INTEGRATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 201 



sciousness of Ms essential solidarity with all his co-religionists. 

 Surrounded by actively hostile elements, the small number of 

 Jews scattered over the European continent, between the Volga 

 and the Atlantic, necessarily held together. The very condi- 

 tions of inferiority in which they were placed as regards their 

 competitors in the struggle for existence made solidarity a 

 sine qua non of survival for the Jews. It is notorious that a 

 society, numerically weak but strongly integrated, more than 

 compensates its numerical inferiority by its virtues of integration 

 and cohesion. The integration of the Jewish community in 

 Europe, a necessary consequence of the solidarity among the 

 Jews of all lands, has enabled this community to survive all the 

 obstacles placed in the way of its evolution. And as a society 

 which is strongly integrated will be the more protected against 

 suicide in proportion as its integration and cohesion are great, 

 it is evident that the rate of suicide among the Jews must be 

 low. The figures which we have given show this to be the case. 

 The smaU. numbers of Jews, and the peculiar nature of the 

 circumstances in which, as aliens, they are placed with regard 

 to the environing Christian civilisation, explain the high degree 

 of social integration possessed by the Jewish community. But 

 on looking at the figures given above, we will see that, in the 

 majority of cases, the suicide-rate among Catholics is inferior 

 to that among Jews. We are thus justified in assuming that 

 the integration of the CathoHc Church is even superior to that 

 of the Jewish community. And the degree of integration 

 possessed by the Catholic Church must not only be judged 

 from the comparison betweeen the number of suicides among 

 a million Catholics and the number of suicides among a miUion 

 Jews ; but also from the comparison between the conditions 

 of existence in which the two communities have been respectively 

 placed. The desperate nature of their struggle for Ufe in the 

 midst of an hostile environment explains the strong cohesion 

 of the Jewish community. The Catholic Church, placed in 



