Section 3. The External and Internal Growth of Roman Catholicism

XI. The composition of the population of North America. European emigration and its Catholic portion. The nationalities composing the Roman Catholic Church and their comparative significance for it. The process of numerical growth of the Roman Catholic population. – XII. The establishment of the episcopacy and the growth of church organization. The synodal form of church governance. Anti-Catholic movements. The legal status of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. – XIII. The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore. Its historical and canonical significance for the Roman Catholic Church of the country. Acts and decrees. – XIV. Monastic orders and their significance in the building of Roman Catholicism in America. Jesuits and Sulpicians. The emigration of male and female orders to America following popular emigration. Their important services to Roman Catholicism.

XI

The population of North America is by its composition almost exclusively foreign. The indigenous population, consisting of small Indian tribes and occupying all the space of the continent before its discovery, lacked the strength to preserve its distinctiveness and hold the continent against others. In the face of white people, they received a death sentence, as an inevitable result of hostile collision between the strong and the weak. With white people came higher culture, before which the primitive culture of the indigenous population had to yield, and indeed, as white people advanced, the indigenous population began to retreat into the wild depths of the continent, until finally it was reduced to the insignificant number of today, which if gathered together would scarcely constitute a medium-sized city among the multitude of cities of the foreign population. At present, the indigenous population within the United States does not exceed 300,000 persons,[1] while all the population according to the latest census is estimated at fifty million,[2] so the former constitutes an insignificant drop in the sea of foreign population. If, then, all the population of the country owes its growth almost exclusively to the external influx of settlers and their natural increase, then the growth of each part of this population must be sought in the same causes. The Roman Catholic population, as a component part of the entire mass of population, therefore owes its growth primarily and chiefly to the same general causes of growth of the American people. But to form a clear understanding of the process of increase of the Roman Catholic population specifically, it is necessary to make a general survey of the growth of all the American population, of which it is an organic part.

The earliest European settlement within the United States was established in Virginia in 1609, if we do not count the Florida settlement, which was not part of the original thirteen colonies that formed the union of states—a settlement dating to 1565.[3] New York was settled in 1613, and New England in 1620.[4] The initial settlement occurred slowly. The distance of the journey and the unknown nature of the country frightened the imagination, and those who ventured across the ocean at first were only various adventurers, religious missionaries, and those persecuted for their religious convictions. The earliest immigrants from the Old World to the New were, as is well known, the Spanish—eager seekers of gold, who arrived in America soon after its discovery, but did not establish permanent settlements until much later. The Dutch settlers, who founded the colony of New Amsterdam, which later received the name of New York, were also merely entrepreneurs and fortune hunters. But the English Puritans, who immigrated to the New World and established a colony in New England, and the English Catholics, who established a colony in Maryland, were the principal pioneers in settling the continent. They fled from unbearable persecution and sought in the New World a new and permanent homeland for themselves. It is impossible to form a precise estimate of the number of these early settlers, since there are no official records for this purpose. Only in 1819 did Congress adopt a resolution requiring the recording of immigrants at various ports of the country. Until that time, the flow of immigrants was not continuous and stable; it was subject to various fluctuations, although a noticeable average annual growth was observable until 1806. Careful statistical investigations show that from 1784 to 1794, immigrants arrived annually on average at about 4,000 persons. In 1794, about ten thousand arrived. During a ten-year period from 1806 to 1816, emigration almost completely ceased due to hostile relations between the United States, Great Britain, and France. But with the coming of peace, namely in 1817, it suddenly rose to the significant figure of 22,240. In light of the rapid growth of European emigration that had begun, Congress took measures to regulate it, established statistical committees, and from their reports it is possible to trace the gradual course of emigration. Over the past sixty years, the course of emigration appears as follows[5] (year – number of immigrants): 1820 – 8,385; 1821 – 9,127; 1822 – 6,911; 1823 – 6,354; 1824 – 7,912; 1825 – 10,199; 1826 – 10,837; 1827 – 18,875; 1828 – 27,382; 1829 – 22,520; 1830 – 23,322; 1831 – 22,633; 1832 – 60,482; 1833 – 58,640; 1834 – 65,365; 1835 – 45,374; 1836 – 76,242; 1837 – 79,340; 1838 – 38,914; 1839 – 68,069; 1840 – 84,066; 1841 – 80,289; 1842 – 104,565; 1843 – 52,496; 1844 – 78,615; 1845 – 114,371; 1846 – 154,416; 1847 – 234,968; 1848 – 226,527; 1849 – 297,024; 1850 – 369,980; 1851 – 379,466; 1852 – 371,603; 1853 – 368,645; 1854 – 427,833; 1855 – 200,877; 1856 – 195,857; 1857 – 246,945; 1858 – 119,501; 1859 – 118,616; 1860 – 150,237; 1861 – 89,724; 1862 – 89,007; 1863 – 174,524; 1864 – 193,195; 1865 – 247,453; 1866 – 167,757; 1867 – 298,967; 1868 – 282,189; 1869 – 352,768; 1870 – 387,203; 1871 – 321,350; 1872 – 404,806; 1873 – 459,803; 1874 – 313,339; 1875 – 227,498; 1876 – 169,986; 1877 – 141,857; 1878 – 138,469; 1879 – 177,826; 1880 – 457,257. Total over sixty years 10,138,758.

If to this number we add the quantity of immigrants who arrived before 1820, which is estimated at 250,000 persons, and the quantity of immigrants during the second half of the calendar year 1880, not included in this count, then the total number of immigrants who found in America a new homeland for themselves will be approximately ten and a half million (10,500,000) persons—a figure which, together with the three and a half million of the original population, is quite sufficient to account for the entire population of the United States, as it was determined by the last census.

This count includes all immigrants of any kind who arrived in the United States from all parts of the world. But the main proportion comes from European immigrants, who constitute at least 80 percent of the total number.[6] It is interesting now to trace which countries primarily provided these immigrants. From 1820 to 1880, immigrants arrived in the following quantities by nationality: From Ireland – 3,065,761; England – 894,444; Scotland – 159,547; Wales – 17,893; Germany – 3,002,027; Sweden and Norway – 306,092; France – 313,716; Switzerland – 83,709; Italy – 70,181; the Netherlands – 44,319; Denmark – 48,620; Russia – 38,316; Austria-Hungary – 65,588; Poland – 14,831; Belgium – 23,267; Spain – 28,091; Greece and Turkey – 1,004. Total – 8,746,921.[7]

This table includes both Protestant and Catholic countries. If we separate from this total the quantity coming from Catholic countries, it will approximately determine the number of immigrant population that entered the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Of these countries, some have a purely Catholic population, with insignificant exceptions; others have only a Catholic minority; and still others have a Protestant population. The latter include the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, which therefore should not enter into our count. The countries in which the Catholic population constitutes a minority are: England, Scotland, Wales, Switzerland, Russia[8], and Germany. The sum of immigrants from these countries equals 4,195,936. If we assume for them a Catholic population of ¼ of the total number,[9] then the gain to the Roman Catholic Church from them will be equal to approximately 1,050,000 persons. Next come the countries with predominant Catholic population: Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary, Poland, and Belgium. The sum of immigrants from these countries equals 3,581,435. The Catholic population in them constitutes 9/10 of the entire population. In this case, the gain to the Roman Catholic Church in the United States from them will be equal to approximately 3,223,000 persons. Together with the preceding number, this will constitute approximately four and a quarter million,[10] This number is more than sufficient to account for the origin of the entire Catholic population in the United States, which now amounts to 7,000,000 persons.[11]

Thus, the primary source and chief cause of the numerical growth of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States lies in the emigration of the Catholic population from Europe. If emigration, which especially strongly began to arrive at American shores from the 1840s, had ceased or had proceeded from Protestant countries, such that the growth of Roman Catholicism depended entirely or mainly only upon the natural increase of the population or upon conversions from Protestantism and paganism, then the Roman Catholic Church in the United States would now be of small importance numerically, as Catholic publicists themselves acknowledge.[12] This can be judged with sufficient clarity from a comparison of the growth of Roman Catholicism in America with its growth in England over the same period, namely over the past fifty years, when the laws persecuting Catholics were abolished in England. From that time, the Roman Catholic Church in England was completely free both in its administration and in matters of propaganda and in returning to its fold those who had fallen away from it during the period of persecution. Despite such equality from a legal standpoint, in England the growth of Roman Catholicism was far weaker than its growth in the United States. In 1830, there were more Catholics in England than in the United States. From that time, the church in both countries was equally free in its life, activity, and development, yet now the number of Catholics in the United States is almost four times greater than in England. In 1830, according to the most reliable estimate, England had 600,000 Catholics, and the United States had 500,000, whereas at the present time England has about two million, while in the United States the number, as stated above, rises to seven million.[13]

By its composition, the Roman Catholic population of the United States divides into many different nationalities, but the predominant significance in the fate of the church belongs to three nationalities—Irish, German, and French. It is chiefly to these that the Roman Catholic Church owes its growth and greatness. Each of these three nationalities has contributed its own special share to the common work of building Roman Catholicism in America.

The French element in the Roman Catholic Church in America is one of the most ancient, and in a certain sense it constitutes the primary ferment for it on the soil of the New World. From it came the first valiant missionaries, who in the early period of the history of the United States brought Christian preaching among the wild Indian tribes, and the blood of these missionaries was, so to speak, the seed of Roman Catholicism in the country. French colonists before the declaration of independence of the United States settled chiefly in Canada, since only there did Catholics enjoy full freedom of conscience. From the time of the legal proclamation of Catholics’ equal rights in the United States, French emigration turned toward their shores, and from 1820 to 1880, it strengthened Roman Catholicism by more than 300,000 persons. Besides, this fact had a considerable effect on the French population of Canada itself. With the declaration of independence of the states and the equalization of Catholics with Protestants, the French population of Canada showed a tendency to immigrate to the United States, and gradually this emigration grew to the significant figure of 99,000 in just the past year. Over the past thirty years, the total number of French Catholics who immigrated from Canada amounts to half a million persons.[14] The presence of this Canadian element constitutes a notable feature in all dioceses bordering Canada, where a considerable part of the parishes consists exclusively of Canadian French.[15] To this number of French Catholics must be added several thousand refugees from San Domingo and other West Indian islands who sought asylum in the United States in 1793, because of the disturbances caused by the reverberations of the French Revolution and the uprising of the enslaved. These French Catholics, according to the expression of a Catholic author, “gave faith, piety, and wealth to the infant church, and their descendants, faithful to their religion, are numbered among the most prominent citizens of the republic.”[16] Their numbers were significantly increased by the acquisition or admission into the Union of territories populated largely by French Catholics. Thus in 1803, Louisiana was acquired, which at that time had about 35,000 inhabitants, consisting almost exclusively of Catholics. In general, the French element had important significance in the formation and building of the Roman Catholic Church in America, and as we shall see below, it gave to it a succession of brilliant hierarchs, who rendered invaluable services to the cause of Roman Catholicism in the country.