Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/40

 NEW ORLEANS

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NEW ORLEANS

American lines of the Antilles. He returned to New Orleans as arohhisliop, 1 July, 190G, and new life wsis infused into every department of religious and edu- cational and charitable endeavour. Splendid new churches and schools were erected, especially in the country parishes. Among the new institutions were St. Joseph's Seminary and College at St. Benedict, La.; St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, built on the ruins of the old college destroyed by fire; Lake Charles Sanitarium; Marquette tJniversity; and the Seaman's Haven, where a chapel was opened for sail- ors. The new sisterhoods admitted to the diocese were the Religious of the Incarnate ^\■or^l in charge of a sanitarium at Lake Charles; the Religious of Divine Pro\-idence in charge of the school in Broussardville; and the French Benedictine Sisters driven from France, who erected the new Convent of St. Gertrude at St. Benedict, La., destined as an industrial school for girls. A large industrial school and farm for coloured boys under the direction of the Sisters of the Holy Family was opened in Gent illy Road, and two new parishes outlined for the exclusive care of the coloured race. In 1907, the seminarj' conducted by the Lazarist Fathers was closed and Archbishop Blenk opened a preparatory seminary and placed it in charge of the Benedictine Fathers. The diocese as- sumed full charge of the Chinchuba Deaf-mute Insti- tute, which was established under Archbishop Jans- sens and is the only Catholic institute for deaf-mutes in the South. It is in charge of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

New Orleans' priesthood, like the population of Louisiana, is cosmopolitan. The training of the priesthood has been conducted at home and abroad, the diocese owing much to the priests who came from France, Spain, Ireland, Germany, and Holland. Sev- eral efforts were made to establish a permanent semi- nary and recruit the ranks of the priesthood from the diocese itself. At various times also the diocese had students at St. Mary's and St. Charles Seminary, Baltimore, the American College, Louvain, and has (1910) twelve theological students in different semi- naries of Europe and America. Each parish is incor- porated and there are the corporate institutions of the Jesuits and other religious communities. The houses of study for reUgious are the Jesuit scholasticate at Grand Coteau, and the Benedictine scholasticate of St. Benedict at St. Benedict, La. The Poor Clares, discalced Carmelites, Benedictine Nuns, Congrega- tion of Marianites of the Holy Cross, Ursuline Nuns, ReUgious of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Sisters of the Immacu- late Conception, Sisters of the Holy Family (coloured). Sisters of Mount Carmel, have mother-houses with no\'itiates in New Orleans. In early days there were distinctive parishes in New Orleans for French-, Eng- lish-, and German-speaking Catholics, but with the growing diffusion of the English language these parish lines have disappeared. In all the churches where necessary, there are French, English, and German ser- mons and instructions; there are churches and chapels for Italian emigrants and Hungarians, a German set- tlement at St. Leo near Rajme, domestic missions for negroes under the charge of the Holy Family Sisters and Josephite Fathers and Lazarists at New Orleans and Bayou Petite, Prairie.

The educational system is well organized. The principal institutions are: the diocesan normal school; the Marquette University under the care of the Jesuits; 7 colleges and academies with high school courses for boys with 180.3 students; 17 academies for young ladies, under the direction of religious communi- ties, with 2201 students; 102 parishes with parochial schools having an attendance of 20,000 pupils; 117 orphan asylums with 1.341 orphans; 1 infant asylum with 164 infants; 1 industrial school for whites'with 90 inmates; 1 industrial school for coloured orphan

boys; 1 deaf-mute asylum with 40 inmates; 3 hospi- ' tals; 2 homes for the aged white, and 1 for the aged coloured poor; 1 house of the C.ochI Slieplierd for the reform of wayward girls; a ScaiiKiii's Ilaven. The state asylums for the blind, etc., hos|)itals, prisons, re- formatories, almshouses, and secular homes for incur- ables, consumptives, convalescents, etc., are all visited by Catholic priests. Sisters of Mercy, conferences of St. Vincent de Paul, and St. Margaret's Daughters. There is absolute freedom of worship. The first St. Vincent de Paul conference was organized in 1852.

The diocese has one Benedictine abbey (St. Joseph's, of which Right Rev. Paul Schauble is abbot); 156 secular priests, 123 priests in religious communities, making a total of 279 clergy; 133 churches vnth resident priests and 90 missions with churches, making a total of 223 churches; 35 stations and 42 chapels where Mass is said. The total Catholic population is 5.50,000; yearly baptisms include 15,155 white chil- dren, 253 white adults, 3111 coloured children, and 354 coloured adults (total number of baptisms 18,- 873); the communions average 750,180; confirmations 11,215; converts, 817; marriages, 3.533 (including 323 mixed). The large centres of church activity are the cities of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Plaque- mine, Donaldsonville, Thibodeaux, Houma, Franklin, Jeannerette, New Iberia, Lafayette, Abbeville, Mor- gan City, St. Martin, Crowley, Lake Charles. The churches and schools are all insured; an association for assisting infirm priests, the Priests' Aid Society, has been established and mutual aid and benevolent associations in almost every parish for the assistance of the laity. Assimilation is constantly going on among the ditTerent nationalities that come to New Orleans tlirough intermarriage between Germans, Italians, French, and Americans, and thus is created a healthy civic sentiment that conduces to earnest and harmonious progress along lines of religious, charita- ble, educational, and social endeavour. The Catholic laity of the diocese is naturally largely represented in the life and government of the community, the population being so overwhelmingly Catholic; Cath- olics hold prominent civil positions, such as governor, mayor, and member of the Bar, State Legislature, and United States Congress. A Catholic from Louisiana, Edward D. White, has been recently (1910) appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Catholics are connected with the state nor- mal schools and colleges, are on the board of the state universities and public libraries, and are represented in the corps of professors, patrons, and pupils of the Louisiana State and Tulane universities. Three fourths of the teachers of the public schools of Louisi- ana are Catholics.

The laity take a very active interest in the religious life of the diocese. Every church and convent has its altar society for the care of the tabernacle, sodalities of the Blessed Virgin for young girls and women. The Holy Name Society for men, young and old, is estab- lished throughout the diocese, while conferences of St. Vincent de Paul are established in thirty churches. St. Margaret's Daughters, indulgenced like the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, has twenty-eight circles at work, and the Total Abstinence Society is established in many churches. Besides the Third Order of St. Francis, the diocese has confraternities of the Happy Death, the Holy Face, the Holy Rosary, and the Holy Agony; the Apostleship of Prayer is established in nearly all the churches, while many parishes have confraternities adapted to their special needs. The Catholic Knights of America and Knights of Colum- bus are firmly established, while the Holy Spirit So- ciety, devoted to the defence of Catholic Faith, the diffusion of Catholic truth, and the establishment of churches and schools in wayside places, is doing noble work along church extension lines. Other societies are the Marquette League, the Society for the Propa-