Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington

Archdiocese of Washington
Archidioecesis Vashingtonensis
Location
Country United States
Territory District of Columbia plus counties of Montgomery, Prince George's, St. Mary's, Calvert, and Charles in Maryland[1]
Ecclesiastical province Washington
Statistics
Area 2,104 sq mi (5,450 km2)
Population
- Total
- Catholics		 (as of 2014)
2,867,377
630,823[2] (22.0%)
Parishes 139
Information
Denomination Roman Catholic
Rite Roman Rite
Established November 15, 1947[3] (70 years ago)
Cathedral Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle
Patron saint St. Matthew
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Metropolitan Archbishop Sede Vacante
Auxiliary Bishops Mario E. Dorsonville
Roy Edward Campbell
Michael William Fisher
Emeritus Bishops Donald Wuerl
Theodore Edgar McCarrick
Francisco González Valer
Website
www.adw.org
Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.
The Pastoral Center in Hyattsville, Maryland

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. It comprises the District of Columbia and Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's and Saint Mary's counties in the state of Maryland.

The Archdiocese of Washington is home to The Catholic University of America, the only national university operated by the bishops conference of the United States[4] and Georgetown University, the oldest Jesuit institution of higher education in the country.

In addition, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a minor basilica dedicated to the nation's patroness, is located within and administered by it, and, although it is not the Archdiocesan cathedral (nor even a parish of the Archdiocese), it is the site of its Easter and Christmas Masses.

Prelature

The ordinary of the Archdiocese of Washington is an archbishop whose cathedra is the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in the City of Washington and who is metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Washington. Its sole suffragan see is the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands.

The first Archbishop of Washington was Michael Joseph Curley in 1939. Eight years later, on November 15, 1947, the archdiocese received its first residential archbishop, with the appointment of Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle. Donald William Cardinal Wuerl served as the most recent ordinary of the Archdiocese. Wuerl resigned as Archbishop of Washington on October 12, 2018 in the wake of revelations about his poor handling of incidents of sex abuse when he served as Bishop of Pittsburgh.[5]

History

The Archdiocese of Washington often prides itself in sharing the fact that the Society of Jesus celebrated the first Mass in British North America on its shores in 1634.[6] During the colonial era, however, Catholics would remain a persecuted people suffering the wrath of oppression allowed by local penal laws.[6]

Upon the founding of the United States, a Jesuit priest, Father John Carroll, was elected head of the missionary territory (later Prefecture Apostolic) of the United States. In 1789 the Diocese of Baltimore (later the Archdiocese of Baltimore) was established with Carroll as its first bishop, and given ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the entire nation.[7]

On July 22, 1939, Pope Pius XII separated the cities of Washington and Baltimore, creating two archdioceses (Baltimore and Washington), under the oversight of one archbishop in persona episcopi.[3][6] This process of separation was officially concluded on November 15, 1947, with the appointment of Washington's first residential archbishop.[3][6] The Archdiocese of Washington became a metropolitan see on October 12, 1965, when the Diocese of Saint Thomas became its first (and, so far, only) suffragan see.

Bishops

The list of bishops and their terms of service:

Archbishops of Washington

  1. Michael Joseph Curley (1939–1947), concurrently the Archbishop of Baltimore
  2. Cardinal Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle (1947–1973)
  3. Cardinal William Wakefield Baum (1973–1980), appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education and later Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary
  4. Cardinal James Aloysius Hickey (1980–2000)
  5. (Former) Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (2000–2006)[8]
  6. Cardinal Donald William Wuerl (2006–2018)

Auxiliary Bishops

Sex Abuse Investigation

On September 26, 2018, it was announced that the Archdiocese of Washington was now one of four American Catholic Dioceses under investigation by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for reports of sex abuse.[9] Accused former Cardinal and Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick had served in each Diocese.[9]

Parishes

High schools

Archdiocesan cemeteries

In addition to the nearly four dozen of its parishes which have their own cemeteries,[10] the archdiocese owns and operates five major cemeteries:[11]

Two former parish cemeteries are also operated by the archdiocese:

Province of Washington, D.C.

Ecclesiastical Province of Washington map

See also

References

  1. ↑ Archdiocese of Washington
  2. ↑ "Statistics". Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. December 6, 2016. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Although the archdiocese was created on July 29, 1939, it shared its first archbishop with the Archdiocese of Baltimore — Archbishop Curley — who continued to administer the two archdioceses as a single unit, until Washington's first residential archbishop was appointed on November 15, 1947. Most Rev. Michael J. Curley Archived February 21, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.. Archdiocese of Baltimore. Retrieved on November 19, 2016. Archbishops of the Modern Era Archived November 20, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.. Archdiocese of Baltimore. Retrieved on 2016-11-19.
  4. ↑ "About Us". The Catholic University of America. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  5. ↑ https://www.npr.org/2018/10/12/656829266/pope-accepts-resignation-of-cardinal-wuerl-archbishop-of-washington
  6. 1 2 3 4 About Us. Archdiocese of Washington. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Prefect Apostolic". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  8. ↑
  9. 1 2 https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2018/09/26/bishops-to-investigate-4-dioceses-after-pope-nixes-vatican-mccarrick-probe/
  10. ↑ Parish Cemeteries from the official website of the Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Washington
  11. ↑ History from the official website of the Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Washington

Coordinates: 38°57′11″N 76°59′7.4″W / 38.95306°N 76.985389°W / 38.95306; -76.985389

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