The Church in the United States

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 43, 27 October 1904, Page 5

The Church in the United States

Mojnsignor (Jahnels, Bishop of Ogdons'burg in the United States, sends an interesting article to a Belgian paper on the piogiess of the Catholic Church in the I nitcd States. The tacts he gives prove the marvellous workings of Providence, tor, at the very moment when religious pen sccution is unchained in France, our attention is forcibly drawn to the conquests of faith in continents where a century ago it was scarcely known.. It was in 1789 that Pius VI. created the first diocese in Maiylanu, when a Jesuit Father, one John Carroll, who had been ordained in England, was made Bishop of Baltimore. The extension of the Catholic religion coincided with the increase ot the population of the United States. At the end of the eighteenth century the CaWiohcs there wore not more than 1 per cent, of the population ; in l£so they already numbered 1,700,000 out of a population of 25,000,000, or nearly 1 in 13' inhabitants. To-day t/hcy number 14,000,000 out of 79,0(10,0(10, or about 1 in 5.50. The Catholic episcopate and clergy have increased in (ho same proportions. In 1808 there were only 5 bishoprics and dioceses ; in less than a hundred years tihe^lq have miultiphod till they have reached the presemt figuro of 1 I Archbishoprics, 72 Bishoprics, and 3 Vicari-atc-Apostolics, administered by a Cardinal-Archbishop and Bishops, while the 30 priests of 1785 have reached a total of 13,267, of whom 3330 belong to various religious Orders. Mon.sign'Oir (Jabnels examines into the causes of this magnificent spread of Catholicism in the United States, and iinds that it is attributable to the religious liberty that all enjoy there ; to the superior birth-rate of Catholic families as (compared with that of Protestant ones ; to emigration from Europe ; and last but not least to the thousands of conversions which add every year to the number of tlie faithful. The principal obstacles to tihe propagation of tho Faith are, he thinks, the insufficient number of priests, sichools, churches, the neutral teaching in the State schools, mixed marriages, divorces, and the intrigues of I'ho various Protostant societies formed t,o work against the Catholic Church, and more especially to Freemasonry, which numbers innumerable adepts in the United States. Nevertheless, Cat/holic zeal shows itself in the multiplication of schools, which already count over 4000, with 1,000,000 scholars ; unfortunately, however, this list is inadequate to the necessities of the people. The Bishop of Ogdensburg pays homage to tihe zeal of the clergy for the propagation of the Faith in the vast American Republic, especially to the Paulist Fathers, who have organised special missions to non-Catholics, and have founded an institute at Washington for the education of missionaries. He also speaks in terms ot hiMi praise of the admirable way in &A'fiioh> the people fulfil the duty of supporting their clergy, schools, and churches ; and amongst other benefactors, -whose genegonerosity knows 1 no bc'unds, he cites the name of the

Rev. Mother Catherine Drexel, foundress and Superioress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who has consecrated her fortune of 40,000,000 dollars to charitable works, and more especially to the progress of civilisation amongst the negroes What atn eloquent reply aie these facts to the attacks of the free-thinking press, whilQh tells its readers every day that Catholic Faith is dead and dogma on the e\e of disappearing fiom the earth.