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Archdiocese of Washington Archidioecesis Vashingtonensis
Location
Country	United States
Territory	District of Columbia plus counties of Montgomery, Prince George's, St. Mary's, Calvert, and Charles in Maryland[1]
Ecclesiastical province	Washington
Statistics
Area	2,104 sq mi (5,450 km2)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2014) 2,867,377 630,823[2] (22.0%)
Parishes	139
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	November 15, 1947[3] (70 years ago)
Cathedral	Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle
Patron saint	St. Matthew
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Metropolitan Archbishop	Sede Vacante
Auxiliary Bishops	Mario E. Dorsonville Roy Edward Campbell Michael William Fisher
Emeritus Bishops	Donald Wuerl Theodore Edgar McCarrick Francisco González Valer
Website
www.adw.org

Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.

The Pastoral Center in Hyattsville, Maryland

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. It comprises the District of Columbia and Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's and Saint Mary's counties in the state of Maryland.

The Archdiocese of Washington is home to The Catholic University of America, the only national university operated by the bishops conference of the United States^[4] and Georgetown University, the oldest Jesuit institution of higher education in the country.

In addition, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a minor basilica dedicated to the nation's patroness, is located within and administered by it, and, although it is not the Archdiocesan cathedral (nor even a parish of the Archdiocese), it is the site of its Easter and Christmas Masses.

Prelature

The ordinary of the Archdiocese of Washington is an archbishop whose cathedra is the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in the City of Washington and who is metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Washington. Its sole suffragan see is the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands.

The first Archbishop of Washington was Michael Joseph Curley in 1939. Eight years later, on November 15, 1947, the archdiocese received its first residential archbishop, with the appointment of Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle. Donald William Cardinal Wuerl served as the most recent ordinary of the Archdiocese. Wuerl resigned as Archbishop of Washington on October 12, 2018 in the wake of revelations about his poor handling of incidents of sex abuse when he served as Bishop of Pittsburgh.^[5]

History

The Archdiocese of Washington often prides itself in sharing the fact that the Society of Jesus celebrated the first Mass in British North America on its shores in 1634.^[6] During the colonial era, however, Catholics would remain a persecuted people suffering the wrath of oppression allowed by local penal laws.^[6]

Upon the founding of the United States, a Jesuit priest, Father John Carroll, was elected head of the missionary territory (later Prefecture Apostolic) of the United States. In 1789 the Diocese of Baltimore (later the Archdiocese of Baltimore) was established with Carroll as its first bishop, and given ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the entire nation.^[7]

On July 22, 1939, Pope Pius XII separated the cities of Washington and Baltimore, creating two archdioceses (Baltimore and Washington), under the oversight of one archbishop in persona episcopi.^[3][6] This process of separation was officially concluded on November 15, 1947, with the appointment of Washington's first residential archbishop.^[3][6] The Archdiocese of Washington became a metropolitan see on October 12, 1965, when the Diocese of Saint Thomas became its first (and, so far, only) suffragan see.

Bishops

The list of bishops and their terms of service:

Archbishops of Washington

1. 
   Michael Joseph Curley (1939–1947), concurrently the Archbishop of Baltimore
   


2. Cardinal Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle (1947–1973)


3. Cardinal William Wakefield Baum (1973–1980), appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education and later Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary
   


4. Cardinal James Aloysius Hickey (1980–2000)


5. (Former) Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (2000–2006)^[8]
   


6. Cardinal Donald William Wuerl (2006–2018)

Auxiliary Bishops

• 
  John Michael McNamara (1947–1960)


• 
  Patrick Joseph McCormick (1950–1953)


• 
  Philip Matthew Hannan (1956–1965), appointed Archbishop of New Orleans
  


• 
  William Joseph McDonald (1964–1967), appointed Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco
  


• 
  John Selby Spence (1964–1973)


• 
  Edward John Herrmann (1966–1973), appointed Bishop of Columbus
  


• 
  Thomas William Lyons (1974–1988)


• 
  Eugene Antonio Marino S.S.J. (1974–1988), appointed Archbishop of Atlanta
  


• 
  Thomas Cajetan Kelly O.P. (1977–1981), appointed Archbishop of Louisville
  


• 
  Alvaro Corrada del Rio S.J. (1985–1997), appointed Apostolic Administrator of Caguas and later Bishop of Tyler and Bishop of Mayaguez
  


• 
  William George Curlin (1988–1994), appointed Bishop of Charlotte
  


• 
  Leonard James Olivier S.V.D. (1988–2004)


• 
  William Edward Lori (1995–2001), appointed Bishop of Bridgeport and later Archbishop of Baltimore
  


• 
  Kevin Joseph Farrell (2001–2007), appointed Bishop of Dallas and later Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life (elevated to Cardinal in 2016)


• 
  Francisco González Valer S.F. (2001–2014)


• 
  Martin David Holley (2004–2016), appointed Bishop of Memphis
  


• 
  Barry Christopher Knestout (2008–2018), appointed Bishop of Richmond
  


• 
  Mario E. Dorsonville (2015–present)


• 
  Roy Edward Campbell (2017–present)


• 
  Michael William Fisher (2018–present)

Reports of Sexual Abuse

On September 26, 2018, it was announced that the Archdiocese of Washington was now one of four American Catholic Dioceses under investigation by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for reports of sex abuse.^[9] Accused former Cardinal and Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick had served in each Diocese.^[9] On October 15, 2018, the Archdiocese of Washington released the names of 31 clergy who served in the Archdiocese and were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors since 1948.^[10][11][12]

Parishes

High schools

Archdiocesan cemeteries

In addition to the nearly four dozen of its parishes which have their own cemeteries,^[13] the archdiocese owns and operates five major cemeteries:^[14]

• 
  Mount Olivet Cemetery, Washington, D.C.


• 
  Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Silver Spring, Maryland
  


• St. Mary's Queen of Peace Cemetery, Helen, Maryland
  


• Resurrection Cemetery, Clinton, Maryland
  


• All Souls Cemetery, Germantown, Maryland
  

Two former parish cemeteries are also operated by the archdiocese:

• St. John’s Cemetery, Forest Glen, Maryland
  


• St. Mary’s Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Province of Washington, D.C.

Ecclesiastical Province of Washington map

• Diocese of Saint Thomas

See also

References

External links

• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington Official Site


• Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle


• Alphabetical Listing of Parishes

Coordinates: 38°57′11″N 76°59′7.4″W / 38.95306°N 76.985389°W / 38.95306; -76.985389