THE official Year Book of the Vatican, which has just appeared, contains many interesting statistics. From it we learn that there are to-day fifty-six cardinals, of whom five were appointed by Pius IX. and fifty-one by Leo XIII. In the College of Cardinals there are fourteen vacancies. During the twenty-one years of Pope Leo's pontificate 124 cardinals have died. During the rule of the same pontiff the ecclesiastical hierarchy has been notably increased. Two new patriarchal sees and thirteen archiepiscopal sees have been established; seventeen bishops have been made archbishops; 100 new bishops, two apostolic delegates and forty-nine apostolic vicars have been appointed, and thirty new prefectures have been established. There are altogether in the world 1,328 ecclesiastical dignitaries, of whom fifty-six are cardinals, ten patriarchs, 880 archbishops and bishops, 350 titular archbishops and bishops, five archbishops and bishops who have given up their titles, eleven prelates of the episcopal order, and eight abbots and prelates with episcopal jurisdiction. The majority of the high dignitaries in this list are Italians. Among the cardinals there are thirty Italians and twenty-six foreigners. Among the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops the proportion is still more remarkable, for out of the 930 dioceses in the entire world Italy has one-third. The former kingdom of Naples alone has 130 dioceses—as many as France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary put together. If we add to these the numerous titular Italian bishops, we shall find that almost half of the dignities of the entire Catholic Church are distributed among Italian dignitaries.—Catholic Mirror, April 15.