Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh

The Fifth Provincial Council of Baltimore, which was held in May 1843, recommended the erection of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and nominated Michael O'Connor, Vicar General of Western Pennsylvania and pastor of St. Paul's Church in Pittsburgh, as its first Bishop.[3] The Diocese of Pittsburgh was erected from the Diocese of Philadelphia on August 11, 1843.

O'Connor was consecrated bishop in Rome August 15, 1843, and on his return stopped in Ireland to recruit clergy for his new diocese, obtaining eight seminarians from Maynooth College and seven Sisters of Mercy from Dublin.[4] He arrived in Pittsburgh in December 1843. In 1844, he founded a girls' academy and St. Paul's orphan asylum, a chapel for African Americans, the Pittsburgh Catholic and St. Michael's Seminary. To serve the German immigrants in his diocese, he welcomed the Benedictine monks who founded Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe,[3] the first Benedictine monastery in the United States, and to further education he invited the Franciscan Brothers of Mountbellew in Ireland, who established the first community of religious brothers in the United States in Loretto.[5]

Territory was reduced by the creation of the Diocese of Erie on July 29, 1853. Bishop O'Connor resigned in 1860 to enter the Society of Jesus. He was succeeded by Vincentian Father Michael Domenec, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul in Germantown. The panic of 1873 was a fiscal disaster for the Pittsburgh diocese. In 1876, Bishop Domenec became Bishop of the short-lived Diocese of Allegheny was created out of the Pittsburgh diocese on January 11, 1876. He was succeeded in Pittsburgh by Bishop John Tuigg, who, after Domenec's retirement in 1877, found himself apostolic administrator of Allegheny as well. Tuigg managed to extricate the diocese from its financial difficulties, but suffered a stroke and retired. The territory of allegheny was reincorporated into Pittsburg on July 1, 1889.[4]

Tuigg was followed by his coadjutor Richard Phelan on December 7, 1889. People of many nationalities came in large numbers to find work in the mines and mills of Western Pennsylvania; Phelan saw to it that they were supplied with pastors who could speak their own languages. The Diocese of Altoona was formed from Pittsburg on May 30, 1901. Phelan died December 20, 1904 and was succeeded by Bishop Regis Canevin.[4]

Hugh Boyle was appointed the sixth Bishop of Pittsburgh on June 16, 1921. During his 29-year tenure, he earned a reputation as one of the leading Catholic educators in the nation, and sponsored a comprehensive school-building program in the diocese,[6] most notably asking the Brothers of the Christian Schools to establish Central Catholic High School. During World War II, Boyle served as chairman of the National Catholic Welfare Council's Committee for Polish Relief.[6] Upon the death of Bishop Boyle, John Dearden succeeded him as the seventh Bishop of Pittsburgh on December 22, 1950. The Diocese of Greensburg on March 10, 1951, was created out of Pittsburgh diocesan territory.[7]

Bishop Dearden was appointed Archbishop of Detroit on December 18, 1958; John Joseph Wright became Bishop of Pittsburg. Bishop Wright attended the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), during which he was a decisive force behind several of its documents.[8] On April 23, 1969 Pope Paul VI appointed Wright as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, and thus the highest-ranking American in the Roman Curia.

After Bishop Wright was named to head the Congregation for the Clergy, Vincent Leonard was appointed the ninth Bishop of Pittsburgh on June 1, 1969. During his tenure, he became one of the first bishops in the United States to make his diocesan financial reports public, and established a due-process system to allow Catholics to appeal any administrative decision they believed was a violation of canon law.[9] Leonard resigned as Bishop of Pittsburgh on June 30, 1983, due to arthritis.[10] Anthony Bevilacqua was named the tenth Bishop of Pittsburgh on October 7, 1983. He succeeded Bishop Leonard and was installed as Bishop on December 12 of that year. He was a member of the 1987 world Synod of Bishops, on the role of laity in the church and world.[11] On December 8, 1987 Pope John Paul II appointed Bevilacqua Archbishop of Philadelphia.

Donald Wuerl was appointed the eleventh bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh on February 12, 1988.[12] Despite the financial condition of the diocese, Bishop Wuerl decided to expand health services. Bishop Wuerl worked with hospitals and community groups to create a group home for people suffering from AIDS, this when AIDS was little understood and almost always fatal. In 2003, Bishop Wuerl conducted a successful $2.5 million fundraising campaign to create the Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center. The clinic primarily serves the uninsured working poor.[13] Under Bishop Wuerl, the diocese had to reorganize itself in response to demographic changes, the decline of the steel industry, and the church's weak financial position. That process was officially completed in March 1994. Wuerl closed 73 church buildings, which included 37 churches, and reduced 331 parishes by 117 through merging while bishop of Pittsburgh; he was managing the remaining 214 parishes when he left in June 2006.[14]

Pope Benedict XVI appointed David Zubik the twelfth Bishop of Pittsburgh on July 18, 2007.

In 2012, the Pittsburgh diocese was the first of 42 Catholic groups to file 12 federal lawsuits against the Obama administration for implementing a regulation that would force them to facilitate access to contraceptives and other medical products whose use violates church teaching. Speaking of the regulation Bishop Zubik said, "The mandate would require the Catholic Church as an employer to violate its fundamental beliefs concerning human life and human dignity ..." These cases were consolidated and made it to the Supreme Court as Zubik v. Burwell.[15]

As of May 2018, the diocese was preparing to consolidate its 188 parishes into 57 multi-parish groups. The integration process will formally begin in October 2018 and will last two to five years. The multi-parish groups will consist of two to seven nearby churches.[16] A pastor-led team for each group will serve the needs of its parishes during consolidation. As the parish communities are consolidated, they will be combined into new parishes. The bishop will receive three suggested names for each new parish and detailed recommendations on how parish programs should be individually tailored.[17]

As of 2018, it was the practice of the diocese to hold a twice-yearly "The Light is On For You" campaign to help Catholics who have lost connection to the church to return to the sacrament. The campaign reaches out to Catholics who have not been to confession for years and makes it as convenient as possible for them to return. During the campaign confession is available at all churches for extended hours.[18]

There is a separate Wikipedia article for the short-lived Diocese of Allegheny, which was then suppressed (its territory being rejoined to Diocese of Pittsburgh).

The Diocese of Pittsburgh's elementary and secondary schools educate approximately 17,000 students and employ nearly 1,500 teachers, making its school system the fourth largest in Pennsylvania.[19] As of March 2018, the Catholic school system in the diocese operates 69 elementary, pre-K and special schools.[19] The diocese says that enrollment in its school system has fallen by 50 percent since 2000.[20]

Every year the diocese holds the Medallion Ball, a debutante ball, that honors young women who perform at least 100 hours of eligible volunteer work. The proceeds from the event benefit St. Lucy's Auxiliary to the Blind. In 2002, a Joan of Arc Medallion was awarded to a young woman with Down's Syndrome who had volunteered as a teacher's assistant. In 2013, a medallion winner was legally blind and had volunteered with a therapeutic horseback-riding program. It is common for attendees to perform more than 800 hours of volunteer work.[13]

Anthony Cipolla was ordained in 1972. In 1978, he was charged with sexual abuse of a 9-year-old boy; these charges were dropped by the mother, who said she was pressured to do so by Bishop Vincent Leonard. In 1988 new charges were brought by Tim Bendig who said that Cipolla abused him from around 1981 to 1986; this case was settled in 1993, over Cipolla's objections. Cipolla consistently said that he never abused anyone.[28] In 1988, the diocese, by then under the leadership of Bishop Wuerl, banned Cipolla from ministry and from identifying himself as a priest; Cipolla appealed to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest court, which ordered Bishop Wuerl to return him to ministry.[29] Bishop Wuerl asked the court to reconsider the case on the grounds that its decision showed a lack of awareness of crucial facts such as a civil lawsuit and Cipolla's 1978 arrest for sexually abusing another boy. The court reversed its ruling in 1995 and upheld Cipolla's ban. Cipolla nonetheless continued to minister to the public forcing the diocese to make several public statements that Cipolla was not in good standing. In 2002, Cipolla was laicized by the pope.[28][30]

At the time of Wuerl's appointment to Pittsburgh, three priests were on administrative leave for molesting two brothers. Their parents originally asked for the priests to be removed from ministry but pressed criminal and civil charges after reflecting on their moral duty to protect others. Bishop Wuerl's advisors unanimously suggested that he not visit the family. Bishop Wuerl decided that it was his duty to minister to their pain. Wuerl said, "The lawyers could talk to one another, but I wasn't ordained to oversee a legal structure. As their bishop I was responsible for the Church's care of that family, and the only way I could do that was to go see them." Father Zubik accompanied him to this meeting. The diocese settled the civil suit, and two of the priests in question were sentenced to prison. They were never allowed to return to ministry. Charges against the third priest were impossible due to the statute of limitations. This priest was forced to retire and forbidden to say mass for anyone by nuns in the convent he was assigned to live in.[13] After seeing the damage inflicted upon their lives and faith, Wuerl implemented a "zero tolerance" policy against sexual abuse. The Diocese of Pittsburgh was among the first Catholic authorities to seriously address sexual abuse. Carefully preparing candidates for the priesthood for a life of celibacy was a key part of Wuerl's reforms.[13]

Bishop Wuerl called a mandatory meeting to inform all priests that sexual contact with a minor was not merely a sin that could be forgiven, but a crime that would result in permanent removal from the ministry and maybe prison. Priests were instructed to report any allegation of sexual abuse committed by a priest or church employee to the chancery. The diocese created the Diocesan Review Board in 1989 to offer evaluations and recommendations to the bishop on the handling of all sexual abuse cases.[13]

It is the policy of the Diocese of Pittsburgh to refer all allegations of child sexual abuse to law enforcement regardless of their credibility. Credible allegations of sexual abuse result in immediate removal from ministry. By direction of Bishop Wuerl, the diocese has had an internal policy on sexual misconduct since 1989. This policy was formalized in 1993, updated in 2002, and updated again in 2003.[31][32]

Bishop Zubik handed off the case of Rev. David Dzermejko to the Vatican after a diocese review board found that allegations of child sexual abuse against Dzermejko were credible. Dzermejko was removed as pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church in Charleroi in June 2009 after a couple informed the diocese that he had sexually abused their son. Another man came forward to say that Dzermejko had abused him as a child.[33] Dzermejko was removed within 48 hours of the diocese receiving the first allegation.[34]

On October 15, 2018, the most comprehensive reorganization of the Diocese of Pittsburgh went into effect. This was the beginning of the implementation of a diocesan-wide planning initiative which changed the diocesan parish structure from 188 individual parishes to 57 parish groupings served by clergy teams. By 2023, there will only be 57 parishes in the diocese.[47] The goal of the reorganization is to bring together resources of various parishes in order to bring about "vibrant parishes and effective ministries."[48] The changes were triggered by decreasing Mass attendance in the area and a declining amount of priests - by 2025 the Diocese of Pittsburgh will have about half the active priests it does currently.[49]

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Official Site
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pittsburgh" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.