There are some Catholics who claim that the Church is not making the progress that it should in this country; they point to the scarcity of churches in some places, the shortage of schools in others, the slow growth of our numbers, the lack of Catholic influence in matters of public importance, and other signs from which they draw doleful conclusions.

Whilst our progress is never so rapid as we should wish, and while there still exist disabilities and other circumstances which we may deplore, a rapid survey of some of the changes that have come over Catholic England since the year Queen Victoria came to the throne will show what truly remarkable progress we have made in a period which may seem a long time but which is actually within the lifetime of many still living.

In 1837 there were several counties in England and Wales with no Catholic church or chapel of any kind, and eleven with only one chapel for the spiritual needs of a parish which sometimes extended far beyond the county boundary. In Scotland, of course, the position was far worse; eleven chapels had to serve the needs of twenty-four counties, thirteen being entirely devoid of any place wherein Mass could be said. Think what this means, you who have only to step across the road to a fine church in which you can hear two or three Masses every day of the week if you are so inclined.

In London there were twenty-five ‘chapels’ ; churches, and, of course, cathedrals, were unknown. In the whole of England there were 433 chapels; Lancashire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Middlesex accounting for nearly half.