Catholic Growth on the Continent.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 28, 10 July 1902, Page 2

Catholic Growth on the Continent.

Under the heading ' Romanism on the Continent,' the Christian Outlook — the official organ of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches in this Colony — published in a recent issue a paragraph purporting to show that Catholicism on the Continent is undergoing a process of steady but quite perceptible decline. The paragraph, which would appear to be going the round of the Protestant exchanges, is as follows : ' Roman Catholicism is said to be on the decline in some of its Continental strongholds. The Kolnische Zeitung has just published some interesting statistics on the subject, according to which in Germany alone during the year 1890, 3105 Germans left the Church of Rome and became Protestants, while 554 Protestants went over to Rome. In 1899 no fewer than 5549 Catholics became Protestants, and 600 Protestants Catholics. In Austria, also, Protestantism is growing, and in 1899 Luthernism added 6492 converts to its numbers, while 785 Lutherans turned Roman Catholics.'

It seems a pity to shatter so pleasing a delusion, but the fact is that the boot is on quite the other foot and Protestantism on the Continent, and especially in Germany, the ' cradle of the Reformation,' is in a condition which Protestant writers themselves describe as ' both unwelcome and alarming.' Here are full particulars on the point, given in an article quoted by the New York Freeman from the Evangelist, a Presbyterian journal: 'The figures in Pieper's Kirchhsche Statktik showing the per cent, of increase of the Protestant and Catholic confessions (in Germany) from December, IS7I, to 1895, reveal a condition of things both unwelcome and alarming from the Protestant point of view. Piussia contains nearly two-thirds of the entire population of the Empire, and in many of its separate provinces and large cities has been long considered the seat of the Protestant strength, but the increase of the Catholics during the period of 24 years has been 6 per cent, greater than that of the Evangelicals. For the same space of time the Kingdom of Saxony, which so warmly espoused the movement of Luther, shows nearly a fourfold increase for the Catholics and Hesse, the brave defender of the Reformation, manifests an advance of about one and a half times in the same direction. In Bavaria, in Wurtemburg and in Baden, it is relatively less both in numbers and in significance. The large evangelical excess in Elsass- Lorraine (comparatively a small State) is due to the removal of the non-Piotestant elements o! the popuhtion after it had been made a part of the German Empire ; to the presence of one of the army corps drawn mostly from northern Germany, and to immigration from various parts of the Empire. Pieper finds the chief cause of the Catholic increase in Prussia in emigration. The large percentage of those who emigrate from Prussia are Protestants, while in the eastern portion of the kingdom there is a large and constant inpouring from Catholic Poland. To know the cause of these facts, however, will not change them. Catholicism has been gaining on Protestantism in both Prussia and Saxony for a generation with no sign of abating at a rate that w<_ll may awaken alaim in Protestant circles. Unless there is a diminution in Catholic increase in strength and numbeis at sti.itegic points, the great Chancellor's successors in office will probibly be compelled to go much further toward Canossa than he went. 1 These facts, given on the testimony ot Protestants themselves, go to show that Catholicism in Central Europe was never more vigorous and flourishing than it is to day.