Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

The Archdiocese of Seattle encompasses 144 parishes west of the Cascade Range. It is the metropolitan archdiocese of two suffragan dioceses:

• Diocese of Spokane, with territory taken from the archdiocese in 1913
• Diocese of Yakima, with territory taken from the archdiocese in 1951

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.

 

The Catholic presence in what was then Oregon Country dates to the arrival in the 1830s of missionary priests François Blanchet and Modeste Demers 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:

• Diocese of Oregon City in present-day Oregon
• Diocese of Vancouver Island in British Columbia
• Diocese of Walla Walla in Washington

That same year, Gregory XVI named Augustin-Magloire Blanchet, the brother of François Blanchet, as the bishop of Walla Walla. According to contemporary accounts, Augustin-Magloire Blanchet was unhappy to discover that Walla Walla was no more than a trading post. He immediately ran into conflict with the Oblate order priests in the diocese who were performing missionary work. They refused Blanchet's efforts to assign them to parishes. Blanchet also tried to claim an Oblate mission property for the diocese that the Oblates had received from a Native American tribe.^[5]

Described as an inflexible and arrogant leader, Blanchet quickly alienated most of the secular priests in his diocese. Many of these priests attempted to join the Jesuit and Oblate orders to escape his control. In response, Blanchet introduced rules to make these priest transfers more difficult and to steer seminarians away from the orders.^[5]

In November 1847, conflicts between Protestant missionaries and the Cayuse escalated into violence. Several tribesmen murdered ten Americans, including two Protestant missionaries, near Walla Walla in what was termed the Whitman massacre (Whitman was the leader of the missionaries).^[6] Despite attempts by the Cayuse tribe to defuse the conflict, American settlers raised militias to punish them for the killings. Local Protestants accused the Catholic clergy of being in league with the Cayuse. This animosity, the warfare between the U.S. Army and the Cayuse and the failure of the diocese to grow prompted the Vatican to move Blanchet to safety in St. Paul in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.^[7][5]

On May 31, 1850, Pope Pius IX officially suppressed the defunct Diocese of Walla Walla and erected the Diocese of Nesqually in its place.^[1] The pope appointed Augustin Blanchet as bishop of the new diocese. In January 1851, Blanchet dedicated St. James Church near Fort Vancouver as the cathedral for the diocese.

In 1868, Francis X. Prefontaine requested Blanchet's permission to build a church near Pioneer Square in Seattle to support the city's first Catholic parish, Our Lady of Good Help.^[8] Blanchet believed that the Catholic population of Seattle would never grow. However, he gave Prefontaine permission to build a church there, on the condition that Prefontaine raise all the money for it. Prefontaine in 1869 opened Seattle's first Catholic church.^[9][10]

After Blanchet retired in 1879, Pope Leo XIII named Reverend Egidius Junger as the second bishop of Nesqually.^[11] The diocese experienced considerable growth under Junger's administration, including an increase in the number of priests and parishes and an increase in the number of nuns from 60 to 286. St Leo the Great, established in 1879, was the first Catholic Church in Tacoma.^[12] Junger built a large cathedral in Vancouver in 1888 to replace the wooden church from years earlier. However, the $50,000 debt incurred by the project became a burden for the diocese.^[13] Our Lady of Hope, the first Catholic church in Everett, was dedicated in 1892.^[14] Junger died in 1895.

To replace Junger, Leo XIII appointed Reverend Edward O'Dea as the next bishop of Nesqually in 1896. When he took office, O'Dea was confronted with financial difficulties, including a $25,000 debt for the construction of the cathedral.^[15]

In 1903, O'Dea petitioned the Vatican to move the episcopal see from Vancouver to Seattle, due to the increased population and economy of Seattle. He began construction on a new cathedral in Seattle in 1905. In 1907, the Vatican suppressed the Diocese of Nesqually and erected the Diocese of Seattle, with O'Dea as its first bishop.^[1] He dedicated St. James Cathedral in Seattle that same year. In 1913, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Spokane, taking its territory from the Diocese of Seattle.^[1] O'Dea guided the diocese through World War I and the anti-Catholic sentiment engendered by Initiative 49, a Ku Klux Klan-sponsored effort in Washington State to outlaw parochial schools.^[16] His final accomplishment was the establishment of St. Edward Seminary in Kenmore in 1930.^[16] O'Dea died in 1932.^[1]

The second bishop of Seattle was Reverend Gerald Shaughnessy, appointed by Pope Pius XI in 1933.^[17] Shaughnessy kept the diocese financially stable during the Great Depression. He encouraged the formation of Serra International and served as its first chaplain.^[18] He also supported the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Catholic Charities chapters in the diocese.^[19] In 1948, Pope Pius XII appointed Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Connolly from the Archdiocese of San Francisco as coadjutor bishop to assist Shaughnessy, who had not fully recovered from a stroke three years earlier.^[20] When Shaughnessy died in 1950, Connolly automatically succeeded him as bishop of Seattle.

Pius XII elevated the Diocese of Seattle to the Archdiocese of Seattle on June 23, 1951, while taking some of its territory to erect the Diocese of Yakima. The pope named Connolly as the first archbishop of Seattle.^[21] During his tenure, Connolly became known as a "brick and mortar bishop" for his construction of hundreds of Catholic facilities to accommodate the post-World War II population growth in the archdiocese.^[22] He renovated St. James Cathedral; established 43 new parishes; and built over 350 churches, schools, rectories, convents, parish halls and religious education centers.^[23][22] Connolly was an outspoken supporter of the American civil rights movement and ecumenism.^[22] When Connolly retired in 1975, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Raymond Hunthausen from the Diocese of Helena as his successor in Seattle.^[24]

By 1983, the Vatican was allegedly receiving complaints that Hunthausen was deviating from Catholic doctrine on matters such as the providing of artificial contraception in Catholic hospitals and the church's policies on gay and divorced Catholics. That same year, Pope John Paul II authorized Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to investigate Hunthausen. Ratzinger appointed Archbishop James Hickey of the Diocese of Washington as apostolic visitor to go to Seattle and conduct the investigation. After meeting with Hunthausen and examining archdiocesan policies, Hickey concluded that Hunthausen had exercised "weak doctrinal leadership" in a number of areas. These included allowing children to receive the sacrament of communion without first having received the sacrament of penance.^[25]

In response to Hickey's investigation, John Paul II named Reverend Donald Wuerl in January 1986 as an auxiliary bishop in Seattle. Unknown to Hunthausen, the pope had given Wuerl special powers to override Hunthausen in the following areas:^[26]

• Worship and liturgy
• The archdiocesan tribunal that considers requests for marriage annulment
• Anything to do with seminarians
• Priestly formation and laicized priests
• Moral issues
• Health care and ministry to gay people^[27]

In May 1986, Hunthausen and Wuerl found themselves in opposition on proposed state legislation to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment.^[28] At that point, Hunthausen learned for the first time that Wuerl had been given authority over him on many issues.^[27] Hunthausen publicly revealed the Vatican's actions in September 1986, calling the arrangement unworkable.^[29] While some chancery officials expressed support for Wuerl, some questioned his role and saw little impact on the archdiocese a year after his appointment.^[28] In November 1986, Hunthausen took his grievances to the meeting of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which sided in his favor.^[30]

In February 1987, after appointing a commission to study the controversy in Seattle, John Paul II met with Hunthausen in Rome.^[30] According to Thomas Bokenkotter,

"A resolution of the affair was finally announced by the Vatican in April after it accepted the report of a commission that recommended that Hunthausen's authority be restored and a coadjutor bishop be appointed.^[31] Hunthausen stoutly maintains that his archdiocese has remained fundamentally the same and was never in violation of Vatican doctrine; nor has he had to alter the general direction of his ministry or compromise his liberal beliefs."^[32]

John Paul II in May 1987 named Bishop Thomas Murphy of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings as coadjutor archbishop in Seattle to assist Hunthausen.^[33] In March 1988, John Paul II named Wuerl as bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.^[34] When Hunthausen retired in 1991, Murphy automatically replaced him as archbishop of Seattle ^[35]

Murphy traveled extensively to parishes around the archdiocese and was an advocate for the poor and disenfranchised. He oversaw an extensive renovation of St. James Cathedral, which was completed in 1994. Under Murphy's administration the archdiocese saw an increase in registered Catholics, and an increase in outreach and ministries for women, various ethnic groups, and LGBT individuals.^[36]

In 1992, Murphy opened Elizabeth House in Seattle, which provided medical care and job training for pregnant teens.^[37] For small Washington towns that were suffering from cutbacks in the timber industry, Murphy provided $500,000 to assist in starting small businesses. To help offset the declining numbers of priests, he provided financial support to a Seattle University program to train lay people in assist in some parish duties. Murphy died in 1997.

To replace Murphy, John Paul II named Bishop Alexander Brunett of Helena as archbishop of Seattle in 1997.^[38] Despite the economic recession, annual contributions from Catholics in Western Washington doubled during Brunett's tenure as archbishop, providing funding for the construction of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School, which opened in 2009 in Vancouver and Pope John Paul II High School, which opened in 2010 in Lacey.^[39] Brunett also helped launch the Fulcrum Foundation, which provides scholarships to poor families to send their children to Catholic schools and oversaw the $7 million purchase, renovation and expansion of the Palisades Retreat Center in Federal Way.^[39] Brunett retired in 2009.

 

The next archbishop of Seattle was Bishop J. Peter Sartain from the Diocese of Joliet, named by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. In June 2019, Sartain installed Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of the Archdiocese of Anchorage as coadjutor archbishop to assist him.^[40] In August 2019, Sartain ordered the demolition of Holy Rosary Church in Tacoma.^[41][42] The church had become structurally unsound, and estimates for its repair were at $18 million. Sartain retired in September 2019.

When Sartain retired, Etienne automatically became archbishop of Seattle.^[43][44] On taking office, Etienne announced that he would not reside in Connolly House, the mansion for the archbishop of Seattle, suggesting it be sold to provide money to help the poor.^[45] In February 2024, the archdiocese announced a plan to consolidate its 136 parishes into 60 parish families.^[46] As of 2024, Etienne is the archbishop of Seattle.

In May 1988, Reverend Paul Conn from Queen of Angels Parish in Port Angeles pleaded guilty to molesting six altar boys at the church.^[47] He was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.^[48] Immediately removed from ministry after his arrest, Conn was laicized by the Vatican in 2005.^[49] In a letter read at mass in June 1988, Archbishop Hunthausen revealed that Reverend James McGreal was a pedophile. Hunthausen said that the archdiocese had received allegations against McGreal for the previous 20 years and that he had been under treatment for the last ten years.^[50] McGreal victimized at least 40 children, but the number could be higher than that. He was laicized by the Vatican in 2005.^[51]

The archdiocese in 2006 settled for over $1 million a lawsuit brought by two brothers who claimed to have been sexually molested by James Cornelius during the 1970s. Cornelius had been removed from public ministry in 2002 after the brothers made their accusations to the archdiocese. Once the allegations became public, ten more individuals made allegations against Cornelius to the archdiocese.^[52] The Vatican had laicized Cornelius in 2004.^[53]

In 2016, the archdiocese released a list of 77 priests, nuns and religious men with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.^[54] The archdiocese in 2018 paid a $7 million settlement to six men who had accused six priests, including Paul Conn and James McGreal, of sexually abusing them when they were minors during the 1970s and 1980s.^[55]

By August 2022, the archdiocese had settled five sexual abuse lawsuits over the previous six months. The total settlement amount was approximately $2.3 million for all five plaintiffs. One female plaintiff was abused by a school employee around 1980, who bought her silence with candy.^[56] One plaintiff was a victim of Conn, another was victimized during the 1970s by David Pearson, a volunteer at St. Joseph Parish in Issaquah.^[57]

In May 2024, Attorney General Bob Ferguson of Washington State sued the archdiocese. Ferguson said that the archdiocese had refused to cooperate in the state investigation into the use of charitable funds to cover up allegations of sexual abuse by clerics.^[58]

1. Augustin-Magloire Blanchet (1850–1879)
2. Egidius Junger (1879–1895)
3. Edward John O'Dea (1896–1907), title changed to Bishop of Seattle

1. Edward John O'Dea (1907–1932)
2. Gerald Shaughnessy (1933–1950)
3. Thomas Arthur Connolly (1950–1951), elevated to archbishop

1. Thomas Arthur Connolly (1951–1975)
2. Raymond Hunthausen (1975–1991)
3. Thomas Joseph Murphy (1991–1997; coadjutor 1987–1991)
4. Alexander Joseph Brunett (1997–2010)
5. J. Peter Sartain (2010–2019)
6. Paul D. Etienne (2019–present; coadjutor 2019)

• Eusebio L. Elizondo Almaguer (2005–present)
• Frank R. Schuster (2022–present)

• Thomas Edward Gill (1956–1973)
• Nicolas Eugene Walsh (1976–1983)
• Donald Wuerl (1986–1988) appointed Bishop of Pittsburgh and later Archbishop of Washington (Cardinal in 2010)
• George Leo Thomas (2000–2004) appointed Bishop of Helena and later Bishop of Las Vegas
• Joseph J. Tyson (2005–2011), appointed Bishop of Yakima
• Daniel Henry Mueggenborg (2017–2021), appointed Bishop of Reno

• Robert John Armstrong, appointed Bishop of Sacramento in 1929
• Jean-Baptiste Brondel, appointed Bishop of Vancouver Island in 1879
• Joseph Patrick Dougherty, appointed Bishop of Yakima in 1951
• Cornelius Michael Power, appointed Bishop of Yakima in 1969

As of 2023, the Archdiocese of Seattle had 72 schools, serving over 19,800 students.^[2] The diocese also has two universities.

• Archbishop Murphy High School* – Everett
• Bellarmine Preparatory School* – Tacoma
• Bishop Blanchet High School – Seattle
• Eastside Catholic High School* – Sammamish
• Forest Ridge High School* – Bellevue
• Holy Names Academy* – Seattle
• Kennedy Catholic High School – Burien
• O'Dea High School – Seattle
• Pope John Paul II High School* – Lacey
• Seattle Preparatory School* – Seattle
• Seton Catholic High School* – Vancouver^[59]

* Operationally independent of archdiocese

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• Official website
• GCatholic - Seattle see, with Google map and satellite photo - data for most sections
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• St. James Cathedral