Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1915-03-13
Kentucky in Nineteenth Place
With Population OF
t7O.6O9.
Interesting Facts and Figures
From the OFFICIAL Catholic
Directory.
STRIDES MADE BY THE CHURCH

There are 16.3O9.310 Catholics in
the United States according to the
advance sheets OF the Official Cath
Ollie Directory published and copy
righted by p J. Kennedy d Sons. OF
New York. The 1915 edition will
appear nearly two months earlier
than did the 1914 volume. and the
publishers state that the present
years directory is in the hands OF
the binder and viii be ready for
mailing in a few days According TO
the Official Catholic Directory the
increase in the number of Catholics
during the year 1914 amounts to
24l,325 Forty-four dioeeses report
increases in the Catholic population.
forty archdiocese and dioceses made
no change in the population figure,
and fifteen dioceses show decreases.
although three Of the fifteen show
ing decreases have given up territory
for the establishment Of the two
new dioceses OF El Paso and
Spokane.
statisticians quoting Catholic
statistics usually deduct 10 per cent.
for children and Infants, claiming
that only communicates should be
counted The Impression is created
therefore that Catholic statistics are
exaggerated The editor of the
directory, Joseph II Meier, who has
compiled the past ten issues of the
Official Catholic Directory. claims
that instead OF being over estimated
the Catholic statistics are under
estimated and that the figure
5000. $40 is very conservative. Ac-
cording to Meier at least 10 per
cent ought to be added for float
ing Catholic population OF which
no record can be kept The popula-
ton statistics are always the most
important feature, showing as they
do the strides made BY the CatholIc
church in this country Looking
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 s,S46.517 In the
number Of Catholics. Going back
twenty years Il is seen that there
has been an increase Of 7,23l.445
during the past two decades.
The Official Catholic DirectorS
bristles 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 thes,
l4,0OS are secular clergymen and
1886 are priests Of religious orders.
The increase in the number OF
priests during the past year is shown
to be 426. Looking over the list OF
churches one finds that there have
been $40 Catholic churches estab-
lished during the past year. At the
present time there are 1861 Cath
olic edifices In this country. There
are 9.SS3 churches without resident
priests, or In other words. mission
churches attended by nelghborins
pastor.
The Official Catholic Director,
further shows that there are eighty.
five ecclesiastical aeminaries located
In the United States with 6,770
young men studying for the priest
hood There are 229 colleges fol
boys and ESQ academies for girls
Furthermore. there are 2S4 Catholic
orphan asylums with 45,742 orphans
therein. Another interesting feature
OF the directory is that part relafing
to the parochiai schools. The 1e1l
volume shows that there are 5,48,
parishes with parochiai schools ans
In these parochiai schools there arr
a ,456 206 children enrolled
The directory editor has prepared
for The Catholic press list of those
States having q large number o