The Archdiocese of Boston (Latin: Archidiœcesis Bostoniensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its mother church is the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. The archdiocese is the fourth largest in the United States.
Archdiocese of Boston Archidiœcesis Bostoniensis | |
|---|---|
Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, 2007 | |
Coat of arms | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Territory | Essex County, Middlesex County, Norfolk County, Suffolk County, and also Plymouth County except the towns of Marion, Mattapoisett, and Wareham |
| Ecclesiastical province | Boston |
| Coordinates | 42°12′47″N 71°02′29″W / 42.21306°N 71.04139°W |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 6,386 km2 (2,466 sq mi) |
Population
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| Parishes | 266 |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | April 8, 1808 |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of the Holy Cross |
| Patron saint | Saint Patrick |
| Secular priests | 952 (600 diocesan; 352 religious) |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Leo XIV |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Richard Garth Henning |
| Auxiliary Bishops |
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| Bishops emeritus |
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| Map | |
| Website | |
| bostoncatholic | |
The Diocese of Boston was erected in 1808, branching off from the Diocese of Baltimore. It grew rapidly during the 19th century, due to waves of immigrants arriving in the region. Starting in 2002, the archdiocese faced a sexual abuse scandal which touched off investigations of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases throughout the United States.
Richard G. Henning has served as archbishop since October 31, 2024.
Territory
The Archdiocese of Boston encompasses Essex County, Middlesex County, Norfolk County, and Suffolk County in Massachusetts. It includes most of Plymouth County except for the towns of Marion, Mattapoisett, and Wareham.
As of 2018, the archdiocese had 284 parishes with 617 diocesan priests and 275 permanent deacons. In 2018, the archdiocese estimated that more than 1.9 million Catholics lived within its territory.
History
Early history
New England's first non-indigenous settlers in the 1600s came from England. They were Puritan Congregationalists and Baptists. Many of them left England because they were disappointed in the lack of reforms in the Church of England. They consisted of three groups:
- Separatist Puritans who completely had split from the Church of England. They founded Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts in 1620.
- Non-separating Puritans who sought to "purify" the Church of England. This group established Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628.
- Followers of Roger Williams, a Baptist minister. They separated from both Puritan groups and founded the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636. Unlike the two Massachusetts colonies, the Colony of Rhode Island guaranteed religious freedom for everyone, including Catholics.
Like the other British colonies, the Massachusetts colonies enacted legal restrictions on Catholics, Anglicans, Quakers, and other non-Puritan Protestants, as well as bans on Catholic worship. By 1700, the British Province of Massachusetts Bay had made it a crime, with a potential life sentence, for a Catholic priest to reside in the colony.
With the start of the American Revolutionary War in 1776, the rebel leaders needed to gain the support of Catholics for their cause. In addition, the alliance with Catholic France started shifting opinions in the colonies about Catholics. The Constitution of the new Commonwealth of Massachusetts, written by future US President John Adams and ratified in 1780, established religious freedom for Catholics in the new state. With the Massachusetts constitution being the first state constitution in the United States, its framework of government became a model for the constitutions of other states and, eventually, for the federal constitution.
In 1788, the Abbé de la Poterie, a former French naval chaplain serving in Boston, celebrated the city's first public mass in a converted Huguenot chapel at 24 School Street in Boston. It became Holy Cross Church, the first Catholic church in the Commonwealth. By 1800, two refugees from the French Revolution, Reverends Francis Anthony Matignon and John Cheverus, were ministering to the few Catholics in the region. They raised the funds to build a larger building, the Church of the Holy Cross. These buildings no longer exist, but they were the foundation of the Catholic Church in Massachusetts.
Formation
Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Boston on April 8, 1808, taking all of New England from the Diocese of Baltimore. The new diocese consisted of the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts (which included present-day Maine), New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The pope named Cheverus as the first bishop of Boston.
Cheverus supported the establishment in 1816 of the Provident Institution for Savings in Boston, the first chartered savings bank in the U.S. He believed the bank would help his parishioners establish good financial practices. In 1820, Cheverus oversaw the opening of an Ursuline convent in the rectory of Holy Cross Cathedral with a girls school for poor children.He was appointed in 1823 as bishop of Montauban in France.
Monsignor Benedict Fenwick was appointed the second bishop of Boston by Pope Leo XII on May 10, 1825. Though the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the diocese encompassed all of New England, Fenwick had only two priests under his charge, who served three Catholic churches, besides the cathedral, in all of New England: Saint Augustine's Chapel in Boston, St. Patrick's Church in Newcastle, Maine, and a small church in Claremont, New Hampshire. Throughout New England, there were approximately 10,000 Catholics.
Due to significant Irish immigration, the Catholic population in the diocese grew to at least 30,000 by 1833. Fenwick traveled throughout the large territory to manage the diocese and administer the sacrament of confirmation. This included visiting Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes in Maine, who were largely Catholic, and were the subject of intensive proselytism by Protestant evangelists. Fenwick ordered the construction of St. Anne's Church in Old Town, Maine, for them in 1828, and sought to improve their schools.
Fenwick addressed a shortage of priests in his diocese by sending prospective seminarians to Maryland and Canada to be educated, and by incardinating several priests from other dioceses. He also trained several students in a makeshift seminary at his episcopal residence. As a result, the number of priests in the diocese had increased to 24 by 1833. At the same time, many new parishes were founded throughout New England.
On August 10, 1834, posters were displayed in Charleston that declared an ultimatum: unless the Ursuline Convent and Academy of Mount Benedict were investigated by the board of selectmen of Charlestown, it would be "demolished" by the "Truckmen of Boston." The following day, authorities were sent to inspect the convent. As they left, a mob of 2,000, wearing masks or painted faces, encircled the convent. They threw bricks through the windows, stole precious objects from the interior, and then lit it ablaze; the nuns fled. The fire department arrived, but did not attempt to extinguish the fire.
By the end of Fenwick's episcopate, the number of Catholics in the Diocese of Boston (after the removal of the Diocese of Hartford) had increased to 70,000, in addition to 37 priests, and 44 churches. Fenwick died in 1846.
| Dioceses created out of the Diocese and Archdiocese of Boston | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date of diocese | Diocese name | Territory taken from Diocese and Archdiocese of Boston |
| 1843 | Diocese of Hartford | Connecticut, Rhode Island and counties in southeastern Massachusetts |
| 1853 | Diocese of Burlington | Vermont. |
| 1853 | Diocese of Portland | Maine and New Hampshire . |
| 1870 | Diocese of Springfield | Counties in western and central Massachusetts |
Diocesan offices
In the 1920s, Cardinal William O'Connell moved the chancery from offices near Holy Cross Cathedral in the South End to 127 Lake Street in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston. "Lake Street" was a metonym for the bishop and the office of the archdiocese.
In June 2004, the archdiocese sold the archbishop's residence and the chancery and surrounding lands in Brighton to Boston College, in part to defray costs associated with numerous cases of sexual abuse by clergy of the archdiocese. The archdiocesan offices of the archdiocese moved to Braintree. The archdiocesan seminary, Saint John's Seminary, remains on the property in Brighton.
Clergy sexual abuse scandals and settlements
At the beginning of the 21st century the archdiocese was shaken by accusations of sexual abuse by clergy that culminated in the resignation of its archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, on December 13, 2002. In September 2003, the archdiocese settled over 500 abuse-related claims for $85 million. Victims received an average of $92,000 each and the perpetrators included 140 priests and two others.
Additional sex abuse allegations within the Archdiocese of Boston surfaced in later years as well. This included alleged abuse at Saint John's Seminary and Arlington Catholic High School.
The Archdiocese of Boston lobbies against laws intended to help survivors of abuse, such as a proposed 2023 law to remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse lawsuits. From 2011 and 2019 the Catholic church in Massachusetts spent over half a million dollars lobbying against such laws.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms of the archdiocese, shown in the information box to the right at the top of this article, has a blue shield with a gold cross and a gold "trimount" over a silver and blue "Barry-wavy" at the base of the shield. The "trimount" of three coupreaux represents the City of Boston, the original name of which was Trimountaine in reference to the three hills on which the city's original settlement stood. The cross, fleurettée, honors the Cathedral of the Holy Cross while also serving as a reminder that the first bishop of Boston and other early ecclesiastics were natives of France. The "Barry-wavy" is a symbol of the sea, alluding to Boston's role as a major seaport whose first non-indigenous settlers came from across the sea.
Communications media
The diocesan newspaper The Pilot has been published in Boston since 1829.
The archdiocese's Catholic Television Center, founded in 1955, produces programs and operates the cable television network CatholicTV. From 1964 to 1966, it owned and operated a broadcast television station under the call letters WIHS-TV.
Ecclesiastical province
The Archdiocese of Boston is also metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical province of Boston. This means that the archbishop of Boston is the metropolitan for the province. The suffragan dioceses in the province are the Diocese of Burlington, Diocese of Fall River, Diocese of Manchester, Diocese of Portland, Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts, and the Diocese of Worcester.
Pastoral regions
The Archdiocese of Boston is divided into five pastoral regions, each headed by an episcopal vicar.
| Pastoral region | Episcopal vicar | Territory | Parishes | Higher education | High schools | Primary schools | Cemeteries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Auxiliary Bishop Cristiano B. Barbosa | Boston, Brookline, Cambridge,Somerville, Winthrop | 64 |
| 6 | 29 | 8 |
| Merrimack | Auxiliary Bishop Robert F. Hennessey | Northern Essex County, Northern Middlesex County | 49 | Merrimack College | 3 | (TBD) | 4 |
| North | Monsignor Brian McHugh | Southern Essex County, Eastern Middlesex County | 64 | none | 4 | 6 (?) | 11 |
| South | Monsignor Robert Connors | Plymouth County, Eastern Norfolk County | 59 | Labouré College | 3 | (TBD) | 3 |
| West | Auxiliary Bishop Robert P. Reed | Southern Middlesex County, Western Norfolk Country | 67 | Regis College | 3 | 11 | 7 |
Bishops
Bishops of Boston
- Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus (1808–1823) appointed Bishop of Montauban and later Archbishop of Bordeaux (elevated to Cardinal in 1836)
- Benedict Joseph Fenwick (1825–1846)
- John Bernard Fitzpatrick (1846–1866; coadjutor bishop 1844–1846)
- John Joseph Williams (1866–1875; coadjutor bishop 1866); elevated to Archbishop
Archbishops of Boston
- John Joseph Williams (1875–1907)
- William Henry O'Connell (1907–1944; coadjutor archbishop 1906–1907)
- Richard James Cushing (1944–1970)
- Humberto Sousa Medeiros (1970–1983)
- Bernard Francis Law (1984–2002), resigned; later appointed Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
- Seán Patrick O'Malley (2003–2024)
- Richard Henning (2024–present)
Current auxiliary bishops of Boston
- Robert Francis Hennessey (2006–present)
- Peter John Uglietto (2010–present)
- Robert P. Reed (2016–present)
- Cristiano Borro Barbosa (2024–present)
Former auxiliary bishops of Boston
- John Brady (1891–1910)
- Joseph Gaudentius Anderson (1909–1927)
- John Bertram Peterson (1927–1932), appointed Bishop of Manchester
- Francis Spellman (1932–1939), appointed Archbishop of New York (Cardinal in 1946)
- Richard J. Cushing (1939–1944), appointed Archbishop here (Cardinal in 1958)
- Louis Francis Kelleher (1945–1946)
- John Wright (1947–1950), appointed Bishop of Worcester, then Bishop of Pittsburgh, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy (elevated to Cardinal in 1969)
- Thomas Francis Markham (1950–1952)
- Eric Francis MacKenzie (1950–1969)
- Jeremiah Francis Minihan (1954–1973)
- Thomas Joseph Riley (1959–1976)
- Daniel A. Cronin (1968–1970), appointed Bishop of Fall River and later Archbishop of Hartford
- Joseph Francis Maguire (1972–1976), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts and subsequently succeeded to that see
- Lawrence Joseph Riley (1972–1990)
- Joseph John Ruocco (1975–1980)
- Thomas Vose Daily (1975–1984), appointed Bishop of Palm Beach and later Bishop of Brooklyn
- John Joseph Mulcahy (1975–1992)
- John Michael D'Arcy (1975–1985), appointed Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend
- Daniel Anthony Hart (1976–1995), appointed Bishop of Norwich
- Alfred C. Hughes (1981–1993), appointed Bishop of Baton Rouge and later Archbishop of New Orleans
- Robert J. Banks (1985–1990), appointed Bishop of Green Bay
- Roberto Octavio González Nieves (1988–1995), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Corpus Christi and subsequently succeeded to that see, and later Archbishop of San Juan in Puerto Rico
- John R. McNamara (1992–1999)
- John P. Boles (1992–2006)
- John Brendan McCormack (1995–1998), appointed Bishop of Manchester
- William F. Murphy (1995–2001), appointed Bishop of Rockville Centre
- Francis Xavier Irwin (1996–2009)
- Emilio S. Allué (1996–2010)
- Richard Joseph Malone (2000–2004), appointed Bishop of Portland and later Bishop of Buffalo
- Richard Lennon (2001–2006), appointed Bishop of Cleveland
- Walter James Edyvean (2001–2014)
- John Anthony Dooher (2006–2018)
- Arthur L. Kennedy (2010–2017)
- Robert P. Deeley (2013–2014), appointed Bishop of Portland
- Mark William O'Connell (2016–2025), appointed Bishop of Albany
Other archdiocesan priests who became bishops
- William Barber Tyler, appointed Bishop of Hartford in 1843
- Patrick Thomas O'Reilly, appointed Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts in 1870
- James Augustine Healy, appointed Bishop of Portland in 1875
- Lawrence Stephen McMahon (priest here, 1860–1872), appointed Bishop of Hartford in 1879
- Matthew Harkins, appointed Bishop of Providence in 1887
- Edward Patrick Allen, appointed Bishop of Mobile in 1897
- Louis Sebastian Walsh, appointed Bishop of Portland in 1906
- John Joseph Nilan, appointed Bishop of Hartford in 1910
- James Anthony Walsh, elected Superior General of Maryknoll and consecrated Titular Bishop in 1933
- Edward Francis Ryan, appointed Bishop of Burlington in 1944
- John Joseph Glynn, appointed Auxiliary Bishop for the Military Services, USA in 1991
- Richard Joseph Malone, appointed Bishop of Portland in 2002 and later Bishop of Buffalo in 2012
- Christopher J. Coyne, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Indianapolis in 2011 and later Bishop of Burlington and Coadjutor Archbishop of Hartford in 2023 and succeeded to Archbishop of Hartford in 2024
- Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Turkey and Turkmenistan and Titular Archbishop in 2016
Churches
Seminaries
- Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary, Weston
- St. John's Seminary, Brighton
- Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary, Brookline
Education
As of 2025, the archdiocese had 92 schools with approximately 32,000 students taught by 3,000 faculty members in pre-kindergarten through high school.
In 1993, the archdiocese had 53,569 students in 195 schools. Boston had the largest number of parochial schools: 48 schools with 16,000 students.
Superintendents
- Albert W. Low (1961 – 1972)
- Bartholomew Varden (1972 – 1975)
- Eugene F. Sullivan (1978 – 1984)
- Kathleen Carr (1990 – 2006)
- Mary Grassa O'Neill (2008 – 2014)
- Mary E. Moran (2013 – 2014)
- Kathleen Powers Mears (2014 – 2019)
- Thomas W. Carroll (2019 – 2024)
- Eileen M. McLaughlin (2024 – present)
Colleges and universities
- Boston College, Chestnut Hill
- Emmanuel College, Boston
- Merrimack College, North Andover
- Regis College, Weston
Former colleges
- Marian Court College, Swampscott
Primary and secondary schools
High schools
| School | Location | Affiliation with religious order or independent | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy of Notre Dame | Tyngsboro | Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur | 1854 |
| Archbishop Williams High School | Braintree | Independent | 1949 |
| Arlington Catholic High School | Arlington | Independent | 1960 |
| Austin Preparatory School | Reading | Independent | 1961 |
| Bishop Fenwick High School | Peabody | Independent | 1958 |
| BC High | Dorchester (Boston) | Society of Jesus | 1863 |
| Cardinal Spellman High School | Brockton | Independent | 1958 |
| Cathedral High School | South End (Boston) | Independent | 1926 |
| Catholic Memorial | West Roxbury (Boston) | Congregation of Christian Brothers | 1957 |
| Central Catholic High School | Lawrence | Marist Brothers | 1935 |
| Fontbonne Academy | Milton | Sisters of St. Joseph | 1954 |
| Lowell Catholic | Lowell | Xaverian Brothers | 1989 |
| Malden Catholic | Malden | Xaverian Brothers | 1968 |
| Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart | Newton | Society of the Sacred Heart | 1880 |
| Notre Dame Academy | Hingham | Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur | 1853 |
| Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School | Lawrence | Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur | 2004 |
| Saint Joseph Preparatory Boston | Brighton (Boston) | Sisters of St. Joseph | 2012 |
| Saint Sebastian's School | Needham | Independent | 1941 |
| St. John's Prep | Danvers | Xaverian Brothers | 1907 |
| St. Mary's Lynn | Lynn | Independent | 1881 |
| Ursuline Academy | Dedham | Ursuline Sisters | 1819 |
| Xaverian Brothers High School | Westwood | Xaverian Brothers | 1963 |
Former high schools
| School | Location | Religious order | Opened | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy of the Assumption | Wellesley | Sisters of Charity | 1893 | |
| Academy of Notre Dame | Boston | |||
| Blessed Sacrament High School | Jamaica Plain (Boston) | |||
| Boys' Catholic High School | Malden | Xaverian Brothers | 1936 | 1968 |
| Cardinal Cushing High School | South Boston (Boston) | 1991 | ||
| Cheverus High School | Malden | 1908 | ||
| Christopher Columbus High School | North End (Boston) | Franciscan Friars | 1945 | 1990 |
| Don Bosco Technical High School | Chinatown (Boston) | Salesians of Don Bosco | 1998 | 1998 |
| Elizabeth Seton Academy | Boston | 2003 | ||
| Girls' Catholic High School | Malden | 1992 | ||
| Holy Trinity High School | Roxbury (Boston) | 1966 | ||
| Hudson Catholic High School | Hudson | 1959 | 2009 | |
| Keith Academy | Lowell | 1989 | ||
| Keith Hall | Lowell | 1989 | ||
| Marian High School | Framingham | Sisters of St. Joseph | 1956 | 2018 |
| Matignon High School | Cambridge | 1945 | 2023 | |
| Mission Church High School | Mission Hill-Roxbury (Boston) | 1926 | 1992 | |
| Monsignor Ryan High School | South Boston (Boston) | 2000 | ||
| Mount Alvernia High School | Newton | 1935 | 2023 | |
| Mount Saint Joseph Academy | Brighton (Boston) | Sisters of St. Joseph | 1884 | 2012 |
| Nazareth High School | South Boston (Boston) | |||
| North Cambridge Catholic High School | North Cambridge | 1951 | 2010 | |
| Notre Dame Academy | Hingham | Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur | 1854 | 1954 |
| Our Lady of Nazareth Academy | Wakefield | Sisters of Charity of Nazareth | 1947 | 2009 |
| Pope John XXIII High School | Everett | 1965 | 2019 | |
| Presentation of Mary Academy | Methuen | Sisters of the Presentation of Mary | 1958 | 2020 |
| Sacred Heart High School | Kingston | Congregation of Divine Providence | 1947 | 2020 |
| St. Anne's School | Arlington | |||
| St. Augustine High School | South Boston (Boston) | |||
| St. Bernard High School | Newton | |||
| St. Clare High School | Roslindale (Boston) | 2000 | ||
| St. Clement High School | Medford | Sisters of St. Joseph | 1925 | 2017 |
| St. Columbkille High School | Brighton (Boston) | |||
| St. John the Evangelist High School | Cambridge | 1921 | 1951 | |
| St. Joseph Academy | Roxbury (Boston) | |||
| St. Joseph's High School for Girls | Lowell | 1989 | ||
| St. Joseph Preparatory High School | Brighton (Boston) | 2012 | 2023 | |
| St. Louis Academy | Lowell | 1989 | ||
| St. Patrick High School | Lowell | 1989 | ||
| St. Patrick High School | Roxbury (Boston) | |||
| St. Peter's High School | Cambridge | |||
| St. Thomas Aquinas High School | Jamaica Plain (Boston) | 1927 | 1975 | |
| Savio Preparatory High School | East Boston (Boston) | Salesians of Don Bosco | 1958 | 2007 |
| Trinity Catholic High School | Newton | 1894 | 2012 |
Other facilities
The archdiocese previously used a headquarters facility in Brighton but sold it to Boston College in 2004 for $107,400,000.Steward Health Care System operates the former archdiocesan hospitals of Caritas Christi Health Care.
Sources
- Clarke, Richard H. (1872). "Rt. Rev. Benedict Joseph Fenwick, D.D.". Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States. Vol. 1. New York: P. O'Shea. pp. 374–413. OCLC 809578529. Retrieved May 28, 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- Lord, Robert H. (July 1936). "The Organizer of the Church in New England: Bishop Benedict Joseph Fenwick (1782–1846)". The Catholic Historical Review. 22 (2): 172–184. JSTOR 25013478.
- O'Connor, Thomas H. (1998). Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and Its People. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-359-0 – via Internet Archive.
- Tager, Jack (2001). Boston Riots: Three Centuries of Social Violence. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-461-9. Retrieved November 13, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
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