Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

Archdiocese of Seattle
Archidioecesis Seattlensis
Location
Country United States
Territory Western Washington
Ecclesiastical province Archdiocese of Seattle
Statistics
Area 64,269 km2 (24,814 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics		 (as of 2016)
5,501,540
863,000 (15.7%)
Parishes 144
Churches 183
Schools 75
Members 972,000
Information
Denomination Roman Catholic
Rite Roman Rite
Established May 31, 1850 (as Diocese of Nesqually)
Elevated to Archdiocese June 23, 1951
Cathedral St. James Cathedral
Patron saint St. James the Greater[1]
Secular priests 115
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Archbishop J. Peter Sartain
Auxiliary Bishops Eusebio L. Elizondo Almaguer
Daniel Henry Mueggenborg
Emeritus Bishops Alexander Joseph Brunett
Map
Website
seattlearchdiocese.org

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle is a Latin Metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church, in the U.S. state of Washington. Headquartered in Seattle, the archdiocese encompasses all counties in the state west of the Cascade Range.

Its present archbishop is J. Peter Sartain.

Its cathedral of the archiepiscopal see is St. James Cathedral in Seattle, and the former cathedral is the Proto-Cathedral of St. James the Greater, in Vancouver, Washington.

The archdiocese succeeded to the Diocese of Nesqually headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, established in 1850 as a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Oregon City. In 1903, the episcopal see was moved to Seattle, and the diocese's name was changed to Diocese of Seattle in 1907. The diocese was elevated to metropolitan archdiocesan status in 1951.

Ecclesiastical province

The Archbishop of Seattle concurrently is the Metropolitan Archbishop of two suffragan daughter dioceses within the Ecclesiastical Province of Seattle, which together cover the entire state of Washington :

Statistics and extent

As per 2014 it pastorally served 997,000 Catholics (18.6% of 5,350,045 total) on 64,269 km² in 147 parishes with 298 priests (204 diocesan, 94 religious), 116 deacons, 476 lay religious (109 brothers, 367 sisters) and 800 lay ecclesial ministers.

The Archdiocese encompasses all of Western Washington, 64,269 km², stretching from the Canadian to the Oregon border and from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, including 19 counties.

In this area, 972,000 people identify as Catholic, almost 19% of the total population of 5,202,500.[2]

There are 144 parishes, and an additional 37 missions, stations, and pastoral centers. Only 106 of these have resident priest-pastors.

These parishes and other centers are served by 115 active diocesan priests, 118 diocesan deacons, approximately 800 diocesan lay ecclesial ministers, and 530 religious women and men (including priests). The archbishop is assisted by two auxiliary bishops, and there are two retired archbishops still living.

There are 11 Catholic Hospitals, 2 Health Care Centers, 19 Homes for the elderly, 3 day care centers, 10 specialized homes, and 111 centers for social services.

There are 2 Catholic universities, 11 high schools, 62 elementary schools.

16,831 elementary students are served through parochial and private schools; 29,850 through parochial religious education programs.

2420 high school students are served through diocesan and private schools; 6580 through parochial religious education and youth ministry programs. [3]

History

Antecedents

The Catholic Church presence in the present-day state of Washington dates to the 1830s, when missionary priests François Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers traveled from Quebec and arrived in what was then known as the Oregon Country. On December 1, 1843, the Holy See established the Vicariate Apostolic of the Oregon Territory and named Blanchet its vicar apostolic. In 1846 Pope Gregory XVI established an ecclesiastical territory in the region, and the apostolic vicariate was split into three dioceses: Diocese of Oregon City with François Blanchet as bishop; Diocese of Vancouver Island, with Demers as bishop, and Diocese of Walla Walla at Walla Walla, Washington, with François Blanchet's brother, Augustin-Magloire Blanchet, as bishop.

The Whitman massacre in 1847 and the ensuing Cayuse War increased tensions between Christians and the native population of the Oregon Territory, and as a result by 1850 the Diocese of Walla Walla was abandoned and its merged-in territory administered from Oregon City.

On May 31, 1850, Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Nesqually out of the defunct Walla Walla diocese, with Augustin Blanchet as bishop. In January 1851, Augustin Blanchet dedicated St. James Church near Fort Vancouver as the new diocese's cathedral. A new St. James Cathedral was built in Vancouver, Washington in 1885.

(Arch)diocesan history

In 1903 Bishop Edward O'Dea, realizing that Vancouver was no longer the economic and population center of the region, moved the episcopal see to Seattle and began construction on a new cathedral in 1905. The bishopric changed its name to Diocese of Seattle on September 11, 1907, and the present-day St. James Cathedral was dedicated on December 22, 1907.

On December 12, 1913, it lost territory to establish the Diocese of Spokane, now its oldest suffragan.

It was elevated on June 23, 1951 as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Seattle and Bishop Thomas Arthur Connolly became the first archbishop.[4] Simultaneously it lost territory to establish the Diocese of Yakima, its second suffragan.

In 1983, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), initiated an apostolic visitation to the Archdiocese of Seattle. The visitation was largely prompted by concerns over whether the archdiocese under Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen was adhering to church teachings on matters including contraception in Catholic hospitals, and its treatment of homosexuals and divorced people.[5] Archbishop James Hickey of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC was sent to Seattle to gather information on behalf of the CDF.[6] As a result of the CDF's findings, on December 3, 1985, the Vatican under Pope John Paul II named Donald Wuerl auxiliary bishop of Seattle, with the authority to overrule Hunthausen in several areas. This unconventional arrangement proved untenable and unpopular among the people of the archdiocese, and Wuerl was replaced with Thomas Murphy on May 26, 1987. Murphy was appointed as coadjutor bishop with immediate right of succession to Hunthausen; he became archbishop upon Hunthausen's retirement on August 21, 1991.

Under Archbishop Murphy the archdiocese saw an increase in registered Catholics and an increase in lay ministries and outreach for women and various ethnic groups. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in December 1996, and died on June 26, 1997. Father George Leo Thomas was appointed administrator of the archdiocese until the installation of Archbishop Alexander Joseph Brunett in December 1997. Brunett later appointed and consecrated George Thomas as auxiliary bishop, a post he held until his appointment as Bishop of Helena in 2004. Eusebio L. Elizondo Almaguer and Joseph J. Tyson were appointed as auxiliary bishops and consecrated in 2005; Elizondo still serves in that capacity, while Tyson departed in 2011 to become Bishop of suffragan see Yakima. Brunett served as archbishop until his retirement in 2011 and was succeeded by the incumbent bishop, J. Peter Sartain.

Bishops

Bishops of Nesqually

  1. Augustin-Magloire Blanchet (1850-1879)
  2. Egidius Junger (1879-1895)
  3. Edward John O'Dea (1896-1907)

Bishops of Seattle

  1. Edward John O'Dea (1907-1932)
  2. Gerald Shaughnessy, S.M. (1933-1950)
  3. Thomas Arthur Connolly (1950-1951)

Archbishops of Seattle

  1. Thomas Arthur Connolly (1951-1975)
  2. Raymond Hunthausen (1975-1991)
  3. Thomas Joseph Murphy (1991-1997)
  4. Alexander Joseph Brunett (1997-2010)
  5. J. Peter Sartain (2010-present)

Auxiliary Bishops

Catholic High schools

* Operationally independent of Archdiocese

See also

References

  1. ↑ Paulist Press Ordo 2010
  2. ↑ "The Archdiocese". Archdiocese of Seattle.
  3. ↑ "Table of Statistics" (PDF). Archdiocese of Seattle.
  4. ↑ "Local Catholic History". Archives and Records, Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  5. ↑ "Raymond Hunthausen". People. 1986-12-22.
  6. ↑ Seattle Catholic Journal: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's Report Issued on Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, September 30, 1985

Coordinates: 47°36′23″N 122°19′32″W / 47.60639°N 122.32556°W / 47.60639; -122.32556

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