Country United States Ecclesiastical province Boston Population
- Catholics 235,000 (28.9%) Area 7,309 km² Cathedral St. Michael's Cathedral | Territory Western Massachusetts Metropolitan Boston Parishes 81 Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski Phone +1 413-732-3175 | |
 | ||
Address 65 Elliot St, Springfield, MA 01105, USA Similar Catholic Charities, Holyoke Catholic High Sch, Holy Name Church, Cathedral High School, St Frances Xavier Cabrini P | ||
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts (Latin: Dioecesis Campifontis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the New England region of the United States comprising the counties of Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Contents
Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts by canon June 14, 1870, in territory taken from the present-day Archdiocese of Boston.
The Basilica of St. Stanislaus in Chicopee is under the circumscription of the diocese.
Suppression and closure of parishes
In an online news brief by the Catholic News Service (CNS) that was posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2011:
"The Springfield Diocese has been informed that the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest tribunal, has upheld the diocese's decision to suppress and close three parishes.
According to a November 10 press release issued by the diocese, the upholding of the parish closings "is a definitive finding which supports the actions of the diocese, thus removing any possibility for their restoration as parishes."
The three parishes in the western Massachusetts diocese involved in the final ruling were St. Stanislaus Kostka in Adams and St. George and St. Patrick in Chicopee. The decision affirmed merging St. Stanislaus Kostka with Pope John Paul the Great Parish, and St. George and St. Patrick with Holy Name of Jesus.
In the same action, the press release said, the Vatican court indicated the diocese had not yet provided sufficient cause to use the former churches for nonreligious uses, a similar point made by the Vatican Congregation for Clergy in its decision.
But the diocese said the court's secondary finding does not require that these church buildings be reopened, and does not mandate that they be restored as regular worship sites, since the parishes they were assigned to no longer exist. "This action simply means they cannot be actively used for any nonreligious purpose. It allows for no use, or a wide range of other nonworship religious uses," the diocesan news release said.
Future actions by the diocese may include using the clarification now provided by the Apostolic Signatura to issue a decree stating "the need to reduce the status of the church buildings for alternative uses as permitted."..."
Bishops
Bishops and their terms of service:
- Patrick Thomas O'Reilly (1870-1892, Died)
- Thomas Daniel Beaven (1892-1920, Died)
- Thomas Michael O'Leary (1921-1949, Died)
- Christopher Joseph Weldon (1950-1977, Retired)
- Joseph Francis Maguire (1977-1992, Died)
- John Aloysius Marshall (1992-1994, Died)
- Thomas Ludger Dupré (1995-2004, Resigned)
- Timothy Anthony McDonnell (2004–2014, Retired)
- Mitchell Thomas Rozanski (2014-Present)