The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1906-12-22
Conversions to the One True Church.


The apostolic mission house has re.
Gently collected some extremely valu.
able statistics of the number Of con.
Verts received into the church every
year i'm this country.
They are valuable because they fur
nish ground for some accurate and re-
liable statements. Heretofore it has
been only guesswork. Cardinal Glib
bons has ventured some statements
based on the converts in the archdio-
ceses of Baltimore. but these figures
now given out by the apostolic mission
house are based on the exact returns
from twenty-nine of the dioceses in the
country.
1T is altogether strange that the con-
version 10 the church in this country
q few years ago was so much of a neg
ligible quantity that in most of the do
ceses in the country there was no rec
ord kept of them. The number of bap-
tisms was recorded, but no distinct
rubric was accorded TO the baptisms Of
the converts. But now in most of the
well organized chancery offices there
are preserved accurate statistics of the
converts who have been received, and
probably in a few years when the num-
Der of converts increase there will not
be single chancery Office where the
returns of conversions will not be an
important item of reports
However, according to the recent re-
turns at the mission house and pub
lished in the November issue of the
Missionary, twenty-nine dioceses whose
aggregate Catholic population amounts
TO 4,31Q.1S0, show up 1882 converts TO
the church. This proportion is l in 506.
If this same proportion is maintained
throughout the 103 dioceses in the coun-
try there would be a total of 25,1J6 con-
Nerts received into the church in this
country every year.
1t is interesting to study the figures:
A few facts seem to be apparent. In
the dioceses where a positive organized
effort has been made to reach the nom
Catholic the number of converts is very
large as, for example New York dio-
cese receives 1,500 converts each year,
and so small a diocese as Mobile, Ala,
year 537 converts. In these two do
ceses there have been missionaries to
non-Catholics for the last ten years.
New York has had its apostolic band
of six missionaries while Mobile has
had two missionaries from the mission
houst. They are now reaping their har-
vest. In dioceses where there has been
no organized non-Catholic mission work
the number of converts is very scanty.
These indisputable facts demonstrate
that wherever efforts are made to get
converts they are secured and in large
numbers.
The figures from Mobile diocese are
very remarkable-537 converts, or in
SO of the Catholic population. If this
same proportion were maintained
the country the number of
converts would be $50. 000 but in its no.
table proportion Mobile stands out
unique.
1t would also be interesting to learn
how many Of these $4,000 were received
by the religious orders and how many
by the regular parochial churches.
From information derived from other
sources it appears the largest proportion
Of converts are received by the ordinary
parochial clergy. OF course, their
churches are by all odds the more nu-
but it is also true that the do
cesar priests as a rule have the par
isles on the frontiers where the hest
work Of conversions is done.