7. At the present time there are in the United States 19 ecclesiastical provinces, 115 dioceses, almost 200 seminaries and innumerable houses of worship, elementary and high schools, colleges, hospitals, asylums for the poor and monasteries. It is with good reason then that visitors from other lands admire the organization and system under which your schools of various grades are conducted, the generosity of the faithful upon whom they depend, the vigilant care with which they are watched over by the directors. From these schools there comes forth a host of citizens, strong in heart and mind, who, by reason of their reverence for Divine and human laws, are justly considered to be the strength and the flower and the honor of Church and of country.