PITTSBURGH, DIOCESE OF

The diocese of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgensis ), a suffragan of the Metropolitan See of philadelphia, comprises the six southwestern counties of Pennsylvania, an area of 4,092 square miles. The diocese, erected Aug. 8, 1843, originally included the entire western half of the state. It was reduced in 1852 when the Diocese of Erie was established, and in 1901 and 1951 with the erection of the dioceses of Altoona and Greensburg respectively. At the beginning of the 21st century, Catholics numbered about 40 percent of the total population. The Catholic Church in Pittsburgh is best known for the diversity of its ethnic communities and for the association of some of its well-known figures with the labor movement.

Early History. Catholicism was first brought to the area by the missionaries who accompanied the French expeditions of the early 18th century. The chapel of Fort Duquesne, built in 1754 and dedicated under the title of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, of the Beautiful River, was the first place of public worship within the territory. The chapel's register of baptisms and burials, still extant, records many Native American converts, as well as occasional Irish and German traders. When the French evacuated and burned Fort Duquesne in 1758, the British renamed the site Pittsburgh. For the next 40 years, there were no resident Catholic priests in the area.

In 1799 Rev. Theodore Brouwers purchased a tract of land called Sportsman's Hall in Westmoreland County not far from Greensburg and became the pastor for the whole of western Pennsylvania. Ten years later, in 1799, Rev. Peter Helbron arrived at the Sportsman's Hall parish, carrying out many years of arduous but fruitful labor there. In the same year, Rev. Demetrius A. gallitzin came to the McGuire Settlement, renamed it Loretto, and opened a mission and a school. The first resident pastor in the city of Pittsburgh was Rev. William F. X. O'Brien, who built Old St. Patrick's Church in 1808. In 1820, Rev. Charles B. maguire succeeded O'Brien. He built St. Paul's Church, which was the largest and most imposing church edifice in the United States at that time. His succcssor, John O'Reilly, completed St. Paul's, invited the Sisters of Charity into the diocese and established a Catholic school and an orphanage. Michael O'Connor became pastor of St. Paul's and vicar-general for western Pennsylvania in June 1841.

Diocese. O'Connor. Michael o'connor was consecrated bishop of the new Diocese of Pittsburgh on Aug. 15, 1843. Within a year, he had opened St. Paul's parochial school, begun publishing the Pittsburgh Catholic (the oldest diocesan newspaper in the United States), opened a chapel for free Africans, and established a seminary. By 1852 the diocese had grown to such an extent that the Diocese of Erie was created, and O'Connor was transferred there to be its first bishop. Popular outcry in Pittsburgh against O'Connor's transfer was so great that in three months he was reassigned back to Pittsburgh. In 1860, he resigned to enter the Society of Jesus.

Domenec. Michael domenec was consecrated Pittsburgh's second bishop on Dec. 9, 1860, beginning an episcopate that was marred by the Civil War unrest and the financial panic of the postwar era. Growth in the diocese and a financial crisis prompted Domenec to recommend dividing it. The See of Allegheny was created March 19, 1876, with its cathedral city just across the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. (Allegheny was later annexed by Pittsburgh and is now known as the North Side.) Domenec became the first Bishop of Allegheny, and on the same day John Tuigg was consecrated third Bishop of Pittsburgh. The new arrangement took most of the wealthy parishes from the Diocese of Pittsburgh and left it with a crushing debt. Bitter resentment and recriminations ensued, and Domenec was summoned to Rome for an explanation. He resigned on July 27, 1877, and the See of Allegheny was reunited to the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. It was suppressed July 11, 1889.

Tuigg. The third bishop of Pittsburgh, John Tuigg, successfully reorganized the reunited diocese, bringing it out of its financial difficulties. During his administration, the notorious railroad riots of 1877 resulted in the long struggle between labor and management that would frequently involve the Church on the side of labor. At his death on Dec. 7, 1889, his coadjutor, Richard Phelan, consecrated Aug. 2, 1885, succeeded to the see.

Phelan. During Richard Phelan's episcopate (1889–1904), tens of thousands of immigrant families from eastern and southern Europe came into western Pennsylvania to work in steel mills and coal mines. National or ethnic churches were established to serve those immigrants in their own languages, creating a diverse plurality of tongues, cultures and traditions that would characterize the diocese for a century. In the Homestead steel strike of 1892, priests emerged for the first time as labor leaders, since they were often the only ones who could translate the workers' languages. A miners' strike in 1894 had the same effect in the rural areas. To keep pace with the growth in population, the Diocese of Altoona was formed May 27, 1901.

Canevin. During the episcopacy of J. F. Regis Canevin (1904–21), the diocese experienced a threefold growth in population, and a corresponding expansion of facilities. Canevin sponsored the lay retreat movement, furnished spiritual care for blind and deaf children, and introduced the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. The steel strike of 1919 again prompted some priests to take the side of the workers, among them. Rev. Hugh C. Boyle, who succeeded Canevin as bishop in 1921.

Boyle. Bishop Hugh C. Boyle (1921–50) oversaw the development of a flourishing parochial school system and many charitable institutions. In the Depression, the Catholic labor movement took a more definite shape, with Leo XIII's encyclical rerum novarum as its guide. Some prominent Pittsburgh "labor priests" were Rev. James R. Cox, who was the Jobless Party candidate for president of the United States; Rev. John Hugo, spiritual director to Dorothy day; and Msgr. Charles Owen Rice.

Dearden. The term of Bishop John F. dearden (1950–59) was marked by significant expansion, but also by the first stirrings of the mass migration from city to suburbs. When Dearden was transferred to the Archdiocese of Detroit, he was succeeded by John J. wright, Bishop of Worcester, Mass., who was installed in Pittsburgh March 18, 1959.

Wright. A brilliant theologian with a talent for public relations, Wright (1959–69) made the bishop's office even more prominent in Pittsburgh public life. He was a pioneer in the ecumenical movement and in the expansion of the role of the laity, and his ideas on both topics were reflected in the diocese of Pittsburgh before they were enshrined in the documents of Vatican II. Wright was named a cardinal in March of 1969, and shortly afterward transferred to Rome as Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.

Leonard. Wright's successor, Bishop Vincent M. Leonard (1969–83), faced ecclesiastical, civil and economic upheavals during his episcopate with determined but charitable orthodoxy, and the diocese suffered less in those times than it might have suffered without his steady hand. In the early 1980s, the steel industry collapsed suddenly, and more than 200,000 people left the Pittsburgh area to seek jobs elsewhere. Parishes in the industrial river valleys were devastated, and many of the ethnic parishes were among the hardest hit.

Bevilacqua. When Bishop Leonard retired in 1983, Anthony J. Bevilacqua was named to succeed him. During Bevilacqua's term (1983–87), an economic boom brought prosperity back to Pittsburgh, but the old industrial boroughs continued their decline. Bevilacqua reorganized the administration of the diocese and streamlined the parishes to bring finances under tighter control.

Wuerl. Upon Bevilacqua's appointment as Archbishop of Philadelphia in 1987, he was succeeded by Donald W. Wuerl, a native of Pittsburgh who had been Cardinal Wright's secretary in Rome. Recognizing the profound changes that migration to the suburbs and the collapse of the steel industry had wrought, Wuerl began an ambitious program of reorganization and revitalization. Many of the declining ethnic parishes were closed or combined into new territorial parishes, while ministries and services were established for new immigrant communities. Wuerl also reformed the diocesan school system, gaining it accreditation through the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and creating foundations to give tuition assistance to poorer children.

Bibliography: a. a. lambing, A History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Allegheny (New York 1880). w. p. purcell, Catholic Pittsburgh's One Hundred Years (Chicago 1943). m. aquilina, Building the Kingdom of God: An Illustrated History of the Diocese of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh 2002).

[c. bailey]