Religion in New York [pp. 381-389]

Religion in New York.
We turn our attention now to the
Catholic population of the city, and
the religious institutions under the
control of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic population is variously
estimated at from 300,000 to 400,000.
As no census has been taken, all estimates must be merely approximate.
One way in which an estimate may be
made, is by taking the returns of the
census giving the total population of
foreign birth, and getting the proportion of Catholics to non-Catholics
among the various nationalities. Some
probable estimate of the native-born
Catholics must then be made and added to the number of foreign-born. In
1860 the number of inhabitants of
foreign birth was 383,717, out of a
total of 813,669. If we suppose that
the foreign-born population has increased to 460,000, it seems not
improbable that the Catholic proportion of it, with the home-born Catholics added, will reach the total of
400,000.
Another basis of calculation is the
ratio of baptisms to the whole population. A register is kept with the utmost
exactness in each parish, and the result
transmitted once a year to the chancery,
where it is entered in the diocesan
record. AWe are furnished, therefore,
with anl authentic census of births
from Catholic parents each year, and
if the exact multiplier could be ascertained by which to multiply this number, we should reach a certain result.
It can only be conjectured, however,
with more or less probability, and
varies in different localities remarkably
according to the character of the population. The baptisms for one year
are 18,000. Multiply the number by
33, as is usually done in making the
estimates of the general census, and
you have 594,000. This number is
too large, however. If we take 20, it
gives us 360,000; 25, 450,000. We
do not profess to come any nearer
than this to an estimate of the actual
Catholic population. The two conjectural calculations, compared with
each other, appear to settle the point
that it is, as we have already stated,
between 300,000 and 400,000.
The number of churches is 32, or
one to from 10,000 to 12,000 people;
and the number of priests 93, or one
to about 4,000 people. In the lower
section, embracing the first seven
wards, there are five churches: St.
Peter's in the Third ward, St. James's
in the Fourth, St. Andrew's and Transfiguration in the Sixth, and St. Teresa's
in the Seventh. These churches furnish
nearly three times as much accommodation as the Protestant churches in
the same district. It must be remembered that the capacity of a Catholic
church includes standing room as well
as sittings, and must be multiplied
by the number of masses. A church
which will hold, when crowded, 2,000
persons, and where four masses are
celebrated, will accommodate 8,000
on one Sunday; and, considering the
causes which keep many from attending church regularly, 12,000 different
individuals who attend regularly or
occasionally. One of these churches,
St. Teresa's, is a very fine building of
stone, which was purchased about four
years ago from the Presbyterians, and
was called in former times the Rutgers
street Presbyterian church. No Catliolic church in the lower part of the
city has ever been closed, or moved
up town, with the exception of St.
Vincent de Paul's.
The middle district has nine
churches: St. Alphonsus'in the Eighth
ward (German and English), St. Joseph's in the Ninth, St. Bridget's in
the Eleventh, St. Mary's in the Thirteenth, St. Patrick's in the Fourteenth,
St. Ann's in the Fifteenth, Holy
Redeemer (German), St. Nicholas's
(German), Nativity, in the Seventeenth.
Below Fourteenth street we have,
therefore, fourteen churches, most of
them very large, surrounded by a dense
Catholic population, and crowded with
overflowing congregations. A very
large proportion of our Catholic population is in this part of the city.
Between Fourteenth and Eighty
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