This is of course only temporary delay.

An unusually large percentage of the adult population holds membership in one or other of the Protestant denominations.

The Roman Catholics are reported as being in a majority in Louisiana, as might be expected owing to French descent, and in Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, and Texas the proportion is considerable.

It is less in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.

In Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, the proportion of Catholics is still smaller, though the latest (1918) official Catholic statistics for the even States last named show 7 bishops, 415 priests, 635 churches, and 211,000 Catholics.