population, instead of be-
ing 100000, is ut least 15,OOO,OOO.
In his celebrated address, entitled 1.-The
Church in America-Its Yesterday and
Tomorrow" delivered in Dubuque,
Iowa, by Archbishop Ireland, on April
II, 1901, that eminent prelate showed
the marvellous progress of Catholicity
in the United States, from the days of
Bishop Carroll to the present time, and
refuted the statement that the Amerf-
can Church has suffered such big loss
es as pessimistic writer's have stated.
Referring to the losses he said:
'"Ihis matter was fully discussed to
the justification of the American
Church i'll series of newspaper arti-
cles by John Culinary Shea, and in his
Church History" by Bishop O'Gor-
man; but neither of these writer's is
ever quoted by men ut home or abroad
who are wont to parade alarming
figures as those of our losses. Such
men make no pretense of close investi-
CATION, beyond quoting others who
themselves are merest guessers. In
not few cases are they manifestly In
spircd by partisan bias" The Arch
bishop referred to Herr Cahensly and
Monsieur Tardevel, who had given
astounding losses from apostacy, the
former having said that the losses in
1891 had amounted to 16,O00,O0O, and
the latter in a book on the American
Republic declaring that "the Church
In the United States has certainly lost
one-half Of her children, perhaps two
thirds Of them" 1t may he that Fa-
ther Shinnors had read these exagger-
ated estimates before writing his
article.
The st. Paul prelate said that Gil
mary Shea, beginning with the Cath
ole population in 1920 and allowing
for natural increase and immigration,
calculated that in 1880 The Catholic
population of this country ought to he
1O,627, 900. "Was our actual popula-
ton in 1890 far from that figure?" asks
the Archbishop. "And if not, where
is there room to talk of alarming
losses?" The Archbishop said more on
the subject and concluded as follows:
''The places, are few in the world
where the Church has suffered SO few
actual losses as she has in America, or
where accessions TO our, ranks have
gone SO far as to make up for losses
which she may have suffered. 1t is
full time that an end be put forever to
huge calumnies upon the zeal and firm
faith of Catholics who bore the heat Of
summer and the cold Of winter in
planting the Church through vast
regions of our fair America. Such
calumnies insult both our church and
our country; and we must reduce them
to silence"
In the course Of his article the mis-
sionary priest urges the Irish people
to stay at home, and says: From
Cardinal Gibbons, from Archbishop