Diocese of Albany Diœcesis Albanensis | |
|---|---|
| Catholic | |
 Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception | |
 Coat of arms | |
| Location | |
| Country |  United States |
| Territory |  New York counties ofAlbany,Columbia,Delaware,Fulton, southernHerkimer,Greene,Montgomery,Otsego,Rensselaer,Saratoga,Schenectady,Schoharie,Warren, andWashington |
| Episcopal conference | United States Conference of Catholic Bishops |
| Ecclesiastical region | Region II |
| Ecclesiastical province | New York |
| Deaneries | 14 |
| Headquarters | 40 North Main Avenue,Albany,New York, 12203 |
| Coordinates | 42°39′06″N73°45′16″W / 42.65167°N 73.75444°W /42.65167; -73.75444 |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 10,419 sq mi (26,990 km2) |
Population
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| Parishes | 129 (with 4 apostolates) |
| Schools | 28 |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | April 23, 1847; 178 years ago (1847-04-23) byPope Pius IX |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception |
| Patron saint | St. Mary |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Leo XIV |
| Bishop-elect | Mark O'Connell |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Timothy M. Dolan |
| Vicar General | Robert Longobucco |
| Bishops emeritus | Edward Scharfenberger |
| Map | |
 | |
| Website | |
| rcda | |
Bishop of Albany | |
|---|---|
| Bishopric | |
| catholic | |
| Incumbent: Edward Scharfenberger | |
| Location | |
| Ecclesiastical province | Archdiocese of New York |
| Information | |
| First holder | John McCloskey |
| Established | April 23, 1847; 178 years ago (1847-04-23) |
| Diocese | Diocese of Albany |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Albany, New York) |
| Website | |
| http://www.rcda.org | |
TheDiocese of Albany (Latin:Diœcesis Albanensis) is aLatin Church diocese of theCatholic Church in eastern New York in the United States. Itsmother church is theCathedral of the Immaculate Conception inAlbany. It is a suffragan diocese of theArchdiocese of New York.
The Diocese of Albany covers the following counties:
Albany,Columbia,Delaware,Fulton,Greene, southernHerkimer,Montgomery,Otsego,Rensselaer,Saratoga,Schenectady,Schoharie,Warren, andWashington.
The first Catholic presence in the present-day diocese was that of French missionaries in the 1640s attempting to evangelize theMohawk peoples of theHaudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederation). Three missionaries were killed by the Mohawks, one near present-dayAuriesville in 1642 and two atLake George in 1646. They were later declaredmartyrs of the Catholic Church.[1]
In 1676,Kateri Tekakwitha, a young Mohawk woman living near Auriesville, asked to be baptized. She spent the rest of her life working with native converts at a mission on theSt. Lawrence River inNew France. Tekawitha was canonized in 2012.
During the Dutch and British rule of theProvince of New York in the 17th and 18th centuries, Catholics were banned from the colony.Richard Coote, the first colonial governor, passed a law at the end of the 17th century that mandated a life sentence to any Catholic priest. The penalty for harboring a Catholic was a £250 fine plus three days in thepillory.
Anti-Catholic bias in New York abated during theAmerican Revolution when Catholic France provided its support to the American rebels. After the approval of theNew York Constitution in 1777, freedom of worship for Catholics was guaranteed. This was soon followed by the same guarantee in theUS Constitution.
In 1784, the Vatican erected the Prefecture Apostolic of United States of America, covering the entire new nation. This action was necessary to remove the American church from British jurisdiction.[2]St. Mary's Church was established inAlbany in 1796, making it the only Catholic Church in Upstate New York and the second Catholic church in the state after St. Peter's in New York City.[3]
The Vatican converted the prefecture into theDiocese of Baltimore in 1789. It was the first diocese in the United States, covering the entire country.
Nine years later, as the population of the country grew, the Vatican created several new dioceses, including theDiocese of New York.[2] Upstate New York would be part of the Diocese of New York, followed by the Archdiocese of New York, for the next 39 years.
In 1817,Irish immigrants began moving to the region to build theErie Canal. The industry that grew around the canal terminus in Albany attracted even more immigrants. Catholic immigrants began settling in theCapital District and theMohawk Valley, establishing churches in these areas.[4] Irish immigration increased in the later 1840s due to theGreat Famine in Ireland.[5]
In 1847, PopePius IX erected the Diocese of Albany, taking its territory from the Diocese of New York. He named Coadjutor BishopJohn McCloskey from New York as the first bishop of Albany, designating St. Mary's Church in Albany as hispro-cathedral.[6] At that time, the diocese covered 30,000 square miles (78,000 km2), with a population of 60,000 Catholics. The new diocese was served by 25 churches, 34 priests, two orphanages and two free schools.[7]
McCloskey dedicated the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany in 1852.[6] During his tenure, he increased the number of parishes to 113 and the number of priests to eight. He established three boys academies, one girls academy, four orphanages, and fifteenparochial schools. Saint Peter's Academy was founded inSaratoga Springs in 1862.[8]
McCloskey also founded St. Joseph's Provincial Seminary inTroy.[9] After he was named archbishop of New York in 1864, Pius IX in 1865 appointedJohn J. Conroy, vicar general of the diocese, as the second bishop of Albany.[10]
Conroy's tenure was an increase in the number of priests; he secured the services of theAugustinians and theConventual Franciscans. Conroy founded an industrial school, St. Agnes's Cemetery inMenands,St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, and a motherhouse in Albany for theLittle Sisters of the Poor.[11] In 1868, Conroy laid the cornerstone for a new building at Troy Hospital (later known as St. Mary's) inTroy.[12]
In 1871, Pius IX selectedFrancis McNeirny of New York to serve ascoadjutor bishop in Albany to assist Conroy. The pope in 1872 erected the Diocese of Ogdensburg, taking northern New York from the diocese. When Conroy resigned in 1877, McNeirny automatically became the next bishop of Albany.[13]
McNeirny recruited theDominican Tertiaries, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and theRedemptorist Fathers to come to the diocese.[11] In 1880, he allowed SisterLucy Smith to found the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de' Ricci, a diocesan religious community. A priest in 1884 erected the shrine ofOur Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, dedicated to the three French priests who were killed in New York during the 1640s.[14] In 1886, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Syracuse, taking central New York from the Diocese of Albany.[15]
McNeiry died in 1894. That year,Thomas Martin Aloysius Burke was appointed the fourth bishop of Albany byPope Leo XIII.[16] During his administration, Burke enlarged the Boys' Asylum in Albany, reduced the diocesan debt, and renovated the cathedral.[11]
After Burke died in 1915, Auxiliary BishopThomas Cusack of New York was named the fifth bishop of Albany byPope Benedict XV.[17] During his brief tenure, Cusack supported the war effort duringWorld War I, added electric lighting and marble flooring to the cathedral and established aCatholic Charities chapter in the diocese.[18] Cusack died in 1918.
Edmund Gibbons from theDiocese of Buffalo was the next bishop of Albany, appointed by Benedict XV in 1919.[19] Seeing a need for a women's college in the region, theSisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet opened theCollege of Saint Rose in Albany in 1920.[20] Gibbons established the Mater Christi Seminary in Albany, 22 high schools, 82 primary schools, and the diocesan newspaper,The Evangelist.[18] TheOrder of Friars Minor openedSiena College for men in Loudonville in 1937.[21]
In 1945,William Scully of New York was appointedcoadjutor bishop of Albany byPope Pius XII to assist Gibbons. When Gibbons retired in 1954, Scully automatically became bishop of Albany.[22] In 1955, he founded an annual appeal for funds to support diocesan education and welfare programs.[23] He established 13 parishes, 21 elementary schools, six high schools and anursing home. TheReligious Sisters of Mercy foundedMaria College in Albany in 1958 to prepare women to join their order.[24] Scully died in 1969.
Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary BishopEdwin Broderick of New York as the eighth Bishop of Albany in 1969. Resigning in 1976, Broderick became the executive director ofCatholic Relief Services.[25] To replace Broderick, Paul VI namedHoward Hubbard as bishop of Albany in 1977, the first Albany native to hold that post.[26]
In 1986, Hubbard held aPalm Sunday service of reconciliation between Christians and Jews at the cathedral. Over 1,200 guests, both Christian and Jewish, attended the service.[27] During the event, Hubbard "expressed contrition and remorse for the centuries of anti-Jewish hostility promulgated under the Catholic Church's auspices".[28]Portal, a sculpture placed outside the cathedral in 1989, commemorates the 1986 service.[6][27]
After Hubbard retired in 2014, Pope Francis namedEdward Scharfenberger of theDiocese of Brooklyn as the next bishop of Albany.[29] In 2018, Scharfenberger celebrated the feast day ofOur Lady of Walsingham with Dean Leander Harding at theEpiscopal Cathedral of All Saints in Albany. Scharfenberger told the congregation of Catholics andEpiscopalians that the two denominations shared more similarities than differences.[30] In June 2019, at a mass atSt. Mary's Church, the diocese celebrated the 20th anniversary of its use of the extraordinary form mass.[31][32]
In September 2019, the AARP Foundation sued the diocese on behalf of a group of retired former employees of St. Clare's Hospital inSchenectady, which had closed in 2008. The lawsuit alleged mismanagement of the hospitalpension plan, which the diocese terminated in 2018. Many pensioners lost all their benefits, with the rest receiving only partial benefits.[33]
In May 2022, New York Attorney GeneralLetitia James sued the diocese on behalf of all 1,100 former employees. A state investigation discovered that over several decades, the diocese had told employees that it was fully funding the St. Clare pension plan. In reality, the diocese was underfunding it, making only the legal minimum contributions.[34] As of 2024, the case was still unresolved.[35]
The St. Clare court case was delayed when the diocese filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2023.[36] In April 2023, the U.S.Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced an investigation into the St. Clare pension fund.[37]
As of 2023, the bishop of Albany is Scharfenberger.
At his firstretreat for diocesan clergy, Bishop McCloskey raised over $5,000 to start a building fund for a cathedral in the diocese.[38] He commissioned architectPatrick Keely, the builder of many Catholic churches in the United States, to design the new building.[4] Over 10,000 onlookers watched the laying of the cathedralcornerstone in 1846. It was dedicated in 1852.[39] The final project cost was $250,000 ($9.45 million adjusted for inflation)[40].
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The diocese completed the north tower spire in 1862. Its 210-foot (64 m) height made it the city's tallest building for many years. The cathedral bells were cast at theMeneely Bell Foundry inWest Troy; they were first rung on theFeast of the Immaculate Conception that same year. The diocese added the south tower spire in 1888 and in 1892 theapse andsacristies.[39] In 1902, Bishop Burke consecrated the cathedral on its 50th anniversary.[39]
The diocese initiated a $19 million cathedral restoration project in the 21st century, completing it in 2010.[41] The cathedral was rededicated on its 158th anniversary later that year. Over 1,000 people attended the rededicationmass, celebrated by Bishop Hubbard, ArchbishopTimothy Dolan and CardinalEdward Egan.[42]
In 2004, the Diocese of Albany reported that 19 priests had committed acts of sexual abuse over the previous 53 years. It also said that it was investigating allegations of sexual abuse involving ten current and former priests.[43]
John W. Broderick was arrested inSyracuse in February 2008 on charges of first-degree sexual abuse, second-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. The parents of four children ages five to 11 in Montgomery County said that the priest had sexually abused them in 2007. TheDiocese of Syracuse had suspended him from ministry in early 2008 on unrelated matters.[44] Broderick sued his accusers in late 2008, but the lawsuit was later dismissed. In February 2009, he was acquitted on the felony sexual abuse charges and convicted on a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child.[45]
In March 2011, Hubbard placed three retired priests on administrative leave and removed a fourth priest from ministry after receiving allegations ofchild sexual abuse.[46] That same year, the diocese created the Independent Mediation Assistance Program to financially assist anyone abused as a minor by a diocesan priest or employee.[47][48] Hubbard later acknowledged that the diocese used to secretly send clergy accused of sexual abuse away for treatment rather than report them to police; he expressed regret for that practice.[49]
James Taylor of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Parish inNiskayuna was arrested in April 2014 on charges of endangering the welfare of a minor. He was accused of sending inappropriate photos to a 15-year-old girl inRound Lake, as well as texting her and making unforced physical contact. The diocese immediately removed Taylor from ministry.[50] He pleaded guilty in October 2014 and was fined $1,000.[51]
In March 2023, the diocese announced its plan to file forChapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of numerous sexual abuse lawsuits.[52]
In 1960, the Diocese of Albany had more than 400 priests. In 2016, the diocese had more retired priests (90) than active priests (85) priests.[53] In 2021, in the northern part of the diocese, one priest was assigned to twelve parishes.[54]
As of December 2021, the Diocese of Albany had 126 parishes and fourapostolates.[55]
Six bishops of Albany are buried in a crypt beneath the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.[56]
Edward Joseph Maginn (1957-1972)
The following table shows Catholic high school enrollment in the diocese from 2019 through 2022.[58][59]
| School | Location | Grades |
|---|---|---|
| Catholic Central High School | Latham | PK-12 |
| Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School | Schenectady | 6-12 |
| Saratoga Central Catholic High School | Saratoga Springs | 6-12 |
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Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of New York | |
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