Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle
Archdiocese of Seattle Archidiœcesis Seattlensis | |
---|---|
![]() St. James Cathedral | |
![]() Coat of arms | |
Location | |
Country | ![]() |
Territory | Western Washington |
Ecclesiastical province | Seattle |
Statistics | |
Area | 64,269 km2 (24,814 sq mi) |
Population - Total - Catholics (including non-members) | (as of 2016) 5,501,540 863,000 (15.7%) |
Parishes | 144 |
Churches | 183 |
Schools | 75 |
Members | 972,000 |
Information | |
Denomination | Catholic |
Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Established | May 31, 1850 September 11, 1907 (became Diocese of Seattle) June 23, 1951 (elevated to Archdiocese) | (as Diocese of Nesqually)
Cathedral | St. James Cathedral |
Patron saint | St. James the Greater[1] |
Secular priests | 115 |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Archbishop | Paul D. Etienne |
Auxiliary Bishops | Eusebio L. Elizondo Almaguer Frank R. Schuster |
Bishops emeritus | J. Peter Sartain |
Map | |
![]() | |
Website | |
seattlearchdiocese.org |
Formerly known as Diocese of Nesqually, 1850-1907.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church (particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in the U.S. state of Washington. Headquartered in Seattle, the archdiocese encompasses all counties in the state west of the Cascade Range.
As of 3 September 2019[update], its archbishop is Paul D. Etienne.
Its cathedral of the archiepiscopal see is St. James Cathedral in Seattle, and the former cathedral is the Proto-Cathedral of St. James the Greater, in Vancouver, Washington.
The archdiocese succeeded to the Diocese of Nesqually headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, established in 1850 as a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Oregon City. In 1903, the episcopal see was moved to Seattle, and the diocese's name was changed to Diocese of Seattle in 1907. The diocese was elevated to metropolitan archdiocesan status in 1951.
Ecclesiastical province
The Archbishop of Seattle concurrently is the Metropolitan Archbishop of two suffragan daughter dioceses within the Ecclesiastical Province of Seattle, which together cover the entire state of Washington :
- Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, carved out of the Archdiocese of Seattle territory in 1913
- Roman Catholic Diocese of Yakima, carved out of the Archdiocese of Seattle territory in 1951.
Statistics and extent
As per 2014 it pastorally served 997,000 Catholics (18.6% of 5,350,045 total) on 64,269 km² in 147 parishes with 298 priests (204 diocesan, 94 religious), 116 deacons, 476 lay religious (109 brothers, 367 sisters) and 800 lay ecclesial ministers.
The Archdiocese encompasses all of Western Washington, 64,269 km², stretching from the Canadian to the Oregon border and from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, including 19 counties.
In this area, 972,000 people identify as Catholic, almost 19% of the total population of 5,202,500.[2]
There are 144 parishes, and an additional 37 missions, stations, and pastoral centers. Only 106 of these have resident priest-pastors.
These parishes and other centers are served by 115 active diocesan priests, 118 diocesan deacons, approximately 800 diocesan lay ecclesial ministers, and 530 religious women and men (including priests). The archbishop is assisted by two auxiliary bishops, and there are two retired archbishops still living.
There are 11 Catholic Hospitals, 2 Health Care Centers, 19 Homes for the elderly, 3 day care centers, 10 specialized homes, and 111 centers for social services.
There are 2 Catholic universities, 11 high schools, 62 elementary schools.
16,831 elementary students are served through parochial and private schools; 29,850 through parochial religious education programs.
2420 high school students are served through diocesan and private schools; 6580 through parochial religious education and youth ministry programs.[3]
History
The presence of the Catholic Church in the present state of Washington dates to the 1830s, when missionary priests François Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers traveled from Quebec and arrived in what was then known as the Oregon Country. On December 1, 1843, the Holy See established the Vicariate Apostolic of the Oregon Territory and named Blanchet its vicar apostolic. In 1846 Pope Gregory XVI established an ecclesiastical territory in the region, and the apostolic vicariate was split into three dioceses: Diocese of Oregon City with François Blanchet as bishop; Diocese of Vancouver Island, with Demers as bishop, and Diocese of Walla Walla at Walla Walla, Washington, with François Blanchet's brother, Augustin-Magloire Blanchet, as bishop.
The Whitman massacre in 1847 and the ensuing Cayuse War increased tensions between Christians and the native population of the Oregon Territory, and as a result by 1850 the Diocese of Walla Walla was abandoned and its merged-in territory administered from Oregon City.
On May 31, 1850, Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Nesqually out of the defunct Walla Walla diocese, with Augustin Blanchet as bishop. In January 1851, Augustin Blanchet dedicated St. James Church near Fort Vancouver as the new diocese's cathedral. A new St. James Cathedral was built in Vancouver, Washington in 1885.
In 1903 Bishop Edward O'Dea, realizing that Vancouver was no longer the economic and population center of the region, moved the episcopal see to Seattle and began construction on a new cathedral in 1905. The Holy See changed the name to Diocese of Seattle on September 11, 1907, and the present-day St. James Cathedral was dedicated on December 22, 1907.
On December 12, 1913, it lost territory to establish the Diocese of Spokane, now its oldest suffragan.
It was elevated on June 23, 1951 as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Seattle and Bishop Thomas Arthur Connolly became the first archbishop.[4] Simultaneously it lost territory to establish the Diocese of Yakima, its second suffragan.
In 1983, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), initiated an apostolic visitation to the Archdiocese of Seattle. The visitation was largely prompted by concerns over whether the archdiocese under Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen was adhering to church teachings on matters including contraception in Catholic hospitals and its treatment of homosexuals and divorced people.[5] Archbishop James Hickey of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC was sent to Seattle to gather information on behalf of the CDF.[6] As a result of the CDF's findings, on December 3, 1985, Pope John Paul II appointed Donald Wuerl auxiliary bishop of Seattle with "special faculties"[7] that included the authority to overrule Archbishop Hunthausen in several areas. This unusual arrangement proved unpopular among the people of the archdiocese, and Wuerl was replaced with Thomas Murphy on May 26, 1987. Murphy was appointed as coadjutor archbishop, and thus automatically became the archbishop with Hunthausen's retirement on August 21, 1991.[8]
Under Archbishop Murphy, the archdiocese saw an increase in registered Catholics and an increase in lay ministries and outreach for women and various ethnic groups. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in December 1996, and died on June 26, 1997. Father George Leo Thomas was appointed administrator of the archdiocese until the installation of Archbishop Alexander Joseph Brunett in December 1997. Brunett later appointed and consecrated George Thomas as auxiliary bishop, a post he held until his appointment as Bishop of Helena in 2004. Eusebio L. Elizondo Almaguer and Joseph J. Tyson were appointed as auxiliary bishops and consecrated in 2005; Elizondo still serves in that capacity, while Tyson departed in 2011 to become Bishop of suffragan see Yakima. Brunett served as archbishop until his retirement in 2011 and was succeeded by J. Peter Sartain. On April 29, 2019, Pope Francis named Paul D. Etienne, serving at the time as Archbishop of Anchorage, Alaska, as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Seattle in anticipation of Archbishop Sartain's retirement.[9][10] Etienne succeeded Sartain on September 3, 2019, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation.[11]
Bishops
Bishops of Nesqually
- Augustin-Magloire Blanchet (1850–1879)
- Egidius Junger (1879–1895)
- Edward John O'Dea (1896–1907), title changed to Bishop of Seattle
Bishops of Seattle
- Edward John O'Dea (1907–1932)
- Gerald Shaughnessy (1933–1950)
- Thomas Arthur Connolly (1950–1951), elevated to Archbishop
Archbishops of Seattle
- Thomas Arthur Connolly (1951–1975)
- Raymond Hunthausen (1975–1991)
- Thomas Joseph Murphy (1991–1997; coadjutor 1987-1991)
- Alexander Joseph Brunett (1997–2010)
- J. Peter Sartain (2010–2019)
- Paul D. Etienne (2019–present; coadjutor 2019)
Current Auxiliary Bishops
- Eusebio L. Elizondo Almaguer (2005–present)
- Frank R. Schuster (2022-present)
Former Auxiliary Bishops
- Thomas Edward Gill (1956–1973)
- Nicolas Eugene Walsh (1976–1983)
- Donald Wuerl (1986–1988) appointed Bishop of Pittsburgh and later Archbishop of Washington (Cardinal in 2010)
- George Leo Thomas (2000–2004) appointed Bishop of Helena and later Bishop of Las Vegas
- Joseph J. Tyson (2005–2011), appointed Bishop of Yakima
- Daniel Henry Mueggenborg (2017–2021), appointed Bishop of Reno.
Other priests of this diocese who became Bishops
- Robert John Armstrong, appointed Bishop of Sacramento in 1929
- Jean-Baptiste Brondel, appointed Bishop of Vancouver Island in 1879
- Joseph Patrick Dougherty, appointed Bishop of Yakima in 1951
- Cornelius Michael Power, appointed Bishop of Yakima in 1969
High schools
- Archbishop Murphy High School* - Everett
- Bellarmine Preparatory School* - Tacoma
- Bishop Blanchet High School - Seattle
- Eastside Catholic School* - Sammamish
- Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart* - Bellevue
- Holy Names Academy* - Seattle
- John F. Kennedy Catholic High School - Burien
- O'Dea High School - Seattle
- Pope John Paul II High School* - Lacey
- Seattle Preparatory School* - Seattle
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School* - Vancouver
- * Operationally independent of Archdiocese
See also
- Catholic Church in the United States
- Global organisation of the Catholic Church
- List of Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
- List of Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)
- List of Catholic dioceses in the United States
References
- ^ Paulist Press Ordo 2010
- ^ "The Archdiocese". Archdiocese of Seattle.
- ^ "Table of Statistics" (PDF). Archdiocese of Seattle.
- ^ "Local Catholic History". Archives and Records, Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
- ^ "Raymond Hunthausen". People. 1986-12-22.
- ^ "Seattle Catholic - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's Report Issued on Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen". www.seattlecatholic.com.
- ^ Canon 403, Section 2, and Canon 405, Section 2, Codex Juris Canonici, 1984.
- ^ Canon 403, Section 3, and Canon 405, Section 2, Codex Juris Canonici, 1984.
- ^ "Pope names Archbishop Etienne coadjutor archbishop of Seattle". Catholic News Service. April 29, 2019. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
- ^ "Resignations and Appointments, 29.04.2019" (Press release). Holy See Press Office. April 29, 2019. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
- ^ "Archbishop Etienne succeeds Archbishop Sartain as archbishop of Seattle". Northwest Catholic.
Sources and external links
- Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle Official Site
- GCatholic - Seattle see, with Google map and satellite photo - data for most sections
- Northwest Catholic - diocesan magazine
- St. James Cathedral
Coordinates: 47°36′23″N 122°19′32″W / 47.60639°N 122.32556°W
- Articles with short description
- Articles containing Latin-language text
- Official website not in Wikidata
- Articles containing potentially dated statements from September 2019
- All articles containing potentially dated statements
- Coordinates not on Wikidata
- AC with 0 elements
- Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle
- Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Seattle
- Religious organizations established in 1850
- Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 19th century
- Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States
- 1850 establishments in Oregon Territory
- Christianity in Washington (state)
- Religion in Seattle