ROMAN CATHOLIC CHriK H. 





dioceses, 640,000 Catholics ; Holland, 6 dioce- 

 ses, 1,250,000 Catholics; Switzerland, 5 dioce- 

 ses, 1,023,000 Catholics; Greece, 5 bishoprics, 

 15,000 Catholics ; Scandinavia, 3 dioceses, 6,000 

 Catholics. 



The only country in Asia, in which the Ro- 

 man Catholic church prevails, is the Philip- 

 pine Isles. There is, however, a considerable 

 Roman Catholic population also in India 

 (1,033,000), Farther India (520,000), China 

 (337,000), and Turkey (260,000). In Farther 

 India, in consequence of the treaty of peace 

 concluded between France and Cochin China, 

 six provinces of the latter country have been 

 annexed to France, and are likely to become 

 ere long Catholic territory. 



In Africa the Catholic church has a strong- 

 hold in the Portuguese, Spanish, and French 

 possessions, in some of which the entire popu- 

 lation is connected with the church. France 

 is constantly extending her possessions in 

 Northern Africa, where now a territory of 

 7,107 geographical square miles, and a popula- 

 tion of 2,999,124: souls are under her rule, and 

 in Senegambia, where she owns a country of 

 about 5,000 geographical square miles and 

 252,000 inhabitants. 



During the years 1861 and 1862, seventeen 

 new dioceses have been established. Four 

 bishoprics have been organized in America, 

 viz., Marysville and Quincy in the United 

 States, Chatham in Xew Brunswick, and Puno 

 in Peru ; besides two apostolical vicariates, 

 that of the Rocky Mountains in the United 

 States, and Sandwich in British America. In 

 Europe, a new diocese has been organized in 

 Bulgaria (for the United Bulgarians), and the 

 apostolical vicariate, Stockholm, has been made 

 a bishopric. In Asia, episcopal sees have been 

 established at Madiat (for the United Syrians), 

 at Sebaste (for the United Armenians), and at 

 Su-tchuen in China. In Africa, an apostolical 

 prefecture has been established in Senegambia 

 and Zanguebar, and apostolical vicarships in 

 Madagascar and for central Africa. Congo has 

 been separated from Angola, and made a sep- 

 arate bishopric, and a mission has also been 

 commenced in Dahomey. 



The present number of secular priests is es- 

 timated at about 320,000, of whom about 2,800 

 belong to the United States, 115.000 to Italy, 

 50,000 to France, 31,800 to Spain, 30,000 to 

 Germany, 4,000 to the British Isles. There 

 were in 1862 about 8,000 male convents with 

 120,000 monks, the most numerous orders be- 

 ing the Franciscans (50,000), the brothers of 

 the Christian schools (16,000), the Jesuits 

 (8.000), Benedictines (5,000), Dominicans 

 (4,000), Augustines (4,000). The female re- 

 ligious orders had about 190,000 members, of 

 whom about 10,000 belonged to Xorth Amer- 

 ica, 10,000 to South America, 100,000 to France, 

 30,000 to Italy, 10,000 to Belgium. 



The most important event in the history of 

 the Roman Catholic church during the year 1862, 

 was the great council in Rome, to which all 



the Roman Cat: 

 been specially 



mary object of the council, a 

 circular by which UK- pr> 

 was solicited, was the canoi. 

 Japanese martyrs; but even b. 

 met. it was generally known that th 

 portant subject of deliberation v> 

 joint and solemn declaration of the a.--. 

 episcopate on the temporal pov. 

 The council was held on Sunday, June 8:: 

 Monday, June 9th. On Sunday the Japanese 

 martyrs were canonized in the most solemn 

 manner in the Basilica of St. Peter. Tlu 

 mony lasted 6 hours, and was attended by an 

 immense concourse of bi>' i peo- 



ple. On Monday, June 9th, the Pope held a 

 consistory at which all the foreign bishops were 

 present. He pronounced an allocution, in 

 which he deplored the errors spread by the 

 revolutionary spirit against the author! 

 the Catholic church, as well a~ .;vine 



and human laws. In reply to this allo. 

 the bishops signed an address to the Pope, in 

 which they declare that the temporal power is 

 necessary for the independence of the papal 

 power. They approve all that the Pope has 

 done in defence of his power, and exhort him 

 to continue firm in his resistance. The ai 

 is signed by 21 cardinals and two hundred and 

 forty-four bishops. An authentic history of 

 the proceedings of the council has not yet 

 been published, but a series of articles in a 

 daily newspaper of Paris, " La Patrie" which 

 claimed to give the minutest accounts of all the 

 proceedings, called out letters from the bishop 

 of Montanban and Cardinal "Wiseman, which 

 established at least some important points of 

 the history of the council. Prominent among 

 the great number of bishops were Cardinal 

 "Wiseman and Bishop Dupanloup of Orleans. 

 The bishops did not appoint tlu Com- 



mittee for preparing an address to the Pope, 

 because as the bishop of Montatiban says. " no 

 one had the right of taking the initiative in 

 such a grave question'' and the Pope was there- 

 fore asked to designate the members of the com- 

 mittee. The committee consisted of eighteen 

 members, and the great Roman Catholic na- 

 tions, Spain. France, Italy. Austria, were each 

 represented by one archbishop and one bishop. 

 Cardinal "Wiseman was selected as president, 

 in order to avoid a jealousy of these four ( 

 olio nations against each other. One of the 

 most active and prominent members of the 

 committee was Bishop Dupanlonp of Orleans. 

 The address, before its adoption, underwent 

 several changes. A vote of thanks to the 

 French Government for its support of the tem- 

 poral power was proposed, but rejected at tho 

 demand of the non-French bishops. 

 as the "Za Pat rie '" had asserted, a passage 

 vor of liberalism was proposed, the bish 

 Montauban says he does not know, but considers 

 it probable. u as the liberal princi; pre- 



sented at Rome by a certain number of foreign 



