The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-01-19
Status of the Colored Race
RT. REV. MGR. BURKE MAKES
APPEAL FOR SPIRITUAL CARE
OF NEGRO-FIVE MILLIONS UN-
BAPTIZED EXCEPTIONAL DIFF
FACULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN
THE SOUTH IN BRINGING THE
2 coLoRED FOLKS INTO THE
CHURCH..

There is no man in America better
informed on the condition of the negro
than the Rt. Rev. Mgr. John E. Burke,
head of the Missionary Bureau for Col
ored People. In recent interview
Mgr. Burke disclosed interesting facts
particularly concerning the spiritual
status of the negro race. You may ask,
said he, how many colored people are
there in the United States. The last
census, 1910, gave nine millions, nine
hundred and some odd thousands
practically ten millions. During the
past decade the negro population has
increased twelve per cent There are
not more than two hundred thousand
who are Catholics.
Worse than that, there are fully five
millions of unbaptized men, women
and children of the colored race here
in the United States, and an article
in the Catholic Encyclopedia, recently
published, states that there are six
millions of unbaptized negroes in the
United States. But we will put it at
five millions-as many as there are
inhabitants of greater New York
New York is a great city. I come
from New York. BY one million
there are more unbaptized negroes
than there are inhabitants of Ireland
| just to give you a notion. The mum.
Der of Catholics among them, I told
you was about two hundred thousand
1t is hard to get true statistics;
there is a great deal of guess-work
about it.
In most of Louisiana, Maryland, and
along the Gulf and in Illinois, thou.
sands have left the Catholic Faith
The Bishop of New Orleans, in 1885
stated that many thousands of colored
Catholics have been lost to the
Church. The leakage has been very
great, though many are getting tired OF
Professionalism and are returning. The
work in Louisiana is to bring them
back, and few conversions are made
The Protestant high schools have won
very many from the Church; Ou1
schools couldn't compete very well.
How are the negro Catholics cared
for in the way of priests? Also in
| the giving of Missions? In the so
called colored Catholic churches, sci
apart for the colored people, they are
more or less we'll cared for, according
| to the ability of the priest in charge
and according to the degree of inter
est which he, as a white man, takes in
| his colored charges.
In the ordinary Catholic churches
of the North the colored people are
well cared for, but in the ordinary
churches in the South; this is the
situation: Where the colored Catho
lies in the South are sufficiently nu
merous they are given a side aisle fol
themselves or placed in the back part
of the church or up in the gallery
That is the method ordinarily adopted
in the South.
/ AS for the care they receive, if we
judge by the number of people falling
away since the Civil War, we must
realize that they never have beer
| spoiled by too much care. This is due
in large measure to existing social
conditions before which the Catholic
Church in the South, on account of its
small numbers, seems to be pOWerless
Up to seven or eight years ago the
Josephites had the field all to them
selves, but now we have three organi
cations working for the colored people
of the South. The Fathers of the
Divine Word are doing wonderful work
in Mississippi and in Arkansas.
How many have been received into
the Church by way of conversion? NY
calculation is that there have beer
about ten thousand conversions. Re
suits are being obtained by those il
| the field, but taking the situation as q
! whole, believe thai we are and have
been losing more tt :: gaining in the
j different localities. We are slowly
gaining where separate churches have
been established, but we are losing
in the churches in the South where
both white and colored people go tc