Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle
The Archdiocese of Seattle (Latin: Archidiœcesis Seattlensis) 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 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 since 2019 is Paul D. Etienne.
The archdiocese succeeded to the Diocese of Nesqually headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, established in 1850 as a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Oregon City. In 1903, the episcopal see 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.
The Archdiocese of Seattle encompasses 144 parishes west of the Cascade Range. It is the metropolitan archdiocese of two suffragan dioceses:
Statistics[edit]
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, 92 male religious and 234 female religious.[1]
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[edit]
1830 to 1850[edit]
The Catholic presence in what was then Oregon Country dates to the arrival in the 1830s of missionary priests François Blanchet and Modeste Demers traveled from the British colony of Lower Canada.
In 1843, the Vatican established the Vicariate Apostolic of the Oregon Territory and named François Blanchet as its vicar apostolic.[4] In 1846, Pope Gregory XVI divided the vicariate into three dioceses: