ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF BALTIMORE

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The 'Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore' is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese comprises the City of Baltimore as well as Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington Counties in Maryland. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see of the Ecclesiastical Province of Baltimore.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is the oldest in the United States. The Holy See granted the archdiocese the right of precedence in the nation at liturgies, meetings, and councils on August 15, 1859.¹ However, the archdiocese does not enjoy primatial status.
The archdiocese comprises nine Maryland counties and Baltimore city, having 518,000 Catholics, 545 priests, five hospitals, and two seminaries (St Mary's in Baltimore and Mount St. Mary's Seminary at Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland).^[1]^[2]

History

Originally called the Apostolic Prefecture of the United States, the ecclesiastical territory was established on November 26, 1784. The apostolic prefecture was elevated to become the Diocese of Baltimore on November 6, 1789.
The Diocese of Baltimore was promoted to an archdiocese on April 8, 1808 with the founding of the dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville) by Pope Pius VII.
The Archdiocese lost territory with the creation of the dioceses of Charleston and Richmond on July 11, 1820 and the Diocese of Wilmington on March 3, 1868.
Due to the exponential growth of the Roman Catholic Church in the region, the see was renamed to become the Archdiocese of Baltimore-Washington on July 22, 1939. The Archdiocese of Washington became an independent entity on November 15, 1947 creating the present-day Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is led by the prelature of the Archbishop of Baltimore and a corps of auxiliary bishops who assist in the administration of the archdiocese as part of a larger curia. Fourteen people have served as Archbishop of Baltimore. Until the installation of Edwin Frederick O'Brien on October 1, 2007, the current Apostolic Administrator of the archdiocese is Cardinal William Henry Keeler.

The archbishop is concurrently the rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, although both cathedrals have their own individual rectors as well. The Basilica, built in 1806–1821, is America's first cathedral and considered the mother church of the United States.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is one of only two United States dioceses that has two churches serving as Roman Catholic cathedrals in the same city — the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace and Co-Cathedral of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus in the Diocese of Honolulu share the distinction. Other dioceses with two cathedrals have their churches in separate cities.

1. Liz F. Kay, "New home for a new archbishop", ''Baltimore Sun'', July 14, 2007.
2. G.M. Corrigan, "Archbishop O'Brien to begin stewardship with listening tour", ''The Baltimore Examiner'', August 4, 2007.

# Catholic Encyclopedia Article on Precedence

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