The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1915-03-13
Catholic Increase in
U. S. 24l,325
in 1914.

There are 16,3O9,31O Catholics in
the United States according to the
advance sheets of "The Official Cath
olic Directory" published and copy
righted by P. ]. Kennedy & Sons of
Barclay street, New York.
According to "The Official Catholic
Directory" the increase in the number
of Catholics during the year 1914
amounts to 241,325. Forty-four dio.
ceses report increases in the Catholic
population, forty archdioceses and dio-
,ceses made no change in the popula-
tion figures and Is dioceses show de-
creases although three of the is show.
ing decreases have given up territory
for the establishment of the two new
dioceses of Ell Paso and Spokane.
Statisticians quoting Catholic statis-
tics usually deduct Is per cent for
children and infants, claiming that
only communicates should be counted.
The impression is created, therefore,
that Catholic statistics are exagger.
ated. The editor of the directory, Jo-
seph H. Meier, who has compiled the
past 10 issues of "The Official Catholic
Directory" claims that instead Of
being overestimated the Catholic sta
tistics are underestimated and that the
figure 16,309,310 is very conservative.
According to Mr.. Meier at least 10 per
cent ought to be added for floating"
Catholic population of which no record
can be kept.
The population statistics are always
the most important feature showing
as they do the strides made by the
Catholic church in this country. Look
ing back ten years it is found by COM
pairing the Directory Of 1905 with the
issue for 1915 that there has been an
increase of 3.846,517 in the number of
Catholics. Going back twenty years
it is seen that there has been an in
crease of 7,231,445 during the rast
two decades.
The Official Catholic Directory bris-
ties with interesting facts and figures
and looking over the advance sheets
OF 1915 issue It is found that there
are 1894 Catholic clergymen in the
United States. OF these 14,00S are
secular clergymen and 1896 are
priests of religious orders. The in.
crease in the number of priests dur.
ing the past year is shown to be 426.
Looking over the list of churches one
finds that there have been 80 Catholic
churches established during the past
year. At the present time there are
14,961 Catholic ediflces in this coun.
try. There are 1888 churches with
resident priests and 5,07S churches
without resident priests, or in other
words, mission churches attended by q
neighboring pastor.
The Official Catholic Directory fur
ther shows that there are eighty-f1ve
ecclesiastical seminaries located in the
United States with 6,770 young men
studying for the priesthood. There
are 229 colleges for boys and $50 acad
emies for girls. Furthermore, there
are 2S4 Catholic orphan asylums with
45,742 orphans therein.
Another interesting feature of the
Directory is that part relating to the
parochial schools. The 1915 volume
shows that there are 5,4SS parishes
with parochial. schools and in these
parochial schools there are 1,456,2O
children enrolled.
The Directory editor has prepared
for the Catholic press a list of those
states having large number of Cath
olics. The thirty banner states are al
follows: