The Irish standard., 1916-04-22
generosity Of GERMAN AND
AUSTRIAN CATHOLICS GREAT
AID TO CHURCH N AMERICA
p, A Large Percentage Of Philadelphia
Catholics German.

A Large Percentage Of Philadelphia
Catholics German.
In short time shall have the hon
or of sending to the esteemed director
general of the Leopoldine Association
complete account of my diocese. For
the present l give the following de-
tails: The State of Pennsylvania, Del
aware and a part Of New Jersey COM
prise the present diocese of Philadel-
phia. The entire Catholic population
of the diocese is about 100000, and of
this number over $4,000 are in the city
Of Philadelphia. The number of
churches already built is so,
and of priests in the entire do
cese, SO. Both are unfortunately too
few for the spiritual needs of the Cath
Ollie population, which increases daily,
large percentage of which is Of Ger
man descent The SO priests are the
following: Six Jesuits, namely, Ger
mans (Kohlmann and Betschter), l
Pole (Corvin), / Flemish (Lekeu), 2
Irish (Carlhy and Dougherty), 1 Fran
ciscan (Father Bonaventure Maguire),
2 Augustinians IN. Hurley and N.
O'DonnelD, 20 Seculars, namely, 1
Russian (the Prince Gallitzin, who dur
ing thirty years has labored most
fruitfully in Cambria county for the
spread of Catholic doctrine), 1 Hol-
lander q. c. van den Braak), 2 French
men (Herard and Foulhouze), Portu-
guese (Tolentine de Silvia, 2 Ameri-
cans q. Stilliger and A. CarnelD, and,
finally, % Irish (Hughes, Kelly, Dona-
ghue, Rafferty,, O'Neill, Girr, O'Reilly,
Curtin, Heyden, Curran, Leavy, Fitz-
patrick, Keenon, Owen, Cosker, Kenny,
Clancy, Commiskey, Bradley, Gegan,
kindelon, Whelan).
Scarcity Of Priests.
Many of these Missionaries have
charge of whole counties, and some of
them, owing to the scarcity of priests,
have to attend to the spiritual inter-
ests Of several counties. This shows
how we'll the donations of the Leo
poldine Association are applied among
us.
Pray accept, gentlemen, the express
sion of my sincere gratitude and the
assurance of my profound respect with
which l am, ETC., etc.
M Do :o1,
Bishop of Arath and Coadjutor OF
Philadelphia.
The establishment of the Leopoldine
Association was hailed with joy by the
priests and people of this country, but
it was looked upon with suspicion by
many Professionals. The fact that the
highest political officials of powerful
Catholic nation of Europe, supposedly
antagonistic to our republican form of
government, were so intimately con.
nected with the association led to mis-
sivings in non-Catholic circles A Sc.
ries of letters, in fact denouncing the
| association were printed in the New
York observer" in 1884, and no less
a prominent American than Morse, in.
ventor of the telegraph system, wrote
pamphlet calling attention to the as
sociation as one of the imminent dan
gers to the free institutions of the
United States.
Donated Hundreds of Thousands of
Dollars.
During the past two years one of
the young students of the Catholic
University, the Rev. Raymond Payne,
OF the Louisville diocese, has been
studying the history and activity of
the Leopoldine Association, and the
result of his investigations will bring
many a surprise to his readers. There
is hardly diocese in the East which
has not profited abundantly from this
| source of German and Austrian Catho.
lie charity, and the sum total of the
contributions to the archdiocese of
Philadelphia alone amounts to hun.
dreds of thousands of dollars.