The Irish standard., 1912-03-30
Advance Sheets of 1912 Catholic
Directory Show Gain for 1911
to be 396,8O8.
Catholic Population Increased by
More Than Five Million in
Past Ten Years.
New York State, Centre of Catholic
Population In u. S., Numbers
2,778.O76 Catholics.

There are 15,015,569 Catholics in
the United States, according to the
1912 edition Of "The Official Catholic
Directory" published by P. ]. Kennedy
and Sons, of Barclay street, New
York. The figures given in the 1912
volume include only continental Uni
ted States, and do not embrace the
number Of Catholics in any of our
island possessions.
Comparing the figures of the 1911
and 1912 issues gratifying gain is
seen in the number of Catholics, for
the Directory of 1912 shows an in
crease of 396,s0s souls for the year.
The figure 15,015,569 includes all
Catholics and does not deduct Is per
cent for children and infants as was
done by the government in it's CEN
sus of 1906-09, and which is invariably
done by Protestant statisticians when
quoting numbers of Catholics. 1t is
of interest at this time, also, to look
back ten years and discover what
gains have been made. Glancing
through the 1902 Catholic Directory
published by the Wiltzius Co., in Mil
waukee, it is seen that the Catholic
population at that time was 10,976,757
and compared with the present total
of 15.015,569 a gain of 4,038,S12 is re-
corded for the decade.
"The Official Catholic Directory"
for 1912 shows that there are 17,491
Catholic priests in the United States.
OF these, 1896 are secular clergy
men and 4,495 are members of relig-
tous orders. This figure shows a
gain Of 407 priests.
Four hundred and seventy-eight ad-
ditional churches are recorded in the
Kenedy publication, and the general
summary shows that at the beginning
of this year there were 1899 Catho-
lie churches in America. OF these
1899, nearly 10000 have resident
pastors, or, to be exact, 9,256 churches
have resident priests, the other 1858
being mission churches, that is, at
tended from neighbor!ng parishes.
There are at present fourteen arch
bishops in the United States, each Of
the fourteen archepiscopal sees being
occupied. Three are cardinal arch
bishops. In addition to these, there
are two titular archbishops in the
United States, both being retired Ordi-
naries. It is a remarkable fact, and
deserves special attention, that ac-
cording to the Directory there is only
one vacancy in the b!shoprics of this
country. The Vicariate of Browns
vile, Texas, Is mourning the loss of its
bishop. All told, there are 81 bishops
in continental United States, some
of these, of course, being coadjutor
and auxiliary bishops. In addition,
there are two arch.abbots and fifteen
abbots.
Eighty-three seminaries are discov-
cred in various parts of the country,
and 6,006 students are preparing for
the holy priesthood in these semina-
ries. There are 229 colleges for boys
and 701 academies for girls, although
there are more students in the 229
colleges for boys than there are in the
701 academies for girls.
One of the most interesting features
of the Directory's table are the sta.
tistics for parochial schools. Accord
ing to the Directory there are 5.119 pan
ishes which have schools attached,
with an attendance of 1,333,7S6. Over
and above the parochial schools, there
are 2s9 orphan asylums, in which A.
Ill orphans are taken care of. Count
ing the children in parochial schools,
the number of young ladies and young
men in academies and colleges, and
including the orphans and children in
other charitable institutions, 1t Is
found that at present there are un
der Catholic care in the United States
1,540,O49 young people.
"The Official Catholic Directory
gives an interesting array of figures
and perhaps the most interesting are
those showing the Catholic population
of the various states in the Union. The
appended table shows the number Q