The Archdiocese of Washington is a

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ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. Its territorial remit encompasses the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

and the counties of Calvert,

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

, Montgomery, Prince George's and

Saint Mary's St. Mary's, St. Marys, or St. Maries may refer to the following places: Australia * St Marys, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** St Marys railway station, Sydney ** North St Marys, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * St Marys, South Austra ...

in the state of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

. It was originally part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The archdiocese crosses a state line. Three other U.S. Latin Church dioceses ( Wilmington,

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

and

Gallup Gallup may refer to: *Gallup, Inc., a firm founded by George Gallup, well known for its opinion poll *Gallup (surname), a surname *Gallup, New Mexico, a city in New Mexico, United States **Gallup station, an Amtrak train in downtown Gallup, New Me ...

) also do this, but they each have territory in more than one state. The Archdiocese of Washington is home to The Catholic University of America, the only national university operated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic and 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, the Immaculate Conception, is located within it, and it is not the archdiocesan cathedral (nor even a parish of the archdiocese). The cathedral of the archdiocese is the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown Washington.

Prelature

Archdiocese of Washington Pastoral Center

The

ordinary Ordinary or The Ordinary often refer to: Music * ''Ordinary'' (EP) (2015), by South Korean group Beast * ''Ordinary'' (Every Little Thing album) (2011) * "Ordinary" (Two Door Cinema Club song) (2016) * "Ordinary" (Wayne Brady song) (2008) * ...

of the Archdiocese of Washington is an archbishop whose cathedra is in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in the

City of Washington The District of Columbia was created in 1801 as the federal district of the United States, with territory previously held by the states of Maryland and Virginia ceded to the federal government of the United States for the purpose of creating its ...

and who is

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

of the

Ecclesiastical Province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of sev ...

of Washington. Its sole suffragan see is the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the

United States Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an Territories of the United States, uninco ...

. The first Archbishop of Washington was Michael Joseph Curley, appointed in 1939. Eight years later, on November 15, 1947, the archdiocese received its first residential archbishop, with the appointment of

Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle (July 18, 1896 – August 10, 1987) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first resident Archbishop of Washington from 1948 to 1973, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1967. Early l ...

. Donald 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. However, Wuerl still led the archdiocese as

apostolic administrator An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

until a successor was installed. On April 4, 2019, Wilton Daniel Gregory was appointed archbishop by Pope Francis. The same day, the Archdiocese of Washington announced that Gregory would be installed as the seventh Archbishop of Washington. Gregory, who was originally scheduled to be installed on May 17, 2019, was installed on May 21, 2019, becoming the first African American to lead the Archdiocese of Washington. Pope Francis raised Wilton Daniel Gregory to the rank of cardinal at a consistory held in Rome on November 28, 2020. He is the first American with African ancestry to become a Roman Catholic cardinal.

History

On March 25, 1634, the first Catholic Mass in the English-speaking colonies was celebrated by Andrew White on St. Clement's Island, Maryland, in what is now part of the Archdiocese of Washington.About Us
Archdiocese of Washington. Retrieved November 19, 2016. The Catholic founders of the Maryland settlement then established the colony as a place of religious freedom. During the colonial era, however, when others took power, Catholics would become a persecuted people suffering the wrath of oppression allowed by local penal laws. Upon the founding of the United States, a Jesuit priest, 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. On July 22, 1939, Pope Pius XII created the Archdiocese of Washington from territory which was then within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, with a single prelate serving as the archbishop of both archdioceses, two ecclesiastical jurisdictions united '' in persona episcopi''. The Archdiocese dates its founding from 1939. On November 15, 1947, Pope Pius appointed Washington's first residential archbishop. The Archdiocese of Washington became a

metropolitan see Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

on October 12, 1965, when the Diocese of Saint Thomas became its only suffragan see.

Sex abuse scandal

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. Accused former cardinal and Washington archbishop Theodore McCarrick had served in each diocese. On October 15, 2018, the Archdiocese of Washington released the names of 31 clergy who served in the archdiocese and were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors since 1948. On August 15, 2019, archdiocesan priest Urbano Vazquez was convicted of four counts of sexual abuse involving two girls. On November 22, 2019, Vazquez was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In October 2019, the ''Washington Post'' reported that police were investigating an allegation that the former Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, Michael Joseph Bransfield, had molested a 9-year-old girl during a September 2012 pilgrimage to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., while on a trip led by Bransfield.Shawn Boburg & Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Former W.Va. bishop Michael Bransfield is under police investigation for alleged abuse of 9-year-old girl on church trip
''Washington Post'' (October 3, 2019). Prior to being appointed bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in 2004, Bransfield long served at the Basilica, being named assistant director and director of liturgy (1980), director of finance (1982), and director (1986) at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The Archdiocese of Washington was

subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...

ed for documents in connection with the investigation. Bransfield denied the allegation. In December 2019, the ''Washington Post'' revealed that Bransfield had paid $350,000 to Holy See and church officials during a sex abuse probe against him. The " hush money" payments involved acts of sex abuse he reportedly committed when he was at the Basilica in the 1980s. The same report also revealed that during his time as Archbishop of Washington, McCarrick used his "Archbishop's Special Fund" to make similar hush money payments in order to cover acts of sex abuse he had committed in other Catholic dioceses. The archdiocese took in nearly a third less money in its 2019 annual fundraising appeal, which had been renamed from "Cardinal's Appeal" to "Annual Appeal", in the wake of the scandals.

Bishops

The list of bishops and their terms of service:

Archbishops of Washington

# Michael Joseph Curley (1939–1947), concurrently the Archbishop of Baltimore #

(1947–1973) # William Wakefield Baum (1973–1980), appointed

Prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

of the Congregation for Catholic Education and later Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary # James Aloysius Hickey (1980–2000) # Theodore Edgar McCarrick (2001–2006; former cardinal, laicized for sexual abuse) # Donald William Wuerl (2006–2018) # Wilton Daniel Gregory (2019–present)

Auxiliary bishops

* John Michael McNamara (1947–1960) *

Patrick Joseph McCormick Patrick Joseph McCormick (December 10, 1880 – May 18, 1953) was the titular bishop of Atenia and auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. He was the 7th rector of The Catholic University of America, and was the first alum ...

(1950–1953) Cathedral of St

Philip Matthew Hannan Philip Matthew Hannan (May 20, 1913 – September 29, 2011) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 1956 to 1965 and as the eleventh archbishop of the Archdioc ...

(1956–1965), appointed Archbishop of New Orleans *

William Joseph McDonald William Joseph McDonald (June 17, 1904 – January 7, 1989) was an Irish-born bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 1964 to 1967 and the Archdiocese of San Fran ...

(1964–1967), appointed Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco * John Selby Spence (1964–1973) * Edward John Herrmann (1966–1973), appointed Bishop of Columbus *

Thomas William Lyons Thomas William Lyons (September 26, 1923 – March 25, 1988) was a bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 1974 to 1988. Lyons is listed by the Archdiocese of W ...

(1974–1988) * Eugene Antonio Marino (1974–1988), appointed

Archbishop of Atlanta In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...

* Thomas Cajetan Kelly (1977–1981), appointed Archbishop of Louisville * Alvaro Corrada del Rio (1985–1997), appointed Apostolic Administrator of Caguas and later Bishop of Tyler and Bishop of Mayaguez *

William George Curlin William George Curlin (August 30, 1927 – December 23, 2017) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte in North Carolina from 1994 to 2002. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop o ...

(1988–1994), appointed Bishop of Charlotte *

Leonard Olivier Leonard James Olivier, (October 12, 1923 – November 19, 2014) was an African-American Catholic bishop. He was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Biography Priesthood In 1951 he was ordained a priest for the Society of the Divine Word in Bay ...

(1988–2004) *

William E. Lori William Edward Lori (born May 6, 1951) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as the 16th archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Maryland since 2012. He was previously the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport ...

(1995–2001), appointed Bishop of Bridgeport and later Archbishop of Baltimore * Kevin Joseph Farrell (2001–2007), appointed Bishop of Dallas and later

of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life (elevated to cardinal in 2016) * Francisco González Valer, S.F. (2001–2014) * Martin Holley (2004–2016), appointed Bishop of Memphis * Barry Christopher Knestout (2008–2018), appointed Bishop of Richmond *

Mario E. Dorsonville Mario Eduardo Dorsonville-Rodríguez (October 31, 1960 – January 19, 2024) was a Colombian-born American prelate of the Catholic Church who served Bishop of Houma–Thibodaux from March 2023 until his death. He was an auxiliary bishop of Wash ...

(2015–present) * Roy Edward Campbell (2017–present) *

Michael William Fisher Michael William Fisher (born March 3, 1958) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who currently serves as the bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo, having been installed on January 15, 2021. He previously served as an auxiliary bish ...

(2018–2020), appointed Bishop of Buffalo *

Juan Esposito-Garcia Juan Rafael Esposito-Garcia (born January 10, 1974) is an Argentine-born priest of the Catholic Church who serves as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington in the District of Columbia and Southern Maryland. Biography Early lif ...

(Elect, 2023) *

Evelio Menjivar-Ayala Evelio Menjivar-Ayala (born August 14, 1970) is a Salvadoran priest of the Catholic Church who serves as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington. Biography On May 29, 2004, Menjivar-Ayala was ordained to the priesthood. Pope Franc ...

(Elect, 2023)

Other priests of the diocese who became bishops

* John Francis Donoghue, appointed Bishop of Charlotte in 1984 and later

* David Edward Foley, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Richmond in 1986 and later Bishop of Birmingham * Raymond James Boland, appointed Bishop of Birmingham in 1988 and later Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph * Mark Edward Brennan, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore in 2016 and later Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston * William D. Byrne, appointed Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts

Parishes

Schools

The archdiocese centralized school administration as part of its Center City Consortium, which was established in 1997. ; High schools

Colleges

Colleges and universities

* The Catholic University of America * Georgetown University * Trinity Washington University

Seminaries

* Redemptoris Mater Seminary * St. John Paul II Seminary * Theological College * Dominican House of Studies

Archdiocesan cemeteries

In addition to the nearly four dozen of its parishes which have their own cemeteries,Parish Cemeteries
from the official website of the Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Washington the archdiocese owns and operates five major cemeteries:
from the official website of the Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Washington * Mount Olivet Cemetery, Washington, D.C. * Gate of Heaven Cemetery,

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, in practice it is an edge cit ...

* St. Mary's Queen of Peace Cemetery, Helen, Maryland * Resurrection Cemetery, Clinton, Maryland * All Souls Cemetery, Germantown, Maryland Two former parish cemeteries are also operated by the archdiocese: * St. John's Cemetery, Forest Glen, Maryland * St. Mary's Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Province of Washington, D.C.

Ecclesiastical Province of Washington map

* Diocese of Saint Thomas

References

External links

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington Official Site

Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle

Alphabetical Listing of Parishes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roman Catholic Archdiocese Of Washington Washington Religious organizations based in Washington, D.C. Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. Catholic Church in Maryland Christian organizations established in 1947 Washington 1947 establishments in Washington, D.C.