The Archdiocese of Washington is a

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. 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 A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's and Saint Mary's in the state of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the 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; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. It was originally part of the

Archdiocese of Baltimore The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore ( la, link=no, Archidiœcesis Baltimorensis) is the premier (or first) see of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese comprises the City of Baltimore and nine of M ...

. 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 See of Norwich, with ...

and Gallup) 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 Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

, the only national university operated by the

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (US ...

(USCCB) and

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher education in the country. In addition, the

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is a large minor Catholic basilica and national shrine in the United States in Washington, D.C., located at 400 Michigan Avenue Northeast, adjacent to Catholic University. ...

, a

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

dedicated to the nation's

patroness Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

, the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

, 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 of the Archdiocese of Washington is an archbishop whose cathedra is in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in the City of Washington and who is metropolitan 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 seve ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. Its sole

suffragan see A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, ...

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 unincorporated and organized territory ...

. 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.

Donald Wuerl Donald William Wuerl (born November 12, 1940) is an American prelate, a cardinal, of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Washington, D.C., from 2006 to 2018. He was elevated by Pope John Paul II to serve as auxiliary bishop of S ...

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 adm ...

until a successor was installed. On April 4, 2019,

Wilton Daniel Gregory Wilton Daniel Gregory (born December 7, 1947) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who is the archbishop of Washington, US. Pope Francis elevated him to the rank of cardinal on November 28, 2020. He is the first African-American card ...

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

to the rank of cardinal at a

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church * Consistor ...

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 An apostolic prefect or prefect apostolic is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a 'pre-diocesan' missionary jurisdiction where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese. Although it ...

) 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 ''In persona episcopi'' ( en, In the person of the bishop) is a Latin language, Latin expression used by the Roman Catholic Church to indicate a union of two or more dioceses in which the dioceses are administered by a single bishop but undergo no ...

''. 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 ...

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

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

for reports of sex abuse. Accused former cardinal and Washington archbishop

Theodore McCarrick Theodore Edgar McCarrick (born July 7, 1930) is a laicized American bishop and former cardinal of the Catholic Church. Ordained a priest in 1958, he became an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1977, then became Bishop of Metuch ...

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

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 Hush money is a term for an arrangement in which one person or party offers another an attractive sum of money or other enticement, in exchange for remaining silent about some illegal, stigmatized, or shameful behavior, action, or other fact abo ...

" 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 The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore ( la, link=no, Archidiœcesis Baltimorensis) is the premier (or first) see of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese comprises the City of Baltimore and nine of M ...

# Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle (1947–1973) #

William Wakefield Baum William Wakefield Baum (November 21, 1926 – July 23, 2015) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri (1970–1973) and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Wa ...

(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 , type = Congregation , seal = Coat of arms Holy See.svg , seal_size = 100px , seal_caption = Coat of arms of the Holy See , logo = , picture =Via della Conciliazione din Roma1.jpg , picture_caption = Palazzo delle Congregazioni in Piazza ...

and later Major Penitentiary of the

Apostolic Penitentiary The Apostolic Penitentiary (), formerly called the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, is a dicastery of the Roman Curia and is one of the three ordinary tribunals of the Apostolic See. The Apostolic Penitentiary is chiefly a tri ...

James Aloysius Hickey James Aloysius Hickey (October 11, 1920 – October 24, 2004) was an American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Washington from 1980 to 2000, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1988. Hickey previously serve ...

(1980–2000) #

Theodore Edgar McCarrick Theodore Edgar McCarrick (born July 7, 1930) is a laicized American bishop and former cardinal of the Catholic Church. Ordained a priest in 1958, he became an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1977, then became Bishop of Metuch ...

(2001–2006; former cardinal,

laicized In the canon law of the Catholic Church, the loss of clerical state (commonly referred to as laicization, dismissal, defrocking, and degradation) is the removal of a bishop, priest, or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy. The t ...

for sexual abuse) #

Donald William Wuerl Donald William Wuerl (born November 12, 1940) is an American prelate, a cardinal, of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Washington, D.C., from 2006 to 2018. He was elevated by Pope John Paul II to serve as auxiliary bishop of S ...

(2006–2018) #

(2019–present)

Auxiliary bishops

John Michael McNamara John Michael McNamara (August 12, 1878 – November 26, 1960) was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore from 1927 to 1947 and of the Archdiocese of Washington The ...

(1947–1960) * Patrick Joseph McCormick (1950–1953) Cathedral of St

* Philip Matthew Hannan (1956–1965), appointed

Archbishop of New Orleans The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans ( la, Archidioecesis Novae Aureliae, french: Archidiocèse de la Nouvelle-Orléans, es, Arquidiócesis de Nueva Orleans) is an ecclesiastical division of the Roman Catholic Church spanning Jeffers ...

* William Joseph McDonald (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 (1974–1988) *

Eugene Antonio Marino Eugene Antonio Marino, SSJ (May 29, 1934 – November 12, 2000) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Atlanta, Georgia from 1988 until 1990, becoming the first African American archbishop in history. He was also the firs ...

(1974–1988), appointed Archbishop of Atlanta * 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 (1988–1994), appointed Bishop of Charlotte * Leonard Olivier (1988–2004) * William E. Lori (1995–2001), appointed Bishop of Bridgeport and later

Kevin Joseph Farrell Kevin Joseph Farrell, KGCHS (born September 2, 1947) is an Irish-American prelate and Cardinal. A former member of the Legion of Christ, he served as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Dallas, as well as the chancellor of the University ...

(2001–2007), appointed Bishop of Dallas and later

of the

Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life is a dicastery of the Roman Curia. Pope Francis announced its creation on 15 August 2016, effective 1 September 2016. It took over the functions and responsibilities of the Pontifical Council for the La ...

(elevated to cardinal in 2016) *

Francisco González Valer Francisco González Valer, S.F. (born May 22, 1939) is a Spanish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. González served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. from 2001 to 2014. Biography Early life ...

, S.F. (2001–2014) *

Martin Holley Martin David Holley (born December 31, 1954) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, from 2016 to 2018, when he was removed by Pope Francis for financial mismanagement of the dio ...

(2004–2016), appointed Bishop of Memphis *

Barry Christopher Knestout Barry Christopher Knestout (born June 11, 1962) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Knestout has been serving as the 13th bishop of the Diocese of Richmond in Virginia since 2017. Previously, Knestout served as the priest sec ...

(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 Roy Edward Campbell, Jr. (born November 19, 1947) is an African-American prelate of the Catholic Church and serves as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington. Biography Priesthood On May 26, 2007, Campbell was ordained to the ...

(2017–present) * Michael William Fisher (2018–2020), appointed

Bishop of Buffalo The Diocese of Buffalo is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church headquartered in Buffalo, New York, United States. It is a suffragan diocese within the metropolitan province of the Archdiocese of New York. The Diocese of Buffalo inclu ...

* Juan Esposito-Garcia (Elect, 2023) * Evelio Menjivar-Ayala (Elect, 2023)

Other priests of the diocese who became bishops

* John Francis Donoghue, appointed Bishop of Charlotte in 1984 and later Archbishop of Atlanta * David Edward Foley, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Richmond in 1986 and later

Bishop of Birmingham A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

* Raymond James Boland, appointed

in 1988 and later Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph *

Mark Edward Brennan Mark Edward Brennan (born February 6, 1947) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who is bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling–Charleston, Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia. He was installed on August 22, ...

, 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

Trinity Washington University Trinity Washington University is a private Catholic university in Washington, D.C. Trinity is a comprehensive university with five schools; the undergraduate College of Arts & Sciences maintains its original mission as a liberal arts women's ...

Seminaries

* Redemptoris Mater Seminary *

St. John Paul II Seminary St. John Paul II Seminary is a Catholic diocesan minor seminary located at 145 Taylor Street in northeast Washington, D.C. The seminary is owned and administered by the Archdiocese of Washington and was founded in 2011 by Cardinal Donald Wuerl. ...

Theological College A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

Dominican House of Studies The Dominican House of Studies is a Catholic institution in Washington, DC, housing both the Priory of the Immaculate Conception, a community of the Province of St. Joseph of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), and the Pontifical Faculty of the I ...

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 Gate of Heaven Cemetery, approximately 25 miles (40 km) north of New York City, was established in 1917 at 10 West Stevens Ave. in Hawthorne, Westchester County, New York, as a Roman Catholic burial site. Among its famous residents is ...

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ce ...

* St. Mary's Queen of Peace Cemetery, Helen, Maryland * Resurrection Cemetery,

Clinton, Maryland Clinton is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Clinton was formerly known as Surrattsville until after the time of the Civil War. The population of Clinton was 38,760 at the 2020 cen ...

* 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.