Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond

Catholic "church on wheels" in Richmond, 1955

Prior to the American Revolution, few Catholics lived in the Colony of Virginia. Attempts to found Catholic settlements in Virginia were made by Lord Baltimore in 1629, and by Captain George Brent in 1687. In 1634, Father John Altham, a Jesuit companion of Father Andrew White, performed missionary work among the Native American tribes living on the south bank of the Potomac River.

The colonial government of Virginia soon enacted stringent laws against the practice of Catholicism. In 1687, Fathers Edmonds and Raymond were arrested at Norfolk, Virginia, for exercising their priestly functions. During the last quarter of the 17th century, the few Catholic settlers at Aquia Creek near the Potomac, were attended by then Father John Carroll and other Jesuit missionaries from Maryland.[4]

With the 1786 passage of Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, proposed by future US President Thomas Jefferson, Catholics were granted religious freedom in the new state of Virginia. Reverend Jean Dubois, accompanied by several French priests and letters of introduction from the Marquis de Lafayette, arrived in Norfolk in August 1791. At the end of that year, the Virginia General Assembly invited Dubois to celebrate a mass in the courtroom of the new Virginia State House. This was the first mass conducted anywhere in Richmond.[4]Future US President James Monroe hosted Dubois in Richmond until he was able to rent a house there. Dubois later opened a school to teach French, the classics and arithmetic.[5]Virginia Governor Patrick Henry helped Dubois learn English. For two years, Dubois mainly celebrated mass in rented rooms or at the homes of Richmond's few Catholic families.[6]

According to tradition, Alexandria, Virginia, had a log chapel with an unknown resident Catholic priest by 1776. Reverend John Thayer from Boston was stationed at the chapel in 1794. The Reverend Francis Neale erected a brick church in Alexandria in 1796 and constructed a larger one in 1811. Fathers Anthony Kohlmann and future Bishop Benedict Fenwick frequently officiated in Alexandria.

Around 1796, the Reverend James Bushe started buiding a church in Norfolk. He was succeeded there by the future Archbishop Leonard Neale.

Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Richmond on July 11, 1820. He removed all of Virginia (except for the two counties of the Eastern Shore region) from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Pius VII designated the new diocese as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Baltimore[4]

On July 19, 1850, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Wheeling. He removed from the Diocese of Richmond all of Virginia west of the Allegheny Mountains and the state of Pennsylvania Pius IX on August 15, 1858, transferred the territory of Alexandria to the Diocese of Richmond. The Federal government in 1846 had retroceded the city of Alexandria back to Virginia from the District of Columbia.

The start of the American Civil War led to the formation of the state of West Virginia. It consisted of the western counties of Virginia, which had seceded from Virginia rather than be part of the breakaway Confederate States of America However, the new state boundary between Virginia and West Virginia did not coincide with the boundary between the Dioceses of Wheeling and Richmond. This disparity endured for over a century. Pope Pius IX erected the new Diocese of Wilimington on March 3, 1868. As part of that new diocese, the pope removed two Eastern Shore counties from the Diocese of Richmond.[7]

On May 28, 1974, Pope Paul VI established the current boundaries of the Diocese of Richmond by:.

• Transferring the two Eastern Shore counties, ceded to the Diocese of Wilmington in 1868, back to the Diocese of Richmond
• Erecting the new Diocese of Arlington, taking Northern Virginia from the Diocese of Richmond
• Realigning the boundary between the Dioceses of Richmond and Wheeling to match the Virginia-West Virginia state line[8]

In 2013, the Diocese of Richmond reported an increase in the number of seminarians preparing for the priesthood. According to Reverend Michael Boehling, the typical candidate was in his early to mid-20s, and was a college graduate with a degree in history, science or mathematics. "They are articulate and bright, well-rounded individuals who are mature for their age,"[9]

In early 2019, Knestout gave permission to the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia to use Saint Bede Catholic Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, for the ordination of Susan B. Haynes as its new bishop. The Episcopal diocese does not have a cathedral and usually rotates where it hosts ordinations and other events.[10] The announcement was met with opposition by Catholics who objected to holding a non-Catholic worship service and the episcopal ordination of a woman in a Catholic church. Over 3,000 people signed an online petition condemning the choice of venue. On January 17, 2010 the Episcopal diocese announced it would celebrate Haynes' ordination elsewhere.[11]

On February 13, 2019, Knestout released a list of 42 priests who had "credible and substantiated" accusations of sexual abuse made against them. The list covers allegations dating from the 1950s to the most recent substantiated allegation in 1993.[12][13] Among those listed was future Bishop of Memphis, Carroll Dozier, who was accused of committing acts of sex abuse while serving in the Diocese of Richmond.[14]

In 2019, Knestout instructed Reverend Mark White to shut down his blog, under pain of removal from the priesthood. White had criticized the church hierarchy's handling of the child sexual abuse crisis, including former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, for whom Knestout had served as priest secretary, and Cadinal Donald Wuerl, with whom he had worked as auxiliary bishop.[15] In May 2020 Knestout removed White from his parish and trespassed him from the parish residence.[16] Knestout ordered White to take up residence at a retreat center, and undertake a ministry to prisoners. On June 2, 2020, the Holy See denied White's appeal of Knestout's decree on technical grounds.[17]

On October 15, 2020, Richmond newspapers revealed that the Diocese of Richmond had paid $6.3 million to settle 51 out of 68 claims of sexual abuse.[18][19]

1. Patrick Kelly (1820–1822), appointed Bishop of Waterford and Lismore
2. Richard Vincent Whelan (1841–1850), appointed Bishop of Wheeling
3. John McGill (1850–1872)
4. James Gibbons (1872–1877), appointed Archbishop of Baltimore (elevated to Cardinal in 1886)
5. John Joseph Keane (1878–1888), appointed Rector of The Catholic University of America and Archbishop of Dubuque
6. Augustine Van de Vyver (1889–1911)
7. Denis Joseph O'Connell (1912–1926)
8. Andrew James Louis Brennan (1926–1945)
9. Peter Leo Ireton (1945–1958)
10. John Joyce Russell (1958–1973)
11. Walter Francis Sullivan (1974–2003)
12. Francis Xavier DiLorenzo (2004–2017)
13. Barry Christopher Knestout (2018–present)

• Joseph Howard Hodges (1952–1961), appointed Bishop of Wheeling
• Ernest Leo Unterkoefler (1962–1964), appointed Bishop of Charleston
• James Louis Flaherty (1966–1975)
• Walter Francis Sullivan (1970–1974), appointed Bishop here
• David Edward Foley (1986–1994), appointed Bishop of Birmingham

• Francis Janssens, appointed Bishop of Natchez in 1881 and later Archbishop of New Orleans
• Vincent Stanislaus Waters, appointed Bishop of Raleigh in 1945
• Carroll Thomas Dozier, appointed Bishop of Memphis in 1970
• Antons Justs (priest here, 1962–1974), appointed Bishop of Jelgava, Latvia in 1995

• Holy Cross Regional Catholic School, Lynchburg