r The Catholic Democracy of America,64 - Digital Repository Services

26 Reman Catholicism in America.
Hopkins, which voluntarily abnegates a career held in the
highest honor, because opulence is its goal, and dedicates
itself to a life of relative poverty, for the sake of religion or
of sound learning.
Philadelphia, unlike New York, is a typical American
commercial city which illustrates the position and progress of
the Roman Catholic Church in the Union. Although the
estimable Society of Friends is not as relatively strong there
as formerly, and though Pennsylvania was in the old days a
favorable locality for Catholic settlers, yet the tradition of
Philadelphia is decidedly Protestant. For all that, the
"Quaker City" contains nearly as many Roman Catholics as
the entire population of Rome. It contains more Catholics
than the entire population of any other town in Catholic
Italy but Naples; of any town in Catholic Spain but Madrid;
of any town in Catholic Belgium but Brussels; and of any
town in France except Paris and Lyons. Among the great
Catholic cities of Europe whose inhabitants are less numerous
than the Catholic population of Philadelphia are Milan,
Turin, Palermo, Barcelona, Antwerp, Bordeaux and Marseilles.
Statements in this form are frequently made to
illustrate the. vastness of London, but Philadelphia is not
even a London on a small scale. It is a characteristic American
city of the first rank, larger than any single British
municipality in the provinces, but not much larger than
Manchester and Salford together with the adjoining townships,
and it contains over 300,000 Catholics. The next
census will probably show that this figure is considerably
below the mark, as the diocese contains 400,000 Catholics,
and there is no great centre of population within it outside
Philadelphia.
We find that the Roman, Catholic Church can claim 10,-
000,000 United States citizens in a population of 60,000,000,
it is difficult to over-estimate the influence which the expansion
of the Church in America will have on the future
of Christendom. Judging from her past progress and con-