Wednesday, June 27, 2018


Other Archdioceses and Dioceses

This blog discusses the Archdiocese for Military Services USA, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, and archdioceses and dioceses in the U.S. Territories.


Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA

The Archdiocese provides Catholic chaplains to U.S. military service personnel in the United States and throughout the world.  More than 1,000 chaplains serve the needs of almost 400,000 members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force; 300,000 members of the Reserves, Coast Guard, civilian personnel serving overseas, as well as those in Veterans Administration hospitals; and 900,000 family members.  Most chaplains serve a specific period of time in the military before returning to their home diocese or religious order.

History of the Archdiocese


Congress authorized chaplains to serve the spiritual needs of the Armed Forces in 1775, but given the small number of priests in the early history of the United States, spiritual support for Catholic members of the Armed Forces was provided, if at all, by local priests.  The first priest to be a commissioned officer was Adam Marshall who served briefly in the Navy as a teacher, rather than a chaplain, prior to his death in 1825.  Two Jesuit priests, John McElroy and Anthony Rey, served as Army chaplains in the Mexican War and Father Rey was killed in action.  A few priests served as chaplains at Western forts during the Civil War—on both sides—and during the Spanish American War.  But the number of priests was usually not sufficient to provide for all the Catholics serving in the Armed Forces.  During World War I, more than 1,000 priests became chaplains.

In 1917, Pope Benedict XV appointed bishops for the military in several countries.  In the United States, this task of ministering to members of the armed services was given to the Archbishops of New York.  The archbishop at that time, Cardinal John Farley, named one of his auxiliaries, Bishop Patrick Hayes, to be the first bishop for the Armed Forces.  During World War II, more than 3,000 priests served as chaplains, some became prisoners of war and 76 died in service.  Since the beginning of World War I, more than 100 Catholic chaplains have died in service.

After the World War II, the military bishop was given jurisdiction over civilian government employees serving overseas and over the Veterans Administration.  To better serve the members of the Armed Forces, Pope John Paul II created the Archdiocese for the Military Services in 1985.  It is headquartered in Washington, DC.  See milarch.org.

Military Archbishops


From 1917 to 1985, the Archbishop of New York served as Military Vicar.

Joseph T. Ryan (1913-2000)
  • Born in Albany, New York, and ordained a priest for the Diocese of Albany in 1939.
  • Also served as national secretary of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (1960-1965), Archbishop of Anchorage, Alaska (1966-1975), and coadjutor military vicar of the U.S. Armed Forces (1975-1985).
  • First Archbishop for the Military Services (1985-1991). 
Joseph T. Dimino (1923-2014)
  • Born in New York and ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York in 1949.
  • Also served as auxiliary bishop for the Military Services (1983-1991).
  • Archbishop for the Military Services (1991-1997).  
Edwin F. O’Brien (born 1939)
  • Born in New York City and ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York in 1965.
  • Also served as auxiliary bishop of New York (1996-1997)
  • Archbishop for the Military Services (1997-2007)
  • Later served as Archbishop of Baltimore (2007-2011) and serves as the Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Rome (since 2012).  Pope Benedict XVI named O’Brien a Cardinal in 2012. 
Current Archbishop

Timothy P. Broglio was appointed Archbishop for the Military Services by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.  Broglio was born in Cleveland in 1951 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cleveland in 1977.  He served as a Vatican diplomat in the Ivory Coast and Paraguay and was given the honorary title of Archbishop in 2001 prior to becoming apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic and delegate to Puerto Rico.

Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

The Ordinariate was established by Pope Benedict XVI to serve former Anglicans who have become Catholic, but who wish to retain certain elements of Anglican theological, spiritual, and liturgical practices.  The Ordinariate is composed of over 40 parishes in the United States and Canada serving about 7,000 Catholics (as of 2017).  Bishop Steven Lopes reports directly to the Holy Father.  (An ordinariate is similar in most respects to a diocese, except that in this case it is for all members of the Anglican rite throughout the United States and Canada.)  

Ordinary of the Chair of St. Peter

Jeffrey N. Steenson (born 1952)
·         Born in Alabama and ordained an Episcopal priest in 1980.
·         He served as an Episcopal bishop from 2004 to 2007.  He and his wife, Debra, became Catholics in 2007, and he was ordained a priest for the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2009.
·         Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter (2012-2015).
·         Father Steenson exercised many of the duties of a bishop, but could not be ordained a bishop because he is married.

Current Bishop

Steven Joseph Lopes was appointed the first Bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter by Pope Francis in 2015.  He was born in California in 1975 and ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 2001.  He served as an official of the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith from 2005 to 2015. 

The Cathedral


Our Lady of Walsingham Cathedral
7809 Shadyvilla Lane
Houston, Texas  77055

A devout Saxon noblewoman, Richeldis de Faverches, had a vision of Our Blessed Mother in 1061.  Our Lady showed de Faverches the home in Nazareth where the Archangel Gabriel had appeared to her and asked de Faverches to build a replica of the home in Walsingham, County Norfolk, England.  Building materials appeared miraculously and the shrine became a major pilgrimage destination in England.  Sadly, King Henry VIII destroyed the complex in 1538.  The Anglican Church rebuilt the shrine in 1931.

May Our Lady of Walsingham from her throne of Grace bless you! Whether you have the joy of making an actual pilgrimage to Walsingham or whether you make a spiritual journey out of love for Mary, may her words resound and become a reality in your life:
'To all those who come to this place I will give my help.'

Our Lady of Walsingham parish was established in 1984 as a Catholic parish for the use of former members of the Anglican and Episcopal churches.  It was the first church in the United States dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham.  The current building was completed in 2004 and became the principal church of the Ordinariate in 2012.  It became a cathedral with the appointment in 2015 of Bishop Lopes.

The church was designed by Ethan Anthony of Boston in a Neo Gothic design inspired by churches near Walsingham, England.  The church bells were cast by the Cornille-Havard Bell Foundry in France.  The stained glass windows were designed by Willet Studios in Philadelphia. The wooden pulpit and the altar rail were carved in Columbia.  The hand carved reredos and tabernacle were crafted by Granda Liturgical Arts in Spain.  

There is also an outdoor shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham and inspired by a remaining fragment of the destroyed priory in England.

The Cathedral website is olwcatholic.org and the ordinariate website is ordinariate.net.  The Cathedral is located 8 miles northwest of downtown Houston and has five weekend masses.





Sources are from top to bottom:  Cathedral website, Diocesan website, pinterest, and Wikipedia.

Dioceses in U.S. Territories

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is the Province of San Juan and consists of the Archdiocese of San Juan and five dioceses—Ponce, Arecibo, Caguas, Mayaguez, and Fajardo-Humacao.

The Archdiocese of San Juan was established as a Diocese in 1511 and became an Archdiocese in 1960.  The Archdiocese serves 920,000 Catholics.  The Metropolitan Cathedral is the Basilica of San Juan Bautista.

The then-Diocese of San Juan was served by 44 bishops between 1511 and 1898, the later year being the year the United States gained possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.  These bishops were almost all Spanish.  The 44th bishop, Francisco Javier Valdes y Noriega, returned to Spain to become a bishop there in 1899.  An American Marist priest, James H. Blenk, then became Bishop in 1899.  He was named Archbishop of New Orleans in 1906 and he was succeeded in 1907 by William Ambrose Jones, an American Augustinian priest.  Jones served until his death in 1921.  George Joseph Caruana, from Malta, served as Bishop from 1921 to 1925, before becoming a Vatican diplomat.  Edwin Vincent Byrne, an American, served as Bishop from 1929 to 1943, when he was named Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Another American, James Peter Davis, was named Bishop in 1943 and became the first Archbishop of San Juan in 1960.  He was named Archbishop of Santa Fe in 1964.  The first native Puerto Rican priest to lead the San Juan Archdiocese was Luis Aponte Martinez, appointed in 1964.  He was named a Cardinal in 1973 and retired in 1999.  The current Archbishop is Roberto Octavio González Nieves, an American Franciscan, who was appointed in 1999.

The Diocese of Ponce was established in 1924.  The Diocese serves 480,000 Catholics and its Cathedral is Nuestra Senora de la Guadalupe.  Ponce’s first Bishop, Edwin V. Byrne was an American appointed in 1925.  Byrne was named Bishop of San Juan in 1929.  Byrne was succeeded by Aloysius Joseph Willinger, an American Redemptorist in 1929.  He served in Ponce from 1929 until his appointment in 1946 as coadjutor Bishop of Monterey-Fresno in California.  The last (so far) American Bishop of Ponce was James E. McManus, a Redemptorist priest.  He served as Bishop from 1947 to 1963.

The first Puerto Rican Bishop of Ponce was Luis Aponte Martínez who served from 1963 until 1964 when he was named Archbishop of San Juan.  He was succeeded by another Puerto Rican priest, Juan Fremiot Torres Oliver, in 1964.  He served until his retirement in 2000.  Bishop Ricardo Antonio Suriñach Carreras, also from Puerto Rico, served as Bishop from 2000 to 2003.  Félix Lázaro Martínez, who served as Bishop from 2003 to 2015, was born in Spain and is a priest in the Order of Poor Clerks Regular.  The current Bishop, Rubén Antonio González Medina, a Puerto Rican Claretian priest, has served since 2015.  

The Diocese of Arecibo was established in 1960. The Diocese serves 385,000 Catholics and its Cathedral is San Felipe Apostol.  The first Bishop was Alfredo José Isaac Cecilio Francesco Méndez-Gonzalez, an American Holy Cross priest who served as Bishop from 1960 to 1974.  Miguel Rodriguez Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican Redemptorist priest served as Bishop from 1974 to 1990.  Iñaki Mallona Txertudi, a Spanish Passionist priest, served as Bishop from 1991 to 2010.  The current Bishop, Daniel Fernandez Torres, an American, has served since 2010.

The Diocese of Caguas was established in 1964. The Diocese serves 500,000 Catholics and its Cathedral is Dulce Nombre de Jesus.  Rafael Grovas Felix, a Puerto Rican priest, served as the first Bishop from 1965 to 1981.  Enrique Manuel Hernández Rivera, also a priest form Puerto Rico, served as the second Bishop from 1981 to 1998.  Rubén Antonio González Medina, a Puerto Rican Claretian priest, served as Bishop from 2000 to 2015.  The current Bishop, Eusebio Ramos Morales, is a Puerto Rican priest who has served as Bishop since 2017.

The Diocese of Mayaguez was established in 1976. The Diocese serves 420,000 Catholics and its Cathedral is Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria.  The Diocese’s first Bishop, Ulises Aurelio Casiano Vargas, a priest from Puerto Rico, served from 1976 to 2011.  The current Bishop, Álvaro Corrada Del Río, is a Puerto Rican Jesuit priest, who has served as Bishop since 2011. 

The Diocese of Fajardo-Humacao was established in 2008. The Diocese serves 100,000 Catholics.  The Cathedral of Santiago Apostol is in Fajardo, and the co-Cathedral of Dulce Nombre de Jesus, is in Humacao.  The Diocese’s first Bishop, Eusebio Ramos Morales, is a Puerto Rican priest who served as Bishop from 2008 to 2017.  A new bishop has not been appointed.

Guam

Guam Catholics are served by the Archdiocese of Agana.  It was established as a Vicariate Apostolic in 1911, became a Diocese in 1965, and an Archdiocese in 1984.  There are about 140,000 Catholics served by the Archdiocese.  The Basilica of Dulce Nombre de Maria in Agaña is the Cathedral.

Francisco Javier Vilá y Mateu, a Spanish Capuchin priest served as the first Vicar Apostolic between 1911 and 1913.  He was succeeded by three more Spanish Capuchins, Agustín Bernaus y Serra (who served only seven months in 1913), Joaquín Felipe Oláiz y Zabalza (1914 to 1933), and Miguel Ángel Olano y Urteaga (1934 to 1945).  Apollinaris W. Baumgartner, an American Capuchin, served as Vicar Apostolic from 1945 to 1965 and served as the first Bishop of Agana from 1965 to 1970.  American Felixberto Camacho Flores served as the second Bishop of Agana (1971-1984) and as the first Archbishop (1984-1985).  Anthony Sablan Apuron, a Capuchin priest from Guam, served as Archbishop from 1986 to 2018.  The current Archbishop, Michael J. Byrnes, is an American from the Archdiocese of Detroit. 

Northern Mariana Islands

Catholics of the Northern Mariana Islands are served by the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa.  It was established in 1984 and is part of the Province of Agana.  The diocese serves about 45,000 Catholics and the Diocesan Cathedral is Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Chalan Kanoa.

Tomas Aguon Camacho, a priest of the Diocese, served as the first Bishop of Chalon Kanoa from 1984 to 2010.  Ryan P. Jimenez, from the Philippines, was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese in 2010 and was appointed Bishop in 2016.  

American Samoa

Catholics in American Samoa are served by the Diocese of Samoa—Pago Pago.  It was established in 1982 and is part of the Province of Samoa—Apia.  The diocese serves 15,000 Catholics and the Diocesan Cathedral is the Cathedral of the Holy Family in Tafuna.  There is also a Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph the Worker in Fagatogo.

John Quinn Weitzel, an American priest of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, served as the first Bishop of Samoa—Pago Pago from 1986 to 2013.  The current Bishop, Peter H. Brown, was appointed in 2013.  He is a Redemptorist priest from New Zealand. 

Update

Pope Francis recently named a church in South Carolina to be the 85th minor basilica in the United States.  The Basilica of St. Peter is located in Columbia.  Bishop John England sent Father James Wallace to minister to Irish workers in Columbia in 1821.  The first St. Peter’s was constructed in 1824 and was the first Catholic church in the region.  The current church was built in 1907 and was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Frank Milburn, who also designed the dome of the state capitol in Columbia. The Basilica’s website is visitstpeters.org.



The first picture is from pinterest and the second from Wikipedia.





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