Country United States Parishes 214 Area 22,126 km² Phone +1 513-421-3131 | Ecclesiastical province Cincinnati Schools 115 Patron saint Francis de Sales | |
 | ||
Territory Southwestern and Western Ohio, including the cities of Cincinnati, Dayton, Springfield, and Hamilton Population
- Total
- Catholics (as of 2013)
3,074,000
471,457 (15.3%) Address 100 E 8th St, Cincinnati, OH 45202, USA Cathedral Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral Similar St Peter In Chains Cathedra, St Francis Xavier Church, Elder High School, Seton High School, Old St Mary's Church Profiles | ||
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati (Latin: Archidioecesis Cincinnatensis) covers the southwest region of the U.S. state of Ohio, including the greater Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan areas. The Archbishop of Cincinnati is Most Rev. Dennis Marion Schnurr.
Contents
Geography
In total, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati encompasses 230 parishes in 19 counties, as of 2005, with the total membership of baptized Catholics around 500,000. The Archdiocese administers 110 associated parochial schools and diocesan elementary schools. The mother church is the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains, located at the corner of 8th and Plum Streets in Downtown Cincinnati.
Cincinnati is the metropolis of the Ecclesiastical Province of Cincinnati, which encompasses the entire state of Ohio and is composed of the Archdiocese and its five suffragan dioceses: Cleveland, Columbus, Steubenville, Toledo, and Youngstown.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is bordered by the Diocese of Toledo to the north, the Diocese of Columbus to the east, the Diocese of Covington to the south, and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and Diocese of Lafayette to the west.
History
Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Cincinnati on 19 June 1821, in territory taken from the Diocese of Bardstown. At the time, there was an unwritten prohibition against construction of Catholic churches in Cincinnati. The first church was therefore constructed just beyond the city boundaries. The diocese lost territory on 8 March 1833, when Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Detroit and again on 23 April 1847, when Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Cleveland.
On July 19, 1850, Pope Pius IX elevated the diocese to an Archdiocese and on March 3, 1868, he took territory to erect the Diocese of Columbus.
In November 2003, following a sexual abuse scandal and two-year investigation by the Hamilton County prosecutor's office, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk entered a plea of nolo contendere regarding five misdemeanor charges of failure to report allegations of child molestation. The court rendered no criminal judgment on the allegations themselves, only on the diocese's failure to report the allegations.
Bishops and Archbishops
The following is a list of the Ordinaries of Cincinnati (years of service in parentheses):
- Edward Fenwick, O.P. (1822–1833) died
- John Baptist Purcell (1833–1883) died
- William Henry Elder (1883–1903) died
- Henry K. Moeller (1903–1925) died
- John Timothy McNicholas O.P. (1925–1950) died
- Karl Joseph Alter (1950–1969) retired
- Paul Francis Leibold (1969–1972) died
- Joseph Bernardin (1972–1982) appointed Archbishop of Chicago, and elevated to Cardinal in 1983
- Daniel Edward Pilarczyk (1982–2009) retired
- Dennis Marion Schnurr (2009–present)
Auxiliary Bishops
- Sylvester Horton Rosecrans (1861–1868) appointed Bishop of Columbus
- William Henry Elder (Coadjutor 1880–1883) succeeded
- Henry Moeller (Coadjutor 1903–1904) succeeded
- Joseph H. Albers (1929–1937) appointed Bishop of Lansing
- George John Rehring (1937–1950) appointed Bishop of Toledo
- Paul Francis Leibold (1958–1966) appointed Bishop of Evansville
- Edward Anthony McCarthy (1965–1969) appointed Bishop of Phoenix
- Nicholas Thomas Elko (Archbishop ad personam 1971–1985) retired as Bishop emeritus of Pittsburgh (Ruthenian)
- Daniel Edward Pilarczyk (1974–1982) appointed Archbishop of Cincinnati
- James Henry Garland (1984–1992) appointed Bishop of Marquette
- Carl Kevin Moeddel (1993–2007) retired
- Dennis Marion Schnurr (Coadjutor 2008–2009) appointed Archbishop of Cincinnati
- Joseph R. Binzer (2011–present)
Affiliated Bishops
The following men began their service as priests in Cincinnati before being appointed bishops elsewhere (years in parentheses refer to their years in Cincinnati):
Education
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati operates a large school system that is especially well-attended in the Cincinnati area. As of 2011, 43,641 students enroll in the Archdiocese's 115 schools, making it the sixth largest Catholic school system in the United States. In Hamilton County, where most private schools are run by the Archdiocese, nearly a quarter of students (36,684 as of 2007) attend private schools, a rate only second to St. Louis County, Missouri.
The 23 Catholic high schools in the region operate under varying degrees of archdiocesan control. Several are owned and operated by the Archdiocese, while other interparochial schools are run by groups of parishes under archdiocesan supervision. Most of the interparochial and non-archdiocesan high schools are operated by religious institutes (as noted in the adjacent table). Most of the schools' athletic teams belong to the Greater Catholic League, which consists of a co-ed division, the Girls Greater Cincinnati League, and a division for all-male schools.
The Archdiocese also includes 92 parochial and diocesan elementary schools, with a combined enrollment of 30,312, as of 2011 (ACE Consulting 2011, p. 91). These schools can be found in the urban and suburban areas of Cincinnati and Dayton, as well as some of the smaller towns within the Archdiocesan boundaries. Each parochial school is owned and operated by its parish, rather than by the Archdiocese's Catholic Schools Office. However, in March 2011, the Archdiocese announced its intention of eventually unifying the schools under one school system. As of 2015, the interim Superintendent of Catholic Schools is Susie Gibbons.
Five of the high schools are named after former archbishops of the diocese. A parochial elementary school in Dayton is also named after Archbishop Liebold.
The Archdiocese sponsors the Athenaeum of Ohio – Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West seminary in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Cincinnati.
Superintendents
Newspapers
The Archdiocese is served by The Catholic Telegraph, the diocesan newspaper, which is described on its website as the United States' oldest continuously published Catholic diocesan newspaper. Its defunct sister newspaper, Der Wahrheitsfreund, was the first German Catholic newspaper in the country.
Radio stations
Several area Catholic radio stations, owned by separate entities, serve the Archdiocese:
Other stations reach into portions of the Archdiocese: