Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston is an ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Roman Catholic Church in the Southern United States that comprises the entire state of South Carolina.[3] Currently, the diocese consists of 96 parishes and 21 missions, with Charleston as its see city.[4]

This article is about the diocese with a cathedral in Charleston, South Carolina. For the diocese with a cathedral in Charleston, West Virginia, see Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

Diocese of Charleston

Dioecesis Carolopolitana
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
Coat of arms
Location
Country United States
Territory South Carolina
Ecclesiastical provinceAtlanta
MetropolitanArchdiocese of Atlanta
Statistics
Area31,055 sq mi (80,430 km2)
Population
- Total
- Catholics (including non-members)		(as of 2016)
4,832,482
196,245 (4.1%)
Information
DenominationCatholic
Sui iuris churchLatin Church
RiteRoman Rite
EstablishedJuly 11, 1820
CathedralCathedral of Saint John the Baptist
Patron saintSt. John the Baptist(Primary) [1]
St. Finbar (Secondary)[2]
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
Bishop electJacques E. Fabre
Metropolitan ArchbishopGregory John Hartmayer
Vicar GeneralRichard Harris, D. Anthony Droze
Bishops emeritusRobert E. Guglielmone
Map
Website
charlestondiocese.org

Charleston is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.[5] Services are primarily given in English throughout the diocese, though the rapid increase in the Hispanic population has caused several congregations to include Spanish language services, particularly in the Lowcountry region.

History

Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Charleston, taking the territory of the states of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina from the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore,[3] on July 11, 1820. He designated it as a suffragan of the same metropolitan see, making it the seventh oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the United States.

On July 3, 1850, Pope Pius IX erected the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah, taking Georgia from the Diocese of Charleston.[3]On March 3,1868, the same pope erected the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina, removing the state of North Carolina from the Diocese of Charleston.[3] The Diocese of Charleston now included only South Carolina.

On February 10,1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the Diocese of Atlanta to a metropolitan archdiocese and transferred the Diocese of Charleston to the new metropolitan province.[3]

Cathedrals

Consecrated on April 6, 1854, the Cathedral of Saint John and Saint Finbar was the first proper cathedral of the diocese. On December 11, 1861, it was destroyed in a fire that consumed most of Charleston. The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist was built to replace the original cathedral and sits on the foundation of its ruins.[6] Before the Diocese of Raleigh was formed, the Diocese of Charleston had a pro-cathedral in Wilmington, North Carolina, that is now St. Mary Catholic Church.

Sexual abuse

In 2007, Charleston's Bishop Robert J. Baker agreed to pay a settlement of $12 million to people who were sexually abused by priests who were serving in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston.[7] In March 2019, the diocese unveiled the names of 42 clergy who were "credibly accused" of committing acts of sex abuse while serving in the Diocese of Charleston.[8] In August 2019, it was revealed that Charleston Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone was being sued in the state of New York for sex abuse he allegedly committed while serving in the Diocese of Rockville Centre.[9] In November 2020, the North Myrtle Beach director of youth ministry, Jacob Ouellette, was arrested on charges of criminal sexual conduct, two counts of criminal solicitation of a minor, and first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor on the Internet.[10]

List of Bishops

The complete list of bishops of the diocese is as follows:[3]

Bishops of Charleston
  1. John England (1820-1842)
    - William Clancy (coadjutor bishop 1834-1837; appointed apostolic vicar of British Guiana before succession)
  2. Ignatius A. Reynolds (1843-1855)
  3. Patrick N. Lynch (1857-1882)
  4. Henry P. Northrop (1883-1916)
  5. William Thomas Russell (1916-1927)
  6. Emmet M. Walsh (1927-1949), appointed coadjutor bishop of Youngstown and subsequently succeeded to that see
  7. John J. Russell (1950-1958), appointed bishop of Richmond
  8. Paul John Hallinan (1958-1962), appointed archbishop of Atlanta
  9. Francis Frederick Reh (1962-1964), appointed rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome and later bishop of Saginaw
  10. Ernest Leo Unterkoefler (1964-1990)
  11. David B. Thompson (1990-1999; coadjutor bishop 1989-1990)
  12. Robert J. Baker (1999-2007), appointed bishop of Birmingham
  13. Robert E. Guglielmone (2009–2022)
  14. Jacques E. Fabre, bishop elect (2022)

Other priests of this diocese who became bishops
  • John Barry, appointed bishop of Savannah in 1857
  • Joseph Bernardin, appointed auxiliary bishop of Atlanta in 1966, archbishop of Cincinnati in 1972, and archbishop of Chicago in 1982; became cardinal in 1983.
  • John James Joseph Monaghan, appointed bishop of Wilmington in 1897
  • John Moore, appointed bishop of Saint Augustine in 1877
  • (Abbot Emeritus Edmund F. McCaffrey was incardinated in this diocese in 1993.)

Departments

Magazine

The Catholic Miscellany, successor to the U.S. Catholic Miscellany, the first Catholic newspaper in the United States, is the diocese's official magazine.

Office of Vocations
  • The Drexel House - Catholic residence for men's discernment in downtown Charleston, SC
  • Vicar of Vocations:
  1. Msgr. Richard D. Harris - vicar of vocations, 2004 - 2010; interim vicar for vocations, 2020–present
  2. Fr. Jeffrey Kirby - vicar of vocations, 2010 - 2015
  3. Fr. Mark Good - vicar of vocations, 2015 - 2019
  4. Fr. S. Matthew Gray - vicar of vocations, 2019 - 2021
  5. Fr. Rhett Williams - director of vocations, 2021–present

Schools
  • Secretary of Education: William Ryan

Diocesan high schools
Private high schools

Parochial elementary schools

See also

References
  1. "About".
  2. "Papal Bull for the Establishment of the Diocese".
  3. "Diocese of Charleston". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved January 23, 2015.
  4. "Diocese of Charleston Parish Directory". Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston. Retrieved November 4, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. "Province of Atlanta | Archdiocese of Atlanta". Archatl.com. February 21, 1962. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
  6. "Cathedral History". Archived from the original on February 7, 2007. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
  7. http://www.catholic.org/diocese/diocese_story.phpid=22894
  8. Behre, Robert; Yee, Gregory; Dennis, Rickey. "Diocese of Charleston releases names of 42 SC priests accused of sexual misconduct". Post and Courier. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
  9. Smith, Glenn; Hobbs, Stephen; Moore, Thad. "Bishop of Charleston Diocese accused of sexual abuse in new lawsuit from NY". Post and Courier. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
  10. Altman-Devilbiss, Alexx (November 23, 2020). "Youth ministry director in NMB charged with several sex crimes involving minors". WPDE. Retrieved April 5, 2021.

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