A-^X 32 MILLION CATHOLKS . . . the Church in the United States A Study Compiled for the National Catholic Rural Life Conference Des Moines 12, Iowa, U. S. A., 1955. With permission of Ecclesiastical Authority DIRECTORY OF INFORMATION National Catholic Welfare Conference 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington 5, D. C. National Catholic Rural Life Conference 3801 Grand Avenue, Des Moines 12, Iowa War Relief Services, National Catholic Welfare Conference 350 Fifth Avenue, New York 1, New York National Conference of Catholic Charities 1346 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington 6, D. C. National Catholic Educational Association 1785 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington 6, D. C. Catholic Press Association, 150 East 39th Street, New York 16, New York Mission Secretariat 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington 5, D. C. Superior Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul 122 East 22nd Street, New York 10, New York Association of Catholic Trade Unionists 327 Lexington Avenue, New York 16, New York Liturgical Conference Elsberry, Missouri Catholic Daughters of America 10 West 71st Street, New York 23, New York Knights of Columbus New Haven. Connecticut Society for the Propagation of the Faith 366 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York For complete and detailed information, THE CATHOLIC DIRECTORY, P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 12 Barclay Street, New York, New York, 1108 pages, $9.00. FRONT COYER: Youth Rally at Catholic Rural Life Convention at LaCrosse, Wisconsin Deaddmed Architect's drawins for Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington. Construction of upper church was launched last year as a Marian Year project ACTIVE- and GROWING... THE UNITED STATES is certainly not a “Cath- olic country.” Only one out of five of its citizens are Catholics. But the Church in the United States is strong, active—and growing. Even now, numbering 32 million, it is the fourth largest body of Catholics in the world, topped only hy Brazil, Italy, and France. IN PHYSICAL FACILITIES—schools, churches, hospitals—the Church in the United States is flour- ishing. In spiritual life it has r«iade a remarkable record. And in faithfulness to daily practice of their Faith, U. S. Catholics— men and women, young and old—have astonished visitors from oth- er countries. In 150 years their numbers have multiplied 1,000 times, from less than 30 thousand to more than 30 million. ^ZZL /e/iut^^''^'^ lATA :Atm NG'RESS , , July 4. «77^."'"'S„_ )fcfarttfion *,«. ..«. of'^menea-. ^ . —/572SfS;3s- 24? ^"'4*^1 aariSrfex'& ib!!^‘/S ’~> a Y i * j 7/" Aa» «>-- /^w< , ^ ..V/.. ..r w ^w ,ujU ^ //, , . -' / a ^ " ' ' '' ^-.........^'Jii ^iiLlus:K(>/C^J^-y<^ " ' ^ >>A 'V ^4 '- . . . We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness . . . MORE THAN 400 years ago, about 1521, Mass was offered for the first time on the North American conti- nent, by priests of the Spanish explor- er Ponce de Leon’s expedition. With- in a century, French and Spanish missionaries were bringing Christen- dom from its European strongholds to broad areas of what is now the United States. Spanish Franciscan Father Juan de Padilla, who shed his blood in what is now the state of Kansas in 1542, was the first of many mission- aries who gave their lives to spread the Faith across the continent. WHEN THE United States was born as a nation with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Catholics in the 13 colonies numbered only 25,000, out of 3 ^million people. And they were penalized and proscribed in most places. But the new nation was far from Godless. The Declaration itself acknowledged the Creator as the source of the freedoms it proclaimed. And in fact modern studies have traced the phrasing and the philos- ophy of the Declaration and the U. S. Constitution back to such Catholic political thinkers as Suarez, Vitoria, St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Tbomas Aquinas. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH in tbe U. S., independent, free and self sup- porting, has flourished. United States Catholics now number over 32 mil- lion. In the past their numbers have been swelled by waves of immigration that brought millions of European Catholics across the Atlantic. They came from almost every country of the world. Largest numbers came from Italy, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Poland and Mexico. They settled all across the country, strengthening the Faith in the older settled areas and bringing it to the new. IN RECENT YEARS much of the growth of the Church has come from among the non-Catholics of the United States itself. Figures don’t tell the whole story, but they can give some idea: In the last decade, records of adult Baptisms show well over a million converts have been received into the Church. The number of converts re- ceived each year has increased from 90,000 in 1943 to 117,000 in 1953. Dur- ing the same period, the number of children born to Catholic families has increased even more strikingly—from 772,434 in 1943 to 1,094,872 in 1953. This represented [28 per cent] 3 out of every 10 births recorded in 1953, although the recorded number of Catholics is only 2 in 10. In 11 of the 48 states more than one-third of the children born in 1953 received Catholic Baptism. Or look at it from another side: from 1944 to 1954, the whole population of the country in- creased by about one-fifth. The Cath- olic population increased by one-third and accounted for half of the total growth. Today it looks as though the Church in the United States will num- ber from 40 to 45 million souls a dec- ade hence, and numbers of churches, schools and institutions will rise even more sharply. SHEPHERDING this vast, growing Catholic population are four Cardi- nals, 35 Archbishops and 169 Bishops. They govern 26 archdioceses and 102 dioceses, with 15,914 parishes, 28,611 diocesan and 16,840 Religious priests (in 90 communities), 8,691 Brothers (in 17 communities) and 154,055 Sis- ters (in over 300 communities). ALONGSIDE THESE impressive fig- ures, if we are to understand Cath- olic life in the U. S., we must see the human side, the Church in terms of people. As anywhere else, the Church in the U. S. is a fair cross- section of the whole population. It is made up of laborers, teachers, farm- ers, engineers, fishermen, students, housewives—all the trades and ways of earning a living that make up U. S. life. No spirit of enmity is evidenced be- tween Catholics, Protestants and Jews. They live and work side hy side; they join in civic activities. Persecution or ill feelings simply do not exist except among the bigoted and narrow who, thank God, are very few. MINORITY THOUGH they are. Cath- olics in the U. S. hold many posi- tions of high prestige as national fig- ures. Names known to millions of American non-Catholics, of course, are those of the four Cardinals—Mooney of Detroit, Stritch of Chicago, Spell- man of New York, and McIntyre of Los Angeles. The Church’s most dis- tinguished English language preacher and one of the best known figures of the television screen in Bishop Ful- ton J. Sheen. A world figure as com- mander in chief of the North Atlantic Treaty forces is Catholic General Al- fred M. Gruenther. A few" of the scores of other leading figures in U. S. life who are Catholics include George Meany, president of the American Federation of Labor; Frances Parkin- son Keyes, best-selling novelist; Atomic Energy Commissioner Thomas E. Murray; tennis champion Maureen Connolly ; world champion boxer Rocky Marciano ; Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell; New York’s Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr.; screen actress Irene Dunne, and Dr. Edward J. Me- CATHOLIC PERSONALITIES NATO Commancier General Gruenther greets former Navy Secretary John Sullivan at a Communion Breakfast Playwright, Legislator. Ambassa- dor, Convert Clare Booth Luce Bishop Sheen (right) shows visit- ing Archbishop from Rome opera- tor's end of television camera Cormick, 1953-54 president of the American Medical Association. JUDGED BY THEIR actions, the Catholic lay people of the U. S. are an unusually alert, vigorous body, whose daily lives reflect their Cath- olic convictions. The very fact that they are surrounded by a non-Catholic and partly secularist majority, day in and day out, compels them to under- stand and equips them to defend their Catholic heritage. Wavering souls would drift away altogether. Chan- neling their activities into fruitful paths are a wide variety of organiza- tions, all coordinated under three na- tional units: The National Councils of Catholic Men, of Catholic Women, and of Catholic Youth. These three councils, along with other activities for the benefit of the Church through- out the country, are under the direc- tion of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. SPECIALIZED organizations with large memberships among U. S. Cath- olics include the world-wide Holy Name Society, with 3,500,000 U. S. members, the Society of St. Vincent Headquarters of National Catholic Ru- ral Life Conference, in Central Iowa de Paul, The Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Liturgical Conference, retreat groups. Catholic War Veterans, fraternal societies, like the Knights of Columbus, the Cath- olic Daughters of America, and scores of others. Catholic action is not con- fined to these specifically Catholic groups, but carries its influence into general organizations as well. Marian Year rally brought 260,000 people to Chicago's Soldier Field New York Convention and Visitors Bureau Towering skyscrapers and delicate Gothic of St. Patrick's Cathedral face each other across Fifth Avenue in heart of New York A FACT TO remember about the Cath- olic lay people of the United States is that whatever support the Church in the U. S. receives must come en- tirely from them. There is no state support for the Church. Its thousands of parishes and institutions and its extensive activities are kept going only by the regular contributions of millions of ordinary people, usually through the weekly envelope collec- tion, a practical and an effective meth- od of making believers realize that they have a duty to return to God a share of what God gives to them, so that the works of God in this world may develop and prosper. OF ALL THE outward organizations of the Church in the United States, none has had a greater or more salu- tary influence than the National Cath- olic Welfare Conference. This organ- ization, uniquely American in its ori- gin, has in recent years become the model for similar units in a dozen other countries. It is housed in a strikingly modern building on Massa- chusetts Avenue in Washington— the facade a national monument in honor of Christ the Light of the World. The N.C.W.C. is essentially a system of aid, coordination and information for Catholic activities. It is a sort of “clearing house” through which each of the country’s Bishops and dioceses and Catholic organizations has the benefit of the experiences of all the others in meeting common problems. SMALL administrative staffs, each headed by experts in its own field, carry out the functions of departments devoted to: Lay Organizations ; Youth; Education; Social Action; Press; Immigration; Legislation and Legal Problems. An Executive De- partment oversees all the conference’s activities and serves as constant liai- son with the Administrative Board that governs the organization. The Ad- ministrative Board is made up of all the country’s Cardinals and ten Arch- bishops and Bishops chosen annually at the general meeting of the nation’s Hierarchy. BESIDES THE N.C.W.C.’s regular departments, there are a number of dependent activities under the Execu- tive and other departments, including the national center of the Confrater- nity of Christian Doctrine, a Bureau of Information, Publications Office, Inter-American Affairs Bureau, Office of United Nations Affairs, Family Life Bureau, Bureau of Health and Hospi- tals, and Catholic Association for In- ternational Peace. And supervised by N C W C the same Administrative Board of Bishops are such entities as the Na- tional Catholic Community Service, devoted to welfare, religious and rec- reational work on behalf of members of the armed forces, and War Relief Services, N.CW.C., which since World War II has done one of the most monumental jobs of charity and relief work for war victims that the world has ever seen. NONE OF THE varied activities of the Church in the United States is more remarkable than what it does in the field of education. U. S. Cath- olics send 4 million children and youth to Catholic schools and univer- sities every fall. They go to 9,034 grade schools, 2,366 high schools and 250 colleges and universities. These impressive figures represent only Catholic schools, supported entirely by the contributions of millions of Catholics — mostly simple working people and young parents. These peo- ple, it must be remembered, are also busy supporting churches, hospitals, charities, and all the other works of the Church. One estimate is that the Catholic educational system saves the 48 states some $750 million a year in their education budgets. BESIDES THE general schools, U. S. Catholics maintain the 455 seminaries and religious scholasticates that have provided the country’s 45,451 priests. This means one priest to every 696 Catholics. In training in seminaries and scholasticates are 33,448 young men who will devote their lives to the service of the Church. Equally impressive is the vast sacrifice of the 154,055 Religious Sisters, whose big- gest work is staffing the great network Administrative Board War Relief Services - NCWC G e n e r a I S e ( r e t a r y uy National Catholic Community Service Education Press Social Action Lay Organizations Youth Legal Immigration Slide to Third! No big-league coach lives game harder than nun who manages New York's Madonna House baseball team Half the country's 150,000 nuns give their lives to teaching (left), studying (above) of grade schools and many of the high schools and colleges. VAST AS IT IS, the Catholic school system still cannot take care of all the growing numbers of Catholic school-age youth. Due to the great area of the country, the uneven spread of the Catholic population, and the financial problems involved, only about half the Catholic youngsters between six and 14 are in Catholic schools. And because of the high birth rate since World War II, the number of children to be taken care of increases each year. U. S. Cath- olics recognize there is still much progress to be made and they are working constantly toward meeting the need. Ten years ago, for in- stance, there were 7,963 Catholic grade schools with 2,052,882 pupils; today there are 9,034, training 3,083,- 561 youngsters. Air view of campus of Pontifical Catholic University of America in nation's capital TWO THINGS should be noted in this connection. First of all, the pub- lic schools in the U. S. are not Protestant schools, as in some other countries. The public schools are maintained by the public power, and supported out of taxes paid by Cath- olics and non-Catholics alike. Sec- ondly, many of the nation’s public school systems have an arrangement under which children are released for certain periods during school hours each week to attend religious instruc- tion in their own faith, and where this system does not exist, the par- ishes supply religious instruction out- side of school hours through the Con- fraternity of Christian Doctrine. THE COUNTRY’S extensive Catholic educational system maintains academ- ic standards that match and in many cases far excel those of the public school systems. Though Sisters often enter religious life after finishing high school, they continue intensive train- ing for their educational work. Nuns’ black veils are a familiar sight in the lecture halls and laboratories of most colleges. For their high standards. Catholic schools enjoy great prestige, and often attract many non-Catholic students. AT THE HEART OF the Catholic school system is a Pontifical Univer- sity in the nation’s capital, the Cath- olic University of America. With de- partments ranging from theology to engineering, this institution acts as a leaven for the entire educational sys- tem. The complex of buildings that cover the university’s extensive cam- pus tells only a small part of the story. For many blocks around, dot- ting the landscape of northeast Wash- ington, are scores of religious houses where seminarians and faculty reside. The Catholics of the United States, through their Bishops, also maintain the North American College in Rome, training priests at the very heart of Christendom. THROUGH THE National Catholic Educational Association, founded fifty years ago and with a membership of 6,500 today, the CathoRc educators of the nation are banded together to safeguard and promote Catholic edu- cational interests. At the same time, the N.C.W.C. Education Department provides information, teacher registra- tion, liaison, and other services that help the entire educational system. PART OF THE national life in gen- eral, Catholics also have an impor- tant place in its general educational leadership. There are thousands of Catholics among the more than a mil- lion teachers in public grade and high schools. Educators of high repute in the non-Catholic universities include such Catholic leaders as Dr. George N. Schuster, president of Hunter Col- lege, New York, and Dean Hugh Scott Taylor of the Princeton University Graduate School. SECOND ONLY to the education pro- gram is the Church’s great network of institutions and activities in the field of social welfare. There are 922 Catholic hospitals and sanatoria throughout the country, with beds for 134,302 patients. Most of them are ad- ministered by nursing Sisters. Spe- cialized homes and hospitals take care of the aging, incurables and contagious patients. Scarcely any medium or large city in the country is without a Catholic orphanage— again staffed by Sisters. The St. Vincent de Paul Society has 3,200 conferences and particular coun- Pastor of Church overlooking Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, chats with 'seaborne' parishioner (above) and with tobacco farmer during break in plowing (below) St. Pius X Brothers return home from day's work on grounds of monastery at DeSoto, Wisconsin Catholic Labor Secretary Mit- chell lays wreath at Washing- ton's Cardinal Gibbons statue cils among the nation’s 16,000 par- i s h e s. Coordinating and assisting charitable works of the separate dio- ceses and Religious Orders is the Na- tional Conference of Catholic Chari- ties. THE CHURCH IN the U. S. for vari- ous reasons has always been stronger in larger cities than in the country- side. Rural Life leaders would like to see a much bigger proportion of U. S. Catholics on farms. At present only 5 or 6 per cent of the nation’s Catholics, or an estimated 400,000 Catholic families, are on farms. Larger concentrations of farm CathoRcs are in Wisconsin, Illinois, and other mid- western states, while in the southeast- ern part of the country there are prac- tically no Catholics on the farms. One of the Church’s big problems in a country so spread out has been how to provide spiritual care—and apostol- ic work—in rural areas. Two organi- zations have devoted their main at- tention toward this problem. The Catholic Church Extension Society, supported by all U. S. Catholics, has financed extensive home mission work. In recent years it has expended some two million dollars annually toward building and maintaining churches and schools where Catholics are few. The National Catholic Rural Life Con- ference (NCRLC), meanwhile, ad- dresses itself to another side of the problem. With Diocesan Directors and actively interested rural pastors, teachers, sociologists, agricultural of- ficials, economists, and farmers, it seeks to “bring Christ to the country and the country to Christ,” with this four-way social and spiritual program: (1) to care for underprivileged Cath- dies living on the land; (2) to keep on the land the Catholics who are there; (3) to settle more Catholics on the land, and (4) to convert the non-Catholics there. Catholic farmers are urged to join general non-secta- rian farm organizations and thus spread Christian principles in a wider field, AS NCRLC tackles social problems in rural areas, other groups address themselves to finding the Catholic so- lution to social problems in industrial areas. The Association of Catholic Trade Unionists (ACTU) is a group of laymen aiming to spread knowl- edge and practice of Christian princi- ples in industrial and business life. Catholics and the Catholic Church are recognized by organized labor for their leadership on behalf of work- ing men. Many dioceses have Labor Schools, in which labor and manage- ment leaders are trained in the social teaching of the Church. Of the coun- try’s two big labor organizations, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) is now headed by a Catholic, George Meany, and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was headed by a Catholic president, Philip Murray, for many years until his recent death. The N.C.W.C. Social Action Depart- ment acts as a service agency in the entire field of Catholic social princi- ples, and their application to the com- plex social problems of the country. It concerns itself with international peace, industrial relations, family life, race relations, and social welfare. FOR ALL THESE activities and for all U. S. Catholics an important source of information, inspiration and assist- ance is the Catholic press. Main sec- tions of it are more than 100 diocesan weekly newspapers with 3.5 million circulation and 382 magazines, large and small, with circulation totaling more than 14 million. This press is served by a world-wide Catholic news agency, the N.C.W.C. News Service, which has “Noticias Catolicas” as its Trailer chapels bring Gospel to remote rural areas where prieses are scarce Latin-American section. This news network provides rapid service on events of interest to Catholics from all parts of the world. Its sources include some 75 correspondents in 51 countries. Through some 450 sub- scribing publications in 47 countries, its ultimate readers may total as high as 50 or 55 million. OTHER MEDIA OF information are also well provided for. There are more than 20 Catholic publishing houses in the book field, and all the biggest general book publishers, such as the Macmillan Company, have large Catholic book departments. Most fa- mous Catholic production in radio is the “Catholic Hour,” which is pro- duced by the National Council of Catholic Men in cooperation with the National Broadcasting Company. It is now in its second quarter-century, and is carried on 143 stations. The “Catholic Hour” is now on television on the NBC-TV network and is car- ried by 65 stations. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen is on the Dumont TV net- work from November to May each year with his “Life Is Worth Liv- ing” program, heard last season on 179 stations. There is a great va- riety of other national radio and television programs, and countless programs originating locally on the country’s many hundreds of radio and TV stations. In addition, networks and local stations frequently carry “special events” broadcasts of Cath- olic functions of wide general inter- est, such as Midnight Mass at Christ- mas in some of the nation’s great cathedrals. It should be noted that the thousands of hours a month of air time that all this adds up to are do- nated free of charge as a public serv- ice by the stations and the big net- works. And besides the Catholic programs on the general stations there are a number of Catholic radio sta- tions in the U. S., most of them oper- ated by Catholic universities. FOR OTHERS . . . ALL THESE efforts toward bringing the Gospel more fully to the United States itself do not mean that Ameri- can Catholics are unaware of the Church’s world-wide responsibilities. The United States was officially taken from the list of the Church’s mission territories only in 1908. At that time there were already American mission- aries abroad in West Africa, Alaska, the Bahamas, Honduras, and China. But they were only a very few. As the work expanded, between the two world wars more than 30 more mis- sion territories were entrusted to American communities. Since World War II more and more of the world mission burden has been shifted to the CATHOLIC EDUCATION A GROWING PROBLEM The Church in the U. S. is growing rapidly 1944 1954 % increase Cardinals, Arch- Bishops, Bishops 133 166 25% Priests 37,749 45,451 20% Sisters 133,985 154,055 15% Brothers 6,162 8,691 41% Parishes 14,791 15,914 8% Schools, colleges, and universities 10,383 11,650 13% Total Youth under Catholic instruction 3,037,856 5,900,569 94% Hospitals and sanatoria Baptisms 770 922 20% Infant 722,434 1,094,872 51% Adult (converts] 90,822 116,696 29% Total Catholic Population 23,419,701 31,648,424 14% United States, as other countries, se- verely stricken by the war, became less able to meet the growing need. In 1940 there were 2,227 Americans in overseas mission work. By 1953, the number had grown to 4,755, according to figures of the Mission Secretariat in Washington. This is still nowhere near the record made by such mission- minded countries as Ireland or France. But the rapid growth of U. S. mission activity in recent years gives promise of great advances to come in the next few decades. Of the present 4,755 foreign missionaries, al- most 2,000 are in Latin America and about 1,500 are in the Far East. BESIDES ITS dedicated men and women, there is a second way in which any country can help the Church’s work of “preaching the Gos- pel in every country”—with financial aid. And in this. United States Cath- olics have excelled. In 1953, 71 per cent of all the money spent on mis- sion work by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome came from Catholics in the United States. Besides this, equally large sums of money go direct from the U. S., of course, toward the sup- port of missions staffed by U. S. per- sonnel. One typical mission—neither large nor small in its permanent prop- erties—is the Pacific Island mission of the Marshalls and the Carolines, where American Jesuit Bishop Thomas Feeney estimates the total permanent investment in mission fa- cilities at just under $4 million. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith has branches in every U. S. Three U. S. boys relax a moment while training in Algeria for White Fathers' African missions diocese, and has its L . S. national headquarters in New York City, un- der the direction of Bishop Sheen. Under it, the Mission Secretariat, a cooperative agency of all the coun- try’s mission sending societies, has of- fices in the N.C.W.C. building in Washington. SINCE WORLD WAR II another ac- tivity of U. S. Catholics outside their o^^^^ borders—sharing in another way what they are blessed with — has played a major role in world recov- ery. Through War ReRef Services, N.C.W.C., they have contributed more than S250 million worth of food, clothing and other aid to help those stricken by war. Launched in 1943, this activity has continued to help in successive post-war crises and made a major contribution to relief of the Korean war sufferers as well. America’s national Thanksgiving Day and the Christmas season have been chosen as the occasions for na- tion-wide collections of clothing and canned food. On Laetare Sunday each year every U. S. Catholic is given an opportunity to contribute to the Bish- op’s Fund for Victims of War, which supports this relief work and also pro- vides a large contribution each year to Papal relief funds. In recent years a very important work of WRS-NCWC has been sponsoring refugees coming to the U. S. under the Displaced Per- sons and Refugee Relief laws. Many thousands of Catholics have been among the hundreds of thousands set- At St. Joseph's Hospital, In Pittsburgh, a 5-year-old tells Sister how she broke her arm tied in new homes in the U. S. under this program. LOOKING BACK over the record, the United States might well be summed up as the “land of great promise” for the Catholic Church. Most notable feature about Catholi- cism in the U. S. in recent years is rapid growth. From an almost neg- ligible minority, the Church has grown to a position of importance and respect in the national life. Still a youthful Catholic community, it finds itself here in a youthful civil society, that provides freedom and a favorable climate for development. Yet the Church in the United States is also aware that growth and oppor- tunity mean a great challenge in the years ahead, and is ready to meet that challenge. Relief food from U. S. distributed to war victims at Pusan, Korea (left). In war as in peace, even at battle front (right) prayer is vital part of Catholic men's lives BACK COYER: National Catholic Welfare Conference Headquarters in Washington. Facade is monument to Christ, Light of the World.