Priest-ridden or Parson-ridden ?

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 23, 8 June 1905, Page 4

Priest-ridden or Parson-ridden ?

Some time ago a writer in the Dublin ' Leader ' gave some figures presenting an interesting contrast between the number of priests and Protestant ministers in Ireland in proportion to the Catholic and non-Catholic population. The writer said — 'A9I am dealing with population, I may as well, once for all, get rid of a Pharisaical scandal which our critics take from what they call the awful army of priestsl in Ireland. There are 3542 priests in Ireland, for 3,301, 61611 Catholics; that is, one for every 934. And if we deduct members of religious Orders and priests engaged in teaching, there remain 2714 ; that is, one for every 1206.' That is the Catholic side of the contrast. Then comes the Protestant. ' Considering the cry they raise about the army of priests, and considering, moreover, that while a priest's* duty is every day and any hour of the day or night, the parson (Protesrtant clergyman) is wanted usually only for an hour or two on Sunday, one would be inclined to think that there are only a few scattered parsons to be found in the country. But what do I find ?' According to the " Irish (Protestant) Church Directory," there were 1724 parsons in Ireland in 1903 for 581,089 Protestants ; that is, one for every 331. Hence, setting aside all consideration as to hearing confessions and various other duties of the Catho-

lic Church which require proportionately many more* priests than parsons, if the priests in Ireland were proportionate to the actual number of parsons, they should be about 10,000 in all, and if the parsons were in proportion to the actual number of priests they should be about 600 in all. But they are 1724; and if we suppose that a 1000 of them arei married, and that each has a family of about fiVe, we have in all about 6000 inhabitants of the Protestant Episcopal palaces and of the glebe houses of Ireland. There are 800 Presbyterian ministers for 443, 276 Presbyterians— that is, one for every 584 ; there are 250 Methodist ministers for 62,000" Methodists— tha'u is, one for every 248. Let us set down 250 more ministers for other Protestant sects. And if'we count in the families of the married ministers, and add them to those of the other Bishops and parsons, we arrive at a grand total, of about 11,000 of the tribe ofl Levi, out of the 1,086,371 Protestants of all sorts in the country.' The United States. Let us now turn our attention to the United States anil consider the position there. For more than a century (says the l New World ' of Chicago) our separated fellow Christians— or perhaps it were more charit»able to say the intolerant ones among them — have used the catch phrase ' priest-ridden ' in their descriptions of Catholic countries. It is not very Christian, but what of that ? It is generally supposed to be effective, althougn we fear it may soon be retired in this country. Over in Ndw York a Methodist minister, the Rev. Dr. D. L. Leonard, has recently furnished the ' Christian Advocate ' a batch of statistics indicating the religious activity of 1904. It is true he rates Catholics too low, since the Catholic Directory shows 12.462,792 people of our faith in the country ; but possibly Dr. Leonard was as accurate as he could be. His table shows the church membership of the United States to be 30,313,311, out of a total of over 76,000,000, and this his summary : Catholics, 10,223,824, or .337 of all ; Methodists, 6,25&,738, or .206 ; Baptists, 5,150,815, or JfiO ; Lutheran, 1,789,766, or .054 ; Presbyterian, 1 697,6,97, or .030 ;t Disciples, 1,23"3,8G<5, or .040 ; Episcopalians, 807,924, or .026 ; Comgregationalist, 667,951, or .022 ; Reformed, 401,001, or .013 ; United Brethren, 273,200, or .009 ; German Evangelical Synod, 209,791, or .006 ; Evangelical, 164,709, or .0,05 ; Friends, 117/066, or .003 ; Dimkards, 114,194, or .003'; Christian Connection, 101, 5Q7, or .003 ; other Christian sects, 191,186. There are, moreover, 199,658 houses of worship and 151,113 clergymen. Here are. some significant figures compiled by Rev. Dr. Leonard :—: — Ay. Ay. Ministers. ChnrfhPH. Flock. Cons'. Methodiet... ... 3<> 997 58 530 156 106 Bapist ... ... 35 713 52 001 144 99 Lutheran... ... 7,471 13 094 250 136 Presbyterian ... 12H58 15 801 134 10? Disciples... ... 6,f>35 110K8 185 111 Episcopalian ... 5,139 7 005 155 115 OoDgregationalißt ... 6,127 5 979 108 111 Reformed... ... 1994 2 528 201 158 "United Brethren ... 2,385 4 483 114 61 Catholic ... ... 13,521 11,411 757 896 Just think of it ! According to their own showing (and we believe it" a mite too large) there are only 6,256,738 Methodists of all sorts in the country, and yet they have an army of 39,997 preachers, who, with their wives and children, must be supported by a^erage flocks of 156 people. Forty thousand preachers to six and a quarter million people, and only thirteen thousand five hundred priests to 10,263,824 Catholic people, or one priest to every 757 people. The fact, however, that there are 13,000 priests to 12,462,792 Catholic people puts a different showing on it. There is, in round rtumbers, one priest for each 900 people. If we deduct Orders like the Trappists ana* priests engaged in other work, there will be only one priest for each one thousand people. Tne Baptists, too, make a grand showing with one preacher to every 144 people. Think of their army of 35,713 preachers turned loose in 52,001 churches, each preacher having an average congregation of' ninety-nine people ! Is it not plain to every sane human being that our friends have altogether too many preachers and altogether too many churches ? It is morally wrong for them to eat up their poor people in that way. The Methodists and Baptists combined have only 11,407,253 people, or one million less than has the Catholic Church, yet oomihined they stand unblushingly before an eminently practical world with an army of 75,710 preachers, and in possession of a total of 110,531 churches. Verily, Rev. Dr. Leonard has made a revelation.