680 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



Vicariates Apostolic. North Carolina, Idaho, 

 Colorado, and Montana, 



The Roman Catholic Church in the United 

 States, with these new additions, has now 53 

 dioceses, and 7 vicariates apostolic. 



In Great Britain, according to the London 

 Catholic Directory for 1808, there are one 

 archbishop and twelve bishops (besides three 

 retired bishops), and four vicars apostolic in 

 Scotland. The number' of priests in Great 

 Britain amounts to 1,639, against 1,608 last 

 year ; the number of churches and chapels are 

 1,283, against 1,207 when the last Directory 

 was published ; the convents of women are 

 now 227 in number, whereas last year there 

 were 220 ; and lastly, the monasteries number 

 67, against 63 last year. Total increase, 31 

 priests, 76 churches and chapels, 7 convents of 

 women, and 4 monasteries of men. In the 

 convents or religious houses of women, the 

 increase has been very great during the last 

 few years, but it has been altogether, Avith a 

 few exceptions, among the non-cloistered or 

 active orders, such as Sisters of Charity, Sis- 

 ters of Mercy, and the like. The cloistered, or 

 contemplative orders, hardly seem to increase 

 at all, or very slightly ; but for nuns to conduct 

 schools of the upper and middle classes, as well 

 as to superintend poor-schools, houses of refuge, 

 and the like, the demand is far greater than the 

 supply. The following is a summary of Catho- 

 lic statistics for England, Scotland, and Wales, 

 during the last three years : 



The number of colleges and large preparatory 

 schools are 21. Of these, 3 Ushaw, near Dur- 

 ham, Oscott, near Birmingham, and Old Hall, 

 near Ware are especially under the bishops ; 

 Stonyhurst, in Lancashire, Mount St. Mary's, 

 near Chesterfield, and Beaumont Lodge, near 

 Windsor, are the property of the Jesuits. Am- 

 pleforth, in Yorkshire, and Downside, near 

 Bath, are under the Benedictines. The Ora- 

 tory at Edgbaston (Dr. Newman's school) be- 

 longs to the Oratorians. Rat-cliff College, near 

 Leicester, belongs to the Fathers of Charity. 

 St. Charles, Bayswater, is directed by the 

 Oblates of St. Charles ; and Sicklinghall, near 

 Wetherby, is under the Obla.tes of Mary. Of 

 the 227 convents, upward of 200 are for the 

 education of girls, either rich, poor, or middle 

 class. Altogether the Catholic prelates, whose 

 sees or districts are in the British empire, 

 amount to 110 namely, 9 archbishops, 69 

 bishops, and 32 vicars apostolic. Of the 9 

 archbishops, 1 has his see in England, 4 in 

 Ireland, 2 in Canada, 1 in the West Indies 

 (Trinidad), and 1 in Australia. The 69 bishops 

 include 12 in England, 24 in Ireland, 1 at 

 Malta, 1 at Gibraltar, 17 in North America, 1 

 in the West Indies (Island of Dominica), 1 in 



the Mauritius, 10 in Australia, and 2 in New 

 Zealand. The 39 vicars apostolic include 4 in 

 Scotland, 2 in North America, 2 in the West 

 Indies, 3 in the Cape Colony, 1 at Sierra Leone, 

 and 20 in the East Indies. 



The Government of France, in January, 

 raised the See of Algiers to an archbishopric, 

 and created suffragan dioceses at Constantino 

 and Oran. Algeria has now a European 

 mostly Catholic population of 230,000. 



Catholic " congresses," or free gatherings of 

 Roman Catholics, especially of delegates from 

 religious and benevolent associations, for dis- 

 cussing questions of general interest, were held 

 in Belgium (at Malines), in Germany (at Inn- 

 spruck), in Switzerland, and by the German 

 Catholics of the United States. 



In Holland there were, in 1864, 1,280,062 

 Catholics, which is 50,000 more than in 1860; 

 and 1,861 priests, who are stationed at 1,069 

 churches and chapels. The number of students 

 at the seminaries amounts to 1,123, being 160 

 more than in 1860. There are to be found 

 Franciscans, Capuchins, Dominicans, Jesuits, 

 Augustinians, Premonstratenses, and Redemp- 

 torists, besides two or three congregations of 

 Brothers of Christian Schools, etc. Among 

 the religious women may be mentioned the 

 Sisters of Love, amounting to more than 1,000; 

 the Ursulines, the Ladies of Amersfourt, and 

 the Sisters of the Angels. The two last-men- 

 tioned, as well as the Ursulines, have boarding- 

 schools. The Ladies of the Sacred Heart have 

 only one boarding-school, at Vaals, in Lirn- 

 burg. The newspapers say that more than sis 

 hundred young people have entered the mili- 

 tary service of the Pope. In 1866 the leading 

 Catholic newspaper, the Tyd, collected and 

 forwarded to the Pope about 400,000 francs as 

 a New- Year's gift. 



The efforts of the Italian Government to 

 prepare the way for a reconciliation witli the 

 Pope, utterly failed. The law passed by the 

 Italian Parliament and sanctioned by the King, 

 for the sale of Church property (see ITALY), was 

 severely denounced by the Pope in an allocu- 

 tion, in which he says : 



The Catholic world is well aware how many times 

 we have had to deplore and reprove the grievous 

 wrongs and grave injuries the Subalpine Government 

 has, in defiance of all divine and human Tights, and 

 without regard to ecclesiastical censures and penal- 

 ties, inflicted for a number of years on the Catholic 

 Church, on us, and this Apostolic See, on the bish- 

 ops, on the consecrated ministers, on the religious 

 orders of both sexes, and on other pious institutions. 

 That same government does not only oppress and 

 continually reduce the Church by issuing orders 

 which we "have condemned for being contrary to the 

 authority of this Church, but it has gone so far in its 

 acts of injustice as to dare to propose, approve, sanc- 

 tion, and promulgate a sacrilegious law, which has 

 within its own territory ys well as the one usurped by 

 it, deprived the Church of all its property, to the 

 great detriment of civil society, and has appropriated 

 it for its own use, and ordered the sale of the 

 same. It must be clear to everybody how unjust and 

 cruel is a law which defies the inviolable rig] it of 

 property which the Church claims by virtue of its 

 divine institution, a law which tramples on the rights 



