The Archdiocese of Washington () is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church for the District of Columbia and several Maryland counties in the United States. The archdiocese is home to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The only suffragan diocese of the archdiocese is the Diocese of Saint Thomas. The mother church is the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown Washington. Robert McElroy is the archbishop.
Territory The Archdiocese of Washington encompasses the District of Columbia and the following counties in Maryland: Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's, and Saint Mary's.
History 1600 to 1700 In the 17th century, the present-day District of Columbia was part of the British Province of Maryland. Unlike the other American colonies, the Province of Maryland had been settled by the 2nd Baron Baltimore, as a haven for Catholic refugees from Great Britain.Frances Copeland Stickles, A Crown for Henrietta Maria: Maryland's Namesake Queen (1988), p. 4
On March 25, 1634, the first Catholic Mass in the English-speaking colonies was celebrated by Andrew White, an English Jesuit missionary, to recent immigrants from German states on St. Clement's Island in Maryland. In 1641, White established a small chapel near Port Tobacco to preach to the Piscataway people. Later becoming St Ignatius Parish, it is considered one of the first Catholic parishes in the United States and the first one in Charles County. In 1649, the Maryland Palatinate passed the Maryland Toleration Act, mandating religious tolerance for trinitarian Christians. It was the first law requiring religious tolerance in the English North American colonies.
Due to immigration, by 1660 the population of Maryland had gradually become predominantly Protestant. However, political power remained concentrated in the hands of the largely Catholic elite. In 1689, a group of Puritans, now the majority in the colony, successfully revolted against the colonial government, which had been controlled by the Catholic elite. After gaining power, the Puritans imposed restrictions on Catholics in the colony. To celebrate Mass, Catholics had to set up private chapels in their homes.
1700 to 1800 In 1704, the Assembly of Free Marylanders passed a law prohibiting Catholics from holding political office in the province. After the American Revolution ended in 1781, the Vatican needed to move American Catholics out of the jurisdiction of the Diocese of London. In 1784, the pope established the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States of America, naming John Carroll as the prefect apostolic.
With the passage of the US Constitution in 1789, religious freedom was guaranteed throughout the new United States. In 1789, Pope Pius VI erected the Diocese of Baltimore, covering all of the United States, including the new State of Maryland. The pope named Carroll as the first bishop of Baltimore. The present-day District of Columbia would remain part of this diocese, followed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore, for the next 150 years.
The City of Washington and the District of Columbia were founded in 1791 to become the nation's capital. Carroll founded Georgetown College in what was then the village of Georgetown in 1792. It was the first Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher learning in the United States.
The first Catholic Church in Washington, St. Patrick's, was established in 1794 to minister to the Irish immigrant stonemasons who were constructing the White House and the US Capitol Building. A brick church for St. Patrick's was completed in 1809.
1800 to 1900 In 1814, the British Army entered Washington during the War of 1812 and set the city on fire. William Matthews, pastor of St. Patrick's, saved the church from burning down. He also persuaded British Major General Robert Ross to preserve it from further harm. The first Catholic church in Montgomery County was St. Mary's in Rockville, established as a mission church in 1817.
St. Mary's, the first parish in Calvert County, was established on Solomons Island in 1888, with its church constructed in 1895. It became Our Lady Star of the Seas in 1904. In 1889, the Catholic University of America opened in Washington, the first papally chartered graduate and research university in the country. Trinity College in Washington was founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1897 as the nation's first Catholic liberal arts college for women. It is today Trinity Washington University.
1900 to 1965
On July 22, 1939, recognizing the increased population of the District of Columbia, Pope Pius XII erected the new Archdiocese of Washington. The new archdiocese also included five Maryland counties that were close to the district. The pope appointed Michael Curley, then archbishop of Baltimore, to also serve as archbishop of Baltimore and Washington. Curley died in 1947.
Pius XII in 1947 appointed separate archbishops for Baltimore and Washington. His choice as archbishop of Washington was Monsignor Patrick O'Boyle from the Archdiocese of New York. In 1948, O'Boyle racially integrated the Catholic schools in Washington and then the Maryland counties in the diocese. He started first with the colleges and universities, then the high schools, and finally the parochial elementary schools. In 1949, O'Boyle delivered the benediction at the inauguration of U.S. President Harry S. Truman in Washington. In 1954, Pius XII confirmed O’Boyle's request to place the archdiocese under the patronage of Mary, Mother of God, which at the time was celebrated as the Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on October 11.
In April 1964, during the United States Congress debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, O'Boyle chaired the Inter-religious Convocation on Civil Rights at Georgetown University. In giving the invocation before Congress, O'Boyle said that "There is in every man a priceless dignity which is your heritage. From this dignity flow the rights of man, and the duty in justice that all must respect and honor these rights ..." He urged Congress to pass the bill and those present to "tell our Representatives our conviction that such a law is a moral obligation." The bill was enacted in July 1964.
1965 to 2000
The Archdiocese of Washington became a metropolitan see on October 12, 1965, when the Diocese of Saint Thomas became its only suffragan see. O'Boyle retired as archbishop in 1973.
To replace O'Boyle, Paul VI named Bishop William Baum of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau as the next archbishop of Washington. In the 1976 consistory, Paul VI named Baum as cardinal-priest of Santa Croce in Via Flaminia. Baum resigned as archbishop of Washington in 1980 to take a position in the Roman Curia in Rome.
Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop James Hickey from the Diocese of Cleveland as archbishop of Washington in 1980. Hickey's tenure in Washington D.C. oversaw a significant expansion of Catholic Charities, which became the region's largest private social service agency. He also established:
The Archdiocesan Health Care Network The Archdiocesan Legal Network, which provided pro bono care for the region's low income residents Birthing and Care, which provided pre-natal, delivery and post-natal medical care to women in financial need Faith in the city, an initiative to revitalize inner-city Catholic schools Victory Housing, which developed assisted and independent living for senior citizens
In conjunction with Mother Teresa, Hickey also founded a Washington convent of the Missionaries of Charity for the care of the homeless and terminally ill. Hickey ordered New Ways Ministry, an unauthorized ministry for LGBTQ+ Catholics, to stop any operations on archdiocese property in the early 1980s. He also forced Georgetown University to stop DignityUSA, a national organization dedicated to LGBTQ+ ministry, from celebrating Mass on campus in 1987.
As chancellor of Catholic University, Hickey ousted theologian Charles Curran from the university's faculty in 1987. Curran had dissented from the church position on artificial contraception. In 1989, Hickey excommunicated African-American priest George Stallings, a one-time protégé, after Stallings formed the unauthorized Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation.
2000 to 2010
When Hickey retired in 2000, John Paul II named Archbishop Theodore McCarrick from the Archdiocese of Newark as the next archbishop of Washington. McCarrick retired as archbishop in 2008. In November 2002, the Prelature of Opus Dei received a complaint from an adult woman accusing C. John McCloskey of sexual misconduct while he was serving as the director of the Catholic Information Center, a part of the Archdiocese of Washington. Following an investigation, Opus Dei found the accusation to be credible, and McCloskey was removed as director of the center. Restrictions were placed on his pastoral assignments, and Opus Dei paid $977,000 in a settlement reached with the woman in question in 2005. The archdiocese in December 2006 paid a $1.6 million settlement to 16 men with credible accusations of sexual abuse by archdiocesan clergy from 1962 to 1982.
Bishop Donald Wuerl of the Diocese of Pittsburgh was named archbishop of Washington by Benedict XVI in 2008. In late 2009, when the Council of the District of Columbia was debating a bill that would prohibit discrimination against gay men and lesbians, Wuerl advocated for religious liberty provisions that he said would protect the Catholic Church's ability to provide social services, such as adoption in accordance with Catholic teaching on marriage. Soon after Wuerl made this statement, The Washington Post characterized the archdiocese as giving an "ultimatum" to the city. The New York Times termed the statement a "threat". In response, Wuerl said that there was"...no threat or ultimatum to end services, just a simple recognition that the new requirements by the city for religious organizations to recognize same-sex marriages in their policies could restrict our ability to provide the same level of services as we do now." When the Council of DC passed the anti-discrimination bill in December 2009, Wuerl stated that it did not adequately protect religious liberty. However, he said that the archdiocese would continue to serve the poor and hoped to be "working in partnership with the District of Columbia consistent with the mission of the Catholic Church."
2010 to 2020
In February 2010, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington ended its foster care and public adoption programs in the District rather than approve same-sex couples as foster or adoptive parents. The agency also modified its employee health care benefits to avoid having to extend coverage to same-sex couples. In 2011, Wuerl established the Saint John Paul II Seminary in Washington.
The archdiocese and other local Catholic institutions in 2012 sued the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over regulations for prescriptions and health services. The plaintiffs objected to HHS requiring Catholic institutions that do not primarily serve Catholics, such as hospitals or universities, to provide health care coverage to employees for artificial contraception and abortion services for women.
In 2017, the archdiocese sued the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The archdiocese had tried to purchase Christmas ads that would cover bus exteriors. However, WMATA had refused, citing its policy against religious advertising. The archdiocese lost the case in the lower courts, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear the case.