Country United States Metropolitan Atlanta Phone +1 704-370-6299 | Ecclesiastical province Atlanta Bishop Peter Joseph Jugis | |
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Territory Western North Carolina Vicariates of Albemarle, Asheville, Boone, Gastonia, Greensboro, Hickory, Mecklenburg, Salisbury, Smoky Mountain, Winston-Salem Area 53,696 km (20,732 sq mi) Population
- Total
- Catholics (as of 2013)
4,967,591
235,700 (4.7%) Address 1123 S Church St, Charlotte, NC 28203, USA Cathedral Cathedral of Saint Patrick Hours Closed now Tuesday8AM–5PMWednesday8AM–5PMThursday8AM–5PMFriday8AM–5PMSaturdayClosedSundayClosedMonday8AM–5PMSuggest an edit | ||
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte (Dioecesis Carolinana), is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the southern United States. It includes of 46 counties in western North Carolina, which are divided into ten vicariates, named for and administered from Albemarle, Asheville, Boone, Gastonia, Greensboro, Hickory, Mecklenburg, Salisbury, Smoky Mountain and Winston-Salem. Charlotte and the Piedmont Triad are the largest metropolitan areas in the diocese. The Charlotte See is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
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Canonically erected on November 12, 1971, by Pope Paul VI, the diocese took its territories from the neighboring Diocese of Raleigh. The Charlotte See is led by a bishop who serves as pastor of the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in Charlotte, North Carolina. Peter Joseph Jugis is the current bishop. The Diocese is also home to two of the three basilicas in North Carolina, the Basilica of St. Lawrence and the Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians.
History
The Diocese of Raleigh, established in 1924, was the first diocese in North Carolina. It included the entire State until the formation of the Diocese of Charlotte on January 12, 1972. At that time, Fr. Michael Begley, a priest in the Diocese of Raleigh, was ordained and installed as the first Bishop of Charlotte. Bishop Begley served as Ordinary of the Diocese until his retirement at age seventy-five in May 1984, after which he served as Apostolic Administrator. When the new Diocese was established, the Catholic population of the area was just over 34,000. Fr. John Donoghue, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, succeeded Bishop Begley in late 1984, and was appointed Bishop of Charlotte by the Holy See on 6 November and installed on 18 December 1984. The population of Catholics in Charlotte continued to grow, and Bishop Donoghue declared in the early 1990s that it would be the Decade of Evangelization. Bishop Donoghue became Archbishop of Atlanta on 22 June 1993 and was succeeded by William G. Curlin, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington and Titular Bishop of Rosemarkie, on 13 April 1994. Bishop Curlin served the Diocese of Charlotte until his retirement on September 10, 2002. At this time, the population of the diocese had grown to approximately 87,000 people. On August 1, 2003, Pope John Paul II appointed Peter J. Jugis, Judicial Vicar and Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Monroe, North Carolina as the fourth Bishop of Charlotte, which he remains to this day. He was consecrated on October 24, 2003.
The total population of the diocese as of 2010 was approximately 4.8 million people. Of this number, 174,689 were registered Catholics (3.6% of the total population), living in a little over 63,000 households. This number does not include an estimated 230,000 undocumented Hispanic or Latino Catholics. The diocese encompasses three main areas of population: the Triad Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem; Charlotte; and the mountains. It covers 20,700 square miles (54,000 km2), and includes 46 counties.
Older Mass Forms
In December 2007, 14 priests of the diocese attended a five-day workshop on the 1962 version of the Mass, recognized in July of that year as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. Father Samuel Weber OSB was the first to offer a regularly scheduled Mass in that form in the Diocese of Charlotte since 1969. He celebrated this mass in October 2007 at Davis Chapel of Wake Forest University. Bishop Jugis noted that it would take some time, but that the diocese was trying to accommodate those with an attachment to this form of Mass. On the following January 13, the Tridentine Latin Mass or usus antiquor (older form) was celebrated for the first time in nearly 40 years at Our Lady Of Grace Church in Greensboro, with Bishop Peter Jugis attending.
Roman Catholic Bishops
The list of bishops and their tenure of service:
- Michael Joseph Begley (1971–1984)
- John Francis Donoghue (1984–1993)
- William G. Curlin (1994–2002)
- Peter Joseph Jugis (2003–present)
Schools
Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools (MACS)
High schools
6-8
PK-8
TK, PK, or K-5
Other Schools in Diocese
High Schools
PK-8
Notable parishes
Some notable churches within the Diocese of Charlotte include: