
| Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Archidioecesis Bostoniensis |
|
Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston |
|
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Territory | Counties of Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Plymouth (the towns of Mattapoisett, Marion, and Wareham excepted)[1] |
| Population | 1,845,758 Catholics[2] |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Patron | Saint Patrick |
| Ecclesiastical province | Archdiocese of Boston |
| Established | April 8, 1808 |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of the Holy Cross |
| Bishop | Seán Patrick O'Malley, OFM Cap |
| Website | www.rcab.org |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Benedict XVI |
| Metropolitan | Seán Patrick O'Malley, OFM Cap Archbishop of Boston |
| Diocesan Bishop | Seán Patrick O'Malley, OFM Cap Archbishop of Boston |
| Auxiliary bishops | Most Rev. Emilio S. Alluè, SDB, D.D. Most Rev. John Anthony Dooher Most Rev. Walter J. Edyvean Most Rev. Robert Francis Hennessey Most Rev. Francis X. Irwin, DD, ACSW |
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 2007, there are 295 parishes in the archdiocese. The archdiocese estimates that 1.8 million Catholics are in the territory, of whom about 315,000 regularly attend.[3]
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. Throughout the history of the United States and exponential growth of Catholicism 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 become an archdiocese.
For a number of years the Archbishop of Boston was traditionally named a Cardinal. Pope John Paul II also denied the archdiocese a new prelate cardinal while Cardinal Law was still in active service in the Roman Curia. That changed on February 22, 2006 when Pope Benedict XVI announced that current Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley would be among 15 bishops who would be appointed as cardinals in the near future. Cardinal O'Malley and the 14 others were formally installed in a ceremony in Rome on March 24, 2006.
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:
|
|||||
|
|||||
Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History