Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1913-03-22
Twenty-Three Million Catholics
Are Under the Stars and
Stripes.
Kentucky Ranks Nineteenth
With Catholic Population
of 1853, 2SS.
is NOW READY FOR DELIVERY

According to the 1913 edition of
the Official Catholic Directory, pub
lished by p. J. Kennedy & Sons,
Barclay street, New York City, there
are 15,154,15S Catholics in the
United States. This figure includes
only the Catholics of the United
States proper and does not embrace
the people Of our faith in the foreign
possessions of this country. Adding
the 7,131,9S9 Catholics in the Phil
ippines, the million or more in Porto
Rico, the 11,510 in Alaska, the
AZ, los in the Hawaiian Islands and
the 900 on the Canal Zone, It will
be found that there are 23,329,047
Catholics under the Stars and
| Stripes.
The Official Catholic Directory is
| full of interesting figures and accord
ing to the 1913 issre a new Catholic
church is built every day in the year.
There we're 373 new churches estab-
lished during 1912, some of them of
course being only mission churches.
To be exact, there are 244 new
churches with resident pastors and
129 new mission churches, that is
served by a neighboring pastor. All
told there are 1892 churches in the
United States, 9,501 having resident
pastors. According to the Kennedy
publication there are 17.945 Catholic
lclergymen in the dioceses of the
United States, 1928 being secular
clergy and 4,672 being members of
religious orders. In addition to the
| 17,945 priests, there are also hun
dreds of fathers in distant lands, in
| fact there is hardly a civilized or
urcivilized land where United States
clergy are not to be found. Only a
few days ago a United States priest
sailed from New York for the Island
of Timor, an island away out in the
Indian ocean, Inhabited by senfYDm,
klss<sus- lAlalaYs- and BXpuas. -
In addition
men engaged
there are 6,169
studying in eigfcy
located in various pa
try. There are also 2
academies for boys az
emies for girls, where the
cation of our Catholic youN
serious attention. The nuINEE
academies for girls is of course
| larger than the number for men and
boys, but the number of men and
boy students is much larger than girl
students. One of the features of the
Directory which will give food for
thought is the table giving the sta
tistics of the parochial schools. Ac-
cording to the figures which have
been supplied by the Diocesan Chan
Gerry officials there are 5 1856 parishes
which have parochial schools con-
nected with the churches. In these
5,256 schools 1,36O,761 boys and
girls are receiving their elementary
education. Furthermore it must be
borne in mind that in many rural
districts, where parochial schools can
not be organized. due provision Is
made for the religious instruction o.
youth. With this in mind the fact
that 1,360,761 children are attending
the parochial schools will stand out
more sharply. It must also be re-
membered that there are 47,415
orphans in our orphan asylums and
adding together the number Of pupils
In parochial schools, in orphan
asylums, detention schools, insti-
tutes, academies, high schools and
colleges, IT will be found that there
are 1 1.593.316 young people under
Catholic care in the United States.
The most important item in con-
nection with the table of statistics is
Of course the population item. and
Joseph II. Meier, the editor OF
Kenedy's Official Catholic Directory,
has prepared for the Catholic press a
table showing the twenty-five States
having the largest number of Cath
olics. During the year 1912 Michi-
gan has forged ahead of Wisconsin
and Kansas has advanced over New
Hampshire, Maine and Nebraska.
The States are New York, 2,790, ,629;
Pennsylvania, 1888, 1853; Illinois,
li,46O, ,9S7; Massachusetts,, 1883, ,435 /;
lOhio. 743,O65; Louisiana, 5S4, 900;
Michigan. 56S,505; Wisconsin, $751;
476; New Jersey, SOC, 900; Missouri.
47O,OO0; Minnesota, 454,797; Con-
necticut, 423, 600; California, 403,-
500: Texas. 3O6,4OO; Iowa. 266,7S5;
Maryland. 10000; Rhode Island,
$50. 900; Indiana, 232,764; Ken
lucky, 163,22S; New Mexico, 14O,-
573; Kansas, 131 900; New Hamp-
shire, 126.O34; Maine, 1873, 800; Ne
braska, 1920; Colorado, 105, 900.