The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-06-07

occurred in Berlin. Vienna, during
the latter period, counted also 10000,
and Budapest no fewer than 100000.
Just how rapid the growth was in
this last quarter of the century may
be easily cleaned if Germany may
serve as type.
In that country the successive peri
DDS of five years each from 1880 to
1905 are registered with 9S6, 1863,
2,O88, 2,4O2 and 2,517 conversions re-
spectively. That amounts to almost
TRIPPING in twenty-five years.
Infant Baptism.
The conversion of adults forms per-
haps less than half of the total acces-
sions to Christianity. Many Jews of
high standing, particularly of the edu-
eating classes, while personally per-
sisting in ''the faith of the fathers"
procure the baptism of their children.
And this occurs Notwithstanding such
scathing protests as that of Samter,
who could find no better comparison
to illustrate the procedure than that
of the ancients sacrificing their little
ones to Moloch.
Owing to the inherently defective
nature of baptismal records, complete
statistics are not available; but appeal
may be made to a few striking ex-
amples which serve to justify the fears
and dread of the most conservative
Hebrews. Witness Cremieux, the
president of the Universal Israelitish
Alliance, who had all his children bap-
tized in the Catholic Church, and the
twelve Jewish professors at the Uni
versity of Strassburg in 1898, who
caused their children to be baptized.
1t is approximately calculated that in
Germany during the decade 188O-189O,
four per cent of the entire Jewish pop
ulation of the empire were Christian
lied in this way.
Mixed Marriages.
Mixed marriages are also held re-
sponsible for the rapid disintegration
of Judaism. The extent of their raw
ages has been so visible that certain
rabbis, in deploring the losses to
Christianity, have been driven to pro-
nounce civil marriage preferable to
religious; although they deny the va
lidity of the former and admit that of
the latter. Rabbi Myer hesitated not
to describe the Christian tendency to
canker eating into the very face of
Judaism, for three-fourths of the chill
dren sprung from mixed marriages
pass over to Christianity.
In France the phenomenon is the
least observable, but in Austria two
per cent of Jewish unions are mixed;
in Hungary, six per cent; at Budapest,
eighteen per cent; at Copenhagen, be-
tween 1892 and 1903, forty-three per
cent. The proportion continues grow
ing, and everywhere the development
has been extremely felt during the last
quarter of century 1t is highest in
Sweden. 1t has more than doubled
itself in Prussia, for instead of eight
and seven-tenths per cent, or 228
mixed marriages out of 2,618 in 1880,
there were 507 mixed marriages out of
1854 in 1905, or a percentage of seven
teen and one-tenth.
No more disastrous crisis for Juda-
ism has been known in Christian times
than that which confronts it today.
But happy the Hebrew who will find
the true light Unfortunately, the
harvest is being largely reaped by
Anglicans, Presbyterians and Luther
ans. English, German and American
UNCONVENTIONAL and "non-denomina-
tional" institutions are displaying the
greatest activities. 1t is to be hoped
that other Lemanns and Ratisbonnes
will spring up within the pale to draw
the children Of the race elect to the
Fountain of living waters and not
allow them to be deceived and lured
to dry and broken cisterns.
Catholic Missionary Endeavor.
The phenomena described entitle the
Jew to measure of ingratiating SYM
pathy, respect and favor If the
Italian immigrant in his poverty is
the object of fraternal solicitude, why
is not the Jew as well? If the Hebrew
whom we know seems hostile or indif-
ferent towards Christianity, it may
not be for long. He can hardly be
more radical in his infidelity, or more
rabid in his scoffing than was the He
brew free-thinker of Strassburg, Maria
Alphonse Ratisbonne. Yet Ratisbonne
was in the end thoroughly converted
at Rome where the Blessed Virgin IA
vored him with a miraculous appari-
ton. He became a Jesuit, but after a
few years, desiring to devote his life
to the conversion of his race, he was
permitted by Pope Plus TX to with
draw from the society for that pur-
pose.
Previous to his ordination, which
occurred in 1847, he had assisted his
elder brother Theodore, also priest and
convert, in founding the Sisterhood of
Our Lady of Sion for the Christian
education of Hebrew children. He
now secured foundation for the Sis
tiers at Jerusalem, where in 1855 he
erected the large convent called ''Ecce
Homo" on the Via Dolorosa, with the
school and orphange for girls adjoin
ing. He also built st. Peters orphan
age for boys not far from the Jaffa
Gate. Another monument to his mem
DRY is a school of mechanical arts with
in the city walls.
At Ain Karin, the birthplace of st
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