Catholics Lead

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 25, 22 June 1905, Page 2

Catholics Lead

In the United States, as in Canada, the Catholic Churtoh is the greatest and most active of all religious bodies. It will, perhaps be news to some of our readers to learn that one-third of the entire population of New York profess the Ancient Faith. Here are the latest figures in 'point, which have been compiled by a non-Catholic organisation known as the Federation of 'the Churches. That organisation has, says the Milwaukee ' Catholic Citizen ' of May 6, ' gained a reputa-

tion for remarkable thoroughness and accuracy in the gathering of social and religious statistics of New York, and, where these cannot be scoured precisely, for the i& telligence and fairness with which its estimates on tW( subject are made. The last number "of its official publicatiom, the Federation, estimates that the population of New York last year was 3,945,907. Another estimate of the Federation distributes this population, as to religion, thus :—: —

'Of the Protestant communions in New York, the largest are these :— Episcopal 69,849 Lutncran 47,006 Presbyterian 44,461 Methodist Episcopal 42,373 Baptist 37,449 Congregational 18,644

I Roman Catholic 1,300,000 Russian Ortho&ox 1,500 Greek Orthodox 1,500 Armenian Apostolic 900 Jewish 725,000 Additional Protestant Attendants 497,547 Protestant Communicants 331,698 2hurchless Protestants 1,987,762 Per cent 32.9 18.4 12.6 8.4 27.6 t. 3,945,907 99.9