The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Boston () is a

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

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 eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its mother church is the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. The archdiocese is the fourth largest in the United States. It was formed in 1808, branching off from the Diocese of Baltimore and growing rapidly during the 19th century. Starting in 2002 the archdiocese faced a sexual abuse scandal which touched off investigations of

Catholic Church sexual abuse cases There have been many cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, priests, nuns, and Sexual abuse scandals in Catholic orders and societies, other members of religious life in the Catholic Church. In the late 20th and early 21st c ...

throughout the United States. Richard G. Henning has served as archbishop since October 31, 2024.

Territory

The Archdiocese of Boston encompasses Essex County, Middlesex County, Norfolk County, and Suffolk County in Massachusetts. It includes most of Plymouth County except for the towns of Marion, Mattapoisett, and Wareham. As of 2018, the archdiocese had 284

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 ...

es with 617

diocesan priests In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. Secular priests (sometimes known as diocesan priests) are priests who commit themselves to a certain geograph ...

and 275 permanent deacons. In 2018, the archdiocese estimated that more than 1.9 million Catholics lived within its territory.

History

Early history

New England's first settlers were

Congregationalists Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

and, in Rhode Island,

Baptists Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

. Many of them left England because they were disappointed in the lack of reforms in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. These dissenters followed

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

and

John Calvin John Calvin (; ; ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French Christian theology, theologian, pastor and Protestant Reformers, reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of C ...

in rejecting the selling of

indulgences In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission bef ...

, the celebration of a Latin Mass, the doctrine of

transubstantiation Transubstantiation (; Greek language, Greek: μετουσίωσις ''metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of sacramental bread, bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and ...

, and papal authority. As these dissenters set up colonies in New England, they enacted legal restrictions on Catholics, including bans on Catholic worship. Massachusetts made it a crime, with a potential life sentence, for a Catholic priest to reside in the colony. The political necessity of gaining Catholic support for the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

drove a change in popular attitudes in the colonies. The

Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual states that make up the United States of America. It consists of a preamble, declaration ...

, written by

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

and ratified in 1780, established religious freedom in the new state. With the Massachusetts constitution being the first state constitution in the United States, its framework of government became a model for the constitutions of other states and, eventually, for the federal constitution. In 1788, the Abbé de la Poterie, a former French naval chaplain serving in Boston, celebrated the city's first public mass in a converted

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

chapel at 24 School Street in Boston, which he named Holy Cross Church. Two refugees from the French Revolution ministering to Boston's Catholic population at the turn of the century, Reverends Francis Anthony Matignon and John Cheverus, raised the funds to build a larger building, the Church of the Holy Cross. These buildings no longer exist, but they were the foundation of the Catholic Church in Massachusetts.

Formation

Gilbert Stuart - Bishop Jean-Louis Anne Magdelaine Lefebvre de Cheverus - 21

Pope Pius VII Pope Pius VII (; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823) was head of the Catholic Church from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. He ruled the Papal States from June 1800 to 17 May 1809 and again ...

erected the Diocese of Boston on April 8, 1808, taking all of New England from the Diocese of Baltimore. The new diocese consisted of the states of

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, Massachusetts (including present-day

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

), New Hampshire,

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

, and Vermont. The pope named Cheverus as the first bishop of Boston. The

exponential growth Exponential growth occurs when a quantity grows as an exponential function of time. The quantity grows at a rate directly proportional to its present size. For example, when it is 3 times as big as it is now, it will be growing 3 times as fast ...

of the Catholic Church in New England through the nineteenth century led the Vatican to create new dioceses out of the Diocese of Boston and later the Archdiocese of Boston.

Diocesan offices

In the 1920s, Cardinal William O'Connell moved the

chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873 ** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery ** Courts of e ...

from offices near Holy Cross Cathedral in the South End to 127 Lake Street in the

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

neighborhood of Boston. "Lake Street" was a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word "wikt:suit, suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such ...

for the bishop and the office of the archdiocese. In June 2004, the archdiocese sold the archbishop's residence and the

and surrounding lands in Brighton to

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

, in part to defray costs associated with numerous cases of sexual abuse by clergy of the archdiocese. The archdiocesan offices of the archdiocese moved to Braintree. The archdiocesan seminary, Saint John's Seminary, remains on the property in Brighton.

Clergy sexual abuse scandals and settlements

At the beginning of the 21st century the archdiocese was shaken by accusations of sexual abuse by clergy that culminated in the resignation of its archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, on December 13, 2002. In September 2003, the archdiocese settled over 500 abuse-related claims for $85 million. Victims received an average of $92,000 each and the perpetrators included 140 priests and two others. Additional sex abuse allegations within the Archdiocese of Boston surfaced in later years as well. This included alleged abuse at Saint John's Seminary and

Arlington Catholic High School Arlington Catholic High School (ACHS) is a coeducational Catholic high school in Arlington, Massachusetts. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and serves grades 9-12. History The members of St. Agnes Parish, a Catholic chur ...

. The Archdiocese of Boston lobbies against laws intended to help survivors of abuse, such as a proposed 2023 law to remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse lawsuits. From 2011 and 2019 the Catholic church in Massachusetts spent over half a million dollars lobbying against such laws.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of the archdiocese, shown in the information box to the right at the top of this article, has a blue shield with a gold cross and a gold "trimount" over a silver and blue "Barry-wavy" at the base of the shield. The "trimount" of three ''coupreaux'' represents the City of Boston, the original name of which was Trimountaine in reference to the three hills on which the city's original settlement stood. The cross, ''fleurettée'', honors the Cathedral of the Holy Cross while also serving as a reminder that the first bishop of Boston and other early ecclesiastics were natives of France. The "Barry-wavy" is a symbol of the sea, alluding to Boston's role as a major seaport whose first non-indigenous settlers came from across the sea.

Communications media

The diocesan newspaper '' The Pilot'' has been published in Boston since 1829. The archdiocese's ''Catholic Television Center'', founded in 1955, produces programs and operates the cable television network

CatholicTV The CatholicTV Network, commonly known as CatholicTV, is a Catholic television network based in Watertown, Massachusetts. CatholicTV first launched locally in Boston in 1955, making it the oldest Catholic television network in the United States. ...

. From 1964 to 1966, it owned and operated a broadcast television station under the call letters WIHS-TV.

Ecclesiastical province

The Archdiocese of Boston is also metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical province of Boston. This means that the archbishop of Boston is the metropolitan for the province. The

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 ...

s in the province are the Diocese of Burlington, Diocese of Fall River, Diocese of Manchester, Diocese of Portland, Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts, and the Diocese of Worcester.

Pastoral regions

The Archdiocese of Boston is divided into five pastoral regions, each headed by an

episcopal vicar Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United States ...

Bishops

Bishops of Boston

# Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus (1808–1823) appointed Bishop of Montauban and later

Archbishop of Bordeaux The Archdiocese of Bordeaux (–Bazas) (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Burdigalensis (–Bazensis)''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Bordeaux (–Bazas)''; Occitan: ''Archidiocèsi de Bordèu (–Vasats)'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or a ...

(elevated to

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 1836) # Benedict Joseph Fenwick (1825–1846) # John Bernard Fitzpatrick (1846–1866;

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 ...

1843–1846) #

John Joseph Williams John Joseph Williams was an American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the fourth Bishop and first Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, serving between 1866 and his death in 1907. Early life and education Williams was born in Bosto ...

(1866–1875; coadjutor bishop 1866); elevated to

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 ...

Archbishops of Boston

# John Joseph Williams (1875–1907) #

William Henry O'Connell William Henry O'Connell (December 8, 1859 – April 22, 1944) was an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Boston from 1907 until his death in 1944, and was made a cardinal in 1911. Early life William O'Connell ...

(1907–1944) # Richard James Cushing (1944–1970) # Humberto Sousa Medeiros (1970–1983) # Bernard Francis Law (1984–2002), resigned; later appointed

Archpriest The ecclesiastical title of archpriest or archpresbyter belongs to certain priests with supervisory duties over a number of parishes. The term is most often used in Eastern Orthodoxy and the Eastern Catholic Churches and may be somewhat analogo ...

of the

Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore Santa Maria Maggiore (), also known as the Basilica of Saint Mary Major or the Basilica of Saint Mary the Great, is one of the four major papal basilicas and one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome. The largest Marian church in Rome, it is ...

# Seán Patrick O'Malley (2003–2024) # Richard Henning (2024–present)

Current auxiliary bishops of Boston

* Robert Francis Hennessey (2006–present) * Peter John Uglietto (2010–present) * Mark William O'Connell (2016–present) * Robert P. Reed (2016–present) * Cristiano Borro Barbosa (2024–present)

Former auxiliary bishops of Boston

* John Brady (1891–1910) * Joseph Gaudentius Anderson (1909–1927) * John Bertram Peterson (1927–1932), appointed

Bishop of Manchester The Bishop of Manchester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Manchester, Diocese of Manchester in the Province of York.) The current bishop is David Walker (Bishop of Manchester), David Walker who w ...

Francis Spellman Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic prelate who served as Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Archbishop of New York from 1939 until his death in 1967. F ...

(1932–1939), appointed Archbishop of New York (

in 1946) * Richard J. Cushing (1939–1944), appointed Archbishop here (Cardinal in 1958) * Louis Francis Kelleher (1945–1946) * John Wright (1947–1950), appointed Bishop of Worcester, then Bishop of Pittsburgh, then

Prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

of the

Congregation for the Clergy The Dicastery for the Clergy, formerly named Congregation for the Clergy (; formerly the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy and Sacred Congregation of the Council), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia responsible for overseeing matters regard ...

(elevated to

in 1969) * Thomas Francis Markham (1950–1952) * Eric Francis MacKenzie (1950–1969) * Jeremiah Francis Minihan (1954–1973) * Thomas Joseph Riley (1959–1976) * Daniel A. Cronin (1968–1970), appointed Bishop of Fall River and later Archbishop of Hartford * Joseph Francis Maguire (1971–1976), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts and subsequently succeeded to that see * Lawrence Joseph Riley (1971–1990) * Joseph John Ruocco (1974–1980) *

Thomas Vose Daily Thomas Vose Daily (September 23, 1927 – May 14, 2017) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn in New York from 1990 to 2003. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Palm ...

(1974–1984), appointed Bishop of Palm Beach and later Bishop of Brooklyn * John Joseph Mulcahy (1974–1992) * John Michael D'Arcy (1975–1985), appointed Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend * Daniel Anthony Hart (1976–1995), appointed

Bishop of Norwich The Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary (Catholic Church), ordinary of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Norwich, Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. Th ...

* Alfred C. Hughes (1981–1993), appointed Bishop of Baton Rouge and later Archbishop of New Orleans * Robert J. Banks (1985–1990), appointed Bishop of Green Bay * Roberto Octavio González Nieves (1988–1995), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Corpus Christi and subsequently succeeded to that see, and later Archbishop of San Juan in Puerto Rico * John R. McNamara (1992–1999) * John P. Boles (1992–2006) * John Brendan McCormack (1995–1998), appointed

* William F. Murphy (1995–2001), appointed Bishop of Rockville Centre * Francis Xavier Irwin (1996–2009) * Emilio S. Allué (1996–2010) * Richard Joseph Malone (2000–2004), appointed Bishop of Portland and later Bishop of Buffalo * Richard Lennon (2001–2006), appointed Bishop of Cleveland * Walter James Edyvean (2001–2014) * John Anthony Dooher (2006–2018) * Arthur L. Kennedy (2010–2017) * Robert P. Deeley (2012–2013), appointed Bishop of Portland

Other archdiocesan priests who became bishops

* William Barber Tyler, appointed Bishop of Hartford in 1843 * Patrick Thomas O'Reilly, appointed Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts in 1870 * James Augustine Healy, appointed Bishop of Portland in 1875 * Lawrence Stephen McMahon (priest here, 1860–1872), appointed Bishop of Hartford in 1879 * Matthew Harkins, appointed Bishop of Providence in 1887 * Edward Patrick Allen, appointed Bishop of Mobile in 1897 * Louis Sebastian Walsh, appointed Bishop of Portland in 1906 * John Joseph Nilan, appointed Bishop of Hartford in 1910 * James Anthony Walsh, elected Superior General of Maryknoll and consecrated

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

in 1933 * Edward Francis Ryan, appointed Bishop of Burlington in 1944 * John Joseph Glynn, appointed Auxiliary Bishop for the Military Services, USA in 1991 * Richard Joseph Malone, appointed Bishop of Portland in 2002 and later Bishop of Buffalo in 2012 * Christopher J. Coyne, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Indianapolis in 2011 and later Bishop of Burlington and Coadjutor Archbishop of Hartford in 2023 and succeeded to Archbishop of Hartford in 2024 * Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, appointed

Apostolic Nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...

to Turkey and Turkmenistan and

Titular Archbishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

in 2016

Churches

Seminaries

* Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary, Weston * St. John's Seminary, Brighton * Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary, Brookline

Education

As of 2018, the archdiocese had 112 schools with approximately 34,000 students in pre-kindergarten through high school. In 1993 the archdiocese had 53,569 students in 195 archdiocesan parochial schools.

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

had the largest number of parochial schools: 48 schools with a combined total of about 16,000 students.

Superintendents

* Albert W. Low (1961–1972) * Bartholomew Varden (1972–1975) * Eugene F. Sullivan (1978–1984) * Kathleen Carr (1990–2006) * Mary Grassa O'Neill (2008–2014) * Mary E. Moran (2013–2014) * Kathleen Powers Mears (2014–2019) * Thomas W. Carroll (2019–present)

Colleges and universities

, Chestnut Hill * Emmanuel College, Boston *

Merrimack College Merrimack College is a Private university, private Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian university in North Andover, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1947 by the Order of St. Augustine with an initial goal to educate World War II veterans. It en ...

, North Andover * Regis College, Weston

Former colleges

* Marian Court College, Swampscott

Primary and secondary schools

High schools

Former high schools

Other facilities

The archdiocese previously used a headquarters facility in

but sold it to

in 2004 for $107,400,000. Steward Health Care System operates the former archdiocesan hospitals of Caritas Christi Health Care.

Notes

References

External links

* **
Catholic Hierarchy Profile of the Archdiocese of Boston''Boston Globe'' / Spotlight / Abuse in the Catholic ChurchBoston Catholic Insider (critical blog)Boston Catholic Schools
{{Authority control Culture of Boston Catholic Church in Massachusetts

1808 establishments in Massachusetts Christianity in Boston