A study of Catholic, ecclesiastical and religious statistics

Abstract

The purpose of this paper, introducing to the Society the subject of Catholic ecclesiastical and religion statistics, is to suggest some lines of inquiry, while also giving a general account of contemporary studies in this field. The Church had, after the fall of the Roman Empire, made itself responsible for certain statistics of population movements; and since the Council of Trent an obligation had been placed upon parish priests to keep accurate records of baptisms, marriages and deaths. Several of the Sacred Congregations of the Holy See have always received for their information regular reports of a statistical nature. The most important archives, from the statistical point of view, are those of the Congregations knowns as "De Propaganda Fide", "Pro Ecclesia Orientali", and "Concistoriale"; but other Congregations, "De Disciplina Sacramentorum", and of Religious, and of Seminaries, handle an amount of statistical material relevant to their work.