| Archdiocese of Boston Archidioecesis Bostoniensis |
|
|---|---|
The coat of arms of the Archdiocese of Boston |
|
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Territory | Counties of Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Plymouth (the towns of Mattapoisett, Marion, and Wareham excepted)[1] |
| Ecclesiastical province | Archdiocese of Boston |
| Metropolitan | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Population - Catholics |
1,845,758[2] |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | April 8, 1808 |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of the Holy Cross |
| Patron saint | Saint Patrick |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Benedict XVI |
| Archbishop | Seán Patrick O'Malley, OFM Cap Archbishop of Boston |
| Auxiliary Bishop | John Anthony Dooher Walter James Edyvean Robert Francis Hennessey Arthur Leo Kennedy Peter John Uglietto Emilio Simeon Alluè, S.D.B. (Retired) John Patrick Boles (Retired) Francis Xavier Irwin (Retired) |
| Map | |
| Website | |
| BostonCatholic.org | |
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston (Latin: Archidioecesis Bostoniensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the New England region of the United States. It comprises several counties of the state of Massachusetts. It is led by a prelate archbishop who serves as pastor of the mother church, Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End of Boston.
As of 2009, there are 292 parishes in the archdiocese.[3] In 2007, the archdiocese estimated that 1.8 million Catholics were in the territory, of whom about 315,000 regularly attended Mass.[4]
Contents |
The original Diocese of Boston was canonically erected on April 8, 1808 by Pope Pius VII. It took its territories from the larger historic Diocese of Baltimore and consisted of the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
In the nineteenth century, as Catholicism grew exponentially in New England, the Diocese of Boston was carved into smaller new dioceses: on November 28, 1843, Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Hartford; Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Burlington and the Diocese of Portland on July 29, 1853, the Diocese of Springfield on June 14, 1870, and the Diocese of Providence on February 16, 1872. On February 12, 1875, Pope Pius IX elevated the diocese to the rank of an archdiocese.
At the beginning of the 21st century the archdiocese was in the middle of sex abuse accusations that culminated in the resignation of its archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, on December 13, 2002. The Archdiocese settled with most claims for $86 million. On August 25, 2011, the archbishop released a list of 159 names of priests who have been accused of sexual abusing a minor.[5] The publication mentions that 250 priests in the archdiocese have been accused but 69 names were omitted because they were either deceased, aren't active ministers, haven't been publicly accused, or were dismissed or left prior to canonical proceedings. An additional 22 names were omitted because the accusations could not be substantiated, 9 of which are still in active ministry.
In June 2004, much of the land around the archdiocese of Boston headquarters and chancery in Brighton was sold to Boston College, in part to raise money for legal costs associated with child sexual abuse scandal in Boston.[6][7][8] The offices of the Archdiocese were moved to Braintree, Massachusetts although Saint John's Seminary remains on that property.
The Archdiocese of Boston is also metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical province of Boston. This means that the archbishop of Boston is the metropolitan for the province. The suffragan dioceses in the province are the Diocese of Burlington, Diocese of Fall River, Diocese of Manchester, Diocese of Portland, Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts, and the Diocese of Worcester.
The diocesan newspaper The Pilot has been published in Boston since 1829.
The Archdiocese's Catholic Television Center, founded in 1955, produces programs and operates the cable television network CatholicTV. From 1964 to 1966, it owned and operated a broadcast television station under the call letters WIHS-TV.
The Archdiocese of Boston is divided into 5 pastoral regions, each headed by an episcopal vicar.
The following is a list of the Ordinaries of Boston:
|
|||||
|
|||||