The Archdiocese of Seattle () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in western Washington State in the United States. The diocese was known as the Diocese of Nesqually from 1850 to 1907. The mother church of the archdiocese is St. James Cathedral in Seattle. The former cathedral is the Proto-Cathedral of St. James the Greater in Vancouver. Its

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

since 2019 is Paul D. Etienne. The archdiocese succeeded to the Diocese of Nesqually headquartered in

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver ( ) is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located in Clark County, Washington, Clark County. Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, Vancouver had a population of 190, ...

, established in 1850 as a

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandr ...

of the Archdiocese of Oregon City. In 1903, the

episcopal see An episcopal see is the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

was moved to Seattle, and the diocese's name was changed to Diocese of Seattle in 1907. The diocese was elevated to metropolitan archdiocesan status in 1951.

Ecclesiastical province

The Archdiocese of Seattle encompasses 144 parishes west of the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington (state), Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as m ...

. It is the

metropolitan archdiocese A metropolis, metropolitanate or metropolitan diocese is an episcopal see whose bishop is the metropolitan bishop or archbishop of an ecclesiastical province. Metropolises, historically, have been important cities in their provinces. Eastern Ortho ...

of two

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

dioceses: * Diocese of Spokane, with territory taken from the archdiocese in 1913 * Diocese of Yakima, with territory taken from the archdiocese in 1951

Statistics

As of 2022, the archdiocese reported that it served approximately served 899,000 Catholics in 143 parishes with 191 diocesan priests, 79 religious priests, 113

permanent deacons A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

, 92 male religious and 234 female religious. The archdiocese has eleven hospitals, two health care centers, nineteen homes for the elderly, three day care centers, ten specialized homes, and 111 centers for social services.

History

1830 to 1850

The Catholic presence in what was then

Oregon Country Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long Oregon boundary dispute, dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been demarcat ...

dates to the arrival in the 1830s of

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

priests François Blanchet and

Modeste Demers Modeste Demers (11 October 1809 – 28 July 1871) was a Roman Catholic Bishop and missionary in the Oregon Country. A native of Quebec, he traveled overland to the Pacific Northwest and preached in the Willamette Valley and later in what would bec ...

from the British colony of

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada () was a British colonization of the Americas, British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence established in 1791 and abolished in 1841. It covered the southern portion o ...

. In 1843, the Vatican established the

Vicariate Apostolic An apostolic vicariate is a territorial jurisdiction of the Catholic Church under a titular bishop centered in missionary regions and countries where dioceses or parishes have not yet been established. The status of apostolic vicariate is often ...

of the Oregon Territory and named François Blanchet as its vicar apostolic. In 1846,

Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI (; ; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in June 1846. He had adopted the name Mauro upon enteri ...

divided the vicariate into three dioceses: *

Diocese of Oregon City The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon (''Archidioecesis Portlandensis in Oregonia'') is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western Oregon in the United States. Established in 1846, it was the second Catholic archdiocese establi ...

in present-day Oregon *

Diocese of Vancouver Island The Diocese of Victoria () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its episcopal see is in Victoria. The diocese encompasses all of Vancouver Island and several ne ...

in British Columbia * Diocese of Walla Walla in Washington That same year, Gregory XVI named

Augustin-Magloire Blanchet Augustin Magloire Alexandre Blanchet (22 August 1797 – 25 February 1887) was a French Canadian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop of the now-defunct Diocese of Walla Walla and of the Diocese of Nesqually in pr ...

, the brother of François Blanchet, as the bishop of Walla Walla. According to contemporary accounts, Augustin-Magloire Blanchet was unhappy to discover that Walla Walla was no more than a trading post. He immediately ran into conflict with the Oblate order priests in the diocese who were performing missionary work. They refused Blanchet's efforts to assign them to parishes. Blanchet also tried to claim an Oblate mission property for the diocese that the Oblates had received from a Native American tribe. Described as an inflexible and arrogant leader, Blanchet quickly alienated most of the secular priests in his diocese. Many of these priests attempted to join the Jesuit and Oblate orders to escape his control. In response, Blanchet introduced rules to make these priest transfers more difficult and to steer seminarians away from the orders. In November 1847, conflicts between Protestant missionaries and the Cayuse escalated into violence. Several tribesmen murdered ten Americans, including two Protestant missionaries, near Walla Walla in what was termed the

Whitman massacre The Whitman massacre (also known as the Whitman killings and the Tragedy at Waiilatpu) was the killing of American missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, along with eleven others, on November 29, 1847. They were killed by a small group of C ...

(Whitman was the leader of the missionaries). Despite attempts by the Cayuse tribe to defuse the conflict, American settlers raised militias to punish them for the killings. Local Protestants accused the Catholic clergy of being in league with the Cayuse. This animosity, the warfare between the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

and the Cayuse and the failure of the diocese to grow prompted the Vatican to move Blanchet to safety in

St. Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, the ...

of Oregon.

1850 to 1903

On May 31, 1850,

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

officially suppressed the defunct Diocese of Walla Walla and erected the Diocese of Nesqually in its place.The pope appointed Augustin Blanchet as bishop of the new diocese. In January 1851, Blanchet dedicated St. James Church near

Fort Vancouver Fort Vancouver was a 19th-century fur trading post built in the winter of 1824–1825. It was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was ...

as the cathedral for the diocese. In 1868, Francis X. Prefontaine requested Blanchet's permission to build a church near Pioneer Square in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

to support the city's first Catholic

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, Our Lady of Good Help. Blanchet believed that the Catholic population of Seattle would never grow. However, he gave Prefontaine permission to build a church there, on the condition that Prefontaine raise all the money for it. Prefontaine in 1869 opened Seattle's first Catholic church. After Blanchet retired in 1879,

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

named Reverend Egidius Junger as the second bishop of Nesqually. The diocese experienced considerable growth under Junger's administration, including an increase in the number of priests and parishes and an increase in the number of nuns from 60 to 286. St Leo the Great, established in 1879, was the first Catholic Church in

Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...

. Junger built a large cathedral in Vancouver in 1888 to replace the wooden church from years earlier. However, the $50,000 debt incurred by the project became a burden for the diocese. In 1891, the Jesuits opened a parish school for boys at Immaculate Conception Parish. It became Seattle College in 1898. Today it is

Seattle University Seattle University (Seattle U or SU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and grad ...

.Our Lady of Hope, the first Catholic church in Everett, was dedicated in 1892. Junger died in 1895. To replace Junger, Leo XIII appointed Reverend Edward O'Dea as the next bishop of Nesqually in 1896. When he took office, O'Dea was confronted with financial difficulties, including a $25,000 debt for the construction of the cathedral.

1903 to 1951

In 1903, O'Dea petitioned the Vatican to move the

from Vancouver to Seattle, due to the increased population and economy of Seattle. He began construction on a new cathedral in Seattle in 1905. In 1907, the Vatican suppressed the Diocese of Nesqually and erected the Diocese of Seattle, with O'Dea as its first bishop.He dedicated St. James Cathedral in Seattle that same year. In 1913, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Spokane, taking its territory from the Diocese of Seattle. O'Dea guided the diocese through

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and the

anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics and opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and its adherents. Scholars have identified four categories of anti-Catholicism: constitutional-national, theological, popular and socio-cul ...

sentiment engendered by Initiative 49, a

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

-sponsored effort in Washington State to outlaw

parochial school A parochial school is a private school, private Primary school, primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathem ...

s. His final accomplishment was the establishment of St. Edward Seminary in Kenmore in 1930. O'Dea died in 1932. The second bishop of Seattle was Reverend Gerald Shaughnessy, appointed by Pope Pius XI in 1933. Shaughnessy kept the diocese financially stable during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. He encouraged the formation of Serra International and served as its first

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

. He also supported the St. Vincent de Paul Society and

Catholic Charities The Catholic Church operates numerous charitable organizations. Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel, while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spir ...

chapters in the diocese. In 1948,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

appointed Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Connolly from the

Archdiocese of San Francisco The Archdiocese of San Francisco (Latin: ''Archdiœcesis Sancti Francisci''; Spanish: ''Arquidiócesis de San Francisco'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the Unit ...

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

to assist Shaughnessy, who had not fully recovered from a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

three years earlier. When Shaughnessy died in 1950, Connolly automatically succeeded him as bishop of Seattle.

1951 to 1991

Pius XII elevated the Diocese of Seattle to the Archdiocese of Seattle on June 23, 1951, while taking some of its territory to erect the Diocese of Yakima. The pope named Connolly as the first archbishop of Seattle. During his tenure, Connolly became known as a "brick and mortar bishop" for his construction of hundreds of Catholic facilities to accommodate the

post-World War II The aftermath of World War II saw the rise of two global superpowers, the United States (U.S.) and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). The aftermath of World War II was also defined by the rising threat of nuclear warfare, the creation and implementati ...

population growth in the archdiocese. He renovated St. James Cathedral; established 43 new parishes; and built over 350 churches, schools, rectories, convents, parish halls and religious education centers. Connolly was an outspoken supporter of the American civil rights movement and ecumenism. When Connolly retired in 1975,

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

appointed Bishop

Raymond Hunthausen Raymond Gerhardt "Dutch" Hunthausen (August 21, 1921 – July 22, 2018) was an American Catholic prelate who served as bishop of Helena in Montana from 1962 to 1975 and as archbishop of Seattle in Washington State from 1975 to 1991. Biograp ...

from the Diocese of Helena as his successor in Seattle. By 1983, the Vatican was allegedly receiving complaints that Hunthausen was deviating from Catholic doctrine on matters such as the providing of

artificial contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...

in Catholic hospitals and the church's policies on gay and divorced Catholics. That same year, Pope John Paul II authorized Cardinal

Joseph Ratzinger Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as po ...

, prefect of the

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is a department of the Roman Curia in charge of the religious discipline of the Catholic Church. The Dicastery is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of t ...

, to investigate Hunthausen. Ratzinger appointed Archbishop James Hickey of the Diocese of Washington as

apostolic visitor In the Catholic Church, an apostolic visitor (or ''Apostolic Visitator''; Italian: Visitatore apostolico) is a papal representative with a transient mission to perform a canonical visitation of relatively short duration. The visitor is deputed ...

to go to Seattle and conduct the investigation. After meeting with Hunthausen and examining archdiocesan policies, Hickey concluded that Hunthausen had exercised "weak doctrinal leadership" in a number of areas. These included allowing children to receive the sacrament of communion without first having received the sacrament of

penance Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of contrition for sins committed, as well as an alternative name for the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. The word ''penance'' derive ...

. In response to Hickey's investigation, John Paul II named Reverend

Donald Wuerl Donald William Wuerl (born November 12, 1940) is an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Washington from 2006 to 2018. He previously served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle (1986 to 1987) and Bishop of Pit ...

in January 1986 as an auxiliary bishop in Seattle. Unknown to Hunthausen, the pope had given Wuerl special powers to override Hunthausen in the following areas:Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh – History of Bishops Webpage – Retrieved on October 18, 2008
* Worship and liturgy * The archdiocesan tribunal that considers requests for marriage annulment * Anything to do with

seminarians A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clerg ...

* Priestly formation and laicized priests * Moral issues * Health care and ministry to gay people In May 1986, Hunthausen and Wuerl found themselves in opposition on proposed state legislation to prohibit discrimination on the basis of

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

in employment. At that point, Hunthausen learned for the first time that Wuerl had been given authority over him on many issues. Hunthausen publicly revealed the Vatican's actions in September 1986, calling the arrangement unworkable. While some chancery officials expressed support for Wuerl, some questioned his role and saw little impact on the archdiocese a year after his appointment. In November 1986, Hunthausen took his grievances to the meeting of the

US Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 2001 after the merger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Co ...

, which sided in his favor. In February 1987, after appointing a commission to study the controversy in Seattle, John Paul II met with Hunthausen in Rome. According to Thomas Bokenkotter,

"A resolution of the affair was finally announced by the Vatican in April after it accepted the report of a commission that recommended that Hunthausen's authority be restored and a coadjutor bishop be appointed. Hunthausen stoutly maintains that his archdiocese has remained fundamentally the same and was never in violation of Vatican doctrine; nor has he had to alter the general direction of his ministry or compromise his liberal beliefs."

John Paul II in May 1987 named Bishop Thomas Murphy of the

Diocese of Great Falls-Billings In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

coadjutor archbishop The term "coadjutor" (literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadjutor bishop ...

in Seattle to assist Hunthausen. In March 1988, John Paul II named Wuerl as bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. When Hunthausen retired in 1991, Murphy automatically replaced him as archbishop of Seattle

1991 to 2010

Murphy traveled extensively to parishes around the archdiocese and was an advocate for the poor and disenfranchised. He oversaw an extensive renovation of St. James Cathedral, which was completed in 1994. Under Murphy's administration the archdiocese saw an increase in registered Catholics, and an increase in outreach and ministries for women, various ethnic groups, and

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

individuals. In 1992, Murphy opened Elizabeth House in Seattle, which provided medical care and job training for pregnant teens.For small Washington towns that were suffering from cutbacks in the

timber industry Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

, Murphy provided $500,000 to assist in starting small businesses. To help offset the declining numbers of priests, he provided financial support to a

program to train lay people in assist in some parish duties. Murphy died in 1997. To replace Murphy, John Paul II named Bishop Alexander Brunett of Helena as archbishop of Seattle in 1997. Despite the economic recession, annual contributions from Catholics in Western Washington doubled during Brunett's tenure as archbishop, providing funding for the construction of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School, which opened in 2009 in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

and Pope John Paul II High School, which opened in 2010 in Lacey. Brunett also helped launch the Fulcrum Foundation, which provides scholarships to poor families to send their children to

Catholic schools Catholic schools are parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school system. In 201 ...

and oversaw the $7 million purchase, renovation and expansion of the Palisades Retreat Center in

Federal Way Federal Way is a city in King County, Washington, United States and part of the Seattle metropolitan area. One of the most recently incorporated cities in the county, its population was 101,030 at the 2020 census. Federal Way is the 10th most p ...

. Brunett retired in 2009.

2010 to present

The next archbishop of Seattle was Bishop

J. Peter Sartain James Peter Sartain (born June 6, 1952), better known as Peter Sartain, is an American prelate of the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church. He served as the fifth archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, Archdiocese of Seattl ...

from the Diocese of Joliet, named by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

in 2010. In June 2019, Sartain installed Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of the Archdiocese of Anchorage as coadjutor archbishop to assist him. In August 2019, Sartain ordered the demolition of Holy Rosary Church in

. The church had become structurally unsound, and its estimated cost for repair was $18 million. Sartain retired in September 2019. When Sartain retired, Etienne automatically became archbishop of Seattle.On taking office, Etienne announced that he would not reside in Connolly House, the mansion for the archbishop of Seattle, suggesting it be sold to provide money to help the poor. In February 2024, the archdiocese announced a plan to consolidate its 136 parishes into 60 parish families. As of 2024, Etienne is the archbishop of Seattle.

Sex abuse

In May 1988, Reverend Paul Conn from Queen of Angels Parish in

Port Angeles Port Angeles ( ) is a city and county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,960 at the 2020 census, it is the most populous city in the county, as well as the most populous city on the Olympic Peninsula. T ...

pleaded guilty to molesting six altar boys at the church. He was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. Immediately removed from ministry after his arrest, Conn was laicized by the Vatican in 2005. In a letter read at mass in June 1988, Archbishop Hunthausen revealed that Reverend James McGreal was a

pedophile Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puber ...

. Hunthausen said that the archdiocese had received allegations against McGreal for the previous 20 years and that he had been under treatment for the last ten years. McGreal victimized at least 40 children, but the number could be higher than that. He was laicized by the Vatican in 2005. The archdiocese in 2006 settled for over $1 million a lawsuit brought by two brothers who claimed to have been sexually molested by Reverend James Cornelius during the 1970s. Cornelius had been removed from public ministry in 2002 after the brothers made their accusations to the archdiocese. Once the allegations became public, ten more individuals made allegations against Cornelius to the archdiocese. The Vatican had laicized Cornelius in 2004. In 2016, the archdiocese released a list of 77 priests, nuns and religious men with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. The archdiocese in 2018 paid a $7 million settlement to six men who had accused six priests, including Conn and McGreal, of sexually abusing them when they were minors during the 1970s and 1980s. By August 2022, the archdiocese had settled five sexual abuse lawsuits over the previous six months. The total settlement amount was approximately $2.3 million for all five plaintiffs. One female plaintiff was abused by a school employee around 1980, who bought her silence with candy. One plaintiff was a victim of Conn, another was victimized during the 1970s by David Pearson, a volunteer at St. Joseph Parish in

Issaquah Issaquah ( ) is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 40,051 at the 2020 census. Located in a valley and bisected by Interstate 90, the city is bordered by the Sammamish Plateau to the north and the " Issaquah ...

. In May 2024, Attorney General Bob Ferguson of Washington State sued the archdiocese. Ferguson said that the archdiocese had refused to cooperate in the state investigation into the use of charitable funds to cover up allegations of sexual abuse by clerics.

Bishops

Bishops of Nesqually

(1850–1879) # Egidius Junger (1879–1895) # Edward John O'Dea (1896–1907), title changed to Bishop of Seattle

Bishops of Seattle

# Edward John O'Dea (1907–1932) # Gerald Shaughnessy (1933–1950) #

Thomas Arthur Connolly Thomas Arthur Connolly (October 5, 1899 – April 18, 1991) was an American Catholic prelate who served as the fifth Bishop and first archbishop of Seattle in Washington State from 1950 to 1975. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of ...

(1950–1951), elevated to

Archbishops of Seattle

(1951–1975) #

(1975–1991) # Thomas Joseph Murphy (1991–1997; coadjutor 1987–1991) # Alexander Joseph Brunett (1997–2010) #

(2010–2019) # Paul D. Etienne (2019–present; coadjutor 2019)

Current auxiliary bishops

* Eusebio L. Elizondo Almaguer (2005–present) * Frank R. Schuster (2022–present)

Former auxiliary bishops

* Thomas Edward Gill (1956–1973) * Nicolas Eugene Walsh (1976–1983) *

(1986–1988) appointed Bishop of Pittsburgh and later

Archbishop of Washington The Archdiocese of Washington () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church for the District of Columbia and several Maryland counties in the United States. The Archdiocese of Washington is home to the Ca ...

(

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

in 2010) * George Leo Thomas (2000–2004) appointed Bishop of Helena and later Bishop of Las Vegas * Joseph J. Tyson (2005–2011), appointed Bishop of Yakima * Daniel Henry Mueggenborg (2017–2021), appointed Bishop of Reno

Other diocesan priests who became bishops

* Robert John Armstrong, appointed Bishop of Sacramento in 1929 * Jean-Baptiste Brondel, appointed Bishop of Vancouver Island in 1879 * Joseph Patrick Dougherty, appointed Bishop of Yakima in 1951 * Cornelius Michael Power, appointed Bishop of Yakima in 1969

Education

As of 2023, the Archdiocese of Seattle had 72 schools, serving over 19,800 students. The diocese also has two universities.

High schools

* Archbishop Murphy High School* – Everett *

Bellarmine Preparatory School Bellarmine Preparatory School is a private Catholic co-educational high school run by the USA West Province of the Society of Jesus in Tacoma, Washington. It is located in the Archdiocese of Seattle. Today, it serves just over 900 students fro ...

* – Tacoma *

Bishop Blanchet High School Bishop Blanchet High School is a private coeducational Catholic high school located north of Green Lake in Seattle, United States. The school was founded in 1954 by the Archdiocese of Seattle, and named for the first bishop of the diocese, A.M ...

– Seattle * Eastside Catholic High School* – Sammamish * Forest Ridge High School* – Bellevue *

Holy Names Academy Holy Names Academy is a Catholic private all-girls college-preparatory high school, founded by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in 1880 and located on the east slope of Seattle's Capitol Hill. It is the oldest continually operati ...

* –Seattle * Kennedy Catholic High School – Burien *

O'Dea High School O'Dea High School is a Roman Catholicism, Catholic all boys high school founded in 1923 and is located in Seattle's First Hill, Seattle, First Hill neighborhood. The school is named after Edward John O'Dea who was bishop of Seattle when the sch ...

– Seattle * Pope John Paul II High School* – Lacey *

Seattle Preparatory School Seattle Preparatory School, popularly known as Seattle Prep, is a private, Jesuit high school located on Capitol Hill in Seattle, Washington, United States. After it was founded in 1891, Seattle Prep merged with Immaculate Conception Parish Sch ...

* – Seattle *

Seton Catholic High School Seton Catholic Preparatory is a college preparatory, co-educational Catholic high school in Chandler, Arizona, United States. Named after St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the school was established in 1954 and is staffed by the Sisters of Charity of S ...

* – Vancouver : * Operationally independent of archdiocese

Notes

References

Sources and external links

*
GCatholic - Seattle see, with Google map and satellite photo - data for most sections

''Northwest Catholic''
- diocesan magazine
St. James Cathedral
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seattle, Roman Catholic Archdiocese

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle The Archdiocese of Seattle () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in western Washington State in the United States. The diocese was known as the Diocese of Nesqually from 1850 to 1907. The mother ch ...

Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 19th century Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States 1850 establishments in Oregon Territory

Roman Catholic Archdiocese Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Religion in Seattle