The number of Catholic female academies has grown with great rapidity. Towards the close of the last cen- tury, the Clarist Nuns, during a brief stay in America, opened a school at Georgetown,D.C., which subsequent- ly passed into the hands of the Visitation Nuns, and grew into a flourishing academy which dates its founda- tion from 1799. The purchase of Louisiana from France gave to the Catholic Church of the United States an Ursuline academy at New Orleans, with 170 pupils. The foundation of St. Joseph's Academ}' at Emmetts- burg, Jld., in 1809, by mother Seton, marks an epoch in the history of Catholic education for young American women. In 1812 the Loretto Nuns of Kentucky entered the field; in 1818 the Ursuline Convent was opened at Boston, and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart began their labors at the South. The Sisters of St. Joseph founded their first establishment in 1836 ; the Sisters of Notre Dame, in 1840 ; the Sisters of the Holy Cross and the Sisters of Providence, in 1841 ; the School Sisters of Notre Dame (founded by Peter Fourier), in 1847. Oth- er orders followed, and in 1877 the number of Catholic female academies exceeded 400, the best and most widely known of which were under the direction of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, the Sisters of Charity, the Visitation Nuns, the Ursulines, the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of the Holy Cross, the Sisters of Notre Dame, and the Sisters of Providence. It is maintained that in not a few of the convent board- ing-schools one third, and in some cases even one half, of the pupils are Protestant and other non-Catholic young ladies.
In the 17th century an attempt to found a Catholic college in New York was made by three Jesuits during governor Dongan's term of office, but it did not find suf-
ficient support. Several years after the Kevolution, bishop Carroll founded (ieorgetown College. Some time later, St. Mary's College, Baltimore, was established. It was chartered in 180o. Mount St. JIary's, Emmettsburg, stands next in point of age. In 1878 there were in the United States seventy -eight Catholic colleges and sem- inaries with power to confer degrees. Among the largest colleges are St. John's College, Fordham, N. Y. ; the University of Georgetown, D. C, with a literary, a medical, and a law department of forty professors, a libra- ry of 30,000 volumes, an astronomical observatory, a conservatory of plants, and cabinets; IMount St. Mary's College, Emmettsburg, Md. ; St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo. ; St. Josei)h's College, Alabama; St. Xavier's College, Cincinnati, O. : the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass. ; the College of St. Francis Xavier, New York ; and Santa Clara College, California.
The first theological seminary in the United States was opened in 1791 in Baltimore. Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Emmettsburg, was founded in 1809; St. Jo- seph's Seminary, near Bardstown, Ky., in 1811. In 1878 there were 23 theological seminaries, with about 1300 ecclesiastical students.
Catholic normal schools have been established at St. Francis, Wis., and at Baltimore, Md. The following table gives the number of higher Catholic scliools, and the number of pupils of parochial schools, in each of the ecclesiastical provinces :
Ecclesiastical Provinces.
Higher Schools.
Pupils in Catholic Parish Schools.
1. Baltimore
.59 43
111 2T 82
122 14 68 88 24 10
is,ono
30,(100 80,000 38,000 12,000 80,000
? 43,000 68,000
f
2. Boston
3. Cincinnati
5. New Orleans
6. New York
S. Philadelphia
9. St. Louis
Total
648
about 500,000
IV. Statistics.— Ow'mg to the large influx of Catholics from Ireland and (iermany, and the acquisition of large Catholic territories from France and Mexico, the lioman Catholic population of the United States has increased at a much more rapid rate than the total population of the United States. The following table, giving the estimated Roman Catholic and the total po))ulation of the United States at different periods of our history, is instructive :
Year.
Total Population.
Roman Catholic Population.
Fractional Part
of Total Population
Fornied by
Roman Catholics.
1T76
3,000,000
25,000
120
1790
3,200,000
30,000
i^y
1800
5,300,000
100,000
sV
1810
7,200,000
150,000
i^
1820
9,600,000
300,000
5^5
1830
13,000,000
600,000
ix
1840
17,000,000
1,500,000
r\
1850
23,300,000
3,500,000
1
7
1860
31, .500,000
4,500,000
1 7
1S7G
40,000,000
6,.500.000
1 (!
It is the unanimous opinion of the foremost Catholic writers on the history of the Catholic Church in the United States that their Church has suffered from its first organization to the present time very large losses; and that though many accessions have been received from other religious denominations, the losses by far exceed the gains. Bishop England of Charleston re- marked in 1830: "We ought, if there were no loss, to have five millions of Catholics; and as we have less than one million and a (juarter, there must be a loss of three millions and a quarter at least. We may unhes-
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 84 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
itatingly assert that the Catholic Church has within the last fifty years (17JS(j-1836) lost millions of mem- bers in the United States." Bishop Spalding of Peoria (in his Life of Archbishop Spaldin;/) likewise states: " To contine ourselves to the period in which the hier- archy has been in existence (1790-1870), we have lost in numbers far more than we have gained, if I may ex- press an opinion beyond all doubt." The same opinion is often and forcibly exjiressed by Dr. O. Brownson and other prominent Catholic writers. Some of the writers referred to (as bishop Spalding) console themselves with the hope " that the number of those who are here lost to the faith is, in proportion to the Catholic population of the country, continually decreasing, while the num- ber of converts each year grows larger." From some dioce-ses accessions are reported to the Church of per- sons born of non-Catholic parents which are larger than those reported from any other country save England. Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore claimed that of '22,209 persons confirmed by him in five years, '2752 were " converts." Bishop Gibbons of Richmond (now arch- bishop of Baltimore) claiined that 14 per cent, of those who were confirmed by him since he came to the dio- cese of Richmond were "converts," and in North Caro- lina 35 per cent. A comparatively large number of men who have attained great prominence in the his- torj' of the Roman Catholic Church have entered that Church as adults, and as seceders from other religious communions. Ainong these men are archbishops Bay- ley of Baltimore, and AVood of Philadelphia; bishops Kosecranz of Columbus, and Wadhams of Ogdensburg ; father Hecker, the superior of the Paulists; Dr. Ives, a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; Dr.O. Brown- son ; and mother Seton, the foundress of the Sisters of Charity.