The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1942-12-09
Fl. ewis To Chicken coop" For Service
One OUT OF EVERY
43 NEGROES IS
CATHOLIC

in the United States and a survey
of the present condition of the
Colored Missions.) By John T..
Gillard, S. S. j., PHI. D., Balti-
more, Md. The Josephite Press,
1871, $500.
According to this survey there
are only 296,99S colored Catholics
in the United States, or 2.3 per
cent of the total population. In
the United States one out of every
ten persons is a Negro, yet only
one out of every 43 Negroes is a
Catholic, and one out of every
~ Catholics is a Negro.
Eighty-five (S5-percent) of the
Catholic Negroes are city dwell
lers. while half or more of all
other church members are rural
except in the Protestant Episcopal
Church where so per cent are ur-
ban jewellers. The Archdiocese of
New Orleans has more Negro
Catholics than any other; Balti-
more and Washington rank sec
ond and third and Chicago and
New York are next in order.
More Colored Catholics in South
According to DR.. Gillard, the
United States Census of Religious
Denominations, complied in 1925,
does not include in it's total mum
Der of Negro Catholics those who
belong to predominately white
congregations; therefore, it falls
about 46 per cent short of the &C
tual total.
There are 332 mission units
for colored Catholics, LOT of
these are resident missions with
one or more priests. Since the
bulk of colored Catholic are in
the South. naturally the major
part of the mission work is being
done in that section of the coun-
try.
OF the 296,99S colored Catho-
lies, 189,423, or 63.7 per cent
claim membership in their own
churches, the other 107,575 be-
long to white" or mixed"
churches. The average congrega-
tion of colored Catholics has a
membership of 564.
.4S6 Priests
There are 486 priests engaged
exclusively in catholic work for
Negroes. There are 23 living Ne
gro priests. The first Negro priest
in the United States was Augusta
Tolton who was born a slave at
Hannibal. Mo. Tolton studied at
the Propaganda College in Rome
were he was ordained in 1888.
He had the rare privilege of bap-
tizing his former master.
The backbone of the Catholic
Mission program for Negro edu-
cation is the teaching Nun. 1870
Sisters in seventy-two communi-
ties of Nuns are engaged exclu-
sively with colored work. Three
colored Sisterhoods have been
founded successfully. The only
clustered community of colored
nuns in the United States is the
Magdalen Sisters founded in Bal
timore in 1922, and consists of
fifteen Sisters.
Challenge In Problem
237 grade schools, 48 high
school and three colleges serve
the educational needs of Negro
catholics. Boarding Academies, in
dustrial and orphan homes are
also operated.
Twenty-Five social welfare cen
ters conduct settlement, welfare,
relief, social, recreational, cathe-
chetical, and vocational work for
Negroes under Catholic auspices.
An extensive program of race
relations is carried on and the
principal interracial agency in
the United States is the Catholic
Interarcial Council which pub
fishes Interracial Review.
The study gives answer to the
question "Why So Few Coolred
Catholics?" And the concluding
chapter sets up the position of the
Catholic Church and the ehallen-
ges which the church must face
in the socalled Negro problem