TheArchdiocese of Philadelphia (Latin:Archidiœcesis Philadelphiensis) is aLatin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of theCatholic Church in southeasternPennsylvania in the United States.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia originally included all of Pennsylvania andDelaware, along with seven counties and parts of three counties inNew Jersey. The diocese was raised to an archdiocese in 1875.
In 2012, diocesan priest William Lynn became the first Catholic official to be convicted in the United States of covering up abuses by other priests in his charge. In 2020, the ongoingsexual abuse scandal in the archdiocese was expected to result in payment of $126 million to victims.
In February 2012, the diocese announced the largest reorganization of their elementary and high school education system, with numerous recommended school closings or mergers.
In August 2012, the archdiocese announced that the Faith in the Future Foundation would assume management of the 17 archdiocesan high schools and the four special education schools.[7]
Circa 1912 there were about 68,000 students in Catholic schools within the archdiocesan territory. This increased to 250,000 in 1961, but the figures decreased after that year. Enrollment was down to 68,000 in 2012.[16] There were about 50,000 students in Catholic schools in the city of Philadelphia in 2000, and this figure decreased to 30,000 in 2010. In that span one Catholic high school and 23 Catholic elementary schools closed or merged, and the proliferation ofcharter schools in that period meant that the number of students combined in that type of school outnumbered that of the remaining Philadelphia Catholic schools.[17]
In 2012 the archdiocese proposed closing or merging 18 schools in Philadelphia and 31 schools outside of Philadelphia; thePhiladelphia Inquirer stated this would further weaken Philadelphia'smiddle class.[18] The proposal would affect 24% and 29% of the senior high and K-8 schools, respectively.[19]
(this category only includes schools notable enough for their own Wikipedia articles)
The firstCatholic school established in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was at St. Mary Parish in Philadelphia during the late eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century, Bishop Kenrick encouraged the establishment of Catholic schools. Subsequently, John Neumann (1851–1860) made the establishment of parish elementary schools a priority and by 1860 there were seventeen parish elementary schools in Philadelphia. Between 1900 and 1930, Catholic elementary schools increased to 124 schools in Philadelphia and 78 schools in the four suburban counties. Between 1945 and 1965, 62 new Catholic elementary schools were established.
In 2012, about 25% of the students in Philadelphia Catholic elementary schools were not Catholic.[17] In 2010South Philadelphia Catholic elementary schools had 2,572 students, a decline by 27% from the 2006 figure.[16]
West Catholic Boys and Girls High School opened in 1916.[25] Northeast Catholic School for Boys opened in 1926 and closed in 2010,[26] Despite the economic hardships of the 1930s and 1940s, seven more diocesan high schools were founded. Between 1945 and 1967, fifteen high schools were opened.
Note: Each Catholic college and university within the archdiocese is affiliated with a religious institute, rather than the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
The archdiocese has had a foster care agency for more than 100 years. It sued Philadelphia after the city stopped referring foster care cases to the agency after it refused to use same-sex couples to foster children.[27] The case went to theUS Supreme Court with the nameFulton v. City of Philadelphia, Pa.[28]
The Philadelphia abuses were substantially revealed through a grand jury investigation in 2005. Cardinal Rigali adopted the policy of laicizing those who were accused and confirmed by investigations. A second grand jury in 2011 said that as many as 37 priests were credibly accused of sexual abuse or inappropriate behavior toward minors. In 2012, a guilty plea by priest Edward Avery and the related trial and conviction of William Lynn and mistrial on charges against James J. Brennan followed from the grand jury's investigations. In 2013, Charles Engelhardt and teacher Bernard Shero were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. Lynn was the first official to be convicted in the United States of covering up abuses by other priests in his charge and other senior church officials have been extensively criticized for their management of the issue in the archdiocese.
On March 12, 2020, a new trial date was set for Lynn, who was released in 2016 and ordered to be retried after serving 33 months of his sentence. Jury selection was to start on March 16, 2020.[29] However, theongoing coronavirus pandemic forced Lynn's retrial to be delayed until January 2021.[30][31] Following his release from prison in 2016, Lynn was ordered to remain on supervised parole until his retrial.[32] In 2019, it was reported that the 2011 grand jury report also resulted in Lynn being suspended from ministry.[33] IN 2023 he was sentenced to 37 months in prison.[34]
On May 5, 2020, Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced that it now expected to pay $126 million in reparations.[35] The archdiocese also said its Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program, which was established in 2018, has received a total of 615 claims, and had settled 208 of them for $43.8 million as of April 22, 2020.[35] That averages out to about $211,000 per claim, which is in line with what other dioceses have been paying under similar programs.[35] The same day, however, the total amount of money which the Archdiocese of Philadelphia expected to pay in sex abuse settlements was revised to $130 million by Archbishop of PhiladelphiaNelson J. Perez.[36] On August 14, 2020, it was revealed that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and its suffragan dioceses of Pittsburgh, Allentown and Scranton were enduring the bulk of 150 new lawsuits filed against all eight Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses.[37]
On December 3, 2020, William McCandless, a member of the Wilmington-based religious order Oblates de St. Francis De Sales who was formerly assigned to DeSales University in Lehigh County, was charged in Philadelphia for possession of child pornography.[38] Much of McCandless' child pornography was imported from overseas.[39] McCandless has been ordered to remain under house arrest until the outcome of his trial.[40]
In 2015, it was reported that the school's director of religious education, Margie Winters, had been fired from theWaldron Mercy Academy after a parent had reported her directly to the archdiocese for marrying her long-term lesbian partner in a civil ceremony in 2007. Winters had been upfront with school administrators at the time of her hiring and was advised to keep a low profile which she says she did. Many parents expressed anger and concern over the school's decision. Principal Nell Stetser justified the decision by arguing that "many of us accept life choices that contradict current Church teachings, but to continue as a Catholic school, Waldron Mercy must comply with those teachings." But she called for "an open and honest discussion about this and other divisive issues at the intersection of our society and our Church." Archbishop Chaput called the dismissal "common sense."[41][42]
Frances Xavier Cabrini, for whom the suburban college is named and who visited on numerous occasions. She started an orphanage and an Italian national parish that still is functioning today, St. Donato's in West Philadelphia.
^Friend, Christine (February 2010)."Philadelphia's First Bishop".Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center.Archived from the original on 2017-06-11. Retrieved2023-03-07.
United States
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)."Archdiocese of Philadelphia".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
