Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore

History

Before and during the American Revolutionary War, the Catholics in Great Britain's thirteen colonies in America (and also its colonies in Canada) were under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District, in England. After the Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, ended the war, Maryland clergy delivered a petition to the Holy See, on November 6, 1783, for permission for the missionaries in the United States to nominate a superior who would have some of the powers of a bishop. In response, Pope Pius VI on June 6, 1784, confirmed Father John Carroll, who had been selected by his brother priests, as Superior of the Missions in the newly independent thirteen United States of North America, with power to give the sacrament of confirmation. This act established a hierarchy in the United States and removed the Catholic Church in the U.S. from the authority of the Vicar Apostolic of the London District.

The Holy See then established the Apostolic Prefecture of the United States on November 26, 1784. Because Maryland was one of the few regions of the colonial United States with a substantial Roman Catholic population, the apostolic prefecture was elevated to become the Diocese of Baltimore—the first diocese in the United States—on November 6, 1789. In 1790, Father Carroll traveled to England where he was ordained and consecrated as a bishop in Lulworth Castle in Dorset, by authority of the Bishop of London.

On April 8, 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the suffragan dioceses of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bardstown in Bardstown, Kentucky, which moved in 1841 to the larger city of Louisville, from the territory of the Diocese of Baltimore and simultaneously raised it to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese, thereby making it the "Archdiocese of Baltimore". The newly established "Province of Baltimore"—whose metropolitan was the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore—comprised all of the states and territories of the nation.

The Archdiocese again lost territory in following decades with the creation of the Diocese of Richmond (Virginia) on July 11, 1820; and the Diocese of Wilmington (Delaware) on March 3, 1868.

On July 22, 1939, the City of Washington was erected as a separate archdiocese. The archbishop of Baltimore, Michael J. Curley, was simultaneously named the first archbishop of the new Archdiocese of Washington (D.C.) and continued to administer the two archdioceses as a single unit — in persona episcopi. The see was temporarily renamed the Archdiocese of Baltimore-Washington, in recognition of the nation's capital. Eight years later, on November 15, 1947, Patrick A. O'Boyle was appointed the second archbishop — and first residential archbishop — of the Archdiocese of Washington, which consequently began to function as a separate diocese. Therefore the territory of the "new" archdiocese — consisting of the District of Columbia and the two Washington suburban and three southern counties of Maryland — were permanently separated from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, resulting in the present-day Archdiocese of Baltimore.

From 1808 until 1847, Baltimore was the only archdiocese in the United States and therefore the entire country was one ecclesiastical province. As the nation's population grew and waves of Catholic immigrants arrived, the Holy See continued to erect new dioceses and elevate certain others to the status of metropolitan archdioceses, which simultaneously became metropolitan sees of new ecclesiastical provinces. Thus, the Province of Baltimore gradually became smaller and smaller. In 1847, the then-Diocese of Saint Louis was elevated to an archdiocese and metropolitan see of the new Province of Saint Louis. In 1850, the Diocese of New York was raised to an archdiocese. Also in 1850, the Diocese of Oregon City, now Portland, Oregon was raised to an archdiocese. In 1875, the dioceses of Boston and Philadelphia were likewise elevated.

The Archdiocese began to publish its diocesan newspaper, The Baltimore Catholic Review since 1913 as the successor to the earlier diocesan publication The Catholic Mirror, published 1833 to 1908. The name has since been shortened to The Catholic Review. In 2012, it changed from weekly to biweekly issues and in December 2015, it transformed again to a monthly magazine.

In general; "Prerogative of Place"

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is led by the prelature of the Archbishop of Baltimore and a corps of auxiliary bishops who assist in the administration of the archdiocese as part of a larger curia. Sixteen people have served as Archbishop of Baltimore; the current Archbishop is William E. Lori.

In 1858, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide), with the approval of Pope Pius IX, conferred "Prerogative of Place" on the Archdiocese of Baltimore. This decree gave the archbishop of Baltimore precedence over all other archbishops of the United States (but not cardinals) in councils, gatherings, and meetings of whatever kind of the hierarchy (in conciliis, coetibus et comitiis quibuscumque), regardless of the seniority of other archbishops in promotion or ordination.

Cathedrals

The archbishop is concurrently the pastor of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland in north Baltimore and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (old Baltimore Cathedral) on Cathedral Hill above downtown, near the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood, the co-cathedral; the bishop appoints the cathedral and co-cathedral's rectors. The Basilica, built in 1806–1821, is the first cathedral and parish constructed in the United States within its boundaries at the time. It is considered the mother church of the United States. During the time from the first bishop John Carroll's installation in 1790 to the dedication of the old Baltimore Cathedral in 1821, the bishop's throne ("cathedra") was at St. Peter's Church (first parish in the diocese, founded 1770), two blocks south on the northwestern corner of North Charles Street and West Saratoga Streets, serving as the pro-cathedral with its attached rectory, school and surrounding cemetery. Old St. Peter's interestingly was across the street from the "Mother Church of the Anglican Church" in Baltimore, Old St. Paul's Church (Anglican/Episcopal) with four successive buildings at the site beginning in 1730 at the southeast corner of Charles and Saratoga, in downtown, overlooking the harbor. St. Peter's Roman Catholic parish was razed in 1841.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is one of only four United States dioceses that has two churches serving as cathedrals in the same city, the others being the Diocese of Honolulu; the Diocese of Burlington and the Diocese of Brooklyn. Other dioceses with two cathedrals have them in separate cities.

Archbishops of Baltimore

The list of Archbishops and their terms of service:

1. John Carroll, S.J. (1784–1815) died; had been raised to Archbishop in 1808
2. Leonard Neale, S.J. (1815–1817) died
3. Ambrose Maréchal, P.S.S. (1817–1828) died
4. James Whitfield (1828–1834) died
5. Samuel Eccleston, P.S.S. (1834–1851) died
6. Francis Patrick Kenrick (1851–1863) died
7. Martin John Spalding (1864–1872) died
8. James Roosevelt Bayley (1872–1877) died
9. James Gibbons (1877–1921) died
10. Michael Joseph Curley (1921–1947) died
11. Francis Patrick Keough (1947–1961) died
12. Lawrence Shehan (1961–1974) retired; deceased
13. William Donald Borders (1974–1989) retired; deceased
14. William Henry Keeler (1989–2007) retired
15. Edwin Frederick O'Brien (2007–2011) appointed Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
16. William Edward Lori (2012-present)

Coadjutor and auxiliary bishops

Following is the list of coadjutor and auxiliary bishops and their terms of service (auxiliary is assumed unless noted as coadjutor). Once a diocese is raised to archdiocese, the coadjutor also has the rank of archbishop.

1. Dominic Laurence Graessel S.J. (Coadjutor: 1793) posthumous appointment
2. Leonard Neale S.J. (Coadjutor: 1795–1815) succeeded to see
3. James Whitfield (Coadjutor: January 8 – 28, 1828) succeeded to see
4. Samuel Eccleston P.S.S. (Coadjutor: March – October 1834) succeeded to see
5. James Gibbons (Coadjutor: May – October 1877) succeeded to see
6. Alfred Allen Paul Curtis (1897–1908) had retired as Bishop of Wilmington (served as such, 1886–1896)
7. Owen Patrick Bernard Corrigan (1908–1929) died
8. Thomas Joseph Shahan (1914–1932) died
9. John Michael McNamara (1927–1947) appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Washington
10. Lawrence Joseph Shehan (1945–1953) appointed Bishop of Bridgeport (later named coadjutor archbishop; see #12 below)
11. Jerome Aloysius Daugherty Sebastian (1953–1960) died
12. Lawrence Joseph Shehan (Coadjutor: July – December 1961) succeeded to see (used to be auxiliary; see #10 above)
13. Thomas Austin Murphy (1962–1984) retired
14. Thomas Joseph Mardaga (1966–1968) appointed Bishop of Wilmington
15. Francis Joseph Gossman (1968–1975) appointed Bishop of Raleigh
16. Philip Francis Murphy (1976–1999) died
17. James Francis Stafford (1976–1982) appointed Bishop of Memphis; later appointed Archbishop of Denver; later President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; created Cardinal; later appointed Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary; retired 2 June 2009
18. William Clifford Newman (1984–2003) retired
19. John Ricard S.S.J. (1984–1997) appointed Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee
20. Gordon Dunlap Bennett S.J. (1997–2004) appointed Bishop of Mandeville in Jamaica
21. William Francis Malooly (2000–2008) appointed Bishop of Wilmington
22. Mitchell T. Rozanski (2004–2014) appointed Bishop of Springfield (Massachusetts)
23. Denis J. Madden (2005–2016)
24. Mark E. Brennan (2017-present)
25. Adam J. Parker (2017-present)

Other affiliated bishops

The following men began their service as priests in Baltimore before being appointed bishops elsewhere (years in parentheses refers to their years in Baltimore):

Shrines of the archdiocese

Province of Baltimore