Estimating the Roman Catholic Population
The Roman Catholic population of this country as estimated by Dr. Carroll is 12,394,731. The Roman Catholics estimated at 14,235,451. The simple fact is that there never has been a very correct census taken of the Roman Catholic Church. Neither is this estimate a fair comparison with the Protestant statistics. In the Protestant statistics only actual members are counted; in the Roman Catholic Church all members of Catholic families are counted, that is, all the infants which have been sprinkled. Archbishop Ireland, however, thinks that the number of Roman Catholics as the Roman Catholics are reckoned is too low, and should not be under sixteen or seventeen million.