The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore (Latin: Archidioecesis Baltimorensis) is the premier see of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese comprises the City of Baltimore and 9 of Maryland's 23 counties in the central and western portions of the state: Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see of the larger regional Ecclesiastical Province of Baltimore.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is the oldest diocese in the United States whose see city was within the nation's boundaries when the United States declared its independence in 1776. The Holy See granted the Archbishop of Baltimore the right of precedence in the nation at liturgies, meetings, and Plenary Councils on August 15, 1859. Although the Archdiocese of Baltimore does not enjoy "primatial" status, it is the premier episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America, as "prerogative of place".
Within the archdiocese are 518,000 Catholics, 145 parishes, 545 priests (244 diocesan priests, 196 priests resident in diocese), 159 permanent deacons, 55 brothers, 803 sisters, 205 lay extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, five hospitals, 28 aged homes, 7 diocesan/parish high schools, 13 private high schools, 4 colleges/universities, and two seminaries (St. Mary's Seminary and University in Roland Park, of north Baltimore and Mount St. Mary's Seminary (at Mount Saint Mary's University) in Frederick County's Emmitsburg, Maryland).
This archdiocese was featured in the Netflix documentary The Keepers exposing the sexual abuse history at Archbishop Keough High School and the murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik in 1969. It was revealed in late 2016 that the Archdiocese of Baltimore had paid off numerous settlements since 2011 for abuse victims.
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History
Before and during the American Revolutionary War, the Catholics in Great Britain's thirteen colonies in America (and also its colonies in Canada) were under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District, in England. After the Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, ended the war, Maryland clergy delivered a petition to the Holy See, on November 6, 1783, for permission for the missionaries in the United States to nominate a superior who would have some of the powers of a bishop. In response, Pope Pius VI on June 6, 1784, confirmed Father John Carroll, who had been selected by his brother priests, as Superior of the Missions in the newly independent thirteen United States of North America, with power to give the sacrament of confirmation. This act established a hierarchy in the United States and removed the Catholic Church in the U.S. from the authority of the Vicar Apostolic of the London District.
The Holy See then established the Apostolic Prefecture of the United States on November 26, 1784. Because Maryland was one of the few regions of the colonial United States with a substantial Roman Catholic population, the apostolic prefecture was elevated to become the Diocese of Baltimore--the first diocese in the United States--on November 6, 1789. In 1790, Father Carroll traveled to England where he was ordained and consecrated as a bishop in Lulworth Castle in Dorset, by authority of the Bishop of London.
On April 8, 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the suffragan dioceses of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bardstown in Bardstown, Kentucky, which moved in 1841 to the larger city of Louisville, from the territory of the Diocese of Baltimore and simultaneously raised it to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese, thereby making it the "Archdiocese of Baltimore". The newly established "Province of Baltimore"--whose metropolitan was the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore--comprised all of the states and territories of the nation.
The archdiocese again lost territory in following decades with the creation of the Diocese of Richmond (Virginia) on July 11, 1820; and the Diocese of Wilmington (Delaware) on March 3, 1868.
On July 22, 1939, the City of Washington was erected as a separate archdiocese. The archbishop of Baltimore, Michael J. Curley, was simultaneously named the first archbishop of the new Archdiocese of Washington (D.C.) and continued to administer the two archdioceses as a single unit -- in persona episcopi. The see was temporarily renamed the Archdiocese of Baltimore-Washington, in recognition of the nation's capital. Eight years later, on November 15, 1947, Patrick A. O'Boyle was appointed the second archbishop -- and first residential archbishop -- of the Archdiocese of Washington, which consequently began to function as a separate diocese. Therefore, the territory of the "new" archdiocese -- consisting of the District of Columbia and the two Washington suburban and three southern counties of Maryland -- were permanently separated from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which was thus reduced to its current extent.
From 1808 until 1847, Baltimore was the only archdiocese in the United States and therefore the entire country was one ecclesiastical province. As the nation's population grew and waves of Catholic immigrants arrived, the Holy See continued to erect new dioceses and elevate certain others to the status of metropolitan archdioceses, which simultaneously became metropolitan sees of new ecclesiastical provinces. Thus, the Province of Baltimore gradually became smaller and smaller. In 1847, the then-Diocese of Saint Louis was elevated to an archdiocese and metropolitan see of the new Province of Saint Louis. In 1850, the Diocese of New York was raised to an archdiocese. Also in 1850, the Diocese of Oregon City, now Portland, Oregon was raised to an archdiocese. In 1875, the dioceses of Boston and Philadelphia were likewise elevated.
The archdiocese began to publish its diocesan newspaper, The Baltimore Catholic Review since 1913 as the successor to the earlier diocesan publication The Catholic Mirror, published 1833 to 1908. The name has since been shortened to The Catholic Review. In 2012, it changed from weekly to biweekly issues and in December 2015, it transformed again to a monthly magazine.
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Sexual abuse
In 2016 the Archdiocese of Baltimore confirmed that settlements had been paid to past students of Seton Keough High School who had alleged sexual abuse by Father A. Joseph Maskell, a priest at the school in the 1960s and '70s. In January 1970, a popular English and drama teacher at Archbishop Keough, Sister Cathy Cesnik, was found murdered in the outskirts of the city of Baltimore. Her murder was never solved and is the topic of a true crime documentary The Keepers that was released on Netflix on May 19, 2017.
Prelature
In general; "Prerogative of Place"
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is led by the prelature of the Archbishop of Baltimore and a corps of auxiliary bishops who assist in the administration of the archdiocese as part of a larger curia. Sixteen people have served as Archbishop of Baltimore; the current archbishop is William E. Lori.
In 1858, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide), with the approval of Pope Pius IX, conferred "Prerogative of Place" on the Archdiocese of Baltimore. This decree gave the archbishop of Baltimore precedence over all other archbishops of the United States (but not cardinals) in councils, gatherings, and meetings of whatever kind of the hierarchy (in conciliis, coetibus et comitiis quibuscumque), regardless of the seniority of other archbishops in promotion or ordination.
Co-Cathedrals
The archbishop is concurrently the pastor of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland in north Baltimore and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (old Baltimore Cathedral). The older cathedral is located on Cathedral Hill above downtown, near the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood. Both are called co-cathedrals. The Archbishop appoints a rector for each of the co-cathedrals. The Basilica, built in 1806-1821, is the first cathedral constructed in the United States (within its boundaries at the time). It is considered the mother church of the United States. During the time from the first bishop John Carroll's installation in 1790 to the dedication of the old Baltimore Cathedral in 1821, the bishop's throne ("cathedra") was at St. Peter's Church (first parish in the diocese, founded 1770). It was located two blocks south on the northwestern corner of North Charles Street and West Saratoga Streets, serving as the pro-cathedral with its attached rectory, school and surrounding cemetery. Old St. Peter's interestingly was across the street from the "Mother Church of the Anglican Church" in Baltimore, Old St. Paul's Church (Anglican/Episcopal) with four successive buildings at the site beginning in 1730 at the southeast corner of Charles and Saratoga, in downtown, overlooking the harbor. St. Peter's Roman Catholic parish was razed in 1841.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is one of only five United States dioceses that have two churches serving as cathedrals in the same city, the others being the Diocese of Honolulu; the Diocese of Burlington; the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska. Other dioceses with two cathedrals have them in separate cities.
Archbishops of Baltimore
The list of archbishops and their terms of service:
- John Carroll, S.J. (1784-1815) died; had been raised to archbishop in 1808
- Leonard Neale, S.J. (1815-1817) died
- Ambrose Maréchal, P.S.S. (1817-1828) died
- James Whitfield (1828-1834) died
- Samuel Eccleston, P.S.S. (1834-1851) died
- Francis Patrick Kenrick (1851-1863) died
- Martin John Spalding (1864-1872) died
- James Roosevelt Bayley (1872-1877) died
- James Gibbons (1877-1921) died
- Michael Joseph Curley (1921-1947) died
- Francis Patrick Keough (1947-1961) died
- Lawrence Shehan (1961-1974) retired; deceased (coadjutor, 1961); Cardinal in 1965
- William Donald Borders (1974-1989) retired; deceased
- William Henry Keeler (1989-2007) retired; deceased; Cardinal in 1994
- Edwin Frederick O'Brien (2007-2011) appointed Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem; future Cardinal
- William Edward Lori (2012-present)
Coadjutor and auxiliary bishops
Following is the list of coadjutor and auxiliary bishops and their terms of service (auxiliary is assumed unless noted as coadjutor). Once a diocese is raised to archdiocese, the coadjutor also has the rank of archbishop.
- Dominic Laurence Graessel S.J. (Coadjutor: 1793) posthumous appointment
- Leonard Neale S.J. (Coadjutor: 1795-1815) succeeded to see
- James Whitfield (Coadjutor: January 8 - 28, 1828) succeeded to see
- Samuel Eccleston P.S.S. (Coadjutor: March - October 1834) succeeded to see
- James Gibbons (Coadjutor: May - October 1877) succeeded to see
- Alfred Allen Paul Curtis (1897-1908) had retired as Bishop of Wilmington
- Owen Patrick Bernard Corrigan (1908-1929) died
- Thomas Joseph Shahan (1914-1932) died
- John Michael McNamara (1927-1947) appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Washington
- Lawrence Joseph Shehan (1945-1953) appointed Bishop of Bridgeport (later named coadjutor archbishop; see #12 below)
- Jerome Aloysius Daugherty Sebastian (1953-1960) died
- Lawrence Joseph Shehan (Coadjutor: July - December 1961) succeeded to see (used to be auxiliary; see #10 above)
- Thomas Austin Murphy (1962-1984) retired
- Thomas Joseph Mardaga (1966-1968) appointed Bishop of Wilmington
- Francis Joseph Gossman (1968-1975) appointed Bishop of Raleigh
- Philip Francis Murphy (1976-1999) died
- James Francis Stafford (1976-1982) appointed Bishop of Memphis; later appointed Archbishop of Denver; later President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; created Cardinal; later appointed Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary; retired 2 June 2009
- William Clifford Newman (1984-2003) retired
- John Ricard S.S.J. (1984-1997) appointed Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee
- Gordon Dunlap Bennett S.J. (1997-2004) appointed Bishop of Mandeville in Jamaica
- William Francis Malooly (2000-2008) appointed Bishop of Wilmington
- Mitchell T. Rozanski (2004-2014) appointed Bishop of Springfield (Massachusetts)
- Denis J. Madden (2005-2016) retired
- Mark E. Brennan (2017-present)
- Adam J. Parker (2017-present)
Other affiliated bishops
The following men began their service as priests in Baltimore before being appointed bishops elsewhere (years in parentheses refers to their years in Baltimore):
- Ignatius A. Reynolds, Bishop of Charleston (1823-1843)
- John J. Chanche, Bishop of Natchez (1841-1851)
- William Henry Elder, Archbishop of Cincinnati (1846-1857)
- Thomas Patrick Roger Foley, Coadjutor Bishop of Chicago (1846-1869)
- John Samuel Foley, Bishop of Detroit (1856-1888)
- Thomas Albert Andrew Becker, Bishop of Savannah (1859-1868); was Bishop of Wilmington, 1868-1886
- Placide Louis Chapelle, Archbishop of New Orleans, Apostolic Delegate to Cuba, Apostolic Delegate to Philippines (1865-1891)
- John Joseph Keane, Archbishop of Dubuque (1866-1878)
- Patrick James Donahue, Bishop of Wheeling (1885-1894)
- William Thomas Russell, Bishop of Charleston (1889-1916)
- Peter Leo Ireton, Bishop of Richmond (1906-1935)
- Thomas Joseph Toolen, Archbishop ad personam and Bishop of Mobile (1910-1927)
- William Joseph Hafey, Bishop of Scranton (1914-1925)
- John Joyce Russell, Bishop of Charleston and Richmond (1923-1950)
- Michael William Hyle, Bishop of Wilmington (1927-1958); was coadjutor (with right of succession) of Wilmington, 1958-1960
- Philip Matthew Hannan, Archbishop of New Orleans (1939-1948)
- Victor Benito Galeone, Bishop of Saint Augustine (1960-2001)
- F. Richard Spencer, Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (1988-1994)
Parishes
Operating parishes
Closed parishes
Education
High schools
Shrines of the archdiocese
- Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baltimore, Maryland
- Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg, Maryland
Province of Baltimore
- Diocese of Arlington
- Diocese of Richmond
- Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston
- Diocese of Wilmington
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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