One of the latest labors of Pius IX. was that which he undertook, on the
urgent request of the Catholics of Scotland, in connection with the
restoration of the ancient Scottish hierarchy. The venerable Pontiff, now
so far advanced in years, did not live to complete this important work.
The late reverend and learned Dr. Grant, President of the Scotch College
at Rome, ceased not, meanwhile, to promote, as representing the Catholics
of Scotland, the institution of the hierarchy. His knowledge of the
country and historical research eminently qualified him for the task. The
work, so happily commenced under the auspices of Pius IX., was brought to
a conclusion soon after the accession of his successor, Leo XIII. The Most
Rev. John Strain, well known as a sound theologian and eminently practical
preacher, was appointed Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. The
learned prelate thus became the successor of the ancient Archbishops of
St. Andrews and Primate of Scotland. The other Episcopal Sees erected were
Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dunkeld, Galloway, Argyll and the Isles. Glasgow, in
consideration of its former honors, was made an archbishopric, but without
suffragans. The archbishop is a member of the Synod of St. Andrews and
Edinburgh. To the undying honor of the people of Scotland, there is
nothing more to record. There were no commotions, no eloquent appeals for
the purpose of allaying groundless fears and calming the popular mind, to
burden the tale of the historian. An unsuccessful attempt at riot, by some
rowdies, in a city of six hundred thousand souls, confirms rather than
derogates from the absolute truth of this statement.
There are already in the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh several
important religions institutions. Among these may be mentioned four
communities of religious sisters. The sisters, called “Ursulines of
Jesus,” have two establishments in the city of Edinburgh, and devote
themselves entirely to education and charity. There are fifty-four
churches, chapels and stations. The missions, properly so-called, are
twenty-eight in number, and forty-three priests, of whom thirteen are
members of religious societies, perform all the missionary duty and
minister to the spiritual wants of the congregations. It cannot be said
that education is neglected, and such education as recognizes religious
principle; there being, in addition to the convent schools, thirty-six
congregational or parochial schools.
In the Archdiocese of Glasgow, one hundred and twenty-one priests, of whom
twenty-four are members of religious societies, attend to the spiritual
wants of the missions and congregations. The Glasgow missions count
fifty-nine, with seventy-eight churches, chapels and stations. The
congregational or parochial schools number one hundred and eighty-six, in
addition to religious educational institutions.
Aberdeen has forty-seven priests, of whom seven are members of the
Benedictine Order. It has thirty-two missions, with fifty-one churches,
chapels and stations. Colleges, convents, and congregational schools, are
in proportion to the Catholic population.
Dunkeld contains within its borders the important seaport town of Dundee,
and the ancient city of Perth, where may still be seen the Church of St.
John, against which the Knox Iconoclasts cast the first stone—the sad
prelude to their furious onslaught on all the sacred edifices of the land.
At Dundee there is a numerous Catholic population. In the whole diocese
there are thirty-three priests, of whom twelve are members of the
religious Society of Redemptorists. There are religious communities of
Sisters of Mercy, Little Sisters of the Poor, and Ursulines of Jesus. The
Marist Brothers and Redemptorists have their monasteries, and there is a
creditable number of congregational schools.
The ancient See of Whithorn (Candidacasa) is now known as the diocese of
Galloway. It dates from St. Ninian, the apostle of the Southern Picts, by
whom it was founded in 397. It was destroyed in the time of the
Scandinavian invasions, and remained extinct from 808 till 1189. It fell
again at the epoch of the Reformation, and had no bishop from the death of
Andrew Durie, in 1558, till the appointment of Bishop McLachlan by Leo
XIII. The residence of the bishop is at Dumfries, where there is a
numerous congregation and an elegant church.
Argyll and the Isles is a diocese full of promise. The traditions of its
piety in ancient days are a rich inheritance. It has already thirty-eight
churches, chapels and stations, together with some numerous congregations.
INCREASE AND NUMBER OF CATHOLICS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD IN THE TIME OF PIUS
IX.
About the time of the accession of Pius IX., the Catholic population of
the world was estimated by scientific men at two hundred and fifty-four
million six hundred and fifty-five thousand (see the _Scientific
Miscellany_ of the time). Since that time there has been a very
considerable increase. How great it has been we may judge from the
statistics with which we are most familiar, those of Great Britain and the
British Colonies, as well as those of the United States of America. The
eminent statisticians, Drs. Behm and Wagner, hold that the number of
Protestants has more than doubled in the same period. Some thirty-five
years ago, according to the _Scientific Miscellany_, the Protestant
population of the world was forty-eight million nine hundred and
eighty-nine thousand. Without saying that the learned men alluded to are
wrong in estimating them now at one hundred and one million, it may be
claimed that Catholics have enjoyed at least as great an increase. The
tendency of the latter, in the present age, is to spread and to spread
rapidly, whilst among Protestants, according to their own ablest writers,
there exists no such expansive power. An opinion prevails among those who
are not friendly to the Catholic Church, that such an institution can only
take root and grow in an age of ignorance, or among ignorant people. This
opinion enjoys not the sanction of the most distinguished Protestant
authors and preachers. Baron Macaulay writes: “We often hear it said that
the world is constantly becoming more and more enlightened, and that the
enlightenment must be favorable to Protestantism and unfavorable to
Catholicism. We wish that we could think so. But we see great reason to
doubt whether this is a well-founded expectation. We see that during the
last two hundred and fifty years the human mind has been in the highest
degree active; that it has made great advances in every branch of natural
philosophy; that it has produced innumerable inventions, tending to
promote the convenience of life; that medicine, surgery, chemistry,
engineering, have been very greatly improved; that government, police and
law, have been improved, though not to so great an extent as the physical
sciences. Yet we see that during these two hundred and fifty years
Protestantism has made no conquests worth speaking of. Nay, we believe
that as far as there has been change, that change has been in favor of the
Church of Rome. We cannot, therefore, feel confident that the progress of
knowledge will necessarily be fatal to a system which has, to say the
least, stood its ground in spite of the immense progress made by the human
race in knowledge since the time of Queen Elizabeth.” If, then,
Protestantism, as regards increase and development, has been at a
stand-still for the last two(13) hundred and fifty years, whilst it is
admitted on all hands that Catholicism has been growing rapidly, it is
not, surely, unreasonable to claim that the increase of Catholics keeps
pace with that of Protestants. The claim, however, must be waived, as it
would give a greater expansion to the Catholic Church than Catholics can
suppose it is entitled to. If the number of Catholics had doubled within
the last five-and-thirty or forty years, as that of Protestants is alleged
by the learned statisticians to have done, they would now count five
hundred and nine million three hundred thousand. Behm and Wagner estimate
them at two hundred and seventy million.
Judging by the facts alluded to, this estimate is certainly below the
mark, and we shall still be considered as determining for a low figure
when we reckon the Catholic population of the whole world at three hundred
million.
The heathen masses are still the most numerous. But, if the statement
recently made by the Secretary of the Chinese Legation, at Washington, may
be relied on, they are not overwhelmingly so. This statement reduces the
population of China from the fabulous number of four hundred million to
one hundred million. It is not, surely, reasonable to suppose, as the
world has so long supposed, that one nation, China, has a population
double that of all the nations of India. The whole heathen world,
therefore, cannot count more than six hundred and fifty million souls—too
many to be still in darkness and the shadow of death. But let each
believer labor to convert a heathen, and there will be light at last. The
believing portion of mankind is not so far behind, in point of numbers, at
least. It consists of (according to Drs. Behm and Wagner):
300,000,000 Catholics.
90,000,000 members of the Greek Church.
101,000,000 Protestants.
7,000,000 Jews.