Volume 2 — Translated from the Civiltà Cattolica. THE RELIGIOUS STATISTICS OF THE WORLD.
Reading edition
1. NUMBER OF CATHOLICS IN FIVE DIVISIONS OF THE WORLD.
2. CLASSIFICATION OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH AFTER THE DIFFERENT RELIGIONS.
3. PROGRESS OF CATHOLICITY IN GREAT BRITAIN.
4. IN HOLLAND.
5. IN THE UNITED STATES.
6. MISSIONS OF ASIA.
7. ITALIAN MISSIONARIES.
I. Let us, at first, take a comprehensive view of the number of Catholics scattered over the globe. In this very year some writers have limited their number to one hundred and fifty millions, with the remark that the figure is rather above a real census. Mr. Balbi, a writer of fame in statistics and in geography, gave, as far back as 1827, in his work published in Paris, his own estimate of the various populations of the world, classifying them under the heading of Religions Professed; and, according to his calculations, he allotted to the Catholic Church only one hundred and thirty nine millions(139,000,000), his figures exceeding those of many geographers who had preceded him. The eleven millions by some authors allowed this day to the Catholic denomination, are rather a restitution than an augmentation. The former reckoning was a mistake, and new statistics, when accurately put together, have exhibited a far larger number both of inhabitants and of Catholics. But we still take this restitution as very inadequate. From an accurate investigation of the matter, we aver that the minimum of Catholics, over the world, amounts to two hundred millions (200,000,000). To afford the reader the means of testing the accuracy of our opinion, we shall here give the number of Catholics found in the different states of every part of the world. We have taken for our guide official statistics, either civil or ecclesiastical, whenever we could obtain them, or, otherwise, statements of modern geographers and of most trustworthy national writers. We have only omitted such fractions which were under five hundred (500); but when they were above the half thousandth we have set them down at one thousand. Thereby, in a computation, which cannot be but approximate, omissions will counterbalance the additions, and the final result will not undergo any material change. Let it, moreover, be borne in mind that we have not been actuated by any desire to attain large figures. We have only aimed at fixing the surest, or, at least, the most probable amount. Thus, for example, we have accepted only six hundred and ninety thousand (690,000) Catholics for the Portuguese possessions in Africa, although national authors, by no means exaggerating, have reckoned them at two millions.
With such preamble, here is the result of our investigations:
NUMBER OF CATHOLICS.
I. EUROPE.
Papal States 900,000
Two Sicilies 9,500,000
Tuscany 1,900,000
Sardinian States and Lombardy 7,700,000
Modena 660,000
Parma 560,000
Monaco and San-Marino 10,000
Spain 17,000,000
Portugal 4,300,000
Andorra 12,000
Switzerland 1,120,000
Great Britain 7,500,000
France 36,000,000
Carried forward 89,462,000
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Brought forward 89,462,000
Belgium 4,800,000
Netherlands 1,300,000
Austrian Empire 30,000,000
Bavaria 3,500,000
Prussia 7,000,000
Baden 960,000
Brunswick 6,000
Bremen 5,000
Frankfort 12,000
Hamburg 8,000
Grand Duchy of Heese 240,000
Hesse Electoral 200,000
Würtemberg 580,000
Mecklenburg-Schwerin + Mecklenburg-Strelitz 4,000
Nassau 226,000
Oldenburg 86,000
Lesser Duchies of
Sachsen-Weimar,
Sachsen-Coburg,
Sachsen-Altenburg, etc. 60,000
Lubeck 3,000
Hanover 256,000
Luxemburg 209,000
Saxony 65,000
Denmark 5,000
Sweden and Norway 7,000
Poland 4,000,000
Russia 3,000,000
European Turkey and Montenegro 1,000,000
Greece 100,000
Catholic population in Europe 147,194,000
H. ASIA AND OCEANIA.
Asiatic Turkey 600,000
Moldavia and Wallachia 130,000
Asiatic Russia 100,000
British India 1,100,000
Netherland India 25,000
French India 170,000
Portuguese India, Islands, and Macao 546,000
Spanish India and Philippine Islands 4,750,000
Persia 120,000
Anam 600,000
Siam 25,000
China 1,000,000
New Holland 300,000
Tasmania 40,000
New Zealand 60,000
New Caledonia and adjoining islands 70,000
Sandwich Islands 80,000
Catholic population in Asia and Oceania 9,666,000
III. AFRICA.
Egypt 172,000
Abyssinia 2,000,000
Tripoli, Tunis, and Morocco 30,000
Spanish Possessions 25,000
Canaries 260,000
Portuguese Possessions 690,000
Madeira and islands 260,000
Continental French Possessions 250,000
Reunion and other islands 180,000
Continental British Possessions 30,000
Mauritius and other islands 150,000
Liberia 4,000
Madagascar 10,000
Gallas 10,000
Catholic population in Africa 4,071,000
IV. AMERICA.
United States 5,000,000
Mexico 8,500,000
Guatemala 1,200,000
San Salvador 700,000
Honduras 400,000
Nicaragua 500,000
Costa Rica + Panama 200,000
New Granada 3,000,000
Venezuela 2,000,000
Ecuador 1,500,000
Bolivia 2,200,000
Peru 2,800,000
Chili 1,800,000
Argentine Republic 1,500,000
Paraguay 1,600,000
Uruguay 360,000
Brazil 3,500,000
British Guiana 60,000
Netherland Guiana and Islands 40,000
French Guiana and Islands 305,000
Jamaica, Trinidad, and other British Isles 150,000
Spanish Islands 2,260,000
Danish Islands 34,000
Canada and British Possessions 1,560,000
Hayti 800,000
Catholic population in America 46,970,000
RECAPITULATION.
I. Catholic population in Europe 147,194,000
II. Catholic population In Asia and Oceania 9,666,000
III. Catholic population in Africa 4,071,000
IV. Catholic population in America 46,930,000
Catholic population in the four parts of the globe 207,801,000
Thus we reach the sum of nearly two hundred and eight millions; nor do we fear exaggeration in the number. But were even some one reluctant to accept our results, such attenuating doubts could never diminish our total beyond eight millions. Thus when we asserted that there are two hundred millions of Catholics in the world, we gave a figure far under our calculations, in order to place it above all doubt.
II. We will now exhibit, in very simple tables, the grand division of the inhabitants of the world, according to the different religious creeds:
Christianity 344,000,000
Catholic Church 208,000,000
Eastern Churches, schismatic or heretical 70,000,000
Protestantism 66,000,000
Total 344,000,000
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Judaism 4,000,000
Islamism 100,000,000
Brahminism 60,000,000
Buddhism 180,000,000
Worship of Confucius, Sinto, of Spirits, etc. 152,000,000
Total of inhabitants of the world 840,000,000
These results are not from data as certain as those which we were enabled to obtain for the Catholic Church; yet they are founded on great probability. There is a remarkable increase in all, owing to the fact that more reliable researches have given a larger number of inhabitants on the globe.
Let us now compare our own results with those of the most celebrated geographers. Malte-Brun wrote in 1810, Pinkerton and Balbi in 1827, and yet, although so near to one another, they are not of one accord as to the inhabitants of the earth, and consequently they do not agree in their divisions. More recent geographers admit a number far larger than that allowed by Balbi, and seem to hesitate between eight hundred and a thousand millions. We are of opinion that the grand total cannot, with any good reason, be reckoned beyond eight hundred and forty millions (840,000,000); at the same time it cannot be set at any figure much below it. The following figures represent millions:
Malte-BrunPinkerton.Balbi.Civ. Catt's.
Christianity 228 235 260 344
Judaism 5 5 4 4
Islamism 110 120 96 100
Brahminism 60 60 60 60
Buddhism 150 108 170 180
Other creeds 100 100 147 152
Total 653 700 737 840
III. A glance at some particular countries will show how much the Catholic Church has gained in numbers and influence within a few years. Let us begin from two Protestant countries in Europe.
The "Catholic Directory," annually issued in England for the last hundred years, will, by comparing a few data, exhibit the progress of Catholicity in Great Britain's most Protestant sections—we mean England and Scotland. We limit ourselves to the official returns given within the last nine years. We mass them in two tables, which will place our assertion upon the strongest basis of truth. The first will show that in these two kingdoms, so totally averse to Catholicity—nay, intensely hostile to it—England and Scotland, the number of clergymen has increased, within twenty-five years, at the rate of 137 per centum; that of churches 30; religious houses for men 222, for women 105. The second table will give the same numbers, but divided in the various dioceses, in varied ratio indeed, but everywhere with the same tokens of increase:
GENERAL STATISTICS OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.
Years Clergymen Churches & Chapels Religious Men Religious WomenColleges
1856 1142 849 17 91 12
1857 1162 894 23 106 11
1858 1204 902 27 109 11
1859 1222 926 34 110 11
1860 1236 950 37 123 12
1861 1342 993 47 155 12
1862 1388 1019 50 162 12
1863 1417 1065 55 177 12
1864 1445 1098 56 186 12
But if we draw our figures from earlier dates, the comparison will be even more striking. Behold the result within the last twenty-five years:
Years Clergymen Churches & Chapels Relig Men Relig WomenColleges
1839 610 513 0 17 10
1849 897 612 13 41 10
1864 1445 1098 56 186 12
Limiting our researches only to England, we find the increase within eight years, between 1856 and 1864, stated in the official returns of the several dioceses, at the following rates:
Churches Clergyman Convents Monasteries
Dioceses 1856 1864 1856 1864 1856 1864 1856 1864
Westminster 56 117 129 214 5 15 18 31
Beverly 75 90 93 116 3 6 7 19
Birmingham 96 100 132 141 3 3 19 27
Clifton. 37 49 50 62 2 3 5 13
Hexham 63 81 72 99 — 1 4 11
Liverpool 94 110 166 195 2 5 12 25
Newport 35 42 29 47 — 3 3 6
Northampton 30 36 25 31 — — 2 5
Nottingham 42 52 47 59 3 5 5 5
Plymouth 26 35 28 34 — — 3 8
Salford 47 70 72 107 1 5 9 14
Shrewsbury 53 59 52 71 1 3 3 7
Southwark 79 100 90 147 3 9 10 15
Total 730 941 985 1321 23 58 100 187
-730 -985 -23 -100
Increase 211 336 35 87
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IV. Let us now step over to the Continent, and investigate the increase of Catholicity in a province where Protestantism has had it all its own way since the beginning of the Reformation—we allude to Holland. To understand the progressive development of Catholicity in the Low Countries, we need only compare the figures of two years, with an interval of half a century intervening between them:
Years Catholic population Parishes Clergyman Churches
1864 1,300,000 941 1725 976
1814 850,000 814 1216 898
Increase in 50 years 450,000 127 310 78
The amount expended in repairing the old and building new churches is reckoned, during this lapse of time, at thirty millions of Dutch florins, a little more than sixty-four millions of francs [over $18,560,000—Ed. CW.] All that government has contributed of its own toward this sum amounts only to two millions of florins. In the above sum of thirty millions no account is taken of what has been expended in churches and chapels belonging to religious communities, or for convents, hospitals, charitable institutions, orphan asylums, and the like. Add to this what has been contributed for the endowments of those places, and the original sum of sixty-four millions of francs becomes well-nigh double its amount.
V. But nowhere has the Catholic Church increased so prosperously, within the last fifty years, as in the United States of America. Above two thousand churches and chapels built; an increase of one thousand and eight hundred clergymen; one hundred and sixty schools established, for the Catholic training of 18,000 boys and 34,600 girls. Moreover, there existed in 1857 sixty-six asylums, with 4,963 orphans of both sexes; twenty-six hospitals, with three thousand beds; four insane asylums, with eighty-two patients, beside many other charitable institutions, all established and supported by the private charity of Catholics. Here we copy a comparative table from the "Metropolitan Catholic Almanac" of 1857:
Year Dioceses Vicariates Apostolic Bishops Clergyman Churches & Stations Ecclesiastic Institutions Colleges Schools for Girls
1808 1 — 2 68 80 2 1 2
1830 11 — 10 232 230 9 6 20
1840 16 — 17 482 812 13 9 47
1850 27 — 27 1081 1578 29 17 91
1854 41 2 39 1574 2458 34 20 112
1857 41 2 39 1872 2882 35 29 134
1861 [Ed. Cath. World] 43 3 45 2317 3795 49 — —
VI. Canon Joseph Ortalda, in a work of great value, [Footnote 68] the result of much labor and accurate investigations, supplies us with two very interesting documents. One is a Synoptic Table of the missions in Asia, exhibiting both the number of Catholics in each mission and that of missionaries employed in them; a number, by the way, generally very inadequate, especially when we take into consideration the vast territories over which every mission is extended.
APOSTOLIC VICARATES MISSIONARIES CATHOLICS
Aleppo 25 80,000
Asia Minor 70 100,000
China and adjacent kingdoms:
Xensi 16 30,000
Xansi 12 20,000
Hu-pè, in the Hu-quang,
native missionaries, 14 11 15,865
Hu-nan, in the Hu-quang 7 10,000
Sut-chuen, North-west vicariate 15 23,000
Sut-chuen, Eastern Vicariate 12 17,000
Sut-chuen, Southern Vicariate 14 20,000
Konein-kon 7 10,000
Lassa 5 7,000
Jun-nan 6 8,000
To-chien 14 30,000
Nankin 36 73,000
Pekin, Western Vicariate 17 30,000
Pekin, Southwestern Vicariate 15 26,600
Pekin, Eastern Vicariate 12 13,000
Tse-Kiang 6 5,000
Kiang-si 8 10,000
Lenotung 9 11,000
Mongolia 8 10,000
Xan-tung 11 12,000
Ho-nan 6 5,000
Siam, Western Vicariate 12 10,000
Siam, Eastern Vicariate 20 30,000
Cochin, Eastern Vicariate 29 32,000
Cochin, Northern Vicariate 21 25,000
Cochin, Western Vicariate 19 30,000
Camboge, and the people of Laos 10 15,000
Tonchin, Eastern Vicariate 13 54,000
Tonchin, Western Vicariate 85 135,000
Tonchin, Southern Vicariate 49 80,000
Tonchin, Central Vicariate 62 150,000
Corea 12 15,000
East Indies:
Japan 10 12,060
Ava and Pegu 11 8,000
Bombay, South Mission 20 15,000
Bombay, North Mission 15 13,000
Bengal, Western Vicariate
(Calcutta) 12 15,000
Bengal, Eastern Vicariate 6 9,000
Ceylon—Colombo 18 84,900
Ceylon—Safnapatam 17 60,000
Madras 18 44,880
Hyderbad 7 4,000
Visagapatam 15 7,130
Pondicherry 53 100,000
Mayssour 16 17,110
Coimbatour 11 17,200
Sardhana 12 15,000
Agra 25 20,000
Patna 10 4,000
Verapolis—native priests,
Latin rite 28, Syriac 340 7 330,000
Canara, or Mangalor—
Native priests 24 7 40,000
Quilon—Native priests 17 8 50,000
Madura 37 140,000
APOSTOLIC DELEGATIONS
Persia, Mesopotamia,
Kurdistan, and Armenia Minor 30 25,000
Syria—Holy Land alone counts 54 28,986
APOSTOLIC PREFECTURES
Aden, in Arabia 3 1,300
Hong-Kong, in China 7 5000
Hai-noou, Quan-tong,
Quan-si, China 31 40,000
For the French colonies in India 12 7,000
For the Dutch colonies in
India and Oceania 7 1,000
Laboan and adjacent places 6 3,000
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VII. The chief object of Ortalda's work is to show how many missionaries Italy gives to the Catholic Church. He gives the name, the grade in the hierarchy, and the residence of each, adding such items of information as will aid him in the object he has in view. We draw from his laborious work the following table, which, by way of conclusion, gives the final result of all his researches:
Italian Apostolic Missionaries in Foreign Missions over the Whole World.
MISSIONARIES Europe Asia Africa America Oceania Total
Bishops 14 21 4 2 — 41
Secular priests 33 45 11 65 8 162
Benedictines 7 9 — 5 3 24
Minor Conventuals 9 2 — 2 — 13
Minor Observants 31 115 30 184 8 368
Minor Capuchins 369 108 35 130 5 447
Minor Reformed 60 58 29 67 1 215
Dominicans 22 11 — 1 — 34
Carmelites — 39 — — — 39
Augustinians 1 — — 1 — 2
Jesuits 106 118 46 207 13 490
Lazarists 8 22 9 12 — 51
Alcantarines — — — 1 — 1
Barnabites 24 12 3 10 8 57
Friars of St. Bonaventure 5 6 — — — 11
Redemptorists — — — — 3 3
Servite — — — — 1 1
Oblates — 16 — — — 16
Pallottines (of A. Pallotta) 2 — — — — 2
Rosminians 16 — — 4 — 20
From the Seminary of Milan 4 22 — — 3 29
From the seminary of Brignole Sale 17 6 — 5 — 23
529 610 167 696 53 2055