The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-06-20
IRISH-AMERICAN DEFEC-
TIONS FROM THE
CHURCH.

which the writer agrees with the
late Able Guibert, S. 81 who, writ
ing in a French periodical, asserts
that Catholicism has suffered a
frightful loss among the Irish
emigrants to the United States
a loss placed at not less than TO-
100000! This loss, or apostasy, "
AYERS the Able Guibert, is due to
two causes: lack of a special
language and lack of priests from
their own land.
The charge made by Able
Guibert, and to which "America +"
gives prominence, is identical with
that made last January by a
writer in La Croix of Paris and
reproduced in it's entirety by "Les
Cloches de Saint-Boniface" in it's
issue of February Is. We have al
ready challenged the truth of the
statement made by La Croix and
reiterated by the Able Guibert in
regard to the number of Catholics
of Irish descent who have been
lost to the Church in the United
States. 1t is useless to attempt to
assign causes for condition of
things which has no foundation in
fact. Whether we call the defec-
lions which have taken place from
the Church in America "apos-
tasy" or not, whether we say
that they have been due to the
peculiar conditions confronting
certain classes of immigrants in
this country is largely a matter of
opinion based upon the point of
view of the writer; but it is quite
different affair to assert that
100000 Irish Catholics have
been lost to the Church in the
United States. Such statement
is not only incapable of proof, but
is very easily disproved by refer
ence to the official statistics of the
United States Census and Of the
Commission of immigration.
About two years ago the Right
Reverend Bishop Canevin of Pitts
burg, published a pamphlet, in
which he made an examination,
historical and statistical, into the
losses and gains sustained by the
Catholic Church in the United
States from 1870 to 1910. It is
the most recent and reliable work
on this subject, and is based upon
critical examination and COM
parison of statistics, the correct
ness of which cannot be chal-
lenged. From data based on the
rate of natural increase (births
over deaths) and the increase of
immigration, the author ascertains
the entire Catholic population Of
the United States at the close of
each decade and shows that, es-
timating the foreign-born Catholic
population at the highest per-
centage allowed by the census
and immigration reports, and it's
natural increase in each decade at
rate much higher than the aver
age natural increase of the whole
population, the entire number Of
Catholics to be accounted for at
the end Of 1910 was 18,483, 800.
How, then, is it possible that the
Church in the United States has
suffered loss of over 100000
from defections among Irish Cath
olics alone?
In this pamphlet Bishop Can
evin gives a tabular statement
showing the number of foreign
born persons In the United States
at the close Of the year 1910. From
this he estimates the number of
foreign-born Catholics by taking
the percentage of Catholics in the
population Of the country from
which the emigrants came. An
examination of this table shows
that the total number of foreign
born Irish-Americans amounted to
| /, 351, 400 of which 1,O13,5 $50, were
Catholics. In is preposterous to
state that this number of Irish
immigrants have furnished the 90
100000 Catholics of that race who,
it is alleged, have fallen from the
ranks of the Church in the United
States.
Even though we grant that
a large number of Catholic Irish
were sent to this country as slaves
and scattered through the colonies
where facilities for keeping up
their religion were entirely lack
ing, it is the veriest nonsense to
assert that the few shiploads con-
signed to slavery on American soil
caused so enormous a loss. Nor
can the fact that Irish immigrants
had to marry Protestants, accord
ing to Protestant ceremony, be
held accountable for anything like
this loss; for in mixed marriages
the Catholic Church could, In a
strict census, claim not more than
one-half of the offspring and can
not be charged with the loss of
great numbers of her children on