CATHOLIC CHURCH, Roman. Recent Growth and Statistics.— the Catholic Church contains within its fold 294,583,000 souls, or about 48 per cent of the entire Christian population of the globe. It is found in all continents and among all nations but is strongest in southern countries and among the Latin and Celtic races in Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Ireland and South America. Its his tory during the 19th century discloses the re markable fact that while it lost somewhat on its own ground, especially in France and Italy, these losses have been more than offset by the gains throughout the English-speaking world, especially in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australasia. In England the con version of Newman, Manning and others was the beginning of a movement which brought and still brings thousands into the Catholic Church.
Pope Pius IX took official cognizance of the movement by re-establishing the Roman Catholic hierarch)? in England in 1850. The growth of the Church in Holland led to a similar re-establishment of the hierarchy there in 1853. The Irish emigration to Scotland after 1847 led to a great increase in the number of Catholics in that country, where the Oxford movement also exerted considerable influence and in 1878, Leo XIII re-established the Catholic hierarchy there. Great and numerous, how ever, as were the gains in the Old World, they were greatly overshadowed by the vast growth and spread of the Church in the New and in the British dominions overseas. The Irish famine of 1846-47 caused millions to emigrate from that country to the British colonies and to the United States and to these emigrants and their descendants are to be ascribed the flourish ing condition of the Church to-day in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. In the United States the Church, in addition to the Irish immigrant, was reinforced also by immigration from Catholic Poland, and the Kulturkampf of the seventies in Germany caused great numbers of German Catholics to seek religious freedom in th:! Great Republic of the West. In later years Moravians, Copts, Rnthenians and Greeks have been added in ever increasing number to the Catholic forces in the United States. In Canada, the growth of the French-Canadian population, Irish immigration and the settlement of great numbers• of the Catholic Gaels of Scotland have placed the Church of the Dominion in a flourishing con dition. In Latin-America, the losses incurred during the breaking up of Spain's colonial em pire and the establishment of new autonomies have been repaired. The Church is well or
ganized in those countries and while it labors under annoying restrictions in some of the re publics, it is in the main at liberty to proceed in its work of evangelization. Millions of aborig ines have come within its fold and as of old its missionaries still labor on • the outposts of civilization.
We are thus face to face everywhere in the modern world with an organization stretching in unbroken succession back to the palmy days of heathen Rome; an organization which has outlived all the governments and dynasties of Europe, and is likely to see the end of the national groups as at present constituted. Its losses in the Old World it has recouped in the New; its vitality and energy are evidently un impaired; in general culture and intelligence it is the equal, while in eleemosynary and reform work in our complex modern social life it sur passes most other Christian denominations. It has a rich and remarkable history and still exer cises a greater power over the masses of the people than any other body of Christians. The 294,583,000 Roman Catholics in the world are distributed as follows: Europe, 183,760,000; Asia, 5,500,000; Africa, 2,500,000; North America, 50,000,000; South America, 44,623,000; Oceania, 8,203,000. The estimated number in the chief countries of Europe in 1918 was: Austria, 26,000,000; Hungary, 13,000,000; Bel gium, 7,000,000; Denmark, 9,821; France, 35, 0013,000; United Kingdom, 6,000,000; Greece, 35,000; Sweden, 2,378; Italy, 32,983,664; Nether lands, 2,053,021; Norway, 2,046; Portugal, 5, 597,985; Russia, 11467,994; Switzerland, 1,593, 538; Spain, 20,325,986; Germany, 24,000,000. In Egypt are 706,000 Copts who are in union with the See of Rome.
In 1918 there were 24,922,062 Catholics under the United States flag. Of these, 17,416,303 were in the United States proper, 7,285,458 in the Philippines and 1,072,495 in Alaska, the Canal Zone, Guam, American Samoa, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. There were 19,572 Catholic clergymen in the United States, • of whom 14,318 were secular clergy and 5,254 were members of religious orders. There were 10,058 Catholic churches with resi dent priests, 5,105 mission churches, 85 semi naries with 6,201 students preparing for the priesthood, 112 homes for the aged, 210 col leges for boys, 685 academies for girls and 5,588 parochial schools. In the parochial schools were enrolled 1,497,949 children. The Catholic orphan asylums number 283, with 48,089 orphans. See CHRISTIAN CHURCH, DIVISIONS AND STATISTICS OF THE