Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit


The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church covering the Michigan counties of Lapeer, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, and Wayne. It is the metropolitan archdiocese for the Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Detroit, which includes all dioceses in the state of Michigan. In addition, in 2000 the archdiocese accepted pastoral responsibility for the Roman Catholic Church in the Cayman Islands, which consists of Saint Ignatius Parish on Grand Cayman.
Established as the Diocese of Detroit on March 8, 1833, it was elevated to archiepiscopal status on May 22, 1937. Ste. Anne's in Detroit is the second oldest continuously-operating Roman Catholic Parish in the United States dating from July 26, 1701; it now serves a large Hispanic congregation.
The Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, located at 9844 Woodward Avenue, in Detroit has served as the mother church since 1938. Earlier cathedrals were: Ste. Anne de Detroit, 1833 to 1848; Sts. Peter and Paul Church, 1848 to 1877; 1877 to 1890, St. Aloysius, 1890 to 1938, St. Patrick's Church at 124 Adelaide Street.

History

Before the Diocese of Detroit was formed, Michigan had been under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Diocese of Quebec from 1701 until sometime after 1796; de facto American sovereignty was established in that year. At the time, the Diocese of Baltimore encompassed the whole of the United States. Upon the creation of diocesan seats at Bardstown and later, at Cincinnati, Detroit and Michigan were assigned to those sees.
Pope Gregory XVI formed the Diocese of Detroit March 8, 1833, and named Frederick Rese as its first bishop. At the time it covered Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas to the Missouri River. In 1843, all territory of the diocese not incorporated into the State of Michigan was transferred to the Diocese of Milwaukee.
On July 29, 1853, Pope Pius IX formed the Vicarate Apostolic of Upper Michigan, with responsibility for the Upper Peninsula. The territory of the diocese would be further reduced to its current size by the organization of the dioceses of Grand Rapids, Lansing, and shortly after the see was elevated to the status of an archdiocese, Saginaw.
The son of Prussian Polish immigrants, Rev. John A. Lemke, born in Detroit on February 10, 1866, was the first native-born Roman Catholic priest of Polish descent to be ordained in America. He was baptized at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church, at the corner of St. Antoine and Croghan, on February 18, 1866, attended St. Albertus for his primary education, and studied at Detroit College, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1884. After attending St. Mary's in Baltimore, he completed his theological studies at St. Francis Seminary in Monroe, Michigan, and he was ordained by Bishop John Samuel Foley in 1889. His added confirmation name was Aloysius.
In January 1989, Cardinal Edmund Szoka implemented a controversial plan to close 30 churches within the city of Detroit. He also ordered 25 other parishes to improve their situation or also face closure. The plan resulted from a five-year study which analyzed maintenance costs, priest availability, parish income and membership before recommending closure of 43 parishes.
The Associationa of Religion Data Archives indicated a Catholic membership in the archdiocese of 907,605.
On May 5, 2011, Archbishop Allen Vigneron announced that Pope Benedict XVI approved his request to name Saint Anne as patroness of Detroit. The Papal decree stated that Saint Anne has been the city's patroness since time immemorial.
On February 21, 2012, Vigneron announced a second plan to consolidate churches to address declining membership and clergy availability within the archdiocese. Under the plan, two parishes would close in 2012 and 60 others were to consolidate into 21 by the end of 2013. Six additional parishes were asked to submit a viable plan to repay debt or merge with other churches and the remaining 214 parishes in the archdiocese were asked to submit plans by the end of 2012 to share resources or merge.
On June 3, 2017, the archdiocese adopted a new coat of arms featuring the archdiocesan patroness St. Anne, three stars representing the Trinity, a door representing Blessed Solanus Casey of Detroit, and waves representing the Great Lakes. It replaced a coat of arms featuring antlers and martlets that was adopted upon the diocese's elevation to archdiocese in 1937.

Reports of Sex Abuse

In August 2002, four priests who served in the Archdiocese of Detroit were arrested and charged with committing acts of sex abuse against minors in the Detroit area as far back as the 1960s. All four priests, Harry Benjamin, Rev. Robert Burkholder, Rev. Edward Olszewski, Jason E. Sigler, were convicted in 2003.
On May 24, 2019, it was revealed that five priests who served in the Archdiocese of Detroit and its suffragan Dioceses of Lansing and Kalamazoo were charged with sex abuse. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who charged the priests, stated that four of them have been arrested in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan, and the fifth awaits extradition from India. A sixth priest who faces an administrative complaint has had his counseling license suspended by the state. Two of the charged priests, Patrick Casey and Neil Kalina, answered directly to the Archdiocese of Detroit. Kalina, who was arrested in California, was charged with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a boy between the ages of 12 and 14 and for also supplying the boy with cocaine and marijuana. Casey, who was arrested in the Michigan city of Oak Park, was charged with raping a suicidal gay man in his 20s whom Casey was counseling during confession.
On July 7, 2019, the Archdiocese of Detroit announced the removal of prominent priest Rev. Eduard Perrone from public ministry in the Diocese, after determining that allegations that he sexually abused a child decades ago were "credible." This action by the Archdiocese and the accusation has been contested by many, including the accuser's longtime friend. In addition, Fr. Perrone maintains his innocence. On July 8, 2019, local priest Rev. Joseph "Jack" Baker was arrested and charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct with someone under 13. In June 2019, the Archdiocese of Detroit placed limits on Baker's public ministry.
On October 8, 2019, Casey pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault after a Detroit area-jury struggled to obtain the unanimous votes needed to convict him on the more serious charge of third degree sexual conduct. This charge carries a maximum sentence of only one year in prison. At this time, it was also reported that Kalina was not out on bond and still remained incarcerated at the Macomb County jail. Kalina had been convicted of the drug distribution charge in July 1985. However, Baker remains free on bond.

Bishops

Ordinaries

;Bishops of Detroit
  1. Frederick Rese
  2. Caspar Borgess
  3. John Samuel Foley
  4. Michael Gallagher
;Archbishops of Detroit
  1. Cardinal Edward Aloysius Mooney
  2. Cardinal John Francis Dearden
  3. Cardinal Edmund Casimir Szoka, appointed President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See and later President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and Governatorate of Vatican City State
  4. Cardinal Adam Joseph Maida
  5. Allen Henry Vigneron

    Coadjutor Bishop

The Detroit Archdiocese is divided into four administrative regions: Central ; Northeast, Northwest, and South. Each of the four regions is further divided into smaller administrative areas known as vicariates. A list of churches in each of these regions and vicariates is found at List of Roman Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Schools

As of 2013 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit had 96 schools with 30,000 students. As of 2013 there are four Catholic grade schools and three Catholic high schools in the City of Detroit, with all of them in the city's west side.
In the 1964-1965 school year, there were 360 schools operated by the archdiocese, with about 110 grade schools in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park and 55 high schools in those three cities. There were a total of 203,000 students in the Catholic schools. The Catholic school population has decreased due to the increase of charter schools, increasing tuition at Catholic schools, the small number of African-American Catholics, White Catholics moving to suburbs, and the decreased number of teaching nuns.

Universities and colleges

Suffragan sees