Archdiocese of Baltimore

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is the archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in northern and western Maryland in the United States. It is the metropolitan see of the Ecclesiastical Province of Baltimore.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is the oldest diocese and oldest archdiocese in the United States. Soon after the American Revolution, the diocese was erected to cover the United States, before the establishment of additional dioceses. The Vatican granted the archbishop of Baltimore the right of precedence in the nation at liturgies, meetings, and Plenary Councils in 1859. It is the premier episcopal see of the Catholic Church in the United States of America, as "prerogative of place".
As of 2020, the archdiocese had an estimated Catholic population of 525,000 with 198 diocesan priests, 193 religious priests and 169 permanent deacons in 139 parishes.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has two major seminaries: St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore and Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg.
It was revealed in late 2016 that the Archdiocese of Baltimore had paid off numerous settlements since 2011 for abuse victims.

Territory

The Archdiocese of Baltimore comprises the City of Baltimore and nine Maryland counties: Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington.

History

1600 to 1700

The first Catholic presence in the original British colonies in the United States was the proprietary colony of Maryland, established by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore in 1634. A Catholic himself, Calvert intended the colony to be open to English Catholics facing persecution at home.
In 1689, members of the growing Puritan population in Maryland staged a takeover of the colonial government and effectively outlawed Catholicism. In 1691, alarmed at the violent conflicts in Maryland, the British Crown took over the colony from the Calvert family.

1700 to 1789

The new royal governor in Maryland imposed less sweeping restrictions on Catholics than those of the Puritan regime. These restrictions would stay in place until after the end of the American Revolution.
During the British colonial period, the small Catholic communities in the American colonies were under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England. The first Catholic church in Baltimore, St. Peter's, was dedicated in 1770.
In November 1783, after the end of the Revolution, the Catholic clergy in Maryland petitioned the Vatican for permission to nominate a priest as superior of the missions for the United States. The superior would have some of the powers of a bishop and be in charge of the American Catholic Church. After receiving papal approval, the clergy nominated Reverend John Carroll to become superior. Pope Pius VI in June 1784 confirmed Carroll as superior of the missions. This papal act established an American hierarchy, removing the American Catholic Church from the authority of the British Catholic Church
In November 1784, Pius VI erected the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States encompassing the entire country. Since Maryland had the largest Catholic population, Pope Pius VI placed the prefecture see in Baltimore and appointed Carroll as its first prefect apostolic.

1789 to 1800

Four years later, Pius VI elevated the prefecture into the Diocese of Baltimore, making it the first diocese solely within the United States. St. Peter's, the only Catholic church in Baltimore, was designated as the pro-cathedral. The new Diocese of Baltimore covered the entire nation.
To train priests for his new diocese, Carroll asked the Fathers of the Company of Saint Sulpice to come to Baltimore. They arrived in 1791 and started the nucleus of St. Mary's College and Seminary in that city. Also in 1791, Carroll convened the first diocesan synod in the United States. Twenty-two priests attended the synod, setting national policies for baptism, confirmation, penance, the celebration of the liturgy in the mass, anointing of the sick, and mixed marriages.
The Vatican in 1795 appointed Reverend Leonard Neale as coadjutor bishop in Baltimore to assist Carroll. In 1798, Carroll won a civil case in Pennsylvania that acknowledged his position as leader of the American church. Carroll gave his approval to the founding of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, who in 1799 established Visitation Academy in Georgetown.

1800 to 1821

Carroll ordained the first American-born Catholic priest, Reverend William Matthews, at St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral in Baltimore in 1800. In 1806, Carroll started construction of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Baltimore As the Catholic population of the United States grew, the Vatican saw the need to create more dioceses. In 1808, Pope Pius VII erected four new dioceses from what now became the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The pope named Carroll as the first archbishop of Baltimore.

Name of new diocese	Territory taken from archdiocese in 1808
Diocese of Boston	Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont
Diocese of New York	State of New York and seven counties from New Jersey
Diocese of Philadelphia	Pennsylvania, Delaware, and seven counties from New Jersey
Diocese of Bardstown	Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and the Old Northwest Territory

After Carroll died in 1815, Neale automatically succeeded him as archbishop of Baltimore. However, due to Neale's bad health, Pope Pius VII in 1816 appointed Reverend Ambrose Maréchal as coadjutor archbishop. When Neale died in 1817, Maréchal succeeded him as archbishop of Baltimore.
Maréchal believed that his most pressing problem was a shortage of priests. It was aggravated by parish trustees who thought they had the power to assign these priests. In some Irish parishes, the trustees would demand Irish priests, even if they were not qualified. In 1820, Bishop Flaget of Bardstown warned Maréchal about a man claiming to be a priest who wanted to practice in the archdiocese. This individual produced positive letters of introduction from his bishop. However, when he was observed celebrating mass, it became clear that the so-called priest was incompetent. Maréchal later advised the Propaganda Fide in Rome about this problem.

1821 to 1850

Maréchal dedicated the incomplete Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral in May 1821. Later in 1821, Maréchal went to Rome on archdiocese business. One problem he had faced in Maryland was the disputed ownership of the White Marsh plantation in Bowie. The Order of Jesus had received the plantation as a gift in 1728 and claimed it as their property. Maréchal said that the plantation actually belonged to the archdiocese. The Vatican gave the archdiocese ownership of White Marsh.
On January 8, 1828, Reverend James Whitfield of Baltimore was appointed coadjutor archbishop of the archdiocese by Pope Leo XII. Before Whitfield could be consecrated as coadjutor, Maréchal died on January 29, 1828. Whitfield was finally consecrated as archbishop in June 1828. He convened a synod for the diocesan clergy in 1831 and the Second Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1833. Throughout his tenure, Whitfield worked for the welfare of the African American community. He authorized the foundation of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first religious order of African-American women in the United States. Whitfield talked about how he would have liked to evangelize the hundreds of thousands of enslaved African-Americans in Virginia.
Pope Gregory XVI in March 1834 appointed Reverend Samuel Eccleston as coadjutor archbishop to assist Whitfield. When Whitfield died in October 1834, Eccleston automatically succeeded him as archbishop. Eccleston encouraged religious orders to establish mother houses in his diocese, particularly those orders that could provide social services to the growing number of Catholic immigrants in the industrializing cities. The Sisters of the Visitation increased the number of their academies in the city and the archdiocese, the Brothers of St. Patrick opened a trade school near Baltimore, and the Redemptorists provided services for German-speaking immigrants. The Brothers of the Christian Schools founded Calvert Hall School in 1845 in Baltimore.
In 1847, Eccleston was planning to disband the Oblate Sisters of Providence, but was dissuaded by Redemptorist Father Thaddeus Anwander. St. Charles College was established in 1848 in Howard County on land donated by the planter Charles Carroll. Between 1837 and 1849, Eccleston held five provincial councils in Baltimore. He also started several new parishes during his administration. Eccleston died in 1851.

1850 to 1866

The Vatican continued to erect new dioceses and vicariates out of the Archdiocese of Baltimore through the 19th century as the church evolved and grew in the United States.

Name of new diocese	Date of new diocese	Territory taken from archdiocese
Diocese of Charleston	1820	North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
Diocese of Richmond	1820	Most of Virginia
Vicariate Apostolic of Mississippi and Alabama	1822	Mississippi and Alabama
Vicariate Apostolic of the Oregon Territory	1843	From California to Alaska and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean
Diocese of Richmond	1858	Alexandria, Virginia
Diocese of Wilmington	1868	Maryland eastern shore and the remaining Virginia counties

Following the death of Eccleston, Bishop Francis Kenrick of Philadelphia was named the sixth archbishop of Baltimore by Pope Pius IX in 1851. He presided over the First Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1852. As archbishop, Kenrick expanded parochial schools throughout the archdiocese. Under his tenure, parochial schools were free for all students, and were supported directly by the parishes. Kenrick died in 1863. The next archbishop of Baltimore was Bishop Martin Spalding from the Diocese of Louisville, appointed by Pope Pius IX.