''Formerly known as Diocese of Nesqually, 1850-1907.'' The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle is an ecclesiastical territory or

archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

( particularly the Roman Catholic or

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 Jo ...

) located in the U.S. state of

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 ...

. Headquartered in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

, the archdiocese encompasses all

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 ...

in the state west of the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. , its

archbishop 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 archdio ...

Paul D. Etienne Paul Dennis Étienne (born June 15, 1959) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle in Washington State since 2019. Previously, Etienne was bishop of the Diocese of Cheye ...

. Its

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

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 Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

. The archdiocese succeeded to the Diocese of Nesqually headquartered in

, established in 1850 as a

suffragan diocese 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 Alexandri ...

of the Archdiocese of Oregon City. In 1903, the

episcopal see An episcopal see is, in a practical use of the phrase, the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, mak ...

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 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 two

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

daughter dioceses within 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 Seattle, which together cover the entire state of Washington : * Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, carved out of the Archdiocese of Seattle territory in 1913 * Roman Catholic Diocese of Yakima, carved out of the Archdiocese of Seattle territory in 1951.

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. 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.

History

The presence of the

in the present state of

dates to the 1830s, when

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

François Norbert Blanchet François Norbert Blanchet (September 30, 1795 – June 18, 1883) was a French Canadian-born missionary priest and prelate of the Catholic Church who was instrumental in establishing the Catholic Church presence in the Pacific Northwest. He was on ...

and Modeste Demers traveled from

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

and arrived in what was then known as the

Oregon Country Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, co ...

. On December 1, 1843, the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

established the Vicariate Apostolic of the Oregon Territory and named Blanchet its vicar apostolic. In 1846

Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He ...

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 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 ...

;

Diocese of Vancouver Island The Diocese of Victoria ( la, Dioecesis Victoriensis in Insula Vancouver) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its episcopal see is in Victoria. The diocese ...

, 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 The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. O ...

, 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 Pope Pius IX ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...

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 Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading post that was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was located on the northern bank of ...

as the new diocese's

. A new St. James Cathedral was built in

in 1885. In 1903 Bishop Edward O'Dea, realizing that Vancouver was no longer the economic and population center of the region, moved the

to Seattle and began construction on a new cathedral in 1905. The

changed the 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

. It was elevated on June 23, 1951 as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Seattle and Bishop Thomas Arthur Connolly became the first archbishop. Simultaneously it lost territory to establish the

Diocese of Yakima The Diocese of Yakima is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the central region of the U.S. state of Washington. Headquartered in Yakima, the diocese comprises Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Kittitas, ...

, its second suffragan. In 1983,

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...

Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

, then Prefect of the

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsib ...

(CDF), initiated an

apostolic visitation In the Catholic Church, a canonical visitation is the act of an ecclesiastical superior who in the discharge of his office visits persons or places with a view to maintaining faith and discipline and of correcting abuses. A person delegated to ca ...

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. Archbishop James Hickey of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC was sent to Seattle to gather information on behalf of the CDF. As a result of the CDF's findings, on December 3, 1985,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

appointed

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 ...

auxiliary bishop of Seattle with "special faculties" that included the authority to overrule Archbishop Hunthausen in several areas. This unusual arrangement proved unpopular among the people of the archdiocese, and Wuerl was replaced with Thomas Murphy on May 26, 1987. Murphy was appointed as

coadjutor archbishop The term coadjutor (or coadiutor, literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coa ...

, and thus automatically became the archbishop with 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 Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with normal blood cell production. Symptoms may inclu ...

in December 1996, and died on June 26, 1997. Father

George Leo Thomas George Leo Thomas (born May 19, 1950) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as Archbishop of Las Vegas since 2023. He has been the ordinary of the diocese since 2018, when it was still a suffragan see. He previously ser ...

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 Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer *Helena, mother of Constantine I Places Greece * Helena (island) Guyana * H ...

in 2004. Eusebio L. Elizondo Almaguer and

Joseph J. Tyson Joseph Jude Tyson (born October 16, 1957) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as the bishop of the Diocese of Yakima Washington State since 2011. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdioce ...

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 J. Peter Sartain. On April 29, 2019,

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013 ...

named

, serving at the time as Archbishop of

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring ...

, Alaska, as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Seattle in anticipation of Archbishop Sartain's retirement. Etienne succeeded Sartain on September 3, 2019, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation.

Bishops

Bishops of Nesqually

# Augustin-Magloire Blanchet (1850–1879) #

Egidius Junger Egidius Jünger, also spelled Aegidius Jünger (April 6, 1833 – December 26, 1895), was a German-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Nesqually in the Washington Territory in the United States from ...

(1879–1895) # Edward John O'Dea (1896–1907), title changed to Bishop of Seattle

Bishops of Seattle

# Edward John O'Dea (1907–1932) # Gerald Shaughnessy (1933–1950) # Thomas Arthur Connolly (1950–1951), elevated to

Archbishop 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 archdio ...

Archbishops of Seattle

# Thomas Arthur Connolly (1951–1975) # Raymond Hunthausen (1975–1991) # Thomas Joseph Murphy (1991–1997; coadjutor 1987-1991) # Alexander Joseph Brunett (1997–2010) # J. Peter Sartain (2010–2019) #

(2019–present; coadjutor 2019)

Current Auxiliary Bishops

* Eusebio L. Elizondo Almaguer (2005–present) * Frank R. Schuster (2022-present)

Former Auxiliary Bishops

* Thomas Edward Gill (1956–1973) * Nicolas Eugene Walsh (1976–1983) *

(1986–1988) appointed Bishop of Pittsburgh and later Archbishop of Washington (

in 2010) *

(2000–2004) appointed Bishop of Helena and later Bishop of Las Vegas *

(2005–2011), appointed Bishop of Yakima *

Daniel Henry Mueggenborg Daniel Henry Mueggenborg (born April 15, 1962) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as bishop for the Diocese of Reno in Nevada since 2021. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle in W ...

(2017–2021), appointed Bishop of Reno.

Other priests of this diocese who became Bishops

Robert John Armstrong Robert John Armstrong, (November 17, 1884 – January 14, 1957) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento in California from 1929 until his death in 1957. Armstrong served d ...

, appointed Bishop of Sacramento in 1929 * Jean-Baptiste Brondel, appointed Bishop of Vancouver Island in 1879 * Joseph Patrick Dougherty, appointed Bishop of Yakima in 1951 * Cornelius Michael Power, appointed Bishop of Yakima in 1969

High schools

* Archbishop Murphy High School* - Everett * Bellarmine Preparatory School* - Tacoma * Bishop Blanchet High School -

Eastside Catholic School Eastside Catholic School is a private Roman Catholic secondary school located in Sammamish, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle within the Archdiocese of Seattle. It has a faith-based educational program for students in grades 6 through 12. De ...

* - Sammamish *

Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart is a private, Roman Catholic, all-girls middle school and high school in Bellevue, Washington, USA. The school is a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart schools and is part of the global Network of S ...

* - Bellevue *

Holy Names Academy Holy Names Academy is a Catholic private all-girls college-preparatory high school, founded by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in 1880 and located on the east slope of Seattle's Capitol Hill. It is the oldest continually operatin ...

* -

* John F. Kennedy Catholic High School -

Burien Burien ( ) is a suburban city in King County, Washington, United States, located south of Seattle on Puget Sound. As of the 2020 census, Burien's population was 52,066, which is a 56.3% increase since incorporation in 1993. An annexation in 201 ...

O'Dea High School O'Dea High School is a Catholic all boys high school founded in 1923 and is located in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood. The school is named after Edward John O'Dea who was bishop of Seattle when the school was built. O'Dea is a part of the Ar ...

* Pope John Paul II High School* -

Lacey Lacey may refer to: People Surname A–L * Andrew Lacey (1887–1946), Australian politician * Bill Lacey (American football) (born 1971), American football player and coach * Bill Lacey (footballer) (1889–1969), Irish footballer * Bob Lacey ( ...

* Seattle Preparatory School* -

* St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School* -

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

: * Operationally independent of Archdiocese

References

Sources and external links

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle Official Site

* ttps://www.nwcatholic.org/ ''Northwest Catholic''- diocesan magazine
St. James Cathedral
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seattle, Roman Catholic Archdiocese Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 19th century Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States 1850 establishments in Oregon Territory Roman Catholic Archdiocese Religion in Seattle