774 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



governments of England and France called the 

 attention of the Pekin authorities to the atroci- 

 ties, intimating that, if the Emperor's forces were 

 unable to cope with the offenders, they would 

 assume the offensive. 



In Japan, The vicarates apostolic into which 

 Japan was divided in 1890 were fully organized 

 into sees in 1891. 



In Africa. Every Catholic congregation in 

 the world contributed toward a special fund for 

 the Christianization of Africa on the feast of the 

 Epiphany (Jan. 6), as ordered by Leo XIII, in 

 his encyclical of Nov. 30, 1890. Seven hundred 

 priests attend to the spiritual wants of nearly 

 400,000 Catholics in the territory now being 

 opened up to commerce and civilization. Car- 

 dinal Lavigerie, who has direction of the mission 

 work, sent many additional " Crusaders " to the 

 assistance of those already in the field. 



Spain. At the beginning of February the 

 restoration of the Convent of Santa Maria la 

 Rabida, three miles from Palos, in which Chris- 

 topher Columbus and his son Diego found 

 shelter and the friendship of Padre Juan Perez, 

 after the futile mission to the court of King 

 John of Portugal, was commenced by the Span- 

 ish Government. It was announced that when 

 restored the edifice would be returned to the 

 Franciscan fathers, from whom it had been de- 

 spoiled. 



The Church in the United States. Several 

 new bishoprics were created, and a new see was 

 erected in this country in 1891. Rt. Rev. Bishop 

 Katzer was elevated to the archbishopric of 

 Milwaukee, and Rt. Rev. Richard Scanlan, D. D., 

 Bishop of Concordia, was transferred to the 

 diocese of Omaha, vacant by the death of Bishop 

 O'Connor. Rt. Rev. Bishop Hennessy, of Wichita, 

 became Administrator of Concordia. The vic- 

 arate of Utah is erected into a diocese with the 

 Rt. Rev. Laurence Scanlan, D. D., heretofore 

 vicar apostolic, as its first bishop ; Rev. Thomas 

 Brennan, of Driftwood, in the diocese of Erie, 

 Pa., has been chosen Bishop of Dallas, Texas. 

 The prefecture apostolic of the Indian Territory 

 has been raised to a vicarate apostolic, and Rt. 

 Rev. Theophile Meerschaert, of Natchez, made 

 vicar apostolic. Rev. Dr. John Brady, of Ames- 

 bury, Mass., has been consecrated Bishop of Ala- 

 bama in partibus, and coadjutor to Archbishop 

 Williams, of Boston ; and Rev. Dr. P. S. Chapelle, 

 pastor of St. Matthew's Church, Washington, D. 

 C., has been raised to the episcopacy and made 

 auxiliary Bishop of Santa Fe. 



Catholics and the Census. The United 

 States census gave the number of Catholic com- 

 municants at 6,250,045 in 10,231 congregations. 

 In this enumeration children who have not re- 

 ceived their first communion are not included, 

 so that the estimate of the entire Catholic popu- 

 lation may be set down as all the way from 10,- 

 000,000 to 12,000,000. Bishop Hogan, of Kansas 

 City, insists that the correct figure is 14,000,000. 

 The seating capacity of the edifices used for 

 church purposes is 3,435,793 ; and the Sunday 

 services vary from one to nine in each place. The 

 total value of the property held by the Church 

 .is $118,381,516. New York'has $9,000,000 of this; 

 Chicago, $6,457,064 ; Boston, $6,379,078 ; Brook- 

 lyn, $5,751,907; Newark, $4,297,482. The 22 

 dioceses which are credited with upward of 100,- 



000 communicants, respectively, are : Baltimore, 

 190,577; Boston, 407,536; Chicago, 324,632; 

 Cincinnati, 129,780; Milwaukee, 111,016; New 

 Orleans, 181,964 ; New York, 452,626 ; Oregon, 

 26,164; Philadelphia, 251,162; St. Louis, 121,- 

 621 ; St. Paul, 193,039 ; San Francisco, 112,180 ; 

 Santa Fe, 81,315; total, 2,583,612. The total 

 seating capacity of their churches is 1,143,336. 



The Cahensly Agitation. A remarkable 

 petition, signed by Herr Cahensly and a number 

 of European Catholics, was addressed to the 

 Vatican authorities in June. It called attention 

 to certain alleged derelictions as to Catholic emi- 

 grants on the part of the American hierarchy, 

 and particularly pointed out the necessity for 

 national bishops and priests in the United States. 

 The presentation of this memorial caused an 

 outburst of indignation in America at what was 

 considered a desire of foreigners to perpetuate 

 national distinctions and transfer national antag- 

 onisms, prejudices, and customs to the New 

 World to the disadvantage of the Church. The 

 American bishops took it as a reflection upon 

 themselves, and Cardinal Gibbons, as their 

 mouth-piece, indignantly denounced the me- 

 morial as an unwise interference with the natural 

 order of things, and an entirely uncalled-for ema- 

 nation of an officious self-constituted European 

 clique whose utterances only gave enemies another 

 opportunity of pointing out the Catholic Church 

 most unjustly as a foreign growth in the re- 

 public. The agitation waxed wrathy for some 

 time among the abettors of Cahensly, but it was 

 finally settled by the Holy See rejecting the 

 recommendations of the petitioners. 



Mission Work among the Indians. The 

 discussion over the Indian Appropriation bill in 

 Congress revealed the fact that the sum granted 

 for the support of Indian children in Catholic 

 mission schools was $162,500 in excess of the 

 total given to all the other denominational 

 schools. The Government appropriation for de- 

 nominational schools in 1891 amounted to $579,- 

 218, and the Catholic allowance was $366,348. 

 The rolls of the Catholic Indian schools showed 

 340 more pupils in attendance for 1891 over the 

 year 1890, the total being 3,353, or nearly three 

 fourths of the whole number of the children at- 

 tending Indian denominational schools. In the 

 discussion a disposition hostile to the appropri- 

 ations was developed on the ground that the 

 Government could not give support to sectarian 

 institutions. This brought forward splendid tes- 

 timonials from members who had visited the res- 

 ervations notably Senator Vest, who, in a re- 

 markable speech, declared that the Catholic 

 Church, through the energies, devotion, and sac- 

 rifices of her missionaries in behalf of civiliza- 

 tion, had proved her title as " the truest friend 

 of the Indian." 



Miss Drexel's New Order. In February 

 Archbishop Ryan received the vows of Mi^s 

 Kate Drexel in St. Mary's Convent, Pittsburg, 

 and gave the authorization and blessings to 

 the new order founded by her. Miss Drexel 

 took the name of Sister Catherine in religion, 

 and chose the title of Sisters of the Most Holy 

 Sacrament for her order. The object is the 

 evangelization of the negroes and Indians in the 

 United States, and she devotes her interest in 

 the great Drexel estate, estimated at $8,000,000, 



