The Diocese of Richmond () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Virginia in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore.
The diocese's current bishop is Barry C. Knestout, who was appointed by Pope Francis on December 5, 2017.
Statistics The Diocese of Richmond encompasses all of central and southern Virginia, the Hampton Roads area, and the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay.
As of 2022, the diocese had 135 diocesan and religious priests serving a Catholic population of 226,674 in 138 parishes and eight missions. The diocese was operating nine hospitals and seven facilities for the elderly.
History 1600 to 1800 Prior to the American Revolution, few Catholics lived in the British Colony of Virginia. Attempts to found Catholic settlements in Virginia were made by Lord Baltimore in 1629, and by Captain George Brent in 1687. In 1634, Reverend John Altham, a Jesuit companion of Reverend Andrew White, performed missionary work among the Native American tribes living on the south bank of the Potomac River.
The colonial government of Virginia soon enacted stringent laws against the practice of Catholicism. In 1687, Reverends Edmonds and Raymond were arrested at Norfolk, Virginia, for exercising their priestly functions. During the last quarter of the 18th century, the few Catholic settlers at Aquia Creek near the Potomac, were attended by Reverend John Carroll and other Jesuit missionaries from Maryland.
1800 to 1820 With the 1786 passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, proposed by future US President Thomas Jefferson, Catholics were granted religious freedom in the new State of Virginia. Reverend Jean Dubois, accompanied by several French priests and letters of introduction from the Marquis de Lafayette, arrived in Norfolk in August 1791. in December 1791, the Virginia General Assembly invited Dubois to celebrate a Mass in the courtroom of the new Virginia State House. It was the first Mass conducted anywhere in Richmond.
Future US President James Monroe hosted Dubois in Richmond until he was able to rent a house there. Dubois later opened a school to teach French, the classics and arithmetic.Fogarty, Gerald, Commonwealth Catholicism: a history of the Catholic Church in Virginia (University of Notre Dame Press, 2001) pp. 25-36 Virginia Governor Patrick Henry helped Dubois learn English. For two years, Dubois mainly celebrated Mass in rented rooms or at the homes of Richmond's few Catholic families.
According to tradition, Alexandria had a log chapel with an unknown resident Catholic priest by 1776. Reverend John Thayer from Boston was stationed at the chapel in 1794. Reverend Francis Neale erected a brick church in Alexandria in 1796 and constructed a larger one there in 1811. The Jesuit Anthony Kohlmann and future Bishop Benedict Fenwick frequently officiated in Alexandria.
The first Catholic church in Norfolk was St. Patrick's in 1791. Its parishioners were refugees who had fled France after the French Revolution in 1789. It is the oldest parish in the diocese. Around 1796, the priest James Bushe started building new church in Norfolk. He was succeeded there by the future Archbishop Leonard Neale.
1820 to 1850
Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Richmond on July 11, 1820. He removed all of Virginia (except for the two counties of the Eastern Shore region) and present-day West Virginia from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Pius VII appointed Reverend Patrick Kelly as its first bishop.After arriving in New York City in 1820, Kelly traveled to Baltimore to meet Bishop Ambrose Maréchal. Kelly wrote to his brother about Maréchal:He did not receive me over kindly, and tried to persuade me it would be dangerous to take possession of my See; but his arguments did not satisfy me, and I arrived Norfolk on 19th January.In January 1821, Kelly took up residence in Norfolk which had a larger Catholic population than the episcopal see in Richmond. While bishop, Kelly opened the first Catholic school in the diocese and engaged in missionary efforts. Kelly was soon involved in disputes with Maréchal over their jurisdictions. To end the fighting, Pius VII appointed Kelly as bishop of the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore in Ireland in early 1822. There would be no new bishop in Richmond for the next 18 years.
Pope Gregory XVI named Reverend Richard Whelan of Richmond as the new bishop of that diocese in 1840. Since Kelly's departure in 1822, the diocese had been vacant. During that period, Richmond had become a stronghold of the Know-Nothing political party, known for its anti-Catholic bigotry and violence. As the diocese only had six priests, Whelan appealed to the Societies for the Propagation of the Faith in Paris, Lyon, France, and Vienna in the Austrian Empire to recruit priests. He also established a seminary college outside Richmond, where he resided and taught classes whenever he was in town. Whelan also established several parishes, missions and schools.
In 1848, Whelan petitioned Pope Pius IX to divide the Diocese of Richmond into two dioceses, with the Allegheny Mountains serving as the boundary. In 1850, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Wheeling. He removed from the Diocese of Richmond all of Virginia west of the Allegheny Mountain. Pius IX named Whelan bishop of the new diocese and replaced him in Richmond with John McGill of the Diocese of Bardstown.
1850 to 1870
When McGill arrived in Richmond in 1850, the diocese had 7,000 Catholics, eight priests, and 10 churches. He convened the first diocesan synod in 1855. During his tenure, Virginia was devastated by yellow fever and cholera epidemics. Pius IX in 1858, transferred the territory of Alexandria to the Diocese of Richmond. The Federal government in 1846 had retroceded the city of Alexandria back to Virginia from the District of Columbia.
During the American Civil War of the early 1860s, Catholics in the Confederate States were unable to purchase Catholic books published in the North. To fill the gap, McGill wrote, "The True Church Indicated to the Inquirer" and "Our Faith, the Victory", republished as "The Creed of Catholics". He also visited Union Army prisoners of war in the Libby Prison in Richmond, doing what he could to aid them. In 1867, McGill brought the Sisters of Charity from Emmitburgh, Maryland, to set up a school in the diocese. McGill died in 1872 and Pius IX named James Gibbons, then vicar apostolic of North Carolina, as the new bishop of Richmond. Gibbons stayed in Richmond for five years, at which point Pius IX appointed him coadjutor archbishop of Baltimore.
The start of the American Civil War in 1865 had led to the formation of the state of West Virginia. It consisted of the western counties of Virginia, which had seceded from Virginia rather than be part of the breakaway Confederate States. However, the new state boundary between Virginia and West Virginia did not coincide with the boundary between the Dioceses of Wheeling and Richmond. This disparity endured for over a century. Pope Pius IX erected the new Diocese of Wilmington in 1868. As part of that new diocese, the pope removed two Eastern Shore counties from the Diocese of Richmond.
1870 to 1910
After McGill died in 1872, Pope Leo XIII appointed Reverend John J. Keane of the Archdiocese of Baltimore as the new bishop of Richmond. As bishop, Keane established the Confraternity of the Holy Ghost, a Catholic fellowship, in the diocese. He published A Sodality Manual for the Use of the Servants of the Holy Ghost in 1880. Despite opposition, Keane founded schools and churches for Catholic African-Americans in the diocese. He addressed Protestant groups to educate them about the Catholic Church. Keene was appointed rector of the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. in 1886. He resigned his post as bishop two years later to serve full time as rector.
In 1889, Leo XIII appointed Augustine Van de Vyver as bishop of the Diocese of Richmond. In 1901, philanthropist Thomas Ryan and his wife donated almost $500,000 to buy the land and construct a new Sacred Heart Cathedral in Richmond. It was consecrated in 1906. While bishop, Van de Vyver open new religious congregations, schools and other Catholic institutions. With assistance from a donor, Van de Vyver opened an industrial college for African-American boys in Rock Castle, Virginia. Katherine Drexel, mother superior of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. opened a school for African-American girls.
In August 1902, Reverend Joseph Anciaux a Belgian Josephite priest in Virginia wrote a letter to the Congregation of the Propaganda in Rome, condemning acceptance by the U.S. Catholic hierarchy of racial segregation in the United States. He called it a radical and non-Catholic policy, and accused Van de Vyver personally of timidity in the face of "negro haters". In October 1902, Van de Vyver forced Anciaux to leave the diocese.
1910 to 1970
After Van de Vyver died in 1911, Pope Pius X named Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. O'Connell of the Archdiocese of San Francisco as the new bishop of Richmond. The first parish in Virginia Beach, the Star of the Sea, was established in 1915.
O'Connell resigned due to bad health in 1926 and Pope Pius XI named Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Brennan of the Diocese of Scranton to replace him. In 1929, at Brennan's suggestion, the Holy Name Society of Richmond establish the Catholic Laymen's League of Virginia. It was created to counteract the flow of anti-Catholic bigotry and misinformation in the media and from some Protestant ministers.
In 1935, Pius XI named Monsignor Peter Ireton of Baltimore to assist Brennan as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Richmond, a job Ireton would hold for ten years. When Brennan resigned in 1945, Ireton automatically succeeded him as bishop of Richmond. During his tenure as bishop, Ireton established 42 parishes, built 24 schools, and increased the Catholic population from 37,000 to 147,000.
Ireton died in 1958 and Pius XI appointed Bishop John Russell from the Diocese of Charleston as his replacement. In implementing the Second Vatican Council reforms, Russell established a diocesan Commission on Ecumenical Affairs in 1963, and a diocesan Pastoral Council and a Council of Priests in 1966.The Catholic Diocese of Richmond. History of the Diocese of Richmond A champion of civil rights, he had the parents of prospective students for Richmond's Catholic schools be interviewed for signs of racism.Bumpy Road in Richmond, TIME Magazine, February 28, 1972.
1970 to 2000 In 1970, Pope Paul VI named Monsignor Walter Sullivan as auxiliary bishop in Richmond. When Russell resigned as bishop of Richmond in 1973, the pope appointed Sullivan as the new bishop. In 1974, Paul VI established the current boundaries of the Diocese of Richmond by: Transferring the two Eastern Shore counties, ceded to the Diocese of Wilmington in 1868, back to the Diocese of Richmond Erecting the new Diocese of Arlington, taking Northern Virginia from the Diocese of Richmond Realigning the boundary between the Dioceses of Richmond and Wheeling to match the Virginia-West Virginia state line In 1977, Sullivan established a joint Catholic and Episcopalian parish, Holy Apostles in Virginia Beach. The church had separate altars for the two denominations. That same year, he established the diocesan Commission on Sexual Minorities to reach out to LGBTQ+ Catholics.